Happy New Year!

Hey guys happy New Year and stuff! 

New Year here in the Philippines is pretty crazy, you guys would not believe the kind of fireworks that they sell here ha-ha, like seriously stuff that can take your hand off! The drunken people like to blow up their hands for some reason, but the government does not really seem to care about that! 

This week was pretty fun ha-ha, we were pretty relaxed, maybe a bit too relaxed but we had fun ha-ha! On Saturday we had some old lady invite us for lunch out in the fish farm, so we went, we rode a boat for about 20 minutes up river to the fish farm, there are these really big bamboo houses and they are built up really high and run on solar energy, it was pretty dang cool, then they fed us lunch, they just went and got some milkfish for us, as fresh as can be and just grilled it up for us! It was pretty dang delicious wow and they also had crab, ha-ha bet you guys have never had crab that fresh, that was pretty amazing ha-ha! 

My new year’s resolution is to survive 2014 ha-ha! Because if I survive 2014 that means I will be pretty dang close to going home! But don’t worry I am not trunky yet! 

Love you guys hope you have a good new year! Tell dad to lose weight this year maybe, Eric too so he can find a hot wife.

he he, love Elder Boothe!

One of my investigators

Hey so this is just about the person I will baptize this week!

Her name is Matet, she has 3 little kids and my favorite is “Esay (ee-sigh) ha-ha she is so cute, she always says “amen” and “bye bye elderrrrrr” when we leave ha-ha! 

Matet is not married to her hubby, who lives in Manila and works, but we got special interview with pres. and she has the okay to baptize! And her mom Luzviminda is going to be baptized with her, her two younger sisters are already members.

So just average right? Ha-ha you are wrong, Matet is also… Blind! But not just your average blind, this is what happened to her…

She got a injection at Planned Parenthood for birth control, when she got home, a few days later she got sick, later in the hospital she was paralyzed, and was comatose.. After being released all she did was sleep and eat for a few months, and then she came out of that state and realized that she had gone blind, could not smell and struggled with memory loss. This happened in June.

Matet later on told us after teaching her for a few weeks, that the week that we invited her to listen, she was contemplating suicide. She felt her life had no meaning since she could no longer see her children, she said the Saturday I invited her to church she was surprised ha-ha, she told me “Elder I am blind duh!” and I just responded “Hey, all you have to do is sit down and listen, and you do is sit all day anyway mine as well make it at church” ha-ha she showed up! People read to her from the Book of Mormon and it was amazing, she could remember what we have taught and seemed so happy it was a great change. I asked her about when I invited her to church she said “I was surprised, you were so hard headed about it, so I just decided to go” 

She told us after her interview that she used to be a bitter person, always fighting with her mother and everyone around her, that she really was not likable, but she credits the message for changing her life, she is so full of life and love now, she is by far my favorite investigator!

Sister Matet and her mother will be baptized this Saturday I am so stocked for it! She is a miracle!! 

Just thought I would share that with you guys! 

20th Birthday

Hey mom! This is the last time you are going to hear from your teenage son, your last teenage son won’t be teen aged pretty soon ha-ha! That’s pretty crazy stuff if you ask me! 

This week has been great! Just lots of walking and lots of work as usual, the work out here is going great in our area! And we have 5 baptisms this month so that is really great! I always love seeing the gospel change people’s lives ha-ha!

Sounds like everybody back home is pretty much the same, that’s why I am glad I’m on a mission because I would still have been the same right\? Ha-ha maybe not! 

Anyway my heart goes out to the best mom ever, because she is number 1! Thank you for raising me to be a good boy! Moms are the best ever and made the biggest impact on someone’s life!

I hope you have a great Christmas season and enjoy it! I’m really excited to talk to you guys next week! I’m going to eat at an American Restaurant today for my birthday! Yay! 🙂 Ha-ha

I love you so much!

Love Your Son Elder Boothe! 

I Need Shoes!

You can tell James that I am in the Tubo ha-ha, the place is called Sarabia or more formally known as E.B. Magalona, its about 40 minutes north of Bacolod via bus and our area is composed of small little village like things surrounded by gigantic sugar cane fields, so really flat and lots of dirt roads everywhere! No I haven’t gotten any shoes yet ha-ha I have to go look for a size that will fit me in Bacolod ha-ha! 

