My Golden Family

Well its taken a year but I've finally begun to fulfill my Mission Dream: to baptize an entire Family into the true Church. We found them at about 8:30 at night while tracting. We walked down this road we hadn't been to before and theirs was the first house we came to. We stood outside the gate and called for them. I remember instantly a dog came running out and barked at us. I had the thought to leave because well they won't be able to hear us because the dog will distract them so its pointless. So I turned to walk away, when I felt to stay. I saw a head poke out of their door, so now we're fully commited. After a few seconds of conversation a man walks out. We do the usual, introduce ourselves and ask if we can share a message with them. And whatta ya know, he lets us in! They were eating dinner so we apologized and asked if they wanted us to return some other time, but they said now was good and cleaned everything up. Their name is the Magallone Family, and they have 2 daughters about Ally's age. We taught them about Families and our Heavenly Father, and they were so receptive! Instead of looking at the ground like many of our investi's do they were just eating our words up! The Dad asked a lot of questions. We found out they were "Less-Active Born-Agains" as they put it themselves. We also went back to them tonight, and the same thing! So we are convinced they are the reason we both are here in this area and that they are PURE GOLD! So counting them, we picked up a total of 15 New Investi's this week which is the most I've had so far! And we also tracted an Indian guy who didn't know Tagalog OR English...we couldn't even leave him a pamphlet or anything. After trying to sign-language who we were for like 10 minutes I just stopped, shook his hand, said thanks in Tagalog because it was the only word he knew, and left. You can't win em all I guess. Last Saturday we did a Service Project for one of the members with the ZL's, the Elders in our apartment. We had a good time diggin dirt and moving it with buckets to the back of their house. They live on a hill so we were just leveling things out. I accidentally broke the shaft on one of the shovels, it was a handcarved Filipino special so no biggie, Brother can whip a new one out in like 10 minutes I'm sure. We also had a nice experience of being followed to the Church by a drunk guy who came in and attended a Baptism with us. I couldn't get him to tell me his name haha. Our big Samoan ZL, Elder Tevaga, baby-sat him during the Baptism haha. No idea where he took off to after. Hope everyones doing great back at home. I love you all so much! Shoutout to my little Sister who did work at cheerleading her first football game. And also to Josh who's just a stud. Love you all, miss you guys back in the 5th Ward too!

Elder Akins

Hittin the 1Year to Go Mark!

I made it, 1 down, 1 to go! I have to say that it was quite a normal day though. We did have a way crazy good spiritual lesson that morning, probably one of the Top 10 in my Mish, but that was it. I mostly tried not to get Trunky during the day, but sometimes I just had to look at my comp and hold up my number 1 finger. Man time is so fast! That night to celebrate with myself, I bought a load of Filipino Peso Kiddie Candies and ate it on our deck. It felt like a night well spent. The next day I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time, I go hard in Personal Study. So now all I got left is the Bible and I'll have read everything in my Mission time. And the day after that me and my comp gave the Workshop for our District Meeting. I talked most of the time because it was my comp's first time doing it. He shared some of his personal stories though which were really awesome, he's such a stud. He's a Convert of 1 year and 4 months, he left as soon as he could for the Mission Field after he waited his 1 year as an RC. Such a cool kid. On Sunday we had a suprise visit from Elder Collado of the 70. He gave a great talk on Missionary Work and Involving the Members. We have pretty good help from the Members here but hopefully it gets em even more excited! We need all the help we can get. And the last thing I'll update ya on is my 1st Facial in the History of my Life. I will never be getting one again, worst experience ever. My acne's been pretty bad lately, so I've been going to a Dermotologist here in Legazpi, probably half the reason I'm in Daraga. Anyways today I had to get a Facial, and man it about killed me. It hurt so dang bad. I'll leave the details for my Journal, but just know that I was so tired after being in the room for 3 hours I just sat down and layed there for forever. I actually fell asleep at the first part of the Facial when the Dermotologist was washing my face, but then she started in on my acne. Stress balls pretty much saved me. Love you all, please be safe and remember who you are (quotes by Shannon Akins). Hope everyones having fun at school!

Elder Akins

It says, "Come on in to B-Meg Country".

B-Meg is a Rooster feed. Filipinos love Cock Fighting.

 

 My area

What I wake up to in the morning.

Daraga is Legit!

