I'm soo proud!

For those of you who may not know, my younger brother Jonathan Mark (a.k.a. Buddy) is serving a mission for our church in the Philippines. 

This has been a great blessing for my family and for him because not only is he serving people every day, but he's learning a new language and walking in my mother's footsteps.

My mom is from the Philippines and while I've never personally been there, I've always felt some sort of connection. I know that my buddy loves it there and has learned a great deal more about my mom and the sacrifices she went through. So even though I miss him, he's learning a lot and I'm just a little jealous because missions are the best. We know this firsthand, as Kevin served his in Mexico and I served in Brazil. Talk about a way to grow up fast as it was my first time living away from home. Such good memories. Getting back to my buddy . . .

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a hot chocolate addict.

A serious die hard hot chocolate addict to where I drink it even in the summer.

When my buddy was home, we'd make regular hot chocolate and cheesecake outings.

I decided to make sure Buddy knew about our discovery on how to make hot chocolate even better.

Especially since it's been super cold here this week, it's been in the negatives at night.

His reply:

I just bought some hot cocoa today. I looked at the price and then looked at the hot cocoa (swiss miss) then thought about you and said . . . yeah, she'd be proud. =) So I bought some just to make you proud! I  unfortunately don't have any cookies . . . easily fixable with the ministore (tindahan) across the street.

I'm SO PROUD! 

A brother shares childhood

memories and grown-up dreams.

~Author Unknown

A little sad

Sorry this is a little long, but I thought it was interesting and would explain Mark's pictures from the mission.

Mark's latest e-mail included this, in his own words:

So... to start off... this week was very... memorable to say the least. I wish to start off first off with what happened this past week with a branch missionary of ours. His name is Dante and he was a very good friend of ours and would work with us all the time. He was about to go to his mission to cebu january 1st. For whatever reason or another he went crazy. I mean really crazy, like the kind of crazy you only see in movies and whatnot... The first I heard about this was from Elder Malit because they went to dante's house to see if he could work. Apparently he'd come home drunk that night and that several people also saw him smoking. This was very shocking to hear especially from dante. He's a very enthusiastic person and was so excited to serve his mission in cebu so it was unexpected to hear all this. Many people couldn't believe it, seeing as many people knew and loved dante very much.

Dante did have some mental problems before, but we didn't really know this. We knew that he wasn't quite all there in the head sometimes, but we'd never suspected that anything like this would ever happen. Apparently Dante had been taking medication for a long time and the branch president wanted to see if dante could go without his medicine to serve his mission... in my opinion, that was just plain dumb. It was a month ago that president had told him and we as missionaries really noticed the change in him over time. He was for the most part fine... but extremely enthusiastic to the point that we thought something was wrong. Apparently there was something wrong.

This past week was a lot of visiting dante and seeing if he was alright. When I first talked to him it was hard to believe what was going on. He kept saying he was part of the military and some fraternity that goes around protecting americans from terrorists and.... just so many other things that just didn't make any sense at all. He said he would go out at 3 in the morning and go boxing with a friend, that he had a 12 year-old kid (mind he's 20) that he travels to mindanao to meet with this general guy of the military and just... yea. Nothing really made any sense. He kept yelling and swearing at his family and friends. While we were at his house this one day he just took off. We knew it wasn't safe for him to go out so we went after him. We followed him for a long time. He went around asking people for money and just doing things that just really didn't make any sense... He had mental breakdowns in jollibee, at the 7th day adventist hospital, at the a&a plaza hotel... all over. I tried to stop him once from leaving and he shoved me off. We eventually gave up and left and dante was on his own again...

Last I heard was that he had come back to his house and slept for a few hours then got up at 6am and left his house with a machete waving it around. Luckily no one was hurt when this happened. Someone called the police and they put him in jail. After that they put him in the mental institute. mind you, this isn't an institute at all... it used to be a prison and this is where they put all the crazy people not to get better, but because they don't have anywhere else to put them. I'll never forget seeing what I did. When we first arrived there it was a harsh sight to see. Dante was chained at the legs and wrists and chained to the outside of the jail entrance. I really hated seeing it... Dante was such a good friend and seeing him like that was very painful to see. I couldn't help but stand there and just look on and just think to myself 'no God, don't do this'. When I talked to Dante it seemed as if he was his old self again and was crying and didn't really seem to know what was going on. He kept saying sorry to me for the other day (for shoving me) and just kept on saying that. There wasn't really anything we could do. The police or whoever it was just locked up dante and left. We couldn't do anything so much as changing his torn up clothes. It's ironic that they have guards at jolibee but they don't have any for the mentally ill. It was just not a good situation... We couldn't really do anything for dante other than be there for him...

