Enduring and enjoying the Journey

Dear Family,

It's Monday morning, the sun is shining, and it's super hot! Well, what can I say, that's the Philippines. So this is an interesting week. Elder Matamata and I are doing great. Let's just say that the gift of tongues is about as legit as anything on the face of the earth. I'm not fluent by any means, but holy cow, I've never felt the spirit more in my life. It's like words just flow out of my mouth and I don't know what's going on. I've heard it's like a free gift that comes from being a trainer, well a sister told me that, but who knows. It's way cool. I wish I could describe the feeling, but I can't. It's literally impossible. So it's been an awesome experience being a trainer. I know I'm still super new in the mission and totally not great at teaching or things yet, but with the Lord and with the Spirit, I know that all things are possible.

 

So here's a little story. So there are 3 families that are in our ward that live in Ward 1 boundary. (I'm ward 2). However, they go to church in our ward, so we visit them from time to time. I always thought this was an okay thing because people have been doing it forever. This week, that all changed. We're no longer allowed to visit those families that don't live in our area. The mission rules say you can't leave your area, but I thought we had an exception or something. Anyway, now, we can't visit them. The Verdeflor family, the Quiamco Family (the members), and the Ynayan family-- some of our favorites, but we're lot allowed to visit anymore. When we told them that, I was even sad. I'm not even leaving and I can see them at church and I was sad. It was so weird, because I didn't think I was that close to them, but I was sad. I can only see them once a week at church. It's sad, but we're going to be obedient. So that's that.

 

We've been trying to find a new house since we're supposed to move into our area. We still haven't found one. The houses are so, just, nasty around here sometimes, so it's super difficult but we're doing our best. Elder Ellis actually this week got a little smart, with the Spirit of course, and on Tuesday used it as a finding opportunity. "Just like, hey we're looking for a house, do you know anyone or anywhere?  When the door was opened, then we shared our message. It was totally cool. Also, we got a new investigator out of it, brother Romeo. 

 

Wednesday we had some zone training in Cadiz from the Zone Leaders, which gave us a lot of good feedback and offered new things that we should do in our work. It was a way good meeting. They had a meeting in Bacolod on Monday with President Lopez.   Sister Lopez shared 1Samual 15 with the Zone Leaders and then they challenged us to read it, so I did. This is talking about obedience and sacrifice about how it's better to be obedient than to sacrifice. It was pretty awesome to read and it really put a lot of things into my mind. I encourage everyone to read it. Simple orders that weren't followed... is actually quite a big deal to the Lord.

 Cadiz Zone meeting

 Elder Doane fell over

 

Bus ride to Zone meeting

 

Thursday was good. It was so sunny I wanted to literally just lay down in some sugar cane and take a nap. It was so hot, but we proceeded forth and worked hard. We got 2 referrals, but still haven't contacted them because they're under 18 and have school, so their schedule and ours conflict. So we're going to see this week what we can do.

 

Friday was a day from just, oh man, I do not want to relive that day ever. It begins as we were walking in Canetown, then to some cane field next to it, then to the golf course (the golf course is actually wayyyyy cool).  Apparently there are members that live by the golf course, I just don't know where all the houses are, so I asked a bunch of people and they told me a couple of different things.  Patiently we started walking straight on the golf course, cutting through whatever I could, and asking people. Anyway, long story short, we end up BACK IN CANETOWN where the whole journey started. Walked 3 hours, just to go in a GIGANTIC CIRCLE! I was just so angry, but, I wasn't going to show it or anything.  I was super upset, but we finally found the houses by the golf course and the way to get there is actually a complete different way than what we thought. Now I know. All the members that we were looking for, NOT THERE! All have moved and 1 died... So yeah, Friday, such a rough day.

