Some Pictures From Christmas

James is #5! Mr. Rice Guy!

January 13

Mommy and Daddy and People,

Yes I remember that poem! And yes I have received some letters, thank you! Yes, the Come, Follow Me Program is an amazing and inspired resource that every family should be using. I testify that it is inspired of God, and that by using it you can grow spiritually as individuals, and as a Family. We had an area wide "stake conference" here this week President Holland spoke to us. The Area Plan in the Philippines is "Obey, Covenant, and Establish" and he talked about obeying. He said that for him, of all the things Jesus Christ said, His most important words were, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done".  Elder Holland said that even though the Savior "did not necessarily ,not want to, but most certainly preferred not to" he did the Fathers will in all things.  He ultimately subjected himself to the most humiliating circumstances that he had could have had complete control over, none of what he went through was he powerless to stop, he did it willingly and he did it for us.  I thought about this.  There's so much I could say about this but I'll just try one.  Nana was an exceptional example of willingly submitting to the will of the Father. She was, like the Savior, composed and graceful even a terribly humiliating, horrible disease slowly drained her life.  She, like the Savior, comforted those around her even when it was she that was suffering immensely. And, I think, She, like the Savior, understood, even while her children and husband did not, the reason for her suffering and disease. She is an exceptional example of love for the Savior, and glorifying him. We should be more like her.  We should always be striving to be kind, and obedient, and meek, and submissive, like her, and like our Savior. I testify that there is a kingdom for those like Nana.  The Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father, live there. We can live there as well if we stay on the Covenant Path.  I love this Gospel, and I love this work.

Love,

Elder Chan

January 6, 2019

Dear Mom, Dad, Emma, Adam, Kyle, and whomever else this letter reaches,

You mentioned that you would be in Lapu Lapu for one more transfer but we didn't pick up why- or how you knew this. Can you tell us again please? Yes, I can. Nothing is for sure of course, it all depends on the will of the Lord. But usually the pattern is that the trainee(Ako) will be left to lead the area, and the trainer(Elder Narciso) will be transferred. This could be false,  I could be transferred. We'll find out on the 23rd.

You have repeatedly told us how much you love the people! We love hearing this! Can you describe a family you have visited with this week? Just a few details about them? We would love to know about the people you are with.  We have a family in our ward, the Pinales Family, and they are awesome. Brother Pinales is a taxi driver, Sister Pinales cooks Ochenta and Puto and sells them. It's actually turned into a business for her and now she's getting some pretty heavy orders. Yesterday she had over 150 boxes of Ochenta to make, she and her family stayed up all night to finish. Crazy!  Elder Hoffman and I actually helped make a few batches while we were visiting last night. There should be a video in the Drive somewhere. They have 3 kids I think, girl, boy, girl. 16, 13, 11 respectively. The boy, Daren, reminds me so much of Adam its weird. 

I'm still loving the Philippines, it's hot and my face is breaking out again. 

Thank you for this great activity and including me in family scripture study! I know that these changes that have been made to church and home study are hard, and it may be challenging sometimes. But the changes are inspired of God, and I promise that we will be drawn closer together as a family in Christ, all of us. This scripture brought to my mind some interesting thoughts. I hope this is inspired of the Spirit. In "Jesus the Christ" James E Talmage takes a chapter to explain the significance and importance of the Parables of Christ. This is one of the reasons I'm so excited that the new program is focusing on the New Testament! The Masters Parables are so simplistic and beautiful, and yet each hold an eternal perspective. I won't bring out any specific parable now, I just want to focus on the effect of them. Please excuse any confusion you may find, I'm still trying to fully understand this concept myself.  By teaching in parables the Master separated those whose hearts were true and those who were hard-hearted. Those who ponder and look with a true desire to know will be given the truth, while those who will not only find a story.  By giving the people stories that related to their lives, as they went about with their tasks they would be reminded of the parables, and ponder on them. Maybe a short paragraph from the book would help...

