HEY! I MET MY TRAINEE (Week 31, San Jose de Monte, Bulacan, Elder Arandia)

HEY! I met my trainee, he is Elder Arandia! He is from Gapan which is here is the philippines. A lot of the time peopel will get confused with that and they will think Japan...that makes it way easy to mess with the people here.

Elder Arandia is actually older than me! the guy is like 23 years old but nevertheless i still feel like i am a his older brother. He actually before the mission did not go to the missionary training center and practice there how to be a missionary. On our first day together, the other night he had just had his little farewell party! crazy! he had no preparation but just went straight into the real deal of the mission! he is adjusting good and seems to be happy but hes a got a lot to learn! I really will probably be the one doing all of the learning though because i got a lot to learn of how to be a missionary.

From day one i have been trying to help him know that i am here to serve him and ive really been trying to love and i even told him that i am here as his servant to help him with whatever he may need. I just dont want him to be afraid of me or to be shy to get help from me. So far i feel like i am being a good dad.

I have also been trying to teach him English because he doesnt speak that good of english, so i have been trying to get him to speak it to me, because when you are a foreigner, knowing english is a huge key to success. there are more opportunities and you and can get a better job, so i really want to help him out.

We are struggling in our area because i havent been here for too long and so i dont know the area and the people here are not too welcome to even listening, so really member work is the key but i dont know if the members liked the past missionaries to much so there is a problem there that we are gonna try to fix so we can get help from the members and have the work with us and want to work with us. so really there is a lot of planning going on in our companionship.

We have been able to extend baptismal dates to people and are working toward them to help them get baptized. One investigator is Jyyy Byyyy who is so sweet but is sooooooooo shy! and she is so shy because of how tall i am and just gets so nervous around me, it is hilarious but she has gotten better! XD really sometimes the people here really get shy and nervous about the whole height thing. Really i heard that one 6' 5" always tries to find a way to sit down when he is with the filipinos so they dont feel too shy hahaha, it's classic but hey when you got someone towering over a foot or more over you asking about your family and where you live and if they can meet you...Wouldnt you be scared too?! I would probably wouldnt like that either if i was them hahahaXD. but oh well that is the life of an american missionary. 

really things are going good here. now that i have a trainee i really am experiencing a freedom with planning because he is really dependent on me and i am really trying hard to help people, and take the opportunity to help part member families or families where there are mormons and then maybe they will have a non member sibling or spouse so they can experience the joy of entering the temple together and become a strong family centered on christ and his gospel.

Thinking about it, it is really sad that there are families that arent completely centered on christ or on his gospel, i really hope that you all are doing your best to help others come unto to christ and also helping yourself come unto him, everyday. these things should be a daily thing, they need to be done daily. I love you all so much and encourage you to reach out to others. and i know you wont regret it and i say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I'M GONNA BE A DAD (Week 30, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Elder Olpin)

Just found out my brother Jake is going to have a beautiful baby girl! so excited to be an uncle and for him to be dad. well just yesterday i found out this next transfer that i am going to be a dad too! Im gonna train my son (a new missionary out in the field)! i get to meet him tomorrow i am so excited! I still dont know if he will know how to speak tagalog or not but either way it will be a great time teaching him how to be an obedient missionary and to serve the Lord. 

This week was definitely not the easiest but it was still a good week!

I am really trying to figure out how to work in this new area because even though i am not exactly far from my old area, things are just different here. I am definitely struggling to get new investigators and we will get a lot of people flaking from us. Since we have little progress in our work we have been trying to get new investigators, a few days this week though we have been getting shut down by everyone. it gets pretty frustrating sometimes because you really want to help people and even just give them the chance to find out if your message is true but when they dont want to even give you a chance, it gets harder to keep up your hopes and patience. But still despite these challenges i didnt blame the Lord for our challenges. and as i continue to do the work of the Lord, He has blessed us to still find people to teach. Its funny how it will work sometimes. Sometimes there will be a day of a lot of what we would feel as a failure, where there will be rejection or appointments wont work out but as you continue to despite those discouraging times, the Lord leads you to one person or a family or always blesses you with something to help you remember that He is there working with us and through us and that He wants us to succeed. Sometimes the blessings are small, sometimes they are big, but nevertheless He always provides blessings to the faithful.

Something i am wanting to start is always counting one thing i saw in my day that the Lord Blessed me with. I want to start doing that so i can always remember to be grateful for everyday and everything the Lord does for me.

A fun thing that happened this week was we met a family, the Cyyyyarating family and the head of the family is this guy who came back from Alabama! he had been living there for something like 50 years and was born here in the Philippines. that was just all english! hahaha he had the southern accent and everything, it was awesome! but anyway we got time to know them and then taught their whole family about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We still taught in Tagalog though because the rest of his family didnt live in america. they seemed genuinely interested which was excited! 

We also at the end of this week were able to extend a baptismal date to Jyyyyoyce, so we were really excited about that because it is always just wonderful when you help people make further steps unto Christ and you get to be there to guide them.

