June 26, 2016

Heyyyy everyone!! Thanks for your advice on how to write a letter. I know that I suck at it so I am sorry but hopefully it will get better:)

So last Tuesday we had our Zone Conference. Thats when a couple zones get together and we have an all day conference with workshops and new information and stuff so was cool. We actually have a big change in our mission now. Since it is President Bertins last year (my last year too) He wants to make this year the best year the mission has seen. We focused on the success that has been being had in another mission in the Philippines where most companionships there are baptizing WEEKLY. Yes everyweek they get baptisms. So that is the new goal and big push in our mission right now. To baptize weekly. Me personally I am very excited to start working towards this. If this is gunna happen I am definetly in the right area to do it. We are going to start next week on july 3 with Clark Beltran. He is 19 and he is pretty awesome. He actually had a smoking problem but with the help from us and the Lord he has been able to overcome it and now he will be baptized:))  It took a little while though he has been an investigator for almost 3 months now but he made it!

Last friday we went out to work at 3 oclock after our weekly planning we had set some awesome plans and we knew it was going to be a good week. We went and picked up a ward member who was gunna come work with us and we headed off to our first appointment! But BOOM she wasnt there, but thats okay we had a good back up so went and then BOOM he wasnt there. Then I got a little mad so then we went to try and contact this OYM that we had but then hey guess what.. THey were no where to be found. So then we hiked up our huge hill of an area to contact another OYM, and turned out she was some crazy lady that just talked about how if we just believe we are saved and then tried to teach us so we got out of there. THen unfortunetly, I just lost it and was mad straight up. I shouldnt have gotten mad but I did. But after that things got better so it was okay. But progressively through the night in every appointment I felt my self getting sicker and sicker. Just my body started to ache and my throat getting sore then finally at 9pm we just got home and I passed out on the floor and I was just dead. I still kinda feel it today but thats okay it happens.

Lately I have been kinda getting in a rut. I dont like it. I feel like I almost starting to kinda get maybe a lil lazy and starting to worry to much about myself, but I need to snap out of it. I have found an interest in studying about the priesthood lately and I read a small quote in from Russell M Nelson in the last priesthood session he said something along the lines of " 

I fear that too many have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary and are saying by their conduct, “I care more about satisfying my own desires than I do about bearing the Savior’s power to bless others.

I love that qoute. I have been pondering it the last few days. Am I caring about satisfying my own desires more than I care about going out and just serving. Maybe I do sometimes. I need to stop that and just forget about myself. So thats my goal this year along with baptizing weekly. I think those two go together.

Well hopefully this letter was better. LOVE YOU GUYS!

June 20, 2016

Hey,

Sorry I am getting really bad at writing, even in my journal... I kinda just go blank. But this week was good. We went to the Temple last week which was stellar. We had 11 investigators at church yesterday which was really awesome. Our next upcoming baptism is on july 2 with brother Clark Beltran, and Rochelle Soqiratta. THey arent related but Rochelles son is a recent convert and we are working to get their whole family baptized which is probably going to happen one by one which is alright but of course it would be cooler if it was all at the same time. We have 19 investigators set with a baptismal date right now and we are working hard to get them ready for there dates but that is the hard part. We found an awesome family a while back a father, and mother with 3 little primary aged kids. The dad has had work a lot and hasnt been able to make it to church but the wife Nina has been twice and she loves it. The hard part is that her kids DO NOT want to be left in primary alone, they refuse so yesterday Nina had to attend primary haha which she loved I guess but of course she has to attend the regular classes. We also found another great family who are all of age to be baptized. We have only taught them twice and they didint come to church yesterday but I think they will come next week. I am actually goin through some struggles right now of course but thats all good thats what makes us better. BUT if you want to help me out maybe send me some ideas on how I can write better letters to you guys because honestly I just dont know what to write. I know its hard for you because you have no clue whats going on but for me everything just seems like a big blur hahah. So send me your ideas and I will take them in for consideration and bring them up with the Boss. Love ya guys byyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

 

June 5, 2016

So these past few weeks have been awesome. A new transfer has started and Im still here in the Batasan Hills area with Elder Christensen. So at the beginning of a new transfer its always hard to continue with the same fire you had before but its been a week and Elder Christensen have the fire again. We have found about 3 SOLID new investigators who are golden. We had 10 investigators at church last sunday we only had 6 yesterday sadly but a few of our regular attendees were sick so its aight. But yeah we have had some solid referals from ward members and they are coming to church and progressing. We had this one that came to church yesterday for the first time and that was the first time we met her, we visted her afterwards, taught her the plan of salvation, and now she has a baptismal date for July 9. It was actually one of the best lessons I have ever had on my mission. We had our recent convert there, Eros who did awesome at teaching for his first time and the investigator was just so receptive. We taught her the plan of salvation because her father died and she was very close to him. She listened so intently and was just so happy and shocked when we talked about the afterlife. She was especially shocked when we shared about resurrection and shared Alma 40 23. She loved it. Yesterday we also baptized a part member family which was just a great experience. (they are in the pictures below). Johnathan is the father and man he has been an investigator for about 2 years and now he has been baptized. He is a very STRONG convert. He loves the missionaries and I can just tell he will be a leader in the church someday. Hahah those pictures were hard to take down below. Those kids were just not having a good time taking pictures. I had to chase that little girl around and bribe her to take pictures. I really miss the kids back home. I love the kids here but some of them here are just the worst hahah so disrespectful and just so out of control but once in a while I find some really cute ones like the one in the picture. I think I am coming to find that I like the little girls way more than the little boys, they are just way more polite and so nice. Maybe I will have all daughters one day. 

But the work is pressing on. We are killing it here in our area. Elder Christensen is going home in less then 6 weeks:( Its sad. He is a great Elder and I am glad that I got to be companions with him. He really is a great example of just enduring to the end. 

