Week 60 (Ang Mapayapang Don Antonio Ward, Elder Brown)

So it is official we got two areas now and Elder Brown and i have got the reigns tied and taking this like a cowboy on a bull in a rodeo. dont ask why i just said that. it might be better if you pretend it didnt happen. i could erase it but whats typed is done, you cant live in the past.

I am having such a great time with Elder Brown! he is from Cedar City and we have been great friends since the MTC. It honestly has just been the easiest companionship of all time so far! we have also been setting great goals and kind of started the week a little rough due to trying to get everything figured out and managed.

The new transfer with Elder Brown started when we woke up early to walk Elder Kauffman out to transfer over to the mission office and i got some sharp pain in my abdomen pierce into the soul of my poor American belly. I knew from there that my stomach was toast. I walked back home and still had some time to sleep because it wasnt 630 yet but sadly i had to go to the bathroom because i wasnt comfortable but i prayed that my pain would go and that i wouldnt be stopped from working because of all the goals that i want to make by october. eventually the pain went away and i was happy it was honestly a tender mercy! i thought i for sure had LBMs! that's not fun in the Philippines!

We taught  a lesson to an investigator in the other area J___ V______ and we extended a baptismal date to him! he is a good kid and seemed like he wants to know about where the true church is! We also spent some time this week not being able to find things in Elder Brown's area even though he had been there for three months now hahaha. we always talk and laugh though so even if we get loss it is always a good time with us two. we think we might get matching companion ship ties and also mix kool-aid powder in pancakes to see if it's delicious...yeah we are a dangerous combination...i wonder why we were put together. but i can see that some great diligent work will be put in this transfer! Speaking of diligence i have been really trying to focus more my attention with goals that i have made and i have greatly learned this week that it is true that is if we will put great focus in a goal or something that we want, as long as it is a righteous desire, we will receive from our Heavenly Father. I have seen that as I have put more faith in my goal to get more baptisms that i have made that Heavenly Father has been blessing me abundantly. We are now teaching two little compound areas and trying to get more investigators in there because are progressing investigators both live there. K_______ and Sh______ M__ and J____.

Speaking of J____ we had a great lesson with her and it started of weird but we taught her about the Restoration again and really asked her questions and about her experiences in life. we later asked her if she would be baptized and she said yes and i think she really feels that this is truth and i cant wait for her to grow in her testimony!!!

We had the chance to teach another family with the help of a member and we got to teach M__, R___ and Mo______! those three live in the same compound!

I know things were all jumbled around but i am just so happy because with the faith i have been trying to build and also with the will power (still not perfect) Heavenly Father has been blessing me in my righteous desires and i know that he can and will do the same for all of you!

I love you all!

ANG GWAPO NILA (Week 59, ??, Elder Kauffman)

Some times little kids can just be so hilarious when...wait hold on we got a young australian that is right in front of us at the computer shop...not going to lie that is always interesting to see...anyway when kids just do funny things in the philippines i love it. after having little success from trying to find people and tracting but not feeling like we were in the right area i was a little discouraged and then these little kids came right in time to lift up our spirits and started following us for a too long chanting over and over again "ang gwapo nila!" which means theyre so handsome! it was pretty funny as we walked next to people and the kids chanted it. it definitely helped Elder Kauffman and i realize, we are gwapo hahahaha totally kidding but it definitely gave us a good laugh. we loved it!

Today we had the chance to go to a dam and it was really pretty there! i pretty much have torn up shoes like crazy now so that is nice hahaha but the place was really neat.

Background we have cats that are always around our apartment. Earlier this week we had a sad experience by seeing that one of the babies that was birthed by the cats was left outside and no one saved it, it just died! it was so sad! it was crying with its umbilical cord attached to it.

Another random experience just so that you all can know all of the little details there was someone that stopped us and was trying to get money from us (which is not allowed because the money is not ours that we use) and he knew it was because he is also a member but he kept trying to convince us and we eventually got away and i am glad nothing bad happened.

Knnth and Shl M are getting closer to baptism and we are excited they are getting committed to keeping the word of wisdom so that they can make their baptismal date and we only have to prepare for their wedding and continue to teach them! they are awesome!

Jhnsn is a new investigator and he loved church this sunday! he said he wants to be a missionary and we talked a bit about it and we had a good time with showing him the Restoration video and his mom and him liked it. sadly his mom didnt go to church so we are going to try and get them to go next time!

