The two Amerikanos...and Herman

"Hi there!" -quote from richard reber

Wow gotta say two Amerikanos in this area has been a sweet adventure! Haha Elder Petersen and I have had a blast together. We work pretty similar and have seen lots of cool things happen. We went in this little alley of one of our investigators and met all the kids and each of them introduced us to their parents. Some parents were nice and others wanted to kill their kids haha. We got lots of new investigators this week and have lots of return appointments for this upcomin week. It has been super fun!

I gave a baptism interview to a 16 year old named Judy Ann. It was such a neat interview for me. She was super ready and energetic it's the best seeing someone on fire with the gospel even though they're just 16. She was kicked out of her home by her parents and a member couple (both RM's) took her in I guess. It was a cool story and uplifting for me to hear her testimony throughout the interview questions.

We saw some super great things happen with the area this week. We went back to Charlon Altez and his fam, who i had met on exchanges the week before getting sick. After we taught the whole restoration they were just blown away. It clicked really well with them which is always a good feeling. Brother Charlon looked at us and hardly knew what to do so he just yelled "soft drinks!!" Haha we had some nice mtn dew after the lesson literally they were just trying to do anything to "repay" us. With the culture here they don't like feeling in debt and as a result we often get crackers or something after lessons :) All of those kids of the part member fam are doing great too. They all have book of mormons now and little calendars where they check off if they've read and prayed as they prep for their baptism. They're so awesome lots of them went to play basketball with the ward too on thursday. Jordan has been at the hospital 24/7 watching over his step dad. He feels like he can't leave and literally hardly sleeps so he can be there for him. We teach him in the hospital in a little waiting area where nobody really goes. It's been fun visiting his step dad and watching him improve. One day we walked in and he gave us a huge thumbs up. I went up to where his eye could see and asked if we could give him a blessing of comfort. He nodded his head and started to cry haha. He hadn't been able to sleep but after the blessing he was out cold. I hadn't seen anything like that in my life it was really amazing. His less active rm mom came to church yesterday which made us super happy! Sadly jordan was still watching over giovanni at the hosp so his baptism will be moved a bit. All is well though it's been great learning from them!

Ohhh man something crazy went down this week. So we went to the funeral of a sister of our ward who passed away to give messages. Luckily they ended up only needing one so I got outta it ;) But anyways heading home from that i needed to hit the restroom super bad! I ran inside the house and bam a handsome 8 inch worm named herman came outta my bod. I flipped out let's just say haha. It was moving around and everything! Soo yeah i texted sister turner our nurse and found out what type of worm it was and stuff. I guess it comes from pork not cooked properly and has probably been living in my stomach for weeks. That along with the amoeba is why i've lost so much weight! But yeah there's more to the story. I guess if the worm gets that big it lays eggs and has some nice babies. It can range as to how many but it gets up usually to around 20. Sooo yeah in my stomach I've got about 20 worms straight chilling living the high life. The assistants brought me some crazy meds that basically bomb em down there.

It's weird now too when i eat because i know all the food i'm eating just gets eaten up by these worms. The more I eat the more they eat and the bigger they get. The assistants told me sister turner showed them a cartoon of one worm moving around then on the next slide there were 20 slithering around the screen haha. They all think it's pretty funny. I'm trying to feed my "children" some good food tho! Mcdons was my first meal when i learned of all of this haha. But actually the pills are awesome and I ate my first full meal on saturday in about 15 days at the one and only Mang Inasal.

But yeah that's about all! We found this AWESOME new fam, the Kastillo fam. One of the most spiritual first lessons i've ever been in about God's love, families, and the temple. We both showed them pictures of our families which they they were excited to see. They promised us they'd go to church and said they one day want to enter the temple. I also have been the ward pianist for the past 3 wks. It's fun to sit down and that I can still remember stuff decently even though I don't ever practice out here. We had 8 investigators at church yesterday which was exciting for us. We might start up an english class? And i might do piano lessons again. We just need to organize some of these ideas. I'm excited for these next months in the mission! I know that God is always there to help me and to help you. Look for His hand in your life!

