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
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