Sleep Talk and Star Wars

Over the course of the past 4 weeks I think what has brought Elder Lowery and i the closest is his sleep talking and our love for Star Wars. You can probably guess the theme of our District T-shirts...(Star Wars).

The other night i woke up very confused with Elder Lowery standing over waving his arms like he is a traffic guard forcing a risky driver to stop from crashing into ongoing traffic. I tried to ignore him but he kept waving and started to tell me that i do not have a bed and i must sleep in his (FYI: i am sleeping in my bed already). Then he quickly laid on the ground. I respond "Elder Lowery, I already have a bed, get in your bed." he scoots in a little more barely touching his bed still. "No, come on i already have a bed! Get in your bed." I say. "Okay." He responds And then he I notice that his pillow is awya from his bed so i tell him "Go get your pillow" Elder Lowery jumped out of bed attacking his pillow and crouched down holding it sitting down looking like a monkey sitting in front of my bed. Then he dives into bed and goes back to sleep. Hahaha crazy! even whe he is a asleep he is still a hoot. I love that Elder. 

On tuesday we finally taught Juana again and teaching her the Plan of Salvation, not speaking Ilocano was another challenge, but we got through it. Later that night we got a families house and they brought out grilled cheese. I dont know if you all remember me but i just dont like cheese. I know, i know you are probably thinking "Elder Wright, how old are you? Just eat the cheese" I cant alright hahaha. I'm weak. I'm telling you, you can make Greg and Rowley eat the stinky moldy cheese off the ground (Diary of a wimpy kid reference) but you could not threaten me enough probably to eat a nice piece of cheese. Anyway i saw the grilled cheese and i thought "hmmmm, well if i took of the top slice of bread maybe the cheese will be left on the bottom slice" So i did that and success there was only a little bit of cheese and i just tore off the bread eating aroound the cheese. Well, that did last long to where all i was left with was cheese. So i peeled off the cheese and ate the rest and then i was left with another problem. Where do i put the cheese?! *This is the good part* Feeling helpless i slyly went down to make it look like i was adjusting my sock and slipped the cheese in there....Yeah i know i am crazy! I have been here for two years and still cannot learn to adapt to things i dont like!

Besides the funny part i promise spiritual things do happen in my mission!

This week Mary Grace finally got baptized! that was such a good feeling being able to stay here and see her be baptized! 

We are trying to teach and minister to some members and one would not let us in and talk to us but i finally got her to talk with us and get a better relationship by asking about her garden and expressing interest in her garden. It was awesome. Speaking of gardens on my exchanges with Elder Villanueva i did the same thing with someone else and now they are going to go teach that lady and she gave us a chili pepper too!

On our exchanges with Elder Villanueva we had such a great time! He is a great Elder and has a love for teaching the gospel! We had a great experience with teaching someone new in the area because i went there to help them find more people to teach and this was an answer to prayers because we were walking not knowing where to go and then we went by this house that has an avocado tree nd i felt that we should talk with them! Long story short after having an awkward conversation about their avocado tree we sat down taught them and she has been so confused about all of the different religions and she felt enlightened after the message we shared about Christ's church being rejected and lost and then restored through a prophet he called named Joseph Smith. It was awesome!

Jenelyn and Jeraldyn are all doing really great and progressing closer and closer. They are getting ready also to be baptized and just love when we teach them! They keep going to church and the spirit is always so strong when we teach them.

The Spirit is my favorite thing about being here on the mission, there is such a great feeling when you minister and bless the lives of others and help them to be able to find the direction in their life that they need! I love helping others! And I love the mission! I love you all! That's a lot of love!

Elder Wright

MAGIC MAN (Week, Elder Lowery)

WOOOOOOO! Another great week!!! 

This week was not exactly a big week when it came to finding new people but we really tried to do our best to retain those people that we are teaching and we had some really great things happen this week. One of the things that I love being with Elder Lowery is because for some weird reason he just LOVES magic and always has the funniest reactions. Elder Guiral one of our housemates soon found this out and eversince has been making money disappear and then reapear and then he will turn a 100 pesos into 1000 pesos and everytime without a doubt Elder Lowery will freak out, wide eyed and mouth dropped like in the scene of Cloudy with a chance of meatballs when everyone starts seeing food fall from the sky and is gasping. then he will say in his country accent "how didya do that?!" "HOW DIDYA DO THAT?!" hahaha.  Another funny experience...He is really mature but he just has a really playful side to him if that is the right word so sometimes he will like to pretend to talk in Chinese as some people walk by and i will go along with it sometimes to make him happy hahaha he is funny.