Love you all. Watch what you eat.

Elder Reber

The Two Amerikanos- Elder Petersen and Elder Reber

Parker and Herman-- yikes

They start decorating for Christmas early so I sent this with a requested Christmas music flash drive....

Apparently a picture wasn't provided and they were unsure of how to use it!! 

Live after the manner of Happiness

Hi everyone!

First off happy birthday to capri this week!! I'm sure mom is happy that her last child is no longer one digit. Happy 10th bday i can't believe you are that old haha. Have a great day and make sure to get outta school for lunch ;)

Well this week was full of some new experiences! My companion got dengue and i got a beautiful amoeba so we were both man down. It was kinda boring haha i don't like sitting inside a room all day. I was able to read sometimes but most of it i was too whiped out! We were just constantly headin back to the medical center place taking tests but we're all good now! Our old investigator who was really close to being baptized - Joy gontinas- heard we were sick and brought us tons of food. she's really thoughtful.. people here are just straight homies. I'm happy to be here in the Philippines. I wasn't able to eat anything but bananas and crackers but i was able to eat some of what she brought that day it was great!

So i have a new companion! Whatta man. His name is Elder Petersen from American Fork and we're in the same batch (came into the mission at the same time.) Sadly it's not big remi davis petersen but this guy is also a stud. It's every missionaries hope to be put with someone from their batch! We're soo excited and it's already been a blast. We've got lots in common he likes the mountains like I do and everyone in the ward says we look like twins haha. He's a great worker we're going to have a fun time together and hopefully will spend christmas together here!

We weren't able to switch companions until saturday because of the whole sick thing but eventually it happened! Sunday we were able to work and we got to reteach our recent convert Jansen and try to introduce Elder Petersen to some of the people. We had to take it slow Sunday since i'm still kinda out of it which was annoying but hey life is good. Just glad to be outta the house now!

Funny random thing that happened. Elder Albis, who was one of the elders in our house, went home on Wednesday! It was cool to see him head home after working so hard up to the end. His companion Elder Brizuela finished his training and was excited/nervous for his new companion. We got the email saying his new companion is elder vinas and we told him that elder vinas is from Mexico (he's a filipino though.) Elder Brizuela was excited but i guess when they met he knew right away we tricked him. Haha it's hard to explain it to make it funny over email but little funny moments like that make the mission awesome.

I got to read an aweome talk out of the Liahona about being happy. It gave six reasons how to be happy. 1. We must live "after the manner of happiness." In the BOM we can read how Lehi's family faced tons of tribulation. But the people had many times where they had exceedingly great joy. It's because they understood God's plan and new we aren't supposed to be happy 24/7. There is an opposition in all things and part of life is growing and learning through adversity. 2. Live the gospel. Millions of philosophies and systems have been tried but to this day the only way to be truly happy is by living the gospel. Christ said "I am the way, the truth, and the light." By following Him we will be truly happy. I've seen that one on my mission lots with me and with others. 3. Choose hapiness. It takes effort to be happy! Rather than being tossed and turned with what life throws at you we need to "swim upstream" and really search for that joy. It's important to have good, constructive, hopeful thoughts. It all starts there. What you think about becomes what you talk about and it shows what's important to you. If your thought's are happy and centered on Christ you will find yourself a pretty happy person 4. Be kind and pleasant. Tearing someone down to lift yourself up is not happiness that lasts. We try to point out other people's flaws so ours don't glare so much. That's not very chill. Can you think of one happy person who is unkind or unpleasant? 5. Work at it. This is the main difference between the Nephites and the Lamanites (well at least when the nephites were righteous.) In 2 nephi 5:17 it says Nephi's people were "industrious" and "did labor with their hands." 2 Nephi 5:24 (just a few verses later) talks how the Lamanites were "an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety." Being a hard worker brings happiness that lasts. It brings true satisfaction. As a missionary i'm happy when i know i did my best. The main time i'm stressed is if i know i fell short! Finally, 6. Reject transgression. "Wickedness never was happiness."

