Dupax Del Norte: 6.2.14

So this week was pretty good! A lot of People are asking about how the rainy season is here. Its rains everyday here harder than I have ever seen the rain in America so its kind of crazy! There are also sometimes some really really strong storms and its sometimes hard because we cant really work when its like that because all the people are hiding and its too dangerous to go out. But its also kind of fun, life here is always an adventure.

The work is  a little bit harder here but we are doing a ton of finding. So we are going to be having a bunch of return appointments this week! I Hope we can manage to get a bunch of new investigators. Im hoping that by the end of myu time here we can have a huge pool of people to teach!

I Love my mission and even though sometimes its harder and sometimes its easier I learn new things everyday about myself, my comp, and the importance of this life and this work and for that I am eternally grateful!

Like Always My prayers go out to you in my absence. Dont forget to Pray everyone! This life wasnt designed to be done alone, we need the help of others but most importantly of our father in heaven! I  love this work and I know its the work of our Lord here on the Earth! Love you all Take care!

 

The pink house looks like peach's castle for those of you who know what that is. I always think when we walk past it one of these days, that I will see Bowser running out of it with Peach in a burlap sack.

 

Dupax Del Norte: 5.26.14

Well everyone im in Dupax del Norte. (DEW-POX) As in Mountain DEW and then Chicken POX. And the greatest news of all is that I made it to the mountains! Im in one of the prettiest areas in the mission! We have a small branch here but we have a good meeting house! We also have missionaries in Del Sur and they only have a shack for their sacrament meeting haha! But this area is amazing. We live in the jungle here in the mountains and most of the people here live in little small bamboo shacks with thatched roofs. The other thing is although Im fluent in Filipino (Tagalog) most of the people here speak Ilocano. Most of the time we can communicate through simple Tagalog but sometimes its impossible and we have to bring one of the members of our Branch to translate! Life here is definetly different! The water here we shower with is so freezing because we are higher in elevation but so is the weather so you give and you take haha! 

 The work here is cool. Its definitely slower than my last area but the Branch is very organized and we have lots of help from the members. Im hoping we can turn this area into something amazing by the end of my time here! 

My new companion is Elder Pacate. Its always kind of funny whenever I say his name I think im going to mess up and say Macate which means Itchy in Tagalog. Hes super funny and kind of crazy in a really hilarious way. So were going to have fun! Hes super hard working too which I have been praying my new companion would be. 

I havent had much of a chance to meet many people to talk about in this email so next week I will tell you about the people here, but this morning since its P-day we went hiking and I got some pictures on top of the mountain. 

Well, thank you all for your prayers and your love! I hope you all enjoy the pictures and Ill talk to you soon!

The one picture with the missionary standing in the doorway is the chapel in del sur! So crazy right?

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 5.19.14

Hey everyone were just gonna hit the highlights this week! 

We found an amazing family because its the sister of one of our recent converts and their mother is a member too! They will be baptized, they already hav a testimony of the priesthood, we have been going there this week and they are super awesome and already looking forward to baptism so we are just working on helping them build their testimony. 

I said bye to a lot of people this week and will finish saying goodbye tomorrow to everyone else because I am transferring now! Im almost done packing and I will be leaving on Wednesday so just one more day. Its sad because this area is where I learned how to be a missionary and how to be a Filipino but Im excited to move on and serve in another area. So Im sure I will have lots of new things to talk about next week!

Im thankful for all the many miracles I was able to see here and all the amazing blessings of missionary service! 

Like always thanks for your support. Until next time!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 5.5.14

Last week there was no internet in my town here where I am assigned so I had to come back on Tuesday to write a few short messages so my family would know I am still alive. Im going to keep it short this week because the work has been kind of slow! 

There are good and bad things about staying in one are in your mission for 6 months. Some bad things are you dont get to explore new places or meet very many new people. but the good things are you build good relationships with the people. Since transfer day is only 2 weeks out and Its fairly certain that I will be transferred a lot of the people have been telling me to be sure and come by before I leave. I have grown to love these people so much and Its cool to see that I have made a big enough Impact on them that they will miss me after I am gone! 

