this place loves parades and joel's grandma wrote me 2 more letters!

Elder Bednar came to visit the mission!

hey nay,

so the power went out at the mega asian net shop so we came back after runnning around for a while. buhay pa!

pretty crazy week. tuesday, dentist appointment in Santiago, btw she's doing fine and has been a dentist for a long time and has been to dental school and everything. let's have a little more faith in her. still got that hole, she's covered tho and is getting figured out. it's not getting worse and there's no pain, so we're all good. 

wednesday, a Zone conference in Santiago with the southern half of the mission. super good! 

thursday in Cauayan for follow up training for my anak. super great again. 

i'm going quick, sorry. 

friday we had a visit from David A. Bednar and Shayne M. Bowen (Area President). man, this was a super cool experience. for 2 and a half hours, he ran the show and only asked or responded to questions. no talk, no speech. he made it clear he wants to talk with us, not to us. and he did very well at that. 

he is just chalk full of wisdom and is super funny. i managed to ask a question about studying deeper and taking better notes. he told me it was a "tremendous question". got me hyped, and all four men took their time to reply to it. super great. he kept checking if i understood and we went back and forth a little. learned a ton from that meeting. it's hard to explain. but he mentioned a lot that we are agents to act, not objects to be acted upon. ya know? nobody "makes you mad". you choose to be mad. went deep into it. also some super deep stuff about faith and repentance that kind of turns each subject right around. seriously blew me right away with his wisdom. great experience. he mentioned some cool apostle things like everywhere they go isn't for a huge conference, but for the one and he shared some neat behind stories of him meeting individuals. special taligia!

saturday, there was a surprise broadcast from Manila from those 4 and it was awesome again.

but some cool things this week. saw 2 parades! this place loves parades and Joel's grandma wrote me 2 more letters! making that 3 now. more than some of us....... i love her to death. cherish Oma forever. we counted our teaching pool and we now have 40 names we are teaching! we started w about 4 people, five weeks ago! and discovered the filipino response. it's something like this "hey can we meet you?" what are you?!" or "how are you?" "you! how are you?!", "hello" "where are you going?!" basically, they don't reply to your questions in the way you wish. 

manila would be rad. tara na!! 

also mom, could you please send me a small PMG from the online store and if you haven't done anything on the online store, could ya? my RC's salvation depends on it! thanks!!! 

sorry, l love ya!

HYMN 249 called to serve 

"called to know the richness of His blessings"

TATAY KEARL

cute l'il fella

our swedish man, erik

what writing a letter home looks like

bow river vibes here

bishopric members family

4 tatays, 4 anaks. too many narries

elder D and C. a dupax legend in the midst

sketchy morning shave find

my family!!! apo (grandson), lolo (grandpa), tatay (dad)!! elder briones sighting! 

careful elder

parade

started on jan 18 with 4 names now we got 40!! this place tho

cute l'il fella

picking a pigs nose

river vibes

malakas siya grabe

left a note in the church

alicia 1 and 3 narries

had a stroke, can barely walk or talk, got baptized, active as can be. RONNIE PALOS

?????????

in these past 5 weeks weve saved 850 pesos for a go at a highly reccomened pizza resturant! GET HYPED!

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love dis pic. cherish it

we got that one size fits all medicine with the not so one size fits all lessons

NAY! 

so i'll keep these weeklys quick bc i got to give some email love to the fans. man, they are coming in heavy every week and the 2 hours ain't cutting it so i'll get straight to the good stuff. 

while out in the middle of no where, we ran across this guy who we thought was dead,not moving, laying on the dirt road. we nudged him and he made a move so we both let out a sigh of relief. turns out he was just tired and drunk. he was speaking some deep illocano and then once he opened his eye after like 5 minutes and discovered my skin, he tried english. he started yelling "I AM A MASTER OF MY OWN FAITH". agency. also kept going on and on about brigham young. he confused him for Jesus. he wouldn't tell us his name but mentioned the names of the narries who baptized him in like the 90s. we instantly fell in love with the guy bc he's a son of God and we picked him up after like 20 mins, brushed him off, told him we loved him, he told us to, we walked him home, left a note for a follow up and he thanked us profusely! highlight. sunnier if you were present. 

