The Fudgee Bar Diet Lady (Week 14, Venezuela City, Gen. T. de Leon Ward, Elder Belnap and Elder Cuenza)

We know a lady who went on a fudgee bar diet (almost like a hostess product) and stopped eating rice to lose weight...that lady is Ayyrlene. We said goodbye to her last night because she wants to focus on her company that may go abroad. We think we will see her again though hahaha we dont think she will last it staying on the down low but whatever ahah.

Monday- We went to this place called Pure Gold it is alnmost liek a mall but not that cool...BUT we had waffles filled with chocolate and shawrma, its like one of my favorites. Later that night we went to a member's house and ate and just laughed at her big bellied 6 year old daughter who is just suich a crack up and is so weird.

Tuesday- This day was sweet because we already have a sweet apartment but it got even better. After the district meeting we got a couch because the billadeau couple had one in their truck and elder belnap called dibs on it so it was sweet but not as sweet as taking it up to the third floor. on the bright side it couldve been a lot heavier, the stair way was just tight. We went to this old guy txxhomas who had a stroke and has a hard time moving and has a little bit of what we call mongo here which is where they dont speak clearly. and we saw that he STILL smokes! crazy! hes pretty prideful he could stop by himself so elder challenged him. (he didnt make it the next day). Our investigator Myyarisel is struggling and because she hasnt been doing what shes supposed to do she questioned like everything and basically sounds like she forgot the lessons and why things are important so we had no idea how to help her but really read the book of mormon because she doesnt get into it.

Wednesday- We went to our investigator Ayynn. Ayynn how do you describe Ayynn. Well when she saw us she was like what do you want? its not sunday yet?. But i guess shes joking cuz she loves us. and we love her to because she holds the ONE of the keys to happiness in life...OTTER POPS! she gets them shipped from America along with other things like kool-aid and caprisuns, its so sweet and she sells everything for SO cheap! 2 pesos for one them bad boy otter pops (50 pesos= 1 US dollar).On top of that she is an awesome investigator and has already been a tool for missionary work! Remember Lxxope? the happy leg slapping sweet old guy...LXXOPE IS BACK BABY! We went by his house and found him there and he happily let us talk with him and we found out that he doesnt want to be baptized because he has[n't?] forgiven the guys the beat him up a couple years backl and he wants to be worthy for baptism. So we talked and he confirmed that he still sleeps with the book of mormon! hahaha awesome! After that we headed over to Gxxlens house and taught about the importance of reading the book of mormon. he has been hearing a lot of people making comments about him being mormon and it reminded me of the vision of the tree of life. People in the great and spacious building would be making fun of people on the path and as they were at the tree to discourage them and some fell away. but those who held on to the iron rod (the word of God) did not fall away.

Thursday- We had 7 Weeks in training so we went to the mission office and i got to see my cowboy homie, Elder Lowery! Man i missed that guy he is the coolest! The President talked about the importance of pondering because it is by pondering that we receive answers, that joseph smith later came to know there was not true church on the earth and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and it is how Alma the Younger came to know that the visitation he had of the angel was true because the spirit testified it to him (i forgot the scripture but alma writes it his account). The Holy Ghost is the ultimate testifier of truth and we need to seek after it. The Assistants to the President also told a story about a boy who told someone that he had two wolves inside of him fighting one wolf was full of misery, sorrow, guilt, hatred, regret, fear and greed and the other was filled with love, joy, charity, happiness, benevolence, and faith and the boy asked i think it was to the chief or his father which wolf would win the fight and the man said simply, "The wolf that you feed". 

Friday- We had another meeting and the Mission President has big plans for the mission! Like BIG PLANS. So we all are gonna have to work even harder. we found that out during a meeting and elder belnap and i still had to do weekly planning so we didnt get out until later. After that we taught a Less Active Sister Kyying and taught the importance of taking the sacrament. We later talked to Lxxeo the [] guy who loves Americans and we got a little convo about the Gospel but it totally didnt go the way we wanted hahaha.

Saturday- We visited Less Actives this day and it was so funny as i walked by this little girl i looked at her and she was just like "woah" when i saw her hahaha some philipinos are so funny with americans. we went to Lxxope again and saw he was drinking coffee so we whipped out the word of wisdom and he is done! it was awesome! he has strong faith and we invited him to go to church. earlier in the day i had two kids holding my hands following me down for a bit it was funny. Our investigator Eyyleanor got offended by someone and wants to postpone her baptimsal date but she still went to church which was good.

