"To their eternal credit, I will be forever grateful for them."

Hey Hey Hey.  Have I mentioned that I miss you guys like crazy? I loved reading your emails today. I just love hearing about the exciting events that are taking place back in the Promised Land. It truly amazes me how much things are changing. I'm going to be so out of the loop when my sister is living elsewhere and my brother is a junior in high school.  I'll return home with my rice belly and not know what to do with my life. Gotta love the future. Super exciting. It was a jam-packed week.  The cooking situation here is quite exciting. I think Heavenly Father had canned and freezer foods created for his missionaries, because that's what we eat everyday for lunch haha. Luckily, we have awesome members who feed us dinner nearly every night so we're surviving.

I'll start with an experience I had at the temple this last week. Don't you just love the temple? I sure do.  I could go everyday and just ponder for hours. Last Tuesday I was doing just that. I decided to take a second and ponder about numerous things that would be taking place in the future (after my mission).  I opened up the scriptures to see if I could find out the Lord's will for me. These are the verses I came across:

"Therefore, take ye no thought for the morrow...For your Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things.

Therefore, let the morrow take thought for the things of itself."

Chastised. Ouch. Not the time to be thinking about the future. Focus on the work and everything will work out. Heavenly Father has a plan.

I gotta tell you about my boy King. He's the man. Seriously, he's so prepared. We visited him a couple times this past week and he is just embracing the gospel. He told us of an amazing experience he had while pondering upon the messages he had shared. It was Tuesday, June 17 at 1am in the morning. As he sat on a bench outside his house thought and prayed about what he needed to do. All of the sudden, a newspaper fly out of no where and landed on his foot. He grabbed the newspaper and examined the cover. He saw the date. Tuesday, June 17. The day’s newspapers are usually delivered for another 3-4 hours and yet, there it was, in his hand. It was only a single paper and he began to read. He came across the horoscopes and decided to read his. This is a rough translation of what it said, "What you are doing right now will testify to you of truth. It will bring peace and happiness to your life." Holy Crap. Can an answer to a prayer be clearer than that? He was amazed at the answer he received. I was amazed at the answer he received. It was just amazing. He's taken that answer and is applying it.  He's reading the Book of Mormon, praying and coming to church. This is a great example of what one has to do in order to receive answers to prayers. If we hope to receive such an answer, we have to be completely set upon doing whatever that Lord asks us to do. We have to give up our own desires and our own wants and completely trust that the Lord will give us exactly what we need. If we don't have the conviction to act before, the answer will never come. The power of prayer. Read about it in the Bible Dictionary. We truly underestimate the power of prayer. 

Had a leadership training this week. It was amazing. It was the final training we will be receiving from President Stucki. Super sad, but super uplifting. It was a whole day thing.  Each of the zone leaders gave a segment about an aspect of Missionary Work. We talked about the Book of Mormon. It went well.  Elder Diamse and I also sang a musical number with our two district leaders. It went well. We sang an acapella version of I Need Thee Every Hour. I sure love singing. I saw elder Atoigue and all my buddies there. I love those guys. Elder Atoigue told me a story about one of the members in my previous area. Do you remember Hector? After years of inactivity, he came back to church while I was there. Remember? He's the man. A couple days before the training Elder Atoigue asked him, "Hector, what finally made you come back to church after all those years?" This was his response: "It's all because of two missionaries. I had been visited by countless missionaries in the past and had never wanted to come back. Then two missionaries came by (Elder Carlson and I). There was something different about those two. When they visited me, it made me want to come back to church. To their eternal credit, I will be forever grateful for them." Probably the best compliment I have ever received on my mission. I just love Hector and love that he's happy in the church. The joys of missionary work. 

We sang in the ward choir this week! It was awesome. We sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic." It was great. Not quite as good as the Cabar choir, but I guess it was alright. They recruited us when they realized they only had 2 men. Don't worry, we added some testosterone to the choir.

Where's Waldo?

