Magandang Umaga! Good Morning

We got to go to the temple last week and it was awesome. It really got me excited to work this week! It’s always nice to take some time to step back and evaluate on a larger perspective. The Manila temple is awesome too it has grass like on a golf course.. and i like grass like on a golf course.

This week we had something awesome happen! We were out walkin around and a lady came walking up to us and told us she’s an RM! She’s now inactive but super nice. She said she has 4 kids but only one is currently living with her here in las pinas.. the others are in the province with the dad. The son with her now is named Jordan and is 18 years old. She said she has wanted him to listen to missionaries for awhile now then decide for himself if he wants to be baptized. She also said she wants to return to church and be active again.

We went and met her son on Saturday! He is super cool! He is actually one of the best hip hop dancers in the philippines for his age.. their team won the whole thing in whatever big competition it is. Apparently they’ve been on tv a few times too! His mom talked about her mission for awhile and cried a ton while remembering her cool experiences as a missionary. She also had lots of advice for us when we go home so we don’t take the path that she took. She said though even though she’s been down many roads, her testimony of the church and its truthfulness is still very strong. We asked Jordan what days we can continue to return to teach him and he said “four times a week will be good!” We printed out a calendar and now have him on a set schedule. Super cool! We’re excited to have someone new who really understands the end goal of being baptized and going through the temple. His mom even mentioned she thinks it would be super cool if he one day serves a mission. I agree that would be beast.

Last time we emailed my companion learned that his uncle from Makati got hit by a bus and is in the hospital. They’re all non members but asked if he could visit. He asked President if he could go give a blessing and President gave him the go. It also helped them not get offended with the church because they’re helping him be able to serve in the first place. But we headed over on the LRT (like trax in ut) and were able to give the blessing. The equiptment at the hospital was so old i felt bad for the people in there. His uncle was cool though he couldn’t speak but he gave us a nice thumbs up!

Went on exchanges with Elder Dequito and found some new investigators. We had a funny day haha so many weird things kept happening. We taught the craziest grandma.. Also a special needs 30 year old in underwear stole my waterbottle out of my hands and took off running! I chased him down though and got it back.

Our mission is now allowed to enter the whole boundary of the ward rather than just our proselyting area to visit members. President said we should let the Bishop put us to work and one way to help that was through letting us visit any member or less active. So now we proselyte in our half of the area but can eat dinner and share a message anywhere in the ward. The relief society president sister maricor is awesome and went crazy yesterday at church getting people to sign up for a dinner appointment. It has been awhile since four elders are allowed to eat and share so everyone wants to have the missionaries over. Haha let’s just say the ward is awesome and we have tons of dinners now this next month! It will be really good too to receive more referrals and better help members share the gospel. I’m excited!

Also yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament! It was 15 minutes and i focused on the importance of our agency and habits. It’s one thing I’ve noticed on my mission that is so important for our progression. Choices we make also show what is important to us and where our hearts are. The small choices are what set apart an average person and a true disciple of Christ. I talked about how the word of God can change our hearts and help us become more like Christ. In Mosiah 5 we see the affect of the word of God on people. After King Benjamin gave his last words to his people, it says in verse 2 “And they all cried in one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” The scrpitures can change our desires. They will help us to love living the commandments and doing what God expects- not just doing so because we have to. They will help us feel His love for each of us. They testify of Christ and help us understand what He did for us. They help us become more like Him. I remember the talk given last conference i think about how over generations after moving to a new country the native language of a fam is eventually lost. I talked about that a little because there are tons of provinces and different dialects here in the Philippines. Language is often what people like to talk about here. The same goes with the gospel. When one person decides to fall away from the gospel, it affects the future generations. Over time the language of the gospel is lost in the home. A cool example of this happening in the scripts is mosiah 26:1! As well as in our personal lives, when we stop reading the scriptures gospel teachings start to become more foreign to us. It’s true that what is being fed into our head makes us into the person we are. Kinda like you are what you eat haha. I invite you all to start trying to develop a new habit this week that will bring you closer to Christ. By doing it regularly over time you will see changes, i promise! Lots of work and sacrifice has taken place to help preserve the words in the Book of Mormon to lead us to know what we need to do. Let’s try not to take it for granted and do the best we can to preserve the language of the gospel in our lives and fams.

  

Thx everyone for the love and support. Have a solid week!

Elder reber J

No pics from Parker this week. This is a picture of a meetinghouse on Palawan that Sister Fermanis took. 

 

This picture of Parker's buddy Elder Mitchell made me laugh. The missionaries love it when they order pizza. Everything comes with rice on the side. Even McDonalds serves rice. Fun fact.