Small and Simple Things

What a crazy week full of baptisms, weird food, marriage counseling, and miracles. I'll start with Saturday. JunJun was baptized! It was a super great service and the spirit was strong.  You would have thought that he had been a member for years if you heard his testimony at any other venue. He's such a special guy. He'll be a great instrument in the hands of Lord as he continues to flourish in the Lord's church.  Who knows, a full time mission might be in his future. A few missionaries, including Elder Manares and I, sang a musical number that was alright. We prepared for like thirty minutes before so I wouldn't say that it was beautiful, but it invited the spirit none-the-less. Not only was JunJun baptized this last week, but also my favorite family from my last area.  I'm so happy for that family.  The parents were reactivated and now three of their 6 children are members of the church (the other 3 are under the age of 8). What a wonderful blessing to be a part of that wonderful change in their life.  I wish I could have been there to see it.

One great thing about this ward is that they love to feed the missionaries.  We had a dinner appointment every night this last week.  I'm getting so fat. It's great.  Anyways, included in those meals are some pretty epic eating experiences.  I ate horse. That was weird. Quite spicy, had quite the kick (hahaha). We also ate octopus.  It sufficeth me to say that some sea creatures should be left in the sea and be left un-eaten. Luckily, you can put anything on rice and it tastes good.

We had a really cool experience yesterday.  We concluded our church service and were in coordination meeting. One of our elderly ward missionaries told us of a family that was quite sick and was in need of priesthood blessings. We grabbed one of our high priests and headed to their house.  When we arrived, this family just lit up. They graciously let us in.  We proceeded to give both Tatay and Nanay blessings.  At the conclusion of the blessing given to Tatay, he looked at us, with a tear in his eye, and stated, "This might just be a little thing, but I will never forget it." We never know how much our simple acts of service can bless the lives of those around us.  An act that seems quite small can truly mean the world to friend, neighbor, family member, or stranger. It reminded me of the scripture found in Alma 37:6-7:

"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

We can be those little miracles in other people’s lives if we heed to the small, simple promptings of the spirit.  Who knows, it could bring about the salvation of a soul.

I had the opportunity to participate in marriage counseling the other day.  Before the meeting, all I could think about was the movie, "What Happens in Vegas" when they are yelling and screaming at each other. That's pretty much what it was like. Luckily we kept it a little more organized than that though. As soon as we began to talk about our Savior and the divinity and sanctity of the family, the whole mood changed. The Spirit was felt by all.  Tears were shed.  Hearts were changed.  The wonderful couple left the room holding hands. If we want to have a successful relationship and family, center it in the gospel and build it upon the Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ.

So I may or may not have told an innocent, old lady that we have a lot of prostitutes in the Philippines.  The word for harlet and learning is quite similar so in an attempt to state something along the lines of "we do most of our learning in the Philippines," I may have messed up a little and flopped a specific word. I don't know for sure though.  She didn't look too freaked out so I think it's all good. It made me chuckle though.

I relearned a valuable lesson this week about attitude.  Attitude is a choice and will greatly affect every situation. Don't worry about things you can't control, worry about the things you can. 

Favorite hymn line for the week that has been stuck in my head and playing on repeat. "Time flies on wings of lightning." Literary genius.

Peter Parker? "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

What a week here in the Bonifacio 4th Ward. It's been a crazy week. 

So it pretty much all started on Friday when we had a specialized teaching training. It lasted from 9 to 3 and was all about using the scriptures and teaching short and powerful lessons.  We were called the night before and told that we would be leading a practice teaching for lesson three.  Sweet, no big deal.  Then we where told that we would be doing the demonstration and we had to teach all of lesson three (English) in 15 minutes using a scripture for every principle.  That was an experience, especially when my companion doesn't like using English.  It worked out well though.  We learned a ton.  Something that is not easy is teaching the entire plan of salvation in 15 minutes using a scripture for every principle. That one will take some practice.

