Another
week down and it was great until Saturday. First New Year. I woke up at 11:55
to look out our balcony thing with the other Elders and it was literally a war
zone at midnight!!!! I thought we might die! Just unstoppable fireworks and
flashes from everywhere for a good 20 minutes! I was very surprised. From the
way they celebrated Christmas, I was not expecting really anything. I am not
able to put it in to words how gnarly it was and since I am in the middle of
this big city it was quite the party outside.
Almost impossible to sleep. But it was a very interesting experience. Oh
and I forgot about Christmas last week. It was the most different Christmas
ever. We woke up early as is normal but then we went and played basketball. And
I was sweating and it was hot and it is the middle of winter haha. Then, this Saturday my Companion Elder
Carullo got Emergency Transferred and is now a Zone Leader and the previous
zone leader is now my companion. Elder Carullo was my favorite comp so far and
we weren't even together for a full transfer. But it is okay my new Companion
Elder Rabanes is cool too but I miss Elder Carullo haha. Oh well, there is a
purpose for this and I will probably learn a lot these next 2 weeks but I don't
know if we will stay Companions next transfer.
We
have some Baptisms coming up finally. One of them, her name is Ina, she
truly is Elect and a Golden Investigator.
She was taught by the missionaries before and developed a testimony but
she said they just stopped coming and so she didn't know if she was welcome at
the church. We found her through our Former investigators section of our area
book and went to her. She was so happy when she saw us even though she had no
Idea who we were. All she knew was that we were missionaries. She is going to
be baptized on Feb 1 and she is stoked. I am stoked for her. It was a pretty
good week. Didn't get bitten by any dogs. Only almost got hit by a bus twice
and it only rained for 6 of the 7 days. Joke it didn't rain at all. It was just super hot haha!! Well I love you
and........Yeah you are all great!:)
LOVE
Elder Ball
December 30,
2013
Merry
Christmas and a Happy New year!!!!! This week was awesome for a couple of
reasons! I got to skype you guys. It was Christmas and 7 precious souls were
baptized this Saturday in 3 wards. It was great. I was actually kind of nervous
to skype. I don't know why but yeah I was nervous. What is kind of funny is the
day after we skype’d me and Elder Carullo walked and "Tao poed" from
1 o’clock to 9 o’clock. We did have one lesson at 1 o’clock but that was it. We
talked with so many people and got rejected by every single person. It was hard
but I think that good things are coming for our area.
But
one funny thing is I don't know if you are all familiar with the trikes here
but they normally should and max hold like 4-5 but one that we got on had 11 on
it! It was crazy and amazing. I honestly don't know how but we did it!!
And
something I just realized this week also is that I am like the runt of my
house. My house mates are the zone
leaders and they are awesome. Then my companion is a district leader and then
there is me, a Jr. Companion haha. But I like it. It’s great to have all of
these leaders are around me and I am able to learn a lot from them. Hope
everyone had an awesome Christmas and has enjoyed the year 2013! MY next email
will be in 2014! That is weird!!!!
Have
the rest of an AMAZING year!!
Elder
Ball
December
22, 2014
Hello!
This week was a good one! It was our Christmas Conference and we had a great
workshop from President Monahan and then had a really good meal that I was very
impressed with, Real fancy like!:) The, we
got to watch the Polar Express! It was a great day. But one thing that I want
to share is something that President Monahan talked about. And the symbolism of
the Birth of Baby Jesus. Manger is actually a French word and means food. It is ironic that Jesus would soon become the
bread of life for all and he was born in a feeding trough for animals. Next is
that the Manger was elevated above the ground, away from all of the animal poop
and dirt on the ground; yet he was still there with everything.
As
this world is getting worse and the bad people are here, Jesus is above all of
it yet he is still here with us, helping us, and showing us the way. It really
made me reflect on the real reason for Christmas. A time when we should be
thankful for the gift of the Baby Jesus and think about how we can give back to
him. The last thing President Monahan said was that there is nothing we can
give to give back enough. But, the closest thing we can give is the gift of
self! The gift of us sharing the gospel with friends, family and people we
don't know. So I have something I want you to do. Get a Book of Mormon and give
it away and bear your testimony of how it has helped you and why you know
it is true! - Now everyone that read
this has to do it. You can't unread it, haha!!
But our real purpose here on earth is to help others return back to our
Heavenly Father!
