House bound this week.

Week 87

25 July 2016

I'm fine now, just got an annoying as cough hanging around. X-ray showed no signs of bronchitis or pneumonia, so I'm good. I'm popping vitamins like they're lollies, so I'll be out for sure this week. The whole week we didn't work at all!

I conducted my first district meeting this week. Wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, but I've got some challenges  - not an easy job, but I'll see what I can do. It was a terrible week for our district actually, with me & another elder getting sick, which took us both out for the week.

We had another baptism, and this was a great baptism. Our now recent converts were referred to us by the District High Councilmen who oversees missionary work. Since he was called there he's been on every single member in the district to pick up their game, and start giving referrals. This member walks his talk too, and the referral he gave us was a golden one. We baptized a father & son, and the member was the one to baptize them both. Members & missionaries is a really good combination. Blessings on blessings.

This week I need to go out and work. I'm sick of the apartment, it makes me trunky. Last week was terrible, ALL WEEK in the apartment. So for this week I'm going to try and make up for last week, as well as get in this week's work. We have a couple more baptisms coming up, so they will be our focus, while also getting out and finding some new investigators to share the gospel with.

  

 

Some extra photos

Called as District Leader!

Week 86

18th July 2016

This week was great, and it was bad at the same time. Tonnes of things that went on that were mostly good, but there was some dumb things that happened.

Friday night came along, and just like any other Friday night we were doing a night workout, and updating the area book, and funky stuff like that. The phone rings, and it's President Mangum. Turns out he wanted me to be the District Leader here.  I've really enjoyed being a normal missionary and just focusing on my own area, not having to worry about what goes on in other areas, but that's all changed now.

Other than that, the work has been great! Members still working with us, and investigators really progressing well. On Saturday our 2 investigators who set a date for July 23 had  their interviews, and the baptism will continue on July 23. We're really excited, and so are our investigators. The member who referred them to us will be baptizing them, and he's super excited.

So far in the month of July, our branch sacrament attendance hasn't dropped below 210, so the chapel is always full. It's such a great sight to see the chapel so full, and also to see a lot of our investigators at church! We didn't drop below 6 investigators at church for the whole transfer, which is a miracle in our work, because all of those investigators are progressing really well towards baptism.

So the bad news is, I've been sick since Thursday. I got rained on, and had a running nose, and then on Friday we got smashed on! Yep, woke up Saturday morning with the good old cold, and Sunday came and added asthma to the equation! Loving it, just barely walking around without getting out of breath. Nothing stopping me though, just gotta bring my asthma pump around everywhere, haha.

This week I have to dive straight into this whole District Leader thing. Exchanges with the Zone Leaders tomorrow, then my first district meeting on Wednesday, and then yeah... but excited for the baptism though, so I can't complain. 

Another good week...

Week 85

11th July 2016

This week was a good one too. The baptism went really well, and our work is just going so well at the moment. I couldn't complain about anything in our work at the moment. We have a lot of progressing investigators, a lot of scheduled baptisms, and I'm not transferred! So yeah things are going well right now. Members still trying to get me to stay here until I go home, but I'm just going to take it one transfer at a time, because I only have 3 left.

It was raining super hard all week this week, as there's a typhoon sweeping through up mid-north Luzon, and being in South Luzon we got smashed with a bit of wind and a LOT of rain. It was kinda tough, came home every night with wet as pants, wet as socks, and wet as shoes! The problem here is that the drainage ain't flash, so a lot of roads and streets in our area are flooded. And we're talking about flood waters half-way up your calf. It's terrible, and a lot of times I ended up just taking my shoe and socks off and walking in bare feet.

Our baptism was on Friday, and well I had no pants that were dry enough to wear, so I ended up wearing my ie faitaga that I was given by a past missionary. Got a lot of strange stares and a lot of members cracking up, but I'll always be a proud Australian-born afatasi Samoan, so it was great to rock my ie faitaga to the baptism, with my broken jandals that I fixed at the chapel. The baptism itself went great, and it was a great opportunity for me to exercise my Priesthood authority and baptize someone again. Thats my tenth baptism since I've been out.

Members are continuing to work super hard with us, giving us referrals left, right, and center. The best part of it, is that all of these referrals are prepared referrals, and very receptive to the message of the restored gospel. I'll be honest and say that I'm a pretty good finder, but I prefer teaching all day. It's so much fun to teach people, and my testimony grows every time I share it to others, and see investigators and members come to church every Sunday. In the last month our branch has been doing really well with the attendance, popping over 200 every Sunday for the last month. We're also working closely with the new Branch Presidency, and yesterday's meeting with them was a great plan setting meeting for missionary work. I worked well with the last Branch President, and I want to work even better with the new Branch President, so he can get off to a good start.

