Routine Weeks

Hello Family!!

Brother Bush, me, Elder Dio and
Brother Jan Paulo coming home from church

Things have been pretty routine for the past few weeks.  I have sent some pictures so mom can upload them to the blog.  I am growing really close to the members in this area.  I hope I get to stay here for a while.  I really love it here.

The Trinidad family is really great.  Bro. Trinidad is in the Branch Presidency and is great.  He has a daughter that really helps the missionaries with lessons.  She has a strong love for the gospel and it really helps our investigators feel comfortable at church, when they come.  There is also the Panes family.  They have 4 boys all around my age.  They are always a lot of fun.  They are converts to the church and pretty new, I think since August, but they are very strong.  It's awesome.

Zone picture after District conference.
The day of transfers:)

Elder Dio and I are still doing well together.  We sometimes have different ideas on things, but he at least asks me for my thoughts and feelings on things.  He is the District Leader so he has the final say, but we make it work and this area is progressing really well.  We haven't had any baptisms, but hopefully that will change soon!

Meaghen asked if the Philippines celebrate Halloween.  The answer is no they do not.  They actually celebrate the Christmas season for 3 months.  So I am actually celebrating Christmas right now!  Hahaha!  It starts in September and ends in December.  Mom you would love it!  You could listen to Christmas music for 3 months! Hahaha.

When you walk it bends.. but very strong

This bridge we cross every other day to an investigator's house.  My heart stops a little each time but it is a really strong bridge and it is a lot of fun.

Tell everyone THANK YOU for the care packages.  I LOVE them all and they have been great.

I did have a little problem this week, my ingrown toenail is back, but I think we caught it in time so it isn't as bad as last time.  We didn't get to do a lot of walking this week so we just did 5 lessons but did a lot of studying. Hahaha.

I have to go now.  I have a Zone Activity to go to.  I love you all so much and miss you.  Talk to you next time.
Love,
Elder Evans

 This is a carabo....dont confuse it for a cow..
because it isnt hahaha

Elder Dio and a veiw from an investigators house.

I **LOVE** Conference

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Hello Family!

I got to watch conference yesterday and it was great!  The three new apostles will do a great job but as of yesterday I have 3 new favorites.  Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, and Elder Renlund.  Those 3 apostles always give the best talks that pertain to me.

Elder David R. Bednar

I am downloading their talks right now on to a flash drive so that I can listen to them when I get ready in the mornings.  It is very uplifting to listen to them.  It starts my day on the right track.

I also loved that the primary sang at conference.  When I was that young I would have been too scared to go up there and sing.  It was hard enough doing the Primary Program for the ward.

Elder Dale G. Renlund

I hope Dad and Nicolas went to the Priesthood session.  That was really good, too.  I loved the talk about "Ponderizing" the scriptures.  Elder Dio and I are doing that with our studies now.  We each pick a scripture from our daily studies and "ponderize" it.  It really helps with our teaching so we can share memorized verses from the scriptures with the members and investigators.

Oh, and mom, I really liked Elder Holland's talk about Mothers. :)

That's about it for this week.  I forgot my cord again so I will send pictures next week.  I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Evans

A Week of Miracles!

Hi Family,

Our Kitchen

It feels like I just talked to you.  The week went by really fast.  It started out pretty great too.  I had a miracle on Monday.  Some might not think so, but I do.  Elder Dio and I were at the store last Monday and when we went to the register I knew that I had at least 1000 pesos worth of food and I only had 700 pesos.  When they told me the total I held me breath and they said it was 700 pesos even.  It is pretty cool to know that the Lord is watching over me and my need for food!

We had a really good week with the members and our investigators.  We have 6 investigators and we had a member come with us each day this week.  I love this area.  The branch members are so awesome and so supportive.  Just another little miracle for us.

Living Room/Study Area

There isn't really anything else to share.  I have uploaded some pictures so mom should be pretty happy.  I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Evans

Back to Work and Loving It!

Hi Family!

the sign says general surgery.. LOL!
 I feel so safe hahaha

This week has been a really good week.  Elder Dio is not "trunky" the way Elder Cancel was and we are back to work again.  The members in this area are all fantastic.

Sipalay is a country area not a big city so we are doing a lot of walking from house to house.  I am literally in the middle of nowhere.  But it is really green and beautiful view.  Another great thing is that my area is small!  Yay!  So we do walk a lot because the houses are far apart but the area/district is small.
 

goofy missionary face at zone mtg.

Since the district is small they don't have a Ward it is a Branch.  That is different and very small.  But they have awesome attendance, which is new.  The other areas were big but we had a hard time getting investigators and members to attend.  We have church at 9-12 then we have a special sacrament in our area in our apartement because the church building is really far for some of the members.  We have a room attached to our apartment that we hold the extra sacrament.  Our Branch President is awesome and really works with the missionaries.  It is amazing here.