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TATAY!! Sorry it's a day late. It's that time of month again (I'm referring to temple day. Don't get any other ideas). Therefore, Tuesday is our P-Day.  I'm just so dang lucky to have the best father I could ever ask for. I hope you had a wonderful day. I'll be home for the next one :) This week has been crazy great. We had a lot of amazing experiences.  I'm glad to hear the family is doing well. It's just so crazy to read about the drastic changes that are going on in your lives.  I don't even know if I’ll recognize you when I return. I'll pray for the gift of discernment before I leave.

Alright. This week was great. I got to tell you about this great guy we found this past week. We were looking through the area book at former investigators and came across a man by the name of King Magaling (Translation-King Talented, quite the name). We felt like we needed to visit this man.  We went to the house indicated on the records to find that he moved. Well dang. They directed us to the location that they believed to be his current residence. We made our way that direction and started to ask everyone if they knew this man.  No one did. We made our way down a small alleyway leading to a small, humble home. The home of King Magaling. A man saw us coming and quickly beckoned us to enter.  He found us seats and excitedly sat with us.  He explained that he was in fact King Magaling. King began telling us of his experience with missionaries in the past. He remembered their names, their message, and the feelings he felt. For some reason, the missionaries never returned. King then began to tell us the story about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (while holding his own copy he had been given the year before). He told us of his family, his wife and two young kids. We then began to share the wonderful message of the restoration with this man. It might be more appropriate to say that he shared the message of the restoration with us. The spirit was strong as this man listened intently to how the message could bless his family.  The rest is history. He told us to come back. We did. Another great lesson. He's going to be baptized and his family is going to be eternal. Gotta love former investigators. 

Had zone meeting this past week!! It was great. Elder Diamse and I killed it. We have the best zone ever.  One of the highlights of the meeting was our focus we put on finding men (if you find the men, the family comes with). We used the well-known phrase of "Where's Waldo?" and exhorted all our missionaries to find Waldo everyday. I also gave a segment about going out of your comfort zone. I related our comfort zone to dough, something that must be continually rolled out or it will slowly shrink back to its normal size. It's not enough to go out of your comfort zone once. It must be a decision to change and make the new stretch apart of who you are. I sure love zone meeting. 

We had some amazing experiences finding this week. 7 of them have agreed to be baptized. Tender Mercies of the Lord. 

So it's finally rainy season! The temperatures have dropped a degree and the rain has come. With the rain and the change of weather comes sickness. Not fun.  Elder Diamse got sick earlier this week and lost his voice. I'm starting to pick it up and also losing my voice. I sound like a moron. 

Nearly fell out of a jeepney this week hahaha while it was parked. That was embarrassing.  As I was getting off the strap of my bag wrapped around my leg and I made a super graceful flop out of the back of the jeepney. I luckily landed on my feet. My body was fine, my pride was not. What was probably going through everyone else's head, "hahahahaha stupid American." That's ok, I can take it.  Maybe it made someone's day or made someone smile that hasn't in a while. 

We had stake conference! There was a live broadcast from Salt Lake City. It was great. Uplifting. 

We found a 18-year-old kid this week. His name is Joel.   He really wants to find the truth.  We gave it to him. He prayed about it. He knows it's true. He came to church. Gonna be baptized.

"Searching for the Truth"

It's just a wonderful morning here in the Philippines.  It's still hot.  I have so much that I need to tell you about this week.  It's been a pretty crazy week.  Alright. Elder Diamse is the man.  He's half Filipino, half American but grew up in Utah. He loves sports, music, singing, joking around and just having a good time. We're pretty much best friends. Like I mentioned last week, I know him pretty well. I've gotten to know him pretty well over the past 6 months at MLCs and other such functions. All I gotta say is that we are going to have a fun time over the next transfer or two. 

