Happy Birthday Edward! July 15, 2013

Anyways, this week was really exciting! I have been praying really hard for some people to be prepared for us. That we would be able to find them. We have been searching a lot this past transfer for more people who are ready to progress. Through our efforts, we found 2 families who showed a lot of interest in coming back to Church. One is the Livelo family! They collect Junk and sell it to the recycling companies! haha Yeah we teach at a Junk Shop!! CRAZY! It is dirty in their, but the spirit resides within our small circle when we teach! They have a daughter who is not baptized yet so we are hoping their daughter find starts progressing. She is 13 and doesn't really listen well haha. Anyways the other family is called the Balasbas family! They really love the Church. They stopped coming because the Church is really far from them and they were financially struggling. Also the father in the family started drinking again. So we are working hard with them, but the youth and the mother are doing willing and ready to come back! Than a Less Active texted us saying she wanted us to come teach her. We came and she was ready. Her testimony was so strong already, and she showed up the church that Sunday when we invited her. Also we have found a old couple who are very interested in learning about our Church. Manuel and his wife... haha They are so awesome! They ask great questions and keep all their commitments! It has just been a great week. This last transfer has been really hard. We walked a ton and I prayed very hard at nights that we would be guided. A lot of the people that we found above were all lead to us. The Livelo family, one of the daughters saw us and told us that she was a member.We were just sitting down from a long walk to get a drink. When we told her we would stop by, she said it would be OK, we were a little reluctant thinking she probably doesn't care and when we showed up they were ready! Sis. Genalyn lived in an address that was impossible to find. Elder Chapman my companion was way confused and he was about to give up. We circled around the area and I remember looking into a small alley and thinking, "go there" My comp kept insisting we keep circling around another way. Finally after a frustrating walk around the whole area I swear! haha he gave up. So I finally rounded back to the first place I was asked to go and asked a Nanay where the address was. She said... it is right here! The person you are looking for is my Granddaughter. The Lord has tried us and chastened me and my companion this transfer. We ... basically walked for 5 weeks. This 6th week though I saw the miracles and the guidance from him. The lord has prepared us all in different ways, and he guides us when the time is right and when he feels we are ready. I believe in a God of Miracles and all these people we found ... It cannot be from mere coincidence. I know this Church is true and this last transfer has been a growing experience. I lost some weight too from walking!! haha! Blessings!! Love them!

P.S. I had a great birthday! haha Here is a sample of what I got .. these pictures are from a different birthday but we had the same food this day and than Me and A Member, Bro Pono, had the same birthday so we celebrated together haha!

July 9, 2013

Well this week was a lot like the other weeks in Mapayapa. Man we walked a lot. We talked to a lot of people. We got a lot of come back again, or come back next time. So you know progress right? haha. Anyways the work in Mapayapa is a hard one. we are trying to tract down new less actives who might progress and return to church but they have all seem to move away or died. We found this one house with the address painted on perfectly in front the one we were looking for. Haha we knocked and the lady inside told us that the lady we were looking for lives on the other alley. When we asked they said she wasn't there. She lives in the alley we were just at. We went back and she told us, "she probably doesn't want to be taught." I am pretty sure that old lady was the one we were looking for but really didn't want us to talk to her. Man .. I just wanted to call her out! haha Oh well. I have been praying hard for some miracles, I have been thinking a lot about that. God has not ceased to do miracles and I believe it. We found a family though this week, where the Mom has researched just about every Church and says they are all wrong except the LDS faith. We are hoping they will find for themselves that this Church is the one and only true church on this Earth. We only taught them once, but they are SO nice and way receptive.They also keep COMMITMENTS!! that is a Miracle in itself! Anyways also we had a day this week where it seemed like we just "ran" into people. Some guy just walked up asked us, "Is your Church the one with the Golden Tablets?" We said "if you mean the golden plates than yes!" He was way excited and basically told us the story of Joseph Smith than we offered to come back to his house and he said OK! That was fun, we haven't taught him yet so hopefully we see some real progress there! Also as we sat down for a drink the other day, a girl approached us and said, "Hi Elders!" I had no idea who she was but my comp addressed here like he had known her for a long time! Finally I asked her who she was and she said I am inactive, so we asked if we could stop by! She said of course!! So hopefully they have been prepared for us! I don't know if all these moments will be a miracle. But I do believe God is mindful of us. He is watching over us and has prepared us in ways where maybe we don't experience a miraculous healing, or a out of this world experience. We don't see oceans being split open in half, and we don't see stone walls tumble down without reason. I do know this though, God has not yet ceased to be a God of Miracles. Everyday we might not see how small and simple things could end up being one of the greatest miracles of our lives. How small is it that someone came up to us and asked one question, yet if they chose to accept our message, they will be blessed with Eternal Life. I know how important the message I bear is. I know how it can change lives! I walk miles everyday for that one who might be another testimony to mine that miracles do happen. I leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

