December 9th--Christmas in San Carlos! Yeah, No Transfer!

Dear Friends and Family,

GREAT NEWS! NO TRANSFER! I'm still here in Branch 2 going on my 3rd transfer here now! I'm super stoked. Maybe it's because Elder Anderson said we needed to stay in our areas long in order to gain a relationship with the people, so maybe that's why, or because President wanted us to have Christmas in our areas that we've been in for a transfer so that we're close with the members. There were only 2 transfers for my whole zone, so that's interesting, usually there's a lot more. Maybe it's President's Christmas gift to me :) haha. That wouldn't surprise me actually. We didn't have our zone leaders meeting last week because of transfers, so we're having it this week, so I will be going to Bacolod today with Elder Barangay. We're excited. I need some new rubber shoes. Got to buy new ones every transfer! They're way great though. All the missionaries here use them! 

Monkey Sanctuary--word to wise....don't pull a monkey's tail!

We've done a lot of work this week. (Power just went out and running off generator). You've got to love this Country that's for sure. haha. But this week was great. We had a great baptism of Letecia Leduna. If you don't know about her background. She's been an investigator since maybe 2005. Missionaries have visited visited and visited and nothing! I guess the Lord really does soften the hearts of people because all of a sudden she just decided to listen to us. In 6 weeks she was baptized. Stopped her smoking and drinking coffee. Coming to church every week with her family. She's doing great and we love her so much. She's been super fun to teach. At the first when we started teaching she was very shy, didn't really pay attention, didn't show much care, but now she's way interested and asks questions and just does great! Her family now is just way interested. The next victim that we've pointed out is the father. He's not a member either! He's going to be super hard to get though. He's always gone or doing other things, but apparently he asked a few days ago, "Why am I the only one left here on Sunday?" Super funny, s

o we think maybe he's going to open a little bit more. We just try to be as nice and friendly as we can to him when we're there. The brother is also not a member, he'll be a little bit easier we think, but we'll focus on the father and brother maybe at the same time, their schedule is a bit weird... so we'll do our best. I guess you'll here about it later on huh? haha. 

Sister Leduna & family

Elder Barangay, Sister Leduna, & Elder Ellis

Edward is doing great! He reads the Book of Mormon everyday and really reads it. He asks the craziest questions that I never have investigators ask. Things like... the difference between the Gentiles and Jews, is America still the promised land, just things most people don't ask and Elder Barangay and I always have to be on our feet. He's still having a hard time really FEELING his answer to be true. He's still expecting a sign and I'm tempted to read that part in the Book of Mormon where a sign is asked for and then he's stuck dumb, then trampled to death. But I think that would just be way too upfront, but it's in the backup plan. haha. His mother in law, the owner of the sister apartment, who's a less active member and hasn't been to church in who knows how long, was at church this Sunday! Is that super cool or what! We've been inviting her for the past month and it's maybe maybe maybe, but then this Sunday she actually came! So here starts her rescue. I looked this morning to see how many rescues I had here in Branch 2 and I'm up to 9 now. We're going to try and get a ton this month. We had about 10 less actives at church this past Sunday. We were way stoked on it. I honestly feel like rescuing less actives is just as good as doing anything else. Anything to help the branch and the kingdom is worth doing. Other think baptism is the only thing that's important. Yes, it is. That's our purpose. But if we're not helping less actives come back, their souls are damned too, so we need to help them as well! The goldmine is part members. When we find less actives and they have members that aren't baptized. It's great. And we kill two birds with one stone. Bring them back to church and baptize their other members of the family. Just like the Leduna family, Edward, and others! So it's been great! 

Yaya, the maid of President Dellomes is doing good. Her husband is still giving us problems. We haven't been able to talk to him. We always miss him when ever we plan to go visit him and it's hard. She wasn't at church this week. She's always hit and miss. She can still be baptized on Christmas if we get the okay and if she goes the church, but I guess we'll see how it plays out! It'll be interesting. She's a way cool person and has tons of friends at the church too, it's just that her husband just thinks she catholic and should die a catholic, which is funny. Because... she'll just accept the gospel on the other side anyway, so he should just let her accept it now and not have to go through spirit world being sad. 

It's been a long time since I've talked about Raymond. We haven't been able to catch him the past couple of weeks, but this week we got him! On Sunday. We were able to teach him. His work is in Escalante, and he stays there during the week and only comes home on the weekends. However, through divine help he's now being transferred to San Carlos for work. So he will be able to come home every single night. We're going to start teaching him every other night at the church before they go home. It's going to be great. He's a great guy. We found out that he has some word of wisdom problems, but those can be stopped so we're happy that's he's being transferred and that we'll be able to see him more often that every 3 weeks. 

The Artaba Family has a son Earl Patrick that is not yet baptized. A part member family. However, the only problem is they're super busy and like we feel that mom just wants him to be baptized them they're just going to go less active again after the baptism. So it's going to be interesting. We'll see what we can do and do the best we can at working out with them and getting them back to church. 

My District

Elder Ellis- ZL1

Elder Barnagay- ZL2

Elder Leng-JR

Elder Bragas-DL

Sister De Castro- SR/TR

Sister Tui'tavuki- JR

Sister Woodruff- SR

Sister Tampos- JR

Sister Lara- SR/TR

Sister Menguito- JR (New Missionary)

Sorry, I don't have much to report. I did get my Christmas tree back, yes mom! I left in Mabini when I transferred, but I had some Elders bring it to me on Transfer day when they came through San Carlos to go to Bacolod, so I have it back and the lights and the stockings and everything :) haha. Everyone is totally jealous. We're going to have a great Christmas this year though. Baptism and then teaching and we've got our dinner appointment set already! SO BOOM! Taken care of! haha and skype of course! :)

I want to leave with my testimony but in Cebuano. Kabalo ko nga ang simbahan nato mao ang tinuod nga simbahan dinhi sa kalibutan. Ug ang pakapare nga naa sa atoa tinuod siya pod. Ang Basahon ni Mormon, mga pulong sa Dios ug ni Jesukristo! Ang akong trabajo dinhi sa filipinas, dili waay pulos. May pulos gid siya! Salamat sa tanan ang inyong pagampo para kanako. Malipayon jud ko kay nakita na ako ug mga palalanging sa mga kinabuhi ninyo. 

I love you! Thanks for everything! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ellis