Bowling was really fun last PDAY, i was pretty impressed with how good i did in the first round. We all were getting ready and i go up because i am the first one and it always is scary when you are the first one because if you get a gutter or do really bad then its just humiliating but i sucked up my pride and went up not acting too confident and boom i got a strike! i felt pretty cool but man did bowling hurt my fingers hahaha i never thought fingers could get so sore!

So this week we taught Gyyyyrace and she is ready to get baptized next week so I am so excited because i remember when i first met her and it was awesome because we just talked to her and invited her to listen and she gave us her address it was awesome! But her side of the story is a lot funnier of how we first met becuase the other day she told us how she felt and what was going on in her head when we first talked. She said that she was coming back from buying bread and couldve gone two ways, the long way or the shortcut that looked like would be really hot to go down. as any normal Filipino even if it is the shorter way they would avoid being hot, so she went the long way, the road that we were on. When we saw her and started to talk with her she thought..."oh no i shouldve gone the other way". but she was really nice so she kept talking with us. We walked for a bit and she avoided going to her house to not show us where she lived but i asked her for her address and she still gave it to me because she is really nice. One week later she heard that two americans were finding her and she wanted to hide but it was too late because we were already at the door but she still let us in because she was nice but after that first visit she felt that what we taught was good and true and now she will be baptized. I loved hearing that story! such a great experience of how the Lord does prepare people to hear his message and sometimes they dont even know when they are being prepared! So we have to share the message for them to know what they are searching for.

Our lessons with Jyyyyenelyn and Jyyyyeraldyn and their kids are going great because they are going to church and are really wanting continue and to be happy and have God more in their life. I love that even though they dont understand everything they have strong enough faith and trust in God to act.

Jyyyying Jyyyying, jyyyyean's mom, is doing really good and told us the other day that going to church is addicting hahaha i love how she has changed already so much as she has been really trying to come unto Christ. she was already a good person and now she is becoming an even better person!

We are having a lot of success and i am so happy to be a missionary here. I just love working hard, spreading the love of God to everyone and sharing the great news that families can be together forever and we know how! I LOVE THIS! I love my God and i love all of you! I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Wright

MIRACLES!!!! (Elder Lowery March 18, 2019)

There seems to always be something random that happens every week! Elder Lowery and I had a another weird experience. Everything started with our appointment falling through so we decided that we would have to change all of our plans and go and visit some members so we can start working on "Come, Follow Me" with them to build trust and strengthen the members. We started walking down this street when all of the sudden one of the unchained dogs outside starts coming toward us barking and we keep going thinking that nothing may happen when it gets right to my companions leg and starts getting close to bite. At this point all common sense comes to me and says alright lets go back there is another way, however my companion decides to keep going as i stay back and slowly starts to take off his bag as if he is going to be able to fight the dog off with his bag and the first thing that comes into his head is "OH! im gonna have to get rabies shots" (in his southern accent). But he keeps going haha and somehow makes it across. Well let me tell you NO WAY was i going to try and get pass especially since now i am probably the one that will get attacked now thank goodness some driver had mercy on us two americans and drove the car in front of the dog pushing it toward the house and blocked the dog from getting to us. What a saint! After that we got another dog get bold with us and my companion almost backed up into another hahahaa what a day!

On a more spiritual side, we had so many miracles this week it was amazing! We had a great Family Home Evening at Sister Dyyyyyyyyyyling's house that was really fun and we got to teach a lot of her friends! We got to back and teach one of the people that came on friday and we had a really good lesson. She was happy to meet with us and seemed interested.

Do you remember Jyyyyean? My recent convert? Well this last week her mom finally went to church! That was a miracle! We have been teaching her for so long but decided that we would have Jean baptized first and then focus on the mom because Jyyyying Jyyyying was avoiding going to church. We really tried to strengthen Jyyyyean's testimony though especially after she was baptized of the importance of the whole family going to church. I felt so strong that Jyyyying Jyyyying will go to church and you could tell it bothered her but she did not give up and she did not give up on her mom. Last thursday we taught her the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was there and we talked about how to follow the Gospel we need to go to church and prepare and after using the Book of Mormon Alma 34: 32-35 which talks about preparing in this life and repenting and after we committed her to go to church and you could tell that she felt the spirit telling her what she needed to do. She loved church and after we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We are so excited and happy to see that their whole family are starting to come unto Christ.

