The dry spell is over!

Hey everyone!
It was another sweet week here! Our mission was super excited to hear
there will be a new temple in Manila!! The work is really moving here
in the country and I’m super grateful to be a part of it. Couldn’t ask
for a better place to be.

This week we had some good family home evenings. It’s the new finding
tool that our mission is focusing on so my comp and I are doing the
best we can to apply the new focus. Anything President says for the
mission should be followed and not taken for granted, it’s revelation
coming from our Father in Heaven! The family home evening that sticks
out to me is one we scheduled at a less active’s home. At church we
met a couple that is visiting family here in Santa Monica and they’re
from Brooke’s Point. They were baptized actually last year in 2016 and
brother is already in the Presidency of their branch. Haha the church
has really changed their life, especially their schedule! But anyways
they invited us to some of their extended family’s house who are less
active.we headed over to the less active’s house to find out that it
was a huge family and friend get together. They had invited 30 plus
people to attend haha! It was the biggest house I’ve been in in my
mission so we could fit haha. But anyways we had a huge family home
evening and then ate afterwards! We weren’t expecting that we’d be
teaching that many people but it all worked out and it was a blast!
Lots of non members and less actives were there so it was solid.

Elder Vinculado had his birthday this week! To celebrate we ordered a
pizza. The pizza wasn’t super good but hey it was pizza  I’m just
thankful to have him as a companion. I don’t think I’ve really talked
about him enough in past emails! He’s the youngest of nine kids- him
and his parents are the only members in his family. We’ve been having
a great time together and he has such a strong desire to share the
gospel. He’s such a hard worker and a pretty funny kid haha. Although
he’s new in the mission he knows what he’s doing and why he’s here. His
english is getting good too!

We had a funny lesson the other day. We met this lady who is a wife to
a pastor but let us in because we teach words from God. Our lesson was
pretty cool and we talked about prophets and how at times we go into
apostasy. After the lesson she invited us to their church haha! But it
wasn’t like an invitation, it was like “you’re coming to our church
this Sunday.” Haha my companion tried to tell her we had appointments
but he had said earlier we could return to their house during that
time. Haha I was just kinda laughing because she wasn’t budging on the
fact that we’d be goin to there church no matter what. We just told
her to text us Saturday night to remind us about it and she finally
let us go. But before we left she went back and got 50 pesos and we
said we couldn’t take it. Haha she didn’t care, she still tried to
force us to take it. We just stood up and started walking to the door
but she then asked if we could take food. Haha yes we actually can, so
she gave us tons of bananas and bought us halo-halo outside from some
little kids sellin it. She was so nice but kinda crazy too haha. It’s
cool to see though how kind and thoughtful people are here. We’ve had
so many instances lately of people just giving us bananas, mangos, etc
even if it’s our first time meeting them! Lots of them don’t have
much, but they’re willing to give what they have for the joy of
others.

General conference was the best!! We had Lian Go there as well as
Cesar and a new investigator named Gerry. All week in multicabs or
knocking on doors I would ask “if Moses were here on earth would you
listen to him?” Everyone would say “yes of course!” and we’d then ask
if they knew that we have a prophet here on earth today! God doesn’t
change His ways and He’s constantly reaching out to us in perfect
love. One way He does this is by calling a prophet to lead and guide
us through our lives. I’m so thankful for Thomas S. Monson and his
consecrated life centered on Christ. Cesar said he didn’t understand
hardly any of the English but said he felt the spirit and knew that
they were all called of God.

It’s hard for me to choose a favorite talk but one I really liked was
Henry B Eyring in the priesthood session. He talked about how we can
truly see miracles through submitting our will to God’s will and being
worthy priesthood holders. He talked about how real the priesthood is
and the spirit was really strong. He said, “when’s the last time
you’ve thought of your priesthood being power for the heavens to open
up to you, or the administering of angels.” Something I’ve realized on
my mission is how real the gospel really is. How close God is to us.
How often He’s reaching out to us while we’re here on earth. He said
we need to see others as God sees them and help them see that in
themselves. We must see past the outward appearance and look into the
heart. How do we come to have the same view and perspective as God?
Well it’s simple. By doing the small things that make us more like his
son, Jesus Christ. As we walk with Him we will see others as noble
sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father with limitless potential. I
hope that we can forget ourselves a little more each day, have a
little more integrity, and continue to serve others and walk with
Christ. As we do this we will gain His light and people will notice
this light in us. We will eventually have no disposition to do evil.
The spirit was strong but only because President Eyring lives what he
was saying. Christ said, “be even as I am.” The best leaders and
examples are those who lead by example. Henry B. Eyring honors his
priesthood and doesn’t take it for granted. He knows how powerful it
really can be if we have the faith. He lives a very consecrated life
and as a result has become a very Christlike person. The only way we
can become like this is by doing those small things. No shortcuts! I’m
thankful for the gospel and so thankful for a prophet and apostles on
earth today.

Have a great week! Lian passed her baptism interview and will be
baptized this week! We’re so pumped. The dry spell is finally over in
this area!

