Monday, April 20, 2015

Week #27

April 19, 2015

Hello! 

Well it hasn't been very long since the last time I emailed but it's been fun anyways! We have been having more and more success as the days go by and we are both very happy about that! This week there was even two consecutive days when we got 5 lessons each! We got 4 new investigators and committed another one to be baptized on June 6th and she accepted! We have been having a big problem though. We have a family of investigators who we think are just going to turn out as eternal investigators. The are the born Catholic, die Catholic type. The Catholic religion is literally the cause of all suffering for missionaries here in the Philippines. The problem with this family is that they won't accept the Book of Mormon. We have tried every approach and even, as our last try, we proved that we needed it using the bible. The problem is that they ask these questions and they don't listen. So we committed them to pray about it so we will see what happens. Also our branches are really starting to progress now too! I don't know why but our branch president in Talosa had a change of heart and he is really starting to take action. Also in the Canmogsay branch they are going to call a branch mission leader so that will really help progress the work there! Bad news though. One of our investigators is in the hospital. His mom told us that they woke up in the middle of the night and he was having convulsions. So yeah that's kind of scary. Oh and you know how I told you about Rina and Beverly? The two girls we baptized like 2 or 3 weeks ago? So yeah some Jehovah Witnesses have been visiting them and trying to convert them. It's funny to listen to the way Beverly describes it. So in our first lesson always with anybody we explain the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ and how he established his church. And how he established a specific form for that church. He Built his church on 4 specific foundations: Prophets, apostles, the priesthood, and revelation. So we explain that over time these four foundations were lost from the earth and the apostasy began because people were left with the Bible but no guidance from God. So of course a lot of people wanted to know the truth so they tried to understand the bible on their own and they formed their own churches. Basta, we explain that if a church doesn't have all 4 of these foundations it isn't true. So back to Beverly. The first thing she asked the Jehovah Witness people was if they have a prophet. Of course they answered no. After that she refused to listen. Rina and Beverly are literally the star investigators! They are so firm and can't be shaken. So my "spiritual thought" today is on faith. I want everybody who reads this letter to open to John 6:66 and read until verse 69. As a preface to this scripture there was a great falling away taking place in the church as a result of the persecution being heaped upon the saints. So Jesus Christ gathered his apostles around him and asked a simple question that I would like to ask all of you. "Will ye also go away?" Or in my words, when persecutions and trials are being heaped upon us are we just going to fall away and leave our faith? I'd like to think that we will answer this question the same way Peter did in verses 68 and 69. So yeah spiritual thought/kind of chastisement. Anyways that's it for the week! I love you all and thank you for your support and love.

Elder Child


Additional Notes:
*No pictures this week :-(
*I asked him if he attends the Branches in both of his areas and he said that they just attend church in Talosa because it is closest. Canmogsay is too far away.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Week #26

April 15, 2015
6 months today!!!!

Well this past week has been awesome! Our hard work and faith is really starting to pay off! We really shot up in lessons this week and we got a couple new investigators too. One of these new investigators is a lady that's about 35 years old and she is blind! The cool thing is though that her husband is a member and he is blind too! A blind couple. So that's pretty cool to be teaching them! Also, I don't know if I have said this yet, but we got a branch mission leader and he is awesome! He is helping us find all these less actives that we didn't even know existed. Just going by the number he has showed us we should have 250 people attending church every Sunday but we only have about 100. So yeah we have some work to do.. Also this past week we had the opportunity to do some service to the old lady in Canmogsay that always feeds us! We got to clean out some weeds and stuff from an area so they could plant some root crop plants there! It was hard work! We had to use these overly large hoe things and it was intense. It was there that I discovered that Filipinos like to talk more than work. So it was just me and the old nanay working while the other missionaries talked! Oh well she gave me brownies later so jokes on them! This week we also had the opportunity to bless an old lady with a raging fever. Like I'm talking you could feel the heat coming off of her. So we blessed her and she was fine the next day! It's these kind of experiences that really build my faith in the priesthood! So I also have a challenge for everybody! I've seen this in my mission a lot and I'm starting to wonder if the majority of people have done it. People here tend to be converted to the gospel because it looks attractive to them or they are converted to the missionaries. So we always ask them a question that I would like to extend to you. Have you prayed and asked Heavenly Father if this is the only true church on the earth. If you haven't I challenge you to do so. It makes all the difference in how you live your life as I have found out since I have been out. We also had the opportunity to talk to a married couple yesterday who were married in the temple. They have conflicts. They don't wear their garments. And they don't attend church. So we talked to them about prayer. The beginning of the lesson started out just trying to resolve concerns between them.  So we asked them how they usually resolve concerns. They told us they pretty much just cool down by themselves. So back to prayer. We taught them that if they pray as a couple that God would help them. I think that's what it really comes down to. Is that if we don't pray, or in other words tell ourselves that we don't need Gods help, then life will get harder. So I think for anybody in this situation the solution would be to pray together. God will help, life will get easier, and people will have a happier marriage. Basta, on better notes I got a foot spa this morning and it felt great! My feet kind of hurt but oh well! That's it for this week! Thank you for your love and support and I love you all!

