HAPPY NEW YEAR

Man people here love New Year's Eve! so many fireworks and the sky was filled with the smoke from the fireworks! It was really loud especially with not having any windows you can close shut.

Monday- we had another day of curfew so we ended up just staying inside the rest of christmas and didnt do too much. the church movies help to keep you from being bored, like the restoration and legacy. so taht is really nice to have

Tuesday- We worked with a ward member, jeppoy again. and that was good. we went to Rosales (their baby just died) and the visit could have been better. we also met with this other girl meydelin and tried helping her out. earlier i had a prompting to talk to this one lady and then i decided to follow the prompting and then it turns out that she wasnt the person that we needed to talk to but this other lady that we sparked conversation with who has just been sitting on a bunch of questions just confused and wants answers! the Lord works in mysterious ways. we also visted the Canete family again and taught the restoration and temples to a nonmember in their family who we are teaching. We went back to the Sabado family (less actives) and we visited with them and they didnt have time to do a lesson so we were gonna come back on the 31.

Wednesday- We had our district meeting and a gift exchange there. we visited Canete family again because they are stuggling and we talked about goals and then we went to Sandoval to teach tithing and fast offering.

Thursday- Elder Pajarin and i had better studies today which really made an impact on our day. We went back to Maricel's house ( a new investigator) and she wasnt there but her kids were and we taught the Restoration. We got potential investigators and the Glen took us to two people who ended up having a lot of questions. We also went to a new investigator Josaphine.

Friday- We had weekly planning again which went good setting goals for this new week and then we taught the Canete family again with teaching the one member in their family who is an investigator about the Word of Wisdom with new year's eve coming up...we will see how that went.

Saturday- We taught Maricel and had teach her the Restoration and so her kids listened again. they are a good family and i hav e hope for them. they really are  kind to so it is fun going over there. We then had a baptism which Erwina showed up like an hour or an hour and a half late to her own baptism. so we started at 6:30 or somewhere around there instead of five. 

There were good things i was able to learn like from the importance of unity to the Lord. Jesus Christ and God are perfectly unified. their unity is so perfect that they are referred to as being one even when they are two separate beings. in all of our companionships or relationships with our families or spouses, we need to be unified and the gospel is what truly unifies. so we need to live it.

Love you all and a Happy New Year!

Elder Wright

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!

"IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!"

I just CANNOT stop singing Christmas songs, i love it! No matter where I am I will just sing songs about Christ! and the other christmas songs as well. Sometimes, it is hard being here and not being with family BUT it is so sweet to have the opportunity to bless the lives of others! On Monday we had a great time at this one members house named Jenny, we shared a message for Christmas about Christ and we tried scheduling for a time to come back to them, so that we can share to her family that are not members. we are excited to be able to help them and we had such a great time with them.

As time kept getting closer this week to Christmas I felt the Christmas spirit kick in, and no it was not because of all the dance caroling i saw here...yes that is a thing. people will not just sing here and ask for money but they will play loud remix pop music and dance for money haha. It also was not because of the remixed jingle bells and Fifth Harmony song that i heard in Puregold but our Christmas conference that we had this week was wonderful! President spoke about many things but one was a story about monks in a monastery, who were wondering why no one was visiting the monastery as much and one of the spoke to a Rabbi about the concern and asked for advice. The Rabbi said all he could say to them was that "One of you is the Messiah". They had pondered this and all thought what it could mean and the result was that they begin to all treat each other with great love and respect just as if they were the Messiah. This simple act attracted others to their monastery. I thought it was a great story. What better way to invite the Christmas spirit or the spirit of Christ in our lives than by seeing every one as children of God. After Christmas conference I had such a wonderful time and felt the love as I greeted those and wished them a "Merry Christmas" at the closing of our activity.

The week was filled with a great spirit as we worked with members we saw great success as we brought our relief society president with another member, Arnan, and introduced them to our investigator, Shirley, who is having problems following the word of wisdom. Our relief society president also struggled with smoking and it was great to see them talk and connect about the struggle and also with life. This got me thinking, "why havent we gotten Sister Datinggaling down here a long time ago!?" Hahaha you live and you learn and you try not to make the same mistakes! Shirley plans on quitting on the new year!

