3.2.15

Second Time Around

It's been an interesting week. We had stake conference and zone conference this week and exchanges and it's just been crazy. Our training that we gave during Zone Conference was great. If only my companion actually applied to his life and his mission. Our numbers were flat our awful this week. Some of that is accredited to the fact that we had so many meetings and then a baptism on Friday so our time was a bit limited. I'm just enduring until transfer day and then hopefully my problem just gets transferred. hahah

Our Stake Conference was pretty awesome though. It was the second time that I've attended Stake Conference now we're Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk has presided, hence the title of my email! :) Last time it was one of the most spiritual meetings I had ever attended. This time was just the same. He made the comment during the Saturday Adult Session that, "The Philippines Bacolod Mission has been described as the strongest mission in the world." Then at the Sunday General Session he said, "This mission has been described as the best mission in the Church." I don't say these things to brag about our mission, but it truly amazes me that of all the members, and all the missionaries in the world, I was chosen to serve here. I am far from perfect. I am far from the "strongest in the world" or the "best in the church." But it just goes to show that anybody can make a difference. The Lord chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise and the strong! That's me. I have contributed but a small amount to the great success of the Bacolod Mission, but I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to serve here. I wouldn't trade it for the world!

I just hope that as I get closer and closer to the end that I get more and more focused. The thing I learned from President Lopez is to never give up and to work til the end. Even the day before he left. He acted and talked as if he would still be here the next day. Hopefully I can do the same! It'll be difficult but that's what I have challenged myself with! Hope I can stand up to it!

I love you all! :) Have a great week!

2.23.15

Weekly Baptism! :)

Well like I said I've finally been able to live the vision of weekly baptism! We baptized Sister Marciana Villarosa this past Saturday! She's 69 years old! She was so excited for her baptism that she showed up like an hour early to the church! That doesn't happen here because people are always late! Then she also had a bit of a fever and because everything imaginable went wrong to make the baptism start late it didn't start until like 6:30 so it was a bit cold and she already felt cold because she was sick. So when she got into the water she was shaking really bad! At first she wouldn't let go of the bar on the edge until I grabbed her hand and put it on my arm! It was crazy! Then I baptized the sisters candidate, Brother Ashley. First time I've baptized somebody taller than me! It was pretty crazy! I was the most wet I've ever been after a baptism! But it was a good Saturday!

We also have another baptism set for this Friday! That'll make 3 weeks in a row! The work is going really well in the Bacolod 2nd Ward. We may also have a baptism every week of March! I'm so excited! I love the 2nd Ward. We got fed like champs this past week as well. That's another reason I love this ward. Because they love us! haha

We have a Zone Conference this week, there will be 2 Zones. We have to give a 20 minute training. Our training is on Scripture Study and Virtue. We're going to tie in Ephesians 6:11-17 and the story of Thor. It's gonna be great. I'm actually kinda excited. I always get nervous training other missionaries though, as if I'm better than them. (I'M NOT!) haha But it should be a good day, and then there's free lunch, so that's always great!

Well, In terms of my study this week I just read today in D&C 101:36

"Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy
is not full, but in me your joy is full."

Our joy will never be full in this life. No matter what we do. True joy only comes in the next life. It is proceeded by a life of following the commandments and doing all that our Heavenly Father asks of us. We cannot reach our full potential in the next life if we don't do all that he asks. Salvation is free, but it's not at the same time. No money can buy it, but we pay for it through our righteous thoughts and actions that stem from our faith in Him. It isn't just given to us because we say we have faith in Him, or because He's a gracious Father. It comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It comes through obedience. That's the only way to become full of joy. In a life of devoted discipleship! I hope we all can receive this fullness of joy in the end as we do all that the Lord asks of us!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! :)

2.16.15

Hello all! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and a wonderful Valentine's day! We celebrated our Valentine's day with the Baptism of Lorie Jean Belarmino (Insay) and Lorenzo Belarmino Jr. (Jay R)! It was great! It was a night baptism! The baptismal font here in the 2nd Ward is outdoor with a roof over it! So it's kinda cool. The Bacolod 2nd Ward was the first church built here on the island of Negros and it's style was never re-used. So it's a one-of-a-kind church!