The really miracle this week is that our convert was baptized and confirmed. This mans family was baptized years ago and he was not baptized with them but this week he joined them in the covenant of our lord. His testimony after his baptism was so powerful. Its a hard translation but basically what he said is that since he knows the church is true and he is happy now he said for the rest of his life here on the earth this is where he will stay. Its been so amazing to be the missionaries that finally got into the heart of this man after he shooed the missionaries away for the past years. This man is now a priesthood holder and truly a latter-day saint. 

Its important for us all to remember that our conversion doesnt stop at our baptism. Part of the 5th principle of the gospel "enduring to the end" is continuing our conversion all the way through this life. So I invite you all to ask yourselves what you can do to be a more converted disciple of Jesus Christ and then pray for the strength to do that. 

Im eternally grateful to god for the incredible memories I make here every week! Talk to you all soon!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 4.29.14

Hey the internet died in our town yesterday so we couldn't email yesterday, even today its really bad so Im not really going to write other than I love you guys and Im doing fine here! Take care everyone and I promise to write a lot next week! When you serve in the Philippines sometimes the internet is bad!! Take care everyone your always in my prayers!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 4.21.14

This email isnt going to be insanely long this week but this week has been full of awesome experiences! 

Every chance we got this week we taught people about Easter and the Resurrection of the savior! That was a ton of fun. We taught that to all our members, investigators and our less active members! Always what it came back to is there a lot of people doing many different things all around the world on this Holiday to remember Jesus Christ but the thing we ought to be doing is the thing that he himself gave us to remember him and his sacrifice. And that is the sacrament!  

The savior knew he would be leaving for a long time so he gave the people the sacrament so that in this time that we are awaiting his return. It was amazing this week to teach families that they will live again because Jesus broke the bonds of death that they may no longer hold the sons of men. There wa a few kids that I asked what will happen after they die and they didnt know. It was such an amazing experience to get to to tell them that they will live again after their mortal body dies. And "in that day our mortal will put on its immortal". 

The other thing thats awesome this week is that the baptism is still on for our investigator for the 30th. He told us this week that when the other missionaries who taught him before would come he would be very nice to them. But he cried this week when he told us that we truly are messengers of God and he knows because every time we teach him he can feel the spirit and it testifies to him of the truth. We need to work hard and find more progressing investigators but I have grown to love that man and his family so much! And I am so excited for his baptism in the upcoming weeks! 

The last thing I want to say is that I have found one of my strength as a missionary! The truth is that I am scared to talk to people most of the time, I know that everyone thinks that missionaries are fearless but its not quite true. However I love playing with kids, I always love to talk to them and join in on the games they are playing, and if nothing else I will always tlak to them and have them teach me some Ibinag or Ilocano (those are the other two languages in my area). But I dicovered this week that If im going to play with them then the parents are going to come and see what we are doing and then we introduce they gospel to all of them. Its just good to see that missionaries are just regular people as well. So its been a ton of fun my whole mission to do that and I have seen many good things come from the people we meet by just being kind and genuine to everyone. 

I love you all and hope you had an awesome holiday! Dont forget to share your testimony of the savior when the spirit prompts you too! Take care all!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 4.13.14

This week was kind of an odd week because of Conference. Our stake Center is n our ride away on a bus so we have been traveling back and forth alot. So we havent been out with the people as much but conference is important. Speaking of conference it was super good. I especially loves the talks by Elder Oaks about the Priesthood as well as President Uchtdorf is always an all-star as well. Even though we watch it a week later here It was super awesome to feel the spirit of the apostles. It just builds my testimony of what we tell people all the time. That if Jesus Christ called apostles during his ministry it would warrant that the restored church has apostles as well. I know that they are all called of God. 