So the past few weeks our area has been going through some struggles. We have been workin hard, but success just hasn't really been happening. At the end of last week and the beginning of this week, we had to drop numerous investigators and it left us with very little to work with.  So this past week, we have been talking to everybody and their dog.  It's not too easy to talk to everyone when you're in the Philippines because there's millions and millions of people packed into a square mile. If you truly tried to talk to everyone, you could spend your entire day on one street.  So when you're in the Philippines, you really have to find with the spirit.  One principle that you have to learn is that in order to receive more promptings from the spirit you have to prove to the Lord that you'll actually following the ones that he's granting you know. That's what we've been doing. It's brought great success. We've found numerous families that are ready to receive the gospel. I'll tell you about one real fast. So the other day we moved into our new apartment. Upon moving in, we saw our neighbor outside so we started talking with him.  Turns out, he doesn't speak Tagalog.  He's a Filipino that was born in the states and only speaks English (Great thing that both elder Diamse and I speak English pretty well). He's here for work with his wife and brand new baby that was born 19 days ago (their baby is dang cute). His name is Myles and is a really cool guy. Not only is he a cool guy, but he's also been "searching for the truth." Luckily for him, we have the truth. He's been to countless religions, read through the whole bible, cover to cover twice and has talked with members of numerous sects. We set up an appointment with him for later that day.  Later, we taught him and his wife about the message of the restoration (in English. Oh my gosh I love English). It was amazing.  It was powerful.  He had so many questions and we had all the answers. Myles embraced the Book of Mormon and is stoked to read. They have committed to be baptized on July 19th.  The Lord truly places us where he wants us to be.  It's then our job to execute the will of the Lord in the situation that he has placed us in. Fear and being shy are often two hindrances that we all face, hindrances that can be overcome. Never let such feelings keep you from following the promptings of the spirit. 

We had an awesome member bring a friend to church yesterday.  The member's name is Polo and is one of my best buds in the ward.  He brought his neighbor, Elsie. She loved church.  We taught her last night.  She testified to us about the different feeling she felt in our church. She wants to be baptized and she will be next month. Bring your friends to church. It will change your life and the life of the one that you brought.

So pretty much we have the best recent converts in the world.  Three of them (JunJun, Shela, and Geo) are young single adults and love working with us. We've all become great buds.  On Friday, they told us to meet them at a bakery near our house after we finished weekly planning.  Upon arriving at the bakery we were met by these three recent converts who were sitting at a table with McDonalds for us. (Let me also point out that McDonalds is like the nicest place to eat around here. It's not cheap. Plus they are YSAs who don't make a ton of money). They told us that they just wanted to thank us for everything.  How nice is that? We then received a text from Shela later telling us how the lessons that we've been teaching her are "not only changing her life, but making her capable of changing her own life." Those are the times where you just wish you could be a full time missionary forever.  I love this work.

Couple other highlights.

Our apartment is sick. We play basketball every morning.

One of the families we're teaching has finally made the goal to be sealed in the temple. They talked to the bishop about it and are on their way.

Neither I nor Elder Diamse know how to cook. We're in trouble.

Zone meeting is tomorrow.

Well that's about it for this week.  I hope you guys have a wonderful week. I love y'all so much!

"Let the Gospel Show in Your Face"

OOOOOHHHHH MMMMMYYYY GGGGGOOOOOSSSSSHHHH!!! My sister is ENGAGED!!! If you could only see me right now! CONGRATULATIONS!!! I don't even know what to say right now. I am so stinkin happy for you Linds!! And of course, I'm super happy for my future brother in law! (That was weird to say). I sure wish I could be there right now. I would run up to you all and give you the biggest hug in the history of the world. After I gave Lindsay a hug, Jonathan would extend his hand to shake mine and I would exclaim, "Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!!" And then we'd go cow tipping.  AAAAAHHHHHH I am so dang excited. I've gotta say Jonathan, I’m quite impressed with the proposal. If you asked me to marry you in that way I too would say yes. Seriously, I just want to dance around the streets and sing at the top of my lungs, "It's a beautiful night, I’m looking for something dumb to do. Hey baby, I think I want to marry you!" I can hear the church bells ringing already.  The picture you sent me was beautiful Linds.  You are looking gorgeous. Jonathan, you're lookin ok haha joke lang, you're looking gorgeous as well. You just look so happy!! You just look so perfect! I can just see the future unfolding before my eyes.  You're gonna make me some great lookin nieces and nephews. (Was that awkward? I don't feel that emotion anymore). Well I could probably go on for days, but I have to commence my report for the week because my week was also quite eventful. AWW you're engaged!! This whole country is going to know about that before the end of the week. 

