A Wonderful Surprise

Progression
this week was another great week. we tried to focus as much as possible on the investigators that we found the last couple weeks. we also focused on extending baptismal dates to them all. it turned out pretty great! almost all commited to a date to prepare for baptism. haha! we will see how many of them are seriously commited, because a lot of the time they just say yes because they are to shy to say no. haha. sometimes i feel like the parable of the Gospel net is the theme of my mission sometimes haha. we teach and work with a lot of people but in the end most of the time we are just sepparating those that are ready from those not so ready.

this week we had a great experience. we have been working with Brother Jayel(progressing) for a couple weeks now. he has been gaining a stronger and stronger testimony of Joseph Smith every week. especially as he has come to church. everytime we visit him he has shared how close he is to completely believing that this is the true church... he is pretty close ("97%") haha. as we studied and planned for him we decided we needed to teach him the Law of Chastisy in order to help him become more prepared for his baptism in a couple weeks. we new it was going to be one of those lessons that would be very difficult for him and would be a deciding lesson in his future progression t... because he is part of the LGBT group. when we usually teach he usually asks a lot of questions but as we began to teach and explain the standards of the church he became very quiet and silently listened. when we finished explaining the standards. he asked whether it was a sin to be part of the LGBT. after we further explained the standards he said. "I know what you are teaching is true, and i want to follow it. but this commandment will be very hard for me. i can't promise that i will be able to follow it perfectly at first but i will try!" It was more than we were expecting him to say! both i and elder motley were amayzed and suprized at how converted he really is. up till this point we weren't really sure if he was following his commitments because he was being converted or whether he just liked one of us. we had him pray at the conclusion of the lesson and i remember feeling the spirit so strongly as he humbly asked for the help and strength to turn from those sins he is having such a hard time with. it was one of the most spiritual lessons i have ever had on my mission. I love seeing others as they follow the promptings of the spirit as they repent!

Flooding and Progress

Writing With an IPad weekly email

we started the week bygettingpunted from theinvestigarors that we found last week. so wejustwent finding again. we ended up finding a really nice/receptive old former investigator. we only found himbecause  i had taught himonce before when i wasonexchangeswith elder castillio. he lives in a abandoned house all byhimself but he still told us thathe would  goto church thissunday. the week was starting to look great! the nextfew hours and thenext few dayswe continued to find more andmorereceptive people toteach. as we were findingone morning we heardsomeonecallout to us "hey guys!" haha it was a middle aged guy sitting ona cool low rideing four wheeler. haha. at first we just thoughtitwasoneof theusual colls that people have for us. butwe felt htatwe should talkto him. he turnedoutsuper nice andinvited us to his house for some water. turns out that heis super rich! he hasa huge house. hetoldusabout how he started in oneof thesmallest towns in cagayan as a ordinary farmer then heandhis brother invested in minibus and the business grew and grew until now, fortyyears latter henow owns the largest/most reliable bus company of ilocos and cagayan regions. it was a realy aimspiring. story and he continued to tell us hownooneinhisfamily drinks and how they are always looking to help otqhers. he isso prepared for thegospel! hejust doesnt knowit yet. haha. we had plannedtogo back to him this friday but there was ahuge bagyo fromfridaymorning until last night. we had a lock down onfriday becausea bunchofthestreets were flooding. also ourapartment flooded about three inches on the main floor. we spentmostofthe day just making sure thatnoneofour stuff gotruined.haha. we ended up goingto work onsaturday night. the streets were still flooded and we got completly soaked. we only taught onelesson to a couple that we have recently started teaching. we taught thrm the first principle of theolan of salvation. it was definetly the spiritul highlightofthe week. theyare very poor and always working. theyhavetoldusoveradoverthat they cant goto church. butas we taught themitseemedthat the spirit boretestimonyto themthatthey needto go. it wasnt just usbut they felt that was theright thingtodo.  thisissome thing that ihave learned overandover onmymission. the spirit is always thebestteacer.

Getting Close to Finishing

Cravings

there are a lot of things i crave now. Mostly fruit(coconut,pears,grapes,mangoes,bananas,jackfruit,PEACHES,kiwi,etc.) but also other things like real cheese, ice cream, and homemade baking. haha! usually before we start personal studies we plan out who we will go to and their lessons/concerns.then in personal we focus on the investigators while we study out of the BOM,PMG, and Liahona talks. during companion study we share what revelations we recieved for each inv, plan for the lessons and then we always do practice teachings to make sure we can teach simply and effectivley. Elder Motley is great he is always down to practice teach which is something other missionaries don't do. haha. another thing we are doing is practice teaching in english during comp. study and then in tagalog during lang.(same lessons) it has helped elder motley a ton with his teaching ability. it has also helped me teach more clearly and more simply. our lessons have become so much more effective and we have felt the spirits guidance stronger because we have done all we could to be ready for thier lessons.

Finishing Up

I cant believe i am almost finished as well. haha. i still feel like i have sooo much to learn!!! ugh! thanks though for the encouragement! haha! just remember that you have always been a major factor and example for me during my whole life and mission. sometimes i have asked myself "what would Johnny do?" when tempted or tired or during any of the other parts of our schedule. haha. your example has always inspired me to want to do better. I hope that i can continue to grow and improve like you always have. I am also so happy that you are my brother and that i have always had you in my life.

Bacarra Progress

Finding

this week was really good! because we still only had a couple investigators, we hit the streets and we went finding this week! haha! we found a bunch of new people. bacarra is a super good area. it seems like a bunch of the people here have been prepared to hear the gospel, it is just a matter of finding them. me and elder Motley are still having a ton of fun together. he is super funny and normal! haha. he is helping me get my american accent back! haha.

Baptism

this week we also had Shiela's Baptism. she was really excited but also really nervous to bear her testimony in front of everyone after. it was good though. she did a great job. the next day her mom Came to see her be confirmed! we were super excited to see her there! she isn't a member yet but would be if she and her husband were married. also she cares for a really old lady who is sick so she almost never has an oportunity to leave. this sunday though she did everything to make sure that she would be able to support her daughter.