This week our housemates got pulled out of there area so it's just Elder Babida and me in our big house now. We had missionaries sleep at our house 3 nights last week though as the foreign missionaries going home next month went to Manila for fingerprinting, so our house is always a party. The other day I went on exchanges with Elder Nery and did baptismal interviews in Santa Fe. President Ferrin had been there for one because the sister had apparently killed someone before but they didn't know all the details. She never showed up for the interview however so President told me to just interview her and find out the details for him and then let him know what's true. It was a bit interesting because I could tell that Sister had something she wanted to say to me the whole time but she just didn't. It was super weird. She he just kept avoiding the question and beating around the bush with her answer. So we went to the office and told President what happened and then he talked with her and she was baptized! So it's all good!

We have another baptism scheduled for this Saturday for sister Marciana! She's old and forgetful but she wants to be baptized and she lives right next door to the church and comes to church every week.We'll see how an interview goes for her. We also have another baptism for Tatay Tino and Nanay Rose on the 28th! I'm super excited, the work is going well and it keeps me going! Hopefully this keeps up for the next couple months!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! I love and miss you all! :)

2.9.15

Short and Sweet!

Well I don't have a ton of time left to email you! But this week was great! We get fed really well here! If this is my last area I'm gonna be fat when I get home! We are going to start living our mission vision of "Weekly Baptism" starting this Saturday! Insay(18) and Jay R(13) are going to be baptized on Saturday and then we have more set up until March! Hopefully they all keep going to church. To be honest I haven't lived the Weekly Baptism vision yet. When I got transferred from Sewahon they started baptizing like all my investigators! It's crazy! They've like all been baptized! It's so awesome! Well I hope you all have a great week! Next week I will have a better email for y'all I promise! Love you! :)

2.2.15

Magandang Gabi Po Sa Inyong Lahat!


How's life my friends and family? This week was pretty crazy! I got transferred last monday but it still hasn't really sunk in. I still live in the same house so it's not like a whole lot change. It kinda seems like i've just been on really long exchanges. On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Brinton in the 6th Ward. We went like 1 for 8 on our visits. It was a rough day. But we ended it by having dinner at Brother Clement's house. He's from the UK. We got fed like champions it was great. They even had chocolate cake and ice-cream afterwards! It was the best meal I've had in a long time!

The next day we met back up with our companions at the mission office. While we were inside President and Sister Ferrin showed up! Got to meet them again! Sister Ferrin was on the plane from Tokyo with us on our way here and President Ferrin was at the airport in Manila when we got there! We didn't let President rest at all. We scheduled in interview for him for the next day with our investigator. We had to join the interview because we had to translate for President. It was crazy! Kinda hard to translate. It was hard to remember everything that our investigator said. And sometimes I understand what he says but I don't know exactly how to translate it to English. But it was fun. Now we wait for President Monson's response!

So not much else going on. I didn't bear my testimony yesterday at church because we were already like 30 minutes over time and than they nailed me with a talk next week. PALAGPAT! haha It will be me and a Sister who just returned home from her mission. (She started her mission in July 2013, I started in June! WEIRD!) But i'm excited for our MLC tomorrow at the mission home with President and Sister Ferrin. Should be great. President Ferrin is awesome. I love him already!

I hope we all have a great week! I hope you're all still reading your scriptures! I'm now in D&C 120 (working backwards) and 2 Nephi 27! I love you all! Have a great week! :)

1.26.15

Transfer Week

Well this week was crazy! We had our Mission Presidents Training scheduled for the 21st, but of course we have no Mission President currently so who was left to give the training? The Zone Leaders. That's us. haha So Tuesday night at about 9pm we got a call from the Zone Leaders from the previous Zone who had the training and they give us President's Training plan. So we had like no time to prepare, but it wasn't too bad. It was a lot of group participation. Then we had a great catered lunch afterwards. Then I went on exchanges with Elder Goodmansen in the 2nd Ward. It wasn't a super productive day, but it was fun and we had a dinner appointment so that was great!

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. We had no power at the church, so it was kinda hot! They hooked up the generator to have lights but there was no AC. During sacrament the 4 of us missionaries gave a musical number. It wasn't that great. Only two of us knew how to sing a part and then the other two just sang melody and then when we started the 2nd verse they pulled a key change on us so that threw everything off, it was a bit crazy. haha

After church we attended Ward Council. I felt kinda bad because I had to slightlyl chastise the ward. Our concern had to deal with being on time. In our Ward Sacrament is last. So our Sacrament attendance was 231, but at 9am when church is supposed to start there was 17 people at church. 4 of those 17 were missionaries and another 1 was an investigator. So 12 members were at church on time. Kinda pathetic. But I think I made my point and hopefully it gets fixed! After Ward Council Elder Lopez and I got notified that he was being transferred. Totally did not see that coming. Then we attended the Stake PEC meeting to discuss missionary concerns of the Stake. After that we had an apppointment at the church and then we just hung out. Not much to do at 7pm.