 "Many a peasant who had heard the little incident of the sower and the four kinds of soil, of the tares sown by an enemy at night, of the seed that grew though the planter had temporarily forgotten it, would be reminded by the recurring circumstances of his daily work; the gardener would recollect the story of the mustard seed whenever he planted afresh, or when he looked upon the umbrageous plant with birds nesting in its branches; the housewife would be impressed anew by the story of the leaven as she mixed and kneaded and baked; the fisherman at his nets would think again of the good fish and the bad and compare the sorting of his catch with the judgment to come" 

In short, I believe that one way we can take responsibility for our learning is by applying it to our lives, and living by the precepts that we learn. And, if we bring the Holy Ghost into our learning experience, our attempts will be multiplied upon.  This I bear testimony of, that the through the power of the Holy Ghost, we can know the truth of all things.

Love,

Elder Chan

November 29, 2018 - Pictures!

Elder Chan went to the Cebu Temple with his Zone today so his P-day was moved from Monday to Thursday.

He shared the following story:

"It's so hot and humid here I still can't really believe it all the way. I'm constantly sweating. And it smells. But I don't want to be anywhere else in the world right now! The people are so great. And every time I say my name they're like, "Chan? Like Jackie Chan? You know karate?" Like literally everyone says it. Everyone. It's awesome."

He also had time to upload pictures.  He didn't have time to write anything else! But a picture is worth a thousand words!!

Thank you all for your love and prayers for our missionary!

Cebu Philippines Temple

Balut - boiled duck embryo in the shell

With his companion Elder Narciso

I think this is his bed

November 19, 2018 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Elder Chan!

How are you doing? Great! The nights have started to cool off and I'm sleeping well!

Is this harder than you anticipated? It's definitely not what I anticipated, but it's as fulfilling and awesome as I could have hoped for! I love it here!

How is Elder Narcisso? Elder Narciso is one of the kindest and most patient missionaries I've ever met. We work well together and I'm learning a lot from him. We also live with the Zone Leaders, Elders Alquizola and Hoffman, Filipino and White Guy respectively. They're awesome. 

Do you have a regular apartment with running water etc.? Pretty regular yeah, we've been able to clean it up pretty nicely.

How is your ward? I love my ward!  They're all very helpful and want to help me with my Cebuano all the time.  They actually organized a ministering activity to get less-active/inactive members to come to stake conference. It was really fun working with them. I'm really trying to open my mouth and get to know them better. You know I'm usually a pretty introverted person, and that doesn't really work here and with missionary work in general.  I'm more and more confident the longer I'm here that the Lord has a plan for me.

Do you have to go to the laundry mat? Nope, we wash our clothes at the house. We actually have a little "Camel" washing machine. It's kind of awesome actually. To dry the clothes you put it in a little basket thing and it spins really fast to pull all the water out. Super cool I think. It doesn't dry them completely but its pretty effective. 

Can you see the ocean? No, we're in the middle of the city.

Do the zone leaders have a car they drive- do any missionaries drive? No, but the Assistant to the President Elders do. They drove us to food.

Can you read the Book of Mormon in Cebuano a little? I can read a bit, but the words are pretty deep. Most of the Cebuano's even have trouble understanding it.

This is birthday week for us! Lisa on Wednesday- I didn't get her anything at all. Emma on Thursday- we ate pizza at Lisa's house and I just gave her some cash because I'm boring like that right now. And Dad's birthday is today! We went and ate Yummie Pho- do they have pho in the Philippines?  I think I like it? I like if for the first few bites. HAPPY BIRTHDAY I forgot to say that last week. Whoops, sorry. I thought about it the day after it happened though (time change is a crazy thing). That all sounds awesome!

We ate pie for Dad's birthday and decorate for Christmas and Dad painted the dining room table white for me and recovered the nasty chairs! It was a lovely day! Adam helped me hang up the Christmas ornaments ion the ceiling and we missed you! Whaaaat! Thats Awesome!!!