I am so grateful for the wonderful experiences that I have had this wonderful month to see others change and desire to come unto Christ! This church is true! I love you all!

Elder Wright

THERE'S A SQEEK IN MY BOOT

I have had a squeak in these shoes that i am wearing for about probably my whole mission. I dont know if you have ever seen the episode of Spongebob (sorry i am quoting spongebob again...dont worry i will bring up peanut butter again also) but anyway the episode where Mr. Krabs goes to throw away an old pair of boots but i think sells them to spongebob and then they are super squeaky and it drives Mr. Krabs insane...yeah that is literally my life. I find it funny though so it doesnt drive me insane.

Now about the peanut butter. Okay I dont know what took me so long to figure this out but a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the most amazing thing ever!!! My mind is blown by all the wasted hours of eating just a normal PB&J. Just goes to show to never limit yourself, dream big, and to always toast your sandwich bread.

I cannot really remember what happened last tuesday, except for that i was so glad to have finished my essays for BYU. I feel good about them!

On Wednesday we had to take care of transfers again which consisted of us waiting at McDonald's for hours and then sending people off to their new areas. We got to go on a ride down to show the new office Elders their new apartment, which was fun and we also got free food out of being at the mission office because our transfer point was nearby there. So that was pretty great! Who does not like free food?! We had to rush back to our area for an appointment with our relief society president. We had got to her house and then we sat there not doing anything and we totally thought that we were waiting on her son but it turns out he couldnt go so we couldnt work with her, which was way sad because we were so excited to work with Sister Datinggaling! Instead we went to go find less actives but couldnt find them. Wednesday was a rough day but we kept our spirits high and i said merry christmas still to a lot of people.

On Thursday we had a good day as well, we taught this old guy named Danny who was really nice. Originally his wife who we had met wanted us to teach her kids and her kids whole dance crew because they are apparently pretty good and go to other areas to dance. Impressive. But they were busy and a bunch of teenagers so we sat down with Danny and ended up teaching him and it was a good lesson. We are hoping that things will go well adn he will read his assignment. 

On Friday we had weekly planning and then we also taught Nita and Bonifacio again, they were not available to go to church this week but we tried teaching them a lesson but Brohter had so many questions which was awesome! i loved answering his questions with the bible and he asked some good questions. we had to be inspired and guided for sure. They were sad when we told them that we had to leave because we had been there already for about 30 minutes so we had to go but we told them that we would come back and share with them more about the Plan of Salvation! It is exciting to see people so interested, they are tough investigators though.

Saturday was amazing! Jovelyn and Windelyn were baptized and we got come investigators to go to the Christmas party! it was incredible they loved it and had so much fun! We had to kind of get Estrella and her kids to get out of the house and go across the street to have fun at the party. she totally had fun and i loved seeing the ward so happy there with our investigators and less actives.

Yesterday we had an amazing day with teaching Carmelita and Carlito, two new investigators and referrals of Sister Arellano. It was an amzing lesson we had becuase i really felt guided by the spirit in helping them to understand the importance of our message it was great. Carmelita went to church and said she felt like she walked in paradise! such an amazing thing to here. We are really excited and blessed with the wonderful opportunities we get to teach such amazing people. Again this season is perfect to help others come unto Christ and i love seeing people's lives change it is awesome! There is no better feeling than serving!

Love you all!

Elder Wright

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know it is not Christmas yet but boy am i feelin' the Christmas spirit! LITERALLY everyone i pass by i say "merry christmas" to, okay maybe not everyone BUT i am going crazy! And not everyone is replying so i am currently trying to make it a thing here right now. Slowly but surely they will all be saying it everywhere. I got told by an old guy that i was advanced because i guess it's too early...

We had a good week, we tried different methods of working in our area and had two family home evenings and got to know some members more!

