Elder Parker Reber: Baptisms and Primary Program

hey friends and fam
It was a cool week! The highlight was the baptisms of AJ Mediana, Pauline Cusi, RJ Crisanto, Chelsiey Crisanto, and Xyza Crisanto. I love all of them we've gotten super close over these past months. They continue to surprise me with how faithful and awesome they are. AJ shared about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith to one of his classmates at school and watched the new Joseph Smith first vision video on his phone with his less active mom. We feel his mom is super close to returning to church we're just trying to help her not be so embarrassed returning to church after a long period of time. She went to the baptism though along with some of the other extended family and the were pretty emotional there haha. There are lots of people we're teaching and working with because of these recent converts lots of them have family members who are less active or not yet members. Pauline is actually the first member in her family.
We tried to go to a baptism for some elders in our zone to support them but hadn't ever been to their church before. It's the Moonwalk chapel and it usually takes 3 trikes and a long jeepney ride to get there. BUT we saw this bus that said moonwalk on it so we assumed it would just fly us right over to the front of their chapel at least. we just got on that to try it out. Well apparently there's a place called moonwalk in the Cavite mission lol so we went pretty far away from our target destination. We spent tons of pesos tryin to get back and by the time we got to the chapel they were all gone. We met a few cool people while on jeepneys on stuff though i guess. We were able to go on an exchange for awhile with Elder Hernandez and Elder Ho Ching over by the chapel though which was lots of fun. Elder Ho Ching is brand new in the field and from Hawaii over at that one high school next to BYU hawaii and the temple. He's super fun and we'll see each other in provo!
We ate dinner with a 76 year old sister in our ward, sister villanueva. She took us to this little "tapsilogan" to eat. She's not just a typical old lady tho she's super awesome at sharing the gospel. She had all the workers at the place come to our table and commanded them to listen to us for a minute. Haha she's such a nice little old lady and nobody else was eating there so all the workers came over. We overviewed Lesson1 with them then ate our food haha that was a new experience! She also took us to someone she met and shared the gospel to on Sunday. We need to be more like this old sister haha!
Sunday though was a pretty crazy day. It was the primary program! And guess who played the piano? haha. I was asked to play the night before- i guess the primary thought they could play music with speakers but that's not supposed to happen in sacrament meetings. But most of the songs were in the children's songbook and not only had I not played a few of them, I hadn't even heard a few of them my whole life. It was good though, the kids were super funny. A little sunbeam girl got up to say her four word line but as she got up there she said "I'd like to bare my testimony. I know God loves me." in english and it threw everyone off super bad haha. the sister helping the kids behind her had no idea what to do! Also at church there were a ton of YSA there from other wards and stakes. I guess they had all met at an activity earlier that week then all decided to meet at our ward this Sunday. We met a ton of RM's and had a few of them work with us after church. It was cool to work with lots of people about our age. We had lots of laughs haha.
We had a pretty interesting lesson with Arnold (the guy who had a stroke and can't speak/walk.) We were reviewing the restoration and when we got to the first vision he started getting all mad. On the picture we were showing him he covered one of the two personages that Joseph Smith had seen with his hand. At first we thought he was like everyone else and believed God and Jesus Christ are one being. So we addressed that question but then realized he believed us that they were separate. What he didn't believe was that God Himself would actually come down to earth, only Christ can do that. We shared the example of Moses seeing God Himself in the Bible and talked about how He has all power and can do all things but Arnold just wasn't liking it. I then had a little thought come to me.. something I had heard back at the manila mtc. I invited him to "ask God if Joseph Smith's experience is true.. He was there! He will be ready to answer if you have a sincere heart." I'm thankful that as missionaries we don't have to prove every little thing. There are many lessons where people just don't want to agree but nobody can debate the fact that asking God Himself can help them receive the answer they need. We as missionaries can testify of something to be true, but they can't know for themselves until they find out for themselves from the source- Heavenly Father. It's so great that we can always trust God to help someone know the truth. Prophet Moroni's invitation and promise is simple- read the Book of Mormon, ponder its teachings, and ask of God. God is not a lying God and when a prophet makes a promise, God will hold that up. I know that we can all receive answers for ourselves.

I haven't put in a bom insight for awhile so here's something i was thinking of this week! This week I read one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon- Mormon 8. It talks very specifically about how the Book of Mormon will be brought from the earth at a time of darkness, when it will be said that miracles are done away with, that there will be churches defiled and lifted up in the pride of their hearts, how it will be translated by God's help, and how he who translates it will do so with an eye single to His glory. I was thinking about our day and some of the problems we face. It also says in this chapter "yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be great pollutions upon the face of the earth; there shall be murders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it mattereth not..." I feel like at times we seem to justify things. We might be doing something that isn't what God would want us to do but we try to convince ourself that it's ok. We're trying to find happiness in wickedness. that "it mattereth not." Because others are doing it, it's ok. Justifying things is something we should watch out for. Then, Mormon says that he speaks to us as if we were present. That Jesus Christ has shown us unto him, and that he knows our doings. The first thing he says about what he sees in our day is "ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts." I've been thinking alot about this and I think pride is the greatest thing that can harm us in our day. We see how harmful it is throughout the Book of Mormon and often bang our heads reading of the bad decisions people make in the stories and think "why would they do that?" But Mormon says it will also be harmful in our day, so i think it's important that we evaluate ourselves as well and do all we can to clean our inner vessels. There's another thing we gotta avoid- pride. In verse 38 it says, "why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies- because of the praise of the world?" We need to choose the right because we love God. We need to serve others not looking for praise. When one receives the glory of men it says in 3 nephi 13 that "they have their reward." We must always remember that God's plan and blessings are better than anything man has to offer. We can continue pressing forward doing good knowing that God's blessings to the righteous will always come. DC 64:33 says "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." I know as we read the book of mormon over time we will stop justifying our mistakes, our pride will start to fade, and we will follow Christ not looking for praise but rather doing so because we love Him and trust that his plan will work out for our benefit.

Love you all! Have a nice week.

elder reber