Next
week tell me how it went. Let’s all remember how important this Gospel is and
that there are people that don't know about it! So let’s share it with them!
I
love you and hope you have great week!
Elder
Ball-
December
9, 2013
HELLO!
So it is another week down and this past week was transfer week which means
that I had to say goodbye to my Tatay (Father) and I got a new companion. I
didn't transfer. So his name is Elder Carullo. He is pretty cool. He is Filipino and from Manila. He is also really good at speaking English so
it helps to be able to have him here and help me with questions about the
language. I really think that he and I will get along well and be able to do a
lot of good work! My house also flipped on me. Before it was 3 Americans and 1
Filipino but now it is 3 Filipinos and then me, so I have to speak Tagalog a
lot more. It will really help me to
improve in the language!
So
to answer some of your questions, the Philippines is a little different. Most
people will let you teach them when you stop by so we usually teach 6-7 lessons
a day. And we are always getting new investigators. Most of them just never progress.
Also, we are invited to eat about once a week, sometimes less.
This
week was kind of slow because of the transfer week and we were not able to get
a lot of work done. But now I am the one
leading the area and it’s actually cool. I know the area better than I thought
and now I’m the favorite of the members because I have been here the longest:)
It is weird thinking that there is snow and it is really close to Christmas because
over here it feels like the middle of July with a couple people that forgot to
take down their Christmas lights from the year before. So I am not expecting to
have like a Winter or Christmas like Christmas until I get home, haha. But it’s alright. At least the members are feeding us;) Well
that is all from me for this week!
Elder
Ball
Oh
and Thank you so much for the packages! I got all of them!! Thank you so much for the quad and the Christmas
packages!!!! They were awesome! I am saving the Christmas package for Christmas
but I was able to give my companion the other stuff!! Thank you!!!!
December
2, 2013
This
is me with Elder Moreno.
Hello!
This week was good and actually went by kind of fast which I was not expecting!
Well anyway, This is the last week of my training and then Elder Moreno will
leave me and I will get a new companion. I am sad that we are separating but I
am excited to finally just be a normal missionary, Not in the MTC or not in
training. So it is a good step! Elder Moreno is the one who will most likely
transfer since he has been here for 4 transfers or 6 months and I will be the
one who will lead the area. I am a little nervous but also super excited for
it. I like my area and I love being in the heart of the city of Urdaneta. So
one thing that happened to us that is awesome was on Saturday. We didn't know where to go because it was 8:15
and the streets were like a ghost town. So we decided to walk and try and find
people to teach along the way, (preach by the wayside) when from behind this trike
there was a woman who we had not seen, but she saw us and called us over to her.
When we got to her, she was crying. We asked her what was wrong and she said
that she was having a hard time with her husband and that she just didn't know
what to do anymore. She was in front of a gas station and said she had come here
so that she wouldn’t do anything stupid to herself, so she could clear her mind,
and be by herself for a little while. But when she saw us, she felt like she
should call us over to her. We talked to her about a lot of stuff then she
asked us for advice. We told her that people like us, Missionaries would be
come to her house and that the best thing she can do to solve family problems
and help her have more peace was to accept the missionaries and do the things
which they asked her to do. We talked about other things but why I am sharing
this is because I was so grateful to be put in that situation. Not so much to
teach, but to comfort her. She was able
to recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ and felt that we were able
to help her feel better and now be excited about the future, not be way sad and
not on the brink of committing suicide. I am so grateful we were able to help
her and be there for her when no one else was. This Church is True and This
gospel needs to be spread!
Have
a good week!
Elder
Ball
November
24, 2013
Hello!
Well this week was pretty quiet. Nothing much happened. Me and Elder Moreno had
the hardest finding week we have had yet. It was like I wasn't even in the
Philippines anymore. People at least when you ask if you can share a message
with them will let you share and come back but almost everyone this week
wouldn't even let us share. And when we tried going right into the restoration
people would stop us and tell us that they didn't want to listen or just walk
away. This week we met a lot of un-Filipino like people.
What
made up for this week was this member family and they are awesome!! They had us
over for dinner and she made a ton of American and Italian food because we are
from America and she knows that my favorite food is Italian. So she went through the effort to make us an
awesome meal. I am really grateful for that!!
To a lot of people it is not that big of a deal, but for me this week,
it was awesome and really made the week a little better. Sorry this is so
short. Hopefully I have more to talk about next week, haha.
Elder
Ball