I am sorry this is going to be a short one because i have been writing essays and applying to BYU but i loved the Christmas devotional! if none of you have seen it, watch it now! I loved the talk about pure light. Our heavenly Father really does have pure light and he is very easy to be entreated and is very proud of us when we are trying to do our best no matter how short we fall. I think this is such a great season to express our love and appreciation for everyone in a simple way that will express our love not only for them but for Christ. i love you all so much! i wish i could see you all and tell you that personally this season. but i am having so much fun here also serving for the Lord. You are all the best!

Elder Wright

YOU DON'T NEED A LICENSE TO DRIVE A SANDWICH

I got my license!!! Awesome! i feel like a Filipino 16 year old now! I dont know why exactly i have it but we will see if i need to use it soon. We had to go to this place that was like the DMV if it had a catholic mass in it...why do i say that because literally there was a catholic mass inside the "DMV" here. Who would do that? Only the Philippines hahaha. We had a lot of fun being there and also being able to spend time with Dennis who chauffeured us.

this week was a good one, i have been writing a lot of essays. trying to apply to BYU again. It has been stressful but really good because i have learned a lot about myself through all of the activities that i have been a part of.

Last monday on P-day we spent so much time trying to find this person's house who we had met at church but the address that we got seemed to be no where to be found. When hope seemed to be lost we got a text from Cheril who we talked to at Angel's burgers and said that we could come over to her house to teach her. We had a great lesson and as we were teaching her she seemed to understand the lesson and wanted us to teach her family! We are looking forward to that.

We have been trying to visit more members so that we can grow closer and stronger relationships with them and we had a bit of a frightening experience when we found out and saw that one of the members we visited had a kid who had mumps and had an inflamed lymph node...she told us it was contagious. Well, nothing stopped her kid from giving us high fives and touching us and as a missionary in the philippines we didnt have anywhere to go and wash up so we went to the nearest member and washed up. I made sure to wash all the way up my arms and even my face. we got pretty scared at the possibility of us getting sick, of course we still love the member hahaha but no one wants to get sick hahaha!

Had another great experience of what happens when you always smile and say hi to people. We had the chance to teach this nice woman named Mayabelle. She seemed genuinely interested but it is too early to know if things will progress. But if we always smile and greet people,it shows that they will be drawn to us!

Estrella and her kids finally went to church it was amazing, we came to their house before church and made sure they all started getting up and moving and ready for the day! The members did a great job at showing friendship and love to them.

The other day we had the wonderful opportunity to meet with our ward's relief society president and we experienced a miracle with our relief society president giving us a referral, after we talked with her about our investigators and also served by giving her a blessing, it was a great experience. i learned that as a missionary, as we love the members and serve them, they will love and serve us too.

another thing i wanted to talk about was the great lessons that we had with a less active family and an active member family in sharing a message about Christ and his sacrifice, in this special time of Christmas. We felt the spirit really strong as we shared about the importance of Christ and heard the less active family share about their own experiences. It truly is a wonderful time to be a missionary. I love my Savior and i love being able to testify of Him. May we all testify of Him this Christmas season and always!

Elder Wright

Where do I begin

Where do i begin with the week! This week was a good one hahaha. We didnt exactly see the results we wanted to or the fruit of our labors but we have experienced blessings and the week closed off with being able to watch the Primary program in our ward! oh how i miss the primary in my old ward! (Shout out to little Bradley Hill!) but the kids here were also really cute!

This week i took a hard fall. literally i was jogging and slipped when i stepped on a part of the road that was a slant and bruised myself up making ANOTHER old woman scream but it was okay because at the same time as my body was being destroyed i somehow did a cool ninja roll and kept running forward and finished the run but as soon as i got back the pain kicked in hahah but i iced and took painkillers was healed in no time. still a little sore but it was funny.

We taught a lot about the plan of salvation, this week which i love because i love teaching about Jesus Christ's atonement and the gospel.

Despite not seeing the results we wanted. we had two new investigators go to church. They are family members of a member that we visited! we had a good lesson with them and it seemed like his niece Jenelle, really loved church she had people fellowship her and it was awesome. It really is nice when people show you love at church. it really does help you feel like you are at home and i am sure that is what janelle felt. 