Right after the specialized training we went of exchanges with the APs.  I was with Elder Stevens.  A little background about Elder Stevens: He was one of the very first missionaries I met in the field.  We flew over to Palawan together and he later became my zone leader.  We have a ton in common. It's actually quite weird how much we have in common. He's from San Diego, loves sports, music, and all that fun stuff.  When I first got into the field, he was kind of the missionary that I looked up to and always thought, "I want to be a missionary like that." He's a convert to the church and was only a member for a year before he left on his mission.  Needless to say, we had a great time.  We worked in his area and pretty much tore it apart.  We taught some great people including this referral who is a little bit older and just loves life. She was so excited to see us and was just bouncing off walls the whole time.  She'll be getting baptized at the end of April. Fun fact about the Philippines.  People love talking about things that have no relevance to anything.  During our lesson with this woman (Margarita), she somehow took prophets and morphed it into how she's traveled all over the Philippines and did service projects or something hahaha it makes me laugh just thinking about it.  The next morning we did P90x.  Destroyed me.  I sure miss that feeling.

Sunday was a great day.  Spent the whole week preparing for my talk.  It went well. I'll talk about it a little bit later though.  I'll use that as my spiritual thought for the week.

Fun Fact: For some reason, everyone hear calls me Peter Parker or Clark Kent. And I mean everyone.  Members, investigators, people I’ve never even seen before, it's quite ridiculous.  I don't even look anything like them besides the fact that I’m white and wear glasses.

Anyway, back to Sunday. We were at coordination meeting and we brought JunJun, our baptismal candidate, because we were going to set up the program and all that stuff. As we were sitting there listening to some other missionaries in the ward give their report and JunJun leans over to us and asks if he can work with us and help us teach! "Of course!!" hahah I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. So later that day, he worked with us for 4 hours! We taught a lesson (which is a spiritual experience in itself that I’ll talk about next) and JunJun bore the strongest testimony ever about how the Book of Mormon has changed his life and how he knows without a doubt that it's true.  It's amazing to me how converted JunJun is.  He has experienced "a mighty change of heart" and is truly acting upon it.  He worked with us again yesterday and introduced us to one of his friends who we will be teaching on Wednesday. Amazing.  This kid is a better missionary than I am.

So more about the lesson that we taught.  Our tinuruan was named Brian. He's a personal fitness trainer and a family man. He has a wife and a little baby and they mean everything to him.  Luckily for him, we have exactly what he needs to make his family happier in this life and eternal in the life to come.  Turns out that this man was prepared by the hand of the Lord to hear our message.  He excitedly welcomed us in and began to tell us about the background that he's already had with the "Mormons."  He has family members that are members and has been introduced to the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  He ran upstairs and brought down his Book of Mormon and the book "Our Heritage" and began to expound upon the things that he's learned from his reading.  HE taught US about Mormon being the father of Moroni and how Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and assisted in the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon.  I was amazed.  We didn't really even have to do anything.  He asked a couple questions which he pretty much answered himself.  We kind of just bore testimony of the things that he was saying. One of the members working with us, who was just baptized in December, bore strong testimony, and then we let JunJun loose on him and that just took it home. Game over.  Brian is getting baptized.  Such a spiritual experience.  If anyone ever doubts that the lord is preparing his children to hear the message of the restoration, send them my way and I'll prove them otherwise.

As I was praying the other day about the topic I wanted to speak on, I was hit with a definite answer.  A word popped into my head and the spirit testified to me that I needed to talk on forgiveness. President Hinckley proclaimed that forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue on earth and I’d have to agree.  If we could master this virtue, the world would be a far better place and our lives would be far happier. If we ever feel that we can't forgive someone I would encourage us to remember our savior Jesus Christ who suffered incomprehensible pain for each one of us.  He bled from ever pore, he was beaten, bruised, whipped, and mocked by those that he was in the act of saving. As he hung on the cross, facing his accuser, he offered this humble plea, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Never has such an act of love and forgiveness ever been preformed.  We can forgive even when we feel that we have been wronged beyond forgiveness.  The Lord is always ready and waiting to forgive us.  Let us remember our savior and be willing and ready to forgive those around us.            