Sunday- Many people we invited didnt come to church. but Lxxope still came...yeeeeeeeah. We met this new potential investigator Ryyose who is awesome! We met her and she told us we could talk in english so we did and we taught a bit about the restoration in english which was cool and then she found out our first names and doesnt want to call us elder wright and elder belnap, that was pretty funny. It felt like i took the lead on helping out a less active we visited which was a really good experience. Then we visited Ayyrlene and said goodbye and she gave us fudgee bars in remembrance of her.

Good things happened this week and i really had testified to me again the importance of the Spirit because there were moments where i didnt know what to say but as i asked for the Spirit to be with me then God gave me the words to say. God really does guide us when we seek after his guidance. I'm still learning how to rely on him fully but the mission does help me learn and it has strengthened me. I love this gospel and i am grateful for this opportunity to serve.

I love you all!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH! I really hope you guys are all doing okay and are striving to have the spirit in your homes and lives.

Love,

Elder Wright

My Arm Hair Is Gold (Week 13 Venezuela City, Gen. T de Leon Ward, Elder Belnap - First Baptisms)

I might just be a leprechaun but except without a pot of gold i just have a sleeve of gold arm hair. The kids here in the Philippines love it, it's funny they will feel my arm and one kid during a lesson was rubbing his forehead on my arm hair hahaha. So i guess if you catch me you don't get gold but my arm hair is worth just as much to these kids probably.

so here are the other things that happened this week.

Tuesday- this day was our pday because of transfers. this day was not the best, the day started out with me playing basketball and totally taking a painful rolling of my ankle. Not only did i get wrecked by the Pinos who love basketball but i actually wrecked my ankle that day. I continued to play but as time went by it was killing which stunk because i walked on it until we got back home and i just slept and we didnt leave the apartment that night because it hurt too much to walk. But Gxxlen our investigator brought food to us which was nice.

Wednesday- My foot still hurt but there was no way i was gonna stay in and plus i could use, it felt better than it did. We taught a less active named Txxeng, he said he was happy with his life but i dont know how much of the truth he was telling when we asked him how he was and stuff. But we taught him the importance of tithing before we left cuz that was one thing he said he stopped doing. After that we taught Gxxlen's sister Ayyrlene and Elder Belnap and i are just wanting things to pick up because its been too long so we asked her about her assignment and she isn't really learning anything in her heart she will hear what we teach and it enters her mind...sort of hahaha but it doesn't enter her heart. I invited her to read 2 Nephi 31 and  we also invited her to pray about truth and if she should be baptized after her reading. With our investigator Eyylleanor who was supposed to get baptized this last saturday but had to have her date pushed forward, we really feel like that she doesn't understand the importance of repenting before baptism or the sacredness of the covenant we make with God when we take upon the name of Christ and promise to always keep his commandments...so we had no choice but to really crack down and we whipped out a scripture that got really serious about being clean. It was good and hopefully we can  help get her on track so she can be ready for baptism.

Thursday- We stopped by our investigator Myyary Ann that seemed promising and there was no answer and our investigator Gxxlen thought he saw signs of people there, so that was a bummer. We went to go teach this lady Jyyona but she ended up having work so that fell through. We decided to go to our promising 70 year old giddy leg slapping pal Lxxope, but we think that there is something up. We got a letter from his neighbor saying that he doesn't feel ready to change religions and his faith and all this stuff that was written in someone else's hand writing. Elder Belnap and i were shocked! It was crazy! THIS IS THE GUY THAT TOLD US HE SLEPT WITH THE BOOK OF MORMON NEXT TO HIM!!!!! he would sometimes slap our legs silly because he was excited to learn and he had a bap date and wanted to get baptized. Elder Belnap and i want an answer from him though because we don't know if his family is just maybe doing stuff or if it is him to but nevertheless we want to find out from Lope so we are gonna try and visit him. After that we went to Myyarisel and she has a bap date but she had a problem with the Word of Wisdom so we have to now push her bap date forward! That was a bummer! She is really struggling with other things and it is rough. That day was a rough one.