Elder Lougee and i had the chance to take Elder Morris out to work, (he is a new missionary) and he is just so amazed by us always! it is really funny because we both see each other as normal guys but he looks up to us so much and it was really fun being able to take him out and teach with him. Seeing him helps me see the power that missionaries have, even if they are new and may not know the language that have such a strong light to them that is radiant!

I love the work it is great! Next week i will give a talk in sign language! wish me luck!

Elder Wright

KAYA! (Week 68, Deparo, Elder Lougee)

Where do i begin. This week was a great and wild one, not everything magically fell in place but things are great and i am so happy and having so much fun! First things first i am trying to eat healthy with my new companion, when i first got here, i ate a lot of fast food and i just never felt good so Elder Lougee and i will mostly cook now and avoid soda and fast food..unless if we get pizza at a meeting. Because of the skills that i have aquired here in the Philippines as a master in the art of cooking added to the fact that i have a way crazy imagination we have made some way delicious meals! The base for most of our meals is coconut milk because its healthy and any vegetable cooked in coconut milk is the bomb.com.  We will cook all different mixes of vegetables like squash, green beans and potatos and even cooking apples in the milk too with chicken...oh it is too die for!!!!! Everyone better start calling me Elder Betty Crocker or Elder Martha Stewart. I can cook i can clean, nothing can stop me hahaha.

Last Pday Elder Lougee and i took a stroll in the market of Nova bayan and tried to find some cool things to buy but man am i picky hahaha i could not find anything. Elder Lougee found some sunglasses but i could not find any, and a lot of them were kid sized so they wouldnt fit on my head...or at least i hope they were kid sized. I never thought and still dont think i have a big head...or maybe they are just filipino sized glasses...anyway i just didnt see anything i liked even if it was my size. But we did get ice cream while there and had a fun time browsing. and after we ate at mang-inasal thinking that it would be suitable to have a cheat day but we both felt sick after! it not worth it hahaha! so we are sticking to our gulay (vegetables)

because our zone along with others had really clean apartments, we one a free pizza party, that was awesome! For our zone of 25 people we got 22 boxes. We walked into the pizza hut close to mission office and the lady at the counter did not see this coming but we totally dropped the bomb on her that in like two hours we need 22 pizzas made she seemed pretty shocked and went back to the chef who later said "Kaya!" or "we can do it!" It was a delicious success. The zone meeting we had was great because we also tried to increase our goals and talked about things that can improve. Really with these numbers we have it isnt about the numbers and getting a high, what its really about is increasing efforts to help more come unto Christ and tracking these numbers of people you teach and extend to get baptized and baptize helps you see and evaluate your own efforts in the Lord's service. Why not make big goals to help others? it is fun! and more end up getting helped! 

Later that day we also were walking and we saw a white guy on a bike with his family. usually white people in the philippines want nothing to do with us. sometimes they will completely ignore us but this guy stopped on his bike and waved to us, so we said hi and we continued until we later saw that he had turned around and stopped us and said "hey! you guys know how to speak tagalog?" or in his american accent he said "TAG-UH-LAHG" and we said yeah! and we had a conversation. It was great he was interested in us and being here and my companion said the all time funniest way to ask anyone to listen due to lack on conversing with white people about our message and said something like "we are missionaires and we teach anyone that will accept us in to hear our message, can we visit you?" it was hilarious but he totally said yes so maybe that is the way to go, the humble approach. It was funny though because he was a little shy to talk to us as well. We will see him later tonight so we are excited...oh by the way, his name is Dave.

Yesterday we had dinner with a member who just doesn't have much money but she wanted to feed us, so yesterday we went over and she just amazed us with the food she made and the warm heart she had brought and the excitement she had for us to eat with her family, it touched my heart. i love that family so much and i know Heavenly Father does to and watches out for them.

