January 1st
This weeks email is a little different. I have been very busy this week and haven't been able to prepare my email throughout the week. I apologize and I'll try to make up for it by writing a couple of things that come to mind and that I feel inspired to write about. Thank you all for reading my email and I hope you enjoy this email...
Let me start off with my experience here in the Philippines as a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Where do I start... It has been more than what I imagined. It has been so much fun! I have been able to meet people from all walks of life. The rich and poor, the strong and weak, the religious and non-religious. So many different kinds of people. It has blessed my life to meet all kinds of people because it allows me to find a way to connect with them. I allows me to learn about their lives and help them in any way I can. I have also been able to see the influence of having Jesus Christ in our lives. There are a lot of Catholics here who have strong beliefs in Jesucristo. It makes me happy to see how important Jesucristo is to people and their lives. Man, I love it here!
Some of the most important lessons I have learned here are the importance that members of the church play when it comes to inviting others into this gospel and helping the missionaries. You members can do so much more than the missionaries can! Your potential to help others and help God is high. It is so simple too! Talk to your friends! I know that each of you have friends who are not members of this gospel. Share with them your beliefs. Share with them what you love about the church that you are a part of, The Church of Jesucristo! You can also refer them to the missionaries, but you play the key role of helping people come unto Christ through this gospel. I know hat you can do it! :)
"TIME is the property we inherit from God, along with the power to CHOOSE what we will do with it." -Henry B. Eyring. We need to take time in our life here on earth and spend every minute wisely. We only have so much time of this earth! Spend that time serving not only people, but God as well. Spend your time with your family. Spend your time following Christs example in your own life. There are a lot of great things you can do to spend time, which is a gift from God, wisely.
"If we look for human FRAILTY in humans, we will always find it. We live in a world where finding fault in others seems to be the favorite blood sport. It has long been the basis of political campaign strategy. It is the theme of much television programming across the world. It sells newspapers. Whenever we meet anyone, our first, almost unconscious reaction may be to look for IMPERFECTIONS." -Henry B. Eyring. In this day and time in the world there is a lot of bad, discouragement, disappointment, anger, and danger. This is because people are looking for it. We need to start looking for the GOOD and HAPPINESS in things. Especially in people. We may see people and judge them or think things about them, but we DO NOT know their story until we meet them and get to know them. We can make the world a better place by doing god and searching for good. :)
With all that is stated above, I just want to testify that this is true. This church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is true. That through the Atonement of Jesus Christ our sins can be forgiven. That we can live better lives by following his example. I want you to know that I truly believe this. Also that I love you all and pray for you maraming basis (A lot of times). Please feel free to email me with any comments or questions that you have. I'd love to hear from you all! :) I hope you have a good week and a happy one too. I'll talk to you all next week. Ingat po kayo. :)
Your Friend,
Elder Scott
December 26th
This week is the week of CHRISTmas. Notice the first part of this marvelous holiday? Christ is the most important person to us and this time of the year is all about him. We need to dedicate ourselves to share the message with others and show love to others, just as Jesus Christ would. Gordon B. Hinckley once said, "There would be no Christmas, without Easter." We have to remember what Christ did for us. He died for us. So that we can be forgiven of our sins! Do you realize how hard that is to do, how important it is for us, and how loving he is to us. Jesus Christ is A Leader, Our Savior, The Prince of Peace, Wonderful, Counselor, Everlasting Father, and SO much more! He is everything that is good in this world. Please show your love for Christ by following his example. You can do that by Serving Others, Loving Others, Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others... An endless amount of opportunities to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Don't just do it for this Christmas season, do it at all times, in all things, an in all places. God will bless you if you do and he will bless you with more blessings than you can handle. Merry Christmas to each of you. I hope it was Joyous, Fun, and filled with Smiles. :) I love you all and hope you have a great week! Talk to you next week!
December 21, 2016: Zone Training day with President Bangal!!! Woohoo! He did a couple interviews before it started. My interview will be next week and I'm excited for it!:) He did a great job of getting us missionaries back on our toes for doing missionary work. He is an awesome President. They fed us lunch after and then Elder Pitt and I went to McDo (That's what they call McDonalds here) because we are Americano's haha. I got a package today from my family!:) It a big one! HaHa. They are the best! I can't wait to put the presents under our tree on Christmas Eve for the other Elders. It will be so exciting when they wake up on Christmas! :) THANK YOU FAMILY AND FRIENDS! :) Our first stop was at Brother Rambos house. He emailed our families for us about Skyping on Christmas because we forgot about daylight savings time and we can't email them on non-Pday's. He is so nice to do that for us! Then we went and found a less-active member. Her name is Nanay Pagaduan. She is a sweet old lady. We also met her neighbor, Brother James Crisolo. He actually happens to be the brother of Juvy Cristolo who is a member of our ward here. How cool is that! We ended the night at the Maaghop's house and they gave us hot chocolate which was Masurap (Delicious)! We taught them about Jesus Christ and Christmas. We read 2 Nephi 19:6 for Christmas and then Matthew 5:12-16 about sharing our beliefs all the time and not being afraid too. It was a good lesson. At the ended we asked them to commit to give out a Book of Mormon to someone who they thing would benefit from reading it. We also asked them to write their testimonies in it. They all agreed and I am excited to see what happens. They are such an awesome family! :) Over all it was a good day! 5 Days Till Christmas!
December 23, 2016: It has been a really busy last couple of days. Sorry I didn't have time to email about it. It is a busy season for missionaries! Today we had studying and weekly planning. It all went well! The best part of the day was Christmas Caroling for members, less-active members, and any new people we met. I was in a group with a lot of youth, young men's president, relief society president, Elder Corpin, and Sister Dagal. We gave out 'The Living Christ' posters to members and copies of the Book of Mormon to non-members. The copies were wrapped too! It was so much fun! We got to carol to a lot of members and new people. The spirit was stong and it was such a good way to build peoples spirits here. On the side note, there are man kids, adults, elderly, and families who just go door to door singing Christmas songs and asking for money. Every time we caroled, the people would come out with money and try to give it to us haha. They were happy to see that we didn't want it and that we had a gift for them! It was great. I am very thankful for this day. :)
December 24, 2016: CHRISTMAS EVE!!! WOOHOO!!! What a splendid day. The day before the day that we celebrate the Birth of Christ. I had a great study time. I read a lot from 'Our Search For Happiness' by M. Russell Ballard. It is such a good book! Especially if you don't know a whole lot about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our first stop of the day was at the Maaghops. Last night Brother Robert gave me an envelope after we caroled at his house and I thought it was a card but it ended up being 50 pesos! We weren't caroling for money, we were giving to people. So we made a card for their family last night and wrote a nice message about Christmas and taped the 50 pesos in it. At the Maaghoops we gave them that and I made little gifts for the little kids. I also got some 'CTR' (Choose The Right) rings sent to me in the package from Caitlyn Lewis and I gave put them in the gifts I made for the Maaghop children. Brother Robert will open the letter and give the gifts out tomorrow for Christmas. I can't wait to hear how they like the gifts! :) We also visited the Claveria family and and Sister Valdez. They are all doing good. We had to be home by 6:00 because it is a Holiday. Same for tomorrow. We had a dinner party appointment @7:00 with our Landlady Sister Leah. She invited a lot of people! Brother Rambo and Sister Jo-ann along with Nanay Zenny. It was lot's of fun and the food was great! We then joined the Ruiz's (Rambo and Jo-ann) to go to the beach with the Valdez family for food and a little Christmas Eve Celebration. We got permision from our Zone Leaders. :) It was fun but very sandy haha. It was windy so there was sand everywhere. At 9:30 we went home. The Ruiz's and Valdez's are staying the night at the beach tonight! How cool is that! Tonight Elder Pitt and I are going to wrap surprise gifts for Elder Alvarez and Elder Baliwas after they go to sleep. Shhhhhh... haha. We have some surprise gifts we bought and some from our families for them! It is going to be so fun tomorrow! I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I love you all and hope you have a Joyous day tomorrow. :)
December 25, 2016!!! Merry Christmas! We woke up this morning and guess what... SANTA CAME!!! When we woke up Elder Pitt and I wouldn't let the others come out of their room until we had Christmas Music, cameras, and presents all ready. When we let them out it took a while for them to notice haha, but when they did they were like "WOW, Thanks Guys" and we told them that it was Santa, not us haha. We only opened one gift before church. The gifts that Elder Pitt's grandma sent to each of us. It was so nice of her! Thanks Grandma McCary! We only had Sacrament meeting in my ward... it was different because none of the wards I've been in have made church short for Christmas. All the members of the Bishopric spoke, along with the Stake President. They did a great job! I brought a bunch of candy for all the kids. I gave it our after church and they were all happy! It was great seeing a bunch of little smiles. :) After church we ate at Abra Miki and went home to open the rest of our gifts before study time at 11:00. We all got great gifts. The Filipino Elder's LOVED their gifts that we bought for them and our families got for them. They were so happy because their parents didn't send gifts. It's normal for Filipino missionaries not to get gifts/packages for Christmas. For study time I read more from 'Our Search For Happiness' by M. Russell Ballard and it is still an amazing book to read! I highly recommend it. For working time we went to Elder Alvarez's and Elder Baliwas' area because they had dinner appointments and we were invited and them we had to go to the Bishops house. The dinner's were all great. The members are doing great here. Tomorrow is Skype day with my family!!! Woohoo! I can't wait to see them all:)
Your Friend,
Elder Scott
December 18th
Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that while this years Christmas is coming up you do service for someone. Also think about the real reason for Christmas. Jesus Christ's birth is so important! Well I hope you all have a good Christmas Holiday. You are all awesome! :)
December 13, 2016: Today was a busy day! My study time was good but it was cut short because we went to teach the Valdez family at the church around 10:00. We were able to teach them about the Law of Chastity. We only have one more lesson after this and it is Tithing. We were planning on Brother Valdez getting baptized on December 24th but we ran into a problem. Here in the Philippines, not a lot of couples get married, they just live together and have their kids. They are allowed to get baptized if the have lived together for 5 years or more only in situations where one of the spouses used to have a spouse they were married to but not any more. That is because divorce isn't possible here. But if neither of the adults have had previous spouses and haven't gotten married, as in the Valdez's case, they can't get baptized until they are married. The baptism will probably have to be postponed until they get married. It's upsetting but it'll all work out. :) After lunch we went to BRGY Pantoc. There live the Mina's, Nanay Inday, and Cabebe's. We visited the Mina's and asked Joshua, the son preparing to go on a mission, to work with us tomorrow. He said he would! YAY! Then we went to meet the Cabebe family. Then Nanay Inday. They are all doing great! While walking back to the highway, which is a far walk, Elder Pitt told me that he was just thinking in his head how nice it would be for Brother Mina to drive by and pick us up and bring us to the highway. In the next minute, that is just what happened HaHa! It was amazing! We went to Brother Mario's house and taught him about the 5 principles of Ang Ebanghelyo Ni Jesucristo (The Gospel of Jesus Christ). Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, & Endure To The End. We also helped him with his alcohol problem. He has been sober for 10 days now! Congrats! Please pray for him because it is hard for him to stay sober but I know, and we know, that he can do it! :) We went to the Maaghops and got to meat John-Pauls mother for the first time! Also Brother Robert's and Brother Armond's brother, Richard. I just said 'Brother' 3 times in one sentence... haha. It was nice to meet them. We taught them about Helaman 5:12. Building our foundation on Jesus Christ. We gave Richard a Book of Mormon. We also sang a Hymn together. It was a really good lesson. Brother Robert was so nice as to bring us to our next stop in Paratong. We went to visit Brother Amante. He is doing great! Especially in his calendar business! Good Job Brother Amante! :) He fed us food and it was Mas Surap (Delicious)! All in all, it was a good day.