Friday- So after Thursday, weekly planning was just not the same. We dropped Myyary Ann because we don't feel like it's right and during the middle of it we didn't know what to do or how to help people so i felt that we should get up and go outside to Lyyope and see what's up. We didn't find him but after that we found two potential investigators which was good! This day most of our plans fell through again but we had a pretty good lesson with a partly active member and her nonmember husband. We visited another investigator who had a bap date but wasn't married and has birth certificate issues so she cant get baptized yet and we taught about personal revelation. After that we ate at a member's house and got stereotyped that Americans are carnivorous beasts that don't like vegetables.

Saturday- I had the opportunity to baptize Gxxlen and since he became friends with a general authority Elder Schmutz because his daughter messaged him on facebook one day, he came and visited which was cool. He is a nice guy. Gxxlen had made a joke that i was going to drown him because he's so small and i didn't bend down when going to baptize him and i had to made sure i got him all the way under so it took not a long time but yeah hahaha. it was an awesome experience though. After we taught a lesson to the person we found Lyyeona when we went to find Lyyope. We taught her and invited her to come to church. Later we ate at Gxxlen's sister, Ayyrlene, [] After we taught her and really got serious about baptism and almost got a bap date but she said she will get baptized but she doesn't know about a specific date. We also found out we got a new temporary companion. Elder Cuenza! He came out in the field with me and is a trainee too.

Sunday- This morning i helped get a cat that looked like it was stuck up on this wall thing. it was bigger than kitten but not too big. And it was scared as i was trying to pull it off the wall i had to struggle a bit to get its claws to stop holding on to whatever it was grabbing without hurting it. Lyyeona came to church and after church we went to the apartment to plan what we will do. Elder Belnap went with Gxxlen to teach and they got a new investigator and i took Elder Cuenza to La Mesa and we taught Txxoto (the guy we gave a blessing to because he has a tumor in his head and after the blessing felt strength) and we hadn't taught him in three weeks because his only free days are sundays. but we gave him the Book of Mormon and told him to read it. When Elder Cuenza and i asked him where he has read up to, he has read all the way up to 2 Nephi!!!! *jaw dropped* that was incredible!!! It was the best! He is able to feel happiness when he reads and loves it. We taught about Lesson 1 and he felt so much joy! the spirit was strong and i am so excited! He definitely will get baptized! 

The week was pretty rough with teaching but the lesson with Txxoto really helped. This gospel is a message of hope and Txxoto is an example to that. I have really been having some struggles while Im here but as i feel the spirit i am able to feel the true happiness of the Gospel and everything is good. May we always strive to have the spirit with us. Mahal ko kayo. Alam ko na ang ebanghelyo ni jesucristo ay totoo. Ibinibigay ng ebanghelyo ni jesucristo and maraming biyaya.

With lots of love,

Elder Wright

Elders Cupid (Week 12, Venuezuela City, Gen. T. de Leon Ward, Elder Belnap)

Sorry i didnt email yesterday we had our pday on tueday because of transfers.

Mon- On pday we had a zone activity at this massive lake that was pretty sick! basically we just chilled and talked and it was fun getting to know the Elders there. i am making some good friends and i love this one elder, Elder Bromley. he is six weeks ahead of me and he has no sense of taste or smell!! its crazy! a while back i asked him if the pizza hut was good here and then i remember that he has no idea hahaha awesome the guy is always so happy and is just a good kid. after we taught a family but the father that we gave the blessing to a while back wasnt there so that stinks.

tues- we had no district meeting because of mission tour the next day. My companion and i had a sweet companionship inventory, that helped our companionship a lot. and we saw the change and i think our teaching was even better to which was awesome. We have been worrying about Myyarisel because she has grown so much faith and did so good with the word of wisdom. so we were afraid to bring up the law of chastity with this guy that we were worried about. anyway we got there and because we have been helping her make steps to increase her faith, she had been talking ot someone who brought up the guy and she had kicked him out!!! MIRACLE! that was awesome! it made our job so much eaesier! goes to show that this is not our work but the Lord's work and if you help your investigators gain faith, the Lord will definitely help. and he definitely prepares those to hear the gospel. we taught Lope again about the Plan and he has a bap date! love that crazy young in heart old guy. He says he still has 15 years left on him (hes 70)