Anyways, this week was still pretty good. One amazing thing happened. I was having a terrible   day on Thursday, yes missionaries can have bad days as well, we had zone conference that day and for some reason my attitude was very very bad. Once we finally got back here and got to work our first appointment was at our investigator who we found a couple weeks ago because he attended church with his family. Everyone told us that he has rejected being taught by the missionaries a million times and doesnt want to listen. Well we have got news for all those people because he told us on Thursday that he knows in his heart that all these things are true and he wants to be sealed with his family. He will be baptized on April 30th. Let it suffice to say that after hearing those words I was happy for the rest of the day. The work here is like a cure all. If your unhappy or upset, hit the pavement and you will feel better in no time. 

We live in a furnace here I dont remember if I wrote this already but we move all our beds downstairs everynight to take advantage that its 5 degrees cooler downstairs. Every little bit helps. But they say that it will be rainy season in about a month. 

We had anther awesome experience with the power of the priesthood. We blessed a baby who was sick and her mom said that just a little while after we let she was better. She had been sick for a week. It would be easy to say thes things are a coincidence. But I dont think coincidences like this would be happening so frequently haha. Lets just say my testimony of blessings has significantly increased. 

One other really col thing that happened this week is that on Tuesday we felt like we should go visit this awesome family even though we had visited them just a few days before. We found them with all their things packed up and they told us our timing was good because they were about to leave to Manila. They wont be coming back. The mother said she had been praying that we would come so that we could say goodbye. It is one of the tender mercies of the Lord that I got to say goodbye with them and pray for their safety in the rest of their life. 

I know this work is true, and although we are not perfect missionaries this work is guided everyday through the hand of god. We will not fail with him at the helm. Hold tight to his word and take faith in his plan. We are all called an have a divine destiny, I do not know mine yet but I do believe that by being here in the Philippines I am getting closer to understanding. Take faith everyone. I love you and Ill catch you all next week!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 4.7.14

This week has been so amazing. We have been trying are hardest to find new people to teach and we managed to find 7 new investigators in one week. Yesterday we had 2 investigators at church. So The work here is going good and there are no complaints on my part. I was anticipating being transferred but I found out this morning that I will be staying here in Tumauini again this cycle. Thats just fine with me because there are so many people here that would have been so hard to say goodbye too. Although its only going to get worse now that I will just have to say goodbye to them after having spent even more time with them but its entirely too early to think about that! 

Im looking forward to another cycle here and I am excited to see what we can accomplish here!

Now to the Miracle that I wrote I mentioned in the subject line! This week I saw a miracle of God. We taught our investigator who lives right next to the hospital and there was a little boy walking with us who said his cousin was confined in there. I told him that after we taught our investigator we would go over there and peek into the window at her. This hospital is a nightmare. There are part of the walls that are broken, the back door that we went in had broken cement pillars that we had to climb over and it looks like a pre-modern medicine nightmare. There is a room that has 8 hospital beds and 3 children per bed. I literally hate going there. But after we were done at our investigator we walked over there to the window. We looked inside and we saw the baby and his mom was there to. I told the mom that we were missionaries and If she would let us we would love to bless her Child. I annointed the child and Elder Domingo and I blessed it together. The baby cried the whole time.  We left. The next day we found out that right after we walked out of the room the Baby stood up and opened its eyes and the fever that was raging as we blessed it was completely gone. The next thing the Mother said was "Naniniwala na ako." translation "I believe now."

This powerful experience has been one of the most amazing things I have seen on my whole mission and probably my entire life. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of that type of event. It just blows my mind that two young boys wandering around a strange land can find opportunities to heal people in the name of God. I want to bear sincere testimony to you all that it was indeed through faith and the power of God that miracles were wrought by Christ. I know it to be true because I have seen it now. And I cannot deny it. 

I know this work is a true work. Its because this church is the Church of Christ here on Earth its the same church that he established when he lived here. And thats the reason that we have the same power he used. God really is an unchanging God of Miracles. I love you all! Take care! 

