Week 17

Hello sa tanan!!!

I have three more weeks of being a trainee and then I'm leading the area and the lessons. I'm pretty darn nervous because I do not know Cebuano and my area right now, Mabolo, is like the most city area in the mission so everyone lives in compounds which are like full on mazes! So this past week Obena has been letting me practice leading haha. Hopefully it will help but we will see in three weeks.

Compounds here are run by gangs and while some gangs love us missionaries, other gangs despise us. Because of that, we are only allowed to enter certain compounds so we've had a bit of trouble finding new people. However, we've (Obena) decided to say hello to everyone we pass by and then have Obena stop talking because some people love talking to Americanos. The only problem is I don't know how to talk back to them! I'll try my best and sometimes they'll just laugh at me and when that happens Elder Obena will jump in. It's worked so far because we have found 2 new families and an old lady to teach

Nothing too new has been happening. Gahapon (yesterday) I went on exchanges with Elder King to his area, Oprra. It was a lot of fun because since he is an American he had to learn the grammar of Cebuano instead of just growing up speaking it, like Obena, so he answered lots of my language questions. We had a few really good lessons and one of them was with 4 super funny little girls and they just kept roasting my language skills. But luckily they were able to get the gist of it and I was able to understand them... making fun of me haha.

I haven't written much Bisaya in my emails because I feel like I'm no good at it but here goes!!!

Nasayud ko nga tinuod ang simbahan. Tanan mga adlaw nagkita ko mga milagro ug mga panalangin. Bisan pa dili maayo ang akong Cebuano, nagtabang ang Dios sa akoa sa mga leksyon. Naay mga adlaw, nagbati ko guol, pero naghinumdum ko sa pagampo ug nagbati ko mas maayo kanunay. Ang akong kauban, ni Elder Obena, moa ang nindot kaayo elder ug trainer. Christ-like siya gyud. Kahibalo ko nga naganhi ko diri, sa Philippines, para sa rason kay tungod nagbati ko sa kalipay ug kalinaw sa tanan mga adlaw. Usuhay naghunahuna ko nga magkaton sa Cebuano ug magsulti sa Cebuano lisod kaayo pero sa Moroni 7:33 nagbasa siya, "Ug si Kristo miingon: Kon kamo adunay hugot nga pagtuo kanako kamo makabaton sa gahum sa pagbuhat sa bisan unsa nga butang nga maayo ngari kanako." Nahigugma ko sa akong mission ug nahigugma ko sa inyo! Ug sa ngalan ni JesuKristo, amen!

That's it for this week! I love you all and hope you all are doing maayo gyud!!!

Love, Elder Kasden Grasse

Sorry for lack of pics this week. I wasn't able to upload them all for some reason.