Did they really punt 50 times in one game? (Week 16)

Hello,

Man this week was rough. We got punted like none other day agter day after day. WE would just walk so far (because travels is to expensive) to a set appointment and then they would just shut us down so that was awesome. But in all reality it was one of the best weeks yet. 

Things that happened

1. Sunday morning we woke up early to walk rebojos to church to make sure they weould come but of course we show up and they arent awake. Their grandchild had been crying all night and they said they couldnt come to church. So their baptism has to be pushed to the 23rd now. Which stinks because tanner will be gone but we are still teaching thme. SO we were super sad they werent coming to church but when we got to church the Jimenez family was sitting in the back all alone. A mother and 4 daughters. We had just barely met and invited them to church. didnt think they were going to come but they were the first people in that sacrament hall that morning. SO that really lifted our spirits and they are progressing which is awesome

2. We are baptizing sister Anne on saturday! woohoo! So that is really good. Anne is kind of shy and can be hard to understand some times. Like she doesnt open up very well. But i can honestly saw with 100 percent confidence if you cant get the investigator to open up and talk the spirit can. When we teach Anne the spirit is oh so strong and it brings her to tears every time and she will start talking then. It is such an azming feeling. SO moral of the story, things you cant accomplish the spirit will. I know that to be true.

3. We are so very lucky to be teaching families. So we are teaching the Rebojo and Jimenez family and we just found the Olefane family. They are newly weds with a little 8 month old baby. We have just taught them the first lesson but when we gave them a book of mormon i have never seen someone so excited to be given a book of mormon. LIterally was like giving a little kid a huge lollipop. Their faces just lit up and they were so very excited to read it. So we are excited to continue teaching them and hopefully baptism date next lesson. 

Life is just great here. Like today we were riding on a trike and on the side of the street was some guy just swinging around a samarai sword. Not sure what he is going to do with that but it just made me laugh

Love you all!

Elder Sackley

Week 15

1. We have been teaching a decent num,ber of people but have been struggling to get them to commit but sunday we were determined to change that so we decided to go for it all. Firstr lesson with Anne, invited her to be baptized december 2nd and SHE ACCEPTED. Woohoo! so she is getting baptized a week from saturday. Next lesson with Liahona. She is 10 and its a part member family. We were feeling good so we kept our luck going, we invited her to be baptize and BOOM we got ourselves a baptism on December 9th. Then we thought lets go all in. We got this. Last lesson of the day with the Rebojo family. We taught them a super good lesson and the spirit was strong and WHAM extended for baptism. The whole famjily is getting baptised on December 16th. So we have 3 weeks of baptisms and probably am going to get people for the 23rd and 30th

2. I have never been this skinny in my entire life. I dont know what is going on. I eat so much and i am constantly eating but the weight is just dissappearing. Idk what to do. I weigh 178 pounds now. I can not tell you the last time I weighed this much. so if you have any insighits on how to put on weight that would be much appreciated

3. the other day we had a short little exchange and I was with Elder Risk. He is from seattle washington and is a transfer newer then I am. So both of us barely know tagalog and are brand new to the philippines but man we went to work. It just shows how true this church is. Two American Joes that barely know tagalog but still can be effective. Within an hour we had taught 3 lessons and had 4 new investigators. It was just an amazing experience and kind of like paying off to see We can actaully communicate with people even though we are brand new. So that was a great experience

Week 14

Okay lots happened this week and i dont have ltos of time so i will try to be fast.

Our district now is 3 philipions and 3 americas so that is lots of fun. The new american is from seattle and is really cool. He just came fresh from the mtc so i am not the new guy anymore :) 

Saturday was prolly the best day yet. To start with it was 11/11 and that makes me smile in itself and we just put in work all day. we had 8 lessons and 11 new solid investigators. 2 of the new investigators that stuck out are named Rodney and the Rebojo family. Rodney is a dad and prolly about 45. We started talking to him becasue he had sweet rims on his car. He is an electrical engineer and is really wealthy for a philipino. So we started talking to him and asked if we could share a short message and of course he said yes. He told us that he has been looking for the true church of christ but hasnt been able to find it yet. so we were super excited and placed a book of mormon with him and he told us he was going to start reading it as soon as we left. like he was supper excited to read it. we invited him to church but he was going out of town so he couldnt come but we have a return appointment with him tomorrow we are excited for. Now the rebojo family. They sell something called Turan in our neighborhood. I dont know how to explain what it is but its so good. So they always walk around as a family selling in our neighborhood and we have always loved how they are always together as a family. So we asked if we could come by their house some time and share a messsage with them and they said yes so last saturday night we went over there and taught them a lesson and they were super receptive. They were super interested and wanted to know more and more. So we invited them to church and sunday morning we were greeting at the door and boom Rebojo family walks in. H yeah. So we are really excited to teach them. We hacve lots more investigators but thats all i have time to type. We are extending for baptism later to a women named Anne and she is going to hopefully be baptised december 9th. 