-Elder Petersen

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 3.31.14

So this was a definitely one of those roller coaster weeks. I have been kind of having a hard time dealing with some of the opposition that we are facing here by some of the people here in our area but thats part of being a missionary and we will be fine. The highlights of this week are much more important! 

We had a baptism! We got to baptize 4 boys in a part member family. Its one of the greatest miracles of my mission so far to have had the opportunity to see this family go to inactive to completely active and all the children that are eligible to be a baptized. I seriously had a blast teaching them. We have been going there like every other day to get them ready for their baptism and its been a ton of fun to teach them everything as well as play with all those kids. Im excited too because we are going to go have a FHE with them tonight. It should be a ton of fun. Im going to link a photo that we took probably 30 seconds before they got baptized! I love those kids! 

The other people that have been progressing this week are Tatay Vargus. He says that he wants to be baptized now he just wants to make sure he is ready to live in accordance with everything. Even tyhough its only been a couple weeks so far that we have been teaching him it has been a ton of fun. He has amazing real intent and awesome questions. I know he will be baptized some day im just not sure when! 

We got to dig trenches one day this week. Digging trenches in the sun in the Philippines is a load of fun for all of us who havent tried in before! xD But later that day we got to teach our long time investigator. Normally her mother is there but this time she wasnt. She told us that she knows what we are telling her is true and she wants to act on it but she is scared to act alone. This is sad but amazing to hear! I feel bad for her situation but I can tell the spirit has really been working on her! 

I had the opportunity to speak in church yesterday. I talked about enduring trials for about 20 minutes and at the end I shared my favorite verse in all of scripture. We can find it in Revelation 20

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more ^adeath, neither ^bsorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more ^cpain: for the former things are passed away.

7 He that ^aovercometh shall ^binherit ^call things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my ^dson.

I love these verses so much. I find so much comfort in them. I hope you all can too love you all. Take Care!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 3.24.14

This week has been pretty awesome. Elder Domingo have been trying to teach more while we find. As missionaries we are supposed to teach while we find and find while we teach. We usually are asking for referrals but we have been struggling with the teaching while we find. But we have a new investigator this week because we decided to give it a try. She is super nice but she just keeps saying She already believes all the things we a re telling her. If thats true then I guess she will be baptized soon haha! We'll see what happens. 

The super good news for this week is we will baptize 4 people this week. We moved their baptism back a week because they missed church last week but they all came on Sunday so as long as they all pass the baptismal interview we will be good. We have been working super hard with them to prepare them so they should be fine. Its been super fun to see this family grow. The story is the mother who I have been teaching for the past 4 months got baptized last year just a few months after her husband passed away. They have 6 children and another family living in the same house. We are baptizing all the kids who are in the Part member family who are over 8. Its been a ton of fun teaching them. They all want to serve missions now. As in when we leave they try and follow us to our other appointments because they want to participate in missionary work. Its super funny as well because they never sue dot wear watched before but because they saw E. Domingo and I wearing watches and now they all magically have watches and wear them everyday now haha! I have a blast going there and teaching and being with that family. I hope the day comes when They write me a letter saying that they are all missionaries now. This work is truly amazing.  

We also have a new investigator who is the only nonmember in his whole family. Everyone always says that he doesnt want to meet with the missionaries but when My companion sat down next to him they realized they are both from Bocolod and they started speaking Hiligaynon. So we taught him after church on Sunday and I dont know what everyone was saying because that guy is like a super prepared individual. Maybe its just his time now. I pray that it is and that he progresses. He goes back to Manila in a month so I hope we can baptize him here if not we'll have to refer him to the missionaries down there. As long as he gets baptized so he can enjoy they the blessings with his family It doesnt really matter. 