December 14, 2016: Not a whole lot of teaching time today. We played basketball early in the morning with Brother Robert, Arman, Richard, and Jeric Maaghop. It was a lot of fun! We had Zone Training today. Us American missionaries got to teach English to the Filipinos for a little workshop. Also Elder Pitt did a great job teaching a workshop about Alma 46, Captain Moroni and his armour. It was such a good lesson! It was so good, it made Elder Diaz, the Zone Leader, cry! Good Job Elder Pitt! :) We only were able to teach the Maaghop's today. We taught them about the wonderful doctrine in 2 Nephi 31. It is a great chapter. You should all read it. It was not a very busy day. Most of it was at Zone Training.
December 15, 2016: Twas a good day. Not a whole lot happened today. We helped Sister Nera and Sister Shane take down he food store that she had during the festival these past 2 weeks because it just ended yesterday. After we came home and did weekly planning. It went very well! I am glad to have Elder Pitt as a companion. We have a strong relationship with is very helpful when being a missionary. I am saying this because it's true, not because I know Elder Pitt will read this on Monday... HaHa! (Hello Elder Pitt!). We stopped by Rambo and Jo-Ann's house first. We wanted to see if they have any referrals for us. They just bought a van and they plan to renovate it and live in it and travel the Philippines! How awesome is that! They Rock! We didn't have too many lessons throughout the day. Just the Alafriz Family at 7:00. We finally get to start teaching them a lot because they aren't busy with the fiesta. We taught them about 2 Nephi 32. We taught it yesterday too. It was nice to be with them again! :) We finished the night at Nanay Zenni's and ate there with Sister Shane. She is Nanay Zenny's friend. She is really nice and might be interested in taking lessons. Woohoo! Anyway, it was a good day. :)
December 16, 2016: Today a lot of people weren't home and we got punted. We went to the Paratong Hospital this morning because our investigator, Brother Valdez, was there because of dehydration and high blood pressure. He was very thankful for the visit. He is doing better though then earlier when he first went to the hospital. We had a lot of people that we had wanted to visit before 7:00 and they were all busy, we couldn't teach them, or they punted us. So around 5:30 we headed towards Brother Bob's house. On the way we stopped by Brother Marco's and said Hello, or 'Kumusta';). He is doing great. He told us some of his great mission stories from when he was a missionary. He has the best stories! He also talked to us about the Co-owner of Abra Miki, his friend Casey. Marco is going to help us set times to teach him. He used to take lessons but he was too busy then but now he isn't busy anymore. I'm excited to teach him and get to know him better. He is a great guy. On the way to Brother Bob's something hilarious happened! Elder Pitt had this Styrofoam cup and while walking on the road he dropped it and went to go pick it up and the wind kept pushing it away from him. It rolled right in front of a motorcycle that was driving and Elder Pitt still ran in front of the bike to get the cup and he stopped the bike haha. He still couldn't get it and a trike came by and drove over it and finally Elder Pit stomped on it and caught it. He looked like he was running around the road like a headless chicken hahaha! It was so funny it made me tear up! Thank you Elder Pitt for that unforgettable experience. :) Brother Bob wasn't home so we headed to the Maaghops. The lesson we taught was perfect for them! Jeric, Jenny, John-Paul, John-Reniel, and Robert Jr. weren't there. We taught about and read 2 Nephi 33. which is a wonderful chapter that I recommend reading. They all shared what they learned and liked from the chapter and all opened up about how they want to change their lives. Some were not saying bad words anymore, or being nicer, of getting rid of anger. They were all great and we did our best to help them through it. They are such an awesome family. We ended the lesson by singing 'The Spirit of God' from the LDS Hymn Book and it was very spiritual.After the lesson we ended up seeing Brother Marco and Brother Casey at 7-Eleven. We had a good conversation. They even volunteered to feed all the missionaries Abra Miki on the 23rd because they are all coming here to Christmas Carol. It'll be a lot of fun!
December 17, 2016: Ward Christmas Party Day!!! Woohoo!!! It was so much fun! There were a lot of fun games and over 100 people there. The Maaghop's and Mario were there. Mario was very interactive and had a lot of fun. We played this game where we put a cookie on our foreheads and had to get it to our mouths just by moving our faces and it was hilarious! Elder Pitt got it so fast, but it took me a while. Everyone was watching us and when I finally got it, everyone went wild haha! It was so fun! The food was good too. The Relief Society, or adult women, did games too and they are hilarious when they play! They are so competitive too. It is so funny to watch! These kind of memories are the ones I'll never forget. After we went home, got ready to go out and work, and then worked. We visited Brother Valdez who is still at the hospital. He was told he could leave at 3. He was so happy haha. The hospitals here are a lot different than in the United States. He is doing better though. Then we went and stopped by the Rosette family and the Vallentos family for a bit. Then went to the Fernandez's house. They are an older couple and are active members. They are so nice to us. Elder Pitt said that I should lead the lesson so I picked up one of the Liahonas that they had and taught about doing service for others and sharing the gospel with friends and giving referrals to missionaries from the December 2015 Liahona Magazine. I thought it went well. We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to give it to someone this month. I know that they will. :) Then we finished the night at Nanay Zenny's because all the young men were there to honor Nanay who passed away. It was nice. Brother Marco had some more good mission stories for us.
December 18, 2016: The last Sunday before Christmas Sunday! Woohoo! Church was great as usual. Mario and the Valdez Family attended church. Mario is awesome and is always very attentive in church. The Valdez family is doing great. They are enjoying church and are growing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love our investigators! For personal study I read a talk called "Miracles of a Mission" by Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the 12 Apostles. It is a great talk for missionaries! Our 1st stop of the day was at the Vallentos family home. They fed us this delicious leaf thing. It is called 'Talbos na Camote', and it is the leaf of a sweet potato plant dipped in whipped egg and flour and the fried. It is so good! Then we went and stopped by the Maaghops house. We couldn't teach because the father's were not home. John-Reniel had bracelets made for Elder Wenceslao before he left and for Elder Alvarez and today he gave me one with my name on it, but when he got it made he spelled my name for the person to put it on the bracelet and instead of 'Elder Scott' he spelled it 'Elder Scoot' HaHaHa! I love it. He talked to Elder Pitt in private and told him that he was afraid to give me the bracelet because it was spelled wrong but Elder Pitt said to give it to me and I think it is awesome! I makes it that much more special! Thanks John-Reniel! We taught the Melo family as well. We taught them about church Attendance and answered any questions they had. They asked great questions too. We talked a little bit about the Father's desires because he wrote them down and they were great. They are a great family. I love being a missionary! Every day is great.
December 11th
Hello everyone! How are you all! I hope you are all doing great. I hope you enjoy this email:) Have a wonderful week and never forget who you are! You are all amazing!
December 6, 2016: Today was a fun day! There was a monkey involved in our day so obviously it was a fun day! HaHa! We had an appointment with the Valdez family at the church at 9. We were able to teach them about the 5 principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Ang Ebanghelyo Ni Jesucristo). They are Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Brother and Sister Valdez each got a principle and so did Elder Pitt and I. We had 10 minutes to read it and then we had to teach each other about our principle. It was really good for them to read about it and study it rather than listen to us. They did a great job at teaching too! For the rest of the day until 7 we were in Elder Alvarez's area. We got to meet some of his investigators. They are doing great. We were able to teach a lesson with one of them about how God loves us and how the gospel blesses families. it went really well. Around 7:00 Elder Alvarez had to leave to go to San Fernando because he has a training meeting tomorrow to learn how to train and then he gets his new companion on Thursday! How exciting! After he left Elder Pitt and I went to the Maaghops. We talked with them and had some fun for a little bit and then we taught them about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and how Elder Pitt and I are here to answer any questions that they have. Elder Pitt gave a really good testimony about why he is on a mission. I shared mine too and they were both really good! Way to go Elder Pitt! That was our day. About the Monkey... We went to the monkey that we always see and this time we let the monkey climb on us and we took some pictures! Elder Pitt went first and the monkey was climbing all over him. The monkey made his shirt smell really bad because its dirty butt was all over him. It even left a brown spot on his shirt and we aren't sure what it is hahaha. I gave it a try and it was scary haha. I though that it was gonna bite my ear off or something haha. It was fun though!