June 30, 2013

Well the work here in Mapayapa is really tough. We got a lot of just challenges. First off the Ward only has a little bit of active members. We have just no focus on missionary work from the ward. So it is just the missionaries against the world. Anyways we have decided to take a focus on trying to bring back some inactive members back into the fold. In the worldwide broadcast, they put a emphasis on that. "How can the Lord trust us with new investigators and baptisms, if we can't help the ones that we already have!" So i feel pretty good about this focus right now it is tough though. A lot of people in this ward have passed away or moved away without the Bishop or anyone knowing. So we have a lot of work to do. We are just basically trying to find out where the members of this ward live! There is a ton of list of names here but none of them come! So we walk and we ask people where this address is. There is no real addresses here in the Philippines so we talk to a lot of people and try to share the gospel. It has been very time consuming and tiring, but I am expecting great rewards. We had a guy answer a door of an old members home. He was almost amazed when he saw us and he welcomed us in. We were wondering, why he was so dazed. We asked him if these certain people still lived here he told us, "no, I don't think so."  We asked him if we could come in and share a message. So he said "yes" haha after we shared a quick message, he asked us questions. He had heard of the missionaries from his Mom, and asked if we do this with no pay. We told him "yeah." He said, "my mom told me you guys were servants of the lord and that there should be more people like you." I have no idea why he said that, but he had a lot of respect for us. He was really busy though so it was sad we don't know when we could go back. But he is a really great guy, really Catholic, but it was nice to find someone who could be interested just by us and our willingness to work hard. Anyways I complain a lot about the work. It is hard, but really it is just my way of being happy. I feel the rewards from hard work and I am way excited to see miracles. This Church is True and because it is I know I can't fail as long as I am on the Lord's Errand. Wish me luck!! haha

June 23, 2013

This week has been a hard one. We walked around forever this week. It has been raining like crazy. Everyday at 2 it starts raining all day. So it is not that hot, but you get really sweaty. Anyways this week like I said was really hard. We have nowhere to go and we had no success trying to find new people to teach. Anyways ... I really have nothing to say about the missionary work. Well anyways .. we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. I believe that the Lord was chastening just like he chastened the Israelites. I wish we had a Moses to follow, maybe he could find people. I might just be the Israelite. Anyways I am not going to let this week get me down. Things are going to get better! Get ready for a great week next week.

Ted Mosby!!

June 16, 2013

So anyways this week was good. We spent a lot of time trying to improve this area. We set out looking for new investigators and we found some. We also finally got to talk with the bishop and he seems excited to help us with the work. We saw a miracle in this ward yesterday. My first Sunday not even half of the sacrament hall was filled. Than yesterday the whole thing was packed. I wondered what it could be, and I remembered that last week they had a home teaching caravan and everyone did there home teaching. I have a new found testimony about Home Teaching. It is obvious to me that the work for member retention is not for the missionaries. We simply do not have the time to do that. If Home Teaching is done, we can clearly see that people will feel that love and charity. How amazing is that! Anyways there is a lot of good things coming for us this week. But this week, we had some really good news. We have an investigator who is living with a member. Getting married in the Philippines is not really something people like to do because it is illegal to get divorced and so yeah ... it is like a "trap" to some. She has been taking the lessons and she wants to be baptized. Well to be baptized they have to get married, and so yesterday! Yeah they got married!!! It is awesome!! I would send more pictures,but the computer is slow! We are so excited for them, they can now be baptized in the coming weeks! So I am excited for that! Also we are out finding a ton of new people haha. Funny story for the week.So I street contacted this guy and we gave him some pamphlets and stuff earlier this week. We asked if we could go back and they said it was OK. So we went back to teach yesterday and when we got there, only a 15 year old we talked to was there. He set up some chairs than some lady who was like way excited and said, "YEAH Mormons right? I've listened to the missionaries before. They things you teach are great everyone come sit and listen." Haha Than we had like 9 people just gathered around us as we taught... there were little children sitting and listening to us and the some guys and girls in the back standing and listening... felt like Jesus for a second not gonna lie. Than when we finished we found out one of the guys we taught who standing in the back was a inactive member. We were wondering why? He spoke of the church so kindly but ... than his gay partner came out to say hi to us... awkward! Than the lady asked us if we had girlfriends and we told her yeah we do cause it is safer that way for us so people don't ask us to marry them and take them home to America. The lady was way like, "Dangit I don't want to listen to you anymore you guys have girlfriends!!" haha way funny! We might go back, we might not, we will see! Anyways great week and lots of good stuff ahead for us!

June 9, 2013

I have finally made it to my new area. It is called MAPAYAPA ... yeah it is way hard to say even for me. It means peace! or something like that! Anyways it is far from peaceful. I live in the most expensive house in the Mission home so that part is nice. The area around our house if full of KOREANS! Yeah I thought there was nothing Korean here, actually there is a lot of Korean stuff right here! Restaurants, markets, other weird Korean schools and Churches! So that is really exciting! I got to eat Kimchi for the first time in 6 months!! It was like a little piece of home!! Anyways I am excited to eat all the food here! Anyways though, my area is on the other side like it seems fenced off to me. Yeah my area is super poor full of squatters. Peoples houses are like ... yeah it is hard to explain! we travel through all these places called escanitas. Which are these really narrow passages and it is like a maze in my area! So crazy! Anyways we teach a lot of Less Actives here. Anyways... the area is really dead, not much help from the ward, and my companion has been here for 6 weeks and he still doesn't know the whole area or even everyone we teach. It is way confusing! Anyways the work is dead too. Basically are goal here now is to revive it! Which takes a lot of hard work and very stressful days of just walking around and trying things. So ... I will probably be complaining a lot soon haha. Anyways, my new companion is Elder Chapman. He is a half Philipino half american. He is way cool though. We get along just fine! Anyways cool stuff this week. The one really cool guy in our ward... because our ward refuses to help us, he is a recent convert! He has a kind of cool story. He found the church because he really likes David Archuleta and through him, and the hymns he sings, he decided to visit our church. Turns out he took the missionary lessons and it clicked in him that this Church is true. So crazy story man! (Mom you should tell David's Grandma about that one!) He is way rich too so he drives us around when he works with us! He also feeds us a ton! So he is a cool guy! Other than that... yeah not much to say. We teach a lot of people with no hope.. and they aren't progressing. So yep! That is my week and my new area! Well I know this Church is True and that is why I still am here sharing the precious gift to others.