Im doing great here over in the Philippines though. Im super excited for our baptisms this week and we are so blessed to be able to work in this area with these amazing people. I may be transferring soon so I am just enjoying everyday here in Tumauini. I make memories everyday that I know that I wont forget. I love you all and hope you are doing amazing! Dont forget to smile and pray always!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 3.17.14

Happy St Patricks day! Too bad nobody here knows what that is. Haha its barely a holiday over there in America it definitely didnt make it here. Everything moves on here as usual nothing too unusual this week but we did get to borrow bikes this week which was super fun it turned a 3 hour walk into a 25 minute ride. I didn't really like biking before my mission but now I would kill to get to use a bike everyday. 

We will be baptizing 2 children in a part member family today as long as everything goes well with their interview to I am super excited for that. But it wouldnt be the life a missionary if I also wasnt super sad that we have to move the baptismal date of our other members of a different part member family back because they havent been attending church due to sickness. The decision was ultimately left to us but we decided that they need to come to church a few more times even though they are sick. But they will be baptized soon as well nonetheless.

We had a few other people commit to baptism this week:

The first is Gladys who is a 17 year old girl who is super interested in the gospel and loves us forever because we gave her a Book of Mormon. So humble. We have a ton of fun teaching her and I hope that she can start attending church. 

Another Investigator, Tatay Launza, is the one who we have to ride the bikes too. We usually just have to take the 3 hour walk out there though. He is the husband in a family of members. I am confident that he will be baptized soon as he committed to baptism this week. I cant wait to see that family get sealed in the temple! 

Our other investigator we have been working with for a long time but finally committed to be baptized when she knows our message is true. 

I feel bad because i only write about a few people that we teach but really there are dozens and I love them all. But it suffices me to say we will keep working with them all and continue to help them make covenants with our God. 

Im just about used to the heat here in the Philippines. The key is just to take a shower every time you get the chance. The only thing cold here is the water that comes out of the shower. Kind of unfortunate but I would actually rather choose the water to always be cold rather than always hot haha! 

I love this service so much and I know that my life is changing because of it. Im learning to feel more deeply concern for everyone that I meet. And I hope that I am improving as well in the other aspects of this work. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and all of you who support me! Have an amazing week!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 3.10.14

This was my first full week with Elder Domingo! We have a ton of fun together. We have a ton of stuff in common including our likes in TV shows and games. Neither of which we are actually allowed to participate in but its cool that we have fun stuff to talk about and get along well. But one thing that he is super good at what we in the field call BRT it stand for Building Relationships of Trust. He is like a genius at it. I feel like im picking it up a little better with his help so I am super grateful for that. 

We were able to have a lot of work this week but as like very week it has it ups and downs. The ups being that we got to teach our prodigal children investigators who are a blast to teach. If all people were as fun and easy to teach as children the work would be a breeze. They keep their assignments they volunteer, and they ask questions. Its a blast to teach them the gospel. 

One thing that was super fun this week is we got to ride bikes on day. Although we dont have bikes our Mission President approved us to borrow our Bishops bikes when we have to go really far away. This is to prevent us getting stuck far away at night and not being able to get back in time for curfew due to a lack of transportation at night. That happened to us once this week. On top of everything else our phone dies so we couldnt even call and tell the other missionaries we were still alive. Luckily no drastic measures were taken before we arrived. 

As to the rest of our work its moves forward. No huge leaps of progress to speak of seeing as we had no investigators at church which break my heart a little every time it happens. But we did experience one miracle this week. We were planning at night one day this week and we planned for all the people we were going to teach the following day except one sister. We just felt like we should wait. WE planned the next morning for her before we left and we decided to teach here about charity. We went to her house and taught her and she was crying and just kept saying that what we were teaching her was the exact thing she needed to hear that day. 

I will testify to you that even though that is a small miracle it a miracle. And I will testify that God is a God or Miracles. He is the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Israel. He is our father and he loves all. He gives us strength when we have exhausted our own. I love this work and there is nowhere else id rather be. 