Church

we also had two other investigators come to church this week. brother bryton and JL. they are both new investigators that we have met either last week or the week before. they are both studying in college. they both have a great desire to learn the gospel and know about this church. especially bryton. he is super busy with work and school. each day he usually only gets around 6-10 hours of free time(including sleep). but he still made time to come to church! he went to work right after sacrament!(he is a nurse)

Returning to a visited area

New Companion

this week was great. Elder Motley is an american. he was raised in puyallup,washington then he moved to richmond, virginia. He is doing great! at the begining of this week he was super ready to work hard and be obedient! haha! so thats what we did. haha. he has told me a lot about his last transfer and trainer. It is pretty obvious that they weren't getting along. mostly for obedience issues. haha. He seems a lot happier now. haha.

Bacarra

Bacarra is an awesome ward!!!! the members are soooo active in missionary work!!!! we had a fellowshipper everyday this week! it was awesome! our WML (bro. Rennyboy) is super hardworking and loves working with us. i have seen that his love for the ward and the investigators we teach is what drives him! I think this is what makes this ward different from the other wards/branches i have been in. it seems that the members here, especially the leaders, love the members. they don't seem to be angry or frustrated with LA. They all have a attitude to help others. it blew my mind when i got here!!! haha! i am so blessed to be able to serve here.

Reminiscent Experiences

this week we started with very few investigators and only a couple of La families to go to. we have spent a lot of our time finding. we were blessed becase i have actually been to Bacarra several time before. when i was in my first area(laoag 2b) both the DL and ZLs were in bacarra. so it seemed like we were always here. this week i was blessed to recognize and remember a bunch of the people that the elders were teaching 2y ago. one of which was a RC family who has since gone less active. i was a little dissapointed that they have become less active because they seemed soo strong in the church before. this week we worked hard to bring back the faith that they had built so long ago. we were basically jumping for joy when they came to church yesterday!!!!! haha

there is another investigator family that the elders used to teach. i remember on exchanges i always thought that they were members. haha.turns out they were investigators. they were dropped for a long time and the elders just before us started to teach them again. they have a lot of concerns that we will need to resolve before they can be baptized (marriage being the largest) but one of their daughters(shiela) has been preparing for a while and will be having her baptism this saturday! she and  Elder Motley are both super excited! haha

I am pretty excited for it too. this will be the first investigator to get baptised for elder Motley. it will be great for him because he has gotten a bit discouraged mostly because of his last trainer, language, and lack of progression in the area. I hope this will give another boost to his confidence and help him to overcome the discouragment he has felt.

Long Letter and Lots of Pictures

Transferred

sorry i am emailing a little early because i am being transfered again and we need to travel to Lallo latter on. i was super sad when we got the text about the transfers even though i was expecting it. even though i have only been in sta ana for one transfer i have made so many new friends and have come to love them all. me and elder robles started off not knowing anything about the area and now we both feel like it is our second home. I am going to miss all the members and all our investigators! we have seen the problems and challenges, and we have seen the blessings and progression of this area during the last transfer. I feel like in the next couple transfers this small branch's progressions is going to explode! i know that elder Robles will continue to care for the people here. he is a great missionary and has taught me soo much! i am truly blessed that i was able to be his companion.

New Companion

my next companion is, elder Motley. he has only been in the mission for one cycle so i will be follow up training! haha wahoo! haha! i am getting transfered to Bacarra. it is one of the famous areas in the mission. i am pretty sure it is the wealthiest and safest city in the mission. so... mom you don't have to worry anymore. i think i will be ok for the rest of my mission. haha. I am also excited because i have heard that there is a ward there and they have a lot of fellowshipers! haha!

Strengthening the Members

other than transfers the rest if our week has been great! we are still teaching a group of great people who are mostly all progressing. we actually don't have too many investigators in this area because we have mainly focused on reacent converts and less actives. for the reason that this area used to be the promised land for missionaries. the last couple years they have probably had around 100 convert baptisms. but for some reason almost all of those baptisms are now less active or inactive... so instead of adding to that list we have been trying to bring them back as well as prepare our investigators to be the reacent converts that will be a blessing to the branch(future leaders). i feel that most of our investigators ,that we have now, could have been baptized this transfer but we saw that they need more time if they are to remain active and help the branch progress.

We will be Given what We Need

some things that i have learned from this transfer+area is that when we really focus and listen to the PEOPLE we will never need to wonder what to say. we will never need to think, "what is the best thing to say?" because it will be given to us. when we listen with love and follow the promptings of the spirit as it reveals concerns and needs the people wont only feel the spirit but they will be able to see solutions to the concerns that they have. they will see themselves changing and becoming closer to Christ! they will not only recieve a testimony of the Gospel but will be converted to the Gospel.

Testimony

I know this work is the work of God. I know that he knows and loves every one of the members, reacent converts and investigators that we have taught here in sta ana. I know that he cares about our progression. i have felt and seen his guiding hand in my life. I know that because of him i have become a better person. I have seen his hand in our lessons and in the lives of those we have taught! I have seen how much their families and lives have been blessed as they accepted and lived the Gospel. I know this is HIS church.

Baragay

Brother Ernesto

we have a baragay in our area where we teach a group(6inv) of middle aged people they are all related somehow or they are friends. haha. they all love to hear the gospel. the hard part was getting them to go to church. we have commited them a bunch of times and only one has been coming brother Ernesto. he is super humble and has a strong testimony of the gospel. ever since he went to church the first time he has felt something different. something he never felt in other churches. he is now preparing for baptism.

