Week #89

June 27, 2017

Hello!!

This week in the Philippines a member of the Seventy gives a training, old friends visit, and I get to see Elder Clark :)

Well this past week was quite a ride and very very tiring! (I feel like I say that every week! haha anyways it was pretty awesome!) It started off with me getting sick on Monday.. You already know that.. And then on Tuesday we had a good day of work teaching our amazing investigators!

So just an update on Martin Baguinon. (that's his real name I kinda messed it up last week!) anyways he is doing awesome! He currently reads from the Book of Mormon every day and yesterday he went to church for the second time since we started teaching him last Saturday! He is so awesome and is always texting and asking us when he can be taught again! He is 25 years old and applying to be a teacher but hasn't yet found a position yet! So he said he is just going to concentrate on the church for now! He is progressing so great and we love to see the change that is taking place in his life!

So on Wednesday Elder Shane M. Bowen of the Seventy came to visit the mission. So on Wednesday we had MLC (missionary leadership council) with him and he gave an amazing training on the priesthood and how there shouldn't be any discrimination in the mission! Then on Thursday we had an awesome combined zone conference in Catbalogan. Here he gave trainings on the house of Israel, the Abrahamic Covenant, baptismal covenant, and the oath and covenant of the priesthood!!! Did you know that we are the only church that teaches the gathering of Israel? This truly is the church of Jesus Christ.

So Elder Rosit and I are doing great! We are working super hard and trying our hardest to help the branch here in Borongan! We love them so much and the are helping us also to further the work of salvation here. 
One thing our district here is trying to push is getting seminary and institute age people to attend! Seminary and institute are super helpful and help you prepare for your future and also to make and keep covenants with Heavenly Father in the temple!

Well that's it for this week! Sorry it's not much but we are kinda in a hurry! Thank you all for your love and support!!

Elder Child

PS. no pictures kay this computer is lame

Week #88

June 21, 2016

Hello!!

This week in the Philippines there is a fiesta, we have exchanges, and I get sick... again.

So yeah it was a pretty fantastic week! Until about yesterday. But I'll talk about that later.

We did some hard work this week! Like literally it was super hard because our most progressing area had a fiesta this week so we couldn't go there and teach anyone! Maybe it was the Lord's way of saying "Go somewhere else!!!". And it worked! We went and worked in other areas and we had to put a little more effort into it because we knew we couldn't go back to the area previously noted! What we once thought were impossible areas actually showed a lot of blessings when we put some work into it! This week we found a new investigator on Saturday in brgy. Tabok. An area that we have never had any investigators in. His name is Martin Baguin and he is awesome! We taught him on Saturday and as he gave the closing prayer he thanked God for sending us in answer to his prayers! Then he came to church the very next day! It was so awesome to see!

So I got to go on exchanges with Elder Clark, the missionary that I trained more than 6 months ago. It was so crazy to see far we have both come and how much he has improved in everything! He is still the same joyful happy person I know and it was a good experience to work with him again! I learned a lot!

So yesterday we planned an activity with some of the youth here in Borongan to go caving! There is a massive cave inside of a mountain here and they said that it's pretty cool! Anyways we woke up early yesterday to go there and hiked all the way to the cave! It looked super tiny from the outside. Sadly that's as far as I got because my body decided to be sick for the first time in 3 weeks at that precise moment. I then proceeded to have bowel activity 3 times in less than 30 minutes and have major stomach pains. So a branch missionary and I went home and I continued to be sick for the rest of the day. So that's why I am emailing today. So we will be going back another time so I can experience the inside! The pictures look pretty cool though!

Oh yeah so one of our investigators with a baptismal date this week made a huge turn on us! His name is Nikky Rivera and he has been investigating the church for 24 years. Anyways this past week we went to visit him and were inspired to teach the word of wisdom. He readily admitted that he has had a smoking problem for forever but said that he has felt a need to change that within the past couple weeks!  He hasn't been baptized before because he has never been to church and we only just found out about his problem with smoking! It has only been within these last couple weeks that he has started coming to church and he is fixing his smoking problem. When we saw him at church on Sunday he looked like he was different and had a whole new light in his life!