Where to even start. I gotta start with Thursday.  (I can't even focus my thoughts right now. I'm just so dang happy). We had MLC and it was great.  I just love MLC. It was President Stucki's last MLC.  Sad. But it was great nonetheless. We talked about a lot of missionary stuff.  I saw all my best buddies. Guess what!? I'm not sure if you remember Maricel, my investigator from Manila 1, but she got baptized this last week!! YAY! Another completed family. I love families. Elder Hawkins told me the funniest story ever. I have to tell it to you.  So Elder Hawkins and Elder Atoigue went to Maricel's house one day and she looked a little frustrated.  At the same time, she was massaging her fist. They inquired as to what was wrong. She said, "Nothing." Then her mom came in and exclaimed that Maricel had punched her husband! Taken off guard, Elder Hawkins asked why and she explained, "Dino (her husband who used to be less active) promised me a few months ago that we would never miss church.  The past couple weeks he has made up excuses not to go to church.  I got frustrated so I punched him." hahahahaha that story made my life. That a girl.  Show you're husband who's boss. It's amazing that when we started teaching her, she did not want to go to church at all. Now, she's enforcing the law of God with her fist. Gotta love the converting power of the gospel. 

Friday was quite the amazing day.  We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Christensen of the presidency of the 70.  It was amazing.  Honestly, I can't even describe how awesome it was. When he walked in, my heart skipped a beat (probably like Lindsay’s did when SHE GOT ENGAGED).  His countenance was bright and the countenance of his wife was even more so. Elder Christensen shared an amazing message.  He had planned this huge thing that he was going to share, but when he stood up to talk he told us,” I feel prompted to share something else with you today." He then went off and illustrated 2 key points of the gospel.  The atonement and the restoration. He talked for about 30 minutes and it was just amazing. If you want to be a general authority you have to treasure up the words or life continually.  It reminded my of a statement President Stucki made: "Until you can teach something, you haven't internalized it." The general authorities have truly internalized the gospel. They are true examples of what it means to be a witness of Jesus Christ at all times, in all things, and in all places.  I hope I can live up to my covenants the way that they do.  As I sit here pondering what I want to share, one statement comes to mind.  Elder Christensen told us, "Let the gospel show in your face." As members of the true church, we should always let the gospel show in our faces. Everyone that comes into contact with us should want to know Jesus Christ because they know us (my paraphrasing of a quote).  They should feel the Savior's love through us.  That is our duty and responsibility as members of this church. 

We got some crazy news the other day.  Elder Manares is training and therefore transferring. I will be staying here in the wonderful Bonifacio 4th ward.  I will be getting a new companion on Wednesday.  His name is Elder Diamse.  I'm way stoked because I already know Elder Diamse really well.  He's American and I know we'll get along great.  I'm super stoked. We're about to tear up this area harder then Elder Manares and I did. It's gonna be tough saying goodbye to Elder Manares though.  We've become pretty good friends. We've had some great times and great success together. 

I've got some sad news. I was informed this last week that Marissa Reyes (the women I baptized in Manila 2nd) passed away this last week. I guess she's been sick and in and out of the hospital for a while and it finally overtook her.  I wasn't told too much about it. They weren't sure what sickness or any details really.  Super sad. That was tough news to hear. I sure love that woman.  The great thing is she passed away an active member of the church. I sure am glad I have such a great knowledge about the plan of salvation. It's great to know that I’ll see her again. Because of the Gospel, death doesn't have to be sad.  In fact, we can rejoice in the fact that she is resting from all her cares.

Let's see... what else is worth telling you.

We took pictures at the mall last Monday with all of our ward missionaries and leaders haha that was great.  

I sweat more sitting here than I used to sweat during soccer games. 

It's really hot.  

It rained for the first time in months the other day!! Raining season is nigh.

My sister is engaged!

One of the less active families that we're working with (the Aneuver family) is finally coming back to church!! They've been two times in a row!

We're moving apartments this week.  Our new apartment has a basketball hoop on the roof.  What up. 