The only bright side I suppose was there was a guy named jerry there... he's pretty crazy too.... but oh my he was funny. He would sit there and reenact titanic the movie and would sing songs and do interpretive dances with it. So at least not all was sad. we were at least able to have a few laughs at the entertainment provided. 


Sorry for the stark introduction to this email, but it was quite the experience for me. I've never seen anything like that happen to a person before, not to mention someone I personally know and have worked with many times before.

That was the main climax of this week. Other than that, Elder Homer left to manila for district leader conference. He and Elder Belarmino left for manila, so that left me and hopkins as companions. It was really nice having Elder Hopkins as my companion. He's really good and Elder Belarmino has been a really good trainer for him.

The work is not bad... we work as usual. We've just recently found a really great family, the Dela Cruz family. They're so ready I feel kinda dumb teaching them because it's almost as if we don't need to teach them because they're basically ready to be baptized already and... yea! They're really awesome and we basically don't even have to teach them because they just learned so freaking quick. They're a family of 7 and we're just working on the kids now. We're slowly getting them all there, but of the ones that are there are progressing just as fast as the rest of the family.

Not sure what to think except that he's fine. It's interesting to think about all the things that many of us have gone through on missions. It's all for the best. 

Now let's end with some happy pictures! 

at the Prison with Dante

writing on the floor at the prison, not sure what it means (I'll have to ask my mom)

Dela Cruz Family

Mark's New Mission Pics

Couldn't help but share these pictures. Mark is doing really well in the Philippines. I'm so proud of him. As my mom likes to say, "We made it!" He's loving the mission.

It was Jonny Mark's birthday on Saturday. The members in Palawan gave him a picture that they had someone in the ward draw for him. Jonny's latest baptism, Roxanne from the Prado Family.

Bananas and graham crackers on P-day.

The Pikachu district. They made district shirts with Elder Pikachu.

"Gotta teach them all!" 

In other news, Mark is helping to plan a huge Christmas concert for the island. He is really excited to design the programs and to be playing his violin.

HUGS to my buddy!

Jonny Mark's latest Pics

Mark just sent an e-mail which talked about his latest baptism of Nora Prado. Kevin and I are thinking Mark is going to outnumber us of all the baptisms we had combined on our missions in the first year, if not less. It's his last week with his companion Elder Hopkins who is on his way home. My buddy is doing better than ever! I love mission pictures.

Classic picture in front of the church before the baptism.

At their home.

P-day adventures with Mark's District

We'll see who's Mark's new companion is next week!

Crikey my heart!

Mark sent these new pictures from his adventurous Preparation Day. Preparation Day for missionaries is a day they get to catch up on sleep, write home, do laundry, and do something fun! This past week Mark and his companion Elder Davis decided to go to a crocodile farm. Not my first pick of places but it looks like they had a lot of fun.

I wouldn't get too close.

Beautiful bird. I want one.

Haha, look at these monkeys!

I'm just glad to see that Mark is having the time of his life.

Yay for Jonny!

Seven baptisms! That's a lot! I don't remember EVER having that many in one transfer. Two is a different story. So I thought I would cheer on my buddy for being part of such a great work and being so successful!!! I'm so proud of him and he looks so happy!

Mark's Mission Pictures

Jonny Mark finally sent pictures this week! I was excited to see them. He really does look happy and well. This week he wrote about experiencing the heavy rains that are in the Philippines. I think he'll get used to it though. Anyway, thought I'd share a few of these. For those of you who may not know, Mark's in Palawan a resort island off of the mainland.

Mark at a farewell party for the senior missionaries.

My store apparently! Poor kid, he misses me.

Mark and his companion.

His district on the beach at P-day. They threw a football up a coconut tree and asked a native to climb up the tree. Yeah, they're all amazed!

Beach

Storm coming in!

Mark's bunk.

Table and the famous study desk. The window in the far corner leaks when it rains.

Kitchen. Notice the gas tank.

Mark's district at the MTC.

Well, looks like he's surviving! Yay Buddy!!!!! :)