LETTER FROM RYAN #10 04.21.14.

April 21, 2014

To answer your questions, my comp is from Manila. He is awesome. He is 19. He has been in the mission field for 4 months. The living conditions are good. Don’t worry. They take good care of the missionaries here. We have a small apartment, really small, but perfect for two people. We are getting two more elders in our AREA! I think we might move. We don’t have air conditioning, so we carry our electric fans everywhere you go in the apartment.  

This week was awesome! We HAD PEOPLE COME to our class and we taught English! We had 6 people! The members are finally starting to trust and work with us! Working together we are becoming unified.  FINALLY STARTING TO SEE a progress in the branch.  We are still looking for our first baptism. We are also trying to get one of our investigators to attend church.  We’re still going strong, don’t worry.

Story time, we had this appointment yesterday.  It was my companion, the branch mission leader, and I.  They said, “Elder Hernandez are you ready to work”?   I said, "of course" They said, “do you see that mountain”?   I said “yes”... They said, “Our next appointment is on the top of the mountain”.  TALK ABOUT A LEG KILLER!  If I could describe our area in just six words, it would be..."The Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland" That is literally what our area looks like.  The houses outside of the "Centro" or town center area are literally straw and island huts.   Public transportation is like being in the “Jeep” of the Indiana Jones ride but without seat belts. IT’S SO MUCH FUN!

Don’t get scared mom but basically every time we use public transportation, which is every day, there is slight possibility of dying. There are no traffic laws and the driving here is crazy. The only rule of the road is, the bigger the car has the have the right of way. Ha-ha

I got my companion addicted to peanut butter.  He is putting peanut butter and syrup on pancakes.  I’m so grateful they sell it here!

Love you all so much!

Elder Hernandez

                                                                                                    

Letter From Ryan #9 04.14.14

WHATS UP WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was definitely another learning experience. I’m finally starting to follow the conversations in lessons and participating more and actually teaching. This week I fell in love.... ha-ha No, but I did, it’s with this family and THEY ARE SO AWESOME!!!! Just for the record Philippino children are absolutely the cutest things in the world. On Friday we had our English class and we printed out about 200 fliers.  We were giving them to everyone.  We went around this one corner and these kids were playing basketball and then the ball bounced to me.  I thought this is my opportunity to totally show these kids what an American can do.  Because kids always make fun of Americans here, for whatever reason.  So, I grabbed the ball and only having one hand to shoot because I had fliers in my other hand. I grabbed the ball and shot it. “Swish”, they gave me the ball again and I made it five more times! When I missed it, they were all shocked, we gave them fliers and they said they would come. Before the class we bought snacks and stuff for everyone.  The class started at 5 and so five comes around.... no one comes....5:30, still no one. Then 5:45 and a sister from the branch came. Since it was just her we couldn’t teach her because we can’t be alone with her. We gave her some snacks and then she left.  Don’t worry; we'll turn this area around!

One thing about the area is that it’s so big. The members are so poor and they can’t afford to come to church.  It’s not because they don’t want to but they can’t afford it. The members here are so awesome. They love the gospel and church so much but sometimes they don’t have the means of getting to church. This week we went to visit a member, his family is super poor, we walked into the house and they had no lights.  They pulled out a candle so we could read scriptures. Honestly, it was probably the coolest thing ever! I couldn’t understand really what they were talking about at all but it was still probably one my favorite lessons.

This week is called Holy Week here in the Philippines.  I guess it gets pretty crazy here so we'll see what happens. Yesterday was the Manny Paqueo fight... THEY ABSOLUTELY WORSHIP HIM HERE! His fights are like the super bowl here, the entire country shuts down to watch him

One thing that has happened since I got here is that.... my appetite has returned... Like the bottomless pit .... ever since they gave us bikes.......I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much rice in my life.  We found this little bakery here.... it is AMAZING! Everything here is super cheap.  You could eat like a king for 5 dollars. They have these little donuts, and they cost 2 pesos each, which is one cent in U.S... for one U.S. dollar you can buy about 45 donuts...... all I will say on the matter is that the ladies that own the bakery know us very well now!  haha.

I love you all so much.  Until next week.   EAT AT JOLLIBEE!  There is one in Sacramento. Every time we have to travel anywhere we always eat there. It’s like the McDonalds here but it’s so good. Get the C7, so GOOD, but love you all so much. The weight I gained at the MTC is lost.

 Love you all!!  Your Elder Hernandez

Letter from Ryan #8 04.07.14.

Hey everyone! What's going on?

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER SWANK!

Another week down! This week was pretty intense. We're slowly getting the area down. The language is
coming slowly. I'm excited I can feel myself being able to speak more and more as time goes on. When
people talk to us, I just look at my companion and ask, " did you get that?" and most of the time he says,
" nope". They don't speak tagolog here so when we first talk to people they don't know that so we
always have to say "tagolog" haha.
 We now have mountain bikes to ride. They're probably the most fun thing ever! We literally are
riding through the rice fields, beaches, and tropical rain forests of the Philippines. With our
appointments far away we have to ride uphill for like 20 minutes straight. The way down is probably the
greatest thing ever. We fly down the hill, probably only pedaling twice. It's the closest thing to air
conditioning we will get.

