That Moment When...

That moment when you forget to carry toilet paper with you and you are forced to become a true Filipino. Wow it's been a crazy week here in Mariveles! We had a branch party for family week and it was AN ABSOLUTE RIOT! If I've learned one thing about Filipinos it's that they know how to have fun.

I had to give a surprise family home evening lesson last Monday. We got to the house and they kinda have like a branch family home evening so there were quite a few people there, and guess who they wanted to give a lesson? Your's truly! So I just talked about Alma 34:32 and how now is the time that we need to prepare to meet God. He gave us this opportunity to learn and grow here on this earth and we are able to do that together as families. We can't procrastinate when we will try to do better because there is only so much time we have before we are called home! There is always something we can do better in our lives. As we continue to develop Christlike attributes, our faith in Him grows stronger. We are able to become more perfected through the atonement of our Savior.

I was talking to my companion the other day during companionship study about how I felt like I knew so little about the Book of Mormon. He shared with me a quote from President Ian Ardern that says "Don't worry about how many times you go through the Book of Mormon. Worry about it going through you." That is so true! We need to let ourselves be changed. We need to open our hearts to the whispering of the Holy Ghost. I know that as we try to live the teachings of the Gospel more fully, our lives will be blessed.

I love it here in Mariveles. It is so awesome here! We teach a few people who live in shacks down by the ocean and it is such an amazing experience. I get to do things I never thought I would get to here. I'm slowly getting better at teaching. I know that the Lord has given me strength to fulfill my calling. As a missionary, I have been called of God to be a full time teacher. It is not always easy, but I have seen the miracles of the enabling power of the atonement in my life. Don't be afraid to let the Lord work miracles through you! He is a God of miracles! I hope you all have a good week! Thank you for all the prayers you've said for me. I'm praying for you guys! Have a good week and stay safe! Peace out na!

Elder Furniss

HOW DOES EVERYBODY KNOW MY NAME???

 I'm pretty famous here in the streets of Mariveles. I just walk around and everyone says "hey Joe!" I just say "Wow how do you know my name??" (They call every white guy Joe in the Philippines). My companion said he always wanted a companion named Joe. So here I am. This week has been pretty hard, the MTC is an absolute cake walk compared to the field. I love the members here though. We get fed all the time so that's really nice. Also how could I forget?? BUCKET SHOWERS! They are probably the best thing ever. I love waking up in the morning and pouring a nice cold scoop of water all over myself. So we happen to live in the most ghetto apartment known to man. But the crazy thing is, is that it's like REALLY nice compared to some of the other shacks around here. Oh back to the showers, so we have a room designated for showering and washing clothes. We also have a drain in our small toilet room, and for some reason, the filipinos that I live with LOVE to shower in the toilet room so that's always nice running into the bathroom and having 4 inches of water on the floor. Also our water doesn't work in the morning...technically our water never works, except for at night time. So when I say this place is ghetto I mean it. It's super fun though. Every time I wake up and take a shower I kind of pause and realize what I'm doing. It's pretty funny how quickly your life can change in two months. My trainer is pretty awesome, he's from Rexburg so that's nice to have someone that I can somewhat relate to. Tagalog is a pretty crazy language! I usually have no clue what's going on around me cause wow these people talk so fast. They're also really quiet. So we had a dinner appointment last night and I kind of choked on some food and this Nanay asked "Oh no are you getting a cold? It's really cold outside this time of year! I don't want you to get sick!" I just thought to myself, "are you kidding me? This is considered cold?!? it's like 10,000,000 degrees outside! it's 8:00 at night and I'm dripping sweat!" wow. I'm in for a treat next summer when it's actually hot. We had a baptism (technically just my trainer did, it was him and his companion's investigator) on Saturday. That was awesome! It's crazy where some of the houses are that we go to. Some of them are just shacks by the ocean, some are way up on a hill. We walk so much during the day! This is a crazy adventure! I can't wait to see how much crazier it gets! Oh yeah, I saw a goat get barbecued in the middle of the street on my first day here so that was pretty intense. Also everyone here sings karaoke and they are terrible haha. They sing SO LOUD! And they have the strongest filipino accents ever it's hilarious. Well I hope you all have a good week. Keep me in your prayers!

Love, Elder Furniss

Josiah is serving in the Marivales District, Orion Zone in the Olongapo Mission

17 September 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Furniss,

We were delighted with the safe arrival of your son, Elder Josiah Ray Furniss, here in the Olongapo Mission. He is excited about his mission and enthusiastic about entering the Lord's service in this area. 

Elder Furniss has been assigned to the Marivales 1 Area, Marivales District, Orion Zone. His companion is Elder Pierson. Theattached map will help you to locate his current area and help you to follow each future transfer.