as i hit the ol 1/3 mark of 8 months i thought to myself "what if i went home tomorrow?" i thought again "probably feel like i never left." it hasn't even felt like i've been gone for 2 months. TIME IS FAKE. so quick, oh man. that means it's quick over there right? 

crazy place out here, we randomly meet more LA's (Less Actives) then non members. super fun everytime and powerful, but insane bold lessons to rescue em. basically, we got that one size fits all medicine with the not so one size fits all lessons. teach people, not lessons. 

interesting quote i hope will inspire people to be more bold at the pulpit, in the home or with friends. "a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it" TRUTH and i'm sure lots of us have felt that at one time or another. 

Weekly hymn: 252 Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

"the church has need of helping hands, and hearts that know and feel"

TATAY KEARL

p.s. i would also love in a package an awesome smelly candle, i know you got enough to spare and brown leather shoe polish, waterproof one as well! thanks! also could you please get me the email of president palmer's (stake presidency) sons (brett) wife (Madi i think) email. i heard she served in cauayan philippines. thanks

drunkest LA.  love him tho

pig nanay

backyard coconuts

working for it

work for dat meat

almost there

carving out that good stuff

ahhhh!

ano gusto mo huh?!?!

l'il splash back

peep dis l'il guy

kulay green chix

getting hooked up phat

you are blessed elder

farms!! love em

chezzin 

nicest nanay on the block right next to Alicias version of sin city. gay kareoke bar on gay kareoko bar

pig

blessy mae and friend :)

bb boy :)

our garden

handwritten letter to the tuscany primary kids

dated september 25, 2016

The kids in the tuscany ward primary wrote scott some letters and this is what he responded back.

kamusta primary (how are you primary)?

Elder Kearl here from the Philippines, the tiny country in Asia.  I was so touched when i received your letters int he mail.  I thought it was so cool I showed it off to some of my other missionary friends.  Guess you could say Tuscany Ward i s pretty cool.  I sure do miss seeing you guys around at church tho.

It's pretty different over here.  The kids over here don't really have any toys over here b/c their families are so poor but they do play w/ these things called pogs or they play w/ teks.  Also a lot of the girls play w/ a long line of rubber bands.

Also they don't have Halloween here!  No trick or treating or customs but that's b/c they are too busy celebrating Christmas!  I saw Christmas lights and Christmas trees as early as September!  The people here really love Christmas.  It's even bigger here then back home and there's not even snow!

Where I am, is a super hot jungle with lots and lots of farms.  Sometimes when I'm in the jungle parts it looks like where Tarzan lives.  Huge trees and lots of fruit I've never even heard of.  Some things I love about filipinos is they are very nice, giving and love to take naps.  They go to bed early and wake up early.  They also do these things called a marienda.  It's basically a snack time.  Random filipinos I've never met will say "marienda tayo!"  which means "come have a snack".  This gives us missionaries a great time to teach them about Jesus, which is my favourite thing to do.  A marienda usually consists of crackers or cookies and also some pop.  The Philippines has the best crackers and cookies and candy and juice.  Even better than Canada.  Other than the delicious mariendas, they eat some weird things over here.  Like dog, chicken feet and also 2 day old chicks.  It's not so bad tho.

Even tho I've only been on my mission for 4 months, I love it!  Missions are so much fun and so great for so many reasons.  The most important reason being I get to help people who really need missionaries help.  Some people are not as lucky as us and have some really hard lives.  But i've seen the gospel change so many peoples lives in ways that didn't seem possible.  B/c the world is so big our Heavenly Father needs every single one of you boys and girls to help people who aren't as lucky as us.