We have had the great opportunity to meet so many good people, like the Pyyyyylana family and also another family of a member. They didnt come to church this week and we have been working with the Pyyyyyylana family but we will help them. Sister Pyyyyylana is a member who had been baptized in Cebu but her family is not yet baptized, she has such a wonderful family and children. We also had two investigators baptized Kyyyyiray and Nyyyyyicole. they are 10 and 11. the mom was also a member from somewhere else and they were so excited. it was amazing being able to be able to be an instrument to give Kiray the gift of the holy ghost. I feel that the blessing was guided for her specifically.

I love this work. Honestly i am as happy as i sound, it is great. These people are great, Christ and Heavenly Father are great and this work is also great. I love you all, you are all great too!

Elder Wright

Week of Nov 12th

Scariest Bridge Bagong Silang (Week 67, Deparo, Elder Lougee)

This week was another great week! There were some things that i forgot to mention in my other email last week to all of you. One is that the other day i went on the scariest bridge over in a place called Bagong Silang (New Birth). We were up in the air on this shakey bridge that totally leaned and tilted to a side. And lets not get start about there being no pillars and the fact that there were totally planks on the bridge that were missing. Have any of you ever seen Shrek, the first one? Do you know the seen when Shrek and Donkey are on the bridge and Donkey is scared and shrek is shaking the bridge? That is exactly what we looked like on the bridge. Not to mention we were also at about 30 feet above the ground from my guess...yeah we wouldve totally died if we fell haha i will have to send a picture of the bridge for all of you.

Oh yeah I TOTALLY forgot to mention that i am currently learning sign language. My companion studied it in high school and is really good. It all started when i missed the opportunity to share to a deaf person because i dont know sign language but now we have an investigator that we have taught three times now so i have been practicing every now and then when i can squeeze some time in. It is really fun our investigator's name is Paula and she is great! so funny! I always say random stuff and laugh so she thinks i am pretty crazy but she still thinks i am cool haha. On my second visit I prayed and it was really cool also the last two times i taught her/bore testimony and it was awesome. I felt the spirit! It really goes to show that no matter what language you are speaking if you testify from the heart then the spirit is there, it was a beautiful experience. 

On Tuesday we gave our workshop focusing on us being harvesters and it was so much fun the zone got really excited and they have really been inviting so many people to be baptized, it is great! The work has progressed and more people have been invited to come unto Christ!

On Tuesday, Elder Lougee and i got stormed with two massive sacks loaded with ties that a sister brought to us and was having us pick whatever ties we wanted. We sat there and she just handed us ties telling us which ones were good and guessing what are different styles we were hahaha.

We have had a lot of things go and happen this week with different meetings and cleaning our house. But on thursday i had the opportunity to do exchanges with missionaries in the MTC and i got paired up with an elder from China who did not know any english! he knew the basic what is your name? and how are you? that was it BUT we had so much fun together because i tried to learn Chinese from Elder Yang and he was surprised with how good i was at it. I learned how to say what is your name? and answer and say how are you and also answer that, it was really cool. He really had a fun time and got my email...i pretty much just made another bestfriend! Awesome! It made me really want to learn Chinese because why not!? hahaha

I feel like as a zone leader i have been running around all over the place but i really see the great effect that i have had on people and it is incredible, it helps you remember to always be a good example because people do always look up to us and from our actions, even small ones big things do happen. people notice the way we act and what we say and do and our affected by it. it really is great and it makes me remember this scripture in D&C 121 "Many are called, but few are chosen". I have really been thinking of that in the sense of we are called to do great things and to hold responsible positions but we will decide if we are chosen, it is through our faith that we have that is shown through obedience to Christ's commandments. In the very first chapter of the Book of Mormon, Nephi says "all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance" so really through our faith we are chosen and it is up to us if we will maximize our potential to bless the lives of others or not. I love this work and the opportunity to help others come to know Christ and the blessings He wants to give to them. I know this is the true Church and the restored gospel is the only way to reach our potential and be fully magnified by God in all of our efforts. I love you all! ane leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Wright

BIG THINGS! (Week 66, Deparo, Elder Lougee)