Without the Bitter, the Sweet Wouldn't Be as Sweet

Magandang umaga sa inyong lahat (Good morning to you all).

Another beautiful morning in the Philippines. You would never believe this, but it's actually getting hotter here.  We're approaching the "summer" season (even though it's always summer here) and are headed into the warmest months of the year.  Yay. I'm so excited to sweat.

The beginning of the week was great.  Elder Hawkins and I spent our last few days together in a state of bliss and joy. We went to the gym and running. Doesn't get better than that.  I'm sad to report Dad that the abs don't function like the washboard they used to.  I'm slowly moving into the padded-ironing-board-cover stage.  It's quite sad.  Oh rice, why are you so abundant in the Philippines? Anyway, Elder Hawkins and I made some cool shirts for about 2 dollars, made cookie dough and played some epic Uno.  We spent Monday night and Tuesday visiting all of our favorite families in the ward.  It was sad to say goodbye.  Especially, to the Borejon family.  The cutest part member family that the world has ever produced.  Their baptism is on the 29th and I’m hoping to get permission from President Stucki to attend. They expressed to me that they want me to be the one to baptize them so I sure hope I can go.

So my new area.... I am already in love it. And my companion... he's the man.  His name is Elder Manares.  He's the funniest, hard working Filipino missionary ever. He rarely speaks English and when he does, he just quotes movies hahaha.  I love the guy.  He's been in the mission for a while and heads home in October. We're going to have a great time together.  I'm excited for the opportunity to improve my language ability.  He also loves basketball.  We've played basketball 3 times so far.  We play with some of our neighbors.  It's a good time.

So our area is kind of tiny.  It's composed of probably 10 streets or so. However, the people are great.  It’s a step up from the ghetto that was my last area. No one calls me Joe and no one makes fun of us. It's great.  I did however have some little kids following me around pinching and slapping my butt.  That was weird.  We have some great mga tinuturuan (people we're teaching).  I gotta tell you about our awesome investigator Jun Jun.  He's 20 years old and just loves the gospel.  He works at a bakery and is just a happy guy.  We took him to a baptism on Saturday and he just ate it up.  He told us that he wishes it was him being baptized. (greatest comment ever).  He will be baptized on the 29th.

My first Sunday was just great.  I love the ward.  I started getting to know the members the first day I got here and they are the nicest people ever.  They love missionaries and they love missionary work. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting and I felt like I was back in the states.  The building we meet in is quite amazing.  It's three stories and 6 wards meet in it every Sunday.  The chapel looks almost identical to ours back home except downsized.  It has the exact same color scheme and everything. The only difference was there weren’t any white people.  I'm slowly upgraded area-to-area.  Cabar was a tiny shack hut, Manila was a small tropical building and Bonifacio (the name of our ward) is a huge, architectural feature.  I wonder what my next area has in store.  This ward just has a different feeling.  Everyone at church is happy and jolly. The spirit is strong and I’m just stoked to be here.  I was also asked to speak next week.  I will be the concluding speaker hahaha concluding speakers here usually end up speaking for like 20 minutes.  That will be an adventure.  The concluding speaker yesterday spoke for quite a while on the importance of marriage and how teenagers shouldn’t hold hands even if they're in a relationship.  That's quite an opinion.

I got your package! It was perfect timing.  I got it on Wednesday (transfer day) so it was a nice comfort.  Plus, we didn't have any food at our house so I’ve been living off of snacks.  Yum.  The shoes and shirts are great.  I'm lookin pretty dang fly.  I've actually had some random people approach me and tell me that only true representatives of Jesus Christ can look that good hahah however, it did come at a price.  These shoes gave me some gnarly blisters on my heels.  They're just about gone now though so we're all good. Thanks so much for the package.  I loved the pictures.  I've gone through them upwards of 20 times already.  You guys are lookin great. 

