Tuesday, November 30, 2010

hey there family ..quote of the week to think about "our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family, most of all us would give our own life for a family member yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for GRANTED"


think about that one

Well here in Tangub transfers are next friday and we will see where elder heywood goes . Hopefully i stay in tangub its progressing a lot and i love my comp he is awesome we have so much fun but also work so hard and i want to stay with the people i know for christmas instead of going to a complete new area. We had ward confrence and it was awesome . Our stake president taught our investigators class usually we teach it because our ward missionary leader is inactive so we teach every week but then president wanted to teach it. It was way good but way funny too he is awesome . There are so many great people here in the philippines . Everyone is way nice and loving its ridiculous how nice they are and how fun and funny they are. I wish a lot of people were more like filipino.

As for thanksgiving, yeah forgot about it just a normal day but I really missed all are traditions and everything. I dont know whats going to happen for Christmas it depends if i stay or not. Everyone is catholic or baptist. Nice you could read about Elder Peterson he is awesome , I wish I went on splits with him but we didnt get the chance. Tangub is progressing I love it here I want to live and die in Tangub, yes they have their struggles but they are awesome.

Sounds like your Thanksgiving trip was way fun.  Dang I miss baja and just looking outside and seeing that big old stupid face hahah..send me some pictures in the package.

I hope all of you have a great week and keep on going strong and think about the quote at the start of the email. Thank you for the money and for the sizes but what numbers do they want on them?

Eating: I eat rice with whatever topping there is and pbandj sandwiches oatmeal and eggs and thats it.

love you all
talk to you again next week. I have only been gone for 5 months crazy huh
halong ejmh

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sounds like things are going very well.  Yes the Villiar family is awesome and the Idisolo family and Layao families are great.  I love them very much.  The boxing match was intense here, people were going crazy they are so nice here everyone and i mean everyone would ask us to come in and watch the fight so we would talk to them and watch a couple rounds then move to the next house.  It was pretty fun to tell you the truth and I kinda like boxing, it was way fun to watch.  I think it would be kinda fun to be a pro boxer. but yeah Manny is like Michael Jordan back at home or more like Lebron James because he is in every commercial on the TV and every billboard.  As for us, we have alot of investigators that we are focusing on and alot of less active families we teach.

Sounds like a dance frenzy back home. Sounds fun to me i would enjoy going to one of those right now but i would probably sleep the whole time.  It's harder and harder to get up but once I'm up everything is good. That stinks for Gilbert it would be way coool if they made to the semis.  Thats funny about Chris and the girls, i remember that age.  Thats a bummer about Chris's game but tell him to keep his chin up and keep on getting better.
So this past week we didn't get much done.  My comp is a dl so we had to go to the mission office for his training Tues. wed. and Thurs. and while he was getting trained all the other leaders comps were in the office with me.  We split up and just go talk to people so that was way fun trying to go talk to people in illongo.  My language is getting better though I still need a lot of work but its kinda fun cause i can understand alot of if it is slow and most of the people on Negros talk slow but if you get some one that is from another island like Cebuano they talk like no ones business.  My comp is Cebuano, holy crap its tough to understand him but it is coming along.  Anyway, is was way fun to go out and see what we could do.  We did pretty well for ourselves.

The weather is just like "Lost", sunny in the morning then you get that down pour that comes from no where its awesome.  I love it.  I have a couple stories but i don't have enough time to write a story. We are going to go play basketball right now, that will be pretty fun.  Answers:  I shower with a garden hose that comes through the window yeah its pretty sweet.  Food is really good here,  I thought i would lose alot of weight but actually if you don't watch what you eat you can get huge here. The bugs are OK nothing big just like you were camping pretty much.  Sorry i cant write a story its just they are all too long there are no short ones.
One more thing gay people here are crazy you really cant tell sometimes like back home you could tell but here its another world.

Ask me more questions next week like ask the whole family if they have questions for me and i will answer nest week.  Could you send me a jump rope please.

love love love elder jmh

Monday, November 15, 2010

Dear Fam,

Me and Elder Randana are great.  The ward is struggling but we are doing the best we can.  The language is coming really slow but its coming.  We had 2 baptisms, Jiji 15 and Lin Lin 11, oh and Lin Lin's younger sister Lisa but she is 8 and she wasn't an investigator.  It was a good baptism, I got to baptize all 3.  The 2 sisters, Lin lin and Lisa are way cute.  Their family is less active and I just hope that sparks something in their family. They all got baptized 3 years ago except the young girls and one of the older girls and the whole family went to church.  Then Bro Villiar (family name) died in car crash i think and they stopped coming but the missionaries have been working with them for about the last year in a half.  There is Sister Villiar she is an awesome mom and supports the church but its tough for the family to pay tithing because their income is way low.  There is Rompel 23, Ruby 21, Nimi 19, Love Love 14, Lin Lin 11, lisa 8, and Rose Mary 4 they are girls except for Rompel and Rompel is way awesome.  He was going to go on a mission but then his Dad died and then he went to the baptist church and was their singer, he is way good.  So that's the Villiar family.  Jiji she has no support behind her, she has the Idiosolo family but none of her actually family with her. She has her younger brother but her mom is in Canada studying abroad and then her Dad is in Iloilo another island so she lives with the Idisolo family.  They are her aunt and uncle and they support her but none of her own family.  That would be rough, I don't know if i could do that but yeah she is awesome. and she always tries to do the right thing.  That's my life right now; try to help everyone I can wherever I can but its not enough.  Everyone has like a major problem in the Philis.  Either their family is broken their parents are always drunk or they are always away at work just everything.  Thats the philis they are either way lazy or way hard working.