December 7, 2016: Today is my 3 month mark in the mission! It has gone by so fast! We had district meeting in the morning and Elder Pitt did a great job of teaching a workshop like always. We learned about accountability. It was a helpful lesson for all of us. We have 5 new Elders in our zone now because of 4 transfer missionaries and one new missionary. We will meet the new missionary on Friday. Elder Alvarez will be training him! As for the 4 transferred missionaries, they are all great and fun. It was nice meeting them. We only taught 2 lessons today. One was to Brother Mario. He is doing really well. When we got to his house we saw that he wasn't home so when we were walking on the street we saw him. He wasn't home because there were people there with alcohol. Ever since we started teaching him and we told him about how alcohol is bad for the body he has been trying to stop. So to help himself stop he leaves all situations involving alcohol. He is awesome! We go to teach him about the Book of Mormon some more because he finished it! He started to read it again. He really likes it and understands it. We talked a little bit about Thomas S. Monson, our prophet, and he now want's to read/watch some talks by him. We are going to get some talks to watch and we will meet at the church building to watch them with him. I'm excited! We invited him to pray now that he has read the book. He ended the lesson by praying for us and it was a beautiful prayer! Way to go Brother Mario!:) We also taught the Maaghops again. We got to teach them about 1 Nephi 1-4. The first four chapters of the Book of Mormon. We all read parts of them together and discussed them. We were able to help them understand it. Then we taught about the plan of salvation a little bit. Just about the pre-earth life and the veil. It was a good lesson. Right before the lesson Elder Pitt was making some funny faces and they lost it! HAHA! Brother Robert was laughing so hard! It was so funny! During the day as well, we met this ice cream maker guy and we bought some ice cream and he tried to bible bash with us but we just testified but it was good because we were able to see if he was actually curious or just wanted to bash so we will find out if he texts us in the future. It was a good learning experience for us. All in all it was a pretty good day.
December 9, 2016: It was a fun day! Elder Pitt and I ate chocolate waffles for breakfast at Abra Miki before he had to leave for San Fernando (3 hours away) to be at a meeting with all the district and zone leaders. I had to go to Santa Maria because I had no companion in Narvacan. Elder Alvarez was still in San Fernando getting his new trainee. In Santa Maria I was with Elder Dela Puerta and Elder Calipes. They are awesome! Elder Calipes is just got transferred to Narvacan. He has been on his mission for 14 months. We were able to TC 39 people and then teach 1 lesson. It was awesome! For lunch we ate at home and I found out it was Elder Dela Puerta's birthday! Happy Birthday Elder Dela Puerta!:) While we were waiting for the bus to come and pick me up with Elder Alvarex and the new missionary, Elder Baliwas, on it, I spoke with some kids who were in class without a teacher. I spoke to them through the window. I was on the other side of a gate as well but it was fun! I decided to give them all of my pamphlets for them to read so I ran past the gate, gave the pamphlets through the window, and then ran back. As I got back I saw them handing out the pamphlets and saw one of the pamphlets titled 'Law of Chastity'... HaHa! I just gave these little kids a Law of Chastity pamphlet... whoops. Well I hope it does something for them. It was funny. So when I got on the bus I met the new missionary, Elder Baliwas. He is a Filipino and is really nice! He is good at English too. What we did for the day was introduce him to some of the ward leaders and members. It was good. We didn't have a ton of time though because we had to be at out MCM meeting at 7:00. This is the meeting with missionaries, ward mission leader, and ward missionaries. The meeting went really well! Brother Leones, ward mission leader, is awesome! As well as his son John Wesley! He wrote me a cute little note that said Elder Scott and John Wesley in a heart and smiley face. He is so cute!:) After MCM we ended the night at the Maaghops for a quick lesson. We taught about 1 Nephi 7 where Nephi is tied to the pole of the boat and prays to God for the strength to break the bindings he is in. Rather then ask God to break them for him. We need to ask God for the ability to do things for ourselves, not have God do things for us. It was a good lesson. They are an awesome family! Go Maaghops!!! And that was my day.:)
December 10, 2016: One day closer to Christmas! Haha! Today we had some good lessons. During study time we went to the church building and cleaned it. The ward cleans in every Saturday. It was only us and the Valdez family. Brother Valdez really wanted to clean the baptismal font! How cool is that!? He cleaned the baptismal font that his is going to get baptized in, on the 24th! Awesome! We only had 3 lessons today, but they were good ones. First, we went to a members house who have been gone visiting family in Manila and Utah. They are an older couple. They are really nice to us. We taught them about an excerpt from a Liahona Magazine. It was about out potential and how we can reach that potential. It was a good lesson, especially with the new year coming. Second, we went to the Maaghop's home. We were able to teach them about our life on Earth. I read Moroni 7: 12-19 (About Good and Evil). I also read a quote by our former prophet Spencer W. Kimball starting with the Liahona that Lehi had is like our conscience and the spirit which we have and how it guides us to choose good and stay away from bad. The Liahona is already a part of our system. Third, we taught the Valdez family. We taught them about the 10 commandments. Specifically keeping the Sabbath Day (Sunday) holy. Was we can do that is by going to church, not spending money on shopping or other things, or by being with our families for the day. It is really easy and we can all do it. Other than those lessons that is it. It has been a good day! I hope that everyone is able to make it to church tomorrow that we invited during the week.
December 11, 2016: It was a spiritual and sad day. We had church because it's Sunday. At church Elder Pitt gave a talk about Faith in Jesus Christ. His topic wasn't on faith though. He lost the paper that had his topic on it so he gave a talk of faith because faith can be related to everything haha! Way to go Elder Pitt!:) Church was good. The Maaghop's, Valdez's, and Mario came. They are awesome! Right after church ended we found out that Nanay Zenny's mother died around 11:00. She was 93 years old. We visited around 5:00 and Nanay Zenny was really sad and they were getting ready to bring the casket in. We told her we would stop by later in the night. We didn't have any lessons because we planned to teach 2 member families but neither of them were home, so we went to the Alafriz's and they allowed us to go on their balcony to watch the festival parade. It was really fun! The best part is that everyone who walked by the balcony stared at Elder Pitt and I because we are white haha. All the girls giggle when we wave at them haha. It is hilarious. It is as if they have never seen a white person before. It was a lot of fun though and cool to see their culture. We watched for about 45 minutes. Then that's when we went to Nanay Zenny's. Here in the Philippines when people die, they leave the body in the casket in their homes for people to come by and visit the bod and the family. It isn't like an American funeral service. They leave the caskets in the home open for around 30 days before they bury them. It is different but interesting. At 6:00 we went to Candon to view the Christmas Devotional that the church just released. It was really good! Especially President Henry B. Eyring's talk. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was great too. After we went back to Narvacan and to Nanay Zenny's house. We had a good conversation with her and her sone just about good memories they've had. I saw a dead body for the first time. I was nervouse becasue I wasn't sure how I'd react but it was fine. It was a spiritual moment for me and got me thinking. It was a good experience for me. It was just weird for me because I saw this nanay a few days ago and now she is gone. At least I know where she went. :) Her casket is beautiful and the set up is great. It was a good day for me. Filled with the spirit!
Your Friend, Elder Scott
December 4th
The reason why I put that quote is because it is very important. We need to realize that we can do whatever we strive to do. The Lord can help us along the way too. Whether you want to be a Doctor, or good at basketball, or something like that you can pray for help. You should pray for things like the ability to get stronger or the ability to memorize things. Not for the ability to just be good at something of have something. It requires effort! Never forget that you can do whatever you desire. Don't let anyone tell you that you cant.
November 28, 2016: Today is P-Day! We had to be in Candon for a Zone practice for the Christmas Presentation. It went well! We are singing 'Away In A Manger' then from the end of that song we blend into singing 'Armies of Helaman'. Then we do the 'Little Man' skit. After we act out to a song as the finale. It's fun! haha. The Christmas Conference is on Friday! When we got back we emailed and went shopping for groceries. Elder Wenceslao had to be at a departure meeting because he is leaving in a week so the whole day we are with Elder Alvarez. We went to one of Elder Alvarez's new members house to say happy birthday to their son. After that we went to the church because we were meeting the Valdez Family there to give Sister Valdez a tour and then to teach them all. We brought Brother Rambo and his wife Sister Joane. They are great fellow-shippers!The tour went well and then we let Brother Rambo and Sister Joane become friends with them. They got really close because they talked together for like 45 minutes! WOW! Way to go! We taught them about the Priesthood and the importance of it. We taught out of the 'Gospel Principles' book. It is an amazing book! I recommend it if you wanna refresh your mind or learn about this church! Then we talked about baptism and we set a date for Brother Valdez to be baptised on December 24th. He was asking why it can't be earlier haha! He is eager to get baptized and that's great! I'm excited for him! Sister is still working on it. We will give her time. That was the only lesson. Not much. It has been a blessing to teach and know them! It was a great day!November 29th, 2016: Today was a good day. We were supposed to do service for these guys near Mario but the said they were good... that was too bad. For personal study I read 2 Nephi 5. It is about the Nephites fleeing into the wilderness and the Lamanites getting cursed by God giving them dark skin. Our first stop of the day was at the Alafriz Family home. We wanted to go there early to speak with Gwen, the 12 year old daughter. We haven't seen her in almost 2 weeks! We just talked with her and BRT'd (Built a relationship of trust). It went very well and we got closer with the family. :) Then we headed to on of my TC's that I got with Elder Wenceslao last Tuesday. She was nice and welcoming to us. Unfortunately we couldn't teach her because her husband died in June and there was no other male adult there. We gave her a pamphlet and testified. We then went and TC'd 3 people. A couple and a guy. We asked if they have any questions for us and the one guy asked sarcastically, "When and how will the world end?" and we whipped out the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet. The lesson was perfect! There is a quote Elder Pitt used... "No man on Earth of angel in Heaven knows when the second coming will be." It is a really good quote. They enjoyed the lesson and we are planning to return. Hopefully our answer satisfied that guys answer haha. We then went to visit Nanay Edma and she is doing great! She is such a nice person and always expresses how grateful she is for us. It is so sweet. We then headed to Brother Prado's house to check up on him and teach him. The Maaghop children came with us. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and this guy joined in the lesson and was interested! He is now a new investigator. We gave Brother Prado a Book of Mormon during the lesson. Hopefully he reads it. We went to the Maaghops next and were able to teach them again. This time about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it can help them overcome trials like not drinking coffee. It was a really good lesson! Jeric, his sister Jenny, and I are getting really close! It's awesome! I'm glad that there are youth that I can help. :) We finished the night at Brother Rambo's and Sister Joana's house because they invited us and the Valdez family over for dinner. They invited us all last night while we were doing the church building tour. It was really beneficial for the Valdez family. They are now great friends with each other! That will really help Sister Valdez on Sunday! Thanks to the Ruiz family! It was a splendid day.