So I found out where Mayday Parade got the title, "Without the bitter, the sweet wouldn't be as sweet." It turns out they got if from D&C 29:39

 39 And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet.

That about does it for the week. It was a wonderful week and I feel extremely blessed to be a part of the work in this area.  I would just like to end with a scripture from one of the best Book of Mormon missionaries, Ammon.

12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things.

Ammon was the instrument that brought thousands of Lamanite souls into the fold of God. He worked miracles and forever changed the course of an entire nation. He was a man of mighty faith. However, he wasn't always the Ammon that chopped of arms to save the kings flocks or converted kingdoms.  He was also one of the sons of Mosiah that sought to destroy the church of God in his youth. He repented, he overcame his weaknesses, and grew into the man that the Lord wanted him to be. We can also become as Ammon is, even if we are now who Ammon used to be. We are so lucky to have the knowledge that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and he loves us unconditionally. He is there for us always and will help us become who he wants us to be.  In his strength, we can do all things.

We Just Gotta Love

What a crazy week.  It was full of spiritual experiences, exhaustion, meetings, amazing people, crazy people, even crazier people and everything in between.

It all began on Tuesday when we had our zone meeting.  What an experience.  The mornings of zone meetings are crazy stressful, but are so worth it. We were running around town trying to finalize everything and fix the little problems that kept popping up out of nowhere. Elder Hawkins and I are really happy about the turn out though.  There was laughing, tears, the spirit and candy.  The formula for a good zone meeting. One of my main topics was letting our love motivate us to go above and beyond.  I used the greatest example of Love that ever did live.  Jesus Christ.  One day, I hope I can love as Jesus Christ loves.  One of my favorite verses on the subject is found in Moroni 8: 
”Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.”

We just gotta love.

Immediately following zone meeting, we went on exchanges with our district leader.  It was great.  I was working over in their area with Elder Barnes from Idaho. (Yes mom, every missionary from Idaho is serving in the Philippines). We had a good time.  We talked to a lot of people.  Someone tried to convert us to Iglesia Ni Cristo.  I think we saw a dead guy. We got hit on... by both girls and guys. Went to the gym.  You know, just a normal day as a missionary. What's super cool is Elder Barnes lives with Elder Atoigue so I gotta spend the night with my tatay.  I sure love that man.  He heads home in July.  Crazy. Want to hear something awesome? I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but Elder Atoigue was a convert to the church and was the only member in his family. He had the amazing experience to baptize his mom while he was in the MTC.  Since then, his dad has also been baptized. Elder Atoigue is the man.  That is a true missionary.  It gets even better.  This summer, his parents will be flying out to Manila to be sealed as a family in the Manila temple.  It nearly brings tears to my eyes. I love that family.

The rest of the week was full of teaching, talking and tracting. We found some wonderful investigators this week who are definitely going to be baptized.  We had two great FHEs with a few investigators that will be baptized on the 29th.   Had 7 investigators at church and 7 less actives.  Our sacrament attendance has jumped from 126 to 181 in the past three weeks. It's a great time to be serving in the Manila 1st ward.

I gotta tell you a couple stories from church. We were waiting at the door inviting everyone to church when I see our part member family (Borejon) walk in through the gate. I make eye contact with their 8-year-old daughter and she gets this huge smile on her face and runs over and gives me a hug.  Yeah, that was priceless.  Next story.  We just finished up Sunday school and were heading into the chapel.  I scan the room to see who's there, who's sitting next to who, and all that fun stuff. Out of the corner of my eye I see a man.  I took a second look and realized that it was Dino, the less active husband of our investigator that disappeared two weeks ago. I scanned the row and found Maricel (our investigator) sitting quietly awaiting for the meeting to start. I just love when people come to church without even being asked.  It's just great.  It was a great Sunday.

I have bad news. 

