Monday, December 5, 2016

December 4, 2016

Heyyylo:) So yeah I am sorry but I dont know how great this email is gunna be cuz I am kinda rushin. But I love and miss you all!

But do you guys remember Elder Kirifi? We lived in the same house for 5 months then we became companions? Well he is my zone leader now and we went on exchanges the other day and it was just like the good ole days. We had a good day. He is definetly my best friend in the mission. WE had a good day of work and brought back some old comp memories so I have a lot of pics with him in this weeks email. This will probably be more of a picture email rather than a writing one. But the pictures will come in a separate email. 

I will just share a short experience that I had with Elder Kirifi while working. So there is this guy in their area (Eric) that just randomly came to church one day and wanted to learn more about the church. But this guy is, lets just say very "worldly" So I guess the old missionaries kind of got the wrong idea and didint think he was really there to investigate the church, more to investigate the girls haha. But I met the guy and yeah he is pretty worldly but I told the ZLs "Are you guys crazy? THis guy has been to church 3 weeks in a row and you havent taught him! Go teach that guy." So ELder Kirifi being new and not really knowing Eric, I took him to Erics house and we taught him the Restoration. Dang that guy is golden! Yes he has a lot of issues but the lesson was on of the best on my whole mission and the spirit was strong. He was just smiling the whole time and loved it. He had concerns like "I dont really know what my purpose is in life" " I am not afraid to die but I am scared where I will go" He has investigated a lot of churches but none really seemed to do it for him but I think this is his time to convert. It was a great time. I was so happy to teach him. Only if everyone we taught was like that.

But I love you all and hope life is good:)











November 27, 2016

Hey guys howz it goin...

So this week was pretty normal but it was great. We did our studies, worked, taught, found. Full week but pretty normal. We had a baptism which was great. It was a 9 year old girl, she is a part member. Her family are returning less actives and now they are active again so her daughter was baptized. Elder Feloaki was stoked to have his first baptism, he loved it. IT was a great service, lots of members came and after we had an activity at the church. We watched the Restoration movie and we had some investigators there including Christian and his family! Christian is doing really well! 2 weeks with out smoking! He is well on his way! We have a family home evening scheduled there later this evening and we are excited to have their first family home evening with them. I will make sure to take pictures:)  This week we tried really hard to find new investigators but freak its hard haha. Man the filipinos are so nice but some just really do not want to hear anything about this gospel. We found some new investigators but they all have that one reason that will keep them from being baptized but we are not getting discouraged we will keep doing what we can. Our area is like 80% devoted catholic. They are nice but they dont want anything to do with us haha. But we just keep going. i am really enjoying my time with my comp he is a funny guy. He is teaching me some tongan. Ofa ae Otua ia Tautolu :) I have always wanted to learn Tongan and now I can hahaha. But yeah times are good here in the mission. Just tryna get this area going the best we can to help the Lords kingdom. Sorry this letter is really short and lame. But I will get a better one next week! I love you!




November 20, 2016

What is the haps boys and girls?!?! I miss you all!!

Man what a week! It was enjoyable. A lot happened. I got my wish and I am now a proud owner of a "greenie" He is from New Zealand but is 100% Tongan. Get ready for his name... Elder Fe'iloaki. Yes have fun trying to pronounce that. It took me a couple days to be honest, but I got it down. FE-EE-LAW-A-KI. I have always loved the islanders (shhh dont tell anyone but I wanted to serve in Tonga) and I am so happy that I got one as a comp! They are so nice and funny and great people. Especially my comp he is really cool and a super nice guy. He is a big guy so I dont have to worry about getting held up here. He is a rugby player and he got a scholarship to play rugby in Australia but he turned it down so he could serve a mission which is way cool. But the story of how I went to go pick him up was pretty interesting... So last wednesday I met up with another guy in my zone and we planned to go down together to pick up our trainees at the mission office. So the area we were in is about 2 hours away from the office but I knew of a shortcut that could get us there in about an hour. So we took off and headed on the journey of jeepneys to get to the office. So as we headed off on the first jeep we found out about 20 minutes in that the short cut was closed so the jeep driver had to take a big detour to a way I didint know so as he was making the detour I panicked and we jumped off the jeep and ran to go find a taxi to take us straight there because we had no clue where we were, but we were in the middle of no where and the taxis were no where insight. So we put trust in a tricycle driver to take us to a place where we could get a different jeep heading to the office so we did and he took us to a jeep and we were relieved but the problem was we were already 30 minutes late to the meeting... But we sat patiently in the jeep and waited to get there but then we hit heavy traffic then we lost our patience and decided to hop off and run. So there we are at 11:45 am and it is getting hot and we are wearing our missionary clothes. 2 americans just booking it down a road making to the office. Hahah it was quite the experience but we got there even though we were 1 hour late we still made it all good and we got our new companions!