We also got to teach Jyyyyenelyn, Sister Ayyyyyyrellano's friend and we had a good lesson with her. She opened up to us about her husband who had passed away a year ago and we talked about eternal families and i asked her if she believes in that and she said no, but really that she doesnt know. and i testified to her that families can be forever and when she heard that she got so happy and she also wanted us to share to her sister which we got the chance to last saturday and they both committed to go to church and they loved it! they brought all of their kids and they loved it a lot. We were so happy to see so many families come to church together. Ayyyyndrea and Myyyyyyonchie were finally able to come to church and now they are back on track for baptism. I am so happy to have had so many miracles this week! I know that Heavenly Father is aware of the hard work we are doing and is by our side helping us and i know he is for all pof you!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wright

One Cowboy and One Caliboy

Howdy y'all!!!!!

I guess you can say my companion is already rubbing off on me a little bit and it's only been five days! Elder Lowery and I are having a really fun time together! He is from Florida and is a real crack up with the different slang he uses and funny thick accent he has. 

This week we started taking things full throttle right on the bat! I really love transfer day because we are sending people off and getting new people in the zone and its sad because we lost some great people but we got a lot of new great people in the zone! This day was a miracle because not only did we get a ride to the house so we didnt have to commute to the house but we also got a microwave! I forgot how hard life was without a microwave! Instead of having to wait like 30-40 minutes to boil a potato we can just throw it in the microwave for like 5 min! A miracle!!! Never will i take things back home for granted again. I totally forgot that plates get hot in the microwave i nearly burnt my fingers off trying to get that potato off hahaha but enough about my electrical appliances. 

As soon as Elder Lowery came in we got a little settled in and then we went straight out to work down to Northville and that didnt really work out because the people we were going to teach were not there so we turned around and decided to drink coconut water (which by the way is so delicious and sweet here). In no time we started sharing to the people over there and then we went on over to Sister Arellano who also by the way is a miracle. She worked with us the whole day with her son! it was awesome i love her valiance in the Gospel! our first appointment was with her friend jenelyn and two kids we had really good trust built and then started teaching and then....we had no pamphlets to be able to give to her...so that was interesting. We decided to start to try and share the message anyway but long story short without having the pictures it was really hard for her to understand and focus on the new things that we were sharing with her and she was so happy about the visit that she kept talking about a lot of different things hahaha, She is such a kind person. Elder Lowery tried to squeeze in his part something about prophets to continue in the message but without the pictures it didnt work. It was funny seeing him interrupt and try to go back and then going back to what she was talking about. So i looked to see what we could do and then i remembered that we had a Book of Mormon and i knew that that would help us to be able to catch their focus and attention and we had a good short lesson about the gospel. The Book of Mormon is such a wonderful book and it contains the fullness of the Gospel or the Plan to TRUE Happiness.

We also continued and went back to Carmelita someone we were teaching before and at first she was just not interested in seeing us and having us share but she kindly let us in. depsite that i did not give up i gave her the biggest smile and i just tried to show love and surely enough she ended up getting more comfortable and then she opened up about her grandson and the problems she is having with him being a little sketchy sometimes. We bore testimony and talked but still she did not exactly accept what we were saying nor was very interested but my companion got a feeling to have Sister Arellano's son share about how the Church and the Gospel has helped him avoid temptation. His testimony was so pure and simple that it filled the room with the spirit and Carmelita especially was touched by the simple testimony of the young man. This was a testimony to meet that all of you youth have such strong testimonies and when you share them with others the impact is so great that it blesses and helps others come unto Christ! Share your testimonies, youth! The Spirit will guide you!

There are so many other things i would love to share but just know that I love you all and i am having such a great time hear! And i hope you all find ways to share the Gospel and bring joy to others' lives for the eternities! love you all!

Time and All Eternity!!!!!

So this week has been a very interesting and great week!

But first to start off with my week.