Love Elder Reber

I can't wait to see the pictures that Parker has taken in this beautiful island!

Enjoy those smooth arms!

Hello!

More great times here in our area. This week flew by and we saw lots
of good things happen. We continue to do our best as a companionship
so we will be able to qualify for miracles. I don't think we used full
eating time once this week haha it was tiring but it's always a great
feeling hoppin in bed knowing we tried our best.

Our main progressing investigator right now is sister Lain Go. She's
22 and has one kid but she seperated from her asawa like last year.
She grew up in Palawan, went to Manila for 2 years to work, then
returned here last year. Her baptism is scheduled for April 15 and she
was at church this week for the fourth time in a row! Once we finish
teaching the lessons she is qualified for baptism. Like I said maybe
last week she literally had a huge change of heart and not only
started listening to us but keeping commitments and really showing her
faith through action. Because of this she has had experiences for
herself that have testified the truthfulness of this message to her!
Wednesday we went to her house and she told us she was in 2 Nephi 1!
She only started reading 2 weeks ago! The cool part though was on
Saturday she went and witnessed a baptism for a different area in our
branch and after we taught her. At this time she was in 2 Nephi 28 in
her reading! Crazy! She's doing really well though and says she's
always thinking about her baptism!

Cesar Ibanez is also progressing and continues to grow each day. He
hasn't had a problem with drinking for the past week which is awesome!
He didn't have to work Sunday so he was at church. He stood up in the
middle of Elder's Quorum and bore his testimony of the church and the
Book of Mormon. It was so cool there were like 20 plus members in
there! It once again really strengthened my testimony of the power of
the Book of Mormon. I know I say this every week basically but this
book really changes people's lives. It changes their view, actions,
choices, and gives them new hope. Everyone in my mission who has
really progressed and who has been baptized really started to make
changes when they read the Book of Mormon. It's the center of all
their testimonies. I'm so thankful God has such great love for us and
he has blessed us with such a powerful tool for missionary work as
well as such a guidance for our lives. Through it we have the fulness
of Christ's gospel as well as all of God's plan for us. We will come
to know Christ and draw nearer to His waiting arms. We should never
take it for granted!

David Piasecki is awesome. We went over Wednesday and he was smiling
ear to ear when we showed up at his gate. He told us how excited he's
been to meet with us again. He said it's all he thinks about and his
wife agreed haha! They're so kind, to prepare for us to come they went
to Robinson's and bought snacks for us for when we'd be visiting. LAYS
CHIPS, pie, cookies, etc. I hadn't had food like that forever. They
also cleaned the whole house for our visit. When we got there he had
the Restoration pamphlet sitting on the middle of the table along with
TONS of articles he had printed out about Mormons! Ha at first i was
like ahh no google, but actually almost everything he had read was
true and we were able to clear up anything that was false. It's so
cool though because he's not trying to prove anything wrong, he only
looks for the good. He basically told us Joseph Smith's life story and
then told us there's no way he would just make it all up! And he said
there's no way he did it all without help from God. We were shocked!
He hasn't even read the Book of Mormon yet and he basically testified
to us of Joseph Smith without really realizing it! He sent us home
with pie and cookies and invited us to return Friday night for dinner
and for us to teach him again. Saturday he made homemade lasagna and
pizza complety from scratch! It was so awesome haha I was walking on
clouds. We met his 2 daughters finally who are 13 and 12. We watched
the Restoration video and the spirit was so strong. We then introduced
the Book of Mormon and they commited to read every night as a family.
They sent us home with a cake and a dozen eggs. So so nice honestly!

One thing that stood out to me though was as we were eating dinner I
asked David where his favorite place on the island is. I was thinking
he would say El Nido or some of the other crazy tourist spots but he
said "right here in this house." Even though they've been around to
some pretty awesome places they still remember the importance of
family. There is lots of worldly happiness but I'm grateful for the
never ending happiness the gospel brings to families. One reason
they're so interested is because of the church's focus on family. So
ya that was cool too.

Cesar has a friend who is at the house sometimes when we teach. He's
not drunk but it always basically seems like he is haha. The other day
he said "We were waiting for you two yesterday but you never came! We
were sitting here just thinking how great it would be if the two Gods
would come teach us some words of the Lord!" He then started pumpin
his chest and said "I need the Lord in my life! I'll be at church
tomorrow! Mormons! Mormons!" Haha we were laughin pretty hard. We
explained to him that we definately aren't Gods too haha. No he didn't
make it to church.

One last thing about an investigator. Sister Morata was at church last
week but couldn't make it this week. We taught her Word of Wisdom and
she said she has a problem with coffee but really wants to stop. She
said she noticed how smooth the arms were of people at church because
they didn't drink coffee haha! So she committed to stop because she
wants smooth arms too. She's super nice.

Have a good week! We continue to find ways to enjoy the work too! This
week we wanted to see how cheap we could make a solid meal. We bought
green beans, some sauce stuff, and some other little vegetables and we
made the grand discovery of the 16 cent meal! Haha that's right
people! Anyways have a great week with all of your smooth arms!