wed- woke up at 4:30 for mission tour...that was lovely but it wasnt that bad. its nice taking a bucket shower everyday...i cant wait for hot water. Elder Bowen visited he gave us 6 things to do to start bringing miracles. he gave us an equation that can work for all of us in no matter what we do...obedience + faith in christ = miracles. We truly need to be obedient and have faith if we want the Lord to provide a way. Especially obedience in the little things is what he taught, like for a missionary, waking up on time is one (for example). He also taught about the Abrahamic covenant and what it means to us who have been adopted into the covenant and choose to follow the covenant path starting with baptism and then enduring to the end (by going to the temple and being sealed for time and all eternity with your spouse). it was awesome he had  us read Abraham 3: 22-23 which talks about us, we are one of the noble and great ones that Abraham saw. it really is great when you come to know/are able to feel God's love for you. On the way home i chatted with an Elder, Elder Faulkner, i love the guy. i got called the Sorcerer's Apprentice by another elder because me and him (i guess he has to be the Sorcerer) both think the pretty much the same way about the language. he is able to help me and answer questions and i understand it is sweet. later we went ot this poorer place called Tibagan. we taught two lessons there one visiting a member and another this girl and boy did i not feel good after the lesson. it didnt go to well. but after we taught a bunch of those kids that live there and they helped lift spirits with their happiness and just they are funny and so cute! we also gave 

thurs- we went to cam cam and we were looking for someone and ended up teaching someone and it was awesome because i asked an inspired question that changed the lesson it was sweet.

I am running out of time but the rest of the week we taught gxxlen and he went with us to Myyarisel and they were hitting it off and elder belnap and i felt like cupid it was hilarious. and i also that one girl that called me daddy again which was funny! 

I love you all!

We got to jump on the back of a Truck! (Week 11, Venezuela City, Gen. T de Leon Ward, Elder Belnap)

Hey Everyone! 

Man this week was fun and yes the mission still is sweet and a huge blessing.

Im just gonna get started!

monday- i found my whitehand book i lost in the church which had all of my money for support for the week and my debit card so that was a relief! We also got a plunger for our toilet...lets just say it was needed for i think a day and it was not smelling good...hahaha. classic. alright so i guess yiu could say im a bit of a dare devil *scoffs and brushes shoulder* so i guess what was the monday before this monday i am talking about, my companinon and i had family home evening scheduled at someones house but we showed up way late which they didnt like. well they ended up invited us again the next monday and told us to be on time. well of course as a missionary we were running late. the only way to get there was to either walk a long way or take a trike so my comp and i walked over but the trike stand was full with a big line...there was no way were gonna ride a trike. so i turned to my comp and i was like...we gotta start walking and hop on the back of a truck. So we start walking and we see a truck that we can hop on and im not talking about any truck but those delivery trucks. so it was going pretty slow so we hopped on the back. (i donty know if the drver knew we were on) but so we were going and hanging on and rteally it was awesome we were getting to the appointment and we had a free ride and we looked pretty funny as two white boys hanging on theback of a truck on the road. so it was a pretty good idea but the only way to get off safely is for the truck to slow down so you can safely jump off. well our stop was coming up and i didnt know but my comp took off at a stop but as lucky as i was the truck sped up right after so i was stuck on the truck and the truck is just going so i was kindam worried at this point because i was being separated from my comp but i looked back and he was chasing after me (what a loyal comp) eventually it slowed down enough and i jumped off. it was sweet! we were still late to the appt though but oh well haha i got a sweet ride out of it

tuesday- We taught the old guy Lxope again and he is just like ready, he knows the church is true and it is awesome. he is so funny he loves to slap our legs when he laughs or whatever. His wife thjough doesnt know but according to Lxope...he will convince her...hahaha i think everytrhing will work out. they are great people. we also gave myarisel a blessing because she has been in pain because of her back.

wednesday- We taught the Rxosales family and we asked them if they would get baptized and they said yes but they really dont have strong desires. the wife is really lazy she says and the husband has work but hop[efully we will be able to help them. we taught a part member family the Axlvarez family and the husband and wife are really struggling to feel the love of God. it was sad but we really testified to them and told them about how they need to read the book of mormon and go to church and pray and really do these things seriously to feel God's love. after that we went to king's house and we ate some pretty good food. this guy you could tell is doing pretty good with his job. we had these things called oreo truffles and they were awesome! so good! probably the best desert i have had here! besides ice cream. nothing beats ice cream. and later the night the son of the family took a little poop on the floor! it was hilarious! so gross! we just laughed though!

thursday- my comp has had his ears clogged with ear wax on the inside and out and i got to go to the hospital and see them clean the earwax out of his ear..it was NASTY! im rrunning out of time so this email will be short. but we returned to myarisael and her back felt better after we gave her a blessing.

saturday and sunday- general conference was amazing. and we also taught a bunch of little kids who are wanting to get baptized.