It was a solid talk i just thought i'd share it! They're really good ideas and i think we can all find one of them to work on in our own lives. The five kids were at church again btw and we're scheduled to meet with them three times this week. We're excited for them and hope things will keep going well with them! We will also need to teach jordan alot this week to see where he's at!

I hope you are all enjoyin life. I hope you're all happy. Til next week!

Elder Reber

I think these two twinnies are going to do great things! 

Our area is soooo big

Hey everyone!

A lot happened this week. It has been super fun! It was also kinda a crazy week a little because we were in some tough situations in lessons where we had to try to solve some concerns. Like every lesson I feel like something came up! Here are two though.

The first was a family in the other area in our ward. We had interviews and President gave us a heads up that our ward is only going to have one set of missionaries now! Our area is going to be sooo big haha. But anyways we went with them to their best-progressing and kinda their only investigators the Gran family. They’re the ones who went to the temple to look around a few weeks ago. They provided the car. They’re the most normal/cool family I feel like I’ve ever taught. The three kids are all in their teens and super fun! The problem though is that their dad is a seaman and won’t be home til next year. Judith, the mom is nervous to tell the husband they’ve been going to a new church and taking lessons from missionaries because she’s afraid the husband will lose trust. It’s pretty understanding for me they just want to make their choice as a family when brother is back so nothing gets misunderstood. They had a goal to be baptized in two weeks but they informed us they’ve decided to wait til next year! We talked about how it’s good they want to do this as a family but I’ve seen so many times over time people’s desire in situations like this starts to fade away. Satan has time to tell them “nah this is all just a coincidence.” It will be an interesting next few lessons trying to help them figure out a way to make the best decision!

The other was a less active named Jun. Bishop asked us to go visit him. We got there knowing that he often has troubles with his family but didn’t know what happened this time. He’s a grandpa-aged guy and he’s the only member. We got there and he had a huge brace thing on his head! Apparently his transgender kid and his youngest son beat him up. They cracked the bone of his jaw and he has bruises all over his body. He then told us “I’m sorry to say this Elders, but all that has gone through my mind these past few weeks is how I want to kill my two kids.” Wow we didn’t expect to hear that! We talked for awhile and learned that Bishop has given him a blessing and a few members have shared him a few verses the past few weeks. I was just sitting there listening to him talk waiting for a thought to enter my mind but nothing did! I was thinking “love your enemies” and stuff like that but I was sure he had heard it all. I then had a weird thought tho! I asked “what do you like to do brother?” Such a simple question but he got a big smile, got up and came back with all of these sick drawings! We learned he’s super pro at art! I asked if I could pay him to draw my face but all of his art stuff is in the house of his two kids. Oh well haha. But it ended up being a cool visit! We could just tell he was super lonely and I’ll never forget the importance of asking someone about their life!

Jordan is still awesome! He was at church yesterday but we will probably have to move his baptism to the first week of november. His step dad had an attack on his brain and has been in the hospital all week! We visited many times and gave a few priesthood blessings. I think I gave 5 blessings just this week to members and people. I’m thankful for the priesthood! Jordan is super faithful and positive about his step dads situation though. When we were at the hospital people actually asked who were were and we got to share a little about our beliefs. The plan of salvation is amazing! Jordan’s dad giovanni went from a 3% chance of living to a 40%! Hopefully he will continue to improve.

Went on exchanges with Elder Hernandez from vegas! He’s a nice guy we talked about lots of the little spots over by his house. He knows where we used to stay down there. We went out to a new part of their area and it was sick! It was right by the water and it there was lots of grass and stuff. Kinda like Palawan! We walked along the railroad track and realized really quickly people probably haven’t seen foreigners in that area for years and years. Everyone was super kind and asked where we were from and what we were doing! It was kinda like tondo.. there were times where like 30 people were gathering listening to what we had to say. We went crazy down there though and got 12 new investigators in a few hours! He was fun to be with because everyone who walked past us he would at least say hi to them. We got along really well and had a fun exchange!