View in Hinigaran

This week we were learning more of the area and the members and the investigators.  I found that we are about 5 seconds away from the beach.  That's the hardest thing now is to not go and run into the water.  Especially since it is hot during the day.  It does get cold at night because we are so close to the beach but that makes it easier to sleep! LOL

Just found out we all were transferring

I love my new companion, Elder Dio!  He is awesome and a hard worker.  He speaks Ilongo and Tagolog.  He only speaks Ilongo to me because that is all I understand! LOL  The members tell me that I am "sagad" (very skilled) in Ilongo.

I was sad to hear about Elder Scott passing away.  That's 3 apostles now that have died in the last couple of months.  General Conference will be exciting in a couple of weeks to see who is called in the place of the 3 apostles who have returned to heaven.

That's about it for now.  Make sure you send my razors soon.  I am almost out of the ones you sent me last.  I love all of you!!!!
Love,

Our last night as a district

Elder Evans

View of the beach in Tuyom

Town of Isabela when on exchanges
with Zone Leaders

I'm on the Move!

Hello Family,
 I hope you have had a good week. I had a relatively good week then I got a call from the A.P's saying that I am transferring. My new area is somewhere in  the Sipalay zone. My new companion is Elder Deo. He is a Filipino and apparently he is the same height as me. I have a temporary companion right now and we are at Robinsons in Bacolod. We are pdaying here then later today we will go to our new area in Sipalay.  He is travelling down to Sipalay with me because his companion is there also. Robinsons is like a little mall and where we catch the bus for our ride south and I will meet my new companion in my new area later this week.

I cant believe that both USC and BYU lost their games on Saturday night. Byu was so close. I got a post on my Facebook wall about it. I miss you guys so much and I would like you to wish Uncle Ed a happy birthday for me. I received the Evans package from the mission president yesterday. We had stake conference yesterday and he was invited to join:) I love all the snacks that I recived:) 

Elder Cancel went home this past week.  He will be missed but he will always have a place in my heart. He was an amazing Elder and a great friend!!!  We did a tie swap and I got him to write in my journal before he left.

I will be in the southern most zone in the mision.  It is about 3 hours south of Hinigaran where I just served.  I was told the area is country but I will see. I really dont care as long as I am serving the Lord.

Not much else to report here. I will have pictures next week bc my cord is packed:) and I will also be able to talk more about my new are.:)  Tell the Yeates thanks for the birthday card:)  I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you soon.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Evans

A Good Week of News!!

Hello Family!

On our way to a baptismal interview!

So I got some really good news this week.  I was able to talk to the missionaries that took my place in Sagay.  The told me that my favorite family that I was working with, the family that got offended by someone's comments at church, were baptized!!  I was so excited!  I really love that family and really happy about their baptism!  It made my day.

Some other cool news is that my companion gave me a surprise birthday party.  It was pretty neat and helped to make my birthday a good one.  We were at zone training and after the training was done he brought in pizza and cake. YUM!

My surprise birthday lunch and cake

So I had an egg and ham sandwich this morning for breakfast.  Much better than rice!  We also were able to have dinner with a family in the ward.  Sister Liza and her family feeds us every Sunday night. Dinner wasn't ready so we got to watch Matilda. We had Chicken curry and bikal express. I will make bikal express for you when I come home.

So we aren't having a lot of progress with our inactive members because of some political issues, but we are trying to help the people the best we can.

Little philippine children praying.  They are soo cute!

Don't have much going on this week, but we are going to Bacolod because Elder Cancel has a dentist appointment.  He has his "end of mission" appointments since he will be going home soon.

Well, time to go play basketball.  See ya next week.  I love and miss you all.

Love,
Elder Evans

The joy of Fast Sunday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!

I am officially 19!  Kind of a weird birthday, but it was good anyway.  Thank you to everyone that sent me birthday wishes.  I really liked them and helped my day to be a good one.  This was my first birthday without cake.  I miss cake. Haa! Haa!

Not much of excitement has happened the last few weeks.  I did learn that even tho you don't pay yoir bills on time God protects you so that you can live. LOL My companion seems to forget that he puts the bills in his bag and then we end up paying them late. Thank goodness God is on our side and not the other way around!

Our family that is working on getting married is still working and being strong in the church. It costs a lot of money here to get married so that is why people just live together. But our family is being faithful and working on saving the money to get married. They are a really good family.

Also I have found what it means to truely have the love of god for other people. Some of the Philippine people think it is funny to whistle at American's like they are dogs. It gets me really mad but I try really hard to ignore them. It has really helped me to see how just little thing like a whistle can make someone feel bad and hurt.

My toe is finally getting better and it doesn't hurt much anymore so that was a really good thing this week. Elder Cancel has 5 more weeks left in his mission and is getting really "trunky". It is kind of hard to work with, but I will probably be the same way. :)

Well, that is about it. I love all of you a lot and miss you guys. Talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Evans

ps- no pictures this time. Sorry. :(