I hope this stone cut out of the mountain without hands just keeps going!

OK guys, it’s not even funny how fast time is going!  And a quick shout out to Alex Thayne for getting hitched and Brianne Pederson for getting engaged!  But hey, back to the life!  Monday we taught Marvin, who is doing well and feels like the Book of Mormon is true, but hasn’t asked God yet, so we talked about that!  We also taught Jess and he’s still solid!  Tuesday we helped the sisters move!  And the term “Bakit why” was coined there as well.  Good time with the district!  In the afternoon we taught a referral, but he just got up halfway through the lesson and said he had to go… that was weird!  We taught Al, who is still the man.  We went out to Aguso (?) and met Kim, a 17-year-old less active (who came to church on Sunday) at the house of a different less active, Michelle!  We also taught Harvey and at the last second we chose to read about Ammon chopping off arms to get this 9-year-old’s attention.  Hey, it got my attention when I was nine! 

Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Burnett, who was back in my district in my last area!  I learned a lot from him.  We taught a contact, Ferdinand. He’s really nice and he was interested in how his life could improve after baptism.  We went with Al to teach Rheyn, who wasn’t home, but we met his mom and it turns out that his parents are less active members!  Whaddayaknow!  We finally taught JR Ramos, and old referral, and he’s got tons of potential, a rock-solid support system and a baptismal goal date for next month!  We finished at Ben’s, whose real problem is the fear of what his mom says/thinks about him investigating/joining another church and his testimony isn’t that strong yet.  Thursday we visited the 1^st counselor in the bishopric, Brother Fernando, and his family.  They are super awesome in their callings and happy to do missionary work!  We taught Harvey and he was more engaged in the lesson this time!  The Lord also provided dinner for us in that far out area by the way of Sister Lorry, Harvey’s less active grandma.  Blessings!  We taught Kim and Michelle, which went ok!  I just feel like it’s hard for them to get into the lessons.  In the evening we visited with Kris and Lourdes and Ben as well, for the first time in a very long time.  We showed the Restoration video, but it didn’t quite have the effect we hoped it would.  But overall, Thursday was a good day!

Friday we had weekly planning, which is something we are getting better at!  Then we had exchanges with the Victoria elders again but this time I was with Elder Naylor! I got to interview their candidate Hannah who is SO prepared.  That was a treat!  Little did I know that as I was interviewing, Elder Naylor, a greenie halfway through his training, just started teaching her dad the Restoration for the first time by himself!  I was impressed!  And we taught a couple other lessons and it was a really good exchange.  Elder Naylor is pretty awesome.    That night I was able to talk to his kabahay as well who was having a hard time in his companionship.  I felt I was able to help…I hope so.  Saturday was another good day!  We visited Lito, our investigator who is really sick and weak.  We were able to bring him some mangoes and bananas, because that is what he is eating nowadays.  We taught Al, then Mina, who accepted a new goal date for April if she gets an answer.  She isn’t asking God, but I really hope she will!  We had a good lesson with Marvin and Ami, where Marvin opened up about some concerns with the Word of Wisdom keeping him from progressing towards baptism, almost disqualifying himself.  But we were able to help him see the big picture by teaching the Plan of Salvation.  They committed to come to church (but the whole family except for Marvin came…gah!).   We taught Kris, Lourdes and Oliver all about how the answer to which church is true is no farther away than the Book of Mormon, and Lourdes committed to come to church (And she did!  Kris couldn’t and Oliver was sleeping).  We finished up at Jess’s and they are as good as ever.

Eating poptarts at the mission office with Elder Naylor

Sunday Anwar, our ward mission leader, was finally released (He is so hard-working but he just got called as Stake Young Men’s President so he really doesn’t have time) and Brother Jose Evangelista, whom we’ve already been visiting, is the new ward mission leader!  Exciting stuff!  And we had 2 investigators (Lourdes and Carlos) and 3 less actives (Allan, Al and Ami) come out to church! 

With Al and Lourdes

Oh, and Sonny and Wilma hit their one year mark as members!  And Sonny gave me a nice pair of shoes that his aunt in Chicago sent him but they don’t fit him!  Cool!  Blessings!  After church there was a huge grass fire behind our apartment and the smoke was super thick!  And the fire got within like four feet of our apartment…Pretty crazy! 

We taught our recent converts, Teresa and Lolita, and then while trying to visit an investigator this drunk guy we now caught us one by one in a death grip handshake and “blessed” us and told us how much he loved us…I was laughing really hard.  We walked through a part of our area where it’s kind of like a maze and somehow we ended up on the complete opposite side of our area…Weird, like a portal!  We taught the Ong family.  Then we taught Allan Victoria about getting to the temple and he wants to, but says that’s going to take a lot of preparation.  We let him now we’re here to help him, and he was kind of touched I think.  He noted that we were the first elders who talked to him about getting to the temple. 

So this week was pretty awesome!  I loved it, and I hope this stone cut out of the mountain without hands just keeps going!

-Elder Christensen

P.S.  I saw the new hundred dollar bill for the first time while on exchanges with Elder Naylor.  I’ve never seen uglier money.  Sorry, but I just had to record that; it’s that bad.

Old Spice in the Philippines!