PMG Works!

usually Ernesto is the only one. but this week as we focused on each of their different needs he and his daughter and sister and one of their friends came as well. i know PMG is true!!! as we have studied and applied it we have felt the guidance of the spirit and our lessons have been so much better!!!! Church was a great experience for them as well. for some reason the spirit was very strong and it seemed like the members felt urged to talk to and friendship our investigators.(that doesn't usually happen) haha! we love our members!!!! hahaha!

A Drunk Sober Investigator

Quick Answers to Questions

this week was pretty hectic haha! we had ztm on thursday, meet the new MP on friday, and weekly planning on saturday! haha!

I think the funniest experience we had was when we went to a investigator that we had. as soon as we got there he said (translated) "ELlldddderrrrrrrrrrsssss cccooCme Innnnn!!!!......IIm nnot DDDrrrunk" hahahaha!

I think my favorite experiences from this week has been our evaluations everynight. Elder Robles is a really really good teacher! every night we talk about what went well and what could have been better. Elder Robles usually has really good insights about how we can improve our lessons and help our investigators progress! i have learned a ton about teaching from him! i am still far from perfect but i am working hard to get better.

other than that we had a couple investigators come to church including the guy who got drunk! haha! PMG is right! everyone has different concerns! haha we were a bit bummed out because a bunch of our other investigators who commited to go to church bailed! we will need to push back a couple baptismal dates and we are probably going to drop some of the others... :/

A New Mission President

Lots of Travel
this week was really busy. it seemed like we were traveling the whole week (to an bapt interview, meetings with district/branch leaders, more baptismal inverviews. haha we didn't get to work too much in our area which is kinda sayang! but it is ok because I love interviewing people for baptism! because each time i get to see a glimpse of how the gospel has changed their lives! i especially love asking how they came to know that joseph smith was a prophet. even though everyone i have interviewed have very different lifes, backgrounds, and personalities, they still answer more or less the same way. haha "i [prayed/read the BOM/went to church] and i felt the spirit bear testimony to me that what the Missionaries were teaching is true!" I love listening to investigators bear this testimony! It fills me with joy everytime! i love this work! I know it is the work of the Lord!

New Mission President
our new mission president got here this week! we met him this morning! he is super smart. i am pretty sure that he is an electrical engineer but from the way he gives trainings i feel like he was the owner of some very successful buisness. haha. I have learned a ton already from him! right off the bat he seems to have a deep understanding of missionary work and has already seen many of the concerns and needs of the mission. i was a little suprised! haha i thought it would take him longer to get into the flow of things! haha but i have repented for not believing in him. I know that he was called of God and is just as inspired as Pres. Barrientos. I feel blessed that he is our new mission president.

Short Update and Questions Answered

1. everything is going great! haha
2. the funnest thing we did this week was........... everything we did was fun! haha(it was a pretty normal week)
3.my favorite thing about missionary work right now is meeting and getting to know a bunch of philippino people ever day!
4. our next Mission President arrives this week. His name is president Andrata (philippino)

2.(cont.) this week was pretty normal. we are getting more familiar with our areas and we have found a bunch of the investigators and members that the sisters were teaching. there was one investigator family that we found, when we TAO POed at there home they invited us to sit down and fed us pineapple(sta ana has a ton of pineapple farms) then they told us about how they always feed the missionaries even those who served here last year! haha if we didn't know any better we would have thought that they were a member family. haha! before we left they gave us 3 pineapples to take home with us! hahaa! Yum!!!

An Exciting Week!

Quiet Week
this was a good week. not too much happened. school just started again so all the kids and teenagers are all busy. haha. it makes proselyting a little more quiet and sometimes a lot more challenging. haha sometimes the roads look like they are abandoned! haha

this week i think the most exciting things that happened was...
1. Our investigator Brother Rapada(PM) has been trying to quit drinking alchohol for a while. we were a bit worried for him because he had to take a week long trip to manila. we were worried he would fall into temptation there with his friends. but we were hapily suprised to find, once he came back, that he was had endured that trip and is still alchohol free for 2 weeks now!!! he is also coming to church and will likely be baptized soon. but it is still up in the air because he workes on a cargo ship and he leaves soon. he will likely be gone up to 9 months.

2. we had another investigator sister NevaJane(PM)- we just taught her the restoration and she was really interested. when we came back after a couple days we followed up on whether she had read the bom and prayed about joseph smith. She Had DOne BOTH! haha! she also told us that her prayer was answered that she felt the holy Ghost! she is excited and progressing for her baptism this next july!!

3.this is actually more sad than exciting... we had interviews with President Barrientos this week. he told us that we were likely to be moved into another area and sisters would replace us...He is making a lot of changes in our zone i guess. i was praying that it wouldn't happen because i love Gonzaga and the people here! I was excited for another transfer there. but lo and behold i and my new companion will be transfered to Sta Ana(same zone)

by the way it is transfer day again!!! Elder Hinton has officially completed his mission and is on his way home. i am wainting here in Magapit(near aparri) With elder Oslund(apartment mates in vigan) for My new companion. He is a philippino in my batch going home, Elder Robles. he is cool and a super good missionary. i am excited to work with him. this will be an interesting week. i need to pack, clean the apartment(before they close the contract) and move to a apartment i have never been to. haha

Short email but a lot of Pictures

this will just be short because i sent a ton of pictures.

basically this week we had pday on monday, interviews with our mission president on tuesday, we traveled to laoag on wednesday right after lunch, thursday we had our meeting and the crazy once in a mission activity!!!! haha then friday we woke up really early to travel back to gonzaga for weekly planning. it was a super busy week! haha it was also super fun!

the only bad thing that happened this week was we weren't able to teach very much because we were gone most of the week. it seems like our area has suffered a little bit. haha. but we are working hard and we are applying the trainings that our mission president has given on finding and dropping investigators. this next week we are going to go ham on finding. haha! well that is about everything that has happened.