So the phone call plans are  I will be Skype calling on Christmas (hopefully) I will be at the computer shop at about 10 AM here which is like 8 in the night for you guys, you can just invite McKenna and Jordan to come! If I change anything in my plans I will let you know on Monday next week! 

I am in a pretty hard area right now we only had 2 baptisms last transfer ha-ha 😛 the last missionaries assigned here did not have much success so we are having a fun time with that! But it’s all good we are lined up for about 6 this month! So I am pretty excited about that! But our investigators just have so much drama!

Hey you never told me about the questions for Elisa! Where is she from? Can she still speak Cebuano? And where was James assigned here? Oh I found out I am in the area were my former boss from Draper spent a long time ha-ha! Small world no? 

Anyways I hope you guys enjoy the Christmas season! Love you mom! Don’t forget to send me money I really want shoes ha-ha! 🙂

 

Back to Routine

Happy thanksgiving’ ya’ll! Ha-ha, I don’t know what dad is talking about I didn’t have any kind of party for thanksgiving??? We just got home at 9 o clock at night and ate spaghetti.

So this week was pretty good! We just having the most freaking sore legs you can imagine, we walk probably a good 6 to 9 miles a day, no joke, my shoes are freaking dying because the roads here are all rocky and sorts :C 

The disaster clean up stuff was done a week after the storm, its normal now, but we still experience power outage here like every morning.  We had stake conference on Sunday and the power went out for like 40 minuets ha-ha! Sister Lopez was talking and it went out.  She sounds like Misses Ho. But wow that chapel got hot! 

Pretty excited for this month, not so much because it is Christmas but that means that next year is really close. It’s pretty insane to think that I have almost been gone for a year ha-ha-ha! I can’t believe how fast time goes! I remember mom telling me one day Eric comes home in 6 months ha-ha I just laughed. That was like freakin 5 years ago ha-ha wow! 

Anyways everything is going pretty good, I have lost 9 lbs because the lady who feeds us broke her toe so she can’t cook for us 😛 that’s okay I got a little gut going on in Handumanan so I am glad I have lost some weight but supposedly I will put on some weight here in Christmas.

Hey ask Elisa were she is from and “ka-subo ka pa magcebuano?” and ask her what her family names are too ha-ha! And ask James where he was when he was here! 

Love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Oh by the way our neighbors play Christmas music every morning while we are studying and we usually just end up singing along ha-ha-ha! It’s so distracting! Feliz Navidad!

 

 

A Thanksgiving Epistle

So I will write you guys a special epistle for thanksgiving, one thing I find in my mission I am really good at thinking about life, since you are living a life other than your own being not over-occupied with yourself! 

So this week is thanksgiving, which means that there is no turkey dinner for Elder Boothe, only “THANKSgiving”

Ha-ha so being in a 3rd world country after a disaster you can get a lot of perspective on life I don’t think very many people get to come by, especially when you know these people very closely!

So one thing we can all be grateful for is that we were all obedient in the pre mortal life and you were not born into a bamboo shack! We were born in the literal greatest country on earth and we enjoy that freedom and blessing.

The other thing I am thankful for is the sacrifices others made for us to be where we are, whether they be soldiers, missionaries, pioneers, or in my case they are illegal immigrants from Mexico, a lot of people went through a lot of harsh things to get my family were it is, so I am thankful for the faith of my ancestors!

Also the gospel, we make take this one for granted, I always thought that the pioneers and stuff were so boring, but you gotta realize these people went through a lot for a gospel that others thought was not true. One thing I realized is I don’t think Joseph Smith would have put up with a tenth of the crap that happened to him and his family and the people following him to be a phony. It’s only my logic that something of exceeding importance could motivate a man to do what he did! So I salute and thank the pioneers and Joseph Smith! 

And last but not least, I will thank my family first, you guys rock and I would choose no other, and my friends, if it weren’t for my friends 1. I would not have made the bad choices that helped me learn and 2. I would not have made it into the mission! 

We are the most blessed people on earth; let your light shine to others so they can see it!

I love you guys happy Thanksgiving!