Wow...dalawang lingo lang

      To just quickly translate the above statement, it looks like I only have two weeks left here in Kalikid. The transfer is probably 95% most likely to happen. One of the APs told me a few weeks ago that I am probably going to transfer, so I guess we'll see. I feel like this week happened way too fast. I don't really remember much that happened. We are still teaching EJ right now, and he's a stud.  He's really excited for his upcoming baptism on the 14^th of April. (Ugh, if I am transferred I will miss it, but that's okay.)

Jordan and Elder Talento with Sister Alonis

     I have enjoyed great success here with many of our investigators, less actives, and recent converts. There have also been, alas, some growing pains along the way. I am feeling a bit reflective, so here we go. The hardest times have been: 1) Those occasions when I am reminded that I still often have little clue about what's going on; 2) Investigators who really don't care to listen to us, or they make but do not keep commitments; and 3) Some less actives who we've been working with for weeks have yet to come to church. On the flip side, the greatest times have been: 1) Having less actives have come to church two Sundays in a row; 2) Giving temple goal dates for our recent converts; 3) Wonderful, loving, helpful members; and 4) while the language is challenging, I continue learning a little bit more each day and feel the Gift of Tongues assisting me along the way. I have learned a lot about faith and patience through the challenging of speaking the language. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, but we have to choose to work our way towards it. Some people look at the light and give up, thinking: "That's way too far. There's no way I can get up there. There are so many obstacles in the way." The people who continually work their way and keep climbing up to the light will think: "Man that's far, but look at how high I've climbed!" I don't know where that thought came from, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't let trials and afflictions hold you down and keep you away from your goals/happiness. I guess you can relate that somehow to what I said. haha segi patuloy.

     We had companion exchanges on Friday night with the Bongabon Elders. I worked in Bongabon with Elder Corpuz, while Elder Talento worked here with Elder Quilaquil. We taught a lot of lessons while I was there. We actually taught four different lessons in the same house for four different people! That was interesting - but hey, it gets work done. I don't know what it is about exchanges, but I find that my Tagalog is always better when I am on them. I can't believe how much my Tagalog has improved since I first got here. Elder Corpuz, a Filipino native, arrived at the mission home with his Filipino batch at the same time we did (we have been out the same amount of time). I could not understand a single word that he was saying to me that entire time. Now, three and a half months later, I was able to have a conversation with him in Tagalog and understand him. Speaking of the Gift of Tongues, Elder Corpuz definitely has been blessed with it. He knows at least seven or eight languages. He grew up speaking Iocano, but then learned other Filipino dialects, Muslim, and English. He grew up the south island of Philippines, and I guess Islam is pretty big down there, so that's where he picked that language up. I didn't sleep so well that night, because the mattress that I slept on was about as hard as the floor. I guess I shouldn't be complaining since that may well be the area where I am next assigned. Overall though, it was a pretty fun exchange.

Jordan and the elders enjoying a March visit

     So here's a crazy story for you guys. I was brushing my teeth Thursday night and just walking around the apartment, when I saw something white on the ground in the corner of my eye. I looked down and saw that it was a cat. I just yelled to Elder Talento: "Elder! There's a cat in the house!" The cat then ran under his bed. He was just completely shocked and scared. Elder Talento came to help me eradicate the varmint. I got a broom and tried to force the cat out. I was trying to brush him out from under the bed and he was just meowing all sad like to get some sympathy, but I eventually got him to run into the other room. I chased him and was eventually able to push him out the door with the broom. We didn't know how in the heck that cat got in the house. We just assumed that he must've came through the door while it was closing. I figured that was the end of the story. But, there’s more. Saturday night after we finished working, we came home and found that Elder Talento's stuff on his desk had been knocked over. We just thought: "How the heck is he getting in?!" We found the cat in the same spot under the bed, and again I chased him out with the broom. It didn't go as smoothly this time, because the cat was completely freaking out. He tried to get out of the windows that had screens on them and found he couldn’t leave. I chased and hit him with the broom for a good minute before he finally left the house again. We had to figure out where he was coming from. We found that one of the screens on the window was missing a screw and was loose, and that's how he was getting in every time. We closed the window, so we'll hopefully have no more problems with that cat. (I wonder if they sell cat traps like mouse traps that we could use?) In other news, I was able to save myself from losing the March Madness series on Friday. I pulled off with a win to make the series 2-3. So game six will be happening this week.

