February 18, 2013

Well this week has been pretty sweet. I finally have a like a firm grip of things and I don't feel so hopeless and useless. This week was pretty cool. We taught a lot of new people and we found a lot of new people too. My trainer Elder Hibbert has been letting me teach more, I finally told him I am bored as crap during lessons when I just sit there. So I get to say things and sometimes it comes out really bad, sometimes even False Doctrine haha. But, I am talking and I am happy! I hate when I can't talk!! haha I need to talk all the time.Anyways though we had some good experiences this week. We have been really focusing on finding new investigators, because all the potential's in our area straight up wont talk to us anymore. So we prayerfully went around this week looking for them. It has been sweet!! We had a day where all of our appointments punted us! So we had all day just to go street contacting. We met one person in a wheel chair, he told us he knew of us. We asked him how and he said his brother is a Mormon. He told us how he wanted to find a new religion because Catholicism was beginning to feel old and not really doing things for him. So we talked to him and we plan to go see him later. Also we were walking around in this other area. Haha someone yelled out at us and usually when people yell out to us they are just trying to heckle with my trainer who is white. It is kind of funny because they call everyone here JOE. they say HEY JOE! to get white peoples attention. It is a reference to the GI Joes that were here earlier haha. Anyways we usually ignore it but we tried this one girl who called out to us just to see what might happen. She straight up told us, I want you to teach me because my baby just passed away. Wow .. it is seriously strange to me how people have been prepared, it may be hard at times, but people seriously don't just do that!! haha But she seems ready and we have gone to teach her but she has been busy so hopefully we will get our foot in the door next time. Amyways besides that our investigators are progressing. We had 4 baptismal dates set up for March 16. It is hard though because they have to get to church, and 2 of our investigators made it yesterday. We will have to reschedule some, but it is amazing to see them change. We taught a lesson to 2 of them about Thomas S. Monson. Nanay Ester is her name and she was not a believer because he doesn't have a book of scriptures. We asked her to Pray about it and she seemed pretty stubborn that she wouldn't. When we came back and asked her how it went, she said she feels good about it and that she supports the Prophet. We were happy with that and see that she is slowly but surely progressing. Nanay Ester, and Bro. Teddy seem the most ready for baptism so hopefully they will give up smoking and drinking and come to church! Also we teach a man named Bro. Balosa. We asked him to be baptized this week and holy moly he gave us the answer we love to hear! It is funny because he didn't seem very, receptive to a lot of our lessons. I came to find out he as been really receptive and when we asked him to be baptized it was great!! He bore his testimony to us on how he feels this Church is true and right for him!! I am excited and praying really hard that they will make it to church! Anyways we are working really hard here. It is super hot and I am sweating every second I swear! But it is ok because at the end of the day I am still Alive haha! We have had a lot of fun times this week. Some drunk guy tried to kiss my companion after he came up to us really drunk asking us to help him change his life haha. He wasn;t in our area so we referred him to someone else. Also I got to do fun things like open a coconut with a machete and hold a chicken!! Overall the Philippines is a hard place to live but it is full of fun times and adventures! We have a lot of fun times here and my companion and our roommates make it fun!! Hopefully it continues on this way!! Well I love this work and I know it's true. Nothing makes more sense to me than the Gospel right now. I wish for everyone to just hear the 1st lesson once. It actually makes a lot of sense!! haha Well God loves me and loves everyone!! also the Book of Mormon is true!! Which makes Joseph Smith a True Prophet! I teach that everyday and it never sounds less true to me, it actually makes more sense and has way more truth now than it has ever. Well Anyways fun times ahead so bye bye