Raining of Blessings and Miracles

Birthday

2.my last birthday was mostly spent on a bus going from aparri to laoag to pick up my trainee! haha! it was a great birthday. i felt like my present was my trainee, elder Pingol. haha! funny thing is we are both in aparri again today, along with elder payne!(my trainer), to withdraw our support(aparri is the only city in cagayan that has atms) he is doing great! he also just started to train. his trainee's name is Elder Abug. seems like my last bday was forever ago! i have seen, done, and experienced so much. i feel like i am an entirely different person! but also like you said it seems sometimes like it was just yesterday!

Traveling

this week is going to be crazy! we are in aparri today, tomorrow we have interviews with president barrientos here again! haha! then wednesday(bday) i will again spend most of the day on a... bus! haha! we need to go down to laoag again for a meeting on thursday. then friday or saturday we will come back! hahahaa! it will be a crazy week! but it will be difficult because we basically have half the time to work and teach our investigators. this area is progressing like crazy! but we have had to put a lot of work into everyday! we are just praying that those that we wont be able to teach this week will continue to feel the spirit and continue to follow their commitments.

This Week:

this week was a lot of fun! i got to go on exchanges in an area called BUGUEY. it is super pretty. right next to the beach. i worked with elder Ortiz. he is a new missionary from manila. he is just finishing up his second transfer. even though he is new he is already a great missionary! his teaching is clear and powerful. he loves the people and easily gets along with everyone. that is one of his strengths. he is not afraid to talk to people. while we worked it started to rain. haha! we hadn't brought any umbrellas. and it was his first time to work while it was raining. haha even though he didn't want to i helped him realize that we still work rain or shine! haha we were both drenched by the end of the day! haha it was great to be with him on his first time being in the rain! haha! he took it like a champ! haha.

May 28 email

Member missionaries with amazing conversions

there are two members,Jonard and israel, that works with us every sunday. they both have super cool stories! it seems like their conversion story was full of faith and miracles! before they were both taught by the missionaries they were both addicts. Bro. Israel couldn't go a day without smoking 4packs of cigaretts! he told us that after the first time he went to church he tried to light a cigaret but he said the smell/taste was different and that it had lost its apeal to him. he became completely cigarette free to this day!!!! Brother Jonards story is similar. he was also an adict. he told us he used just about everything from cigaretts-drugs. also he had a bad anger issue. but once he accepted the gospel it gave him the strength to change! unlike brother Israel it didn't happen instantly but over time as he continued to apply the gospel to his life and repent. he was baptized as well with brother israel last 2014. both their testimonies invite the spirit and when they tell investigators that they know the church is true and that the gospel changes lives we could feel the power of their words! haha! working with members truly is the most effective way to go about this work!

Blast from the Past

another blessing: this week i was able to go on exchanges with elder Hontanosas! haha he is in our district again! haha! it was super fun to work with him again! he is super fun and loves the people i am always learning from him about how to build trust with others. we had an experience that i will never forget! because it has never happened to me! until now! we had a guy come out of his house and...."Yell at us! he yelled at us to leave! multiple times! we tried to ask what the problem was but he just kept saying "Alis Kayo!" after this experience we were kind of put down. haha! then i realized... this is the first time! haha i wonder if it will ever happen again! what was once a trial actually turned out to be a blessing because it gave me a little bit of perspective of my mission! haha! i have been sooo blessed my entire mission to be serving the people here! they are so humble and kind! i don't know what i would do if i was sent to Greece, Texas, or Portugal! or anywhere else! haha

Zone Activity

another blessing: we also had a zone activity this week! it was super fun! we went to the beach/church in Bugey. we played games(bull rush,missionary tag,portrait,poison!haha) and we also had a sand castle making contest! haha! our zone is super cool most are Philappinos but they are all obedient and willing to work together. i will send you some pictures.

Lots of Pictures

Someone's Lunch, a grub, a zone activity, new apartment, sand temple

Baptismal Interviews and Hot Exchanges

Highlights from the week

1. i got to interview a young part member boy. he was really shy but he has a great knowledge and testimony of the gospel. His grandpa is the only other member in his family. He was also baptised this week. it was cool to see his grandpa baptise him. it is always hard to do something on your own especially be the only member of this church in your family. I know they will be a great support for eachother! His baptism will bless both thier lives and the lives of thier family members. hopefully they will also be able to come to have the testimony of that young boy.

2. the zoneleaders came down to Interview Prince! Wahoo! just before we reviewed the baptismal questions with him. he had a hard time remembering a few things like the steps or repentance and he kept mixing up LOC and WOW. haha i was a little worried he would get nervous in the interview and forget it or be too shy to try. haha but he passed! so next saturday he will be baptized!  He is also a PM. his older sister is the only member of their family. haha she reminds me allot of natalie. haha. she is always watching out for her little brothers and teaching them about the church and helping them out with their school work and other parts of their life.

3.I went on exchanges with Elder gamboa. he took me around in his area. he is going home this next transfer. He is super inteligent and very thoughtful. he taught me a lot about working with members and less actives. Haha I have noticed that even though i am the district leader i am usually the one that learns the most from the other missionaries! haha! it was a fun day. even though it was super hot and we walked a ton! haha.(this week it was in the 90s everyday. the highest was around 98! haha everyone is a  little bit more sunburnt each time we come home! haha)

At the beach and computer shop :)

General Conference!

General Conference

this week we were able to watch General Conference. I feel like i have like Joseph been improving on my ability to pay attention. I think it is mostly due to the knowledge and testimony i have gained on my mission of prophets and apostles. it was also partly due to my desire to become a better teacher, to help and inspire those we teach, and to help our area progress. I know that through callings/responsibilities we are pushed to be better than we would have ever pushed ourselves to be on our own. the Lord has a plan and a vision for us. I truly feel blessed to be found worthy enough to have been called on a mission. I feel as if i have grown so much, but at the same time i felt my pride cut down by the talks of General Conference.