     I think that's about it for me. No Mom, General Conference for us isn't until the week after. And yes, it will be in English (at least I hope so). Mahal ko kayo! Hope everyone is doing well! Ingat!

     Elder Jordan “Cat Terminator” Royal

Hey All!! Another Letter

Jordan with Elders Talento and Pioquinto on March 7, 2012

            Woo!  I just love writing to guys and being able to tell you about my week!  First off, we had Zone Conference in Cabanatuan, and it was awesome!  The entire conference was focused on faith.  It may be something we feel we understand, but it's the first principle and ordinance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If we don't have Faith, then the other principles won't fall into place: repentance, baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End.  President Martino made a "Faith Cycle" for us to follow.  The first step is: Desire.  Having a desire to find out for ourselves if the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  Second step: Action.  So you have the desire now, so what are going to do about it?  We must put that Faith to Action (James 2:17).  And finally: Prayer.  I think that's what it was, but if it isn't, it's still a great last step.  We've received the Desire, took Action (scripture study, pondering, ect.), now the most important and final step is to ask our Heavenly Father if whatever we desired is true.  That was pretty much all of Zone Conference, but it was so awesome!  Before the Conference, we challenged the Cabanatuan Zone Leaders to a Zone vs. Zone basketball game for the last week of transfers.  Which I think is April 2.  Should be awesome!

Jordan and his friends enjoying a pre-game lunch

            We're teaching a young man right now named, AJ (or EJ I still really don't know yet), and he's just awesome.  He's 14 and is living at a member's house here in the area.  He'll be baptized next month, and we only started teaching him this week.  He reads everything that we give him, but the only problem is that he laughs whenever we ask him a question or when he looks at Brother Al.  It's probably just a nervous laugh, though.  None of our other investigators are progressing as well, sadly.  You can't control people's agency, but I just wish they would actually do the things we've asked them to do.  It's like what President Martino said about desire.  That is that our investigators will most likely do nothing until we plant that desire in their hearts, and of course the Spirit has to be there to plant that desire in there.

Jordan received his package . . . with super secret notes on the bottom

            P-day last week was pretty fun.  We had a huge lunch at the Bowcutt's (like always) and played basketball.  Which is probably not a good idea after eating so much.  But, we did it last time, so it's not like anything bad could happen, de ba?  The Filipinos wanted to play a game against the foreigners, so we did, and we destroyed (ha).  It was Elder Nunn, Elder McCormack, and me.  Then they wanted to switch the teams, which made it a much closer game.  Elder Talento ay sobrang magaling sa basketball!  Man!  It also helped him this week as he beat me in March Madness this week 2-1, but the series is not over.  I've never had so much fun playing basketball as I have in the Philippines.  I hadn't played competitive basketball on a team since I was like 12.  I'm getting a lot better since I've been here - as the people here always want to play.  I made 15 free throws in a row, which is something I've never really done before.  I have a long way to go until I can pass Tyler Haws’ record of 140 in a row or something like that.  He goes home at the end of this transfer, so that's very cool for him (and for BYU basketball).

Jordan and Elder Talento with Sis. Adonis

             That's really cool to here about Steven Olson and Dallin about their upcoming mission calls!  Dallin.  There was never a doubt in my mind that he would go on a mission.  He's been talking about serving a mission for as long as I can remember.  Steven and Dallin, you guys are awesome studs.  :)  I hope that you will be called to the Philippines, because it's awesome!  I had an experience last night that I would like to share.  When I arrived here, I wondered if I would ever make an impact in the area, because I couldn't speak the language (and still can’t very well).  I came to realize that since I've been here, I've had five convert baptisms, seen many less actives who have been less active for years come back into full activity because of the Rescue Program, and the language is getting much better.  I will be sad to leave this area in the next couple of weeks, because it'll be like leaving home again.  But hey, that means a different place with more lives to positively influence and another place to call my home.  Just COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!  It really works!  Well, I think that's it for me.  Mahal ko kayo.  Have a great week!