One day we were sitting eating lunch by the side of the road and we watched a dog get hit by a car! It was so gross haha the car was going super slow. The dog kept squirming around then this old guy just chilling on the side of the road went and picked him up and tossed it to the side of the road. Then a different dog started eating it as it was still moving a bit. Haha lunch got better though because this guy walked in and said he’s talked to missionaries before. He just praised us a ton for having smiles on our face even when we’re walking, doing service, and probably really tired. He said some super inspirational things then bought our lunch! I love people like that. I feel like whenever it’s a hard day someone lifts me back up. The people here are so awesome.

Yesterday we got to bless the sacrament and as we were up there on the stand I was just scanning the congregation. There are so many people here in this ward that are so important to me. I think I’m closer with members here than anywhere else. Almost all of them have fed us I feel like, especially these past few weeks. They sacrifice a lot for us missionaries! We even ate at a pretty nice restaurant one night this week, and another night we had krispy kremes for dessert at bishops house! It was awesome. We also were informed by the relief society pres that there’s a less active sister who wants to return to church. She has a fourteen yr old son who wants to be baptized. We got there and taught her son as well as 4 of his cousins who live in the same house and they all committed to baptism the first lesson! They were all at church too yesterday. Members can help the work so much. I’m so thankful to be here I’m learning a lot from the people.

It’s been a good transfer! I might get a new comp this Wednesday but we don’t know yet.  I’ve been kinda sick the past 2 weeks and I think I’ve lost about 14 pounds in the past two weeks haha but we’ve still been able to work. It will be humbling if Graden can beat me up after this mission. It has been fun though to make fun of each other while we’re out working and one of us is feeling horrible. Then the next hour it’s the other way around haha. We just laugh it off! Today on pday we’ve just been resting haha and I know Elder Moster is pretty sick.. we had to head to the doctors earlier today for a test for dengue. The work continues though!

Have a good week! This church is true. I know Christ is our Savior and has felt everything we have and will feel here in this life. God loves us and knows us. Christ’s church has been restored through the young prophet Joseph Smith.

Elder Reber J

Teaching at Mission Leadership Conference

HEY!

Lots happened this week!

Last pday was sweet! We went to a member's house in the ward next to ours with the elders in our house with us. We watched Finding Dori and they had double stuffed mint oreos! It was sweet! We also cooked up super crazy korean noodles. They were soooo spicy it was a pain haha. The first one to eat icecream was the loser and I'm pleased to say i didn't lose. The second their daughter ate some though I attacked the icecream haha. We then went out to work because we had a dinner later that night at 7! We ate at the Aguilar's house. Brother Aguilar is in the paranaque stake presidency and it was a new dinner experience for sure haha! They have two kids currently studying at BYU Idaho and their fam lived in Minnesota for a few years back in the day for his work. We ate at their home which has a swimming pool! We ate super pro korean barbeque food which was really fun. We put the meat into a lettuce wrap thing and add kimchi and some other stuff. I might add it was quality meat!! It was super super good. As we were eating something unexpected happened! I noticed out of the corner of my eye brother Aguilar making a golf swing motion! Apparently he loves golf and is pretty good too. 9 handicap. He plays at a country club but it's outside of our mission boundaries. He then showed me some of his clubs! He's got six sets and one club i pulled out is actually the same 3 wood i have back at home! It was sweet to hold a golf club for the first time out here! But it got better.. He told me saturday after general conf he would lend me a set until i transfer! So sure enough, saturday came around and he dropped off some clubs! So yeah I now have some sweet clubs sitting at the house :) It worked out perfectly because earlier that p day on the way to those other members I noticed a little driving range! This pday we had a zone activity that the stls were in charge of at the church where we played some games and stuff but next week i'm hoping to be hitting a bucket :)

Went on some exchanges with Elder Calderon from San Antonio. He's actually going home in a few transfers and is now back in the same area he started his mission in! Kinda cool. For lunch we went and ate at a mexican spot where I had my second chicken burrito of my mission. That was good. It was a fun exchange and we were able to help a couple get closer to getting married. That's a huge problem.. especially in this zone I've noticed! That night over at their house another missionary named elder mandla from australia was crackin me up. He started juggling a soccer ball and ripped his pants and was crying he thought it was so funny. Haha he's a classic blonde surfer the way he says things is like your watching a movie.