I have so much i just want to tell you all!!!! First of all! I LOVE my new calling as a Zone Leader. It is so much fun! I am so tired all the time but the service that i render every single day keeps me alive and it is one of the greatest things ever! Our mission has been working on a lot of great things lately we are currently working on being the top baptizing mission in the world! We already made top baptizing in the philippines so we are getting really excited!!! Our goal is to hit 300 baptisms in the month of December! We are preparing for that and as Zone Leaders we are trying to get our whole zone in on it. A lot of our time has been put into planning for the zone and how we will help them become the best and the top baptizing zone. We have been doing a lot of focus on them baptizing and living as Harvesters; finding those that are ready and dropping those that aren't ready or willing to hear the message and act on it.

Last saturday we went to most of our elders and went to their apartments and surprised them trying to get them pumped for this goal, also to help them realize the potential they have in becoming great instruments of the Lord to help others. It is so much fun being a zone leader because you get the opportunity to lift those up around. I have experienced that so much in just a short amount of time. People have been really looking up to us and we have been really trying to help those new trainees to see their potential and the great work that they are called too.

I am honestly so much happy from me being busy, it has been so great and we have had some wild rides already as zone leaders. it is also great because he is one of my best friends adn we both have these visionary mindsets of the great potential our zone has. we are going to invite our zone and set a goal of all of us getting 10 baptisms per companion in December. if we reach that goal that would be 110 people just that month that would come unto Christ and be entered into His kingdom, wrapped around in His loving embrace! It's a big goal but i think we can do it, but if there are any Saria's we might just be claimed as visionary men, but it's true we are visionary men and we can see some great things happening.

Elder Lougee and i are just always constantly laughing and the ideas just build right off of each other, i feel like we are one! it is great! We have had some crazy adventures. The first day we had to rush out of a lesson because someone called us to the house, it turned out there was no problem at all but i didnt hear the phone call and i saw my companion all likje "we got to go, theres an emergency" it was pretty funny i felt like i got excited for nothing.

We also just last night had to go to the Sister's apartment because they lost their key and we had an old spare key because elders used to live in that same apartment so we had to travel down past curfew to the rescue, it was really fun!

Also, Elder Lougee and i are getting bold with people and are shooting for 30 baptisms in December. so we are planning on really finding the ones ready and yesterday we invited 8 people to be baptized in 3 hours! that is crazy it was a miracle! we are so happy! 4 of those people we just met, so we were very excited!

The only problem we can really see in our companionship is that one we love each other too much (said Elder Lougee) and two so many people think we are "pogi" (handsome) hahaha it is still too this day funny with us two white guys walking around and people freaking out because people just love americans and with us they always want to grab our attention. They just get two distracted by our face hahaha. but other than that things are great. we are mostly finding people who want to listen to the message hahaha.

I love this work so much and i love finding those that are ready to come closer unto Christ. This is the best work! i know things are going to be getting bigger here! i love you all!

Elder Wright

Transfer ZL (Week 65, Deparo, Elder Auseuga and Elder Lougee)

Well it is the last week of the transfer! i am so excited for the new things that are going to be happening. I found out that i was called as a Zone Leader and i will be with one of my best friends in the mission. Elder Lougee. We will be serving 21 missionaries and it will be great! I am sad to leave the people that i have just met and the companion that i have been serving with but I know that everything will be alright. Elder Auseuga has grown so much in the last 2 1/2 weeks, his tagalog speaking has improved drastically and just in the last couple days the gift of tongues has taken over and yesterday we witnessed miracles. I am so proud of him and i love being a part of someone's growth i also love the growth that i have experienced with him. The good thing is that we will be still in the same ward and i will be living in the same house, hahaha just moving desks.

Alright so i got a new look alike. I got told by this family that i look like Ansel Elgort from baby driver and fault in our stars. I dont really see it but people are telling me that we are a match but hey i will take it over what my companion gets. he probably doesnt want me to say but we have had some good laughs about it...alright i got to say it Mr. Bean hahaha. Its not actually a look alike that much but it makes a laugh so hard because every Filipino will agree!

