Being as Ammon

Hey friends and fam,

First off, happy bday to the one and only, my bro Graden! If you see him make sure to wish him a nice happy birthday. It’s crazy you’re 18 now and almost finishing up school time has been flying! You’re going to be sitting down in a lesson here in Manila before you know it.

This week was a pretty busy one! December is always crazy haha. We had to do lots of things in preparation for our Mission Tour with Elder Schmutz and his wife which is coming up this week. Because of that we had to do lots of random things which took a little time from the area but it was still a good week. We had to go to the mall one night to buy 80 ties to give to missionaries for Christmas.  It was pretty sweet choosing out so many, I think the people thought we were crazy. I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy that many ties at once again in my lifetime. We’ve also been creating a cool design to go on the lava-lavas that the missionaries will be getting for Christmas. The design is done, now we’re just working on finding tons of fabric and a place who will do the sublimation printing. But ya I’m basically a professional fashion designer mom! You’d be proud I make sure colors match up good and stuff.

Our area is doing pretty good right now! We have a baptism this Friday for a 18 yr old girl named Kathy. The two other elders met her like a week before I got here and she’s already bein baptized! It’s been fun teaching her. She also had her friend come and be apart of one of the lessons and her name is Cristy. We taught her the restoration and she understood it perfectly! It was so cool she thought it’s awesome that God doesn’t want us to be confused and lost here on earth. She couldn’t stop smiling the whole lesson and even when she said the closing prayer she was still just so excited to start reading the book of Mormon and learning more. She was at church yesterday!

That cool lesson was last Friday night and Friday itself was just an amazing day. The days before that we weren’t getting hardly any time in the area but Friday we decided Elder Fiesta and I would just head to the area all day even though there was so much that needed to get done over at the office. In that day though the Lord really blessed us more than I’ve ever seen in just one day I think. Three of the investigators we were teaching told us they wanted to be baptized and set a baptismal date. Every lesson just kept getting better and better it was so fun! There’s a guy named Balong who has been an investigator for a year. His only problem is he needs to get married to his wife. But he’s seriously the coolest guy and works with the missionaries all the time even though he’s not a member! I met him Friday and he immediately told us he’s going to get married this month! It’s amazing seeing God’s helping hand in these people’s lives. He knows there desires and really will prepare a way for them to accomplish them.

We also taught a 11 year old how to read a little bit better. He wants to read the book of Mormon but hasn’t learned how to read yet. His mom is our investigator right now and was having a hard day. When we got there she was yelling at these kids outside and was really stressed. She told us she was busy but we got her permission to just teach her little kid instead. As we focused on him I think it really softened her heart and after we finished helping him a little she sat down and listened to us. Serving others has been a big focus lately in our mission and it’s been fun to see the results of being as Ammon was in the Book of Mormon, a servant.

Saturday morn there was a baptism in the sister’s area in our ward so we went to the service. There was a ton of members there to support it was so cool. One laurel had a dance practice she needed to get to with her friends in preparation of a talent show so she invited all of her friends to the baptism before their practice. There were 17 of them and after the service we gave them a tour of the church! It was fun joking around with them and sharing our testimonies. It’s pretty amazing how different I seemed to grow up compared to them but there are still so many things we have in common. That night was the ward Christmas party and we sang a compilation of tagalog Christmas songs. I’ll try to get the video of that and send it next week. It was pretty funny haha.

Sunday was elder mccauley’s last Sunday so we went to his old ward in Pamplona. That ward is in the same chapel as my last ward las pinas and luckily there were still lots of members over there at the chapel when we got there. When we walked in I saw the relief society president sister maricor and she grabbed my arm and yelled “we need a pianist!” then dragged me into a room where tons of the members from my old ward were practicing for the Christmas choir! Haha I was able to help them figure out how the song is supposed to go for about 30 minutes which was funny.

Well hope you have a great week! I was talking to President Fermanis about prophets in our dispensation and he was saying how he’s read almost all of their biographies and teachings. One thing that stood out to him is he said that all of them didn’t wait for someone to tell them what to do- they just did it. Before these amazing men were prophets, they were simple members serving diligently in their ward. It was a good reminder to me to always be “anxiously engaged in a good cause.”

Talk to ya soon!

Elder reber 

      **No pictures this week but was happy to have this one sent my way with Parker and Elder Petersen from his last area. 

Thank you for this great pic Elder Cibuco. He said, "We met together, Elder Reber my training, and Elder Petersen his companion. I love their companionship, their like twin!"