            Elder Jordan "the next Tyler Haws" Royal

CLICK HERE for footage of Jordan playing volleyball on February 20, 2012 - Preparation Day 

Another Week Gone By

[Editor's Note: We like pictures.  Since we did not receive Jordan pictures this week . . . we added a few of our own.]

We did not get any pictures from Jordan this week
so here's a picture of Jordan's nephew Beckham
meeting cousin Royal for the first time last week

            Well, well, well.  Monday again.  And so it begins.  This week went by pretty fast, like they always do, and it was pretty fun this week.  Monday night, Elder Talento and I were playing basketball when these random kids showed up and wanted to play with us.  There were about six of them and the oldest was probably around 16.  We figured, why not?  It would probably be more exciting and fun than just playing one-on-one the entire time.  We played a long game with them, and it was pretty fun.  Elder Talento and I were on a team with these two kids, and the 10 year-old on our team was just surprisingly really good at defense.  Elder Talento and I were pretty much the only scorers on the team, but we still only won by like two baskets or something like that.  The thing about Filipinos here is that since they play basketball every hour of everyday, they're endurance and stamina is just through the roof.  I'm not really that much in shape anymore (when was that again?), so I was getting tired pretty quickly after every possession while they would just keep flying down the court. 

            So I guess you've already seen the video of me playing volleyball at the chapel by now.  [A member of the ward where Jordan is serving posted about five minutes of Jordan and his companion playing volleyball on a Preparation Day last month.  It's posted on Facebook.]  That was pretty fun, actually.  We're probably playing later today, so we'll see how that goes.  Oh back to basketball, I won the first series of our March Madness tournament this week winning four games to Elder Talento's two.  It gets pretty intense in the house while we're playing, but it's just so much fun.  Our next series will probably start tomorrow, so we'll see if I arise triumphantly once again this week (haha).

David and Kambria will be married May 12th.  We
get to speak with Jordan May 13th for MOTHER'S DAY

            Usually, OYMing (Open Your Mouth: or simply just finding people to teach by street contacting) doesn't really work, or it's not as effective as member referrals, but this week changed all that for me.  We decided to go OYMing and see if we could find anyone to teach.  To our astonishment, we found a family of about eight and their neighbor that we met and taught them the first lesson.  I was just so surprised that OYMing actually works sometimes (imagine that).  The next people we contacted the same way were two elderly couples, who seemed really interested.  We didn't get to teach one of them, because they were on their way to the hospital, because she's been having problems lately, so we arranged to teach them either this week or next week.  The other couple we found are Methodists, but they were willing to listen.  Just goes to show you that OYMing DOES work sometimes.  I remember experiences I had with working with the missionaries back home in Vegas.  Most of the time that I would go teach with them, their appointments would fall through, so I didn't really experience that many lessons with them.  However, every time that I was with them, we were able to find people through OYMing. 

           

            Tomorrow is Zone Conference in Cabanatuan.  I always love zone conference.  We get to see the Elders from the other zones, receive direction from President Martino, and - also importantly = we get mail (haha).  We're going to try to talk to the Zone Leader of Cabanatuan tomorrow to challenge them to a zone-on-zone basketball game sometime before the transfer ends.  We also need to discuss about getting zone t-shirts, because we still haven't received one yet.  We're going to the Bowcutt's house in Cabanatuan today for lunch and basketball, so that should be awesome.  Wow.  Sorry for such a short email, but I can't really think of anything else that happened this week.  Well, I guess that's about it for me.  The work is still progressing here and we're going to continue to tear it up here.  Mahal ko kayo.  Have a great week everyone!

            Elder Jordan "March Madness Champ (so far)"  Royal

Beckham and Royal are gonna be a lot bigger by the time Elder Royal gets home

March na!?!?

They had a large group for the baptisms on Saturday, which included President and Sister Martino

            Grabi.  I can't believe that it's March already!  By the end of this month, I'll have been out for six months! :o  Times going by faster than anything right now.  Anyway, magsimula tayo.  So I have a lot to write about this week, so just hang in there.  Well first, we had another baptism on Saturday for our golden investigator, Nanay Rose Marie Rabe.  We had another combined baptism with the Palayan Elders (Zone Leaders), but it wasn't as many as last time, but who cares, right?  A precious soul being saved is priceless.  Anyway, while Elder McCormack and I were getting changed in the bathroom, someone opens the door behind me, and it was President Martino.  I was completely surprised to see him there.  He was visiting some areas in our zone with Sister Martino and the two couple missionaries from the office.  They heard that we had a baptism, so they decided to attend.  It was really cool to have them there.  After I baptized her, she just seemed so different, like her whole life just changed right before my eyes (which it pretty much did).  Then, we sang together as Elders, "Love at Home" with piano in the first verse, and then no piano the rest of the time.  It sounded really cool, and the Spirit was really strong in the room.  It was a great weekend.