On monday we had a really good day because we had a fun activity at the church with the zone pllaying games, frisbee, playing mafia and eating pork cooked in a traditionjal tongan style by being put in a pit and smoked with hot rocks. It was really good and interesting! We then taught at night Alice and Steve and their friend Jason who always visit Josephine (steve's mom) who takes care of an American which is always interesting visiting him and then having to teach in tagalog while he just sits there not understanding anything we are saying hahaha. We invited them to prayt to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and to go to church! Which they did do! we were excited to see them at church but they did not pray so yesterday we taught them again and taught them why they should pray and also how! We are excited we love teaching them because Steve is always laughing and so nice.

Tuesday we taught Grace about the Gospel and explained the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy because sometimes she doesnt stay at church for the whole time and some times she is late and she doesnt always bring her family and we want to help her whole family come, which was really good because on Saturday after the baptism we had we were able to come back to her and we saw the husband there. He has only listened one time and never was really fond but for some reason this time he was not as shy. We actually had a very good lesson with him and i think it was because we didnt go straight into teaching but warmed and helped him understand our purpose and focused on what he wants in life and they really want peace in the home and security. It was so nice to hear that because that is what the gospel offers!!! Those are the fruits! We then taught about seeking first after the kingdom of God as stated in 3 nephi 14 and then all those things will be added unto us. We invited them to all go to church but he is still unsure and Grace almost didnt come because she didnt have shoes but she ended up coming on sunday and we were so happy she came! Truly a tender mercy!

On Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Villanueva and Elder Bjornn and i went with Elder Villanueva! It was such a fun experience and also very busy because we went to go interview his aunt who lives in camarin for baptism. *side comment* elder villanueva was born here but moved to California and is now serving here! amazing that he is able to be here to baptize his aunt! God does have a plan! She ended up not being there so we continued on with our day and visited Sister Arellano! There we taught a spiritual thought and talked about why the hours of church were shortened and i related to Helaman 5:10 talking about that Satan is trying to attack the family and that he will do whatever it takes to tear them apart but if we have a strong foundation on Christ then our families will be safe and we need to create that foundation through studying the gospel and reading the Book of Mormon in the home. It was great! the spirit was strong. We also taught the Restoration to Joy and Elder Villanueva shared a strong testimony about Christ and put him in the focus on the lesson and also repentance. it was amazing and i could tell that Joy's perspective on us changed a lot and she really wanted to listen after. We also taught Menchie and Daniella as well. Menchie has not been able to go to church because of weddings but we are hoping this next week she will be available.

Thursday we had interviews and it was great becuase President told me about how he appreciates the leader i am and says he thinks that a lot of our success as a zone comes from the leadership skills of my companion and i. We also got a lot of compliments on the language program we are doing! I love it! i love to hear that i am able to help others it's one of the best feelings!

Friday was interesting i am going to skip to the weirdest part of our day where we saw a kidnapping in our area...we didnt necessarily see it but we saw some people running but we didnt really understand what was going on and then got stop by some lady in weird english saying, "You stop" (didnt say it cautiously) us- "why?" her- "there is a bad guy there." she later learned we knew tagalog and then she told us what happened but didnt seem to concerned almost like as if it was normal and we went and talked to someone else to see if the kid was okay or to see if they were okay and someone said smiling "yep they are taken. they are with the person. i dont know if hes hurt but yeah hes gone" We were just so shocked because we could barely understand what was going on especially since no one seemed to scared or freaking out. We were both blown away. I hope everything is okay and we need to be really careful where we are at.

Saturday was a really good  because i got to see a temple sealing of the Sandoval family! That was really awesome! I got surprised to see so many members there that supported the family and they were all shocked to see us too! It was so much fun and i loved being able to talk with them now fully in tagalog and to be able to really understand them! The Sandoval family was so happy to be sealed and seeing them being united for all eternity and not just for this life was the best! i am so proud of them that they held strong and remained worthy! I love that family and i cannot wait to hear about all of the wonderful things they will do! That day was true happiness and everything a missionary wants to see. and being able to go back to my area and baptize Jean and Manolo Arellano was incredible. I am so very happy that i am a part of this gospel and i am so excited that i have an eternal family. I love all of the wonderful experience i have here on the mission and it truly is such a wonderful life!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Elder Wright