 

 Golf Walking

Victorias Golf Club

 

Let's just forget Friday and move to Saturday, shall we? Saturday. AMAZING DAY! 6 new investigators in 1 day! Nice huh? We were so happy and I was just thrilled. Even though they live pretty far away, they seem to have a desire, but we'll see more in the coming weeks. The cool part is I've been dying to teach families. I'm just dying to teach a good, solid, family the gospel and then the Lord blesses us with 2 families in one day. I was so happy! So Saturday was an amazing day for us as missionaries.

Great and Spacious Building

 

Sunday was great too. Ryan, the recent convert, brought his sister to church yesterday, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and teach her at the church right after sacrament. It was a great lesson and she had some really good questions. It was nice to have Ryan there at the lesson and so, yeah, we were super happy. Ryan and her think were surprised because I had told Ryan we were going to teach him.  I've learned something, though, never turn down the opportunity to teach someone new.  We taught the restoration to her, gave her a Book of Mormon and assigned the "Pauna" (Introduction in Hiligaynon), and then Moroni 10:3-5.  We're hoping that she comes to church next week to we can follow up, see her, and teach her again.

 

This week has been a great week. It's been so hot and raining all week, but that's the life here in the Philippines. I hope that everyone back home is doing safe. The Lord knows us each individually and he cares for each one of us. No matter the trials that we go through, he knows them. He knows our insides and outsides and knows what's best for us. He will only help us, though, if we do our part and ask him for help and listen and obey his commandments.  I testify of that to y'all who are reading this. Reading and Praying are so important. I know this gospel is true and I love being a missionary and doing this work. It's hard, but I'm loving every minute and moment. With all the sad things, I learn how to overcome them, and learn how to be a better missionary. I've learned so much so far and I'm only going to learn more and more the next months.

 

I hit 5 months this week! WOW! That's crazy. Being a trainer is fun. No mail this week... so yeah, it's been a long week. Oh well, life is still good. Miss y'all back home, but keep on pushing through. I love you all and pray for y'all always. Keep being strong and steadfast in the Lord. Through the Lord, we can do all things.

Hypnotized lizard--thanks Mr. Marshall for teaching me this trick!  I'm using it ALOT!

Training.....Welcome Elder Matamata

Dear Family,

 

 

Well, I've guess you've all heard the news that I'm a trainer now. That was a shock to me. I just finished my own training and now I'm training another missionary. His name is Elder Joseph-Auga-Matamata. He's a Samoan, however, he's from New Zealand and has a bit of an accent that's sometimes hard to understand at times.  He's totally awesome, fresh from the Provo MTC, and ready to rock it here in Victorias with me. I received the notice that I was going to be a trainer on Wednesday night at 10:40pm. I was to report to the mission office at 8:30am the next day.  Elder Doverte transferred and is now in the Escelante zone, somewhere up north. I'm not exactly sure where or what it looks like, because I've only been in one area. With this new calling, I will most likely be here in Victorias for 3 more months. So cool huh?! Things are really going great this week.

 Trainers

 Elder Matamata from New Zealand & Elder Ellis

 

 

 New batch with their trainers February 2013

 

 

Monday:

P-day. Same ole same ole.  We went to the grocery store because we had no food in the house, then all of a sudden we're at the grocery store and like, why are we here? It's transfer week. We were thinking the Elder Doverte was going to transfer, but we weren't really sure, so we decided not to buy any food.  We were relying on a lot of others to feed us. It was p-day so we went back home and washed our clothes. I'm getting really good at washing my clothes by hand. It really hurts my back, but oh well, that's life right? Monday night we had a family home evening at the Quiamco's house. We watched the John Tanner story, I don't know if y'all have seen it yet, but it's super super good.  We watched that and then applied the teaching to sacrificing for things in this world and for our religion. It was a great and really spiritual, so I was super happy. I'm really loving Family Home Evening. It's one of my goals for life to always have that with my family, even if it's just my wife and I, we can read scriptures or something together, then make some food. It's just that important.

