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!