So i guess those are some exciting things going on and things that i learned. I guess my advice...Never let the bad or the failure cover up all of the good or the success. i started doing that a bit and really it just doesnt help. We all need to focus more on the blessings we have been given and be more grateful

Love you all! go forth with a grateful heart!

flipino guy working on a building

Bowling with the district

this is 100% not a knock off jordan hat

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! (Week 29, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Elder Olpin)

Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone takes this opportunity to spread extra love around! especially to their family members, even if it is getting them a small treat and letter or doing something big for them. Hopefully everyone will show love to someone this week :)

Anyway wow I am doing good! everything is great! the sky is blue! the air is...still not fresh...and i guess the birds arent chirping...but dogs are barking...(i think that works) so everything is good! except for the fact that last night i think i had a dream that bedbugs returned...*shivels* i hate bedbugs. and mosquitos but the mosquito bites arent gonna stop me from being happy :)

My new area is great, it is still city but there are definitely a lot more trees and i think a little more kids running around, especially in one area where we always get stopped by kids and then basically I just love to mess around with them and then they just love it. sometimes its really fun feeling like a celebrity...until creepy people get involved...but anyway that is just the life here haha nothing unusual.

I definitely am happier in my new area but i have to learn it quick because i think my companion is gonna go somewhere else so...who knows what will happen?! the ward is awesome. we have one member the Syyyebumpan family that have recently been baptized and love the missionary work. we are actually teaching a kid named Axxxd who was almost like abandoned by his parents and the Syyyebumpan family decided to take him under their wing. honestly so sweet. so we have been teaching him and finally now that my tagalog skills are i guess enough (credit to the Lord and not myself) it is a lot easier to teach little kids and have fun with them and relate with them in lessons. they definitely listen more if you know how to get them to listen. actually sometimes i act so goofy! with those kids hahaha it is funny, Sister Syyyebumpan loves it and actually told my companion that I am so charismatic and really that made me happy because i everytime i walk through this giant area called towerville, i really try to build trust and be super friendly and loving to the people in hopes to be more accepted into people's homes. Really i just want people to see as their servants and servants of the Lord. so i am working on being more Christ-like, i got a long way to go but i am trying :).

Random thought we have an amazing ward mission leader who was a great missionary and who is really trying to help us and give us tips to help us, so i think i can learn a lot from him. he really is a good Christ-like guy.

We found this husband and wife Kyyyora and Fxxxxranklyn. Fxxxranklyn is paralyzed on the full left side of his body due to a stroke and has strong faith in Christ. We taught them the Restoration and Elder Olpin and i really felt the Spirit fill the lesson. the lesson really had them involved and even though they still dont know the truth yet, we have hope because of their willingness to listen that if they follow our invitations that we give that they will come to know the true church of Jesus Christ and find peace and happiness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. so we are going to definitely go back and teach them more about God's plan for them. It really does make you happy when you find people willing to listen and have strong faith in Christ and enjoy your company.

the other day we saw a really poor woman carrying her crying child in a cart filled with bottles and it really broke my heart watching her and seeing her have no help...we were going to keep moving on until i saw that bottles fell out of her cart and so i turned back and ran over to her and i got there and i helped her pick things up and tried talking to her and i kept offering her help but it was so sad because she didnt want help at all...it was heart breaking. people saw what had happened and were very impressed and grateful that we are here to help and how we helped the woman so even though the woman didnt want to help and we couldnt help her, i see how Heavenly Father opened someone else's heart to listen to want to listen to us ( a guy named Axxxndres) because of how he saw our love for that woman we tried to help.

I really have been learning a lot and having good experiences:) i really am trying to be more Christ-like and although i am far from it, i am striving. I love you all so much! Please go out and serve someone, love someone and give to someone.

you are all great and amazing people with a potential beyond what you can see. you are all beautiful and i love you and i know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And i say these things in the name of our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

BYE BYE VEALENZUELA < HELLO BULACAN (Week 28, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Elder Olpin)

Well everyone that was quite the couple weeks. I experienced some challenges but through prayer and trying to love and have patience things were able to get better. I honestly want to write about the things that i learn but first i want to say where i am right now.

So right now i am in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan. i got transferred here last friday because of problems that arose that ended up being resolved in the last day except for the fact that our house was infested with bed bugs and we needed to get out of there. So now i am here with elder Olpin who actually came out the same time i did. even though we are both so young and working on the language, it is a ton of fun and we have a good companionship. like earlier this morning we went on a beautiful hike in nearby hills and then started on a monkey hunt...sadly us four missionaries were the closest things to monkeys out there. 

We have already got some baptisms scheduled and we are excited to have a full day of work as things have been busy and different. i like my new area and enjoy having a washing machine and two bathrooms now. it is honestly the best house.

we have a very diligent ward mission leader over here so i think we are going to have good work done.

[] i really learned the importance of love and patience and understanding even when someone doesnt want to work too hard or work with you. really love made things better.

I love you guys! 

Elder Wright