Tuesday:

We went and taught some less actives, they don't really listen to us or keep our commitments, but oh well. We do our part. We still get the blessings for trying our hardest and doing the things that we need too and are supposed to do, but they just won't receive the blessings. It makes me sad for those that ignore the reading and the prayers, but some are actually good and are starting to come back to church. It's just hard. Welcome to the Philippines though. We've learned that it's important to make sure that the investigators have a testimony and are converted to the gospel before we baptize them. So Tuesday was a lot of fun.

Wednesday:

We had a lunch appointment with a sister named Sister Ganistosa. She lives SOOOO FAR from the Church, but you know what? She's super active. She's the only active one in her family, but she's always awesome. Wednesday she invited us to eat lunch at her house. Her husband who is less active was there and so Elder Doverte and I took that advantage and talked to him and tried to find out why he's less active. There's always a reason that some are less active. Offended, etc... No money sometimes. It's always good to know the concern, so you can have the Lord guide you to know how to fix the problem right? WRONG! This man told us that he REPENTED for becoming a member of the church, so I guess he wasn't offended or anything. While we were talking to him, he gets up and leaves and tells us to pretty much go away. Oh it was so fun. Afterwards, Sister Ganistosa gave us a referral. So what do we do? Go to the referral. When we get a referral, the referral becomes priority!  They're the first thing we do when we get them. We went and found out where this person lives. SOOOO FARRRR! There's is nothing but sugar cane near their house. It was super fun though. They accepted our message and are willing to listen to us, so we're going to go back there tomorrow! Wednesday night we knew that we'd get a call if either of us was going to transfer, so we were waiting by the phone till 10:30 to get a call for transfer. No call came, so we went to bed. At 10:40 p.m., we get a phone call that said Elder Doverte was getting transferred and Elder Ellis will be training a new missionary. WHAT THE HECK! I was freaking out. I'm still not like super skilled in the language and things... but hey, I was like, okay. Elder Doverte stayed up all night packing and getting things ready to transfer.

 

Thursday:

Well, I got my new companion on this day. I still didn't know who he was or if he was a Filipino or and American, so I'm like freaking out because I don't know who it is. We went to Bacolod early in the morning and then had a meeting. Before the meeting they gave us an hour to go eat, so on Thursday morning, I had McDonalds breakfast!!!! Pancakes, sausage, hash brown, and orange juice. So good. Hit the spot!  After breakfast, I was given the name of my trainer. Elder Jospeh-Auga-Matamata, I was like, what the heck? That's not American or Filipino. I meet him. He's 6'2 and a Rugby player. YEAH SON! I've got a huge companion. Nobody is messing with us. haha. So then I was like, um... are you Filipino? He then explained he's Samoan, but he lives in New Zealand now because of his dad's work. So I was like cool... do you speak English? He said, yes :) thank you! So now I have a new companion that's way cool and awesome.  Additionally Thursday is Valentines day right? I love Valentines day... so I was like, man this is cool I get a new "wife/companion" on Valentines day, then one of the senior couples comes up to me and hands me this package! WHAT! The package from Courtney got here in like 18 days... right on Valentines day. Thanks for the awesome tie! I love it! And there was some great candy! So yeah, that was like the best Valentines day that I could have 7,000 miles away from home possible. Thanks so much! I took Elder Matamata back to Victorias and then showed him the area. He was so tired... President told us that they were tired and to let them rest when we got home. We didn't get home till around 7pm anyway, so I just let him go to sleep.

 

Important things like food first, right?

Friday:

Friday, I decided to take him to some less actives and do a little less walking than we normally do. We only had, I think, like 4 teachings, so I was a little upset, but it's okay. None of them came to church on Sunday. :( Of course... but we still pray and hope that they will come to church. I then took him to the Bishop's house so that he could get to know the Bisho.  The Bishop told him he'd be speaking in church on Sunday! AHA! First Sunday and he's speaking. I also spoke, but I'll talk about that on the Sunday part. Friday was good. Lot's of walking and just introducing him to the area.

