April 4, 2011

Family,


So I'm sorry last week letter was really wack and short but I really ran outta time! I've been trying to respond to the massive amounts of unanswered emails that clutter my inbox and without knowing ran outta time. So here is the news! I am Zone Leader I am no longer in Mindoro! So here is what happened. Elder Mace ( He was AP last transfer) got called into the office and President needed him for a special assignment. He needed him to reopen Canlubang, Cabuyao there was a problem with missionaries last december and got pulled out..(reopening means putting 2 missionaries in there who have never been there so we gotta find the church, the bishop, investigators, and tract tract and tract some more) He told him to pick his companion, So Elder Mace picked me...despite the fact he's one of my best friends here haha he said he needed me for my ravishing good looks and people skills. So we have been in this ward and it's absolutely AMAZING! I really cannot believe how functional this ward is...despite the fact the members are pretty wealthy so sometimes pride gets in the way of things and I have to humble myself...it's amazing. We have recieved about 20 referrals, and have 6 baptismal goal dates but will probably get more than 10 by the end of this week. The Lord is blessing us so much I've never had a area this amazing..It's humbling crazy and hard to stay on top of all the success, but I'm so grateful for it. I'm also way grateful for my companion..since the MTC I've wanted to be comps with mace and it's a been a dream. yesterday at Church we had 6 of our new investigators come to church and we already have 6 baptisms coming up on the 24th and 16th... I want to tell you a bit about them

Gem, she's a 25 year old college student who is in Law school, she's the girlfriend of our Ward Mission Leader who is the Son of our stake president. Here's a side note the Stake Pres is ridiculously rich and has 14 cars half of them Mercedes, but he's way humble and he feeds the whole zone unlimited fried chicken every 2nd sunday of the month...which IS THIS WEEK!! :) anyways she's been going to church for 2 months and she's way rad we've had some pretty amazing spiritual experiences and great laughs. she'll be baptized on the 16th

Bert and Rose, They are a couple who will be baptized on the 24th, Bert found the Lord through and interesting way, he got injured at work and is really poor because you know in the philippines there are no worker compensation..so basically what happened was he fell and iron rebar pierced through his butt and and passed threw slit open the intestitives spilling feces into his stomach and coming out of his stomach...It got to the point where he was about 50/50 and the Dr's weren't really sure what was gonna happen. He told me that he prayed and asked Heavenly Father for another chance and he would make it all right...I testified to him that God did indeed hear his prayer and we are His answer...Despite the fact he has a hard time walking around because they pulled his intestines out of his stomach for the time being so he poop and pees in a bag that is connected to his intestines..it actually sits outside of his stomach it's CRAZY..he goes to church every week and he's one of the most humble people I've ever met.

Jerzael or Ghani and his cousin Joshua. Ghani left Bacalod (jax's family's province) to find a better life and find work for his family. He's 22 years old and a total stud. I've been practicing my Visaya (The dialect they speak in Mindanao- Southern Philippines) so it was fun to speak to him...Illongo is his dialect but nakakaintindi kami or we can understand eachother for the most part. He's been reading the book of mormon a lot and really seems to enjoy our teaching.

Those are the ones who we really focused on this week...this weeks been crazy we've been working really hard and taught about 29 lessons last week, we're gonna try to keep a constant 30 and start getting these people baptized. I'm so happy in my mission it's so amzaing the success we are having and how extremely kind the ward is. It seems Heavenly Father is gonna bless me in my last area hahaha I LOVE it HERE!

I gotta run we just got 2 more refferals and we're gonna teach a family tonight so MUCH WORK IS GOING ON HERE I don't have time to sleep haha and we have FULL schedules..

But I really do miss you so much and I'll see you in less than 13 weeks?! but who's counting? I'm probably gonna be Elder Mace's last companion and then I'll do 4 more weeks here and be home in no time! I miss you so much! the boxes WERE amazing thank you so much! We hadddd soooo many chocolate! I'm trying to diet here and work out haha..it's a shame really every missionary in Cabuyao zone get's fat because members feed us ALL THE TIME! next week I'll include a story about our home owners they ARE AMAIZNG and treat us like their kids ahah so last monday we cooked pasta for them and just hung out with em . all their kids are grown up and moved out..taking care of some oldies! I love you guys! and miss you more than you could ever know..but I am happy because the Lord's bounty is plenty and I am learning more than I could anywhere else. Glory to God

Love,

Me