We also had a family home evening with the Ans__ family and it was great! his baptism was last saturday and we are so happy for him!

We met new investigators and experienced a bit of struggles but i know that more blessings will come i realized that i need to be patient and more hopeful as i am trying to help people to act and to come unto Christ. Sometimes it can be rough but i remember that the Lord is merciful and always blesses us and i am so grateful for him and excited for the next week as we work harder to invite and talk to more people! i love you all!

Elder Wright

kittens next to our house, the momma cat hates my companion

jkry and jnlyn!!!! (new investigator) jkry is already a member

knnth and shl m and their kids

mtc exchanges!!!

My old mtc teacher!!!! sister tumalaytay (she is now married) and our temporary companions!

Pix (Week 58)

So Many Dead Cats (Week 57, Fairview, Elder Kauffman)

This letter will probably know be narrated as well. I don't know why but in this area and with Elder Kauffman i have seen so many dead cats!!! it's disgusting! haha just had to share that with you. I also have heard probably the most K-Pop (korean pop) i have ever heard in my life...literally everyone loves it here! it seems everyone of all ages and gender seem to like the same music. i recall being in a jeepney and just seeing a grown man, an old lady the mom and the kids enjoy the song hahaha it had Elder and i dead!

I also forgot to mention one my experiences i was able to encounter! a while back we got the opportunity to teach a members referall who was someone from Japan his name was something that i dont know how to begin to spell in english ahaha i think Takish? or wait i cant remember exactly what it was but anyway, he did not really understand english at all...so even though we taught him in english so he could better understand i dont think it really got to him, what we were saying. i cant tell you how slow and simple english we tried to speak. it was rough but it was fun!

Because of the last Zone conference that we had that partly talked about developing our talents and focusing on our strengths i was strongly inspired to give a workshop to my fellow missionaries about charity or the pure love of Christ because as stated in the Ether 12:35 those that dont have charity will have what they have taken from them and given those who have more in abundance. just like in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, those that didnt use the talents and increase them had their talents taken away. the workshop turned out very good because the Spirit was there and guided the workshop as we discussed about loving our companions, those around us and having charity. It has even gotten me thinking more about how i can be more Charitable and i think that is a great think for us to evaluate because even as Paul mentioned Charity never faileth! therefore if we have Charity we will never fail! and we all know that we all want to succeed so therefore we must love ourselves, others and Christ to succeed! we show that by living like Him.

I love being here on the mission and focusing on being more Christ-like. We really have found some new people that we are excited to continue teaching. one is this person named Jn who is of a different faith but at the end of our message told us about what she was going through and the trials she has.

We also met Nsl who has come from a bad background and her husband was recently murdered and i saw that the Lord guided me to meet her as He prompted me to say something random to her as she was sitting in the street so i did and then she from there opened up about everything. what if i never stopped to talk to her and just kept going?!

We met another great family the Rmbns family and taught them the Restoration! it was a nice lesson and we are going to return to them later!

My favorite parts of this week was when we taught our progressing investigators. the first is with Jmng, because jmng is young we have been putting a big focus as well on his mom who is a member that is sometimes less active and we asked her about the gift of the Holy Ghost and she shared an experience where she followed a prompting of the Spirit to try to stop from having meetings on sundays so she wont have to miss church and it made us so happy to hear that she is being strengthened by the Lord and coming unto Him.

Another favorite part of my week was with Shl M and Knnth we were hoping to be able to teach them and visited them but found out that Knnth was not there yet so we started teaching Shl M about the Book of Mormon and in the middle of the lesson while our member was sharing, Knnth walked in and it was PERFECT timing. Brother Pn shared testimony and a scripture of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was filling the room, and we bore testimony and from there knew and felt it was perfect timing to invite them to be baptized and i asked them about if they feel if this is the right path and i asked them if they would want to continue and be baptized and they sadi yes and it was awesome! the Spirit flooded the room! it was incredible and amazing! words cannot describe!

I just want to testify of the power that love brings if there was not a member who didnt have charity and introduce us to our friend we may have not met knnth and shl m but because of that love they were found and most importantly because of the love of the Savior they can be baptized and cleansed and in the future sealed together as a family for time and all eternity! i love my Savior and Heavenly Father and i love you all!

Elder Wright