With our love and training and your support and encouragement from home, he will mature and progress beyond your expectations. With these great experiences, he will develop a great love for his fellow missionaries as they strive to teach a better way of life and the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We urge you to write your son each week and include encouraging news of family events and achievements, spiritual experiences and other matters which will bring joy and deeper commitment to him. Please do not worry him about family problems over which he has no control. If you want him to know about a family emergency or special situation, please send a letter or email to me and I will inform him.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you or your son.  We love your missionary and want this mission to be a great experience for your entire family.

May the Lord's blessings be with you.

Sincerely,   

Dennis V. Dahle

Philippines Olongapo Mission                                    

Mission President

DVD/sde

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Elder Furniss has Arrived in Manila, Philippines!

HOLY COW THIS PLACE IS AN ABSOLUTE RIOT MOM! I've been up for like 30 hours. I'm going to bed here in about an hour, it's 5:45 PM here. Wow the people are so nice, I love them so much. I was more nervous in LAX than I am here. I am so calm, like this place honestly just feels like home. The houses here are nuts, I could not believe it as we flew into Manila. They are just cinder blocks with some tin on top. The bus we took to the MTC was insane. It had a chandelier, and we had about 5 police officers surrounding it with AR-15's as we all piled in. I'm pretty sure we passed a dead guy on the street here as well. People literally stand in the street and sell stuff to cars as they drive buy. I gave out a book of Mormon at the Hong Kong airport. Turns out we were on the same flight and he lives in southern Manila. His name was Joe. We weren't able to sit next to each other on the flight but, he was so excited when I gave him the Book of Mormon. I wrote my email address in it so he could contact me if he had any questions. I just love the people here. It started raining when we got to the MTC and it is like practically flooding. Wow I can't even describe how awesome this is. I heard a guy talking behind me in the airplane in Tagalog and I was surprised at how much I could understand. I just can't wait to get into a lesson and just have no clue what's going on. I know that the Spirit will guide me and that the Lord will help me though.

Airplane food is terrible! I ate some dumplings in Hong Kong and they were so good! And then we had adobo and rice here at the MTC and SWEET AUNT JEMIMA! Filipino food is the business! I just can't get over how nice the people are here. They have so much faith in Jesus Christ it is so cool. There is a wall along the road to the MTC that is painted with words like "kapayapaan" "pananampalataya kay Cristo" which is "peace" and "faith in Jesus Christ". I love it. Also we are right across the road from the Manila temple, unfortunately it's closed.
Well I hope you all have a good week. I LOVE THIS PLACE! This is my new life and I never want to go back. Stay safe and Ingat Po!

Love Elder Furniss

Josiah Goes to the Philippines Tomorrow!

Josiah didn't send me a group email today, so I'll just send a a couple excerpts from his personal email to me. 

Elder Rogers and I taught the priesthood lesson on Sunday and it was about obedience and I told them the last thing my mama told me was "Be the kind of missionary your mom thinks you are." Everyone thought that was awesome. So good job there mama.

Don't worry about me mama.  I know who I am and who I represent. Strict obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles. Love ya.

Love Elder Furniss

I'm Going Home in 6 Days

Where did August even go? 1 month down, 23 to go!

So it's kind of weird. I'm a celebrity in our residence hall. About 2 weeks ago we had these new elders come in. (State side elders, so you know they have WAY too much time on their hands). Anyways, I met with them and we had a nice little chat. One of the elders gave me a haircut and the bonding began. The next day I walk into the residence hall, and they all start following me yelling "FURN FURN FURN FURN FURN DADDY DAWG!" "What have I done" I thought to myself as they gathered around me with blankets over their heads. "I've created a cult and they've only been here for two days." I asked them what title I should give my "followers". They said "call us the Furnites." I then proceeded to give them a lesson on the ten commandments and how they shouldn't worship false idols. Then I went up to the second floor and let's just say I now have an African American Furnite. I'm also running for governor when I get home cause pretty much everyone in building 5M said they would move to Idaho for 6 months, get they're residency, and vote me in. Idaho is about to see the Furnite revolution take place. Enough about that. For "family home evening" (whenever our district gets together) we played "Bean boozled". Elder Poulsen threw up and that's really all I have to say about that. Elder Nate Gregerson is here in the MTC so we've had some good times. Elder Barnard left a few days ago. I got to see him come and go. Yep, that's how long I've been here. Tracy Watson, who is the head of missionary curriculum (like he helped write preach my gospel, and direct "the district") gave a devotional on Sunday. He's from Thomas, Idaho! He gave an awesome devotional about the missionary purpose. He said "relax, listen to the Spirit, and let the Lord do the heavy lifting." He also reiterated what Elder Bednar said; "If you lose yourself, you'll find out who you really are." I hope everyone is doing well back home. Don't worry about me, I'm doing just fine. You guys have fun with Hillary Clinton, I'll be hanging out with Manny Pacquiao. Everyone have a good safe week! Read your scriptures and say your prayers! Also try to serve someone this week. I know this gospel is true, and I'm so thankful for my Savior! Love ya, ingat!!!

Longest word in Tagalog: Pinakanakapagpapabagabag-damdamin, which means "the most emotionally disturbing/upsetting thing

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