Well that's it for this week! It was good. Thank you for all your love and support!
Elder Child

Pic 1 - "part of the activity yesterday"
Pic 2 - "part of the activity"
Pic 3 - "During MCM.  It got kinda long."
Pic 4 - "dropped in on a youth activity"

Week #87

June 13, 2017

Hello!!

This week in the Philippines, miracles happen, I realize that my nostrils are lopsided, and I lose my wallet.
So this was quite an adventurous week here in the Philippines! We did a lot of hard work and had so much success! There is a massive university in our area and the member students have really been taking missionary work seriously! We have been contacting referrals like crazy and they are all so awesome! Youth every where should take missionary work seriously! It makes you happy and it makes the person you are teaching happy! 1 Nephi 8:12

So yeah this week I lost my wallet. We were on our way to Tacloban on Friday to go on exchanges. The ride is a solid 3 hours so of course I fell asleep. So when I woke up I didn't realize that my wallet had fallen on the floor and I proceeded to get out of the van and leave the terminal! I only realized that my wallet was gone when we went to eat and I discovered that I had no money. So it was a really stressful day. So yeah I got all my cards canceled and everything. Then the miracle happened. On Sunday we were sitting in church when I get a text from some members in Hilongos, my last area. They said that they had gotten a call from a guy who had been the driver of the van we had been riding in. He was in Guiuan at the time which is a 2 hour drive from Borongan. They said that the guy had my wallet and he had found it the van just earlier that day! Anyways, long story short I got my wallet back even though I totally thought that it was gone!!

Also this week our house got broken into. We got a portable DVD player stolen and my USB. 

So yeah I had to go get my visa pictures taken this past week for my visa to Brazil. Anyways while looking at the pictures I realized that my nostrils are lopsided. Kinda weird.

Well that's pretty much it for this week! Thanks for all your love and support!

Elder Child

(Here are Brett's descriptions of the pictures)
Pic 1 - "some cool homemade goggles!"
Pic 2 - "failed attempt.  The sun was already up so I couldn't get a pic with the sunrise.  Next week na lang."
Pic 3 - "P day last week!  It was raining so the water coming down from the mountains made the ocean so dirty."
Pic 4 - "also this morning"
Pic 5 - "this morning"
Pic 6 - "a souvenir that a member from Hilongos got for me when they went and toured the Philippines!  It's so cool and hopefully it doesn't break before I get home!"

Week #86 - 600 days out!

June 6, 2016

Hello!!
This week in the Philippines someone plays a saxophone, we find lots of past investigators, and I kill someone...

Well this week was awesome! It started off by watching my last companion , Elder Ama, leave Borongan on his way home! And then I got to be companions with a branch missionary, Raffy Amboy, for 3 days until I got my companion. Then on Wednesday I got my new companion! Elder Rosit is his name and guess what! He is the cousin of Elder Dela Cruz, my follow up trainer. They also live in the same house in their hometown of Malolos, Bulacan. What a coincidence! Anyways he is awesome and such an obedient and hard working missionary and our work has been awesome thus far!

We have been so successful in our work! We have been striving to find and teach all the investigators that have somehow been lost and not taught in past cycles by missionaries! The people that we have found are so happy to see us and accept us into their homes! They have missed the missionaries and are happy to see us again! One of these families is the Vianes Family. They were found and taught about 4 months ago but the missionaries never went back until this past week! When they saw us walking up they were so happy and told us to come back always. We found out that they had been reading the Book of Mormon and the Restoration Pamphlet ever since the missionaries taught them!

Borongan is doing awesome! Sorry I won't be sending any pictures that I took before May 30th because my SD card got corrupted and the pictures were lost. Including the pictures of the baptism we had in the ocean... sad day :(

My spiritual thought this week is about the message of the Restoration. It is the message to all the world the the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. That we have a living Prophet today that receives revelation to lead and guide us. That this is the Church of Jesus Christ.

That is it for this week! I love you all!
Elder Child

Week #85

May 30, 2016

Hello!!

So this is going to be very very short. 

We just now got to the internet shop because we have been busy all day. I watched Elder Ama leave this morning and it was so sad! I am now with a branch missionary until wednesday when i will receive my next companion. My SD card just got corrupted again... I will fix it next week!

That is all! I love you all! I gotta go home!

Elder Child