I love you all and Ill Talk to you soon!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 3.3.14

So this week I said goodbye to my Tatay (it means father in Tagalog) Its mission slang for my trainer. That was on Wednesday. On Tuesday we went around and taught some members and some less-actives so that Elder Espino could say goodbye. It made me realize that the day that I leave this area I will definitely cry. Just thinking about that hurts but that what we have to deal with out here. I love the people here so much. But anyways on Wednesday we rode a bus down to Cauayan and I left my umbrella on the bus by accident (don't worry mom it isnt the one you bought me, it was a cheap one i bought here). Anyways my companion headed out son after to his new area in Santiago City (He must have very strong faith because thats where hes been wanting to get transferred), and I proceeded to wait for 6 hours for my new companion to arrive from Tugegarao. 

My New companions name is Elder Domingo. Filipino of course. He is from a city called Bocolod on the Island of Bisayas. We have a lot in common: Tagalog isn't our native language. We both like Blizzard games (mainly Diablo), we both like chips and soda, and we are now both assigned in Tumauini. Hes 20 years old and his native language is Bisayas. Hes pretty good at English. We get very good at understanding broken English though so maybe hes just alright. Im teaching him though because he wants to get a job at a call center after his mission. Hes been out for around 9 months, and is super good at teaching and being friendly. Im already learning so much from him in that regard. 

Ive seen a couple miracles this week. Both small but both very significant to me. All last week after I found out my trainer would be transferred I prayed that whoever my companion would be and no matter what their weaknesses would be that they would be able to work well with me. That prayer was answered. Elder Domingo and I have a ton of fun joking together, talking, and teaching. It will be a ton of fun to work with him. The other miracle is one sister who we have been visiting for a couple of months now told us this week she wants to come back to the church and repent for the things shes done wrong in her life. I know its because of the new way we teach and make the people feel comfortable. I have really seen the hand of the lord in my life this week.

A quick summary of all the rest, we are still teaching the 3 kids of a part member family. I have a blast teaching them. We have a new investigator to this week who seems to be very interested and asks a ton of questions. She was a little skeptical about the concept of a living prophet. Elder Domingo tried to explain the reason why but it had no effect. It built my testimony greatly when although Im not as good at the language as my Filipino companion, I asked her "Who do you think God loves more: the people from the bible or the people of our generation." Or course she replied "the same". I was able to explain that since God loves all his children the same why would he give Christ's church the guidance of a living prophet in one dispensation and not another. I gained a testimony that when the spirit enlightens your mind on how to explain something you need to speak up. 

I would like to end on that note. God loves us the same as all the people before us and all the people after us. Thats why he is still a God of miracles. Pray for miracles. Have Faith. I know you will see the result. I love you all and hope you se a miracle this week.

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 2.24.14

Im going to keep it short this week because it has been super slow. The reason being that we are having the Tumauini town festival here this week. Everyone is either busy or uninterested. I hope this next week goes better. I will be having a new companion the day after tomorrow. I hope he is ready to work because there is alot more to be done here. The one highlight of my week, is that we set a baptismal date with the 3 children of our recent convert. This means we will have atleast 3 baptisms next month if all goes through (it should). Im super excited for that. 

Im anxious to see who my new comp will be and excited for the many adventures ahead of me. Love you all and hope I have more to share next week!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 2.16.14

This week was fairly average. The cycle here is coming to a close and I will have a new companion next week. I wonder who it will be! Anyways we have a few new updates this week:

Catriz Boys: 

We started teaching 3 sons of our Recent convert. They will more than likely be baptized next month. Its a blast teaching them though. Teaching kids is my favorite. I suppose thats why the scriptures tell us to become like children. ITs when we are like children that we are most receptive to learning and growth.