I'm transferring. 

Got a call last night from the APs and I will be transferring out of my beloved area. I'll be heading to a new zone on Wednesday. That call pretty much shattered my dreams.  It made me really really sad.  This area and this zone are finally moving forward and I’m being transferred. I hate leaving the people that I have grown to love so much.  I will miss them like crazy. I guess I’m needed in another part of the Lord's vineyard. The great thing is, I’ll have the opportunity to meet hundreds of new people. "I'll go where you want me to go dear lord.”

"A Thought Popped Into My Hair"

Another great week has gone by. I sure do love missionary work.  Thanks for your emails today. Reading emails from home ranks high on my favorite things to do (right next to seeing women breastfeed and naked kids hugging our legs).  I'm glad to hear that everything is going well in the Promised Land. Elder Hawkins and I have had a wonderful morning finishing up preparations for our Zone Meeting that will be happening this Tuesday.  It's going to be a good one. Following email, we will be headed to our favorite place in town, Mang Inasal.  A restaurant that offers unlimited rice with any combo (only in the Philippines). We are about to stuff ourselves. 

Alright what to say about this week.  We had MLC again this last Thursday. It was a wonderful experience.  It was extra special because I saw everyone from my MTC District on our year mark.  We took some great pictures and had a great time.  I sure do love those missionaries.  We always leave MLC motivated and spiritual uplifted. 

Elder Hawkins and I had a pretty good week this week.  We pulled in 28 lessons and are hoping to do even better in the upcoming week. We have a new drive to make this area the best that we can.  We have set some really high goals for April and are super excited.  Transfer day is coming up here on the 12th so I'm not quite sure if I'll be staying or leaving. I really don't want to leave yet.  I have put my sweat and tears into this area and it's finally reaching its peak.  Plus, Elder Hawkins and I have a good thing going so we're really hoping to keep it going for a couple more months.

We had a great opportunity to go on exchanges with the APs this week. I learned a ton.  It's amazing how much you can learn from one person.  I was with Elder Belnap.  He's from Idaho and we actually have a ton in common.  Turns out he's a soccer player (kinda) and loves sports in general.  We had a good time and taught some great lessons.  He's an amazing teacher and has quite a grasp on the Book of Mormon.  He's a great guy.

We had two less actives reactivate this last Sunday.  It was a great day.  Plus, we had a few less active families show up to church, which was absolutely fantastic.  It doesn't get much better than working with families.  Elder Hawkins and I spend all our time with part member families. There's a special spirit that resides in their homes and they are usually prepared to hear the gospel and make changes in their lives. One of our investigators is named Marlon  (I think I have mentioned him in previous emails). His wife is active in the church and has the strongest desire for her husband to be baptized.  It's amazing how much Marlon's faith has grown in the past couple months through scripture study and prayer. Elder Hawkins and I taught a very powerful lesson about the atonement and it's importance in our lives. I've found that a lot of people understand that there was an Atonement made, but they don't quite grasp the importance nor how to use it. The Lord asks us to do so little and yet we often fall short. We too often lose focus of what's truly important in our lives. Unfortunately, a lot of people here allow pleasure to blind their vision of what truly matters; They seek for happiness among wickedness. I can't think of a better calling than helping others discover what truly brings them joy. 

Had an awesome Tagalog mess up this week.  It was hilarious. We were in a lesson with a man that did not want to believe in the Book of Mormon.  He was pulling out all these bible verses trying to prove that there could not be other scripture nor could Jesus Christ appear to the people in America. I was getting pretty fed up so Elder Hawkins and I just bore strong testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I was really into this testimony.  The moment was cinematic.  A thought popped into my head and I tried to express that by saying "a thought popped into my mind." Well I mixed up the word for mind (Utak) with the word for hair (buhok) hahahaha so yes, I told this man that a thought popped into my hair.  That was embarrassing.  I quickly corrected myself, but the moment was gone.  We got a good laugh out of that one. 