We had some other funny experiences like one day where a kitten was following us out to work but eventually went inside someone's house so he could have been going home but i sure like to think that he was following us because he came a long way and walked with us. We named Elder Mittens and although he couldnt speak, i think his cuteness could have gotten us new investigators.

We had such a great week! We have met so many wonderful people and have been teaching a lot of people i love the area because it seems like everyone just wants to talk to us!

We had a great lesson with our investigator Jyyyoy and she ended up coming to church she told us that she felt that we were sent to her and it was no coincidence that we met! Isnt it jsut great being a blessing to someones life? many more people did we see that as we were in their home, the spirit was felt and we knew we were sent there to help them.

I am sorry i have been sending a lot of short emails. i will send a better one but let us look out this week and see who's life we can help bless!

Love you all!

NOCTURNAL HOUNDS MEET KARMA

Yeah although i live in the nicest apartment right now, things are not perfect hahaha there actually isnt a problem but for the past days there have been this gathering of dogs near our house. they love to wait until dusk and gather near our house to bark at each other and fight...i can only imagine what they are having a discussion about but Elder Lougee and i have pretty much been woken up to hear it in the middle of the night and will look out and see them barking from the balcony right next to where we all sleep. He can always get them away with this noise thats like a loud "shhh!" and that will get one to go away, hahaha it always makes me laugh. Elder Lougee also at one point threw a hanger at this dog that just started to join the group discussion next to our house. it was pretty fun. he missed but it definitely scared the dog. I may have thrown a piece of a hanger too...i did miss as well. i cant say i am proud hahaha but it didt make me laugh. However, we did notice though the next day that are neighbors might slowly be solving our problem as we watched them get ready to barbecue a dog by shaving it hahaha! We were all shocked! looks like that karma has now taken control of things.

Besides that this week was good in other ways, Elder Auseuga and i have been doing a lot of teaching and have been making contacts and are really trying to focus on specific progressing areas. We had a good experience with an investigator we taught yesterday, she is being prepared by the Lord. After hearing the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ she had still been questioning what is missing in her life but later when she prayed she had a dream and i wont go into too much detail but she is just all in and golden. it is absolutely wonderful. God has also prepared a way for by her work schedule changing and with her now being able to go to church. It was such a nice lesson with a strong spirit.

We have had the opportunity to see people accept our message and we hope that things will get more progressive this next week

I want to talk about my beloved companion Elder Auseuga. i love this Elder he just makes me laugh so hard and he has so many funny stories. if i could describe him in two words it would honestly be Isaac Berrett. He reminds me of him so much. In two of our lessons he has made me laugh so hard by telling me after that he was trying to hold back feelings of throwing up! it had me dead! he even debated in one lesson throwing up outside but told me he didnt because there were kids around. hahahaah! thats not the part that reminds me of Isaac Berrett but it gave me a great laugh.

We are really loving the people around us and i just love being a missionary. I love helping others and inviting them to come unto Christ. I love sharing my testimony! and i am so happy! love you all!

FANCY LIVING HERE WE COME

Guess who got emergency transferred again...!? ME! hahaha i promise i am not doing anything to get myself transferred hahaha. i have only changed areas in a normal way on transfer day once my whole mission. I am now in my sixth area living in the Deparo area in Novaliches and Elder Auseuga is my tenth companion. President also told me that i might be moving again, so we will see what happens. Right now i am finishing Elder Auseuga's training and still district leader.  Elder Auseuga is half australian and half samoan. he is also 24 years old. my last trainee was also way older than me!

If you are wondering why i chose the title that i have for this it is because the apartment i am living in is incredibly nice! I sent some pictures out so all of you can see but it is the second apartment that i just feel super comfortable going around with no tsinelas or flip flops on. We also have no mosquitoes or at lease i have not seen any but the gecko and cockroach problem i had in my last apartment has now shifted to killer ant problems. these ants are insane i set down my candy wrapper and the ants were there in like ten minutes! also these ants before i got here ate my companions cereal before he even opened the box! they just bite through anything! that's bugs in the philippines for you. Also we found a huge moth the other day that with standing my blows with the broom as i was smacking it around.

