Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Lord Must Have Some Crazy Plan that I Don't Know -November 13, 2016

Magandang umaga, hapon, o gabi!

Kumusta kayo lahat?  I'm doing good.  This week has been extremely busy, so I'll try to fill you in on as much as I can.  

First off, Novelyn had her baptismal interview last Saturday and she was found to be ready for baptism!  She's being baptized this Saturday and I'm super excited for her!  This is the first baptism in Cabugao in over six months! The branch is really excited and they're happy to see the missionaries start to have success due to their hard work.

Next, we had one of our investigators, Vladimir, text us on Tuesday saying "Elders, gusto gusto ko magmisyon sana. Tulungan ninyo ako no ihanda ang sarili mo para sa baptism." Which means "Elders, I really really REALLY want to serve a mission.  Help me prepare myself for baptism."  Elder Anuat and I were extremely excited to hear this.  Vladimir has a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. He has shared his testimony with us and has started sharing the gospel with his friends.  He's an awesome guy, and I'm excited to see him progress.  His baptism is scheduled for December 10. It's been an awesome experience to witness his conversion to the gospel.

We also had two new investigators this week from referrals, and they are very interested in the gospel. Both have a close relative who referred them to us, and their relatives join in on our lessons with them and share their testimony with the investigators. It's extremely powerful, and both of them (Shane and James) accepted the invitation to be baptized on December 10!  If everything goes to plan, we'll have three baptisms on December 10!

I just wish I'd be there to witness them all.  That's right, I'm being transferred again.  After having a very strong transfer in Cabugao, I'm being transferred to the farthest area in the mission on the opposite side of the island: Santa Ana.  Apparently I'm opening an area again, so we'll see how it goes.  I know the Lord has a plan for me, but I'm not ashamed to admit I was very excited to witness my first baptism in the mission.  Oh well, I'm sure there will be more people to accept the gospel in my new area, I'm just not looking forward to the ten hour bus ride to my new area.  

Spiritual thought time :)
This week, I was reading David A. Bednar's book "The Power To Become".  It's all about becoming Christlike and strengthening those attributes that help us truly take His name upon ourselves as members of the Church.  He gives a discourse on obedience, and one sentence really stuck out to me that I never realized, "True obedience is aligning our will with God's." I realized the truthfulness of this sentence this week more than ever. I really didn't want to transfer, my companion and I were having a lot of success and we were learning a lot from each other.  However, I realize now that this is the Lord's will, and I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded me.  I'm going to follow the mantra of Joseph Smith, "When the Lord commands, do it."  

That's all for this week,
Thank you for all the prayers and support!
Mahal ko kayo lahat,
-Elder Anderson

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