This week is a transition week as we're preparing our 2 investigators who are set for July 23, and we will be going out finding new investigators. We're not affected by transfers, so we're keen to get the work on. Hopefully the rain won't be crazy, because it's so much easier to work when it's dry. Thinking of buying boots to keep my feet dry while we're out.

We had another P-Day at the beach today. We'll be staying with other Elders tonight because we can't get home, but we're leaving first thing tomorrow to get back for work. P-days are fun, but teaching is pretty fun, and really important, so we'll be home before midday tomorrow.

Zone PDay

 Week 84 

04th July 2016

Our week was a lot better than the last week with no interruptions with travel. It was so good, even our district meeting was in Nasugbu, so we didn't have to even catch a jeepney or van anywhere!  

The work this week was great. We were able to find a lot of new investigators who are mostly part-member families, or have been taught by missionaries before. We set a lot of baptismal goal dates to investigators, and if they all progress well, the next few months will be full of baptisms. We're talking at least 1 baptism every 2 weeks, so the work here is going great. 

One of our investigators that was supposed to get baptized this Saturday wasn't able to come to church today, so we will be delaying her baptism until next Saturday, July 16. Our 2 that will be baptized this Friday are all set and ready to go, and very excited. Me and my companion will be baptizing them, so it's definitely something to look forward too. We also have a baptism set for July 23. 

In other news, we had zone p-day yesterday, and we went to some nature park. The area and stuff was quite plain and boring actually, but being in the company of the zone was great, so we made the best out of what we had. We all then hit a pizza place for lunch, and spent quite a long time there. 

We had an FHE with our investigators last night, and that was fun. We played some games, and the whole family was just cracking up at each other - it was good to see everyone get into it too. 

Our week this week will be busy preparing for the baptism, and finding  and teaching more investigators   Turns out when you can see the names of your investigators and their goal dates every day, it motivates missionaries to work harder. We were challenged by Elder Haynie of the 70 in our mission tour to eventually be having at least 1 baptism per week, because it's possible. 

President & Sister Mangum came to church on Sunday too, and well it was good! Our chapel was even fuller than last week, and a lot of people got up and bore their testimonies. President Mangum also gave a lesson in Elders Quorum at the request of the Elders Quorum President, and it seemed to help the priesthood.   

I'm doing well.... glad I'm here in Nasugbu. Oh so the members actually asked Pres Mangum if I can stay..... I'm not leaving anytime soon apparently!  

Chilling in the town plaza

On the hunt!

Zone P-Day

Walking along the creek.

Mission Tour

Week 83

27 June 2016

This week was very tiring. All of our travel just made us super tired, and it affected our work a little bit. But it was still great.

Our mission tour was on Wednesday and it was a good meeting. Elder Haynie of the 70 was our visitor, and he presented a lot of inspired ideas to help the work progress. One idea that I really liked that I had never thought of before was a baptismal goal date calendar. It's one thing to work hard in an area and have the work progressing while you are there, but it's definitely another thing to leave an area, and have an area set up for the following missionary to come in and baptize. Having a clear picture of what you are aiming for is also something that a baptismal calendar date gives us. We will definitely be applying that to our area. It was also good to see some of the boys again, and catch up with people. My news is that my MTC companion Elder Faka'i became the new AP of our mission at the beginning of the transfer.

Another thing I enjoyed was the "Scattered Israel" part, and it's so true! We presented the idea to the branch missionaries yesterday in our MCM, and they all clicked about who these people could be. Some even received some personal revelation right in the middle of the meeting and shared how they met this person, and what was said. The Holy Ghost was certainly working with them in that time.

Our branch is going great, we had a very full chapel yesterday, along with the new Branch President called here in Nasugbu Branch. I look forward to getting to work with him, and getting him up to speed with what's going on with the missionary work here in Nasugbu. Our Branch Missionaries are now out in force, teaching our recent converts, while we & the BML monitor how the recent converts are progressing. Me and my companion have a good vibe going with the Branch Council, with each auxiliary giving us suitable fellowshippers, and it's definitely a "Help me, help you, help us" situation.

Our personal miracle within our companionship was finding 2 families this week. One family was a referral, and the other family came off our own efforts. We have set appointments with them later tonight, and we are excited to get to working with them, and bringing them closer to Jesus Christ through His Atonement, and through His gospel.

This week will be full of work, and this time with no distractions with meetings. Me & my companion are hyped to get a full week of no far away places to go, and just work until we drop at 9.30PM after planning. Things are going well, and we have another 3 baptisms coming up on July 9, so we'll also be busy preparing our investigators for their next step in moving closer to eternal life. 

We good!

My follow up Trainer - Going home in July

My 4th Companion is a Zone Leader - going home in October

The Aussie Missionaries!

Finally met Sister Kumar.

Mr Assistant, Elder Faka'i Getting excited to come home in November

Elder Hapi - going home in August

Our Fridge!