Well wednesday I got a text that I didn't want to receive! I was asked to give training at mlc. I was asked to talk about any subject and whatever I chose would be the focus of the mlc. Each month I personally like to choose a christlike attribute out of preach my gospel and make that my focus for the month. That way I don't try to do too much at once. When it's just one attribute/goal I better focus my energy towards one thing rather than trying to work on so many different things ineffectively haha. Anyways, last month my attribute was diligence and when I was asked to pick a topic that immediately came to my mind for some reason. It ended being pretty good! I'm glad so many were willing to give insights it makes teaching much better when people raise their hands. Also even with investigators the lesson is 100x better when they share things they've learned/ask questions rather than sitting silently haha. A scripture we kinda focused on was D&C 123:12-17 if you want to check it out. I love those verses. I'm especially grateful for the example of Christ's diligence though. That's something I never would really think of when I thought of Christ until recently. He really was perfectly diligent. I like how when he served it was to individuals and wasn't for the praise of man. If anyone deserved a "break," it would've had to be Christ after performing the atonement. But did he stop? No, he continued to share His gospel in the Americas as well as in the spirit world. Even now, He continues to do His work and continues to lift others. What a great example.

In the huge barangay in our area CAA we were waiting for a trike when suddenly we heard "Hey elders!!" We looked over and there was a white guy smilin at us haha. He asked where I'm from and I said Utah. He said where in Utah and I said Sandy. Where in Sandy? about five minutes from the canyon? Where over there? I asked if he knew sego lily drive haha. He replied yep! I'm from highland drive. Right across from the willow creek park" Haha it was crazy! I used to play some nice tennis over there sometimes. You know that one house with the super big icicle christmas lights? He lives two houses down from that haha! He was with his filipina wife visiting family and apparently they live in a place called Olangapo at this time of the year! So crazy haha.

General conference was soooo awesome. It's hard for me to choose a favorite but one thing keeps coming back to my memory. The three promises of President Russel M Nielson about the Book of Mormon.

My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions.

I wasn't always super pro at watching every conf growing up but as far as I can remember in my experience of conferences that was the first time a prophet or apostle has ever made three promises in a row like that. It was so powerful! I'm excited to continue to study these amazing talks and learn more and more from them.

Have a great week! Love you all!

elder reber

Parker teaching about diligence at the MLC

Lots of the rubber shoes they buy in the Philippines. They are great for all of the wet, rainy days.

This baptism were people he taught in his last area :)

Elder Webster edited this picture of Parker riding the infamous horse. :)

Temple Trip

Heyy

 Hope you all had a good week! We had some cool things happen this week in our area. It was exciting!! We didn’t have a whole ton of time in the area but we were blessed with lots of progress.

 We’ll start of with Jordan DeGuzman. He’s the man! We were able to teach him a few times this week. He was able to meet lots of the YSA that work with us often and he’s gotten pretty close with them already! His mom (the less active rm) also participates in the lessons it’s really fun. We got through the restoration this week and went through it with much detail. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got him excited to read. I love the Book of Mormon you can always rely on it. Anyone who reads it will truly begin to understand how amazing the Restored church of Jesus Christ really is. Also Jordan loves playing basketball and Thursday nights the young men/ysa guys play bball. He was able to head over and apparently he loved it!

 Saturday our week with Jordan improved even more! The other elders of our ward have an investigator family who own a big 12 person van! We were able to plan a temple trip with the family they’re teaching, Jordan, and a few members. We drove over to the temple and hey it reminded me a little of driving with the friends in the “beast van” to the ranch haha. It was a great visit and we were able to show them around. Sister Gran (the mom of the fam) bought us all lunch over at a little spot owned by the church it was super nice of her! I felt all of the investigators, missionaries, and members got closer and the temple always has a strong spirit. Sunday Jordan came to church for the first time and we taught him after in a room. He said that he’s been asking his mom for months now to have missionaries come teach him and he’s so happy it’s all happening now. All of a sudden in his life he’s wanted to know more about the church. We extended a baptismal date for oct 28 (the soonest possible) and he accepted! He said he will never leave the church and wow it was cool to hear realizing he’s only been one time. So blessed to find that guy.