Jordan and his mission pals sing "Love At Home" at the baptism

            Okay, since it's March.....that means March Madness.  We have a little inflatable basketball at our house about the size of a volleyball, that we use to play basketball with.  We put a little laundry basket on top of the counter, and we came up with this new game called, "March Madness" or "Basket Madness."  It's exactly like HORSE, except you get five attempts to make your shot.  Every attempt that you get in, the next person has to follow it.  So that means you may only have to make one basket, or all five in a row without missing.  If the other person fails to replicate the other person's shot, then the person who made the shot gets a point.  We play to 10, and we're going to be keeping a tally of our wins throughout the month.  Right now, it's 1-1.  I won the first game after being down 9-4 (haha).  Yeah, it's pretty fun.  We're going to be playing real basketball today, so let's see if "basket madness" is better with a real ball (not likely).

            So here's a funny story.  We just ended one of our appointments with a family and were leaving, when there were three geese in the way of our path.  At the risk of offending geese lovers: geese are real jerks.  They just stick their beaks in the air and think they're really something special.  There are other geese in an area that we go to where they just charge at us for a few steps, and then back off.  However, these geese did not want us to go home.  The geese were on my left and so was Elder Talento.  When we were next to them, they got stirred up and went for Elder Talento, but he ran on my right side and pushed me closer to them.  One goose bit my pants, but I was able to get away without a scratch- vicious predators they are (haha).

            Well I guess this story is funny, kinda, maybe.  Yesterday, we were on our way to an appointment when a kid yells at me, "Hey man!  F&@& you!"  Now I've heard stories from other missionaries about this, but I didn't think I would actually see it....in my first area.  I looked at him with a shocked expression that also had some anger in it.  In Tagalog, I said, "What did you say to me?"  The kid suddenly freezes.  I repeated: "What did you say to me?  Come here!"  The kid refuses to come.  I then said (again in Tagalog): "Don't you know that is an extremely bad word that you should never say to a foreigner?  Don't repeat it again.  Alright?”  He then sheepishly responded (in Tagalog): "Ok."  It's not like it was his fault.  The kids just repeat everything that they hear on TV.  Example, I've been called the N word a couple of times, too.  I had to set that kid straight, or else he'll probably say it to a foreigner who won't be as nice about it.  That just goes to show you that the media DOES affect the children.  That's why the prophet has cautioned parents to keep their children away from that kind of bad media, because children don't understand what they're saying most of the time.

A pre-baptism moment with the soon to be baptized souls

            Well, I think that's it.  Hmmm, this was a lot shorter than I thought it would be.  Oh, yes I received the package with everything in it.  Thank you so much!  I loved it!  Yes Mom, if you could send me more of those mission pictures to give out to people, that would be great.  They look good, too :).  I also received about 50 Dear Elders as well, so I'm all caught up with that.  Thank you again for all of your love and support :).  Mahal ko kayo. 

            Elder Jordan "Goose Attack Survivor" Royal

From left: Elder Talento, Nanay Rose Marie Rabie, and Elder Jordan Royal

May bagong kasama ko!

            Well, well, well, another week has gone by, and so has another transfer.  Dang!  That was a pretty fast three months!  I am now officially a Co-Senior!  Which pretty much means that I'm no longer a trainee.  Still, I’ll take it.  I'm so happy to say that I am now companions with Elder Talento (Elder Talent, haha).  He's an older guy - so very cool!  He just finished training Elder Palmer from my batch in the MTC.  I'm so excited to start working with him this transfer.  We had our transfer announcements on Wednesday at Palayan, and every companionship in the zone is now new, except for Elders Crisanto and Nunn who are still on the 12 Week Program for one more transfer.  Elder Declaro went to Sta. Ignacia, Elder Magbunua, Elder Manalo, and Elder Frearson all left.  Everyone on the East side of the mission went to Cabanatuan to pick up their new companions.  Everyone kept telling me how awesome Elder Talento is, how he's very outgoing with the investigators/members, and how awesome he is at basketball.  Well, it turns out that all of those things are true.  I'm very pumped to work with him. 

