Transferred and Pictures

It was great talking to you! it is too bad we couldn't talk for the whole time. it was because of a brown out(black out). so i wasn't able to call back. but i love all of you. since thursday a lot has happened. i got transferred to a city called Vigan. it is the 2nd largest city in the mission and a one of the worlds 7 wonder cities. at least that is what they say. haha. it is cool because it has the one really old road+houses that the spanish built. but other than that it is like every other city. My new companion is Elder Tanner. he is from Oklahoma and he just finished his training. he is a cool guy. He played soccer in highschool, likes to fish, he is taller than me(first time), and works hard. I like him. i will send you lots of pictures

1. brother and sister Aquino

2. Vigan Zone

3. Adobo and tilapia

4. the pork chops we barbequed on christmas eve

5. some member kids with some of the toys you sent

6. kayla and Domino with some toys!(they were soo happy! haha!)

7. elder Hontanosas opening his presents! he says "thank you!"

8.a returning less active. she is cooking pancit for her grandsons birthday!

9.Malankit(sticky rice rolled is something) and a empanada (egg,lettuce,sausage torilla thing)

10.nanay Dina- she cooked the malankit and empenadas

11.the Rotor family (strongest members in San Juan)

12. waiting for a bus on sunday night to take us to Vigan.

Christmas Activities

Referral

we got a refferal last week. i don't know if i told you about them the ,Aquino, couple. they are also very prepared for the Gospel. tatay(the father) used to be an acolyte but he has told us that it never felt like enough. that no matter what he did he still felt like something was missing. Nanay(the mom) expressed how she felt the same. They are super humble and they always follow the commitments we give them. their only concern is that they are hesitant to commit to baptism. but it is also a good thing. it has shown us that they are really pondering whether this is the true church and whether they should enter into the baptismal covenant. they already know that it is true. they have recieveda witness from the holy Ghost several times so we know they will come to a sure knowledge of the gospel. we have felt that Heavenly Father has a plan for them and is preparing them both to become leaders in San Juan.(which will soon become its own branch!!!!)

Christmas con was also this week!

the Christmas conference was great. we had the devotional in the morning. our president gave us our new mission standards for this year,  the purpose of the christmas conference was to remember,reteach,repent,refuel,and return. haha. it was great. our president also showed us the new mission standards. he expects a lot out of us. haha. it is going to be a great year! after the devo i saw elder pingol(my trainee) he told me about what happened to aparri after i left. 2 of our investigators (jerwin and jerico) were baptized and now have the priesthood!!!! hahaha he also told me that the belina family. hasn't been baptized yet! too bad. but it was great to see him and hear about the progression of aparri.

after the devo we also had a huge activity (the amayzing race) in Laoag. haha  in big groups we ran around Laoag city trying to find the people at each station and then complete the challenges! haha! ti was super tireing but it was fun. i will tell you more about it over skype. haha

after we ate at eh mission home and every zone performed a skit. ours was Mormons got Tallent haha! I got volunteered for my parts which were a bit embarrasing but it was fun. i will try to get a copy from someone who got a video of it. haha. umm.... not much more happened. we will talk more on christmas. haha.

A Typhoon Baptism and Christmas Parties

I am doing good. the bagyo/typhoon didn't reach us. we didn't even get rain. the office texted us and told me they recieved the packages. i will pick them up on wed. when we go to our christmas con.

good news! sis. Mildred and Kayla got baptized last saturday! they were so happy! I have had a spirit packed weekend! I will send pictures! we also watched the Christmas Devotional yesterday. it was great!! i really liked the talks. i learned a lot! on saturday we also attended the branches christmas party! haha lots of little kids running arround screaming! haha but it was fun! haha. we also got new bikes! We are so lucky that we have a loving Mission president! haha! i will also send a picture. haha! we are one of the 6 areas that have bikes. out of like 110 areas.

It's going to be a warm Christmas

Warm Weather

Everyone seems to be enjoying the cold! haha the forecast here this week: 90highs-70low. haha. i love warm weather. it hasn't rained yet. i am not sure whether the typhoon will hit our mission but if it does it will be a lot weaker than when it entered the phillipines. the bug hotel is actually alright it is becoming my favorite apartment. haha! it has just enough room, its easy to clean, water+elec. are cheep, and very quiet.