Elder Reber

I am now resorting to google pictures of Palawan :)

Coconut tree forest

Hi everyone,

This week was filled with miracles! But first off last week we had a fun P day. We went to a place called Baker's Hill which is a big hill a few minutes from our house. Going up the hill there are tons of mansions and lots of them have security guards! It's super crazy and the view is awesome. At the top of the hill they have a big garden place along with a famous bakery. So basically we just bought cookies and walked around looking at different birds, animals, flowers, statues, art stuff, and even some nice cacti! haha.

But literally we saw so many investigators make some huge jumps. One of them being sister Angie Morata. She has been an investigator of ours for awhile but has never been to church. She has been reading the Book of Mormon a little bit though and really understands our lessons. Quick learner and always has good insights when we ask what she's learning. We were having a hard time understanding why she wouldn't go to church and what was kinda holding her back. So we both thought it would be good to really focus on the Book of Mormon. I had the simple idea to ask her if she has prayed yet to ask God if it's true. She said no! We've told her to do this before but I guess we only followed up on the reading part, not the praying as well. We asked her again to do so and when we returned Saturday night we followed up and she said she prayed. We asked how she felt as she prayed and she said as she prayed a thought came into her mind of her in white clothes! It was super cool. If I've learned anything out here it's how powerful the Book of Mormon really is. Yesterday she was at church for the first time!

Cesar had a birthday on Tuesday! We grabbed a cake at a nearby bakery and brought it with us to our lesson with him. He started crying when we came he's so nice. After we sang we asked him to make a wish and he just went into this huge prayer for his family. We're still kinda trying to help him break some habits from his last church haha. But it was actually a really cool prayer. He really wants to be baptized and follow Christ. It's been a huge roller coaster with him the past few months! Every lesson is so cool. A few days later we returned and found out he relapsed again with drinking so we taught the Atonement. He promised us right there he would never drink again. In his closing prayer he asked God to truly help him, he said he's just a man and he needed His help in order to overcome his addiction. He always thanks God in his prayer too for sending His servants to help him out. He told us also during the lesson that neighbors tell him how they notice how much he's changed ever since those guys in white shirts have started visiting him. That's the best part of being a missionary. Seeing others literally being changed by Christ's Atonement and gospel.

Friday all the missionaries got a text from President Ostler. It said "Elders and Sisters, thank you for serving the Lord faithfully. Tonight when I was praying I felt that the Lord will bless us with many more baptisms if we will pray in faith. 4 times every day have a special companionship prayer for baptisms. Promise the Lord that you will do everything in your power to baptize. Plead and ask for Him to send miracles. Then go out with faith. Open your mouth, teach with the spirit, ask for referrals. Give your 100%. I promise the Lord is waiting to bless you if you will do your part." So this week we've really been praying with more faith to receive miracles in our area. Sure enough that very morning we started the special prayers we saw tons of cool things. The first guy we talked to, the trike driver to get us over into our area was actually a less active who lives in the Sisters area. We had a super cool convo with him as he drove us to an area, especially when we asked him how he felt when he was baptized years ago. His wife hasn't been baptized yet but he said he wanted to meet with missionaries again. When we got into the area we went to the Abastas home. We haven't been to this family's house for over a month since the main progressing investigator there moved to Narra for his work. But as we stopped by we saw him there! Turns out he had just gotten home the day before and we returned there right at the perfect time! We taught Wilfred again and had a cool lesson. After that we continued up the main road to the Balena family- we had met and taught them for the first time two days earlier. They literally live in a coconut tree forest I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. As far as you can see it's just coconut trees and a few mango trees it's soo cool. When we showed up Joshua (17 years oldl) got a huge smile on his face and told us he had read the whole pamphlet we gave him! The three of us are already like best friends haha -he's the nicest kid. After we taught him and his parents he told us "alright lets go hunt for some mangos." He took us into their forest of trees and picked us some fresh mangos to go home with!

Basically tons of miracles started happening after we started praying in faith to our Father in heaven as a companionship more often. It helped me realize the importance of prayer. We had met a lady named Apolania on a multicab a few weeks ago and she started coming back to my head a ton. One morning we decided to go find her and sure enough she was ready to listen. She had also read the whole pamphlet we gave her and had lots of questions! She has 11 kids but we only taught her last lesson. Religion is very important to her and she said return back anytime!

In Alma 13:28 it says, "But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering." I challenge you all to really strive to have meaningful prayers from your heart. We show our humility and trust in God when we turn to Him first and show our faith that He can accomplish our desires for ourselves and others. He will help you through the Holy Ghost and I know you will feel His presence more in your lives.

Have a good week! Elder Reber :)

Back in the early days with Elder Carter his MTC companion in front of the Provo Temple.

We had a great day meeting Elder Lambert and his family. He gave a wonderful Homecoming address where we were able to hear fun stories of his experiences there along with sharing a wonderful testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. He left us with a challenge for young and old to get out and prepare to serve missions.  We are so grateful for Elder Lambert and the positive influence he had on Parker.