Grace

I was especially inspired by Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Grace. I felt like it applied directly to me. my whole mission i have been so focused on being perfect, never breaking any rules, which is not necessarily bad, but I was convinced that through my obedience i would win myself the Spirit, strength and understanding. Elder Uchtdorf stated simply "Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God...Brothers and sisters, we obey the commandments of God—out of love for Him!"... I have never been more suprised at a general conference! haha! it seemed like my whole understanding of the Gospel was flipped over and emptied out! haha! it was actually very stressful at first. for some reason i had never thought of it that way. Elder Uchtdorf then continued "Grace is a gift of God, and our desire to be obedient to each of God’s commandments is the reaching out of our mortal hand to receive this sacred gift from our Heavenly Father." I know now after prayer and another go through of his talk that what he taught is true! we are saved, we recieve the spirit, and blessings because of GRACE. not because of our obedience, but we are still obedient because we love the Lord, because we want to show him we are grateful for his love,guidance, and blessings. when we are obedient, like Elder Uchtdorf said, " is the reaching out of our mortal hand to recieve [these] sacred gifts"

this new knowledge has helped me understand doctrines like Faith, repentance, and baptism as well as The Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. I have seen from the time that i listened intently to Conference that i have recieved so much Grace in my life! I love the Lord and i will be as obedient as i can be because i love him. not because i want to buy myself into his presence. because i want to make him happy. not to make others happy.

Another Packed Easter Week

Working with the Members

we have a ton of great members who work with us all the time. this week a RM came with us to work. he was super good. he knew all the doctrine and knew how to support our teaching. he was great. we also had a couple of youth who are preparing for thier missions come with us. i love working with the members! they make it so much easier for our investigators, RC, and LAs progress. we saw the evidence of  that when a bunch of the YSA who went around to the less active youth this week. there was one reacent convert who has also gone less active (paolo) that they visited. then with our BML we were also able to visit him. then yesterday he came to church! it has probably been more than 6 weeks since he last came to church!

General Conference

to answer some of your questions. we haven't been able to watch general conference yet. but they will have the CD by next week so we are getting excited to see it! it seems like the last general conference was just last week! haha time is flying!!!!! it seems like the longer i get on my mission the more and more i love being here, teaching the gospel and helping others come closer to Christ. It makes me sad sometimes that i am already more than halfway done with my mission! but it is good because it just makes me want to work even harder!

Easter

Easter Here they call it Holy week or Semana Sta. basically they celebrate thursday-sunday. for each day ( i forgot thursdays,Good friday, Black saturday, and i also forgot sundays name) mostly all they do is go to church, pray, walk around praying to all the statues that they have put up around the cities. they also made big stages out of tree branches for skits of christs crucifiction. h

Another Baptism and Getting Locked out

other than that this week we had a bunch fun. the sisters in our district had a baptism. i was the suprize baptizer again! so i got to wear the ninja baptizing suit again ahaha! also both our bikes are starting to break/ parts are falling off! haha! we also accidentaly locked our  only keys inside the apartment once! haha. we used a long stick which we put through the window to snag the keys on our desk! haha! i will try to send some pictures.

1. Locked out of apartment

1. kung fu with Brian Salvador

2. some guys burning off the hair of goat to prepare it to be cooked!

Kung Fu Baptism Suits

Rambutan
the fruit with "red spiky exterior that you remove before eating the white flesh before removing the hard nut inside". is called Rambutan! it is super good! you should deffinetly look out for it the next time you go to a asian market,  just to try it. haha. they are one of my favorite fruits. haha.

Rapacon got baptized
Sister Rapacon... did get baptized!!! it was a great baptism. haha. the member that was assigned to baptize her forgot so last minute they asked me to baptize her instead. haha. i had to use one of those kung fu baptizing suits because we didn't have time to go back to the apartment. haha. they almost didn't have one big enough for me! haha! i will send you a picture! haha. after the baptism we also had a branch FHE. it was also really good. allot of members showed up and it made sister rapacon's baptism a little more special. haha.

Bikes
this week was also really cool because we got BIKES! again. haha!!! but because Vigan doesn't really have any dirt roads our bikes are the nice street/racing bikes with the thin wheels. haha. we have been having a lot of fun on them! haha! they are like the average philippine bikes after one or two days pieces start falling off. haha. one of my back break pads fell off and elder hoopes peddles fell of too. haha. we are going to fix them today.

Pictures of Baptism and bikes

Good news of the Gospel and people getting baptized!

Zone Conference
this week was really good. we had zone conference on tuesday. so we went again to laoag. haha. It was super good. our Pres. Barrientos gave traingings on having the spirit with us. i learned a lot! most of it was about obedience. after i saw my past compainios. (E. payne, felices, pingol, Hontanosas, Marsh and Pacala.) they are all doing well. except for maybe elder pingol(my trainee) he recently fell off a trycycle and hurt his head and neck really bad. he told me he had to wear a neck brace for a while. haha! but he is doing better now. haha.

Rapacon
also this week nanay Rapacon got interviewed for her baptism! she passed! wahooo! haha. she has been an investigator for almost 30 years! haha! she always new that this church is true but she was always afraid to be baptised because of her nieghbors. haha. not that they are bad people but she was afraid that they would treat her differently/gossip about her. but she is soo ready to be baptised. she is one of the best people i have ever met on my mission. ever since she was young she has been very religious and has always relied on Christ to help her through her trials. she has no problems with Wow, LOC, or any other commandment. haha. all the members are really excited that she will finally be baptized! haha! and it is because of them that she finally decided to be baptized. haha! so now we are excited for saturday. we will send you a picture of it.

Exams
other than that it is summer here. the school years here are all about to end. allot of the members and allot of our investigators are studying for thier exams this week and allot are graduating so everyone seems busy. haha. it makes it challenging for us to get fellowshipers and teach our investigators. haha. but we can do it. one thing that we were taught at zone conference is that we shouldn't just work hard but to work smart. it reminds me of the story of the wood cutter with a dull ax. haha.

