Week 45 - September 12, 2016

This week we Baptised Brother Pepito! 

I cooked pancakes for the first time and also we ended up finding and oyming a lot 

I realized I have about a year left, thats crazy, time is flying. 

We went to the third floor of an apartment complex and we were waiting to teach these less actives and they have a coconut tree hanging over the fence right in front of their yard and it all of a sudden it got windy and a coconut fell off of the tree and it landed a little more than a foot away from me!

Things I learned:

Virtue originates in your innermost thoughts and desires, it is a pattern of thought and behavior

The snake is evil and venomous and dangerous, right? Well the snake is supposed to represent

the Savior.  Moses turned a cane into a snake and also when he went with the people there were two different snakes. If they looked back at the snakes behind them they would die, but if they looked up at the snake in front of them they will not die.  But Satan wants to deceive us and trick us in thinking that he represents the snake that how he deceives us like that.

I also want the mosquito bug bite prevention thing that you always give me. Also, I would like just a whole lot of fruit apricots, yogurt raisins, doritos and stuff.

The temple is closed until november but mabye he can come to our mission tour this Thursday in the mission office in the morning.

Hey wasn't there a huge flooding in Louisana?

I love you guys, thank you.

The last 2 weeks we got worried about Elder Driggs no eating well.  Here is what happened the next day, Monday in the USA.

Tender Mercies
This morning I sent an email to some friends in the other side of the world where my son is serving his mission with the request to buy some food for my Elder as he is in an area with small places to buy groceries and are not allowed to go shopping in the Mall anymore he has not been eating well. Tonight, I received an email from my friends saying that they felt last Saturday the need to buy some food for my son and his companion as Christmas in the Philippines starts its celebrations in September. They prepared a package with pretty much the same food that I listed for Elder Driggs and it was already sent to the Mission's office before they even got my email!. I am thankful for having friends that live their life with integrity and obedience so they can hear the whispers of the spirit.

Week 44 - September 4th 2016

This week we have being busy preparing brother Papa for baptism he is our only progressing investigator and he has quit drinking and smoking then we are working a lot with members and I am learning a lot from them they are RMs. 

Also we had a Less Active family that finally came to church after several years. 

My mission president visited our apartment and was with us for our studies with his wife. But he heard that his car trunk was open so he checked it and nothing was stollen it just came open so he went back and ran in to one of our neighbors who had a question, the neighbor said who is Zenif? Then my mission president started talking to him about Zenif like a Collage professor would but he also made it real playing and they were talking. Who new the Mission President would give you referrals from an oym? And my President doesn't even know Tagalog. But we ended up visiting the referral the next day and he was completely different then from how he presented himself to president, all he wanted to do to us is bible bash. 
So although that didn't turn out as we wanted to we will find someone else who is interested in our message.

I'm good our area is sort of hard but thats okay we always have a member present to teach with us,

Sort of but thats least of our worries we're having Elder Smuchz visiting our mission a Seventy and he 

might visit our aprtments because our zone is in the mission offfice and so he might visit some apartments in our zone.

Was your apartment clean when the Mission President came?

Our apartment is really clean, its small, there is only room for 2 elders

Are you going places during P-days?

Our mission is small and doesnt have a whole lot, we just have a zoo and a water fall to go to that is it, It is forbidden to go to SM Fair View Mall to go bowlling.

No we can't go to that particular Mall, the biggest Mall in our mission is off limits exept for 2 zones and my zone is one of them where we can go to SM

I need to go Mom,

I Love you,

Week 43 - August 28, 2016

Transfers came, I have a new comp he is filipino and he is almost as tall as me.

Still so many less actives that don't want to go to church

Its hard leading such a big area

It rains a lot of course.

We are planing to have a baptism sept. 10

So, yeah, things are going good here.

Investigators are good we are having baptism on the 10.

I asked what he wants for Christmas?

I don't want anything for Christmas, I just want some food maybe.

My comp has being here for 1 year and 5 months.

Are you eating well?

Yeah I eat rice every day and soimai 

no they doint really have that stuff the Philippines doesn't have as much resources

Are you having vegetables?

Yeah, I am good

 Do not be afraid to use your Priesthood to do the Lord’s work. Don’t underestimate the power you hold. I was just reading President Monson’s talk from the Priesthood Session last April, “A Sacred Trust”:

This precious gift of priesthood power brings with it not only solemn responsibilities but also special blessings for ourselves and for others. May we, in whatever place we may find ourselves, always be worthy to call upon its power, for we never know when our need and our opportunity to do so may come.

During World War II, a friend of mine was serving in the South Pacific when his plane was shot down over the ocean. He and the other crew members successfully parachuted from the burning plane, inflated their life rafts, and clung to those rafts for three days.

On the third day they spotted what they knew to be a rescue vessel. It passed them by. The next morning it passed them by again. They began to despair as they realized that this was the last day the rescue vessel would be in the area.

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to my friend: “You have the priesthood. Command the rescuers to pick you up.”

He did as prompted: “In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the priesthood, turn about and pick us up.”

Within a few minutes the vessel was beside them, helping them on deck. A faithful and worthy bearer of the priesthood, in his extremity, had exercised that priesthood, blessing his life and the lives of others.

May we determine, here and now, ever to be prepared for our time of need, our time of service, our time of blessing.

You have THAT power to make things happen in the Lord’s work, in accordance with His will. Stay close to Him, listen to the Spirit, and you will be inspired to use the Priesthood when appropriate. 

Again we love you, and hope you are doing well. Please tell us more about what you’re doing and how you are.

Love,

Dad

Hey i just watched that talk just barely. Well that is good that you are feeling better. Well we just are having the baptism on sept. 10. 

My area is really hard we have a lot of less actives who don't want to go to church they are so stubborn they have excuses after excuses and that is not fair, they are forgetting their baptismal covenants and they aren't listening to us. 

Yeah, also Duterte is planing on drawing from the UN but he really doesn't tolerate drugs. He wants to change the Phillipines. Also something interesting Duterte also has a Book of Mormon that a missionary gave him a while back and I think that missionary is a Mission President now and yeah they know each other.