Date
July 21, 2019
Area
Santa Monica, Palawan
Companion
Elder Greener
sta monica 7/21/19
Hey im doing great.
District council meeting was really fun. We had a discussion about conversion and how to gain conversion to jesus Christ. It was cool to hear the other missionaries share about when and how they gained testimonies and what they did to receive them. It was
touching to hear how their personal testimonies changed the way they are. Super awesome. Afterward we did practice teaching and the transferring missionaries bore their testimonies. It was a really fun time and im really excited for next week.
It has also been fun doing ministering calls and other stuff as district leader. Its super fun to be a bigger part in caring for the missionaries in my district. I am super excited to keep doing that. Elder bickmore and I decided that one a transfer, that
we would go over to the other apartment of elders and do a book of Mormon discussion with them and talk about the transfer and council about how we can improve and grow. It was a really cool experience as we sat in a circle and shared our insights on the
scriptures and talked about how we improve using the book of Mormon. The spirit was super strong. Elder bickmore and I felt that it went really well and im excited for more to come. Elder bickmore and I went on exchanges that whole day. It was SO fun.
I love my man elder bickmore. He was my very first district leader and its so weird that he is about to go home. We worked in his area and got to teach some awesome lessons. We taught this less active family about the gospel, and related it to the book
of Mormon. The family was really receptive and promised to start reading again. Throughout the day, we taught a few more of the people he was teaching. It was awesome. I love his ability to ask inspired questions. I loved his style of teaching. I really
felt the spirit while we taught and im so glad for the type of missionary he allowed himself to become on his mission. He is such a great guy.
I did ministering calls the other day, and I saw elder bickmore staring at me. As I finished, he said “I feel like a dad watching his son drive the car for the first time” its funny but so true.
Another awesome thig that happened was that we got to teach dianne’s boyfriend. Originally she was scared to ask him if he wanted to be taught, but now after she has been back to church, we showed up to her house and she had invited her boyfriend to listen.
It was super awesome. We are so exited because she is gonna be there every step of the way to help him progress. He committed to read and pray. It was awesome.
Friday- today was an awesome day. I started with personal study in the morning. I pondered some of the goals I wanted to accomplish as a district this transfer. I want us as a district to become 1) more converted to jesus Christ 2)to improve the quality
of our worship (studies) and 3) to make the book of Mormon central to our lives. As I thought of these goals, I thought of all the great experiences over my mission which have helped me personally progress towards these things. I thought back to waking up
at 4am each morning sick to my stomach, and then reading for 2 hours from the book of Mormon. Those days, though painful in the moment, helped me to develop a passion for the book of Mormon and helped me become a better missionary. I also thought about how
my personal study has helped me learn to recognize the spirit. Through my own personal study, I was able to learn how the spirit speaks to me and identify it’s promptings out in the work. Through specific prayers, and pondering, we allow the spirit to direct
us and to give us guidance in the work. I am really excited for this transfer and hope that I can help the district become better disciples of jesus Christ.
I also got to do my very first baptismal interview today. It was SO COOL. I interviewed sister mary angelle quedon, one of the people that elder bickmore and elder grothe are teaching. We started with a prayer and by talking about her experience with the
missionaries. We read the scriptures together and talked about what the gospel meant to us. It was really cool to see how much she loved the gospel and how excited she was to make a covenant with heaveny father. Before I asked the questions, the spirit
impressed on my mind that she was ready. It was a super spiritual experience and I was super grateful to be a part of it. Being able to do those interviews is so awesome because you get to see the change that these people have made and how much their life
has been blessed by the gospel. It was a blessing to be a part of and I am excited for more to come.
The rest of the day we had weekly planning and then went out to work. The work was really hard at first. We were working in a harder part of the area. We talked amonst ourselves about how little was happening in the area and how we needed to start focusing
elsewhere. We started walking, a little sad with the lack of people to teach, when a little boy ran up to us and told us that his family are new members from roxas. We asked him to show us his house and we went to meet them. It turns out that the kid is
an active member but his parents have never been to church. We taught a lesson on the restoration of the gospel and tied it into being a family forever. It was really great and the spirit was really strong. I was grateful that the lord gave us that miracle
when we really needed it. It was a great day.
On Saturday we got to attend the baptism of angelle which was really cool.It was even cooler that mary anne and her kids went, to see what a baptism is like. I think it made her even more excited for their baptism. Her and a man named ramil both went to church
this week.
I met ramil on exchanges with elder Asay. Before going home, we had a challenge to talk to everyone we met on the way. I spotted ramil sitting on a bench and plopped myself next to him and started talking to him. He told us that he had been taught by missionaries
before and used to go to church. Its been super fun teaching him because he is actively reading the book of Mormon. He reads the reading assignments we give, in addition to his straight read through of the book of Mormon. He showe us that the other day,
that he wanted to read it all the way through in addition to the assignments. He is really hesitant about baptism right now but that’s okay. I know that as he keeps searching the scriptures, that he will gain the desire for himself.
We also got to teach this awesome family for the first time. The tudan family. They were taught years ago and were really excited for us to go over. The way we met them is that we were formerly teaching their neighbors. We decided that we needed to stop
teaching the neighbors, but first asked if they had any friends we could visit. They gave us the tudan family. The family is awesome. The first thing they asked us is if they could be baptized in our church. They explained that they used to be taught by
the missionaries and went to church a few times. We were so excited. While teaching them the restoration, everything seemed to click so well with them. They asked again about baptism and committed to go to church and read the book of Mormon. They already
had plans for Sunday yesterday, but said they would start going next week. It is such a blessing to be teaching them. They are so receptive and we are so excited.