December 2, 2016: Christmas Conference Day!!! It was such a fun day! When we got there we had like 30 minutes of meeting with people and taking pictures with people. Then we went into the Chapel to open up the conference and we got to hear from Sister Bangal and President Boone. They are amazing! There were some things that President Boone said that I though were great... "Christ didn't do anything to get himself famous like celebrities do today, but he changed the world more than anyone ever has!" and "Christ was not well accepted so how can we as members of this church and as missionaries expect to be well accepted?" and "No weapon that is formed against the servants of the Lord will prosper." and "The saddest thing in all the world is that Jesus Christ has offered this gift and so many people have denied it." and "You can't do his work with dirty hands." and finally, "One Church, One Faith, One Lord." I thought these were all so great! President Boone is amazing! After this we went into the cultural hall to do our gift exchange. All the missionaries had to buy an edible gift of 100 peso worth for the gift exchange. What we did was we all got into a giant circle and as the music played we passed the gifts around the circle and when it stopped we got the gift that we had when the music stopped. The gift I got was a shoe box with a giant Toblerone chocolate, and some more chocolate bars. It was from Elder Waite, who is the missionary that Elder Pitt trained before me. Next we Next we had Zone Presentations. They were all funny! After we ate lunch. The lunch was really good. After lunch we got to watch a MOVIE!!! This is the only time we get to watch a non-church related movie. We watched... 'The Pursuit of Happiness'. I have never seen it. It was such a good movie! It is very inspiring. I am glad we were able to watch it. A quote I liked from it was "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something." I definitely recommend watching this movie. After this amazing movie we went back into the Chapel. We got to hear all of the testimonies from the departing missionaries. One of which is Elder Wenceslao who lives in the same building as me here in Narvacan. He is an amazing missionary and a hard worker. He keeps working till the last second. He leaves on Monday! We will miss him. After they all spoke we got to hear from President Bangal leave some closing remarks. It was good. Then we headed home on a 3 hour bus ride. What an amazing, awesome, fun, and joyful day it was! :)
December 3, 2016: It was a pretty good day. For lunch today Elder Pitt, Wenceslao, and I wanted to have a surprise birthday party for Elder Alvarez. His birthday is on December 8th, but Elder Wenceslao is leaving so we wanted to do it early before he left. We baught cake, ice cream, balloons, candles, and a cute Barbie party hat all for Elder Alvarez HaHa! He was so surprised and it was so fun! Happy Early Birthday Elder Alvarez!!! Our first stop of the day was at the Alafriz's to see how they are doing and invite them to church tomorrow. They are great and plan to go to church. We went to the Maaghop's around 3:00. I love this family! They are just such a strong, funny, and awesome family. We just visited with them because the husbands were working. It was a good visit. We went to Nanay Edma and her grand-daughter. We still can't teach Nanay because there is no male adult with us but we will find someone soon. She is doing great though and said she will try to come to church tomorrow. I hope she can make it. We went to the Melo family too. The father was home this time! For the lesson we asked Brother Melo for some questions. He gave us two... "How can I know when I'll die?" and "Why are there people who desire great things, riches, and other things, but don't do anything in order to get it?". These are 2 great questions! For the 1st one I said "We don't know when but we can find out where we are going and by doing our best on the earth we will KNOW where we are going." and then for the 2nd one I said "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something." (Pursuit of Happiness) I also talked about how it is important to work for our desires and to control our lives, not let others control it. I loved answering his questions. We went to the Lardizabals at 6:30 for a Family Home Evening with the other Elders. The food they gave us was great, like always. The lesson was about Family History and again, I have to thank Sister Passey from my home ward in Connecticut for teaching me so much about Family History. Thanks! It helped a lot! They are excited to do their family history. That'd great! It was a good Family Home Evening. All in all, it was a pretty good day.
December 4, 2016: Fast and testimony Sunday!!! YAY! During Sacrament Meeting many people bore their testimonies and shared great thoughts. Even Elder Wenceslao because it is his last Sunday! :( I bore my testimony too because I set a goal to do it every 1st Sunday because if you think about it there are only 24 1st Sundays in my mission... that's not that many. I am already down to 21! wow! I went to the youth class 2nd hour and then Elders Quorum. We learned about how to become better leaders. We need to follow the example of the best leader in history... Jesus Christ. One of the ways we can do that is by doing service for others! You can do it!:) The investigators that went to church today were the Alafriz's, Valdez's, Mario, and Maaghops (except for Brother Robert, Armond, Robert Jr, and Jeric). I am so proud of out investigators. They are the best! Our first stop of the day was at the Maaghops house. We got to teach them about how reading the Book of Mormon and praying are commandments from God. How they should be doing these things and how they bring happiness to their lives. It was a really good lesson. I love being with that family! they are honestly so amazing and a blessing to know. We went to meet the Valdez's at the church for a lesson. We taught them about the restoration again because sister wasn't there the first time we taught it. They had great questions and now Brother has a baptismal date for December 24th (Christmas Eve!). I can't wait!:) We had a dinner to go to at Brother Davids house around 7:00. It was a dinner for Elder Wenceslao because he is leaving. We invited the Valdez's and they came! They made some new friends there. All the missionaries got to stand and give a short speech about Elder Wenceslao and let me tell you... He is amazing! He is a great missionary. He is so inspiring, spiritually strong, knowledgeable (hence his nickname 'Old Wise Man' haha), just always so happy!:) When we got back to the apartment we had a surprise for him... Elder Pitts mom sent presents for all the missionaries and we wanted to get them to Elder Wenceslao before he leaves tomorrow. He got some socks, a tie, and a Washington Huskies t-shirt because that is where the Pitt's are from. Thanks Mama Pitt! Haha. It was a joyful day. :)
November 28th
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Here is my weekly email. Thank you for all of your support!
November 22, 2016: Exchanges day! Today I am with Elder Wenceslao! I am excited! All 4 of us started the day off at a service project for 5 hours. It was at Brother Vallentos house. We are rebuilding a home that came down during the typhoon. We dug six 2ft holes to put big tree posts in as the house frame. They are about 12-16ft tall. It was really hot and tiring but fun and worth it! :) Our first stop of proselyting was to Sister Sally's home but she wasn't there. So we started finding! While finding for 3 hours we TC'd (Testified of Christ) to 17 people who have return appointments now. How awesome is that! I can't wait to teach them again! Then we went to Sister Cachos home and we just talked because we couldn't teach without a male adult. She also fed us like always! She is awesome! Then we went to the Melos to see if we can teach Jam Mello, the brother of the two girls, because he isn't a member but is very active in the lessons we've taught him so far. He wasn't there so we just caught up with Sophia and Kimberly and then headed to our lesson with the Maaghop family and Jeric. Today we taught about The Book of Mormon from the pamphlet, read 2 Nephi 29 where it says "A Bible, A Bible", and the I read a section from Elder Hollands talk called "Safety for the Soul" and it went really well! I love that talk! The always have great questions and are always so attentive. It is so surprising to me that the little ones are very attentive too! I love it! We headed to an appointment with the Claveria family and the dad wasn't home. Which means weren't able to teach them. It's sad... but we will keep going back until we can teach them! :) We ended the night at the Alafriz's shop to ask when we can teach them and then ask how they are doing. They are great, but just too busy with the business to have time for a lesson. A couple funny things that happened today were 1) We saw a dog with like this eyebrow shape black spot above its eye and saw another one over the other eye and laughed so hard because it looks like the dog tried to color in eyebrows on its self haha! Elder Wenceslao thought it was hilarious! 2) When we walked past this house a dog tried to attack us and I ran away a little ways up and Elder Wenceslao said "Don't run, they will chase you haha" and then when we walked past this other house 6 dogs came running and barking towards us and I ran for my life haha! And when I looked back Elder Wenceslao was swinging his bag at them just walking away haha! I was so scared! Dogs will literacy bite your leg off if you aren't careful.
November 23, 2016: Today was a great day! We had zone training today and I enjoyed it. It was nice to see everyone in the zone again. They are awesome! We practiced for our Christmas Concert thing and it was fun. So today we have exchanges again and I am with Elder Calo. He is a missionary in our neighboring area, Santa Maria. He is really funny! So our first stop was with this homeless lady we met yesterday. She is super nice to us and apologized for not having anything to give us in return of our care and teachings. Tomorrow we are gonna try to get an 18 year old male to join us so we can teach her. We then went to the Valdez's because they weren't home yesterday and we got to teach them and the wife about the Plan of Salvation! The wife is finally home! yay! The lesson went really well and they understood it. Elder Calo did a great job introducing himself and helping in the lesson. He is really good at teaching! We then went on our way to Dominador's, a less active's, house. On the way I high fived about 50 school kids because they had just got out of school and they were walking down the road and they live Americans, so I high fived them haha! I loved it! We got to Dominadors house and he was too busy. We will return on Friday! Then we headed over to where the Leones' and Cambe's live. We visited with the Cambe's and the Nanay at the house. She is very nice to us! We also met a return sister missionary who was staying there. It was a good conversation. We gave Nanay a Book of Mormon to give to someone before Sunday. Hopefully she does!:) After we went to Brother Amante's home to pick him up to bring teaching with us. He is awesome! He is very good and willing to help the missionaries! So we went to Jeric's and the Maaghop's house. They were all there and even Brother Armond and his wife! It was great! We introduced the Plan of Salvation to them and they had great questions. We are so happy for their progression and their effort! It is amazing! So for the end of the day we went to the Alafriz's home with Brother Amante so that we could teach sister and the kids without brother there so he can run the buisness/shop. We got to teach her about Our Purpose in this Life and then about The Atonement of Jesus Christ. It went really well and at the end Elder Calo extended an Invitation To Be Baptized on December 24th and she was nervouse at first and then we both said we know she and her kids can be ready by then. Also that we are here to help her every step of the way. Then she accepted. I can't wait! She is going to be a great member and example for her family. We brought Brother Amante home and then headed home. It was a pleasure to be with Elder Calo who did a great job helping in the lessons and did a great job teaching me and being an example to me.