More fun things about the Philippines is that they just have the all time worst side walks and streets. just like how last week i almost face planted, and ruined my food but still managed to catch myself, two elders have both fallen in this deep opening in the ground big enough for their leg to fit through just this week. one of them was the Elder i am living with and his leg is all purple and bruised! gotta love the streets here hahaha they are deadly but make for some interesting stories. I think i have seen my new companion trip in the streets quite few times just as we are walking around.

side note: because i fell last week i think it is a tender mercy that i got transferred so i dont have to walk by those old ladys anymore that totally saw me fall on the side walk. i mean what funnier thing could there be for a filipino than seeing a foreigner american just about almost face plant. that's pretty shameful hahaha. but now i am gone so status level of Elder Wright's dignity = recovered. hahaha jk

Also things here are very small. i need to show what a full jeep look like but anyway we had to travel to the new area with all my luggage by jeep and my two bags were just so heavy and big it was struggle! also the amount of times i have either ran into people by accident or stepped on their feet when trying to get out of the jeepney has been too many times. Things just are american sized nor are they Polynesian sized especially hahaha i love it

Last night was like Christmas not only did we have general conference but we also got to eat at President and Sister Hughes' house. but on Elder Auseuga and I's way back we totally went past where we were supposed to get off and got lost for a little bit. we are both new to the area but we found our way back, it is a good thing i know tagalog.

It is fun because i have been trying to help Elder Auseuga with tagalog, i honestly love the language and it is has been a blessing learning it.

Because of general conference we havent been able to teach too much so far in the new area but we have had some interesting lessons, one started with me having to explain polygamy and what committing aldutery was because of false claims a less active gave...didnt think i would ever have to do that. but we have had some blessings already come with people giving us referrals and i feel like that there will be new and good things happening in Deparo.

I want to end with just a few words that I really loved General Conference. I know that in this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there is a prophet, this is Christ's church. I also know that Christ lives, He is real and not a made up being. He is as real as everything He created here on earth and i know that He has one true church and this is the church and the Book of Mormon is a testimony of it along with the Spirit. I love you all and i say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Elder Wright

PS send me your favorite scripture or part of general conference, all of you! i would love to hear!

Face Plant (Week 62, Elder Brown)

Sorry this will be another short one this week! but i want to express my love for all of you out there reading this. I am really grateful for the big impact that you have had on my life. you really all have.

I want to start today with a funny experience. as we were on our way to the activity with the zone and after spending time making a really nice meal for us to eat i was talking on the phone and carrying the food and just about face planted in the middle of the side walk in front of everyone and a couple old woman that i always pass by. not going to lie it was pretty embarrassing as my body fell straight with out bending just like a domino toppling over and i threw the phone and made grunting man scream and then barely caught myself...the good thing was i caught myself in a pushup position and the food did not get ruined. but my dignity was a little hurt as i totally fell hahaha just kidding it was so funny. i hope that you enjoy reading this.

Elder Brown and i had a really good lesson with are investigators the H_____ family because they have not been going to church so we went over there and taught about the Plan of salvation but really stopped at the Atonement and taught about the importance of what Christ did. the Spirit in the lesson was really strong. as we really focus on Christ and the Atonement it invites the spirit in  a lesson. We lovingly and boldly told them in a nice way hhahaa that they need to repent and give time to God and follow his commandments. the lesson turned out really good and we knew they felt the spirit.

We also had a great lesson with M__ and R____ and Mo______ and talked about receiving an answer because they dont yet believe in what we have shared fully but my companion felt prompted to read 3 nephi 11 and we read it together and talked about the part where the people heard a voice but didnt understand it until they really tried to and we talked about that with them relating it to the things that we are sharing to them and we invited them to read the rest of the chapter. The Book of Mormon really does teach how to solve our concerns and problems.

K________ and S____ M__ are doing great and are continuing on the path to being baptized and are helping others to make the same commitment. Things are great! I will send a more detailed email next week when i get to watch 

General conference.

I love you all so much!