Saturday:

Saturday, I decided that we were going to go on an adventure, so we boarded a Tricycle and headed for a place called Hda. Florencia. There ares some less actives that live there and we were going to find out where they lived, teach them, and hopefully get them to come back to church. I was asking around some people and asked hey where does this person live. Every answer was oh, on the other side of that field (cane field). I was like okay, cane fields aren't that big, so we walked. I kept asking along the way where they live and every answer was oh on the other side, on the other side. They should've just told me they live on the other side of the WORLD! We walked for about 4 miles!  And then...... we get to another cane field. There was one guy and I asked him if he knew the person we were looking for. He said yeah, we needed to go through a cane field and their house is on the other side. WHAT! CUT THROUGH THE CANE! Yes, there's like a 4 inch dirt path in the middle of 2 cane fields. So we go. Guess what? I find a little house! I asked the people in the house and they said she moved to MANILA!!!!! AHHHHHH!HH!H!H!H! But wait... I asked what her name was and it turns out she is her mom! AND A MEMBER! YES! So I said, can I share a message with you. She's like 70 years old and the church is soooo far away there is no way that she can get to church. After the lesson she says, hey there's other members here on the other side too.  I was like, are you serious? So yeah there was 2 other families! We found 3 Less Active families in about 1 minute! How cool? Elder Doverte and I were looking for them forEVER, but nobody ever knew where they were. I guess I just asked the right person to get us started on the journey. That was a fun day with lots of walking.  I was so blasted tired by the end of that night. It was a great experience for Elder Matamata though on his 2nd day here. haha.

Sunday:

Church. I spoke in Church. Mostly in Ilanggo so that was good. It was super hard, but I think that they all understood me, so it was a great!  After we had a meeting with the Bishop about some things that I had questions about, went back to the house to study, and then we went to work. We stopped by some less actives and oh it was so funny. This woman came up with like every excuse why she didn't want us there. It was soooo funny! haha. I just started laughing. The brothers all booked it out the back door running from us. I love the Philippines! It's so awesome here!

I miss y'all back home. I love y'all so much too. The Philippines are treating me well though. It's so hot and the sun is so shiny sometimes. The people are great and I love them. They are so funny and they're always fun to joke around with once you get their humor. I hope y'all are doing okay. The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is true! I love this church and I love the opportunities that it lets us have as long as we are obedient to the Lord. Looking forward to hearing from you next week :)

 

Here are some random older pictures, but want them included in my scrapbook:

Cadiz Zone January 2013

 

 

Zone Training January 2013

 

 

Mail day....always a good day!

 

 

 

Elder Garner got transferred to the most southern tip of the mission.  He got a cool companion, but will be missed by Elder Ellis in the Cadiz Zone!

Some Good....Some Bad

 

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello everybody! How y'all doing? From the sounds of some of the family emails that I received, everyone seems to be doing great. Sydney had a recital for gymnastics and senior night for Ashlyn was a success. I'm happy that you won your senior night. It's always nice to win that game. I remember my senior night when we destroyed North Summit. It was the perfect ending to a great basketball season. When you're a senior you'll understand Ash, haha, it's a lot different when it's your last game in your home gym for the rest of your life. So it's a really touching moment, especially when you win it. So I'm happy that you won. Ryan went to the MTC this week right? I got a dear elder from him and so that was great to hear from him. He seems to be super excited! He's going to be a great missionary. I hope the wedding of Lauren and Tyler went great! I heard that is was a success. I got the wedding invitation on Saturday. Thanks so much for sending it, the pictures looked great. I also got your Valentines package MOM :) So thanks so much. The ties are totally awesome. Oh, and the Body Wash and Shampoo&Conditioner are amazing, so thanks so much. Also, you can keep sending that stuff, because I shower twice a day so I'm always in need of it.  So whenever you send a package, you can put that in there if you wanna mom. haha. Thanks! I also got a lot of mail this week, like 4 dear elders from Courtney, one from Ryan, a letter from Elder Bice, a letter from my batch mate Elder Summers who's in IloIlo on his mission (just the next island over), and yeah, it was a great mail week actually. I love mail.