November 25, 2016: Today was a good day! We had the 4 Weeks Follow Up in San Fernando. It was a lot of fun and very helpful. I got to meet Elder Warner again! It was good to see him again! During the follow up the AP's showed everyone's stats for TC's (Testify of Christ), IBD's (Investigators with a baptismal date), ISM's Investigators who attend sacrament meeting), NI's (New Investigators), TLT's (Total lessons taught). I was surprised to see that Elder Pitt and I were either the highest or second highest for almost all of them except IBD's. WOW. I am proud of us! They had asked me to speak about how we reached so many ISM's. I spoke about how we built a relationship of trust with them, found out their needs when it comes to church, explain what happens at church and why it's important, and then invite them to church. It's not too hard. You can all do it! Then I told a story about an investigator family who has been going to church and the kids now have a lot of new friends! The Alafriz family was the family. They played a clip from Star Wars during the presentation when Anakin is fighting Kinobe and he gets his legs cut off and burns next to the lava because the words said during that scene related to how there are disobedient and obedient missionaries. it was really cool! I miss Star Wars haha! After the whole thing we went to the Mission Office before we left to go home. I got a letter in the mail! It is from... MEGAN WARD! Shout Out to Megan for being so awesome and sending me a letter! Thanks! Elder Pitt got a package. It is his Christmas package. After getting home around 5:00 we had an appointment at the Valdez's home. We were able to teach them about The Plan of Salvation and about our life on earth and the Atonement. It went very well! Elder Pitt extended an Invitation to get baptized with a date. They agreed on December 31st. I can't wait! They are so ready!It was a really good lesson. Then went to the Maaghop family but Jeric wasn't there, so we just taught everyone else. Brother Robert and his 3 kids, Brother Armond and his wife and their 2 kids. Full House haha! We taught them the same lesson as the Valdez family, but in different ways and with different inspiration. It went very well! They had wonderful questions and thoughts throughout the lesson. I extended an Invitation to be baptized with a date as well. We asked them to be ready by December 31st. They all agreed! Awesome! I hope they keep wanting to learn and grow in the gospel! :). We visited the Alafriz's on the way home and they are good. That was our day. ++++++ November 26, 2016: Today was awesome! We first tried to go to the Vallentos family to do service but they were okay and said they didn't need any. Then we went to help Nanay Zenni set up her little booth for the fiesta! There is this big fiesta that has started that goes till December 13 or so and it is right next to our house. It's really cool. Then after we went to the church building to help clean with the primary kids. Elder Pitt and I cleaned out this very disorganized and junky storage room and after we were done it looked amazing! I organized all of the books and it made me so happy when it was done haha! Our 1st stop of the day we at Brother Mario's house. He ended up not being home but we were hoping he'll come to church tomorrow! We then went to the Maaghop family to see how they are doing and then invite them to the baptism at 3:00 is Santa Maria. The other 4 missionaries area. We were able to pick up Tony-boy from the Alafriz's to come with us and then Brother Armond's wife, Jeric, his sister, the little girl, John-Reniel, and Kate. It was amazing! They all enjoyed the baptism and had lots of questions. We also gave them a tour of the church building. Congrats to Elder's Calo and Avisado for the baptism's. An 18 year old girl and an 8 year old girl were baptized. They are great missionaries! After the baptism we returned to the Maaghop's home to discuss any questions or thoughts. They had a lot of great thoughts and questions! Jeric's sister on the first lesson told us that she just came to the lessons to learn how to be a better teacher because she thought that we are good teachers. Anyway, she asked a lot of questions and had awesome feelings about the baptism and now she is getting more and interested which is great for her! I love this family! We then went to the Valdez family to say happy birthday to their littlest boy and to see how they are doing. They said they's be at church which is great! Then we went to the Cabe's home because we go there every Saturday and we brough Jeric with us because he asked to come with us. He is always asking to help us in our lessons! What a great guy! So we taught them about 1 Nephi 1:1. We gave them all goals to start over the Book of Mormon and to really study it. That way they know more about it. They agreed! We will follow up with them next saturday. We ended the day at the little Abra Miki shop in the fiesta place. They have a little shop there. We talked to Nanay Zenni and Brother Marco, her son and the coowner of the resturaunt, and asked how they are doing. They are doing great and their buisness is great and successful as well! It was a good day! I hope to see all the people we invited to church, to come to church tomorrow. An many more! haha!
November 27, 2016: Today was an amazing day! And it's Sunday! Elder Alvarex gave a talk today and he did a great job! I wasn't able to understand it but I know by the spirit that what he taught was inspired and great. Our investigators that came today were Mario, Brother Valdez with his daughters, Jeric, his sister Jenni, John-Paul, Kate, and the youngest one! WOW! These people are amazing! I was with Jenni and Jeric for 2nd hour Sunday school. The question in Sunday school was "How can I stand as a witness of Christ." It was a great lesson. And then Jeric and I went to 3rd hour young mens class. This question was "How do I know when I am being converted?" It was also really good! I want you all to answer these questions as well! After church we went to a members house with the other missionaries in their area to eat lunch. It was a really good lunch! Our first stop of the day was at one of our new families that we found on Tuesday. The mother wasn't home for the 1st family. And the 2nd family noone was home. We will return there on another day. We went to the members house, the Vallentos house, to see if they needed any more service. They weren't home either. We saw Brother Camber (1st counselor in the bishopric) at the neighbors house and saw that he was feeling sick. So we gave him a blessing. I hope he gets better soon. Then we went to visit Nanay Edma, the homeless lady, and she was super nice to us! Like always! She said she wasn't where she usually is last night because she was out looking for us... that's a bummer. We resheduled a day to teach her. I can't wait! We went to the Valdez house next and were able to teach them about Temples and Family History. They thought it was interesting. Sister didn't go to church today because the baby was sick. But brother brought home a 'Gospel Principles' book for her and she read a lot! That's great! I love this family! Our last stop of the night was the Maaghop house. We taught them for an hour about church attendance, and then about families and temples. The we answered any questions they had. While Elder Pitt was teaching them, Brother Jeric started asking me quesions. He had great questions about the church and baptism and so on! He is such an amazing kid! At the end of the lesson we all sang the hymn 'Families can be together forever' with the whole family and it went really well! Jenni got to pray to close it! When we first met her she was just trying to learn how to teach like we do but now, she is so interested in the church and curious! I love it! After the lesson we stayed for another hour. I was with all of the youth getting to know them more and Elder Pitt was with the adults talking to them about baptism. They ALL agreed for December 31st! I really love these investigators! We planned a family home evening for Thursday! I can't wait! I love teaching that family and getting to know them. It is a real blessing!
Your Friend, Elder Scott
November 21st
"I would rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God." Think about that for a second... Which would you choose? and be honest with yourself. Standing with God does not mean standing alone. There are millions of others in the world who are standing with God. It may be tough, actually, it will be tough. You will be mocked, made fun of, and laughed at by people, BUT you will be blessed and loved by God! Which is more important? The Love of God is by far better and more important than the love of the world! To stand with God means to Never back down from what is right and to always stand up for what is right no matter what. It is to have faith that because you are standing with God, everything will be okay. Standing with the world is putting worldly thing ahead of God... God and is son, Jesus Christ, are more important than 'fitting in'. Jesus Christ was an outcast. God is more important than that 'thing' you want that wont matter after you die. What is important is returning to God and standing with him. I promise you that if you stand with God and not with the world, you will see a difference in your life, your families life, and many other lives you wont even know you've impacted! I know this to be true.
November 14, 2016: Today is p-day and it was a good one! for the 'p' part of the day we went shopping again and this time we stayed in Narvacan instead of taking an hour long drive to Candon. We got all of our shopping done and headed back to the house. For lunch we ate at Abra Miki... again... Because it's so good and the owner is a member! We had Chicken Steak with Mega Fries. It is so good! I think they have a Facebook page so you can see the food there. Maybe they'll deliver to the United States... haha just kidding! After lunch we met with the other Elders and went to a t-shirt printing shop because we are gonna make t-shirts for our district. So that means 8 shirts. They are only like $5 US dollars each! They are gonna look so good! I can't wait. So for proselyting time we go to teach Brother Prado again! We taught him about prophets Jesus Christ establishing his church on the earth. Brother Prado doesn't talk much... so it is a little hard but he understands and that's good! We went to the Claveria's home to teach as well but no adult was home, just the kids, so we couldn't teach. We BRT'd with the kids though! (Build a Relationship of Trust) It was fun! We talked to Sister Nera, the awesome lady who does our laundry, and just asked if she needed any help and made sure she was alright. On the way out we met this new member who just moved to Narvacan and into Sister Nera's neighborhood. He was really nice! We finished the night at the Alafriz's house but we didn't teach because the husband was busy again but we have a plan to teach on Wednesday! During our time at their shop Elder Pitt convinced me to try Balut, an egg like thing with a baby duck in it, and I was so nervous to try it! It looked to gross! But I did it an there is a video for it haha. It actually didn't taste that bad... It just looked terrible! It was a good experience though! That was the ending to my night. It was a good day.