Well this week hasn't been too crazy.  It went by so fast that I don't really remember what happened.  I guess I'll just end with a spiritual thought about one of my favorite characters from the Book of Mormon: King Benjamin.  He's such a great example to us all.  He's a great father, teacher and disciple of Jesus Christ.  I love this verse from Words of Mormon:

King Benjamin by laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land.

He labored with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul.  Because of his diligence, he established peace in the land. He didn't rely on others to do everything for him nor was he lazy. He didn't procrastinate nor seek after that which is wicked. He was an amazing leader and an amazing man because he worked. King Benjamin worked when he didn't want to work and continued when the going got tough.  I hope one day I can labor even as King Benjamin labored.

We Find Miracles When We Look For Miracles

So this week.  Where to start.  We had Zone Conference, which was absolutely great.  I know I say this all the time, but President Stucki is the man.  The conference was focused around faith and it's importance in the work.  Such a spiritual experience. We actually didn't get any work in that day because we then had ward meeting the rest of the day.

We were supposed to have a baptism this last Saturday. His name is Tito and is the nephew of one of our super active members.  We have been teaching him for the past couple months and he's just a great kid.  He has a great support system in his uncle (he lives with his Uncle from Friday to Sunday).  Both of his parents have passed away so he lives with his grandparents, who are also his legal guardians (non members). (They had given us permission to baptize Tito weeks earlier.)  We were super excited about his baptism.  We had already made programs and the whole service was set up and ready. We stopped by his house on Friday night to teach one last lesson and just see how he was doing.  We were met by his Grandma who told us that she doesn't want Tito to be baptized anymore. We talked with her for about an hour about the importance of baptism and how it would change his life, but she wasn't really interested. So we had to cancel the baptism.  However, I know without a doubt, that when the time comes, Tito will be baptized and he will be a great member of the church.  We'll just continue to visit him and continue to love him and his family.

We had a great week in terms of finding this past week.  We found 10 great new investigators that we're super excited about. We taught some great lessons.  Elder Hawkins and I are transforming the way we teach and it's really starting to pay off.  It's amazing what the Lord can do when you put your trust in him.

One last experience. Elder Hawkins and I were looking for a referral the other day.  We were given the apartment building and floor, but not the number.  So we made our way to the 5th floor and began our search.  No one knew who this family was.  We were obviously in the wrong place.  However, we made our way down to the end of the hall and found a door ajar. We knocked and a big man (big in the Philippines isn't that big) approached.  We inquired about the name, but responded by saying that he did not know them.  Elder Hawkins and I felt prompted to continue talking with this man.  So we did.  We had a great conversation and he invited us in his house. We shared a great lesson with him, his wife, and his 3 kids.  It was wonderful.  They were very excited and invited us back this week.  It's amazing how the lord accomplishes his work.  We can find miracles whenever we are looking for them. 

I would just like to end with a quick scripture verse.  This is one of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon.

11 And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.

Be Perfect Now

Well this week started with an epic zone meeting on Tuesday.  We were over at the church at 10 in the morning preparing everything for our meeting that started at 1. At about 12, we had almost everything ready when we received a call from the big dawg himself, President Stucki.  He informed us that he would be attending our zone meeting. Upon hearing those words, my anxiety doubled in intensity.  Zone meeting alone is pretty stressful.  When you have President there, its taken to a whole new level.  It turned out really well though.  We had some great discussions on the importance of diligence and using time wisely.  We concluded with a segment on the difference between "utilizing" the Book of Mormon and "using" the Book of Mormon.  After all, it is the most powerful tool in conversion when coupled with the spirit. The theme of our meeting was the scripture 3rd Nephi 12:48:

48 Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

I truly love this scripture.  The Lord has commanded us to be perfect. Of course, right now, we are not perfect. However, everyday we can be a little bit more perfect than we were the day before. There are numerous aspects of our life that take enormous amounts of time to become perfect in. Being a perfect teacher, perfectly humble, or perfectly patient take lifetimes to achieve.  However, there are also aspects of our life that we can be perfect in now. Often times, the only thing that's holding us back from this perfection is our mindset. We can be perfect in studying the scriptures every day, attending church every week, or home teaching every month. In order to be perfect in these things, we just have to do it. Be perfect now.