 

So you want to hear about the baptism? Let's just say this was the highlight of the week. I'm not going to say much about my week because it was just so bad, so I'm just going to talk about the good things. The baptism was amazing! It rained all morning and so it was so wet and stormy. Ryan lives so far, where there are only dirt roads and they all turned to mud, but that wasn't going to stop the work from going forward. He arrived safely and we were able to have a great and amazing spiritual baptism. His Uncle baptized him, which was awesome. After he was baptized, we asked him to bare his testimony. I just want to share a part of his testimony with you (So this is a recent convert, we've been teaching him for a month and a half and this is a quote from his testimony), "I know without any doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was a prophet." Very simple phrase, but it punched me so hard, Elder Doverte too. What an amazing thing that came from him, in English! He's a school teacher so he speaks English, really well actually. The spirit was just so strong when he said that. He continued on to say how he knew this was the true church and it was restored. After this I just keep thinking of this other family that's in our ward who knows the gospel is true, members for over 40 years, and yet still don't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It is very sad to me. We asked them to pray about it last week and see if Joseph Smith was a prophet. When I followed up, I got chastised for asking! It was in a like grumpy old person yelling at me, sort of like the Charleston when the residents would claim they ordered something different or they didn't get something that they thought they should get. Oh, life is just so so funny.

Elder Doverte, Ryan, Elder Ellis

February 11, 2013

So here's a few more humerous moments: this same story happened 3 times this week, just with 3 different people. We have this list of everyone that's in our ward and their addresses. There are over 450 names on the list and only 80 at church. So do the math.... there are SO many less actives. So what do we do? We find them :) We go around the town were they live and their street, we have the street they live on. Then we ask people, 'hey do you know this person?" Then they say, "yeah here, or there" or whatever. We actually have an idea of where these people's houses are so we sometimes just go straight there. Then we ask them, "hey do you know (insert less active)." We know it's them and they say, "Oh, they're not here. Or, oh, they moved to Manila".  Our response is usually something like, "oh okay. We're just looking for them because we really miss them at church. If you see them could you tell them that we say hi and that we miss them." Anyway, 3 times this week the actual person we were trying to find said that they weren't home. It's really sad actually and it hurts my feelings. I mean, we're laboring and sweating in the hot sun trying our best to serve our brothers/sisters and then they just lie straight to our face. It's really frustrating sometimes. It's all just a trial for me I guess. Y'all know I hate denial or getting told no to things. It's really just something I'm going to have to get over. I've always been one to wants things to go the right way always, but I'm slowly realizing sometimes you just have to roll with the things the way they are.

 

This week we worked with our Bishop in trying to find some less actives too. On Thursday we went to a place that is so far out, it cost us 100 pesos each to ride on a tricycle to get there--all dirt road and all sugar cane fields. Literally nothing out there guys. I have no clue how they ever got baptized, went to church or anything--- it's soooo far. It just shows their dedication I guess, but now they're less active, most of them. Our Recent Convert, Ryan, lives even farther than where we were, so it really shows dedication on his part. There are actually a lot of members that live out in this area too so it was fun to visit, but still so far out and we didn't get a chance to teach a lot of people because it's so far and we did a lot of walking. Our numbers this week are pretty bad because of that. We've been trying to reach out to the inactives in far places this week, so it's been a rough week. However, all is still well.

 

 

I hope that America is going great. I hear that there is so much snow. I miss it so much and I love the snow. Of course the year that I leave, the ski season is amazing, go figure. Oh well, I've been out almost 5 months now, sort of crazy and I can't believe it. Time is still playing with my head. Still feels like forever, but then you look and its gone by so fast, so I don't really even know what to say about the time. This week is transfer week so I have not a clue what is going to happen! Everything could change this week or nothing could change at all, so I guess it just depends, but I guess you'll find out on Monday won't you?!