Elder Royal and his new companion, Elder Talento from Manila

            The day after transfers we had exchanges, because our area and Palayan had baptismal interviews that needed to be done.  Elder Burog (new Zone Leader) worked with me on Friday and Elder Talento went to Bongabon.  We had our baptismal interview for Nanay Rose Marie on Friday.  We went to her house first, because I thought she said we would do the interviews there, but instead we went to the chapel.  So we rushed over there and found her and President Faustino waiting for us.  I'm just grateful that she was still there and she will be baptized this Saturday (March 3^rd).  She is another great investigator that was prepared for us by the Lord to find.  Nnay Rose Marie was in a time of her life when her husband just recently passed away (Nov. 2011), but as we shared our message that families can be together forever, she had a powerful witness of the truthfulness of the Lord’s Plan of Salvation and embraced the gospel.  Who wouldn’t want to be with their family for all of eternity??  She has been such a great blessing to us.  She has a few children in their 20's living at home, so hopefully they'll be interested to hearing the message of salvation and exaltation as well.  When we first started teaching Nanay Rose Marie, they didn't want to listen to us, but they were at least polite about it.  But now, one of them has seen the change in her mother, and just wants to know why.  She read one of the pamphlets that we gave to her mom before and she sat through one of our lessons.  Hopefully, the Lord will continue opening doors for us to do His work.  We also had two less actives return and come back into activity this week.  So a baptism, plus a few less actives coming back into activity is ayos! 

            Since Elder Talento and I are no longer training/being trained, we're really trying to practice teaching in unity and going back and forth with teaching.  Before with Elder Declaro, I would teach as far as I could until I would get stuck and then he would come and back me up, which is what we're supposed to do in the 12 week program.  But now we're done with the training program, so we can become more involved in teaching our investigators.  Since we started doing that, I noticed that I became more aware of what was going on and what some of the issues some of the people had.  I still don't understand a lot of what is said in Tagalog, but it's helping me more to focus on what is being said by everyone.  If that makes any sense. 

            Steven Jex is coaching volleyball at Silverado?!  Lucky!  That's something I would love to do someday.  Oh, and Dad, thanks for sending the volleyball pics from Regionals.  They look pretty sweet :).  I'm trying to see if I'm forgetting anything right now, because I know I probably will once I'm done.  No, I still haven't received the package yet.  I will for sure get mail this week or next week, because the Zone Leaders are going to Angeles for training for a couple of days.  So I will get that and all of the 40 or 50 Dear Elders that are waiting for me also (haha).  Bale, isipin kong tapos na.  Segi.  Pwede na.  Ingat kayo at mahal ko kayo rin! 

            Pinakapogi anak na lalaki ninyo (oo, sobrang totoo),

            Elder Jordan "medyo hindi totoo diyan" Royal

And now, for no particular reason, some pictures of Jordan playing volleyball with SHS in the May 2011 Regionals (just because he misses playing so much and is jealous that Steven Jex is coaching the SHS freshman team prior to leaving for the Germany Berlin Mission).  (Pictures taken by Matt Carter at http://lvactionimages.com/p441377731)

A Great Day of Baptisms in Kalikid

The Kalikid and Palayan areas combined for a great day of baptisms this week!

Jordan and Erick Padre

            This week went by a lot faster than I thought it would.  In fact, this transfer has gone by way fast, too.  I can't believe that this is transfer week already, and that I'm done with 12 Week Program!  Crazy!  I'll most likely get a new companion on Thursday.  We are having the transfer announcements as a zone here in the Kalikid Chapel on Wednesday.  Most likely four of our Elders will be transferred: Elder Manalo (ZL), Elder Declaro (Trainer/kasama ko), Elder Magbanua (Trainer din), and Elder Frearson (DL).  Am I training?  Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  I'm incredibly nervous about possibly being called to train, but it would also give me more motivation to study the language a lot more and my abilities would most likely increase.  So, that would be a good/scary experience.  As for the language, it’s coming along, but I still struggle to speak it.  Of course, I've improved in these last 12 weeks, but there's so much more I need to learn.  I am way better at understanding what people are saying to me than I am speaking back to them.  The thing that I've found easier for me is to just listen to the Tagalog instead of trying to translate every single word that is said into English.  I found when I did that back in the early weeks in the field, I just could not keep up.  It might be hard to explain, but I think that has helped out a lot in trying to be become a true Filipino (or Filifino) (haha).

