He was there and he was happy!

Hello everyone!

This week was super awesome. We found lots of new investigators again
this week and we had to drop quite a few old ones. We're being patient with
everyone, but at the same time we are really trying to find those who
are ready to follow Christ. One hard thing as a missionary is knowing
if we should drop someone or keep helping them. You hear of
investigators being baptized after years, so we must really rely on
the spirit to know what to do.

One thing we're focusing on is teaching members a quick lesson aboutmissionary work then asking them to think of someone who would benefit
from the gospel. We remind them of how amazing the gospel really is,
we sometimes forget and take it for granted! We've come up with a
pretty solid lesson plan for this and it's given us lots of success!
We kinda switch stuff each lesson just depending on who we're teaching
and what we feel we should share. It's funny though, as a missionary
usually you don't have huge crazy ideas of what exactly you need to
share, it's normally small ideas that come to your mind that the
spirit gives you. As we learn to act on these promptings we gain God's
trust and he'll help us even more. Just like anything else in life,
the more you practice something the more you'll improve! But anyways
we got quite a few referrals! One of my favorite lessons was with the
Nunez family. They had lots of ideas of less actives as well as people
in the area. Since me and my comp are pretty new in the area and the
area book a little trashed we need all the help we can get in order to
work not just hard, but smart too!

The Nunez family lives up this huge dirt road in the forest kinda on a
hill. After we taught them we needed to get home and Bro Nunez (Elder
Quorum pres) offered us a ride in his jeep/explorer car! It was sweet!
We were in the back and it was the first time I've driven with a
member in the mission. It was like off roadin' haha. Good times here in
Palawan!

Our main investigator Caesar was acting weird earlier this week. We
went to teach him and saw him at his neighbors house. We were saying
"tao po!" at his door and we saw that he saw us then kinda hid
himself! I was like ah crap. Then the next day we went to the front of
his house and got no answer so we went around to the back of his
house. As we turned the corner we saw him running away haha! He's like
kinda old so it was funny but also frustrating since he's our main
guy! Me and my comp were a little let down. But finally later in the
week we were able to talk with him. Turns out he's had some super
super sad things happen to him the past week. SO many trials. I can't
really say any of them but it was stuff beyond anything I've seen in
my life. As a result he drunk once and that's why he ran, he didn't
want us to see him drunk. But we sat him down and had an awesome
lesson about trusting God and His absolute perfect love for Caesar. It
was a lesson i won't forget, he was in tears the whole time but God
comforted him a lot. His trials even tested my faith! How could so many
things happen to someone as nice as he is? As we left both me and my
comp were just like "wow!" Ha we were both in tears too. I'm so happy
though to have the knowledge that God loves us and has a perfect plan
for us. I finished the Doctrine and Covenants this week and it talks
a lot about the word "sacrifice." Joseph Smith had his fair share of it
haha. But he overcame ALL things and it all worked out. Jesus Christ
felt all of the pains and trials of the world. He also succeeded. I
know we can trust God no matter what happens, we can always look
positive and remember our trials are so small! We can complain or we
can press forward and look for the sunlight!

The best part of the lesson though was when Caesar said, "I'll be at
church tomorrow and every week the rest of my life. Don't pick me up,
I need to be responsible and go myself." Sure enough he was there! And
he was happy! The branch is really good at helping people feel welcome
and we planned people to sit with him. It was a cool experience seeing
him there!

This next week we get to actually fly to Manila Thursday and stay
there through Monday! Elder Bednar is coming to our mission! It will
be awesome. Every missionary in Palawan is                                                                                         flying over then flying back to Palawan four days later! I've been
doing lots of studying about learning by faith to prepare for
his visit. I read that assurance leads to evidence which leads to
action. This action will lead to more assurance. The three are
intertwined. As you continue this cycle your faith, knowledge, and who
you are will improve. You will become converted. The best way to learn
is by living what you learn. We must be doers of the word, not just
hearers. There are no shortcuts to becoming converted. We're trying to
help our investigators understand this. So many people just go to
church and listen but don't live the teachings. Our job as
missionaries is to help them reallze they must act. Giving someone a
fish will feed them one meal, but teaching someone how to fish will
feel them their whole life. I know as we continue to center our lives
on Christ, we will become more like Him and want to do more good as we
continue to have those experiences that will build our testimony.

Loving the mission! My companion works so hard:) We haven't even used the
full time given for meals since I've been with him haha! I'm thankful
for the two years I have to focus everything on the gospel and helping
others come unto Christ.

Love Elder Reber

ps I found out our ward mission leader, brother Benji, was baptized by
Sister Williams, from our stake,  I think?! He says to tell her hi haha. Also, a brother
in our ward was kabahay with my cousin Mitch in Laoag. Brother Saragosa.

No pictures this week so just found an oldie but a goodie!