Love you all i hope you all try tio takew what we heard fromt the prophets and apply it to your life!

Sick Babies Need Saliva on their Belly (Week 10, Venezuela City, Gen. T. de Leon Ward, Elder Belnap)

Ikaw na ba si Mr Wright? --> i hear that line here because its from a famous song here meaning are you THE mister wright? and some people love to sing that to me, especially Gxlen and investigator. hope you guys love the title hahaha you will know why i said that later. Today was another good week...really there aren't bad weeks. the mission is truly awesome

Monday: We taught Gxlen's sistre the plan of salvation. i really have wanted to help bring the gospel to Gxlen's family because i really want to strengthen their lives and their life as a family. so we taught Ayrlene the Plan of Salvation and it was crazy because as i was teaching i noticed that my tagalog was pretty good! like i think that was the cause of the headache that i had gotten during the lesson! but it was definitely probably because i really wanted to teach her and i have so much love for her so i think the Lord blessed me for that. but it was a great experience and the lesson went well and i think she will grow her desires in the gospel. []

Tuesday: After the district meeting we had we taught the restoration to this Recent convert Dxonalin's cousins and brother and they were so quiet!!! the lesson was a liottle rough and we tried getting them to talk but it was so hard.

Wednesday: we helped this investigator eylinor who lost her bap date because of word of wisdom problems but we gave her a good lesson on repentance and talked with her and hopefully she changes! she is awesome! Also i taught a lesson without my kasama on the Restoration in pretty much mostly in Tagalog to another one of Gxlen's sisters Analiza! it was awesome! my comp was talkking to Ayrlene during but i just loved doing it by myself, Gxlen said somethings but i was pretty much by myself and im glad i was able to teach it and i hope to go back and teach her more. and after the lesson, she has a five month old baby i think who has a cold and so in the Philippines, i guess when someone is sick you lick your finger and mark an "X" or cross with the saliva on the person's stomache!! so weird so she asked us to do it to her baby! hahahaha! I straight up went all Rafiki in the cave where he marks the red paint on the drawing of simba on the Baby! (reference to the lion king of the crazy bamboon).

Thursday: Had zone interviews and taught this investigator April. Zone interviews took up a lot of our day and it was tiring caring a 17 kg or something like that case of book of mormons (40 lbs or something like that) good thing there was both me and my kasama so we could take turns.

Friday: We taught this old man who is liek 73 years old Lxope, and he is such a humble an awesome guy! we taught him the Restoration and he really seemed to like the message. i feel there are great things in store for him. he seems to have strong faith! We also taught Dxonalin's family who arent LDS and that was a good lesson too. on our way home we saw this Filipino who will give us free stuff and who LOVES Americans. that guy is awesome and he is so weird hahha.

Saturday: Studied charity and learned from the apostle paul that it is much deeper than imparting our substances to the poor and showing love. it really is also what we say and thinnk not just toward but about people. Adn if we always watch our thoughts, actions and words to make sure they are always loving then we will be able to become better disciples of christ and the Lord will have great things in store for us.

Sunday: I had probably the most spiritual experience with the Priesthood. We taught a lesson to this husband and wife Txoto and Jyonalele and we found out the txoto has a tumor in his head and is not doing well. and his having problems. We both were prompted to teach about the Plan of Salvation. after the lesson i felt prompted to give him a blessing but i didnt know if it was something i wanted to do or if it was a prompting from the Lord. We walked outside and i talked to my companion and we went back to give him a blessing and it truly was a prompting from the Lord to give him a blessing. I gave it in tagalog and english and after i gave it, he said he felt stronger and it was a miracle truly. and it really testified to me that the Priesthood is the Power of God. It really is the same power Christ used in his minstery to heal and ordain apostles and that same Priesthood has been restored in this Church. May we priesthood holders always strive to be worthy to exercise the Priesthood at any time.

I love you all so much and the Mission truly is not a sacrifice when you see how much blessings you receive from it. it truly has changed me and continues to change me. this is the Church of Jesus Christ, the true church. i say these things in the name of jesus christ, amen.

Love you all,

Elder Wright