This is the Lord's work. Of that I know for sure, way better than I know Cebuano. He is our Savior, the Redeemer of our souls. I've been reading and marking every mention of the Savior in my scriptures and every time that I mark my testimony of Him grows deeper.  I've come to find that I actually love reading the scriptures. If we read and study from them every day, if we attend church, if we always have a prayer in our hearts, we cannot fall.  It's so simple and easy, and yet by not doing that, we will find ourselves separated from the only thing that can bring true happiness in this life and the life to come; that is, the Love of our God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Ghost. This is not a man-made, fake church that we are a part of, this is a church directed by a Supreme Being. One who loves us and is aware of all we are and do. This is as real as anything can possibly get. I testify with all of my heart, that this is real, this is the joy and happiness that people everywhere are looking for, who are only "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it". I exhort you to share this glorious message, this "good news", with all those who deserve to have it. I say all this with the deepest love, and the greatest joy, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Elder Chan

November 12, 2018

I emailed Elder Chan this week and told him to reply within my email.  This is what we got back!  The blue font is the reply.

Hi Elder Chan-  

I hope you are having a relaxing p-day.Yes, as relaxing as p-days can be I guess. The AP's took us out to dinner  to a place called "burrow". 199php for unlimited wings and rice.  I also hope you're having a great experience in the mission field! Of course!

Are you getting a lot of emails from everyone? Yes You can just respond to my emails but cutting and pasting my questions and just answering yes/no. Ok

How is lapu lapu? AWESOME, the area I'm in is pretty poor, it smells like sewage a lot of places, but it's so awesome! You must be having quite the experience. Yes I'm glad we got to go on that trip to China together. So am I. It's helped a lot actually. One thing thats been interesting is seeing the contrast between Chinese sewage and Philippines, I remember neat little lines on either side of the walk in China, here they just seem to run it wherever is easiest. That could have been just that certain part of China though.Things are probably not as shocking because you've seen some of it before.  What's the weather/humidity like?  Worse than NY? Yes.  I wake up pretty sweaty but I'm definitely able to sleep.  It's pretty amazing.  Do you sleep with a mosquito net? I'm starting tonight.

Is your ward large in the Lapu Lapu 3rd ward? Yes, but we have a lot of inactive members right now, that's what most of our work is. How is your bishop? He's great! His name is Bishop Michael (I forgot his last name) Is it just your companionship in the ward? No, our roommates the zone leaders split the area with us. (I'm suspicious that they gave us the smellier part)    We are sharing our elder's with Park Hills ward still.  They are really focused and good elders. Good! I was really thinking about that this week, I'm glad they're doing good. They need help though! I never knew how much we really rely on the members. We rely on you to fellowship and keep people coming to church and building their faith. That's why ministering is so awesome!  Anyway, hope you're eating well, not getting bit too much and loving the work (most of the time).  Remember, you have to have lows to appreciate the highs.  Enjoy being there, have fun and smile!

Love you much-

Dad

(In your reply settings, there should be an option to include the previous email.  You can reply and just type in your answers with a different color.  I can use your answers to compose a longer email to send to everyone else.  If that helps...)

Thank you for being such awesome parents!  I'm doing great here! 

Love,

Elder Chan

A picture from the Manilla, Philippines MTC posted on the mission webpage.

November 5, 2018 - Lapu-Lapu 3rd Ward

Hey everybody! Sorry in advance for this extremely short email but I have about 9 minutes to email at this point and I dont feel like paying for another hour. The Philippines is still awesome! This is still the Lords work! All the best feelings and all the not so best and all the in betweens. My companions name is Elder Narciso(Nar-sis-o) and he is the best! I love him already! Our ward is great! We are "whitewashing" this area and there is so much work to do, we've been pretty busy the past few days visiting members and inactive members and trying to meet as many people as possible. So crazy.  We are living with the zone leaders, their great as well. The food here is great, the people are great, and I'm sweating a lot. 

Love,
Elder Chan