So yeah now I have my new comp Elder Feiloaki. But it is harder than I thought to train a non filipino missionary haha. He cant speak the language at all but he is trying hard so that is good. But I am left to do most of all the talking and teaching but that will get better over time as we practice. We have been doing a lot of practice teaching and I have enjoyed doing that it has been fun. Last night we did practice teaching of introducing the Book of Mormon my comp was struggling a bit to explain it but we were able to work through and teach him how to present it. Then I said "Okay lets do it one last time, go out with a bang!" So we did a role play and he explained the book of mormon to me and I was just a guy on the street. So he did it and it was pretty good and I could tell that he liked it as well. Then I hardened my head a little as the investigator and I showed the scripture in Revelation 22:18-19 and told him to explain to me how the Book of Mormon is not an addition. Hahaha it was funny, ya just had to be there. But yeah I am doing my best to help him learn and participate the most he can and he will learn a lot.

So yesterday our investigator Brother Christian came to church again and stayed all 3 hours with his family. And....... He hasnt smoked in a week! Yeeeeeee we are so excited for him! He is making great progress. He is really doing his best to get rid of smoking problems and he is doing a great job of it. He is reading more, participating in church, and keeping commitments. I am very excited for him to continue and get ready for his baptism on December 17! We also are teaching another family right now. The Manuel family. They havent come to church yet but they are committed to be baptized next month. They know the message is true and are keeping all of their commitments and making great progress, now we just need to help them and pray for them to attend church this week.

During work this week I found a lot of success by using "inspired questions" in my tracting and street contacting approaches. We have a little list of inspired questions that the mission has and as I was finding new people I would use some of these questions like "if you knew there was another volume of scripture that was written by prophets that testified of Christ, would you read it?" This is a great segway to introduce the Book of Mormon and so far we have found 7 new investigators these past couple days using inspired questions and teaching the Restoration and we extend baptismal invitations on the first visit, so it has been cool and my comp and I have been really enjoying it.

So these next 3 months I will be in the same area with my trainee right now so my goal is just to really lose myself in the work and do all I can to help Elder Feiloaki. Then after that 3 months I will most likely be transferred to my LAST AREA. Crazy... Time is going by too fast!

I love you all and thank you so much for all your support!




November 14, 2016

Mom, dad, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandma, grandpa, stepmom, stepdad, friends, close friend;)

Hey how goes it. 

First up I wanna apologize for my emails if they seem all about me. I know that sometimes I get carried away talking about myself. I will try to make them seem less mckinley mckinley and more on others. Try I said.

So my dreams came true last friday! I will be training a new missionary:))) I cant wait. This is my second time training I trained last year at this same time as well so its kinda cool that I will be training again but I have a year more experience so it will for sure be a different experience. Last time I trained a Filipino and I loved it but I would like to experience training a foreign missionary so I can introduce him to the amazing world of the Philippines and the Tagalog language which I have put so much effort into learning. So we will see but of course I will be happy no matter what.

JB and Christian came to church!! I was so excited. So Christian I think I have referenced him in my past emails but he is our progressing investigator who has the problem with the word of wisdom. But we gave him a plan that he would slowly decrease his smoking over two weeks, and he did:) Last sunday was his last day to smoke and when we visted him after church we asked him "Brother! naka ilan ka na? and he said "Wala na Elder" We were so excited that he stopped! Now we just continue our prayers that he will continue to resist his temptation to smoke. I have already seen a big change since I met him about 3 weeks ago. He seems so much happier and he listens more in church. I think it is his time:) And his friend JB is way awesome. He really wants to be baptized too. They really enjoyed the lesson we taught them about the plan of salvation and the things we have to do in order to obtain celestial glory. That is one of my favorite things to teach too. We have to live the gospel, so simple but so many things with in it. faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the holy ghost, and endure to the end. If we do all of it, hey were good. Easier said then done, no? 

But yeah the mission is really awesome and it is just so amazing to see peoples change here and to see how much the gospel blesses their lives. Just the other day I ran into a member from my first area and I was able to talk to him about those that I baptized in my first area and I was so happy to hear how active they were! Even one is getting ready to serve a mission! So awesome. So many blessings. I am so blessed honestly to have met certain people here and I dont think there will be any other better feeling than going to heaven and seeing those that I baptized. What a happy reunion. Gods plan is really so amazing. 