November 15, 2016: Today was a blessed day! For personal study I read 1 Nephi 13-16 and I loved it. It was about the rest of Nephi's vision. Also about Nephi telling his brothers about the vision and how it is true. Also about Lehi getting the Liahona (Compass directed by the faith of the people) and following it into the wilderness. It was a good read. Our 1st stop of the day was Brother Mario, our investigator's, house. He has been reading a lot! He has read all the way to Mosiah 17! WOW! He is awesome. Today we talked and taught about out favorite bible stories and then about the priesthood. He enjoyed it and was very interested. He is a very good investigator! After we walked all the way to Rivedavia to see is Brother Mike was home. We have only taught him once and every time we go back he is gone... On the way we got to TC (Testify of Christ) to these two nanay's (Elderly Ladies) and gave them pamphlets to read. When we got to Brother Mikes house he was't home again so we kept walking. We walked all the way to one of Nanay Zenny's referrals in Santa Lucia. Sister Sally, and she wasn't hoe either. Because noone was home we spent over an hour walking. It's hard but worth it! We decided to visit with Brother Bob next and we taught to him about having strength from the power of God. We taught him this because he is little sick. It was funny because right when we said "Our scripture today is found in..." he opened up his Book of Mormon directly to the right page! It was crazy! haha. We got a good laugh out of it. He also fed us which is so nice of him! He is great! After we went to the Claverias home and taught them about The Plan of Salvation! It was really good. The father was really into it. after we headed over to Sister Nera's home. On the way we met with these kids we see every once and a while who want us to teach them but because their father doesn't like Mormons and the mother isn't interested we cant... It is so sad not to be able to teach them because they really wanna learn. At Sister Nera's we invited all to join in on our lesson! We got her and her kids, a mother with her kids, A father, named Armond, with a kid there, a 17 year old named Jeroc, and a bunch of other little kids. It was awesome! Elder Pitt had me choose the scripture and with his help we decided to teach about following the Lords commandments. 1 Nephi 3:7! We asked for their thoughts and some responded and others didn't. The Elder Pitt and I testified and the spirit was so strong! During my testifying I said "God knows and loves us, each and every one of us and wants us to be happy." and then the 17 year old boy said "True!" we asked him why he said that after I finished and he said "Because God really does love us!" and it was so powerful to hear! So Sister Nera said the prayer for us and it was great! We were then walking down the road from her little neighborhood and Jeric, the 17 year old, came running to us saying "Wait!" so we stopped and then he said "How can I become a part of your church?" and that really made my day and filled me with joy and happiness! So we said "We would love to help you do that. First we need to teach you and get you ready to become a part our church." So we went to his grandparents, who are his guardians, and asked for permission to teach him and they said yes! So tomorrow we are going to teach him! These are the experiences I love in the mission! On the way to the Alafriz's shop we ran into Brother Leones on his trike, Brother Claveria on his bike, and one of the Sanidad daughtrrs with her friends all at one corner of the street haha. They are all members so it was funny haha. I also gave these 8 kids mormon.org card and told them to look it up at the computer shops after they are done playing video games haha. For the last part of our day we just talked to the Alafriz family and asked how they were doing. They are great! They are great investigators also. Oh and for lunch today I ate pig skin, liver, and intestines and it was interesting haha. Anyway, it was a marvelous day! :)
November 16, 2016: What a great day! We had Zone Training in the morning. It was fun and the lessons were very good! We learned about Amulek and Alma. It was good. After we had to practice our Zone Christmas Conference presentation. We are going to start by singing 'Away in a Manger' and at the end blend in the song 'Armies of Helaman'. After we are going to do the 'Little Man Skit' where one person is the head and someone else is the arms. So I am the arms and Elder Pitt is the head and feet haha. There is another 2 Elders doing it also. We are acting out the mission life. They will be companions going throughout the day like exercising, eating, putting on a tie, and so on haha. It is going to be a ton of fun! To end we are going to play 'Workin' by David Archeletta and act out the song as it is played. I love that song! We had to leave practice early because we had an appointment at 2:00 at the Valdez's house. Before we taught them, we planned and practiced the lesson at home. We have't done this before. So we went to take what we practiced and apply it to our lesson with the Valdez Family. Brother Valdez and his 2 children were there but still no wife because she is off with her family and the baby boy. She returns on Sunday. We taught them about the Book of Mormom and clarified what they need to do in order to find out for themselves if it is true. Like read, ponder, and ask/pray! The lesson went really well and the practice that we had before it really helped us a lot! At the end of the lesson we extended and Invitation to be Baptized. Not with a baptismal date though. They accepted it and we said that we would help them get there but they will need to do most of the work to get there. We promised the blessings of baptism and Brother closed it with a prayer. His 1st prayer! He was nervous but did an awesome job! Man, I love this family! We went to eat lunch at Abra Miki because we had no lunch at zone training. I ate chocolate waffles and they were delicious! Yum! After we headed to Brother Joshua's house. He is a member of the Mina family, who are active members. They are so nice! We went to pick him up because he agreed to help us teach today!:) Earlier today he was submitting and finishing his medical forms for his mission papers! Woohoo! After we picked him up we went to the Alafriz family but they weren't home. So we went to out 6:00 lesson at Brother Jeric's, or new investigator's, house to teach him. When we got there to teach him he was really excited. He had been texting us throughout the day about this lesson. We ended up having him, Armond (Who we met yesterday) and his 2 daughters, a man named Robert and his child, and like 8 other children haha. It was a full house! SO we had given Jeric the 'Gospel of Jesus Christ' pamphlet last night. Se we planned to teach about that. We taught about Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, and Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It went very well! They were all very active and attentive during the lesson and asked great questions. I felt a strong prompting from the spirit to extend an invitation to get baptized with a date but I was a little worried because of the amount of people. So I led into the question with the scripture Alma 7: 14-15. And then told them about making goals and how setting a goal to get baptized on December 24 is a great goal because we know they can be prepared by then with the help of God and us. Also that they can change it if needs be. All but on agreed! Wow! That's 5 IBD's (Investigators with Baptismal Dates)! I know that with the spirit and help of God we can accomplish these goals! Brother Joshua was a big help during our lesson and answered most of the questions beautifully! It was a long lesson but it was filled with he spirit and very inspiring! We asked Brother Jeric to close us with a pray after we taught him how to and he did! It was a beautiful prayer. Very spiritual and well said! Again, I LOVE being a missionary! :) After this we brought Brother Joshua back home and ended out day. It was an AMAZING day! Just another reason to be a missionary for this amazing church! Also, shout out to Brother Joshua Mina for being an awesome help and an even better missionary today!
November 17, 2016: Today was a pretty easy day. We had shortened study times because we have weekly planning today. For personal study I read 1 Nephi 17 and really studied it. It is about Nephi being commanded to build a boat. Also about how his brothers, Lamen and Lemuel, murmur against Nephi and their Father, Lehi, because they don't believe in the visions that God gave them. So while they were murmuring, Nephi told them the truth about how their father is directed by God to do all the things they have done and then that made the 2 brothers angry so the where going to grab Nephi and throw him into the sea but Nephi said like touch me not for I am protected by God and then the 2 brothers fell to the ground in shock! Because they felt the power of God and did obey God and said they now believe in God. It was a good read. Weekly planning went very well! We made goals for this upcoming week. We made personal and companion goals as well. One of my goals and our goals is to do service for at least 1 person during the week! It is hard to do service for people here! But I know we can do it!:) We then went to visit a less active who owns a little smoothie and lunch shop to see how she is doing. We got smoothies there and the Mango smoothie is the bomb! I loved it! After we headed to Brother Rambo's home and he gave us a smoothie there too haha. We were just going to ask about the youth activity that took place yesterday with the young women and one of them is one of our investigators. Around 3:00 we went to Sister Yoley's home to celebrate her birthday! It was fun! We had lunch and cake there! Then we headed to Codoog, a barangay, to teach the recent converts (They converted around 10 months ago) about temple work and family history, which I know somewhat about thanks to the help of Sister Passey back in Connecticut who helped me as a family history consultant. Thanks!!:) So we taught them about that and we are going to help them with it on Sunday. I am excited! We had to head back to Santa Lucia because we had a Family Home Evening scheduled at 7:00. So on the way back we had to walk until we could find a trike so one came past us and we waved to see if he would stop and he did but he wasn't actually wanting to drive anyone and he was just heading home but he said he could drive us home. That was so nice of him! What a blessing! At the Family Home Evening Nanay Zenny, Sister Yoley, some non member youth, and all 4 of us missionaries were there. We all introduced ourselves, then gave a spiritual though about th scripture Moroni 10: 3-5, which is about reading the scriptures, pondering them, and then asking God through prayer if they are true. I love that scripture! We then played a quick game and ate dinner. It was a good day and an easy one.
November 18, 2016: Today was an amazing day! For personal study I read 1 Nephi 18-21. I am almost to 2 Nephi! I love reading the Book of Mormon! I memorized 5 new phrases in Tagalog too during language study. Our first stop is at Brother Mario's house. He wasn't home though, so we headed to Brother Prado. He is usually very quiet at our lessons but today we made him laugh and talk more which is awesome! We taught him, along with 2 other guys and also Jeric because he saw us and asked to join. We taught them all about the Restoration, Prophets, The Book of Mormon, and the Great Apostasy. It went very well! We also invited them to attend church. I hope they all come! :) Next we went to Brother Dominador, who is an older guy that is a less active that we visit 1-2 times a week. He is very nice to us and loves talking with us. We retaught him about the restoration of the church. We also asked him for referrals. He didn't have anyone in mind but maybe he will next time. It was a good lesson though. We were supposed to meet with Sister Nera next but she was busy with he kids at school. The Melo's texted us and asked us to visit them. So that's what we did. Sophia and Kimberly were there. The father was gone. SO we couldn't teach them so we just sat outside with their neighbors, talked about school and their lives, and then made sure thay were doing okay. We also invited them to church because they don't always go. They always love it when we visit them! They are a lot of fun to be around and they are so funny too! HaHa! They promised to go to church! YAY! After we headed to Jeric's house to teach him. Jeric is amazing! On the way we saw Sister Nera and invited her to join us because she we didn't get to teach her earlier. So she cae with us and at the lesson there was Jeric, Sister Nera, Robert, Roberts kids, and some other kids. A lot of people haha. We taught them about the restoration o the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. Elder Pitt taught the restoration and I taught the Book of Mormon. It was so amazing! They were all awesome! They had great questions and thoughts! At the end I testified, and then we asked Sister Nera to testify. She testified about the truthfulness of our message and then talked about her conversion story of her and her husband. It was beautiful and brought the spirit so strongly! Man, it was amazing! After Elder Pitt testified and closed. I invited them to come to church and they all said they would try! That is great! I love these people! I closed with the prayer and we all said thanks and shoot hands. After, Jeric came and spoke with Elder Pitt and I and told us about his past, and how he used to drink and smoke when he was 12 years old. He then told us about the other night when he joined us with Sister Nera's lesson and how when he walked past something pushed him to join in on the lesson. He said the lesson was his answer to change his life! Then after that lesson when he ran to us while we were walking down the street he said he didn't know why but he did it because he felt he needed to and then said he needed this church and wanted to change his life. This is the most amazing thing ever! It touched my heart and made me feel the spirit so much! A 17 year old boy desiring to know more about this gospel. WOW! He also said that when Sister Nera bore her testimony her wanted have what she has and how he sees how it changes her life! He said he wants to get baptized. So we are keeping the baptismal date at December 24th and we told him we will help him prepare for that date. This was a beyond amazing and changing experience for me. It made me so happy so see such a young man know so much to what he wants in his life. I love it! That was my amazing day! :)
November 19, 2016: Today was great! For personal study I read 2 Nephi 1-3 and I'm loving it! For language study I recorded myself teaching a lesson about church so I could write down the words I don't know and then learn them. It was helpful! It was Elder Pitt's idea! Our first stop was in Santa Maria, at the other 4 Elder's house. Elder Pitt had to be there because he had to do baptismal interviews for the other Elder's investigator's. He did interviews for 2 girls. It was exciting! Our next stop was at a referrals house from Nanay Zenni! The referrals are Sister Nova and Brother Neil. They are married with a young boy. We have been waiting a week for the husband to be there so that we could teach! Unfortunatley is seemed like the husband just wanted to 'Bible Bash' rather than discuss and learn... All we do during these bashed is testify. That's all that'll work. The husband just kept asking questions and kept trying to get his answer out of us. Elder Pitt said to him, "Are you really looking for answers, or are you looking for your answers to come out of us...? and after he said that there was no more bible bash haha. He had stopped and we closed the lesson. We have a date to return though! It was a good learning experience for me! Our next stop was at the Valdez's home. We taught them about Thomas S. Monson, Joseph Smith, and the First Vision. I love showing people the picture of Thomas S. Monson that I have! It is SO helpful! They understood the lesson and had great questions! After they gave us snacks and drinks. They love having us there haha. They said they'd try to go to church tomorrow but the daughter has a school parade in the morning. I hope they can make it! Our last stop of the night was at Jeric's house. I love teaching him and all the others there! We taught them about Prophets, Thomas S. Monson, and Joseph Smith. It went well. They always have questions which I love because that means they wanna learn! We had Jeric, Armond's wife, Robert, Roberts kids, and some more kids haha. It's is nice to see such young kids have such an interest! We invited them to come to church on Sunday, or tomorrow, and Jerico said he will be there! I told him to invite everyone again in the morning so they don't forget haha. So on the way home I though I was about to witness my first murder...! It was so scary! So we were walking on the sidewalk on the highway and there was this shop on our left and right outside the shop/stand there was this old man laying on the ground and this other guy holding the old man is a supper tight choke hold! I thought he was about to kill the old man! When we started staring the guy stopped and got up. The old man sat up and then the other guy took his fist and punched him right in tthe head! It was loud! I was actually really scared and didn't know what to do! After, the old man got up and went inside with the other guys... I'm not sure why haha. Must've been a drunk fight. Also, fun fact! Elder Pitt ate dog once a while back and now almost every dog here tries to attack us and we think it is because Elder Pitt at one of their kind once haha!