Okay biw craziness. Tuesday night at about 10pm we got a call from President. He told elder respeto to pack his bags and he needed to be ready by 7am the next morning to be transferred to Naic. So we were up super late helping him pack because he was getting emergency transferred. So we got a new house mate wednesday afternoon. 

That is all. Hope you are all doing well. My camera is not functioning well so no pictures this week. I apologize but ill get some off next week. Love you all!

Elder gsack

Week 13

Dear Mom, (And all moms out there)

You are the best. You always grow up hearing the phrase " You dont know how good you got it until you dont have it anymore." and of course coming on a mission i knew that phrase would be very true but i didnt realize how true until Tuesday night. Now up until this point I had times where something happened and i thought dang Mom would take care of me or mom would know exactly what to do here however I have always found a solution. Until Tuesday night. I woke up at about 1 am and was not feeling good at all. Like really bad. so give or take 10 minutes im in the bathroom bent over the toilet throwing up like non other. Now this is where Elder Sackley really missed his mother. I spent the next 12 hours in the bathroom throwing up. And maybe if I were in the states with AC house and supplies to help me get better i could handle but getting sick in a third world country is a different ball game. This is where I just took a minute and just sat and appreciated you mom. You are the best. Thank you for all the times you put up with me getting sick and took care of me. I really didnt appreciate how much you do for me until now. Im sorry i wasnt as appreciative earlier in life but know you have a son 7500 miles away who is more thankful for his mother then ever. Thank you. 

Hope you are all doing well. Your thoughts and prayers are all much appreciated. I miss you all lots! 

Love

Elder gsack

just your average road kill lol

this is my chocolate rice for breakfsat and my view is elder laguerta. we eat that alot now bc its cheap lol

walking

he fell asleep at church which is way funny becasue normally i fall asleep not him

Sunsets are really pretty here. 

Crammed into a trike

Welcome to the collection babies

Week 12

Yo yo yo

This week has been okay. Here are a couple of stories slash things that happened. 

First spiritual,

So we have been continually teaching edward. We still have our super early morning appointments. What stinks is twice this week we woke up early and walked to his house and he wasnt awake so we had to walk home and we just went nack to bed. That was awful but when we do teach him it is going super well. We got him to commit to living the WOW. The spirit was really strong and we are really starting to see improvment in his desires to know about the church. We are planning on starting to re teach him lessons 1-5 from the start and extend for baptism. So wish us luck

Fun thought,

Halloween was lonely and sad but we made sure to make the best of it. Halloween night we went shopping at Pure Gold. Its like a wal,art kinda. But they play music in the store and as elder tanner and I were shopping a song came on and I couldnt help but dance. And at first I didnt even realize I was doing it until Tanner gave me a weird look but they were playing thriller so we danced and it was so funny. They also played Billy Jean and Ghostbusters so needless to say we took our time shopping and you best believe I was dancing all around the store. it was highlight of my week

Philippines Weird thing,

A lot of dishes here are just a mix of random meats and stuff. Well I have been paying more attention lately and asking what I ate after I finish. and the more I ask the more I realize I eat tongue or liver probably once a day. And yes it is beyond awful. But the good part about an american companion is we just loook at eachother while eating and laugh bc we both hate it. Its so fuinny. But ive eaten liver tongue intestens heart literally anything you can think of

Thank you for all your love and support. I miss you all lots. Love you!

Elder gsack

Elder Tanner and I at various places - halloween hats

My district

Different families we are teaching or members. The one we are sitting under the stairs is Borther Rickys family. he is the second conselour in the bishopric and he is way cool. Love him.

Elder Tanner and I at various places - random road

Elder Tanner and I at various places - trikes

My district

The one with the kid kneeling looking like he is praying is the abalos family. All are member except the father so we are teaching him. all three kids are return missionaries and the son kneeling is so funny.

Us at whats called a "Boodle Fight" everyone sits around and just eats wit their hands and its so crazy. best part about it is this is the house with 11 cats and 12 dogs so their are animals trying to get on the table so you are eating and slapping animals off the table at the same time. Super un sanitory but its really good and fun

Elder Tanner and I at various places - trikes

from left to right.
Laguerta, respeto, ward mission leader (Xandre), Tanner, Me. we go out to eat every pday. These are also the other elders that live with us.

Elder Tanner and I at various places - outside a bread store

Elder Tanner and I at various places - outside a bread store

Member kids and I playing bball

Elder Tanner and I at various places - with a puppy

The other one is a family we are teaching. Family with 11 kids and the mom is super willing to listen and wants all her kids to listen as well