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