Time in Manila

to answer questions:
1. our area is mostly suburb 2.we dont usually sport contact.(only allowed in the morning-its tuff to get up! haha) 3. something i learned about in personal study: i read Alma 30. this is where Korihor is brought before Alma. Even though i have read this chapter many times i was reminded of the testimony of Alma. He tells Korihor that all things testify that there is a God. and rebukes Korihor for teaching otherwise. this chapter came at the perfect time. one of our investigators seems to be trying to teach us that the BOM isn't true. even though i know it is and he couldn't convince me otherwise, i will admit it was a little frustrating. when i read Alma 30 i think it was alma's patience that i have most learned from. this church is true, the book of mormon is true. we shouldn't get frustrated with those who have yet to learn that. no matter how many times or how many of them say that it isn't true it will never change the fact that it is true.

Hot Showers in Manila
thanks for the emails! this week was pretty crazy actually haha! i think it was tuesday when the travel elder texted and told me+ all the foriegn missionaries going home from june to sept. he told us we all had to take a suprize trip to MANILA!!!!!! haha! it was so we could fix some things for our visas. we took a plane of friday in the afternoon. it was a ton of fun. haha we got to stay in a really nice hotel with good food and...... HOT SHOWERS!!!!!! hahaaha! it was soooo nice! haha! i will never forget how blessed we are in america! before i never really apreciated most of the things that we have including (aircon,warm water, light) I will send you some pictures of manilla. we got back saturday afternoon.

Prince
Manila was super fun but it made it really hard to teach our investigators this week. we lost a lot of proselyting time this week. even though we hardly got to teach we still saw some progress in our area. Prince came to church again. he is getting really close to his baptismal date. his only concern is that we still need to finish his lessons and he lives super far away. the only way we can get to him is if a member takes us to him in a car or tryce. so this week we are going to do all we can to schedule members to take us. haha.

Manila pictures

Highlight of the Week

A Potential Baptism

This week was pretty normal. until saturday. on saturday our BML worked with us. we went to sis. rapacon she has been an investigator for a very lond time. she was first taught 20 years ago! haha! she has always come to church with her family but she has never made the decision to be baptised. we were very blessed this last saturday that our BML was there. over the years they had gotten to know each other fairly well. during the lesson our BML was very bold with her. he also spoke a lot in Ilocano (so we didn't understand so well) haha. while he was speaking to her she started to cry. because they were speaking in ilocano we were not sure whether they were fighting or whether sis. was feeling the spirit. (Ilocano always makes the speaker sound angry for some reason even if they aren't. haha! its confusing sometimes) when our BML stopped talking we jumped in to fix what we thought was, a bad situation. haha. turns out that our BML had finally gotten through the self created beliefs(every church is true, i don't need to be baptized) that sis. rapacon had held on to for so many years. haha. i am not so sure what he said but once he stopped talking all we had to do was extend a baptismal date. haha. because she has been taught everything and because she goes to church every week we were able to schedule it on the 28! haha. this experience has been another testimony to me that this work is inspired and that the work is more effective when members work with missionaries. i wish i could have worked with them before the mission. haha. i will just need to wait till after, to work with them, haha! wierd thought. haha.

that was probably the highlight of this week! haha! all the members are excited that she has finnaly decided to be baptized! haha!

Another Crazy Week in the Philippines

Boanerges and Omkar

this week was good. we continued to teach Boan and Omkar. brother boan is super smart and knows the bible back and forth. haha. he has started to read the BOM. he has a ton of questions about nearly every verse. haha he compares it all to the bible. haha. sometimes as we are teaching he will tell us he has a question then teach us for 3 min about a story in the bible and ask how it applies or fits with a story in the BOM. haha.  for instance once nephi says to his brethren "and surely moses spake unto the waters..." but he compared it to the bible wich never says that moses spoke unto the water. haha. we are trying to get  him to rely more on praying about the BOM and seeking the Holy Ghost rather than trying to prove it through evidences. haha.

Abang

this week we also started teaching the Abang family and prince again. they were our investigators before but we refferred them to the sister missionaries in our branch because they live closer. but they never went to teach them so they gave them back to us. the Abang family as well as prince, if you remember, almost got baptised. bro. abbang just had to stop smoking. and we just needed to finish teaching prince all the lessons. so we are still working toward preparing them for baptism.

Baclas and Old Ladies

this week we also had a crazy week with baclas and old ladies haha!! we were finding and we met an old nanay and a group of middle aged men. because they were drinking we told them we would just come back at another time. as E.Hoopes was shaking the old ladies hand she pulled him in and gave him a kiss on the cheek! hahaha!!! then later that day we met 2 Baclas(gays) both about 30-40y. we also told them we would share the next time around because i don't feel comfortable teaching baclas without a fellowshiper. as we were trying to go one tried to hug us! yuck! we are definitly staying away from that area for a long time!!!! haha.

Pictures of a Boodle Fight, Omkar and Boangerges, and Maps of their area

Competition and Business

Lunch with the Mission President

we were the last missionaries to get interviewed so when we were finished all the other missionaries had already gone. Pres. Barrientos invited us to go to lunch with them! haha! he took us to a super nice Boodle fight restaraunt! haha! Boodle fight= when they put banana leaves on the table for your plates. haha they ordered a ton of food. i don't want to make you jealous so i wont describe the food (grilled pork, tilapia,catfish,squid, also sisig, eggplant,muscles, sea weed, sili, and unlimited rice) too much haha!!! lets just say it was super good! haha it was also fun to go eat out with our mission president and the APs. they are super funny people.

Boanerges and Omkar and Business

we are still teaching Boanerges. he invited one of his friends to also listen, Omkar. they are both super nice and willing to learn. they have many challenges ahead of them in order for them to progress but they can do it. haha. we are also a little worried that their interest in the church is based on thier desire to get to america or to start up a buisness with me and elder Hoopes! haha! they keep trying to set up buisness deals(3-4years from now)! haha! from what they told me and from what i understood they want us to start the buisness because they cant unless their are american. but they will provide funding. haha! i don't know if i want to be a buisness man. haha maybe i will just refer them to dad! haha! hopefully they will continue to progress when we tell them that we aren't here to do buisness. haha.