2 of our recent converts have told us that they want to serve missions.  Junjun is one of them. 

I think that's about it for this week. I love you guys and miss you like crazy!! Keep doing what you're doing. 

PS. my sister's engaged.

The Lord is Truly Blessing Us

Another week down. Well this week has pretty much been an amazing week.  I've got a ton to tell you so "be ye therefore ready."

I'll start with the highlight of the week which was the baptism of Jess and Jojo on Saturday.  It was amazing. I cannot even express to you my love for those great men and their families. I'm so glad that you saw the picture of Jess and his family.  They are just the cutest family ever. They are so strong and are going to look great in white in one year from now when they get sealed in the temple. Jess bore such a great testimony after his baptism (did I mention that he asked me to be the baptizer? Yeah, that makes a great day even better). He expressed his love for his family and his excitement and gratitude that he has finally found the true church.  Jojo also bore a great testimony.  He expressed that he was feeling really nervous as he was about to walk through the door into the font, but he expressed that that fear left him when he saw me dressed in white waiting for him at the stairs. His fear was replaced with a "kaya ko" attitude. It was a great experience.  Elder Manares and I had the opportunity to sing a special musical number. After hours of contemplating which song would be best for this situation, we decided to sing, "I love to see the temple" instead of "Wrecking ball." The spirit was so strong. Nothing makes me happier than directing families to the temple. Don't you just love baptisms, missionary work and life?  The Lord is truly blessing us.

I have to tell you a wonderful experience that Jess shared with us before his baptism. As you know he has been looking for a job for quite some time. Despite his heartfelt prayers and faithfulness, he wasn't having any luck. He didn't get the job that I told you about a few weeks ago. so he was very discouraged.  He even expressed to us that he had almost lost hope.  A week before his baptism, we visited him with President Stucki and taught a very powerful lesson.  President Stucki then suggested that we give Jess a priesthood blessing to assist in his job search. Following the lesson, we gave him a great priesthood blessing and then left. The very next day, Jess got a call informing him of a job opening and was asked to come be interviewed.  He was interviewed 5 times.  After those 5 interviews, he was informed that he got the job! After years of searching, the job hunt was over. Not only did he find a job, but it was also a better job than any of the other jobs he had been interview for.  Isn't the power of prayer and priesthood blessings coupled with faith amazing? We can learn an amazing lesson from this story. It would have been really easy for Jess to give up on prayer and come to the conclusion that God doesn't answer prayers after the first failed attempt. However, because of his faithfulness, he was blessed with a greater job than any other he had come across. We sometimes expect God to answer every prayer in the way that we want him to answer.  We expect him to give us what we think is the best.  If we don't receive it, we often begin to doubt and get discouraged.  We rarely take into consideration that the Lord is preparing far greater things down the road. Never get discouraged if a prayer isn't answered right away.  The answer will come, and it will be far better than we initially expected.

I saw a decal the other day that describes the Philippines perfectly. It read, "Trust in God." Immediately following the statement there was a picture of the playboy bunny. Isn't that great? I think that would look good on Stevo. That's kind of how a lot of people think here.  Everyone believes in Christ, but that belief does not lead to a christlike life. They just need the Gospel!!

So earlier today we had an awesome experience.  We went Golfing!! Yes, Elder Obray has come out of retirement.  It was so great. I miss the game of golf.  It definitely wasn't nearly as fun though because I didn't have my dad and brother next to me. The sport itself is only half the fun. Who you're with is the other half. I'm happy to report that I still have a slice.  Some things just never change.  Don't worry though, I’ve still got it.  Pitching wedge=150. That's how we do. The golf course manager actually told me right there that they were ready to sign me if I was wiling. The contract looked pretty nice, but unfortunately, it's against mission rules to take part in sponsored sports activities. Maybe next year.

Went on exchanges this week. That was fun. 

Interviewed a cute little girl for baptism.

Looked at about 300 apartments.  Finally found a couple that actually meet missionary standards! One of which has a basketball court on the roof.  I know where I’ll be placing myself.

Teaching a great new less active part member family (my favorite)! They don't even know the happiness that is about to slap them in the face over the next few months.