Since we don't have washing machines, I do my laundry by hand. It's actually surprisingly a lot faster
than by machine. If we're talking about doing stuff by hand... we don't ever have lunch or dinner
appointments. We have to make all of our food because they don't have restaurants here in Bacacay. So
naturally my companion always cooks for us. But since he cooks, I have to do the dishes. Now I'm the
dish washing master. If there was ever an Olympic sport for doing the dishes I would definitely take the
gold.
The branch here is really small. So small that we have church over a car garage. There are not enough
members to build an actual chapel yet. But don't worry, we'll change that. Seriously, that is one of our
goals here. Member involvement with the missionary work is difficult for them. They aren't the most
united as a branch. My companion and I were having our weekly planning session and we felt guided to
the idea of starting an ENGLISH CLASS HERE! WE'RE HAVING OUR FIRST ENGLISH CLASS ON FRIDAY! and
guess who is teaching.................. yours truly! haha never in my wildest dreams would I have thought
that I would be teaching an English class here. I'm so excited because it's perfect because this will help
unify the branch and gain their trust. Who is going to deny a free English class? So pray that it is
successful.
It's crazy how your body adjusts to the climate. I'm not saying that stopped constantly sweating but I'm
actually starting to enjoy the weather so much more. There was something wrong with my camera so I'll send pictures later don't worry.


We're not having the success we're hoping for. I'm starting to know why the Lord has called me to this
area. This area and district is one of the hardest in the mission. I know the Lord has a very specific
purpose for me here. Not just teaching the English class, but the lessons I've learned about myself and
the trials that I've had to face. Joseph Smith taught that the Lord calls us, then grafts us into the
instruments he needs through trials of our faith. I know this for a fact, because the Lord, in the short
time that I've been here, I can feel the grafting of the Lord's hand. Although it's been challenging, I'm
grateful for it. Because it's what I need.

I love you all so much! Until next week.

Elder Hernandez

Letter from Ryan #7 04.04.14.

Hey EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's up from the Philippines?! Here we get two hours of Email time. THANK GOODNESS!

It's been a crazy week. Literally crazy. I'm going to send pictures-- don't worry. I'm glad to hear everyone is well! I love it here so much already!

Okay, we'll start on Monday when I left the MTC. I was so excited... I only slept for like 2 hours. What a mistake that was... we got to the airport and then we were off. From Salt Lake to Seattle to Tokyo to Manila to Legaspi . I traveled with some other people going to Manila so I didn't leave by myself. When we got to Manila, I could literally feel the air around me... no joke. You can feel the air when you breath in. They put us in a hotel for the night. The next day I had to leave all by myself because I was the only one going to Legaspi. When I got to the airport I met up with the other missionaries going to Legaspi-- THANK HEAVENS-- this is where it gets interesting...we flew to Legaspi but we couldn't land because of the weather... I literally felt my heart break. They flew us back to Manila, then put us in a van for 13 hours to drive to Legaspi.................. we showed up at the hotel at three in the morning... so in 4 days of straight travel I can honestly say I got like 8 complete hours of sleep. But don't worry I survived.

I am the only American that came to the Philippines in my "batch" of nine missionaries.

I finally met President and Sister Guanzon. THEY ARE SO AWESOME! There are only a few men in my life where I can say-- " I want to be like him when I grow up"-- and he is one of them. I got my first real companion-- Elder Andrada. He is from Manila. Thank heavens he is fluent in English, or else I would've died. In this area, no one speaks Tagolog, they speak "Bicol". It is a completely different dialect. They understand Tagolog which is a plus. And they all know English pretty well. When I talk to people they immediately know that I am an American. They try to speak English to me but then I try to speak in Tagolog haha. Everytime I speak in Tagolog they always say "magaling siya" which means I'm talented at my Tagolog. Then they say something else in Bicol, then I look at my companion. haha I'm not scared to talk to people that's for sure. I love it. When I try to talk to people they usually always laugh because they think it's funny that an American is trying to speak Tagolog with them. They always say "HEY JOE" to all the Americans. Joe for GI joe haha. I love it here so much!

The work here is a little slower than we want. But we're going to turn it around. The first two days we didn't teach any lessons. No one really has cellphones here so it's hard to coordinate when we can stop by. The branch here has about 75 members. But around 20ish are active.

Story time... One of the problems in the branch in the past is they're not really that unified. So on Sunday President Aramada the branch president let us speak. (in English) I spoke about families and how we are a family and about the importance of unity and then a little about me. Then Elder Endrada basically threw down the gauntlet very boldly. And said we need your help to further the work here. It was powerful. That's when you know the spirit is real... when you can feel it even in another country and language. Then the NEXT SPEAKER talked about the same thing-- with even more spiritual force. It was powerful! The third speaker then gave us three referrals!!!! It gets better... we went and found one of the names he gave us and SHE ACCEPTED TO HEAR OUR MESSAGE! That was my first lesson ever that wasn't a member! There truly is something special when the members help the missionaries with their work.

Missionary work is the best. When you are obedient the Lord blesses you. Literally like an hour ago, since it's p-day (prep day), my companion had to get some pants tailored. We went. As he was doing his thing, the owner of the store came and talked to me... and I UNDERSTOOD HIM! Then he said, "yeah, I have a Book of Mormon, and I read it about once a week. It's so beautiful!" Then we started talking to him and he accepted us to come back and teach him tomorrow! So pumped!!

I love you guys so much! The prayers really help. The MISSION IS AWESOME!

Love, Elder Hernandez

Update on Ryan 03.28.14.

Ryan made it safely to the Philippines. Here are some pictures he sent. You can email him at  ryan.hernandez@myldsmmail.net

Ryan is assigned in the Tobaco Zone, to labor in the E Bacacay area. His companion is Elder Andrada. We hope you will write him.

                                                             Ryan & his companion

                                               
                                           Ryan, his companion, his Mission President & wife

                                         
                                           Ryan & all the new missionaries starting in the Legazpi mission
                                                       

                                                All the missionaries with their new companions