Rocky Mirasol, Ward Mission Leader

 

 

I just wanted to say thank you for all the support that y'all give me back home. This is so different than anything I ever imagined. It's just so hard to explain really anything that goes on here. It's such a different culture and everything. The Church is true though. I just want to say that. There are so many blessings that are coming to the lives of the people here that live the gospel and the principles and the things that it teaches. So many people here sacrifice so much for the church and there's also some that don't do anything and you can totally see the difference. Even just the small and simple things such as FHE, family prayer, family scripture study, etc. I can't believe that I used to hate doing those things and I would always have a bad attitude about it, but now I don't find that being the case. I find it of most importance and I encourage all to do it. I'm going to in my family when I get married and so I encourage y'all to do it too. So I'm sorry for all the years when I had a bad attitude about it, just know that I know that it's what we needed to be doing and I'm sorry. The Book of Mormon is so important for us and I love the Book of Mormon. It's so true. Everything in the book is true and will help us. The fullness of the gospel is in that one book! All of it! Every question can be answered too. It's so amazing. I love this church and I love the Lord. I love faith. What a great blessing that we're given and asked to have, faith. A hope for things which are not seen which are true. I love this work. I'm here for a purpose and that purpose I will fulfill. I hope that you are all having a great week!

Cadiz Zone Training

Dear Family,

Hello! How is everyone doing this week? I hope good! It's good to hear from you in your emails to me. Thanks for emailing me :) It's always good to look at my inbox and have things to read. Also, Dad, I can't download video's. So I have no idea what you send me. Something titled Snow.So yeah, I couldn't watch it. So my week has been pretty good and fun. I got 2 Dear Elder's from mom, but they were things that I already knew. Also one from Courtney. I haven't gotten the package from Mom yet that she keeps talking about. Maybe soon? I have no idea. The mail, is so weird. So yeah, that's pretty much that. Right now we're looking for a new house because we currently live out of our area, we live in ward one area, so we need to move. I found a new one when I was on exchanges this week with Elder Delos Santos (Elder Garner's Companion), so hopefully we'll move into it this week or next week. It's a good house. The screens are a lot nicer so no bugs will get in our house hopefully. This week I think I killed about 5 cockroaches. So nasty those little guys. Ant's are everywhere, not even kidding. I study and they're just all of my desk. I don't even have food on my desk, but they're still there. So crazy. Our Investigator, Ryan, is going to be baptized this week! On Saturday at 10am! What a great decision he's making to better his life. What an amazing thing that we get to do, to bring the gospel to all the people here that don't know that amazing blessings that come from it. So this Saturday is going to be a great day. My first baptism. Ryan's Uncle is a convert and has been recently endowed, I'm not sure if I already told you that. So he has a pretty good support system too. So I'm really happy. Here's my week:

Monday:

Monday is was Ping Quiamco's birthday so we had a family home evening at their house, well we were supposed to. Anyway, she was home late from school. She's in college and travels to Bacolod for school, so she gets home late. So birthday girl was late and we didn't have time for a full family home evening, so we just shared a scripture. It was good. I actually just taught about 1st Nephi and how there are so many things that we learn just from that one chapter. I honestly know that the Lord purposefully lost the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon because 1st Nephi needed to come first in the Book of Mormon. We learn so much just in that one chapter. About Prophets, visions, scriptures, families, the Lord talks to his children, prayer. Just so many awesome things, in one little chapter.

 

 

 Demander family FHE from prior week

Elders Pineda, Doverte, 2 week elder, and Ellis

Tuesday:

I had exchanged with Elder Delos Santos. He came to my area and Elder Doverte went and worked with Elder Garner in their area, since Elder Doverte is the district leader. Let's just say Tuesday was the most sad day of my mission so far. We had all the appointments and things, ALL of them fell through, but 2. Our 1st appointment and our last appointment. So Elder Delos Santos and I walked around Canetown for almost 6 hours trying to teach people, but nobody was "HOME" or just busy. Or there was no male 18+ there and in that case we're not allowed to enter. Then we had a dinner appointment at Joy's house. Fish:) So fish here is actually good. I had some really good tilapia at the Quiamco's house last week.