Speaking of cute part member families that are going to be sealed in the temple, the Caras family emailed me! They found my blog online and somehow got my email.  They sent me the greatest email in the world.  Quick update for you all.  Carmelino was called to be the sports coordinator and coach of the church ball team (church ball is huge here).  They took the championship under his coaching! He was also called as the second counselor in the young mens.  He's the perfect man for the job.  Jhoanna was called to be a relief society teacher and a teacher in the primary.  I love that family so stinkin much.  Carmelino is going to be bishop before to long.  Their family is doing great! They expressed to me their gratitude for the amazing change that we brought to their family.  I love my mission.

Well that's about it for the week. It was a great week.  This week is also going to be great with MLC and Elder Christensen. The Lord is really blessing us here in the Bonifacio 4th Ward. 

It's All About Prioritizing

Well this week is probably going to shatter your brains.  It was super epic.  We all just had super epic weeks.  Where do I even begin?

Thursday is a good place to start.  Zone conference.  It was awesome.  I sure love zone conference.  It was President Stucki's last zone conference as mission president. I love that guy.  We talked about working with the members (one of those most important aspects of the work!) He took some time at the very end to talk about families.  It was kind of his last-time-i'll-speak-to-you talk. He was telling us to imagine our future families and stuff.  Yeah, hard to focus after that. He gave us some great counsel about families and keeping temple covenants. Great stuff.  At the end he announced that Elder Christensen of the Presidency of the 70 is coming on the 30th to speak to the missionaries and he'll be accompanied with Elder Echo Hawk of the first quorum of the 70 (and a member of our area presidency). I'm so stoked.  This type of opportunity doesn't come around too often. I'm getting all excited just thinking about it.

After the conference, President Stucki came and worked with us in our area!! Was that an experience or what. It was kinda funny because he can't understand anything so he is completely reliant on us to translate and help him through the lesson.  Everything he said though was always heart felt and according to our tinuturuan's needs. It was a good time.

Great news! Jojo and Jess both passed their interviews and will be baptized this Saturday! Aren't you just so excited? I hope you guys can make it to the service. I'll save you a seat. It starts at 2. We had an amazing experience after Jess' interview. We were talking to him about the service and we asked him if he had a specific hymn that he wanted to be a part of the program.  He thought for a while and then responded, "I always hear the children around here singing a song and I’ve really grown to like it.  I think it's called "I love to see the temple." Holy crap.  That's my boy.  That answer could not have been any better.  His family is going to be sealed in one year. That's a man that knows what's important in life.

Saturday was great.  Romeo was baptized!! It was such a great day.  It was quite comical though because everything that possibly could have gone wrong went wrong. The printer ran out of ink so no programs, our piano was taken before the program so no piano, our chorister was tone deaf so that amplified the problem, one of our speakers didn't show up, there was a party going on near by so we were jamming to Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. It was great.  It was still a beautiful service.  The spirit was strong and everyone felt it. I love baptisms.

We participated in a service project earlier today! We helped clean up an elementary school.  It was disgusting. This is one of the nicer schools around and I thought I was going to get some sort of bacterial disease. I don't think they've cleaned it since this time of year last year. It was fun though. Gotta love doing service.

Well I gotta bring this letter to a close. I would like to end with a quick thought that I mentioned earlier.  We learn from Alma that this life is a time to prepare to meet god. One very important aspect of that preparation is prioritizing what truly matters. Every day I see and talk with people that don't quite understand what truly matters in their lives.  The counsel of the Savior is clear, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." We should learn to internalize this statement and make it who we are.  Daily scripture study, prayer, church attendance and other commandments should never be optional. Never allow the question "Should I read the book of Mormon today?" cross your mind.  It shouldn't be an option.  We should just do it because we love the Lord and understand that the Lord’s commandments lead us to happiness. It's all about prioritizing. Never allow something of the world to interfere with those things that truly matter.

Give Him Your Heart, Might, Mind and Strength

Today is a wonderful day.  I truly am blessed to have the family and friends that I do.  I'm truly blessed to be a missionary in the Philippines Manila Mission at this time.  I am just blessed.  I have a ton to update you on.  This week has been great.  I took notes during the week so I wouldn't miss anything. 