February 11, 2013

Well this week has been long! We have been working really hard this week looking for new investigators. We have kind of stopped progressing with our investigators right now so it is sad but we need to use our time effectively for people who are ready. So our search started this week and we are working really hard to get the ones who are ready to recieve the gospel to get to baptism. It is hard though because they believe everything, they just won't go to church! I really just want to drag them down with me, but where is the Trial of their Faith? Anyways we call them the Loyola Group, because it started with they Loyola couple and people branched up from them so we have 4 of them we teach all at once. They love our messages and know that they are true, they also have a lot of addictions and they are so poor it is hard for them to get money to go. Anyways though because they didn't make it to church yesterday we have to talk to them and maybe drop them. Anyways hopefully they will turn around. Also our other progressing investiagtor is an old man named Daniel Balosa. He loves hearing our message, but we havent really pushed him so hopefuly we can get him to make some commitments this week. Besides that we just have been getting referrals and trying to contact new people. Well I am struggling way hard here though. Language barrier makes fulfilling my purpose kind of difficult. I just feel useless out here. I am working hard and Trying my best and hopefully things will start going better. Anyways though on P days we go hiking a ton. It is tiring but here are some pics of the PHILIPPINES! mostly the beautiful parts! I wish I had better stories, but things are a blur. Weird thing i guess, A transvestite was drunk and asked to me profane questions.... super gross... super awkward... i wanted to punch himher. Haha there are a lot of those here... Also hmm... oh our ward mission leader lost his voice. Haha so at our correlation meeting we could not keep a straight face!! Haha He talked in his high falseto voice about things in the ward.. and we just laughed everytime he said anything. Haha He is this bigger gruffer guy haha so it was super funny!. Well anyways the internet is super slow so no pictures today! Sorry!! LIFE IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Testimony

Alright I didn't know if I would be alive this week but I am so WHOOPAY!! Well I am just going to say that the Philippines is a hard place to live. Anyways it's doable and with God on my side nothing will stop me! Anyways I am finally getting a grip on this place. So here is kind of the highlights of my week. We have been teaching a group of people who live in the squatters area. They are super poor and they farm for a living. Anyways though, Their names are Teddy, Remil, Nanay (Mother) Ester, Nanay Gloria, and Rodolfo. They had been taking the missionary discussions and when I got here was kind of the point where we thought they were ready to get baptized. I had the honor of extending that invitation and they have accepted. Anyways now the problem is that they are really poor! They can't even afford the bus! It is hard to watch and not even offer the money but that is against the rules. We have been trying so hard to encourage them but they haven't come to church consecutively. So I kind of jumped in the middle of this so I am not a emotionally invested as my Trainer. BUT SERIOUSLY I WANT THEM TO COME! haha So We prayed and fasted for them. They showed up this week! It was awesome!! They made it!! I almost jumped for joy! Anyways 3 more times and they are going to be baptized!! Well besides that we had some good experiences with street contacting. So for a little while our efforts were going towards reactivation here. My trainer had some sucess with that before I got here and right about now the progress has stopped and we switched our focus to finding new investigators. We made a goal to talk to two people a day! Our first day we had been knocking at this house for a while trying to find someone. Finally we looked lost and someone came and helped us. We asked where the person who lived here was. Turns out it was his house! Haha we talked to him and told him the story about why we knocked so many times. He helped us try to find the person and than we told him what our purpose was. Haha We asked him if he wanted to talk with us and he was like "sure sure when are you coming?" So we set up an appointment! It seemed too easy! Really! haha But I am excited and it really proves to me God prepares people! Anyways there is good work about to happen here. Also there are fun times here. I went golfing today haha! They have a driving range in our area so it was kind of weird. Also they have really nice malls here! I had to go buy stuff so it was an adventure! I had a sandwich for the first time since the MTC! It was good! haha This place is a hard place to live really! and the language isn't coming very fast! But I know God has a plan for me! So I am just going to go along for the ride. No matter how hard things get I know this Gospel is true. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Jesus is the Savior of this world and he atoned for our sins. I know that the Book of Mormon is True. Those three things will get anyone through hard times really. So that is my challenge to the world. To come to know that those things are true. There is great power and comfort in those things. The people here in the Philippines need that though. They struggle to find purpose and meaning in their life because it is so hard here. So I will continue to do hard things. Oh and I would send pictures but things are sketchy here so I am a little hesitant. Also my picture with Ted Mozby is gone forever. Just a memory in my dreams! Dumb Virus ate it up!