Yesterday I watched the 2011 version of "The Restoration" movie. I really love that movie and I love the story of Joseph Smith. So amazing. I realized in that movie the confusion and all the unanswered questions people had. They lived in darkness. But little by little Joseph Smith was given amazing revelation on what Gods plan really is and I am just very grateful for it.

I am excited for this next transfer coming up. I will be going down to the mission office to pick up my trainee tomorrow and I am stoked for that. So I will email you all next week! I love you all! Thanks for being there for me always! 







November 14, 2016

church logo 

PHILIPPINES QUEZON CITY NORTH MISSION
Zabarte Rd. cor. Ilang-Ilang St., Almar Subdivision
Camarin, Caloocan City

14 November 2016

Mr Bradley Fredrick Webb
11620 Wagon Wheel Curve
Woodbury, MN 55219
United States

Dear Brother Webb:

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder McKinley Fredrick Webb, has been called to serve as a District Leader in the Philippines Quezon City North Mission.  We greatly appreciate his efforts in this mission.  His responsible efforts will be of great worth in setting goals, planning, and accounting for the Lord’s work.

We are grateful for Elder Webb’s dedicated performance, his strong testimony, and his willingness to work hard to bring about success.  He is becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary and laying a firm foundation for the rest of his life.

Sister Bertin and I are blessed to have the opportunity to work with him in this great work.  Thank you for sending us such a wonderful young man.  We appreciate the love and encouragement you give him.


Sincerely yours,

President Bertin's Signature
Kim C. Bertin
Mission President


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November 11, 2016


church logo 

PHILIPPINES QUEZON CITY NORTH MISSION
Zabarte Rd. cor. Ilang-Ilang St., Almar Subdivision
Camarin, Caloocan City

11 November 2016

Brother Bradley Fredrick Webb
11620 Wagon Wheel Curve
Woodbury, MN 55129
United States

Dear Brother Webb:

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder McKinley Fredrick Webb, has been called to serve as a new Missionary Trainer.   This is one of the most important callings in the mission.  New missionaries will always remember their trainer and the example he sets for them to follow.

I am confident that Elder Webb’s knowledge, obedience, and enthusiasm for the work of the Lord will be a blessing to his trainee as he helps him begin the path to becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary.

Sister Bertin and I are grateful for your son’s dedicated performance, his strong testimony, and his willingness to work hard to bring about success.  We also appreciate the love and encouragement you give him.  Thank you for sending such a dedicated missionary to serve with us in the Philippines Quezon City North Mission.

Sincerely yours,

President Bertin's Signature
Kim C. Bertin
Mission President


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November 4, 2016

Hi:)

Hope everyone is getting ready to have TRUMP!!!!!!!!!!!! I am actually curious who you will vote for so let me know if you feel okay with that. So yeah this week was pretty good. Down below you will see some pictures of of course a sunset and then a picture of a poster that we made for our investigator who has a smoking problem and there is a pic with me and my comp with him. Then the other one is of me in a sketchy alley way and the last is our zone activity we had earlier which was way fun:) 

So this last week we experienced the "last door" that every missionary talks about. So we planned to go visit a less active but she wasnt there so no surprise and this time it was about 8pm. Now if you are familiar with the missionary white handbook you would know that it says that "you should spend as much time proselyting on weekends and holidays to get into the homes of families" So here in the Philippines that does not apply (in my opinion) When it is the weekend here people are all outside singing karyoke and getting drunk. Especially on holidays. Also you would think that around 7 or 8 pm would be a good time to catch a family all together at the home but when we go tracting at that time no one wants to listen to us because its "late" 7pm late? Really? Okay... But yeah I am not complaining that is just kinda what I have experienced in my 1 year and 4 months. So anyways we got "punted" from our less active so we decided to go tracting at 8pm. yayyy (usually we would have an appointment set up at that time but this time we didint) So we went to a few houses knocking and talking to the few people on the street and they didint want it so we kinda just walked not really expecting anything but then I walked past this house and saw a family doing homework together... Whhhhaaatt???? I have never seen that happen here. So we quickly knocked on the door and they came to the door and we shared to their whole family so that was a really cool experience. I have never really taught a legit family together my whole mission. That was the first time. Most of the men are at work the whole day and the kids at school. They live a hard life here but they are so happy. They have really figured out how to "Find Joy in the Journey" and they know how to care for others. I really need to learn that as well. I am really trying to learn how to fully forget myself but it is hard haha. I listened to a talk by President Monson. What an amazing talk. I forgot what it was called but his main theme was finding joy in the journey. One thing he mentioned is that if we "pile up a lot of tommorows, we fill find a lot of empty yesterdays" SO I am going to try to do something everyday on my mission that I can remember forever. There was a scripture that I liked about gratitude DC 88  33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

