My Hope and Faith Remains Bright

Okay, here is what happened (with no email) last week. I was halfway through writing my email, when there was a power outage! We waited a little while to see if it would come back, but nothing, so we went home. Turns out the power was out for nearly 24 hours and that made things hard at the house. Without power it is hard to cook, and we didn't have water either because the pump didn't have power to get the water to the house. So, the first part of my email is really the email from last week. Enjoy!

Transfer Announcements!!!!

Yeah, already that time of the transfer! This last transfer just flew by! No idea where it went. But just for fun, I'll save the announcements for the end of the email.

This last week went really well. The work is still a little slow, but we have new investigators and have received a bunch of referrals. The new investigators we have are all progressing and doing really well. Two, Helbert Roa and KenJay Estares, are attending seminary. Helbert is excited to work on scripture mastery. He's been an investigator for a week! They attended the baptism on Saturday too. More about that later.

So we spent lots of time trying to find new investigators and visit less-active members. Neither of which went the way we would have had them go. The we found people that would let us teach them once, then they never want to hear from you again. Have found a lot of people like that here in San Enrique. That is why we are spending so much time finding, because we keep losing them. The less-actives we found really don't want to come back. We asked multiple times in one sitting, and got multiple answers. True answers, but I doubt any were the real reason. But my hope and faith remains bright. With Helbert and the others it shows me that there are still people willing to listen to be found and converted. Not just converted, but allowing them to obtain exaltation.

The baptism of Mia (that was very Ilonggo, [ang pagbunyag ni Mia]) went really well on Saturday. There were many that attended and the service was really nice. I was the one to baptize her. By her choice. I could tell that she was a little scared to go down under the water, and I tried my best to comfort her, that I would be holding her arm and bring her right back up. Still had to do it twice though.

Okay, transfer announcements! This is what we are all really waiting for!. Elder Panilagao is transferring and becoming a District Leader. I will be staying here in San Enrique, which I am excited about, and I will also be the senior companion, little less excited about that. For mom, Elder Panilagao goes home in July, still some time to go.

So, transfer day went just as normal. My new comp is Elder Whitman. He is from Santaquin, Utah. He arrived here in the Philippines the last week of June. I've lived with a Filipino for the last three months, I almost forgot what it is like to live with an American. Neither is a bad thing, you just do things differently. So, on Friday we had just a couple of appointments, so we visited some members (Branch President) so they could meet the new missionary. The work is going well, senior isn't quite as hard as I thought it would be, but it's only been four days, there haven't been any problems to deal with, and Elder Whitman is good at the language.

So, something awesome that happened just the other day was we went to visit Helbert and Kenjay. They are really doing great. They liked church, love seminary, and are building up relationships with the members. But the really good thing is that Helbert's mom called his dad, in Manila, and asked about Helbert being baptized, and he (the dad) said yes! We thought we were going to have a problem with that, because he is in Manila and won't be home until April! But now he and Kenjay can be baptized on the same day! That means we have three baptisms on one day! We were going to have one on October 9, but that is conference here so all three are on the 16th.

Yeah, I'll be 20 tomorrow. I don't think it is quite as weird as Stuart did. It is still different, but since I have friends here to celebrate with, it is still going to be fun. But of course we will still be working tomorrow!!

I'm trying to think of deep insights I have had in the last couple of weeks, but I can't seem to remember them while I'm sitting in front of the computer., Maybe next week!.

Elder Phelps