First Week With Francia -January 15, 2018

Magandang araw sa inyong lahat!
I'm happy to report that this week was a pretty good week. We were able to teach a part-member family compound (the dominant family name is Ibarra) and able to extend seven baptismal dates for February 17, and we are hoping to see them all progress. Sadly, they weren't able to come to church yesterday, but last week they did attend. We will be following up with them this week and see what caused them to not be able to come to church. Other than that, most of the week was spent helping Elder Francia become familiar with the area to prepare for any exchanges we will be having.

Speaking of Elder Francia, him and I are getting along great! At first I had to adjust a little to his teaching style, but now we're going strong. I really enjoy teaching with Elder Francia because his teaching style is so unique, but extremely effective in my opinion. I can clearly feel that he lets the Spirit be his guide and share what the Lord knows we need to share with those whom we are teaching. I've learned a lot already in this first week, and I can't wait to see what else I will be learning.

So.. we had an interesting teaching experience this week which I will mention.  We were teaching a new investigator, and her Mom and Grandma were sitting in on the lesson.  We were explaining the plan of salvation because one of her loved ones had recently passed away.  Eventually, we started discussing Jesus Christ and how He is central to God's plan for us.  We asked her Grandma who Jesus Christ was to her.  What followed was a story I will never forget.

She went on to explain how Jesus Christ appeared to her in a vision, and in this vision, they conversed about many great and marvelous things.  She claimed Christ had called her on an important mission here on earth to heal others.  Christ then proceeded to give this lady two high fives, which endowed her hands with the power to heal.  She then informed us that she makes her living in Manila healing others by touching them with her hands.

It took every ounce of my willpower to not burst out in laughter.  She used the most dramatic hand motions while explaining this experience, and she even stood on her chair towards the end.  Definitely unforgettable :)
I'm doing great, as usual. I've been continuing my study in the Old Testament and I finished 1 Kings this week. I have always loved the story of Elijah, and how he stands as such a sure witness of the fact that there is no other god but the true and living God. I specifically like what Elijah says as he is addressing the people before he challenges the priests of Baal, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him..." I feel this quote can have an impact on all of us who tend to struggle in keeping those commandments that seem a little hard to keep. We simply just need to make the decision to follow God because He knows more than us, He loves us and only wants to protect us. This can help us when commandments seem a little difficult to follow or we don't understand why we have to do certain things. If we just always remember that the Lord is God, the only God, then we don't have to worry about anything the world can do to or say about us.

Have a great week everyone!

Mahal ko kayong lahat!

Transfers Naman -January 7, 2018

Magandang araw sa inyong lahat!

So, transfers were this week and it looks like I'll be staying here in Sinait, but Elder Galos will not.

This week we had some pretty great successes, although at first we thought the week was going to be a little rough. We had about 3 of our Baptismal Dates expire this week and we weren't able to meet with them to re-extend the baptismal invitation. We also had made plans to extend about 10 more baptismal dates this week to our progressing investigators, but whenever we went to their homes they were too busy for us to share. However, we were able to invite them to come to church, which led to 9 of our investigators attending sacrament meeting. It was a great experience to have 9 investigators be able to attend Fast and Testimony meeting, where the Spirit is so strong with the bearing of testimonies of the members and missionaries. We have already made plans to return to the investigators this week and extend baptismal dates to all of them this upcoming week.

Elder Galos will be transferring and I can say I will miss this companionship. Even though we were together for six weeks, we were able to build a strong relationship and I will miss him. However, I'm also excited for my new companion, Elder Francia. I know him and I will be able to do great things together. I'm excited to see the progress of the zone this upcoming transfer.

I'm also doing great as well. I am so grateful for the scriptures and the guidance they bring into our lives. I was able to read the Liahona for this month of January, and I was impressed by Elder Russel M. Nelson's experience concerning his study of every reference of Jesus Christ. I was impressed with his comments on how strong his testimony became after this exercise, and I felt prompted to do this study exercise as well. I have made a goal to begin after I have finished my study of the Old Testament. I can't wait to see what will be learned.

Until next week!

Mahal ko kayong lahat!

Happy New Year! -January 1, 2018

Naragsak nga baro a tawen dagiti kabsatko!

I hope all of you had a great new year's celebration.  It's a pretty crazy thing to think that this year, 2018, I will be finishing my mission. It feels like yesterday I came into the field, and now I'm getting fairly close to leaving.  It's amazing how time flies in the mission.  I hope all of us will use this great opportunity to review our efforts in becoming Christlike and then make goals to adjust our behaviors to become more inline with the teachings of the Savior.

This week was actually a pretty solid week of work. We had some baptismal dates expire, but we were able to extend several more baptismal dates this week. We had a pretty great finding experience as well. We were going tracting in one of our areas that doesn't have a very large teaching pool and we felt like we saw isang nanay washing clothes outside. We felt impressed to talk to her and she invited us to sit and share with her. Once we sat down, she invited her family to come talk with us and we found out all of the adults in the compound were members, they just haven't been to church in a long time, but they had been able to be sealed in the temple. This led to us getting a return appointment, and several new part-member investigators. So far only two of them came to church this week, but they said they already had made too many plans for New Year's, so they wouldn't be able to make it; however, next week they should be able to attend.

Elder Galos and I are doing great as always. I really enjoy his companionship. We work so well together and it seems like we can read each others' thoughts when we are teaching. It has been great working with him, and I can't wait to continue working with him for as long as the Lord will allow. He has helped me a lot in adjusting to the new area, and I've truly been blessed by his advice and his guidance about our relationships with the members and in how to better build relationships with the Less-Active members. I'll be sad when we have to separate.

I'm doing great as well. I'm happy for this new year and a chance to become a better and more Christlike missionary. I'm grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the year and determine what needs to be changed and what I can improve on in order to better bring my life in harmony with the gospel and Christ's teachings. I'm so excited to make plans and set goals for this year, and I've already made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon at least two more times before finishing my mission. I've also made a goal to start a notebook where I take all of the chapters in the Book of Mormon and write a summary of the chapter and the key points of doctrine discussed in the chapter. I feel like this will definitely help me better understand the Book of Mormon and strengthen my testimony of its truthfulness.

Mahal ko kayong lahat!

Until next week!