Boanerges and the Power of the Spirit

New Companion

My companion(e.Hoopes) is from arizona. he is a cool kid. I like him. he is in elder tanner's batch. so he is still pretty new at the language but he is working at it.

yesterday i interviewed to kids for thier baptisms. one is 12, and the other 9. they are the only ones in their families who come to church. but they love to because they told me that they feel the spirit. haha they are both really sweet.

New Indian Investigator

yesterday a member who works as a security guard for a college student dorm brought a foriegn exchange student to church. guess where he is from..........India. haha he is sweet! his name is Boanerges. aparently they don't have last names in india. He can speak english and his native language Tamal or something. haha. he invited us to his dorm to teach him yesterday. it was wierd teaching in english but it was a great lesson. he is super humble and positive. he wants to be baptized! he told us that he felt the spirit in church and he is super interested in the book of mormon. he is already christian so he believes in the bible but he also believes that prophets wouldn't just be called in one area of the world! haha So far he is a golden investigator. he asked how he could join our church and we gave him a baptismal date. haha. the only problem i see is when he goes home there might not be churches there... i don't know.. are there any churches in india?

Missionary Parents

also a sister missionary reacently finished her mission. her parents picked her up and have been touring her past areas. vigan was one of them. they came to church yesterday. haha it was wierd to have americans there! haha. everyone was kinda going crazy! haha! they were super excited to see/meet them. haha! her mom insisted that we all take pictures so she could upload them on the facebook page! it reminded me of you mom! haha. enjoy the pictures! haha.

well that is about it for this week. next week we have interviews with our mission president. i am excited i always learn a lot!

Life Events

Funeral

last friday like i told you me and another sister missionary sister in our branch were assigned to speak at a feuneral service for a guy we had never met. it was alright we just talked about the plan of salvation. haha most of the people there are not members but that didn't stop us from using the BOM, Dand C, and Pearl of Great price. haha!

Baptism

then on saturday we had a baptism. the sisters in the other branch were the ones to teach him because he was always at his girlfriends house in his area. it was only just before i interviewed him that they found out he lives in our area. haha. His name is Argyll. he is about 18 and super awesome. haha we taught him yesterday about the priesthood and about missionary work. we asked him if he wants to serve a mission. we were worried that he wouldn't because he is studying and has a girlfriend also he is the only member in his family who did not support his desicion to be baptised. but all he said was i just need to prepare a little more!!! haha! he totally wants too! he just dosn't feel qualified yet, wich is fine because he just got baptised. haha. we are going to have him fellowship with us as much as he can! he is super humble and sincere!

Transferred

Also we found out about transfers. Elder tanner is getting transferred to my first area in Laoag 2B! i have already told him all the people he should say hi to me for. haha. My new companion is one of elder tanners batch. he is an american, his name is Elder Hoopes. He is from Arizona. I have only heard a little about him but he seems like a cool guy. I am excited but sad that elder tanner is leaving. he is always energetic and happy. wich helped me alot whenever i felt stressed. Elder Miller will also be transfered but we aren't sure where yet.

Helping the Living and the Dead

Harder to Find

this week was fun. i have found that our area is a bit different than my past areas. we have a bit harder of a time finding and when we seem to teach people they try to bible bash with us. haha! it is  a little frustrating. haha. also this week we have dropped a majority of our investigators and we are looking for new ones. we are also trying to go to new areas that we havent gone to before, the trick is finding close enough that the investigators can afford to go to church. we have met some great people but we will see whether they run from us the next time we go there. haha.

Helping with a Funeral

this morning we had a wierd experience... last week a member in our branch died. the philippino tradition is to have the body stay in the house for 1 week for people to come and see them before they are buried. so today our branch pres. asked us if we could help dress him in his burial clothes before they closed his casket... of course we helped out. it was wierd though.... we had to lift parts of his body up and put on the white clothes.haha.

A New Investigator

this week we also started to teach the daughter of a member. she is about 30. she is really open to the gospel. she has actually been an investigator for a long time we haven't taught her for a long time because she has been really busy with her job. she believes in joseph smith but she also believes that every church is true it just depends on whatever you like. so we have been inviting her to pray to know if this is the only true church.

Eating Horse and Carnival

Eating Horse and Church For the First Time

sorry i don't have much time but i will try to write as much as possible. this week we had a lot of great lessons we also got punted more than any other week haha! i have noticed that the more our area seems to progress the harder it also becomes to proselyte. haha. the Rigucera fam(fat man) is progressing we visit them regularly. once they fed us HORSE just before we left! it was actually really good. it was like beef but super healthy and soft. aparently it horse has almost no fat in it. you should try it some time! haha! yesterday sis. rigucera, her daughter and her niece came to church. it was too bad her husband and son didnt but we were super happy that at least they came. we sat next to them in sacrament meeting. they seemed to like it, it was different for them though. we are going to keep teaching thier family we have a baptismal goal for them next month. if they continue to come to church every sunday they will be ready. But Bro. Rigucira and thier son also need to come next sunday to make the goal date.

Carnival

this week the carnival continued until yesterday. many of our investigators couldn't come to church because they were in a parade that was scheduled the same time as church.but next week they will be able to! next week is going to be awesome! we will also have more fellowshipers. this week no one could work with us. also because of the carnival.