Then this morning we get to the Mission Office and the assistants tell me that I'm going to love my new companion, and that I transferred as well. However I just transferred bedrooms in our house! We got pulled out of the 1st Ward so our area just gets taken over by the sisters. So now their area is huge! I'm now assigned to the Bacolod 2nd Ward and my companion is Elder Babida. I'm kinda glad I got transferred because our area was not really that great. We didn't have much success and it was hard. But we did have one baptism and they should have another baptism this next month! The 2nd Ward however is doing better. So i'm excited for that!

Well that's about it! I love you all. Hope you all have a good week and continue to read your scriptures! :)

1.19.15

Faith

This is not what I expected to see this morning. :( Sad, sad news for the Bacolod Mission.

"Dear Bacolod Missionaries,
On Sunday, President and Sister Lopez returned to the United States so President Lopez can receive urgent medical treatment. It is not anticipated that they will be returning to complete their mission. We ask that you join with the Area Presidency in prayer and faith on their behalf. Arrangements are being made for a couple to be in Bacolod to lead the great work you are doing. In the interim, Elder Mower who serves in the mission office will be able to respond to your immediate needs.
Sincerely,
Philippines Area Presidency


Well, as most of you know already, President Lopez has returned to the States for medical treatment and most likely will not return. It's a sad morning like I said, here in Bacolod. One lesson I learned from President Lopez is that "Where there is fear, there is no Faith." Even without President Lopez I know that this work will go on. He is truly loved, and will truly be missed. We did not see this coming at all. He told us last week that he would not be much help the next two weeks but we did not see this as the end result. I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know that the Lord is "mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in."

This week was pretty good. Elder Lopez and I met 30 New investigators this week! So that's a good start. We also had a super interested investigator move in from another ward, so we'll pick up where the other elders left off. We only had 4 investigators at church, but that's better than 0! Work is always fun and exciting with Elder Lopez, so that's great!

One thing I learned this week in my reading of the Book of Mormon is that the secret to success in life lies within keeping the commandments of the Lord. Nephi repeatedly exhorts his brothers to be "faithful" and "diligent" in keeping the commandments of the Lord. 2 Nephi 1:20 states that those who keep the commandments will be blessed and prosper while those who do not will be kept from the presence of the Lord. It's pretty obvious what we need to do. The question is, "Are we doing it?" The Lord doesn't ask to much of us, and usually we don't give him enough. Let's do our best to improve our lives by doing what the Lord asks of us, and keep his commandments!

I love you all and know that the Lord has a plan for all of us. It might not be what we think or what we want, but He is all knowing, and knows what's best for us. Let's do our best to embrace Him and His love. Hope you all have a great week!

1.12.15

Masaya ang Aking Kasama!

Well first off my new companion is great! I love Elder Lopez! He's so funny! We have a fun time together while we're out working! He has this great laugh that's contagious! If he starts laughing so do I! I can't help it! It's great! We were in the middle of a lesson the other day and the member who worked with us kept saying the word "kwan" which has like no meaning. It's just like saying "umm" probably. He would say like "Nagapamatuod ako nga kwan" which means "I testify that umm" it was hilarious. So after like 5 times of hime saying that Elder Lopez just started laughing and then so did I. It was great, everyone else starting laughing too!

Our MLC this past week was pretty great. At one point President asked "Who here will be going home before July 1?" As we raised our hands, so did President. Then he laughed and said "I'm raising my hand too!" President's getting excited to go home as well! He's got new grandkids he still needs to meet! But really MLC was great. So much to learn. Then our training on Thursday we're we trained our Zone on the things we learned from MLC went pretty well as well! We had a baptism on Saturday for Sister Delia Guinanao! She's been a long time investigator and we wee blessed to be able to finally baptize her! She was so happy it was great!

Well I don't really have anything else too crazy to say! Other than Elder Lopez and I are really enjoying our companionship and we're excited to keep working together!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Sorry my message is so short. Next week I hope to hear of your insights from the Book of Mormon, and I will share mine as well!