I like this because it really talks about our life. It is a gift and we have to really rejoice in our life. I know I am not the best at doing this but hey knowing it is the first step right? Now I just have to work on really doing it:) Heavenly Father really loves. He wants us to be happy. We just have to do what we can and we will see all the amazing things that our Father has done, is doing and will do for us. I love this church I know it is true. Thanks for your love. I love all of you:)

Find the joy 






Monday, October 31, 2016

October 30, 2016

Hey everyone! Happy Halloween! Thank you all for your emails I really love them. Sorry I dont always reply but remember that I do read them and appreciate them.

I have not been happy with how I have acted these past few weeks. I have had little faith and little trust. I am still learning a lot and sometimes I wonder if I have grown or I have been too immature and have resisted the growth that God is trying to give me. I have a had a lot of amazing experiences on my mission but I think I have taken it for granted most of the time that I have been here and that is going to stop now. I want to come home a changed person, spiritually strong, and more mature. But hey thats one of the reasons why I am here and I do believe that I have made at least some progress. Sometimes you get so used to a way of life that you kinda forget to stop and really think of what you are doing and really stop to appreciate it. I think these last weeks I have forgotten my purpose as a missionary, I have forgotten that I have been called of God and a prophet. I have forgotten that I am here to help people gain eternal life but I have been to worried on myself and the day to day pleasure. But I am hoping and praying that I train a new missionary next transfer. I think that will kind of force me to be more in tune with the spirit and to work hard. I feel like I have gotten to carried away but I want to come back.

This past week I have been really trying my best to turn to God and the scriptures for answers and not just other people. I have been reading in Mosiah and I have found out that I love Mosiah! Its my favorite. There is SOOO much info in it and I am only in the 7th chapter right now. But what I want to talk about and focus on is Mosiah chapter 4. So I love in verse 12 where it talks about the promised blessings it says there that "if we do this we will always rejoice, be filled with the love God, and always retain a remission of our sins, and always grow in the knowledge of God and things that are true" So I really liked this verse and wanted to know what I had to do to obtain those blessings. So to find the answer I looked in the chapter and read in verse 6 that if we 1) Trust in the Lord 2) Be diligent in keeping His commandments 3) continue in faith to the end and lastly in verse 7 4) focus on the Atonement. So I really liked this. I feel like I am doing okay with number 2 but the other ones I think I have a lot lacking. I really need to learn to trust in the lord more and be more faithful and really focus on the power of the atonement. On a mission I have experienced a lot of temptations one thing that I have really learned is that Satan is real. He really wants to destroy you, he will do anything he can to hamper your progress. But if we really trust in the lord, focus on the atonement and not worry so much about ourselves Satans temptations will lose power over us. I feel a lot of regret because I think I could of changed more peoples lives instead of worrying about myself so much. One thing that I am really coming to learn is that a mission is not about you at all, its all about the people that are around you. Hopefully I will fully come to realize that and do it soon, I have failed for a lot of my mission but I still have time to make up for it. I know that I will learn what I need to learn and I know that God will help me get to where I need to be.

This past week was pretty good, Elder Bellera and I worked really hard and got some good new investigators and got to know our "open area" a lot better. The highlight of the week is that our investigator Christian came to church yesterday! Christians whole family are members all his siblings and even his wife but he hasnt been baptized yet but I think the time is here for him to be baptized. We taught him the word of wisdom yesterday because that is the biggest thing that is keeping him from being baptized is his smoking problem. But we had a good lesson on how our bodies are a temple (1 cor. 3: 16) and that we must treat them like the amazing creation that they are. We showed him a beautiful picture of the Manila temple and we said "What do you notice about this temple, and he said "malinis at maganda" (clean and beautiful) We said that is right! And that is exactly what our bodies need to be like, clean and beautiful. We gave him a plan and we know he will be done smoking by november 13 and he will be ready to wait four weeks before his baptism on dec 17 to be baptized:) 

This area is a tough area and I am really trying to figure out what to do to be most successful but then again I think I am relying too much on myself and not on God. So I need to start relying on Him more to figure out how we can help the most people while I am here. This next week I will try my best to rely on God and not think too much about myself and see how it goes and fill you all in next week.

The pictures that I sent are some awesome sunsets, pics with me and my pals, and an audi R8 that I found in my area:)

Love you all!