Jordan and his zone at Dingalan for a Preparation Day excursion

Singing in the Dingalan rain

            Anyway, on with the week.  Even though you have probably seen the pictures from our P-Day activity in Dingalan last week, posted on Facebook by Sister Adonis, I'll send some more photos from it later.  That was a really fun day.  The rain was really coming down on us, but it was coming down softly, so it wasn’t that bad.  At first we tried to focus on playing games that wouldn't get us wet, but we stopped caring after a short while and just played games with water balloons and just ran around on the beach.  Dingalan is really pretty place.  I'll just let the pictures do the talking so you can see what I am trying to describe.  We came home extremely drenched from all of the rain.  Sobrang Astig.

Everyone attending the baptisms - an awesome event, incredible day

             We had an awesome weekend.  We had five baptisms in our branch!  Three were our investigators (Erick Padre, Jarom Sta. Maria, and Jonas Sta. Maria), who are also part of the Rescue Program, and the other two were eight year old girls from less active families.  We combined with the Palayan Elders for their baptisms, so we had seven baptisms total on Saturday.  Elder Manalo baptized their two, and then I baptized all five of ours.  It was so awesome to be able to baptized them.  I forgot to bring an extra white shirt for afterwards, so I had to put back on my regular clothes with a wet white shirt.  I didn't really mind it though, because the Spirit was really strong in the room, and I was just so happy.  Then the Elders (Elder Declaro, Elder McCormack, and Elder Manalo) performed a special musical number of "I Feel My Savior's Love."  They announced the song while I was still changing, so I had to hurry.  The reason why I was delayed, is because I was trying to get as dry as I could using paper towels.  (Yep, I forgot a towel, too.  I know . . . typical me, right?)  I came just in time for the second verse of the song.  Elder Manalo sang the first verse, so I didn't miss any of the singing.  We split into parts during the song, and it sounded really cool.  Even when we sang accapela for the last verse.  The pictures from the baptism are really cool, and I will be sending them right now.

There is nothing like performing a song of praise at a baptism! 

            Well, I think that's it for me.  I hope that everyone had/will have a good week.  Mahal na mahal ko kayo!!  Oh and thanks for sending those cool pictures of baby Royal :).  I have such a cute nephew! haha :)  And, also I loved the picture Dad sent of my mission plaque.  Awesome.  And no Mom, I have not received the package yet, but will hopefully get it during transfers.  Our zone is getting together today for bowling and volleyball.  Should be awesome!!  And finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLI!  Hope your birthday was fun and awesome.  Finally, David, please remember to smile nice and bright in your engagement pictures with Kambria.  I can hardly wait to see how those turn out.  Hope I didn't forget anything.  Segi.  Tapos na.

            Elder Jordan “Wet & Wild” Royal

One more beach photo . . . just because I may never get back to the ocean and it was awesome despite all the rain

Yay For Being A Royal Uncle

            Well, this week went by really fast/slow all at the same time.  How is that possible?  Well, that's missionary work for ya.  You can never tell how fast the week goes by until it's actually ended.  We had a really good week, though.  We had a mission tour this week with Elder Teh, the Area President of the Philippines and General Authority, so that was really cool.  We had a big event at the Cabanatuan City Stake Center from a couple of different zones around the East area of the mission.  It was definitely awesome to hear from Elder Teh, President and Sister Martino, and other speakers.  Elder Teh emphasized the importance of becoming a "Standard of Excellence" missionary, that we work as hard as we possibly can even when we are getting low weekly numbers.  There are a lot of missionaries, sometimes myself included, who are part of the P.N.C. (Puwede Na Current), which means, "Good enough."  He related this to the movie Finding Nemo from the part where the turtles are riding the E.A.C. to get to Sydney.  All you have to do is let the current take you right to it without that much effort.  As missionaries, we sometimes get stuck on this current.  We'll think: "I'm getting a lot of baptisms this month, so I guess I can just sit and relax."  Even though we'll return home honorably from our missions from riding this current, there will not a lot of growth or development that happened over the two years.  Becoming a Standard of Excellence missionary is always working hard even when things are going great/bad.  There are no excuses NOT to work as hard as we should. 

