Punched in the Nose by the Holy Ghost

Well I have a ton to talk about and not a lot of time to do it in.  I'll try and bust as much out as I can.  It all started last Monday with the departure of Elder Carlson.  I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend I’ve known my whole life.  However, the knowledge that we're going to be tight after the mish made the goodbyes a lot easier.  We only cried in each other’s arms for a few minutes. I sure am gonna miss that guy.  I spent the next few days working in another area with Elder Manongas and Elder Noynay.  It was good stuff.  Finally Wednesday rolled around and met my new companion.  Elder Hawkins.  He's the man.  He's got some crazy red hair and was a runner at BYU Hawaii before the mission.  (Finally a companion that likes running) He's been in the mission for one transfer longer than I have and is a great missionary. I love the guy.  He's from Idaho. I've already learned a ton from him.  This is his first transfer as a zone leader so I have the responsibility of teaching him how to be a zone leader even though I still don't really know what I’m doing.  So pretty much we're just winging it. Follow the spirit I guess. Life of a Zone Leader gets pretty crazy some times, but I love it.  

This week was full of ups and downs.  We have met a ton of great people this past week and are super stoked to teach them in the future.  We had a cool experience last night.  We were walking home at about 8:50 pm and I felt impressed to go walk by one of our investigators house to see how he was doing.  We had stopped by earlier that day, but were told that he was out of town and wouldn't be back till the next day.  We went anyway.  We "tao po"ed and out came my boy Dwight. We found him a couple days ago helping some of the new elders find their new house.  He had quite a few questions about religion and of course, the Mormon missionaries always have the answers.  We just started a casual conversation outside his house.  All of the sudden, my nose started to bleed. (First nose bleed I’ve had in about a year. Quite odd).  He told me to come inside his house and clean up.  So we did.  While we were in the house, I met his father, mother, sister and daughter.  We had a great conversation and got a return appointment for tomorrow. Upon leaving, Elder Hawkins and I both looked at each other and confirmed the feelings of the other: that family is going to be baptized.  All because of a random bloody nose, we found an awesome family.  I guess you could say I was punched in the face by the spirit.  God sure does work in mysterious ways.  

My birthday was quite an interesting day.  It started off a little bit terrible.  We left our house to go pick up some of our investigators for church.  Two of them weren't home, and one said they had to work.  We went to a final house.  The mother of our investigator exited the house. She saw us, sighed and then began yelling, telling us never to come back.  That was awesome.  Then, we arrived at church to find that some of our other investigators that had committed to come didn't show.  It was a frustrating morning.  However, two less actives made my day.  My boy Hector was at church for the 4th time, which marks his reactivation.  He's the man.  He's going to be a great member of the church.  He's going to change a lot of people's lives.  I can feel it. Not only that, but he also invited his driver to church and referred him to us. That's what I’m talking about.  This brings me to my other less active best friend, Lan. He's the funniest guy ever. He invited us over to his house later that night.  We showed up to find burritos and a birthday cake on the table. I had told them that Mexican food was my favorite food and so they cooked me burritos.  Isn't that the greatest thing you have ever heard? Most people in the Philippines don't even know what burritos are.  It was such a great night.  I love that family so much.  They are so mabait and mahal ko sila talaga. Lan will be reactivated this Sunday!! 

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple earlier today. That was awesome.  No place like the temple.