October 17, 2016

Floods. I thought I escaped the floods when I left my first area but I was wrong. I got dropped off in the flood capitol. Dang it. Hahahah but its all good. I dont have a lot of time to write so I am going to try and go quick! This week was pretty good I am starting to overcome some personal trials and now my testimony is stronger. Thats what trials are for, if you handle them right your testimony and understanding will be stronger. I was studying the book of Enos last night and I learned a lot from that. I wrote down a few things. 1. What Enos desired- He wanted to have joy, he wanted to feel forgiveness and qualify for eternal life. Then I wrote down what I desired, turns out I wanted the same things Enos wanted. THen I wrote down what Enos did- His sould hungered, he kneeled down in mighty prayer and cried out to god in the supplication of his heart. Then I wrote down what I needed to do. I needed to have faith in God, ask in sincerity for his help. THen I talked about what enos experienced and what my experience was. It was the exact same but it turned out to have some of the same feelings. My faith grew, my testimony was strong, and I feel an increase of joy in my life. 

(I wish I had more time to explain)

 We have been finding some good investigators, priesthood holders and they are interested in the message which is great. Teaching them is a great experience because they have awesome questions and it feels good to be able to answer them with confidence and using the scriptures. One of which is Brother Ferdinad who when he first met us said that he will only believe us if we could prove to him in the Bible but as we taught him about the Book of Mormon and showed him the prophecies found in the Bible about it he slowly started to change. His mind really changed when we showed him John 10:16 about the "other sheep I have which are not of this fold" then we confirmed that scripture with the book of mormon in 3rd Nephi. Now he is reading the Book of Mormon and asking God if it to be true. 

I love all of you and I am so happy to be here in the Philippines serving! I know that you are all asking what I want for christmas and I will think about it and get back to you but I love you all!!


October 10, 2016

Well I finally have found out that I am a city boy. I have officially decided. I am not a fan of the rural area. My shoes have never been more muddy in my life. There is almost no point in cleaning them before I leave the apartment. They will just get dirty again right when I walk outside. But it is really quiet that is a bonus but there is a lot less people here which makes it harder to find people to teach but that is all good. I like this area, I am still so new so it will take me a few weeks to adjust. This is one of the biggest changes in my mission so far. My whole entire mission I have had "kabahays" or roommates in english. So that has been cool because you always have people to talk to and its not so awkward in the house. But now it is just me and my comp and its weird haha. He is a cool guy. He is a filipino and he is really quiet haha and sometimes I just dont know what to talk about so its just quiet in the house haha. We are also really far away from other missionaries and stuff so its just us. But that is okay, it gives me more time to just focus on whats going on here. So before in this area there was 2 sets of missionaries in one ward that was split into two areas. But now its only 1 set of missionaries just the 2 of us so our area is really really big and we dont know anything about the other area. But the other area I think has more potential and its the closest to the chapel so we are kind of on an exploration. One thing that I have found out about the more rural area and kind of just the philippines in general is that they love to have kids early. I have met at least 5 young girls here from the age of 16-19 with kids. I am just shocked when I see this haha I just dont get it, and they cant even get married because they dont meet the age requirement here in the Philippines so its just I dont know, strange I guess. I am really trying to find families that are married and ready to hear the gospel but it is a challenge here. Most people that we meet are families and they are not married and they just cant get married because it is so complicated here so its almost impossible to baptize them because they are not married, so that is a big challenge here but we arent losing hope. 

A big thing that I am learning that in order to be successful you really have to just forget yourself and love everyone and do all you can to help them. I am grateful for this because I really need to learn that. I am slowly purging away my strong selfishness that I have had my whole life, I am really trying to learn to just stop worrying about myself. "put off the natural man" But it is hard haha it is really hard but I am grateful that I know I need to work on it because that is a strong quality to have. I honestly get scared when I think about how close I am to going home because I have SO MUCH I need to work on. I am not ready. Yes of course I can improve after my mission but what better place to improve than on your mission? So I need to hurry up. I only have 8 months left... Time goes fast. I only have 6 transfers left. Please pray for me to reach my potential that God has set for me:)

I also got to watch general conference this last week and that was great. I went into it with some questions and I learned a lot. I dont have a ton to say about it but one thing that stuck out to me that I learned is what Todd D Christopherson said about the judgement. He said that the judgement is not just list of the good or bad things that we have done but rather it is a measurement of our improvement and who he have become. I never really thought about that. That brought peace to my soul and I was happy to hear that because I have done a lot of bad things haha but the thing that counts is what you have become.