So I have to start with MLC.  Such a great experience.  We had a special meeting this week where all the district leaders were invited as well.  It was pretty great to have all the leaders from the mission in one chapel.  The spirit was strong and the revelations were flowing.  Isn't it great to be a part of a church that believes in modern day revelation? What would we do without revelation? The bulk of our MLC was about raising our vision and increasing our faith.  A principle that is reinforced everyday on my mission is the importance of faith.  Faith truly is the starting point of everything. I love how Joseph Smith stated that faith is a principle of power. I bear testimony that that is true. With firm faith, we can command the elements, mountains, trees and they will obey us. (Jacob 4:6) We can all use a little more faith. 

Of course, I also have to mention how great it was to see all my buddies at MLC.  Elder Atougie, Elder Pistorious and I spent lunch reminiscing about the great times we had in Palawan.  That feels like another life.  Can't believe that I was there a year ago.  Memories that I will never forget.  Friends that I’ll stay in contact with forever. 

I think I’ve told you a little bit about my boy Jess, but I’m not quite sure.  My journal and emails all melt together in my mind. Anyway, this guy is the man.  He belongs to a less active part member family (my favorite). When we first met him, he wasn't really interested... at all. He had been visited by countless missionaries and nothing ever happened.  For some reason, this time was different.  We began by visiting him maybe once a week if we were lucky.  As the lessons progressed, so did he.  He began to finally see how important the gospel was to him and his family.  He began reading the Book of Mormon (He's already in 2nd Nephi), praying and coming to church with his family.  Since then, his heart has completely changed.  Yesterday, his wife reactivated and we're excitedly awaiting Jess' baptism on the 24.  He told us an amazing experience that he had the other day praying. He's been looking for a job for months with no luck.  He got a call that there was an opening and he was invited to come and apply.  Before he left for the interview, he felt like he needed to pray, even though he had never prayed before an interview before.  So that's what he did.  He prayed.  He then proceeded to explain the calm, confident feeling that came over him and remained with him the whole day. He wasn’t nervous like he used to be in such circumstances.  Actually, the exact opposite, he was extremely confident. He told us about the 3 exams that he had to take and how he said a prayer before each asking our Heavenly Father to open his mind and help him remember the things that he had studied. He passed the exams with flying colors. Before the first exam, his wife even texted him and told him to pray before going into the exam.  He passed all the interviews and is now just waiting to be interview by the big dog. Isn't prayer amazing.  Never underestimate the power of prayer.  Jess told us at the other day that we answered all the answers that his church has never been able to answer. He knows our church to be true.  What more can I say, the church is true. 

Zone meeting was great.  I love zone meeting so much.  I love training and teaching. Like I mentioned earlier, our zone meeting was all about increasing our faith and expanding our vision. I related my whole segment to high jumping.  I talked about the importance of goal setting, making a plan and then giving it your all (sounds super basic, but it was super awesome).  We can accomplish so much more when we allow the Lord to direct us. Give him your heart, might, mind and strength and he'll do a lot more with us than we can.  If only we could all comprehend the Lord's will for us. I wonder what he thinks when we do anything that's contrary to his plan. I had an experience this week with an investigator who just would not accept that his family needed a gospel centered home. I just wanted to make him understand that everything the Lord asks us to do is for our own good. Every commandment, every assignment, every awkward situation, every trial, every time we're forced from our comfort zone. It's all for our good and for our progression.  All we have to do is follow and embrace it.  I'm sure glad that we have this mortal life to grow and progress because if I was a God right now, I probably would have caused a small earthquake to hit that guy’s house. A soft one of course because I still love him. 

Fun Fact: Our house is full of hormonal mosquitoes. The only place I ever get mosquito bites is on my butt.  

Temple day!!! In about 3 hours I’ll be in the temple. Stoked. 

I love the scriptures. 

Elder Manares is the man. 

Tagalog. I love it. Most of the time. 

My area is still tiny. 

I love fish. 

I love you all.