8.31.14 Baptism + 3 weeks left = One Excited Mom

ALOHA!

How's my family and friends doing this week? I hope all is well and fine and dandy with y'all. This week has been booming with excitement that's for sure. I had the opportunity to go to Manila by myself on Friday. I left here at 4am and was home by 3pm. I had someone pick me up and drop my off, so I had someone with me, but at the airport I was just by myself. Weird feeling for sure and it really made me a bit upset. I was on a airplane, but I wasn't on a airplane to go home. It was the weirdest thing, almost like I should be going home, but I'm not. Manila was nice though, lots of people probably talking about me and I didn't understand anything they were saying so that's a plus. I met 2 Sisters from the Olongapo mission at Immigration. One was an American from Michigan. Her family is from Utah. Nice Sister. Her companion was going home, so they were doing the immigration things as well. They were the only others I saw in Manila. I met a couple of members at the airport coming back to Bacolod, they were from Leyte, so they speak Cebuano, so I was able to just hang out with them for a couple of minutes. Most people wouldn't be shocked at an American speaking Tagalog, but when you get to the other languages, they don't understand what you're saying and they start to wonder, so people were just laughing at me... Or shocked I suppose. One of the two. I got all I needed to done though and now I'm cleared to enter The United States of America again ;) 

President Lopez came and interview our investigator for baptism. The couple that is cohabiting and it's super awesome! He passed them! The mom then said that she feels like the biggest burden has been lifted knowing that she can be baptized. So they'll be baptized along with their son this upcoming Saturday at 6pm. You guys wanna come? ;) haha. They're doing really good and the mom asked us how she can share to others about the church. She's self employed, really good business woman actually, and so we're going to give her pamphlets to give to her customers. She's really excited, I'm excited for her as well. 

We had a baptism this past Saturday! Of Brother Inocencio Murillo. His nickname is Bombom! Which is the 2nd bombom I know on my mission. The other one was Bro. Lumacad from Kabankalan. Baptized him as well. I guess Bombom is a good luck charm. I should find some more Bombom's. His baptism was really good though. We had our ward mission leader baptize him because it was his referral originally. His mom was super happy for him too, although she didn't attend. We're going to try and teach his family this week. They have a really busy schedule, but I think we can catch them sometime. His brothers are all in bad situations and he's super stoked that he's gone down this new path of life for the better. It's so nice to see people change their lives right before you eyes. It's such a blessing! I will surely miss it, that's for sure. But the mission still continues, it's just about applying the things I've learned to my own life and to my future family. Which, I'm rather excited about to be honest ;)

There are 3 fiestas in our area is week which was a bummer on our work. Super loud, they go all day and night, the speaker blare with crappy techno music that isn't even close to as being good to dubstep, so it really is just a hindrance to our work. We can't even teach people because it was so loud. We tried to and there was no spirit, the investigator couldn't hear what we were saying, it was just a bum deal. But we still had a baptism none the less, so our week wasn't a total bum deal after all. Successful gihapon sya. Everyone keeps reminding me I"m going home. Members too. I tried to keep it a secret about when I go home, but they as and I just say, I still have a while to go, then they safe when? What month? I say September... then they're like... that's next month! But it's September right now to us. Weird... I go home this month. I never though this month would ever come. Now I have mixed feelings on if I want it to stay or just go away. HA! I'm sure y'all are excited to have my home though. Just be patient with me okay? I may take a couple days to get my English back up to speed. Writing my letters I still have to say all the words in my head until I type them out and even then the spelling wrong and it takes me awhile still. So, just be nice. And let's eat some good food alright? Things are going well still here though. 

We've got tons of investigators that are super hard headed. They'll take months before they finally crack, but then those are the ones that will stay as long as the missionaries keep teaching them. We had a lesson this week where an investigator said there's no way there are 3 kingdoms. We're like really? Let's go to the Bible; We asked the question, Where in the bible does it say there's a Purgatory? No answer. Didn't know. Then we said, however, the Bible does say this, in 1 Cor. 15. So then she's like... "oh..." It was kind of interesting to see her change, but I don't think she accepted it really. She's super hard headed, but they're still a fun family to teach. The youngest one of them who is 20 is a member. He's preparing for a mission and I think I'm going to give him my quad scriptures, the small one that I bought here. He only has a triple paper back. 

Yesterday we had to go to the hospital to give a member a blessing. He's a ward mission leader from a different unit in our stake, but our area has the hospital in it, so we were the ones called. So yesterday we're trying to find this guy and nobody knows where he is, he's not in his room or anything... it's because he was still in the ER, no clue. We finally found him though, gave him the blessing. He's getting his appendix removed. He's also waiting for his mission call. We're happy for him, hopefully the surgery goes well.
I get more and more excited by the day for y'all to come and play with me and make sure that my converts are still going to church! I think Mom is super excited! haha. Love you mom!

This week was good, which me another good week. We'll have a baptism on Saturday! 3 of them! ;) I can't send pictures this week again, sorry. I'll try later tonight if I have time at a different computer shop. This one isn't that good for sending pictures, it won't let you put it a USB or SD Card.
Love you all! Thanks for all the support and prayers! :) 4th quarter y'all. 1 min left to go. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ellis