I am excited for this week. A lot of experiences await me and I will be happy to share them next week:) 

I love you all:)

By the way yes I know my stance looks gay in that picture but I was standing on rocks because everywhere else was mud... 


October 4, 2016

So I have been in the mission for about 15 months now. In my first area (University Hills Caloocan) I served 6 months. Then I went to San Miguel and served for 3 months, Then I went to Batasan Hills and I served another 6 months now I have a my next journey to my 4th area. This area is in a place called Bocaue, Bulacan. I am heading back up to the rural area. It will be kinda like my second area. This area actually has a reputation for being kinda evil haha. There is a lot of sin going around there so they need some missionaries. I will not be a zone leader anymore which is okay with me. I will just be a senior companion which is actually going to be very refreshing because I dont have to worry about anything else except for my area, my companion and myself. No long meetings for the zone or preparing workshops or having to deal with people in the zone, all I gotta do is focus on my area. President is actually sending me there for a reason. The area needs some help so he is sending an amazing experienced missionary like myself (just kidding) to help it out. That actually puts a lot of pressure on me because I really dont think I am that great of a missionary in all honesty. But I really need a fresh start and I think this is it. I am so excited to see what this next area has for me. I know something is waiting for me there and I need to go find it. A miracle could happen there, I just need to apply hard work and obedience and things will work out. I have gone too long on my mission just thinking I could do it all and that I was the best. I was prideful I was too boastful. But now I am realizing really what it is like to be more like the Savior. I need to rely on him and forget about myself. That is my new goal for the rest of my short 8 months. I need to really focus it in now. I am coming to a realization that time is coming to an end and that is scary. You really cant waste time here, it is so short. This past week was pretty normal for the work, we have been teaching this cool family that are interested in the message. We had an activity last Saturday with the ward. "movie night" where everyone was invited. It was an activity for members to bring there friends to the chapel so we could watch a movie about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. It was a good turn out and the family we have been teaching came! But they didint come to church the next day... But we think they will come next week.

Sorry I havent had that many pictures to send. Hopefully these next few months I will make a better effort in taking pictures. I just get scared to pull out my camera sometimes and take pictures because I feel like I will get jumped and I just feel awkward as well. But I will do my best!

I love you all and hope you are doing well and having fun adjusting slowly to the weather there. It is still hot here as always. That will never change.  

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

September 25, 2016

Helloooo everyone, how are your weeks going?

I have been sick for exactly 1 whole week. I have a really bad cold which is pretty ironic because the Philippines is really hot... But the temperature has been dropping lately because the rainy season is really here and we have had a lot of storms lately so that takes down the temperature. I have not slept with a fan the past couple nights which is a big change since I wrote you guys a while back while I was sleeping with 3 fans hahaha. This week so far has been pretty busy, we had our zone conference last thursday which was great. I always love the conferences and meetings because sometimes the regular missionary schedule and just get to you and wear you out. So its nice to go to the meetings and get some motivation and learn. Elder Abay and I gave a workshop on what we need to do to baptize weekly. That is our mission goal to baptize every week which is really possible here in the Philippines but also very difficult. Elder Abay and I are also working on hitting our zone standards for lessons this week which is 55 lessons. I dont know if that seems like a lot to you for those who served missions but here its a lot haha it is definetly possible to get more but 55 is still a lot. So we have done some careful planning to make sure that we hit this goal this week and right now we are right on track to hit it! We have been really trying to get more member work going here in this area. We have been teaching a lot of member lessons and we share with them a story from the book of Alma about the story of the great missionary Ammon. We talk about how he wanted to serve the Lamanites and bring them unto Christ, we focus on verse 31 where it says basically "Dont worry my fellow servants, we will go and search for the flocks TOGETHER, and bring them back to the right place" We focus on how Ammon used the words TOGETHER. We tell the members that TOGETHER as member and missionaries we can make the work really go in our area. Then we challenge them to give us a referral with in two weeks. So far it has been going well and the members have been loving it. We have a few new pretty good investigators, we didint have the best turn out at church yesterday but thats life for a missionary. There are always trials and stuff that keeps investigators from coming to church. But we found a great family that was referred to us by a ward member last week and we are praying that we will be able to help them come to church and improve their lives. 