 

Elder's Ellis & Santos

 

Wednesday:

Okay, so we have this Less Active family. Well the wife is less active, the father is active and the kids are all married and gone or live really nearby. I think I might have told you about them, but, it's always fun to teach them because it gets really heated. They don't believe that Joseph Smith saw God, only Jesus. So... Yeah. Elder Doverte ALWAYS brings up Joseph Smith on purpose. Even if the lesson is like, commandments, somehow he always will bring up Joseph Smith and it's always super fun to teach them! It's pretty much just a principle of faith, and a lack of it at that. They keep saying that there are always witnesses to everything. There's witnesses to the Book of Mormon, Christ, everything, except the first vision. But hey, we just told them to pray! And God will answer their prayer if they are praying with a sincere heart!

Elder Doverte & Ellis

 

Thursday:

We had Zone Training with President Lopez. It was super fun and I learned a lot of good things from him in our training. He's always good to be around and learn new things from. He's a great President and he truly knows what we need. He told us that all Books except Preach My Gospel and the Scriptures are prohibited, and then I asked even the missionary library? He said, Yes, until you have Mastered Preach my Gospel. Obviously I haven't mastered it yet, so I've stopped reading Jesus the Christ. It was a good 60 pages that I read though... haha. So yeah, that will be a good book to read after my mission. So now all my extra time (like maybe 30 min at night) is spent studying Preach my Gospel and I've been learning a lot more things.

 

 

Cadiz Zone 1 & 2

 

Elders Ellis & Garner

Friday:

Friday we taught a lot of people, but that's not what I want to talk about. So we were in North Bacayan, just a little town kinda thing, I don't know how to explain it to you. Anyway, we were walking and we found a less active member that has moved there. So we contacted him and asked if we could share with him. He said he was busy. Anyway, right after that this man walks up to us. He says, "I haven't been to church in 20 years. I'm a Mormon" Wow. We were like, "Um... okay, where's your house, let's go talk!" So we taught him and things. He's really really poor, his house is about as big as half of dad's office downstairs. He and his son live there, but his son recently left because they had a fight. I don't know the whole story because he didn't tell us, but it's good to know where he lives now so that we can go back. We've tried to find him before, but nobody knew where he lived and it seems that he's moved. So that was really good to meet him.

Saturday:

We walked and walked and walked, cane field, after cane field, after cane field. However, still taught a lot of people. So that was way good. We found a couple short cuts through some cane fields that we've never found before, so it was good to finally find those because then we can save a lot of time. The recently harvested those cane fields that's how we found them, but before we couldn't see because of all the cane. We taught a less active that lives so far away, but on the way there, there was a man planting rice in a rice field. I had to pee, so while I was peeing on the other side of the road, Elder Doverte talked with this man. Anyway, turns out he was Jehovah's witness and that was just so much fun. I've never really talked to one before. All I knew that that the have the WatchTower and only a certain number of people go to heaven sort of thing. Anyway, he gave us a brochure on what they believe, sweet huh? Now I know. So I've been studying about how we can help him. He's not baptized into their church yet, only investigating. So we're going to bring him to the right church and teach him the true doctrine. :) Right? Right!

Sunday:

Ryan had his baptismal interview and passed! :) Boom! So I already told you about that above. Church was good. We have a lot of people there. There was also a baby blessing. So church was good. We also taught a couple other people that aren't really progressing, but we're hoping and praying that they start to have the desire to keep commitments and learn the truth for themselves.

Thanks for everything y'all do back home for me. Also, I hope Courtney's sisters wedding goes well. I don't know when it is, only that it's this month. So hope that is fun for their family and my best of luck and congratulations to Lauren and Tyler! Tyler I miss you... haha. Thanks for praying for me all the time everyone! It's great to know that I've got an army back home that is supporting me. Keep up the good work. I'll try and send some pictures in a second. Love y'all!