I'm thankful to be here in the Philippines

Hey everybody

Just got done hittin some balls at the range! Gotta say it was pretty sweet. I hit some beauts not gonna lie but some were pretty bad as well haha. We paid a "tee girl" to set up the balls on the dirt and tee em up when we were hitting drives haha it was super hilarious. We finished that then headed over to mcdons baby. It was super hard to get the clubs over there on trikes and jeepneys but it was worth it:)

Well this week hauled. We had quite a few meetings like stake mcm and zone conference it made things pretty busy. I guess I’ll update you all on a few of the investigators who are rollin pretty good right now.

Aj, Rj, Xisa, Chelsiey, and Pauline are actually now set to be baptized on the 25^th. Due to all we had going on this week we weren’t able to get through the lessons yet. We were however able to talk to them one on one after church Sunday just to make sure they’re all on track. They all were awesome! Kids have really impacted me a lot on my mission they continue to surprise me. When we went to teach them Monday after we finished the lesson they all asked us if we could give Pauline a blessing. We were really surprised and excited I guess they somehow remembered us talking about priesthood and blessings a few lessons ago. It was cool they asked though! Aj, the one who is 14, takes notes on his phone while we teach and always goes off when we asked what he is learning in the bom. His insights are better than mine its nuts.

Bonifacio was still asleep by the time church was starting so he wasn’t there but we still had some cool experiences with him. We gave him a book of mormon and he was super pumped! He gave the best reaction and went to show his buddies later on that day. Every time we teach him or the kids in that area someone random joins the lesson so lots of people are getting the opportunity to hear about the restored gospel.

We also taught a guy who can hear but can’t speak! It was pretty different not being able to ask questions while teaching but he really liked it. He spelled out his name in the air and we got his other information that way as well haha. As we left he was already readin the pamphlet. I’m excited to go back to him.

So Wednesday we had zone conference! It was a pretty nice success. A cool thing president challenged us to do is to head into our area without our procelyting bags. He’s not a fan of em haha he says we look like a bunch of wusses carrying them around. Pretty true actually haha! He’s challenging us to proselyte only holding book of mormons. It’s a way to rely on the book of mormon and its power rather than letting little other things take more of the focus like pamphlets and stuff. So a few times this week we’ve just grabbed like three book of mormons each then we go around feelin like a missionary back from the time of when the church was first established. It has been pretty sick I gotta say.  Another new focus for the mission is before every lesson we teach we start it by talking about Joseph Smith and the first vision then connect that to the lesson we’re teaching. That way investigators are continuing to remember the importance of knowing if joseph smith is a prophet of God. And by constantly hearing that they will have a greater desire to read the BOM to know for themselves that Joseph Smith’s experience really is true and that he really was called by God to restore the fulness of Christ’s church. I also had to give a talk/discussion out of preach my gospel and I decided to focus on the first and last paragraph of the first presidency message at the beginning of preach my gospel. It says, “Dear fellow missionary, we compliment you on the great opportunity you have to be a missionary. There is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction. The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve Him. More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children.” I guess normally I just skip over this part when I’m studying preach my gospel but it really stood out to me the night before conference so “happiness in the work” was what I talked about. The people around you is one point I focused on to be happy. In alma 26:27-31 we can see how ammon found his joy. I like imparticularly in 31 it says “Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.” As missionaries the work is super fun when you’ve got investigators growing, changing, and showing action. It’s awesome when they’re genuinelly excited for us to show up. BUT on the other hand it’s the worst when they’re hiding from ya and you can tell you’re trying to push water up a hill with a rake. Spending time with people like that makes things tough. SO one thing I think lots of missionaries need to do is drop those who aren’t really ready. Scattered israel is familiar with His voice. One way of knowing if someone is ready is by noticing their sincerty and their love for you as a missionary and for their fellow brethren. So that’s a lil part of what we talked about ha. I also got “thrown under the bus” and had to play a piano solo. It went alright tho I actually really enjoy any chance I have to play now.

We’re trying some new things in our area. Saturday night we had a basketball activity where we just took about 40 minutes to play with investigators. Since church seems to be a hard commitment for many, this activity we’re going to do weekly at the church I think will really help more feel comfortable to get to church. Cuz now they know exactly where the church is and have met other members and investigators in a nonthreatening atmosphere. We had around 30 people there it was fun! Time to get my game back a little haha. Another random thing we did was when we were at the hospital after teaching Jordan. We walked downstairs and noticed the huge grand piano that just sits there. We went up to the front desk and asked them if we could return one night with the zone to sing christmas songs in their lobby. The lady was super excited and gave us the name of the main guy runnin the hospital so we’re going to write him a letter. Then she told us that we should just go play right then! So we were like uhh alrighty let’s just go for it boi. We played some christmas hymns and sang (not sure how I did both at once that was new) but it was hilarious cuz tons of people were singing along and were gathering around. After we met the head of all the surgeons as well as the head of maintenance and they had mormon friends. We’re trying to be more creative and service-oriented in order to find more people to teach.

I’m thankful to be here in the PhilippinesJ I know this work is the work of the Lord. He is at the helm.

Have a great week.

Elder Reber

 Zone Conference

Parker got to play I Believe in Christ at Zone Conference. He said he hadn't seen the music in months so was nervous, but I thought it sounded great! It was so fun to hear him!