I'm very excited for the day when you brave primary kids will serve the Lord and help change other  people's lives.  You can start preparing for your missions now by praying, reading the scripures and serving your friends and family.  You can be nice and help those in your life, in small and simple ways.  Every single one of you!

I just want to remind you guys that whevevery you are sad, angry, lonely or scared, you can pray to your Heavenly Father and he will help you.  I know he loves you and I.  I know your big brother Jesus Christ loves you as well.  To say "I love you" in Tagalog is "Mahal Kita" so Mahal Kita!  I can't wait to return home soon and tell you "Mahal Kita" in person.  Magunda Umaga Po!  (have a good morning).

Love,
Your pal, Elder Kearl

P.S. Teachers:  I realize that it may be hard to identify Thomas and Dawson w/ no last names but if I were to guess, Thomas is 9 y/o and Dawson is 6 or 7 y/o.  I hope this helps.  Also feel free to adapt this letter to their needs.  Seriously tho, thanks so much for the letter!  I don't know if you understand how much this means to us, for away from home.  You are the best!  Sorry for my handwriting.

forever tooth saga

Hi Sister Kearl, an update on the 'forever tooth saga' (-:

Elder Kearl texted with this:
Sister Hiatt, we just got back from the dentist and she wasn't able to do any thing because my tooth hole is still wet.... Anyway she also said antibiotics are useless right now.

I reply something like 'I'm loosing faith...

He responded:
Alma 32:21 and D&C 58:4. i'm still trusting in her. Next week, tuesday at 11 is the follow up.

I thanked him for the invitation for me to repent!

At least his texts are delightful!

Have a great day.
Love, Sister Hiatt

starting to figure out this 'best 2 years' thing

me and my anak

NAY

so i'm really starting to figure out this 'best 2 years' thing. SUNNY WEEK. declaring repentance.

crazy weather for you guys.  it's hard to believe you have snow over there while it's just felt like a long summer for me.

tell dad to email me about his knee injury.  curious.  i'm sure there is a story.

1/3 done, what the!!!!!!

oh, also cool about the general authority coming to your stake conference this weekend and i ain't tryin to brag but elder bednar and shane bowen (area president) are visiting on the 24th.  hyped!

so we have a new ENGLISH investigator. he's from sweden and everybody says he's nuts. i can kinda tell. told us he fled sweden for his faith and life from the muslims. man, he is really racist against muslims. it's kind of hard to bear. he's told us some insane funny stories and is super spry for 72 years old. he loves to talk and its soooo weird teaching in english. it's cool tho \, ill just say its much easier in english, oh man. he married a filipino for that green card and now he can't stand her. you gotta meet this guy, he's so funny. we do some great grandpa type joking with him. his stories are bizarre but enjoyable. it's nice actually being able to understand everything the investigator says for a change. i cherish him.

also met an LA who quietly but surely called us over. had a tears full lesson and he is an amazing man. when he was converted at 12 he would live and study with the missionaries all the time. i can only imagine those memories for him. i really, really love that guy. his name is Flavvy. super humble. found him in our LA gold mine, Castillo. it's crazy, we have had so many LA's come to church after years of inactivity. that never happened over in dupax. man that was a rough area. this place is prepared! 

the anak and i passed our 1/4 mark together and i'm starting to remove some of the baby proofing things from around the house. he's really growing up ;') i have it pretty lucky here. one of the roommates often tells me "you are blessed elder." how right he is. the anaks a breeze. super humble, never offended. love that about him. just got to work on my paitence.....

weekly hymn: 130 Be Thou Humble

"Be thou humble in thy calling and the Lord thy God shall teach thee"

TATAY KEARL

our crew....note the twins

elder balneg...visaya

dentist snooze 

selfie stick

this place sometimes

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this guys insane funny. hes special but always gives us some love

catching a lift

my special boy and I 

corn on corn on corn

leading us through the corn fields