Just yesterday I had a cool experience with my own personal testimony. I have always known in my life that the sacrament was important but I guess I didnt really have a true testimony of it. I was reading a talk by David A Bednar about the sacrament and I learned a lot from it. I was reading this just before church. I have been wanting to get a better understanding for the sacrament and better apply it in my life. I really learned the the sacrament is an ordinance that we have to make regularly in order to stay close with God. Elder Bednar really focused on 3 important ordinances and that is baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament. The sacrament is our way to be sanctified again which is really amazing. We have a way every week to feel cleansed from our sin and feel closer to God. My knowledge and testimony grew from reading, and experience. I love the mission because you learn so many things and it just builds you to be so much better. 

This will probably be my last week in this area. Transfer day is coming up this october 5 and I am due for a transfer. I have been here 5 months. BUT there is still a chance that I could stay and that would be interesting. But next time I email you I will know what is going down. But I hope you will have a great this week and I hope you will all do something this week to be better. I love you all!!

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

August 27, 2016

Yeah the Philippines is just wet every where right now. EVEN IN THE CHURCH CUZ WE BAPTIZIN  OVER HERE. Sorry that sounded prideful and boastful. I am just excited. Yeah it rains soooo much and its wet on the ground, my pants, my tie and especially my dang shoes and socks. But thats okay because when it rains its not super hot so that is a bonus. 

So transfers happened last Wednesday and there is officially a lot of change now. Which I like but dont at the same time. I have to adjust a lot and I dont like it haha but there is a lot of exciting things coming. So I am here in Batasan Hills for my 4th transfer which means I will hit 6 months here which I am okay with. But our area got split into 2 areas because we had sister missionaries added to our ward. Which is great for the ward but for our area it has some pros and cons. My area is now very very small, which is great for walking and teaching but I feel trapped and I feel like I have been certain places like a million times now and passed by the same people all the time. But Elder Abay and I are seeing some miracles in our work with finding people. Not a lot but a few so far these past weeks. 1 day I got pretty down and discouraged, we had a lot of problems with missionaries in our zone which was kinda buzz kill and then our area was new and it was just kind of over whelming. Elder Abay doesnt know the area too much yet so he didint know where to go and we found ourselves in a situation where we literally had no where to go. I was pretty overwhelmed, I probably could of had a better attitude about it but in that moment I was just out of it. So we sat on the curb for a second, me in my mind I was angry, I was upset, I was frustrated that I felt that I was doing everything. But I was sitting a thought came to my mind "Hey, nothing is going to happen if you just sit on this curb" So I stood up right away walked pretty fast, (Elder Abay just chased after me haha) I took the first turn down the first alley I saw, and talked to the first person I saw and said "HEY! Brother! We are missionaries! We share to people about the word of God to strengthen their lives and their families! He just had got back from the market, he was holding groceries and said "Okay, well want to come in?" And we said yes! So we went in and we taught him and his wife. It was cool hahaha.

One amazing thing about people here in the Philippines is they are so nice and so caring! Its a blessing to work and be with such people. But one thing that is difficult is they are always late haha. We dont have a ward mission leader right now, and not many people in the ward really understand how much help we need to get things ready for a baptism. Last week we had our baptism of our 2 families and we had scheduled it for 4pm. So Elder Abay and I show up at 3 to get everything going. But no one is there and everything is locked, so we get the key from bishop and open everything up but the baptismal clothes are locked in a different closet. So we called bishop and he has no clue who has the key for it. So it was a pretty stressful time getting things ready. But after a lot of keys, stressful phone calls, we finally got things ready and got the water in the font. Then 4pm came around and there was no one there. Then at 4:15 and 4:30 our investigators came. But we had no one to preside over the meeting.. We were still waiting for bishop. Finally bishop came at about 5:15 and we started haha. I hope this doesnt seem like complaining, Even though these opportunities are stressful I am grateful to have them because it really teaches me how things need to happen for when I go back home. I am grateful that back in Minnesota things are on time and organized, and I am grateful that I am here to try and make it the same way.

But our baptismal service was great, lots of people came, the spirit was there and we helped out 6 souls be able to enter the Celestial Kingdom of God:) It really was a great feeling. As our investigators were testifying after the baptism I was really touched by one of our investigators Carmelas testimony. She is the one that we found her mother on the jeep and she was a less active and then we went to her house to teach them, not sure if you remember that letter a few weeks back but yeah we baptized the family. such a miracle from god:) But yeah any ways. Carmela said that before we came she was at a point in her life where she was close to really not believing in God because her mom had died and she was angry about it. She was close to just giving up on religion. But then we came into her life and changed her perspective. That whole story on how that worked out is just honestly all of Gods work and his timing and his way. Such an amazing missionary experience. I will have to go into detail about it more in a separate letter. But it was just a great day.