Oh ya life is good here in Daraga! We had McRonalds twice this week! And I get to play PingPong and Basketball every PDay! And my apartments floor is actually clean and looks good! And so on and so forth. But seriously, this area is great. Its progressing and we should be having a baptism in a few weeks. We were able to tract this tatay (old man) that kept greeting us in English the past week. We were allowed to enter his tiny hut. We got in and sat down on his bamboo bed because it was the only other furniture other than a plastic chair he had. It was kinda messy. Then I caught a bad whiff of something. I looked down on the ground next to me. It was his dirty dishes and old food/rice in a pile. I almost gagged haha but I kept it to myself. We proceeded with the lesson of the Restoration. It went really well. He ended up accepting a Baptismal Date, an invitation to come to our English Class, an invitation to attend a Baptism the next day, and to come to Church on Sunday! All of which he did! It was great. I haven't had someone respond that well in a while. It made me think of the scripture D&C 18:10. His soul really means a lot to our Heavenly Father, I guess all of our souls, no matter what our situation is. It humbled me. Also that week I had the crazy experience of interpreting a dream. Long story short we visited one of our investigators who wants to be baptized but her husband won't let her. She told us she had a dream. In it she saw to men walking back and forth in her village wearing black shoulderbags and trying to talk to everyone. No one would listen to them. They then climbed a hill. At the top of the hill was a Golden Door. They opened it, and began to enter. Then she called out to them and asked where they were going. They said to see Jesus and she replied that she wanted to go see him too. They said, "Then follow us." and reached a hand out to her. But she wasn't able to enter. Then the dream ended. At that time I remembered a scripture about a gate in the Book of Mormon, and after some quick research I came up with 2 Nephi 31:17. Maybe check it out in your personal time. It was a very spiritual experience for me, and she even cried a little. Her husband doesn't allow her to come to Church but she showed up for Sacrament on Sunday somehow. Really awesome experience I'll never forget. I really just love my Mission! And I love these Filipinos! Haha they are so dang funny sometimes. I wish you guys could hear some of their jokes, man they just crack me up all the time. I love you all and hope that you are all well. Y'all take care now!

Elder Akins

Nandito Ako Sa Daraga!

 Hey guys, well I'm now here in Daraga! Its in Legazpi, and actually our Mission Office is here in Daraga! So I get to see my buddies in the Office a lot more now haha! I think thats why they said I would be happy. Or it could be that I have a super cool area which is out in the mountains. Its nice, I live near all the good restaurants, have a nice apartment because I'm living with the Zone Leaders, live in a Ward, but get to work out in the countryside! Its great. And also I believe this was one of the old areas of my cousin Blake Frei! So I'm super stoked to clean up his mess and baptize all of those people he missed haha. I've finally been made Senior. My companion is a Filipino kid who just got done training, names Elder Torrano. Super good kid, loves working so I'm pretty happy. He's way good at drawing, like way good so I got him to promise to make me a nice pic of a big buck or something. My housemates are great too, both are Polys and ZLs. One is from Hawaii, Elder Tevaga, and actually lived near the Hookilou Cafe on Oahu! He says he knows who the Bassos are but not personally! Small World haha. Well just the other day we got power, everyone was happy about that. People threw parties for it actually haha so we walked past a lot of drunk guys. This week I met our investigators and got to know them and stuff. My first lesson actually here ended up pretty good. His name is Neal and he was having a hard time understanding Infant Baptism. So we explained it to him better. After the lesson we reextended a Baptismal Date to him and he accepted. They said he has denied everytime before. They had taught him all of the lessons, but just didn't have a testimony. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray everyday and read everyday so that he can be able to receive an answer from God if what we are teaching his true. So we are hoping he will gain a real Testimony soon. He also told us he thinks that he himself is the one getting in the way of him knowing if our Church is true, so he will try to be better at doing the things we ask him to do. Hes awesome. The rest of the weeks we just did Service in our area. I bought an Itak (machete) in my last area and I've used it quite a bit now haha. We just chop up everyones trees that have fallen usually. My hands have gotten all soft like lately, they look like girls hands haha but they're getting better now that I've got some blisters going. And to end it all off we had a great PDay today. The benefit of being here in Daraga is we have a nice Pingpong table in one of the Church buildings near the Chapel, so I've been smoking kids all day. Also we balled a little. Did work for the most part. Elder Tevagas pretty good, he's the same height as me but a lot bigger so its hard to guard him haha. But we still did good, lost by 1 ha. Well I love you all and I'm so happy to be here in the Mission Field! Take care.

Elder Jake Akins

Typhoon Glenda

Well I just wrote this and then it deleted itself so thats cool. But anyways yes I'm still alive haha. The Typhoon was crazy! So heres how it went down. The whole day we were waiting for the storm to hit. Mostly I just read, slept and ate rice. I love rice haha! At about 4 or 5 the storm hit us. Most of the day it just dumped buckets. But when the typhoon hit us it was all wind! It was crazy. We only had water come into our apartment, maybe 2 or 3 inches. It came under the doors and window panes. One time our upstairs doors busted open too!

Luckily I had my towel over my desk so none of my stuff got ruined. Me and my comp just held the doors shut for like an hour or so. The wind was so strong! I couldn't believe the force it had! It all ended at about 6 or 7 so we cleaned up a little and went to bed. The next morning things looked a lot different than they did before. If you've ever seen the movie "The Other Side of Heaven" at the part when they come out after the storm, thats what it looked like. There was fruit all over the ground, as well as trees, peoples houses, all sorts of stuff. Mostly everyone in our Branch was affected, some people even lost their houses. So mostly we've just done service for 2 weeks haha.