November 20, 2016: Sunday! I love Sundays! The Alafriz couldn't make it because their son was sick. The Valdez family was at the parade till 10:00. Mario wasn't there. BUT! Jeric came and brought 3 kids and one of his friends his age! WOW! What an awesome kid! The speakers did a great job in sacrament meeting even though I can't understand them haha. I have faith that what they are saying is true. I went with Jeric for 2nd and 3rd hour and he said it was unique. He said at his church they don't teach lessons like we do and he likes it better the way we do it! After church we went to Brother Rambo's house for lunch and to celebrate his wife's birthday! It was fun! Our first stop of teaching was at Brother Mario's but he wasn't home. So we went to teach Jeric. There was no adult there so we went over to Brother Prado, the old man we are teaching also, and taught with him there. 2 birds with 1 stone! We taught them about Jesus Christ establishing his church on the Earth and also about the priesthood. It went well! Our following lesson was with the Valdez family! We taught them about why the name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was good and they understood it which was good! Next we visited with the Melo family. Just the 2 daughters and the son. Not the father. We taught them about keeping the Sabbath day holy because they didn't go to church. I hope they will come next week! our last lesson was at the Pagaduan house. We haven't taught them yet... just visited with them. Tonight we got to teach them because the father was there, but he was really drunk. He shook my hand about 1,000 times haha. We taught them about Joseph Smith because the daughter read about him in the pamphlet. The mother said she won't believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ in a vision unless God came to her and told her it was true. So she is going to be hard to teach but hopefully she will start to understand. We ended the night at Abra Miki. We at dinner there because it is free. It is SO good!
It was such a great week! I love being a missionary and love it here in the Philippines! Tell me about your lives... Let me know how you are doing! Don't forget that God and Jesus Christ love you all! Have a great week!
Elder ScottNovember 14, 2016: Today is p-day and it was a good one! for the 'p' part of the day we went shopping again and this time we stayed in Narvacan instead of taking an hour long drive to Candon. We got all of our shopping done and headed back to the house. For lunch we ate at Abra Miki... again... Because it's so good and the owner is a member! We had Chicken Steak with Mega Fries. It is so good! I think they have a Facebook page so you can see the food there. Maybe they'll deliver to the United States... haha just kidding! After lunch we met with the other Elders and went to a t-shirt printing shop because we are gonna make t-shirts for our district. So that means 8 shirts. They are only like $5 US dollars each! They are gonna look so good! I can't wait. So for proselyting time we go to teach Brother Prado again! We taught him about prophets Jesus Christ establishing his church on the earth. Brother Prado doesn't talk much... so it is a little hard but he understands and that's good! We went to the Claveria's home to teach as well but no adult was home, just the kids, so we couldn't teach. We BRT'd with the kids though! (Build a Relationship of Trust) It was fun! We talked to Sister Nera, the awesome lady who does our laundry, and just asked if she needed any help and made sure she was alright. On the way out we met this new member who just moved to Narvacan and into Sister Nera's neighborhood. He was really nice! We finished the night at the Alafriz's house but we didn't teach because the husband was busy again but we have a plan to teach on Wednesday! During our time at their shop Elder Pitt convinced me to try Balut, an egg like thing with a baby duck in it, and I was so nervous to try it! It looked to gross! But I did it an there is a video for it haha. It actually didn't taste that bad... It just looked terrible! It was a good experience though! That was the ending to my night. It was a good day.
November 15, 2016: Today was a blessed day! For personal study I read 1 Nephi 13-16 and I loved it. It was about the rest of Nephi's vision. Also about Nephi telling his brothers about the vision and how it is true. Also about Lehi getting the Liahona (Compass directed by the faith of the people) and following it into the wilderness. It was a good read. Our 1st stop of the day was Brother Mario, our investigator's, house. He has been reading a lot! He has read all the way to Mosiah 17! WOW! He is awesome. Today we talked and taught about out favorite bible stories and then about the priesthood. He enjoyed it and was very interested. He is a very good investigator! After we walked all the way to Rivedavia to see is Brother Mike was home. We have only taught him once and every time we go back he is gone... On the way we got to TC (Testify of Christ) to these two nanay's (Elderly Ladies) and gave them pamphlets to read. When we got to Brother Mikes house he was't home again so we kept walking. We walked all the way to one of Nanay Zenny's referrals in Santa Lucia. Sister Sally, and she wasn't hoe either. Because noone was home we spent over an hour walking. It's hard but worth it! We decided to visit with Brother Bob next and we taught to him about having strength from the power of God. We taught him this because he is little sick. It was funny because right when we said "Our scripture today is found in..." he opened up his Book of Mormon directly to the right page! It was crazy! haha. We got a good laugh out of it. He also fed us which is so nice of him! He is great! After we went to the Claverias home and taught them about The Plan of Salvation! It was really good. The father was really into it. after we headed over to Sister Nera's home. On the way we met with these kids we see every once and a while who want us to teach them but because their father doesn't like Mormons and the mother isn't interested we cant... It is so sad not to be able to teach them because they really wanna learn. At Sister Nera's we invited all to join in on our lesson! We got her and her kids, a mother with her kids, A father, named Armond, with a kid there, a 17 year old named Jeroc, and a bunch of other little kids. It was awesome! Elder Pitt had me choose the scripture and with his help we decided to teach about following the Lords commandments. 1 Nephi 3:7! We asked for their thoughts and some responded and others didn't. The Elder Pitt and I testified and the spirit was so strong! During my testifying I said "God knows and loves us, each and every one of us and wants us to be happy." and then the 17 year old boy said "True!" we asked him why he said that after I finished and he said "Because God really does love us!" and it was so powerful to hear! So Sister Nera said the prayer for us and it was great! We were then walking down the road from her little neighborhood and Jeric, the 17 year old, came running to us saying "Wait!" so we stopped and then he said "How can I become a part of your church?" and that really made my day and filled me with joy and happiness! So we said "We would love to help you do that. First we need to teach you and get you ready to become a part our church." So we went to his grandparents, who are his guardians, and asked for permission to teach him and they said yes! So tomorrow we are going to teach him! These are the experiences I love in the mission! On the way to the Alafriz's shop we ran into Brother Leones on his trike, Brother Claveria on his bike, and one of the Sanidad daughtrrs with her friends all at one corner of the street haha. They are all members so it was funny haha. I also gave these 8 kids mormon.org card and told them to look it up at the computer shops after they are done playing video games haha. For the last part of our day we just talked to the Alafriz family and asked how they were doing. They are great! They are great investigators also. Oh and for lunch today I ate pig skin, liver, and intestines and it was interesting haha. Anyway, it was a marvelous day! :)
November 16, 2016: What a great day! We had Zone Training in the morning. It was fun and the lessons were very good! We learned about Amulek and Alma. It was good. After we had to practice our Zone Christmas Conference presentation. We are going to start by singing 'Away in a Manger' and at the end blend in the song 'Armies of Helaman'. After we are going to do the 'Little Man Skit' where one person is the head and someone else is the arms. So I am the arms and Elder Pitt is the head and feet haha. There is another 2 Elders doing it also. We are acting out the mission life. They will be companions going throughout the day like exercising, eating, putting on a tie, and so on haha. It is going to be a ton of fun! To end we are going to play 'Workin' by David Archeletta and act out the song as it is played. I love that song! We had to leave practice early because we had an appointment at 2:00 at the Valdez's house. Before we taught them, we planned and practiced the lesson at home. We have't done this before. So we went to take what we practiced and apply it to our lesson with the Valdez Family. Brother Valdez and his 2 children were there but still no wife because she is off with her family and the baby boy. She returns on Sunday. We taught them about the Book of Mormom and clarified what they need to do in order to find out for themselves if it is true. Like read, ponder, and ask/pray! The lesson went really well and the practice that we had before it really helped us a lot! At the end of the lesson we extended and Invitation to be Baptized. Not with a baptismal date though. They accepted it and we said that we would help them get there but they will need to do most of the work to get there. We promised the blessings of baptism and Brother closed it with a prayer. His 1st prayer! He was nervous but did an awesome job! Man, I love this family! We went to eat lunch at Abra Miki because we had no lunch at zone training. I ate chocolate waffles and they were delicious! Yum! After we headed to Brother Joshua's house. He is a member of the Mina family, who are active members. They are so nice! We went to pick him up because he agreed to help us teach today!:) Earlier today he was submitting and finishing his medical forms for his mission papers! Woohoo! After we picked him up we went to the Alafriz family but they weren't home. So we went to out 6:00 lesson at Brother Jeric's, or new investigator's, house to teach him. When we got there to teach him he was really excited. He had been texting us throughout the day about this lesson. We ended up having him, Armond (Who we met yesterday) and his 2 daughters, a man named Robert and his child, and like 8 other children haha. It was a full house! SO we had given Jeric the 'Gospel of Jesus Christ' pamphlet last night. Se we planned to teach about that. We taught about Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, and Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It went very well! They were all very active and attentive during the lesson and asked great questions. I felt a strong prompting from the spirit to extend an invitation to get baptized with a date but I was a little worried because of the amount of people. So I led into the question with the scripture Alma 7: 14-15. And then told them about making goals and how setting a goal to get baptized on December 24 is a great goal because we know they can be prepared by then with the help of God and us. Also that they can change it if needs be. All but on agreed! Wow! That's 5 IBD's (Investigators with Baptismal Dates)! I know that with the spirit and help of God we can accomplish these goals! Brother Joshua was a big help during our lesson and answered most of the questions beautifully! It was a long lesson but it was filled with he spirit and very inspiring! We asked Brother Jeric to close us with a pray after we taught him how to and he did! It was a beautiful prayer. Very spiritual and well said! Again, I LOVE being a missionary! :) After this we brought Brother Joshua back home and ended out day. It was an AMAZING day! Just another reason to be a missionary for this amazing church! Also, shout out to Brother Joshua Mina for being an awesome help and an even better missionary today!
