Investigators attend Church + Baptisms set = I'm getting transferred again!

Look who's droppin' in this morning!

P-day pics from last week:

How's everyone doing in the United States!? ;) Having one of your best friends get married over the weekend makes me feel super excited! That's so cool! What a blessing it is that we can be together forever with our families and the ones that we love the most. No matter what happens to them or us, we're still together forever! The biggest blessing in my mind that has ever been given to us on earth, to have the knowledge and the Plan of Salvation. In 22 weeks I'll be with you again in the land of the free! :) Needless to say, I miss home, but it's all good. Nothing a little bit of fried chicken and unlimited rice can't cure. Training is going well, it's a bit rough, my companion is a little shy, but what new missionary isn't shy about talking to complete random people about the gospel right? So all is going well and I"m not complaining that much. Well, not really at all. All is going well. Our area is doing good, well, better I guess I should say. This week we had 80% of our investigators that we're actively teaching at church, so I'm going to take that as a success! There were only 2 of them that weren't at church that we were hoping would be there. This week was our Branch Conference, so we had a lot of leaders from La Carlota District attend, the branch leaders did a lot of work this week, finally, and they visited like all the less actives and made sure they were going to church so that we looked good in front of the district leaders. So our chapel was super super full. It's super small to begin with, like the size of the overflow part of our stake center. Yeah... that small. I think we probably had 85 in attendance yesterday compared to our usual 50+. So it was a good week. 

San Enrique Branch missionaries

Our investigators John Paul, Christian, and Michael are doing good. They're all 14 years old, friends, and they have dates for May 24. We're just going to have all our investigators go on May 24 I think. I think the branch would get mad if we just split them all up and went every week, waste of water maybe? I don't know, haha. They're doing good. They're all in 1 Nephi Chapter 2 of the Book of Mormon right now, I know that's not that far, but it's far for a Filipino okay? At least they're reading every day, so I'm proud of them. If they can sit down and read 10 verses without stopping, then we consider that a success! So they're doing awesome. We love teaching them too. There's also these like neighbor 8-12 year old girls that come to every single one of our lessons. There's about 7 of them. They all have a Book of Mormon and they read and they listen. We can't commit them to baptism because of their parents, but they always want to listen. Hopefully in due time, they remember everything and when they grow up they'll be pricked in their hearts to join the church. I want to slowly just start teaching all their parents, it's hard with work and everything, but I think it's something that we can try and do. 

Amor and Jeremy are doing well. This is the mom and daughter that have been investigators forever! Since the time of my batch mate and they still haven't been baptized. They came this Sunday though and we've also set them for the 24th of May. Hopefully they continue to go to church. We've left everyone with one week extra just for an emergency or they miss for some reason, so I hope that all works out. I'm sick of working and nothing happening. I guess that's why I got sent here and not to Europe or something because I'd just get super angry with not having a lot of success I suppose. I don't know, but it's going better now than before in San Enrique, so at least we've got some pluses going for us now. 

The Comporaso family, the less actives with the 9 year old daughter that we're teaching we are church now for 2 weeks in a row! I think we'll actually baptize her on the 10th of Mayand so we're looking forward to that! It's proven once the branch reaches out and invites and fellowships them, they'll come to church and hey look, it'll produce a baptism! What do ya know?! We're happy right now. We were actually way stoked yesterday at our attendance so we're looking to have a good week this week!

I've been having some really good Book of Mormon reading this week. I'm back in Helaman and then 3rd Nephi again and I just love it every time. It also frustrates me how dumb the Nephites are sometimes. I mean, the smartest and the dumbest. Falling back into sin and transgressions. It's like, you should've learned your lesson the first time sort of deal. Then I thought to my own self how many times did I have to fall in order to learn my lesson finally. So, it's been really good and now, I don't want to fall anymore. I've learned so much and I've been a lot better mindset with life and things. I want to be a better person! Do better in school. Study harder. And definitely be a better member of the church when I get home. I love the church, just never showed it that much. But that'll change when I get home! Magnify my callings and be a better member!

Making Bukko Salad

I love y'all back home! Thanks for the thoughts and support! I miss you and love you still. Time is flying. I'll be home before ya know it ;) Have a great week!

Halong Pirme,

Elder Ellis ;)

PS.  I'm getting transferred.  I think I'm going to Kabunkalan zone. I don't know which area or who my comp is, but that's all I know so far. Love you guys and wish y'all the best. I sure miss you tons.