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