Nester:

This is the wife of a member who we have never been able to teach til this week. Its sort of too soon to tell but I think he will progress. He was so thankful for us teaching him. His wife who we visit every week was so thankful for us teaching her husband that I though she was going to cry. I hope his heart continues to soften. One hilarious thing is after our lesson which was in the middle of nowhere we were walking back when he rode up on his scooter. He offered us a ride we reluctantly accepted and then proceeded to put 3 men on one vespa sized scooter and go. It was hilarious. but the most I have ever seen here is 5 people on a motorcycle. I pray I never see  6. 

Guiyab:

One thing about the Philippines is everyone and their dog is Catholic and worships idol and mother Mary,  but nobody including their dogs know what the Bible actually  says. We have been teaching this sister for a month now but not much progress but the past couple lessons there have been really good she seems to be opening up. This week she asked us why we dont worship Idols. We showed her in her bible where God specifically tells the entire world to not create aor worship graven images. Shock. We'll see where it goes but I hope her heart continues to soften. 

I love the work here and although I dont have time to write about everyone here I love them all. I love my area here and I love all you back home and serving elsewhere in the world. Have a good one!

Illagan: Tumawini 2nd 2.10.14

In the Philippines you carry an umbrella 365 days a year. The reason for this is because its either raining, or so hot that you need an umbrella to keep the sun off you. This week we had to carry them for the latter reason. Did I complain about the heat in the past? Yes, and now i want to go back and time and beat myself up because my past self didn't know what hot was. The best way to explain it is when you open the oven that hot air ours out and hits your face and it doesnt burn but its hurts a little. Thats how it feels. And because of this the electric fans that we use at night to be able to sleep no longer blow cold it blows warm now. But enough about the weather, this isnt the news. 

We met a bunch of really awesome people this week. We had 3 investigators in church yesterday. Larmi and Kriselda (22ish)  and Sister Guisman. Larmi and Kriselda are two women who we met on the street a week ago and went back and taught a few days ago. We taught them the resoration and they accepted out invitation to come and pick them up for church. Its was awesome to be able to get them to church so fast. I hope they continue. Sis Guisman is he wife of a member of our ward who hasnt seemed to serious in out past visits with her but this last lesson we had her husband bear a small testimony and it seemed to work on her. Missionary work with members is so much more successful. 

One fun thing that we do over here as missionaries is every week after district meeting in Ilagan we go eat lunch together as a zone. There is this place here that is called Mang Inasal. You order a piece of roasted and you get unlimited rice with it. We sometimes see who can eat the most rice. Its a ton of fun and it only cost about $2 American so its sweet. I dont know what else to say other than Life as a missionary is a ton of fun and so rewarding. I know that we are doing the work of God here. And I know that this is the one true church. Its so simple. This is the church that Christ established on earth. Why would anyone join a church about Christ when the Church of Christ is here. I love teaching people this and I know the spirit testifies that its true. Remember how blessed we are that we know the truth and once we realize how great a blessing it is, the next logical step in thinking is that we need to tell other people that its true! Dont be scared to share that testimony! I love you all and hope you have a stress-free and happy week! 

Since I know this is everyones favorite part! Last week I got a photo compressor so I can send them all in one email. Now i dont have to feel bad for clogging everyones email! Here it goes:

 These first two photos are of Joel (my best friend) , Joel's friend, and I. Joel has hair lip so he cant really talk. So he walks around with that other boy and we communicate through him. Joel points to our pockets (his way of asking for money) and we found out that its because he wants money to go buy cheese-curls (theyre his favorite) . I love this little boy and whenever we walk this way I always bring candy with me to give to him. Hes spoiled now but I love him. Sometimes when he sees us from very far away we see him run to us.

 

 

The next is a dessert here they call Halo-Halo (ha-low ha-low) its means mixture in english. Its basically a bunch of little jellies and ice and ice cream. Its super good and the best part is its cold!

 

 

The next is a scarecrow that we had near our house because its scarecrow festival right now. Even though there is no crows xD

 

 

The last is Me and sister Gangan's puppy. Sister Gangan is my favorite woman and this is my new favorite puppy. Good incentive for the long walk to her house in the middle of nowhere xD