Sister Mildred

Sister Mildred is doing great! we are just finishing up teaching her the lessons. she is still so excited about learning the Gospel! she goes back to Kuwait in january! it is soo sad! she will be there for another 2 years before she can come back. we taught her about tything this week. she was worried about how she was going to pay her tything while she is in Kuwait. but her brother the elders Quorum president talked to her about it and she decided that she would just send it to him every month so he could pay it for her! MAN! We realized then how converted she really is! it has been a blessing to be able to teach and learn from her! she is so humble and obedient! yesterday after her interview she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting! i felt the spirit so strongly! as did many members who later said they felt prompted to bear their testimonies because of her! haha! I wish she could just stay in the Philippines! she would be such a spiritual strength to the branch here.

Turning Recent Converts Into Missionaries

other than sister Mildred we have just been focusing on our reacent converts. yesterday after church we started what we call PMG class. we invited all the member and reacent converts in our area to attend. the goal is to get them all PMGs and to help them become familiar with them and to prepare them to serve missions/ learn to share the gospel to everyone around them. it was a lot like a district meeting. Elder Hontanosas gave the training then we paired all of them up and they taught us+some RMs in our branch. haha it was great! reminded me of the MTC and our 5 min memorized lessons! haha! they did great though. haha we will have PMG class every sunday. next week i will give the training. it will mostly be  and Introduction on how to use the PMG. If you have any ideas or experiences please send them even if they get here a little late! haha!

Christmas Devotional and Random Facts

we get to see the Christmas Devo this sunday! i am excited. hopefull a lot of members go.

i love reading/listining to talks from the first presidency i have found as i have studied them that i learn so much and so much of it applies directly to me as a missionary.

random fact: in the philippines they have competitions to make the best Christmas trees. everyone uses random things,(bamboo,trash,metal,etc) they stand them all up in a park or on the sides of roads all december so people can look at them. we have seen some good ones i will try to get pictures.

An Embarrassing Exchange :)

Exchanges and Embarrassment

this week not too much happened. we went on a couple exchanges one was with our Zone Leaders. our first excange was with the elders in our district. i took the American who is in training with me in our area. haha we had a great time! the thing i like most about him is that he is always happy and looking at the positive. it is one of his strenghts. during our second exchanges with our zone leaders i went to thier area in Cabugao. haha in the after noon after we had left the apartment, after lunch we walked along the highway to get to the area that we were going to go finding in. when we got there we first stopped at a members home. the sister came out and imediatly said ELder Bukas ang pantalone mo!(Elder,your pants are open!) my zipper had been down the whole time!!!!! hahhaaha! i was lucky because my polos are really long and they covered my garments. haha the whole time we were walking a ton of people gave us wierd looks haha we realized why when we got to the member! hahaha!

Sister Mildred

this week we continued to teach Sis. Mildred. she is still awesome! she is so excited to get baptized! she always has a ton of questions and she seems to just absorb everything we teach her. our focus now is to just get the members involved. to get her as many friends as possible in the church.other than sis. Mildred we have just been reteaching our reacent converts. our president set a deadline next week. we have the most in our area that haven't been retaught so almost all our lessons have been with reacent converts. we are getting close but it will still be tight finishing their lessons by the deadline.

Alam ko na ang simbahan na ito ay totoo. Hindi dahil may nagsabi sa akin kundi naramdaman ko and espiritu santo. Alam ko na and aklat ni mormon ay totoo dahil binabasa ko siya. Alam ko na ang Panalangin sa Dios ay totoo. dahil nagdarasal ako lagi. nalaman ko ang mga bagay na ito dahil ako mismo ay naranasan ang mga biyaya na dinadala nila sa atin. Mahal ko ang Atin Ama sa Langit.

(Google Translation: "I know that this church is true. Not because someone told me, but I felt and the Holy Spirit. I know that and the book of Mormon is true because I read him. I know that prayer to God is true. because I do always. I know these things because I myself have experienced the blessings they bring us. I love the Heavenly Father Ours.")