We also had a great opportunity to attend a 6-hour leadership training on Thursday.  This has quite the story.  The training started at 9 in the morning.  In order to get a few things done and get there on time, we were out of our house at 7. We made our way around town to coordinate some exchanges with the companions of the district leaders who would also be attending the meeting. At about 7:45 we began to wave down taxis to take us the rest of the way to the chapel for the meeting. The chapel was probably 10 miles away, so in the states would take about 15 minutes to get there. We thought we would be there in no time. Time slowly began to pass as we were waiting on the side of the road trying to wave down a taxi.  Every taxi that past was full or just wouldn't stop for the Mormons. It ended up taking us 45 minutes to grab a taxi.  We still had hope we could make it on time... until we hit Manila traffic.  (Manila traffic is different than any other traffic you could ever imagine). We were at a stand still. We were still a bit away from the chapel and it was already 8:45.  So... we jumped out of the taxi and ran the rest of the way.  This scene probably could have been in a movie. There were skyscrapers on both sides, hordes of people and these 2 Americans were dodging these people as they ran in their white shirts and ties. Quite a scene.  We arrived at the chapel at 8:58, sweaty and red in the face.  What an adventure. 

The training was amazing though.  We did an activity at lunch where we all went out and just passed out Books of Mormon.  Elder Hawkins and I sat next to this guy eating lunch outside of a small convenient store. We began talking to him and discovered that he was from Mindoro (the same place Brady is serving at right now) and is only in Manila for work.  We shared a powerful message about the Book of Mormon.  This guy was hooked.  He gladly accepted the Book of Mormon and then told us to write a message on the inside of the Book of Mormon so he could read it to his wife when he headed back home. He asked us a ton of questions and it was just wonderful. Gotta love the Book of Mormon.

Yesterday was a wonderful day.  The work this last week had been a little tough and Elder Hawkins and I were just beat.  While we were awaiting the start of church, we saw one of the part member, less active families that we are teaching walking toward the church for the first time in over a decade. Unfortunately, Brother wasn't able to make it, but Sister came walking in with her 6 children all under the age of 12, 2 of which are 4 month old twins.  I was so excited to see them.  They are the cutest family ever. They were immediately enveloped by members who excitedly greeted them and welcomed them to church. My heart was full as I witnessed that sight. 3 of her children who are over the age of 8 haven't been baptized yet so we're super excited to have their family baptized and active in the church. I gotta send you a picture of this family, they are so dang adorable.

I just want to end with a thought that has been on my mind the past couple days. I'll begin with a scripture:

6 And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

We often underestimate the power of faith in our own lives. I've come to the conclusion that a failure to keep a commandment usually boils down to two reasons. 1. We don't understand it's importance. 2. Our faith is not sufficiently strong.  There is a reason that faith is the first principle of the gospel; everything depends upon our faith. In a world of trials and temptation, our faith is bumped, bruised and broken.  Our faith becomes weaker as we begin to yield to these temptations or fall victim to a trial we don't think we can overcome. However, when we endure challenges and overcome barriers that are placed in our way, our faith grows. It will become stronger and stronger until our faith becomes knowledge (like the brother of Jared). The Lord has given us guidance in how to strengthen our faith.  Prayer and scripture study are two very simple acts and yet, are often underestimated.  In the bible dictionary, it states that prayer brings forth some of the most plentiful blessings.  Moroni promises us later in verse 12 that as we show our faith, we are then open to see and experience miracles. I know that this is true.  Miracles are real and they begin with our faith.  Constantly strive to strengthen your faith. That way, when you are faced with a trial, you will have no problem bearing it.