Bowling activity from last week

             After hearing that talk, it made me think about my personal performance lately.  Sure, I've grown a TON since I've been in the mission field (language, teaching, studying, etc.), but there are probably a lot more that I could/should be doing.  Sister Martino gave a really good talk as well from the 2012 January Liahona.  Elder Cook of the Seventy gave an account of his mission experience trying to learn German in the MTC.  He was struggling with the language, and everyone around him seemed like to be doing well.  After he said a prayer in a closet while kneeling on a mop, he received a spiritual confirmation that the Lord did not call him to learn German, but to serve with all "[his] heart, might, mind, and strength."  Instead of always looking sideways at everyone else and see how much better they were than him, he looked up to see how God thought he was doing.  Satan loves when we look sideways, to put ourselves down and compare ourselves with other people.  I definitely remember having this problem in the MTC as well, and even here in the mission field, where I often compare myself to other missionaries who are so much better than I was am the language.  That's where Satan gets us.  If he can convince us that we're no good or that we can't learn the language as fast as others, then we lose our focus and we WON'T be able to do that.  In short, it was a great conference.

Got Jordan's plaque up in the foyer this week.  Nice.

            We did not teach as many lessons as we would have like to this week, but we have three investigators set for baptism next week through the Rescue Program, so there is success there.  Jonas and Jarom Sta. Maria had their interviews on Friday, and their just the greatest kids.  Elder Manalo, who did the interview, said that Jarom will definitely serve a mission in the future.  He's a great kid - both of them are.  They'll probably both serve missions in the future.  They were so excited when they completed their baptismal interviews, even though they really didn't have anything to worry about.  haha.  Erick Padre had his interview on Saturday morning, and it's been a great blessing to bring this family, and also the Sta. Maria family, back to church.  They've been less active for a couple of years, so it's just awesome to see them coming back.  (Yay for the Rescue Program!)  They'll be baptized this Saturday on the 18th.  I'm going to baptize the kids and Elder Declaro is going to baptize Erick.  The Palayan Elders (Zone Leaders) have two baptisms on that day, too.  So we're going to have a combined super baptism.  The picture will look really cool (haha).

            We had a zone CSP (Community Service Project) here in Kalikid on Thursday.  We met at the chapel in the morning to play some basketball first before our service project.  We went to this school/gym thing (yeah, I don't know what to call it), and we made it deeper, because they're going to put a fish pond there.  While we were working, about 20 kids saw us and ran to us (mostly because there were four white guys digging a hole near their school).  Elder McCormack and I stopped working for a second and just talked to all of these kids.  They, and mostly all of the kids here, were amazed that we could speak Tagalog to them and keep a conversation going.  It's always fun to talk to the kids here.

            Yes, I still have a cold or allergies right now, and I still have some cold medicine.  I've been coughing for about a month, but it's not a problem.  There are days when I feel good and days when I don't feel as good as the days that I felt good.  But, nothing I can’t handle.

Kelli and Royal united in the outside world for the first time 

            Well I'm happy to hear that I have another nephew!  Royal is a big boy (haha).  Congrats Kelli, he's awesome!  :)  I can't wait to meet him when I come home!  By then he'll be walking, talking, and adjusted to the sleeping only during the day thing (haha).  Since Beckam and Royal are only about five months apart, they're probably going to become the next generation David and Cody.  (He's a 9th day of the month birthday, too!  That makes three in our Family!  Steven, Royal, and me)  How awesome!

Royal gazing into his mommy's eyes

            We have a zone activity today at Dingalan.  It's a city on the beach in our zone, so we're pretty excited today.  I will be sure to send pictures later.  Well.  I hope I'm not forgetting anything, but if I am, sorry.  Mahal na mahal ko kayo.  Magaling kayo rin!

            Elder Jordan “I’m an Uncle Again” Royal