Minivan

yesterday we had bro mark anthony work with me again. (we went on splits) he took me around in his nice shiny MINI VAN haha! i felt rich again! haha! it felt too nice almost! haha. we went out to the far area again to teach the ilocano family. they are also progressing. instead of week, when i taught then my fellowshipers(2nd councilor,EQP,and YM2ncouncilor) translated i just gave them short topics to explain. we taught the Saviors earthy ministry. the lesson quality improved and the investigators seemed to understand a lot more. at the end i was suprised when 2 of the daughters pulled out a lined sheet of paper. they had covered it in questions from what they had read in the pamphlet we left them! haha! we only had time to answer 2-3. but the questions were great! (1. why was truth lost after death of apostoles?,why is the BOM a witness of christ? why does God love us even after we sin/don't follow him? haha it was Awesome. i felt that the spirit was stronger when they started asking their questions than at any other point in the lesson.

Zoo

this morning we went to a zoo. haha it was kind of funny. they had sheep, small horses, and deer walking all around(open cages to the walk ways). the main attractions though were the Tigers, and the animal show. they basically put snakes, lizards,birds, and a wierd bear/cat on anyone who volunteered. haha.

Being Grateful For What We Have

Captain Moroni

not too much happened this week. our super fellowshipper went home! sayang! but he told us he will come back in a month. haha he really loves his family and friends here. haha. If every member was as active at missionary work as he is, the world would have been converted by now. haha! reminds me of captain moroni. haha!

                                                       

Longanisa Fesitval – Sausage time

other than that we have continued to teach the investigators that he has referred to us. some have punted us. haha. He was the only reason they let us in thier houses. haha but some of them have really good potential. we are going to extend bapt. dates to all of them this week. Our old progressing ivestigators have dissapointed us a little bit. Bro. Allen(the artist/clay master) was busy all week making a float for a parade this week. and our other progressing  bro.Prince practiced all week for his drumming thing in the parade this week! so we were never able to teach them and they also weren't able to come to church this week. agh!

this week is the Longanisa festival.(longanisa-sausage thing that vigan is famous for.) they will have a parade and activities everyday in vigan (folk dance competitions and band competions). too bad that is not our area. haha. we wont be able to see any of it. hopefully our schedule wont be affected by it. haha. we almost reached standard this week and next week we really want to get it! haha.

No TV

this week i had a wierd expereince haha! yesterday actualy. me and elder Tanner went on splits with two of the elders quorum. the brother that went with me brought his car! haah i felt rich haha. it was super nice..... anyways our last apointment was at a house where they only speak ilocano and they are also super poor(no TV). so my fellowshipers had to translate everything i said in tagalog into ilocano. but that isnt the wierd part. the wierd part happened after. we were driving back to meet up again with elder tanner, when my comp. bro mark told me that he has never been inside a house without a TV! haha he thought that there wasn't any people in vigan without one! haha! i felt like i had just shown him the rough side of the town! haha like i had opened his eyes and changed his perspective of vigan! haha i couldn't believe that he has never been in a house without a tv. there are so many people who don't have one haha!

A Miracle and An Angel

This week we also experienced a little mirracle. haha we were finding in one of our areas. we both had the impression to stop at a house at the end of a long driveway. the gate was open so we just went in. as we got closer the people sitting outside ran inside and called out an older guy with white hair. he immedietly invited us to sit down. we thought he was jehova witness at first but then he whipped out his temple recomend(president Rigucera)! haha he is a retired Branch president from another part of the philippines. he is visiting his family because a relative of his receantly died. he explained that he has been looking for missionaries in vigan because he doesn't know where the church is here. since we met him he has fellowshiped with us almost everyday with new refferals each day. we go to all his family, old friends, and classmates. haha he is super funny. he treats everyone like his best friend even if he barely knows them! haha! once he didn't know the name of one of his nephews so he just yelled "Fat Man! Fat Man! Come here Fat Man!" hahahahaha!!!!!!! we were sooo suprized but the guy didn't seem angry or offended. through him we have noticed a difference in our lessons. we always have him testify of the blessings of the gospel. (he was baptized when he was 40) he is always so real and sincere that the people we teach seem so much more open to the restored gospel. He was planning on going home last friday wich leads to the next mirracle. haha kinda. when he worked with us for the first time he expressed his desire to teach all of his family and friends he told us that he is not sure whether the lord wants him to stay. he also lost his wallet with all his money for the bus to go home. this has caused him to stay until wednesday(more time to fellowship and reffer) haha! he is the most hardworking fellowshiper i have ever heard about. he commits us to baptizing everyone he refers and to work with him! haha! he has a vision of having a branch in his little barangay. we believe that it is a serious possibility. for no other reason than the faith of this old member.

A couple of photos of a clay oven used to fire clay pots/tiles/sculptures, and pictures of the new apartment.

A New Area for a New Year

New Area

I really like my new area. it is really big but for the last week we have had one of the young men work with us for almost everyday. he drove us around in a trycee. haha it was super nice. we were able to go anywhere in our area at any time. haha.

our new area is a mix of bukid and suburb. we don't really have any areas in centro. but yeah it is a really cool city. it has a bunch of old buildings and a really cool road that we go to on pdays. in vigan there are two branches. our branch is super cool. there are a ton of young men. haha they are all super chill too. our branch pres. is young and most of the other leaders are new converts but they are really masipag/hardworking.

we also have a lot of progression in our area. there is one young family who is progressing. the father is deffinitly the one who has been converted he has almost completely gotten rid of his wow. his family is also progressing but a bit slower. they all come to church but they havent recieved an answer yet about joseph smith. they are super cool though.

New Years

new years was alright. i think they celebrate christmas more. for new years people usually just drink, shoot fireworks.... wich are more like bombs. haha. i forgot to get a picture of one but everyone makes things called boga. they are metal cans taped together with a plastic bottle at one end. they stick the ignition of a lighter in the end. they put some kind of uncultured alcohol in it. they are basically crude guns. haha. everyone has them. they are not even illegal. they also buy bad quality fireworks which usually blow up early or late causing many people injories. what we did on new years is a different story. we had to come home early (5pm) and study. then we slept.(10:30) WHOO! haha i didn't even wake up at 12 i was so tired! haha!