November 17, 2016: Today was a pretty easy day. We had shortened study times because we have weekly planning today. For personal study I read 1 Nephi 17 and really studied it. It is about Nephi being commanded to build a boat. Also about how his brothers, Lamen and Lemuel, murmur against Nephi and their Father, Lehi, because they don't believe in the visions that God gave them. So while they were murmuring, Nephi told them the truth about how their father is directed by God to do all the things they have done and then that made the 2 brothers angry so the where going to grab Nephi and throw him into the sea but Nephi said like touch me not for I am protected by God and then the 2 brothers fell to the ground in shock! Because they felt the power of God and did obey God and said they now believe in God. It was a good read. Weekly planning went very well! We made goals for this upcoming week. We made personal and companion goals as well. One of my goals and our goals is to do service for at least 1 person during the week! It is hard to do service for people here! But I know we can do it!:) We then went to visit a less active who owns a little smoothie and lunch shop to see how she is doing. We got smoothies there and the Mango smoothie is the bomb! I loved it! After we headed to Brother Rambo's home and he gave us a smoothie there too haha. We were just going to ask about the youth activity that took place yesterday with the young women and one of them is one of our investigators. Around 3:00 we went to Sister Yoley's home to celebrate her birthday! It was fun! We had lunch and cake there! Then we headed to Codoog, a barangay, to teach the recent converts (They converted around 10 months ago) about temple work and family history, which I know somewhat about thanks to the help of Sister Passey back in Connecticut who helped me as a family history consultant. Thanks!!:) So we taught them about that and we are going to help them with it on Sunday. I am excited! We had to head back to Santa Lucia because we had a Family Home Evening scheduled at 7:00. So on the way back we had to walk until we could find a trike so one came past us and we waved to see if he would stop and he did but he wasn't actually wanting to drive anyone and he was just heading home but he said he could drive us home. That was so nice of him! What a blessing! At the Family Home Evening Nanay Zenny, Sister Yoley, some non member youth, and all 4 of us missionaries were there. We all introduced ourselves, then gave a spiritual though about th scripture Moroni 10: 3-5, which is about reading the scriptures, pondering them, and then asking God through prayer if they are true. I love that scripture! We then played a quick game and ate dinner. It was a good day and an easy one.
November 18, 2016: Today was an amazing day! For personal study I read 1 Nephi 18-21. I am almost to 2 Nephi! I love reading the Book of Mormon! I memorized 5 new phrases in Tagalog too during language study. Our first stop is at Brother Mario's house. He wasn't home though, so we headed to Brother Prado. He is usually very quiet at our lessons but today we made him laugh and talk more which is awesome! We taught him, along with 2 other guys and also Jeric because he saw us and asked to join. We taught them all about the Restoration, Prophets, The Book of Mormon, and the Great Apostasy. It went very well! We also invited them to attend church. I hope they all come! :) Next we went to Brother Dominador, who is an older guy that is a less active that we visit 1-2 times a week. He is very nice to us and loves talking with us. We retaught him about the restoration of the church. We also asked him for referrals. He didn't have anyone in mind but maybe he will next time. It was a good lesson though. We were supposed to meet with Sister Nera next but she was busy with he kids at school. The Melo's texted us and asked us to visit them. So that's what we did. Sophia and Kimberly were there. The father was gone. SO we couldn't teach them so we just sat outside with their neighbors, talked about school and their lives, and then made sure thay were doing okay. We also invited them to church because they don't always go. They always love it when we visit them! They are a lot of fun to be around and they are so funny too! HaHa! They promised to go to church! YAY! After we headed to Jeric's house to teach him. Jeric is amazing! On the way we saw Sister Nera and invited her to join us because she we didn't get to teach her earlier. So she cae with us and at the lesson there was Jeric, Sister Nera, Robert, Roberts kids, and some other kids. A lot of people haha. We taught them about the restoration o the gospel and about the Book of Mormon. Elder Pitt taught the restoration and I taught the Book of Mormon. It was so amazing! They were all awesome! They had great questions and thoughts! At the end I testified, and then we asked Sister Nera to testify. She testified about the truthfulness of our message and then talked about her conversion story of her and her husband. It was beautiful and brought the spirit so strongly! Man, it was amazing! After Elder Pitt testified and closed. I invited them to come to church and they all said they would try! That is great! I love these people! I closed with the prayer and we all said thanks and shoot hands. After, Jeric came and spoke with Elder Pitt and I and told us about his past, and how he used to drink and smoke when he was 12 years old. He then told us about the other night when he joined us with Sister Nera's lesson and how when he walked past something pushed him to join in on the lesson. He said the lesson was his answer to change his life! Then after that lesson when he ran to us while we were walking down the street he said he didn't know why but he did it because he felt he needed to and then said he needed this church and wanted to change his life. This is the most amazing thing ever! It touched my heart and made me feel the spirit so much! A 17 year old boy desiring to know more about this gospel. WOW! He also said that when Sister Nera bore her testimony her wanted have what she has and how he sees how it changes her life! He said he wants to get baptized. So we are keeping the baptismal date at December 24th and we told him we will help him prepare for that date. This was a beyond amazing and changing experience for me. It made me so happy so see such a young man know so much to what he wants in his life. I love it! That was my amazing day! :)
November 19, 2016: Today was great! For personal study I read 2 Nephi 1-3 and I'm loving it! For language study I recorded myself teaching a lesson about church so I could write down the words I don't know and then learn them. It was helpful! It was Elder Pitt's idea! Our first stop was in Santa Maria, at the other 4 Elder's house. Elder Pitt had to be there because he had to do baptismal interviews for the other Elder's investigator's. He did interviews for 2 girls. It was exciting! Our next stop was at a referrals house from Nanay Zenni! The referrals are Sister Nova and Brother Neil. They are married with a young boy. We have been waiting a week for the husband to be there so that we could teach! Unfortunatley is seemed like the husband just wanted to 'Bible Bash' rather than discuss and learn... All we do during these bashed is testify. That's all that'll work. The husband just kept asking questions and kept trying to get his answer out of us. Elder Pitt said to him, "Are you really looking for answers, or are you looking for your answers to come out of us...? and after he said that there was no more bible bash haha. He had stopped and we closed the lesson. We have a date to return though! It was a good learning experience for me! Our next stop was at the Valdez's home. We taught them about Thomas S. Monson, Joseph Smith, and the First Vision. I love showing people the picture of Thomas S. Monson that I have! It is SO helpful! They understood the lesson and had great questions! After they gave us snacks and drinks. They love having us there haha. They said they'd try to go to church tomorrow but the daughter has a school parade in the morning. I hope they can make it! Our last stop of the night was at Jeric's house. I love teaching him and all the others there! We taught them about Prophets, Thomas S. Monson, and Joseph Smith. It went well. They always have questions which I love because that means they wanna learn! We had Jeric, Armond's wife, Robert, Roberts kids, and some more kids haha. It's is nice to see such young kids have such an interest! We invited them to come to church on Sunday, or tomorrow, and Jerico said he will be there! I told him to invite everyone again in the morning so they don't forget haha. So on the way home I though I was about to witness my first murder...! It was so scary! So we were walking on the sidewalk on the highway and there was this shop on our left and right outside the shop/stand there was this old man laying on the ground and this other guy holding the old man is a supper tight choke hold! I thought he was about to kill the old man! When we started staring the guy stopped and got up. The old man sat up and then the other guy took his fist and punched him right in tthe head! It was loud! I was actually really scared and didn't know what to do! After, the old man got up and went inside with the other guys... I'm not sure why haha. Must've been a drunk fight. Also, fun fact! Elder Pitt ate dog once a while back and now almost every dog here tries to attack us and we think it is because Elder Pitt at one of their kind once haha!
November 20, 2016: Sunday! I love Sundays! The Alafriz couldn't make it because their son was sick. The Valdez family was at the parade till 10:00. Mario wasn't there. BUT! Jeric came and brought 3 kids and one of his friends his age! WOW! What an awesome kid! The speakers did a great job in sacrament meeting even though I can't understand them haha. I have faith that what they are saying is true. I went with Jeric for 2nd and 3rd hour and he said it was unique. He said at his church they don't teach lessons like we do and he likes it better the way we do it! After church we went to Brother Rambo's house for lunch and to celebrate his wife's birthday! It was fun! Our first stop of teaching was at Brother Mario's but he wasn't home. So we went to teach Jeric. There was no adult there so we went over to Brother Prado, the old man we are teaching also, and taught with him there. 2 birds with 1 stone! We taught them about Jesus Christ establishing his church on the Earth and also about the priesthood. It went well! Our following lesson was with the Valdez family! We taught them about why the name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was good and they understood it which was good! Next we visited with the Melo family. Just the 2 daughters and the son. Not the father. We taught them about keeping the Sabbath day holy because they didn't go to church. I hope they will come next week! our last lesson was at the Pagaduan house. We haven't taught them yet... just visited with them. Tonight we got to teach them because the father was there, but he was really drunk. He shook my hand about 1,000 times haha. We taught them about Joseph Smith because the daughter read about him in the pamphlet. The mother said she won't believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ in a vision unless God came to her and told her it was true. So she is going to be hard to teach but hopefully she will start to understand. We ended the night at Abra Miki. We at dinner there because it is free. It is SO good!
It was such a great week! I love being a missionary and love it here in the Philippines! Tell me about your lives... Let me know how you are doing! Don't forget that God and Jesus Christ love you all! Have a great week!
No comments:
Post a Comment