Back to the Office

Hi friends and fam!

This week was a crazy one for sure. Tuesday, Elder Racaza in our zone got on his flight to go serve in Ghana! He was just waiting for his visa so he got to do his training here in the best mission in the world. I’ll really miss that guy he was so happy always. His companion Elder Mandla is from Australia and has a pretty THICKK accent it’s super fun. Elder Racaza got to the point where he could only understand elder racaza and president fermanis but couldn’t understand English from an American. Pretty funny haha. But anyways elder mandla worked with us for the day and we had a blast. He’s super good at skating and had about 50 kids freaking out as he rode around doing sweet tricks on one of their boards haha. I found out I would be transferring the next day so didn’t have any time to say bye to anyone really! We had set appointments with new investigators throughout the evening which was cool since some seemed pretty good.  Elder Petersen and I were pretty sad we’d be parting ways! I’m going to miss being with him every day we had such a blast. I learned a ton from my “twin.”

I got transferred to Makati 1^st ward! Yep haha I’m back in Makati- and actually back in the office again. Should be lots of fun though. I’m companions with Elder McCauley (from texas. Goes home in the middle of this month) and elder Fiesta. I was actually already super close with both of these elders so it has been fun so far. It was the weirdest thing ever walking into the office to grab some things on Saturday. GOSH I feel like I was just in there! Time is so fast out here.

We did lots of training and stuff this week which was lots of fun. Thursday we had MLC and I got to see some mission buds I haven’t seen for a while. We talked about lots about sacrifice. The mission now has a goal of proselyting for 65 hours a week. “Proselyting” is when you’re actually outside working and furthering the work of the Lord. This new goal has been so cool because we’re seeing missionaries now waking up earlier, eating meals quicker, doing shorter studies, and talking to more people. These small things are showing the Lord that we really want to help. It shows that the people are more important to us than what we’ll be eating for lunch. Sacrifice is a really powerful word to me and I’m excited to continue to grow little by little so I’ll be able to give a little more each day.

All of us in the office actually don’t currently have a house so we have to sacrifice a little by living in the mission home ;) Man I’ve eaten lots of lucky charms, brownies, and ice cream these past few days. President also is a pro chef and cooked us up some crazy good omelets a few times. It’s fun to be around him and his fam. I’m startin to learn tons about rugby haha it’s like the one sport I didn’t watch before my mission. I’ll be watchin it for sure when I get home I never realized how cool it is. The office elders are currently elder cram (the one I trained to take my spot) and Elder Burdeos. They both went to riverton high school which is fun. E burdeos is actually full filipino blood but was born in Utah haha. People are super surprised when he opens his mouth and speaks perfect English. We’ve all been playing lots of basketball oer here too at the mission home it’s awesome fun.

Saturday was our pday and we made our way back to my first area- tondo! We went to divisorial which is that crazy huge blackmarket place where you can buy tons of fake stuff for super cheap. We got stuck in traffic and it ended up taking about 4 hours to get there haha. We were trying to drive on this narrow road with millions of stands set up with tons of people weaving through cars. As we were sitting there we were getting bored so rolled down the windows and started handing out pamphlets to people haha. Elder Burdeos was cracking me up because he was baring his testimony to everyone in English and they thought he was super cool.

Sunday was stake conference. It was super awesome because I was able to see everyone from my past area, the Makati 2^nd ward! I saw Justine there- our awesome investigator who was baptized after I got transferred to Las Pinas. The missionaries are working on her family now and she goes to institute all the time! She also just finished the book of Mormon. The conference itself was great. There was a celebrity guy named “eruption” who spoke on the word of wisdom. It was funny haha he kept flexing at the pulpit (he’s ripped) but he actually gave a really great talk. He’s polynesian and served his mission in the Philippines. He eventually returned here and was a tv show host. He said last year he was on Amazing Race.. is that true? Also the stake president introduced the plan to split the stake again and to get an institute building in the stake boundaries. To do this they challenged every member in the stake to give one Book of Mormon in the year of 2018. Also, they’re starting something called a 6-year mission. All Priests and RM’s will be made ward missionaries so before their mission they can learn and practice, as well as after the mission they can stay on the right path and keep good habits they had in the mission. So basically everyone here ages 16-22 will be involved in missionary work, whether being set apart as a full-time missionary or not. The spirit was super strong as they introduced these plans. It just feels right. It will be great to see progress in the Stake as they apply these new ideas. I’m thankful for church leaders and for the revelation they receive to help build the kingdom.

Sunday night we had an awesome lesson. We needed to get heading home but Elder Fiesta felt like we should go try a family they had taught once real quick. We got there and started teaching the mom and her daughter. The husband is always at work and the first time they taught them he was still at work. But as we were teaching the dad suddenly came in! Long story short the family of 5 had never heard their dad pray because he doesn’t believe God exists. But after we shared the Restoration he told us he was feeling different and was willing to try learning more. He said the closing prayer and his wife was in tears after. I love bein a missionary!

Love ya all! Hope you all have a great week. Elder Reber  :)



Not the best quality of pics but I am copying them off from Parkers Mission Facebook account page- Philippines Manila Mission 2017-2020. It is so fun to see all of the information posted there about life in his mission field. Sister Fermanis does a great job of keeping all of us at home updated on what great things they are up to. 

Got this great pic from Brother Bunyi from the Pasay 3rd ward. It hasn't happened very often but a random picture sent your way in the middle of the week is the best!!