We Are Stronger Than We Think

Zone Training Meeting

this week was really good. it was also really busy! haha! on friday we had ZTM it was really good it was mostly about working with the members. I learned a lot and i am excited for our next couple district meetings. on saturday we had interviews with our mission president in the morning. as we waited our turn the APs gave a training on getting investigators to come to church and on teaching reacent converts. then Sis. Barrientos gave a training on our Health. she talked a lot about worms... haha me and elder Hontanosas are going to buy pills to kill them Just in case! haha! the interviews started at 8 am and lasted until the first session of our District conference around 3pm. It was super good!!!! our Pres. Barrientos spoke. He is an amayzing teacher. he always teaches with the power of the Holy Ghost and everyone can feel it. he also teaches so simply that no one can misunderstand and when he talks you can always feel his love. in his talk/training he basically called all the members there to repentance. he spoke about missionary work. I learned a ton! even though he was speaking to the members.

District Conference

Haha  then on sunday was the second session of District Conference. we had 2 investigators come to church! after our president finished interviewing all the missionaries.(including us) It was a really great week even though all the meetings took away from our working hours. we weren't able to visit a lot of our investigators that we wanted to invite to church. agh. but its cool. saturday night when we were waiting for a bus we actually met the mother of one of our investigators. she just got back from Quait! we have been teaching her daughter and her son(reacent convert) but just before her daughter was supposed to get baptized she called and told her family here(the ones taking care of her kids) that she wanted her daughter to wait until she got back so they could be baptized together!!!! haha!

An Amazingly Strong Sister

she finnaly got back!!! haha. she is super nice+ has experienced a tooon of trials! especially in Quait. She works as a House maid there. she told us a lot about how the people there treat thier maids/workers. the maids are also only allowed to visit home once every 2-4 years!!! it is super hard but a ton of Philippino people do it because they need the money to support their families. She is only going to be here for a couple months before she needs to return so we will focus on teaching her and help her prepare for baptism so when she returns she will return with the power and comfort of the Holy Ghost. she and her daughter were the investigators that went to church.

Transfers

this is transfer week. Me and Elder Hontanosas are together again for one more transfer. haha Pres. Barrientos told us early in our interview with him. he told us both that he was letting us enjoy the christmas season but we need to prepare because the new year will be hard for us... he told e. Hontanosas that he will train! haha! i can't wait! haha he will be a great trainer! other than us. one of the sisters (sister Richards(stl)) is going home this transfer and Sis. Smith is transfering and becoming a Stl. i don't know the new sisters but i think one is a phillipina and the other is samoan or tongan. I am excited to meet them. haha.

Random facts about the Philippines

1. marching bands are super popular here. almost every school (elementary-college) has at least one. sometimes every student is a part of the marching band.

2. every Baragay( like a neighborhood) has its own month to have its own fiesta. our barangay's fiesta month is December! haha I wonder what they will do.(parade,food,music,basketball competition)

3. Christmas caroling has already started!haha!

A picture with the assistants

Progressing both Investigators and Missionaries Alike

New Investigators
I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well! this was a great week for us as well. w started to teach Sis. Mildred (the one who just got back from Dubai) She is great! She has accepted everything we have taught her. we taught her yesterday about the restoration+joseph smith. we watched the Restoration Video. We could tell she felt the spirit and after she told us how everything that we had shared she felt was true. haha! she has been so prepared by the lord! haha I feel like that is always the case! I have met and taught so many people that have just been ready and seemed to be waiting to hear the gospel. they seemed to accept it right away. It definitely was not due to anything i did or have done, i am just glad i was there to witness the Lord carrying out his work. as well as with sis. Mildred. even though we teach her we know that the spirit is converting her and not us. haha. I am so gratefull that we as members are entitled to the constant companionship of the holy Ghost. without it i know i would be lost and would never succeed.

Reteaching Deadline
This week we also recieved a call from the zone leaders. kindly reminded us that the Mission deadline for reateaching all reacent converts is December 9th. we have 10 reacent converts not yet retaught! about 68 more principles to reteach! so for the next two weeks we will spend nearly every hour with our reacent converts to finish their lessons. haha! it will be close but we can do it.