As of now, Elder Abay and I have no more progressing investigators:/ But we have not stopped finding. We have a few potential but the only hard thing is just there work schedule is very hard. The people work so hard here and make so little, but they are so happy. It is a humble experience. The work is great here. I love it. Even the hard parts are a blessing.

Thank you all I love you!

August 22, 2016

Hey everyone I just want to really thank you so much for all of your pictures and emails they really make me happy and I am so glad to see you all so happy.

This past week has been really busy. It has been fun though. We had a lot of stuff to do for the zone. Our zone is the Fair View zone and they are doing pretty well right now. We are in the top of the mission right now. (not that that matters) but yeah were pretty good. But really our zone is just blessed with just a lot of receptive people ready to hear the gospel. The field is really white and ready to harvest here. Especially for my area. Last Friday we had 6 baptismal interviews for our investigators and they all passed! So next Saturday we will have 6 baptisms:) 2 great amazing families. I will send the pictures of the baptism next week and talk more about that families. Our hard work has definitely paid off, but its not done yet still work to do. So tomorrow is transfer day and I will not be transfering I will do a total of 6 months in this area haha. Which means my first area and this area are half of my whole mission. But I am excited still. Even though I know just about every street and shortcut in this whole area only gives me the advantage I guess haha. I will be with Elder Abay again here which is going pretty well.

Last saturday I had exchanges with one of our District Leaders who is way good. Really cool guy. Our plans for that day were very iffy because our area is split so we were working in a small part of our area. So most of the day we tracted. Knocked on doors in the POURING rain. HAhaha my shoes were absolutely soaked, my socks were absolutely soaked. I was just wet. It doesnt help either that my shoes are starting to get holes in the bottoms haha. But it was a good day. I learned a lot. 

Lately I have been feeling kinda like something is missing. But recently I started to really do A LOT and deep scripture study. It has been really awesome. I feel so much happier, so much more motivated. It really is great what scripture study can do. This past week I have been thinking about and studying about obedience. This is a great topic. I was thinking about my obedience over my whole mission. I noticed that the first 6 months of mission I really was not that obedient. But now I feel like I am really obedient and I have gained a personal testimony of obedience on how it makes you happy and sets you free. Im gunna insert a part of my letter to my President here in this email about obedience.

This past week as I was doing my deep study I was studying about Obedience. I really loved it. Obedience is a very short part of PMG but I spent a total of a few hours just on studying that section and I havent even finished reading the suggested scriptures. I formulated a definition of obedience using scriptures that I enjoyed. "Obedience is giving up something willingly (1 Nephi 2:3) to take upon you the will of the father (Mosiah 15:7) and become his servant (mosiah 5:8, 1corinthians 7:22). One thing I have really learned on my mission is the importance of obedience. Obedience is the first law of heaven. It sets us free!! At first I thought being obedient kind of kept you away from things, but I have slowly learned that it really sets us free. Being obedient is an act of faith and expressing love to our father in heaven who knows everything! I know I am not absolutely perfect at being obedient but I really have blessings from trying.

I love and miss all of you back home. Thank you for all you do:)

August 15, 2016

Okay I failed, I only have about 8 minutes left to write. I have a few cool things to say so I will just cut to the chase. So this week was good. It rained SOOOOOOO much and its still raining. Man we got sooo soaked while we were working. But it was actually really fun and happy so thats good.

The other day I had exchanges with one of our district leaders and it was a really good day. We kept getting lessons and lessons and it was just flowing well. Then at about 7:45 we had our last lesson and we got out at about 8:15 and then we had no more plans. I was so convinced to just go get some food and head home buttt I knew it was not the right thing to do. We did go buy some food real quick and even though we were so close to home I thought that we should go visit a member along the way. So we went and taught the family. Turns out the dad was sick and he was really wanting a priesthood blessing but there was no one close to give one. So we were able to bless him and he was so thankful. So that was a blessing for being obedient.

Then last week I had exchanges with one of the assistants and that was a great experience. I have no time to write about it but it was good. 

NOw I will copy something that I wrote to our President in my weekly letter to him.

Last week while we were traveling to the assistants for exchanges Elder Abay and I had a cool experience. So it actually started to rain and we had a lot of stuff to bring so we decided to just take a taxi. After about 4 or 5 went by we finally got one. I always love sharing the gospel while I am in the taxi because the driver cant resist it haha. He already let us in and he cant say no to listening. So we started talking about the gospel. Turns out the driver lives in our area and his daughter was one of our former investigators. We had a good discussion with him and we are going back to his house tomorrow to share to his family. Priesthood holder and family. Score. 

Love you all!! Thanks for the love

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