This transfer, I really want to focus on charity and love. I want to obtain the same type of love that Chirst has for everyone. Even though thats nearly impossible, I am gunna try to get close to it. Loving people is just great, I have a hard time with it sometimes especially with people here butt I am getting better at it and i hope and pray I will be a lot more loving to others when I come back. 

Well thats about all I have to say. I love you guys. Have a great week:)

 

 

May 30, 2016

Sooo this week has been really confusing... I can hardly remember what happened. We just changed the way we report numbers which is how we base our weeks. IT used to be monday to sunday are the weeks but now its friday to thursday so mind is allll screwed up. But of course things are great. We have transfers tomorrow but I am not transfering thankfully. I want to stay here where I am with my comp and thats what will happen. We had 10 investigators at church last sunday. WHOOP WHOOP. It was awesome. We are doing well right now. This next transfer will be awesome. I am so excited. Im really sorry this letter sucks. I suck at writing but I will get a better next week!!

May 22, 2016

Heyyyyyyyyy how is everyone doing? Things are doing well here they are pretty rainy. This last week was good! Especially because we had our baptism with Eros which was awesome and I had the opportunity to baptize him which was awesome too. I never actually really realized his story of conversion until he testified after his baptism. He said when he first started investigating he wasnt really interesting and he sometimes hid. But after awhile he decided to come to church and he really felt welcome there because we have an awesome youth program there and he fit right in. This was really the first time I realized really how important it is to feel welcome at church especially if you are an investigator. I have asked other investigators of mine what they dont like about church and they sometimes say that its just not very welcoming. I have even lost investigators because there first experience at church just wasnt that great. It makes me sad actually to know that because this is the church of Jesus Christ and people are not feeling welcome there. It just changed my mind and from now on I want to do all I can to make investigators feel welcome on my mission and after. Well this transfer is coming to an end.. Gosh it goes by really fast. I will have exactly one year left in about 3 weeks... Soooo get ready peeps I am coming quicker than you think:)) But things are still hard here but still awesome. We had a lot of success last week in finding new investigators we have a couple that seem really promising. Later on tonightwe have an appointment with a part member family and 3 of them will be baptized. Thats the father Johnathan, and the 2 kids Kian and Daniel. They are a really special family and we are having a great time teaching them. 

FAMILY... I really really appreciate your desire to give me money and stuff on my mission it means a lot. But I think I might start requesting that you really dont send me money, unless I really am in need of it. I would much rather learn how to budget and stuff right now and then after my mission I will take your money for the things I need haha. So please just save your money for after my mission so I can return back to the worldly things;) 

I love you all thank you so much for all your prayers and love towards me it means a lot. Have an awesome week:)

May 15, 2016

Yooooooooooooo fammmmmm... So sorry. It has a been a long time! Im sorry. Well for all of you that read my stuff, I am sorry. It has just been busy busy around here. Missions, am I right? 

Well there is a lot to go over I suppose. So my area is awesome! I love it. My comp is awesome, we have a lot of fun together and work sssuuuppper hard. Being a ZL is pretty cool, lots of responsibility hopefully people dont think I suck but I am loving it. I have reached my favorite part of my mission so far, I cant really complain about much... Right now we have 9 investigators progressing towards baptism right now. What an amazing blessing from the Lord and to see so many receptive people in just one area. Our most upcoming baptism right now is Eros Rosalles. He is wayyyy cool. He is 17 and he was actually born in Turkey but he is pure Filipino. He is way awesome and a really solid investigator. He was a referral from his aunt is a returned less active member. Eros knows every capitol for every country in the world hahah its way cool, we always quiz him on countries and he always knows them!! He will baptized this saturday and I am really excited for him. He will be my first baptism here in this area. He even has a desire to serve a mission which would be even cooler!! Our next most progressing are these 3 19 year olds. There situation is kinda hard to explain butttt they live at another investigators of ours house/bakery and the the investigator that owns the bakery is basically a full time member but cant really be baptized right now and that is a whole other story buutt anyways one of the 3 19 year olds is the nephew of the one that owns the bakery and the other two are his friend and his girlfriend. So they are really cool investigators as well and they are starting to really progress a lot. There names are Mark, Clark, and Jhona. So when we first started teaching them they were SOOO shy and would barely speak but now they are all normal and doing awesome. So one problem though is that Mark and Jhona are living together but arent married so we were planning to teach them the Law of Chasity but were waiting to see how strong there testimony was in the church first before we dropped the LoC bomb. So we taught them once and at the end I asked them if they really thought the Book of Mormon was true and Mark asked us if he could share a story and we said for course. (A little back story first, they are really close with a recent convert of ours named Henry) So Mark said that he was walking one day just contemplating life and he saw Henry walking and he said Henry was just glowing then all of a sudden all these kids started running up to him and they just loved Henry so Mark just thought that Henry was basically an angel and Mark said that we knew Henry had something great so he decided to come to church. Then he said if he saw Henry at church he knew the church would be true. Looking back on this day though I remember Henry was late to church he didint even make sacrament meeting. But he came late and he told me that he thought he wasnt gunna go but he felt that he should so he did. So Mark saw Henry at church and he knew the church was true. So that was probably one of my coolest missionary experiences ever. BUT back to the law of chastity thing. So we taught them the Law of Chastity and they agreed to live it and they are now living it! So we are planning for a wedding and a baptism so hopefully everything works out well. SOOO yeah life is awesome. Im kind of exhausted from typing that soo I might just rest there and send one next week and some pics. But I love you all! You all are the best I miss you!

byeeeeeeee

May 8, 2016

I love you guys. It was so awesome talking to you. I miss you!! I cant wait to talk again in a few months! The time will fly... Love you. Have a good week!