 Lots of kids here in the Philippines always ask if i wear lipstick.. I don’t think i’ve mentioned that? But gosh i think this week 4 kids asked me- it was humbling! I always make sure they know that i don’t and that dudes shouldn’t wear lipstick. Haha kinda funny though!

 Funny experience. We met someone and when we entered their house they started going off to us how Eve wasn’t the first woman on earth. It was some person named Lileth. It was so funny i was trying not to laugh. She said Lileth was put on the earth the same time as Adam. She was really all about gender equality which i haven’t ever seen here in the Philippines my whole mish. Haha the apostasy hits people hard sometimes though! It was a new experience where i heard lots of things that are so far from what I know to be true. I’m kinda scared though that Lileth is going to come find me for laughing though..

 We've been having some awesome companion studies lately! Weekly planning a few weeks ago we talked about how companion studies throughout the mission are sometimes too repetitive and kinda boring. You just kinda read, share insights, read, insights, practice teach, etc. We decided we wanted to actually learn everything preach my gospel has to offer. Now we choose one subject a day and have a sweet convo about it. Looking up scriptures and connecting things to together. There was one day where we had such a great study i learned a ton from the spirit. We talked about how as missionaries we have the spirit but it’s not super strong. As a result we sometimes ask “do i really have the spirit with me right now?” We remember how if we’re worthy we are entitled to the spirit, and that saying “huh, do i even have the spirit?” probably offends the spirit. We talked about how we can’t offend the spirit and that we need to have faith to talk to people even if they won’t end up joining the church. By focusing on Christ, the blessings of the church, and the person we’re talking to rather than ourselves we will have a greater desire to share the gospel. We are truly God’s instruments and shouldn’t let anything we do hinder His work.

 Thursday was zone conf! President talked about how there is no excuse not to baptize in areas. All areas are capable of catching fire, it just depends on the missionary and it only takes one match. The reason we think an area is hard is because of its history, but we don’t look forward with faith of what its potential is. He shared jacob 5 and how there were different spots in the vineyard that produced all types of fruits. Even though the Lord of the vineyard knew some of the areas were poor, He still nourished them. Even the poor areas brought forth great fruit. It was a good reminder. Last transfer President fresh started like half of the mission haha so the missionaries would go into the area with faith, not thinking of what other missionaries have to say about the area. He also talked about specific prayers and gave many good examples in the book of mormon. A new one i never realized was how Nephi asked God for a famine to help humble the people. The different ways in the past weren’t humbling the people, so Nephi specifically asked for the famine. He said if we’re working our hardest and things aren’t working we need to change what we’re doing and start experimenting.

 Well anyways I’m just so thankful to be here in the Philippines. This week i was just really full of grattitude as I was talking and working with the great filipino people. I couldn’t ask for a better place to serve. There was a baby blessing yesterday at church and the grandfather giving the blessing was having a hard time with the wording to start the blessing since the beginning is in english. I was so proud of him though he gave a cool blessing. By the time he got the wording down he was a bit frazzled and the actual blessing was very very short. One of the only things he said was blessing his grandson to one day be able to serve a mission. I was thinking, this child (parents are less active) just being able to serve a mission would help him be alright in life. It hit me that i’m serving a mission and it’s such a blessing. I thought i’d be serving to kinda “give back” to my father in heaven but in reality he’s just blessed me more than i wouldve ever imagined. I’ll never be able to “pay him back.” I’m thankful to be here. And i’m thankful for all of you! Life is good! Have a nice week J

 Love elder reber

ps sorry no pics this week the internet shop here won't allow us to plug in flash drives and stuff. next week!

**Sister Fermanis to the picture rescue once again! Love these zone conference pictures!