Week 10

Kumusta Pamilya!

Well the weeks are getting faster and faster, Elder Kelson is running out of time, and we are getting busier. Elder Kelson has to do a whole bunch this week, we are doing splits one tuesday, I'll go with Elder Sarignaya a new Filipino Zone Leader, (Elder Vinyas the old zone leader in santiago got emergency transferred, because him and elder valdez weren't getting along at all!) Elder Sarignaya is legit though I am excited. Then on thursday I am doing splits with Elder Cajumba one of the Ap's because, they do a career day for all of of the departing missionaries and since elder kelson and elder katoa (the other ap) are leaving soon, they are gonna go to the career day up in cauayan and elder cajumba and I are gonna stay in Baluarte. So ya alot of splits this week. Lucky for me they are both solid missionaries obviously. Their both pretty sick I am excited to go with them, kinda nervous cause I will have to be the one who knows the area and such.

Oh also this week we had zone day, so on tuesday our whole zone went to Cauayan and, it was mostly just a day to relax, we made this sick Filipinos food, called tortalnalon...or something like that, ya bbq the eggplant then peel it then throw her on a pan over the stove then ya put some onions and peppers and wisk up some eggs and put that on there too, and ya got tortatalone. Then we also had this delicous Filipino dessert, called grayham, oh man it was sooo good, i have no idea how to explain how to make it but it was great! Anyways that day we also had interviews with President, then we watched 17 miracles a new church movie. Then we went back to our areas. By the time we got back, it was late and we were only able to teach the balagbaggans. Oh I also found out in my interview that my next companion is probably gonna be a Filipino and the new district leader...probably...not 100% right now!

This week was pretty disappointing, with a couple of our investigators, but at the same time we had some great lessons and we picked up a great new investigator and had a fun adventure too! So anyways on to the bad news first. Richard finally asked his dad if he could get baptized, but his dad said no, because Richard was baptized when he was a baby in the Catholic church and his dad doesn't think that he needs to be. When Richard told us that he acted really sad and ya all we could do was encourage him to keep going to Church. Right now Elder Kelson have no clue what to do with Richard because I personally have never seen Richards dad he has never been home when I have been home, and so we cant talk to him, and Richard doesn't know really what to say....so for now Richard isn't getting baptized.

Then John Nicole our next investigator moved back to live with his parents so we cant teach him anymore and he isn't going to get baptized with us. I think the Rizal sisters are gonna continue teaching him and hopefully baptize him some day. Also hopefully the sisters will be able to teach the whole family, since john nicoles family aren't members.

Sarah is doing good we were able to teach her this week, and she read the entire pamphlet and when ever we asked her any questions all of her answers were very good. We had a very good spiritual lesson with her this week, we challenged her to Pray about Joseph Smith, and she said that she didn't think that the Lord would answer her prayers since she hadn't been to Church in awhile and didn't feel like she deserved an answer. We told her that the Lord wants her to go to Church, we told her that we know God wants her to ask Him, and will answer her pray as long as she has a sincere heart (or taos puso, in tagalog!) She also came to Church this sunday.

Next Sister Villanazo, we haven't been able to teach her this week and she didn't come to Church, so hopefully we will have better luck teaching them this week.

Next the Leal's they have been good this week, we had some solid lessons with them, def could feel the spirit, sister leal said that she needs to go to Church, Brother Leal I think is still afraid to go back.

