LIVING the gospel WILL help their lives

Sounds like your week was really busy. Ours was alright. Saturday was the highlight though. Looks like Shellie's Concert was good as always. Sounds like the music selection was pretty good too. I miss those concerts. It is kind of strange that it was Kat's last one.

So, while you all are getting ready to end the school year, here they are gearing up to start again. Summer is almost over here and the rainy season is fast approaching. I need to get an umbrella... I'm also hoping to get a new bag with the back to school sales going on. The Questar bag just can't quite handle missionary life.

Hmmm, Hot Fuzz. Actually saw some of that here. An investigator was watching it when we went to visit him. Oh, I just thought i would mention this, pirated movies are really big here, AND good quality. Like you can already get Percy Jackson and Iron Man 2 on DVD. And the DVDs come with Six movies on them. It's pretty crazy. And there are security guards where they sell the movies, guarding them.

Right! Natalie turns 16 in just under two weeks! I actually have that written in my planner so I don't forget it. That's pretty crazy to think about. Then she'll be driving, maybe...

Seminary Graduation. I remember that. Fun stuff. The best part though is always the refreshments. We tell our youth age investigators about all the fun activities they do (just last week was the stake youth conference). They usually have an activity once a week, and there are always refreshments, sometimes we stop by, just for the refreshments. "Elders, hampang?" "Nah, kaon lang kami." (Play. Nah, We'll just eat.) Sometimes we join in though.

Lapit na ang pagulan!!! Rainy season is close. So, time for my week. The beginning was very normal, but the end was hectic. Friday Elder Lecheminant had a leadership conference. So Thursday night we had the zone leaders come up here and interview Bro. Romero for baptism. Then we all headed to Bacolod. We stopped in Talisay to meet up with the other district leader and the Talisay elders. I stayed there while Elder LeChem, the other district leader, Elder Tiu, and the zone leaders, Elder Winegar and Elder Hamblin continued to Bacolod so they could go to the meeting in the morning. The four of us in Talisay had a sleepover. In the morning we had a service project where we knocked down part of a house. Then after showering in the afternoon Elder Larsen, Elder Tiu's comp, and I went to Bacolod to get our companions and head home. We caught an Air-con Ceres back to Cadiz. That makes the trip a million times better.

Saturday we had some appointments in the morning, but the big event was Brother Romero's baptism! That went really well. Considering we were worried because our original planned speakers had gone to Cebu to volunteer at the open house. But they were able to get new ones just fine and they did a really good job. The talks were good for Bro. Romero, but also for those who attended. I was just so happy the whole time. Same feelings on Sunday when Brother Romero was being confirmed. He is going to be a good member, eventually the whole family will. That's what this is about. Not just baptizing people, but building strong members and showing them how LIVING the gospel WILL help their lives.

Well, until next week!
Elder Phelps