Our area is mostly cement houses, so we didn't have as much. We cleaned up the church a lot actually. I didn't hear of any deaths, but a lot of people don't have a house right now. Its good that we are here though to help clean up and help people haha. I remember after the storm everyone was just outside looking at everything and at each other haha. We ran down to a members house that lives close to us, luckily their wooden house was still standing. I've seen a lot of miracles and mercies from the Lord on my Mission, but there is no way their house should still be standing! They were so happy haha. These past 2 weeks I've gotten used to sleeping with no fan because there isn't any power. Also the mosquitos, but I've gotten a few bites haha.

The worlds worst sound now is a mosquito flying by your ear when you are asleep. I've also had some run ins with spiders at night now that I don't have a fan. I'll spare Dad by not telling those ones haha.

Well not much has happened. I'm gonna be transferring tomorrow. My trainer and one of the Americans that was back in Gubat with me are the APs, as well as I've got lots of friends at the Office. They told me I'm gonna like my Transfer so we'll see. I'm just happy I'm finally leaving Sorsogon Zone haha I've been here almost 1 year haha! Maybe I'll go to Bataan Island. They don't have power, but they do have bikes! I'm definitely down for a bike! Haha wish me luck!

Love Elder Akins

Typhoon Glenda at the Door! Whoohoo!

Yep right now we got ourselves another nice Typhoon headed our direction. Luckily its not supposed to be as big as Yolanda, the last one, so we aren't to nervous...Mom don't be nervous either. Well our area is still progressing and doing great! Hopefully before I leave I'll be able to snag one of the 15 or so Baptismal Canidates we are working with. I came into this area with little to none Investigators, and I'll probably leave with same Baptisms haha but that's ok I've done my part here I guess. My favorite Investigator, Brother Robert and his wife Rose, are still doing way good! We just got done teaching the Plan of Salvation to them and I definitely saw some of the blessings that President Frei gave to me when he set me apart! So awesome to see them fulfilled! Haha hopefully Mom won't wig out on this next one, but anyways our neighbors got robbed the other day haha and ya they took like over 300 dollars and some other things that I won't include so she doesn't wig. But we got some nice locks on all of our doors and stuff so we are good. On the way to one of our appointments we met some guys trying to drop a nice big ole Mango Tree so we lent a hand a helped em drop er. It was pretty fun tuggin on a rope then running for our lives haha. Actually the tree fell to the side more and almost took out a wall and caught the powerlines. But its okay, its the Philippines, the power going out is a normal everyday thing so its okay. They appreciated our help, even got some compliments on my strength...must be all of the rice. Also this week we were the big news on a Baptist Radio Station. They really don't like us haha. Well  I've decided that I can sleep through anything now. Outside of our apartment we have a few Roosters that crow ever hours or so, a puppy that whines all the time and barks at the other mutts across the street, billions of tricyees that have way ghetto mufflers, and our next door neighbor who almost snoors as loud as Dad. I think I can probably sleep in the same room as him now haha. Well that's all I've got for you guys. Please be praying for us here. The storm shouldn't be too bad, but if not I love you all! Haha Mom don't wig!

Elder Jake Akins

First 4th of July Not in the US of A

Rough week, but there was still some good in it. One of my Batchmates, Elder Skeen, who has been in Sorsogon Zone the same amount of time as me, 10 months, had to go home because he needs surgery on his back. He's had a pretty rough time so I feel really bad for him. I hope he comes back, really stinks. On Teusday we walked our whole are like 4 times back and forth, and its wide let me tell you. My knees and ankles were aching after, man it was bad. Don't know if I can ever make a 50 miler again haha. And nothing happened on the 4th...except we had Zone Training and all of the Americans stood at the front and sang the Star-Spangled Banner. It was pretty legit. The good news for the week was we had 5 investigators come to Church! 1 of them we hadn't meet, a member just brought her so we are pretty excited about teaching here next week. Today we played Basketball with one of our investigators, Brother Robert, on one of the street hoops by his house. Their hoops are so ghetto haha takes me back to the days of repping Kade Bunting on my Nerf Hoop in my room haha. After we went and ate Buko, Coconut, with one of the members who lives close to our house. He took us to his families house way out in the sticks and helped them cut the Coconuts off of the trees and dehusk them. I love Buko! Can't believe I hated it before the Mission haha. Also this week I tried Avocado for the first time haha yep I've never eaten Guacamole in my life so I was pretty stoked. It wasn't too bad with a little sugar on her haha. Well not much else. Loving life as a Servant of the Lord. Love you guys. Take care this week.

Elder Akins

Happy BDay to the Best Country in the World

Love some lost Americans