The Balagbaggans have been great this week, we taught them about the Plan of Salvation. Very slowly we went over it, and we taught it simply and tried to make it as clear as possible. They both understood it, and a big lesson that we had with them this week was when we were talking about our life on earth and the atonement, we talked about how when we are on earth we need to prepare to meet God and do the things in this life to be able to gain salvation. We said that through the gospel of Christ we can return, and the gospel of Christ includes Baptism...and Nanay Balagbaggan said to us that she wanted to make sure that she was ready for baptism and know that this Church is true before she commits to it. She also asked how she can get ready for baptism. She came to Church again this Sunday and stayed for all three hours again. So she is progressing quite well. Tatay is doing okay, the he didnt drink all week daw. He said that he wanted to baptized but we wont let him, haha we want him to obivously but he needs to quite drinking...oh pala i forgot about yesterdays lesson it was great. We show up with Philip around 3:30 and when we got there we were looking for Nanay but she wasn't there, then finally Tatay finds her and she comes in and sits down...I looked at her and you could tell that she had been crying earlier. We ask her how she is and she starts crying!! We asked Tatay what happened he didnt know, and Nanay wouldnt tell us. We were gonna share Ether 12:6 about the trial of our faith...but we decided that we should probably change our scripture so we shared Alma 40:3-4 I think, about how through faith and this religion we could get through anything. Then Philip, Kelson and I all testified about how the gospel has blessed our lives and we testified about the Atonement and through it we could get through anything. The spirit was so strong. I think it was just what Nanay needed to her, she was smiling again by the time we left! So that was a great lesson.

Daniel a recent convert of Kelson's that was baptized right before I arrived, anyway we teach him everynow and then and we are trying to point him towards a mission, he is only 16 but he has a very strong testimony and he always invites is less active friends to Church. Yesterday he bore his testimony, and elder kelson started crying haha! He also bore his testimony it was super strong, I gonna miss him when he is gone thats for sure.

Anyways to our new investigator Vincent...i believe there is a pic of him, he is the one in the blue and his girlfriend is in the white. Anyway form the begining. They showed up to church last sunday and the brother said that he wanted to be taught, his girlfriend is already a member. Anyways he said that he wanted to be taught. They told us that they live all the way out in Purok 5 in Baluarte, so far away in the mountains. I had never been up the far before. So anyways we leave for there at like 2:30ish from the balagbaggans and we get to purok 5 and we ask around where they live, and no one even recognizes the name, so we are way up there we are walking on the main road and see some guy we ask him if he knows them, he says yes and tells us that we need to go back down the road again and turn. So we do and we are walking and we see them on the road, they were doing something with brothers Tricycle. Anyway we go back into their house and start teaching them. The lesson went great, Vincent is 19 and this girlfriend is 25, his girlfriend is already a member and they just moved in from manila. Vincent is very interested, he asked us when he could be baptized. haha. He is hard to understand because people from Manila have different accents and they speak faster. Anyways on saturday again we went back up there to teach them again and no one was home so we start heading back and we see him driving back up, but he is by himself, we talk to him a little bit and he says that he and his g.f. went to the hospital and she was apparently prego, but the baby already miscarried so early in the pregnancy. So I dont know how elder kelson and I are gonna handle this. Cause they obviously have a law of Chastity problem and I know that brother has a w.o.w. problem with cigarettes. So they will be fun to teach, very interested, the Lord der guided our paths to being able to find them, cause we might not have been able to find their house if they hadn't been out in the street when we were walking, and we also were able to talk to brother about the Pregnancy thing so ya...

Anyway we also were able to teach Rosanne this week, she is doing good, there weren't as many kids watching us this time. But she does have a gay Friend that sat in on the lesson...that was awkward. he said he was gonna come to Church too, and he was gonna show up to Church in a Skirt... thankfully he didn't..first time I didn't want someone to come to Church. As great as the members are I know that someone would have said something to him and offended him. Unfortunatly sister didn't come to Church either, but she has her hands full with a kid and she is buntis (prego) too! She too is very interested though.

Not much else happened this week, Elder Landeen and his comp had 9 baptisms on saturday, I am glad to see him having success. Even though it is hard when Elder Kelson and I work hard everyday and dont have quiet the same success. Thats okay though baptisms are great, but we cant get caught up in the numbers, and we cant get discouraged when we see other peoples success.

Well thanks for everything I hope you enjoy the pictures
Ingat po
Mahal Kita
Elder James