Elder Parker Reber: Bonifacio

Another good week down!

Startin off with Monday elder Petersen and I went to a Japanese place called Tokyo Tokyo it was super fun to try something different! We’ve been cheffin it up this past week! For breakfast we have to be fast but one morning we made some awesome cinnamon French toast. Usually lunch and dinner we don’t have time to cook but one night we got home at 9:30 without dinner so we chopped up frozen fries then added salt, pepper, tomatoes, onions, bbq seasoning, eggs, cheddar cheese, and some other stuff. It was just this huge blob of food but it was prooo.

This week in the area we were blessed a ton. AJ, RJ, Chelsiey, Xisa, and Pauline all are scheduled to be baptized on the 17^th. Their baptism interview should hopefully be this week! They have been to church four times so now we’re just finishing up lessons and making sure they’re solid. They literally do everything we ask though it has been so cool. Lots of faith. They haven’t missed church since we’ve met them, they read, pray, participate, and love the youth of the ward. It’s been so fun teaching them and along with them Zhon Ron, Ezekiel, and John Mark have been listening and have potential to be baptized in December. They’re just all a big family of cousins, brothers, sisters, uncles, etc. Haha it’s a classic big Filipino family that live in a three houses next to each other.. it’s hard to keep track of!

We had a pretty great miracle one night. We had all these young investigators waiting for us to teach them but we didn’t have a third male over 18. The oldest of them is AJ who is only 15 so we literally were just outside of their house asking random dudes if they wanted to join us and listen to the discussion. After 20 minutes of talking to tons of people we were about to just call it good, visit a less active, and try the kids another day. But then we met Christian.. 18 years old and lives down the street a little (remember these streets have like 100 people every few steps lol.) He said he’d listen if his uncle would (also 18 but somehow his uncle) but his uncle, Bonifacio, was in the shower. We waited then Boni finally came out and said “let’s go!” outta nowhere and walked right into the kid’s house! It was awesome!

The two of them really caught interest but were a little lost since it was their first lesson and our other investigators are at a different stage. I thought the two of them would sit quietly but they actually asked questions as we taught the kids and as we involved them they were willing to share. At the end they said every time we go to the kids they’ll both come be our “third lalaki” so we won’t have to worry if a member ends up being unable to work with us. We asked if we could go share just to them as well so they could better understand from the start and they agreed. On Saturday morning we taught them the Restoration and the two of them & their friend who was there talked to us how they want to change. We told them words of God might not be something they think about much at our age, but as they listen it will become more familiar and their desire will grow. We said the age they’re at now is where they set habits and make choices that will be reflected throughout the rest of their lives. I love teaching people who are a little younger than me or about my age it’s the best. The spirit really there and boni said “I’ve never felt like this my whole life.” Then at 3pm we were back in the area to teach the kids. As we were about to start Boni just comes booking in through the door coming from playing basketball to listen again haha! On Sunday he was at church and told us “my mind has been so opened here.” He actually volunteered to give the closing prayer in gospel principles and said the prayer the correct way (sometimes people can’t break their old praying ways for a long time.) But it was cool, he prayed that his family and friends could be able to join him at the church next week.

So that’s the story of my new friend Boni. It was a cool week meetin him. He’s number 9 out of 16 kids. Yep, 16. Four have died so it’s just 12 now but man their family and tons of cousins/uncles all live next to their little house.

One night we went to teach bishop’s inactive sister and her fiancé who isn’t yet a member. His name is Vans and we met him last week at church. It’s cool because if we can get his future wife active again in church he has a really solid group of people around him to support him in becoming a member. We met Bishop Flores’ dad for the first time because he works on a cruise ship! It was super cool to meet him and he shared how the ship visits everywhere throughout the world and super wealthy people stay on it. He was just “englishing” us the whole time and seemed so excited and happy about his job. Also in their house there are hundreds of old Lord of the Rings collectables which I guess could be sold for just tons of money now. That was definitely a new thing to see here in the Philippines haha.

Thursday we joined one of the districts in doing a district blitz. It’s where the whole district goes into one area and finds all day. It’s a fun new idea the mission is doing more and the missionaries have been more excited about the work doing random creative things.

We taught one of our investigators named angelo. We’ve taught him about three times now and earlier this week we focused about the book of Mormon again so he’d really understand the importance of it. His dad (a pastor) suddenly came downstairs and we were thinking he’d eventually come tell us to stop teachin his kid. But angelo is super interested and as his dad came down it didn’t make him nervous at all. His father continued to listen as we explained the bom and testified of it and at the end the pastor actually asked for a copy! He seemed to be looking for a way to prove it wrong but we could see it all just made sense to him. I’m thankful the book of Mormon is perfect. Ive relied on its power many times throughout my mission.

One night we got home and the two elders we live with were pretty heated with each other. It was out of nowhere because they’ve been having a blast together always laughing and being so funny. They’re both relatively new in the mission so they’ve been fun to be with em. Anyways as we were up following up people over the phone we could hear them arguing about how they aren’t reaching their goals. One was telling the other he’s the senior comp and should know what to do and the senior comp was telling the other he’s been in the area longer and needs to figure it out. One then stopped talking to the other so elder brizuela came up and told us to come help them out. We finished up follow ups then went down, said a prayer with them to open, then asked why things are all of a sudden so bad between the two. We asked why they came on missions and stuff and it was a good talk. E brizuela said “yeah he just won’t answer my question! He’s just being silent and won’t listen.” Then e vinas said “tell them your question then elder.” And e brizuela said “I asked while we were eating lunch- why do you like the spicy chicken more than the normal chicken?” The two elders then burst out laughing. They totally were KIDDING hahaha! I was in tears it was just so funny. The people I’m around have really made the mission amazing. Those two are total clowns.

Sorry this email has been long.. these emails are now also my journal because I don’t have time for the journal. I type way faster than I write too haha. I’m trying to write everything I want to remember. As far as the worms I think I’m all good with that whole situation now haha. President showed the mlc the pic I took with the worm it was pretty hilarious haha! I think the sisters all thought it was pretty cool but im not sure. We were blessed with 10 investigators at church yesterday. I think I’m more excited with missionary work now than I have my whole mission. Busy as ever- we didn’t have any comp or language study this week haha. Also trying to help some missionaries move to new apartments. Just lots of good stuff! Excited for another great week!

Elder Reber

Japanese restaurant

The twins turn to triplets. Wonder if any of these guys actually wore glasses before their missions. Parker always wore contacts so the glasses look is a definite mission thing.