So back home sounds like everything is good.  That's way exciting about the temple.  Oh one more thing could you send a good book of quotes with the cook book i like quotes like anything sport quotes just quotes.

Manny Pacquiao won and everyone can't stop talking about him.   Yes, I did see a little of the fight and he did demolish that guy.

Katie and Aaron,  happy anniversary good luck on the house I hope all goes well.  That's way awesome about Dana, star of the Suns half time, that's Dana!  Tell Luke to keep on doing the best he can and have fun. I always like tournaments.  Chris you're sick because you have a girlfriend, thats why your sick. haha I seriously just laughed pretty hard because you said Chris can't hear, I remember those days.

Tell Lynn Richardson thank you for package number 2 and I did receive the apple juice in the first package, thank you times infinity.

love love love
elder heywood over and out

Monday, November 8, 2010

So first off I will answer your questions.  My comp is Elder Radana from Midinao.  He understands English but can't speak it. It is helping my understanding of the language a lot better but still hard to speak it.  I got Lynn's package, tell her thank you.  My ward in Tangub should be a branch the only people that actually do their callings are the bishop, his wife and the High counselor and his wife.  Bishop is tired of doing all the callings so he is getting lazy.  We don't have PEC, we don't have ward counsel meetings.  Our ward is barely holding on.  We have 100 that attend out of 600 and that is my ward.  Hopefully we can turn things around. We have been working on just all reactivation last week. We have 2 baptisms this Saturday, JiJi she is the niece of my favorite family.  They are like my part time family, they are awesome were having fhe with them tonight.  It is actually 2 families the Idiosolo family and Layao family.  I will talk about them later but Christmas wish is a protein vitamin and simple recipe book.


So this past week I discovered how to make rice crispy treats without a microwave.
Step one: get a big boy of water put it on the gas stove then take a smaller bowl put the marshmallows in that bowl with butter and that's how you make the marshmallows melt then mix in the rice crispys or whatever cereal and boom you got rice crispy treats.  I know your impressed.  Oh and also I discovered mango marshmallows.  They sell them here in the markets different but pretty good.

Ok, back to the family.  They are family out here in the philis. We have the Idisolo family.  She is a seamtress then Bro I. is a taxi driver.  There are 2 boys one is 11 and one is 14.  They are way sweet.  Their niece lives with them she is 15 and she is awesome. The Layao family they live next to the idisolos ( oh all their houses are all bamboo its sweet) so we have the the 2 families. Last week I don't know what we were talking about but sister Sally Layao the mother of the Layao family and Sister Idisolo said that I was part of their family now and I don't know it was just really sweet moment.  I think I'm in Tangub area for that reason because of those 2 families they are both part member families and and slowly but surely they will all get baptized but all of Sister Layaos kids need to get married cause they all live together and have kids but they aren't married cause it cost money and there is no divorce in the philis so everyone is cautious about getting married.  One of Sister Layaos kids say i look like Jason Stathom the movie star who is that? oh and i have gotten that I look like Sargent Winters from Band of Brothers here too.

Katie congrats on the teaching thing but a bit of advice...don't be a color guard coach what a joke ha ha.  The Manny Pacquio fight is next Sunday so we will probably only have like 60 people attend church.  Boxing and basketball is huge here.

How is Grandma Brown and Grandpa Bobby, how are they doing?  Tell them hi for me.

When will the Gilbert temple be done?

Everything is good here, kinda slow and the weather is like the show Lost weather; sunny then rains then sunny then rain and it looks like Lost here too just minus bamboo huts and concrete houses.

Well that's it for the week I'm grateful for everything back home and everyone you don't realize how much you have till its gone.  So just be grateful for your lives because in the world if you think you have it bad there is always those that have it worse then you and you're the only one that controls your own happiness so just be happy and smile.  Smiles are contagious!

love, elder heywood

Monday, November 1, 2010

That's awesome that you only have one more to go on eagles.  Tell Luke to get that done with.  Don't do the project and wait to write it up and turn it in.  Terrible idea trust me aahhh, but yeah sounds like a good weekend.  It's good that gilbert beat the hawks they need to be humbled big time.  I heard Savanna is getting married, congrats...tell her that for me.

Well this week has been anything but boring, I'm working hard and I got a new companion.  I stayed in the same area and my trainer left and my new comp is Filipino he understands English but he can't speak it so I have a feeling this transfer will stretch me out quite a bit.   I'm scared though for this transfer, I hope I can do well. Tell everyone hello and tell Luke to get that project done with.  That's it, I miss you guys.  Being on the mission has made realize how important family is to me and how important it is to have a family in this church.   I'm sorry if i ever took our family for granted, love you and love the family and the ward!

elder heywood