Elder Child

Notes:
We went back and forth about the fact that sister missionaries are a lot of times more effective than elders.  I told him because we are more spiritual ;-) and tend to let our emotions show a little more.  I asked him if he has ever gotten emotional during a discussion and he said, "Yeah, about 13 weeks ago, during a discussion about prayer and really discovering the church was true."  He said that you can tell if people really know by the way they act, and said that it is his favorite lesson to teach.

Picture #1 - language study in English, Cebuano, Waray-Waray and Tagalog
Picture #2 - Apparently Spiderman looks a lot like Thor in the Philippines (look at the tag)



Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Week #25 - Happy Easter

April 6, 2015

6 months...

Well I've started to realize that this isn't really going to take long. I've already been out for 6 months and it's just going faster and faster. Anyways we just have transfers!! And guess what! I didn't get transferred... This means i am going to be in Talosa for 6 months. That's so long. Oh but Elder Dela Cruz is still my companion so that's good! So yeah finally after 6 weeks of cleaning up our branch after my last companion it is starting to progress again!! We finally got a branch mission leader. And it was the same guy that we suggested to the branch president 6 weeks ago but he waited 6 weeks and presented it as his own idea. Oh well! At least we got one! Also sadly I haven't had the opportunity to watch conference yet. We will be watching it this Saturday and Sunday! So this past week has been ok! Actually a little less than ok. We had 5 lessons total. My companion was sick with a 102 degree fever for 2 days and then we had delays on work because we didn't get support until Wednesday so we were completely out of money! Anyways Easter was fun! We didn't really celebrate it because my companion was about to die of sickness! Anyways we have set the goal for the next month to reach standard of excellence - 5 lessons, 20 new investigators, 2 baptisms. So yeah that's it! I love you!

Elder Child

Picture 1 - Beverly and Rinal Palana - 19 and 29-year old sisters who were baptized on Saturday.

Picture 2 - speaks for itself.  Brett is probably the tallest person to ever try and use it!

Notes: Lots of things shut down for Holy Week.  All of the public transportation was closed on Good Friday so there were stuck and unable to go to their area (they actually cover two areas but need a trike to get around).  He got two boxes that we mailed in January.  They had lots of food in them and Adam had decorated the outside of the boxes.  Brett loved that.  He is doing good, but the work in his area has slowed down since he has learned the rules and they don't teach if the circumstances don't allow.  That has been a little frustrating, but he and his companion get along well and they continue to push forward.



Thursday, April 2, 2015

Week #24 - Palm Sunday

March 29, 2015

Maajong udto!

So diri maupay an ini nga semana. Mayada kami 10 lessons lang. So yeah I don't know if this is still a test of our faith or what. Cause it's been being tested for the past three weeks. Hopefully we get blessings soon cause this is killing us! On the bright side we have two baptisms this coming Saturday!! These are our star investigators! They used to be Catholics but then they read the 10 commandments and realized that the catholic church doesn't follow them so they have been looking for the truth for a couple years. They have an awesome story too! Right after the first lesson we taught them they started receiving hard persecutions. Priests and preachers started visiting them and telling them to stay away from the Mormons. And using the exact words of one of them "stay away from those boys. They have their own book." But yeah they told us that they feel a huge difference when the talk to us and when they talk to the preachers! But this week we didn't even work two days because we got stuck in other areas due to no transportation. Anyways that's really all that happened! So yeah I love you!

Elder Child