Transfer Week

1/23/11
Wow, sounds like a good week back home. Things went well here too. Last week was transfer week, the actual transfer day took place on Wednesday this time. They are trying something new, and it worked really well so it will probably stay that way. So here is how Wednesday worked. The La Carlota and Bacolod South zones met at the San Enrique Checkpoint. And there we found out where the transferring companion were going. Then they all caught Ceres and headed to their next checkpoint where they would meet their new companions. Then we waited for our new companions to arrive. My comp is Elder Reidhead. He is from Snowflake, Arizona. Elder Daniels is his trainer and said that he is really cool, and he is. Its also cool that Elder Daniels is in our house too. So Elder Reidhead was coming from far away and didn't get to San Enrique until just before noon, but I had good company while I was waiting. Elder Hernandez was there, he is back and I haven't talked to him in a long time so it was fun to catch up. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We didn't get quite as many lessons as we had hoped for, but we still did good.


Sunday was really good. We got two investigators to come to church for the first time. And we had the highest overall attendance the whole time I have been here- 44. A disappointment though was that the less-actives that we had visited and they said that they would come to church, didn't come... We were saddend by that. So we went to their houses to talk to them, but they weren't home.

We went and visited one of the investigators that came to church for the first time later that night. After the lesson she started talking about her experience at church. I had asked her how it was before we started but all she said was that it was nice. Now she talked about how she had prayed for a sign that she could/should go to church, from what she told me she kind of made the sign happen. She chose that she would go, so she came with the Tilanas family. She said that as soon as she entered the building she was comparing her feelings there to the ones she had when she attended the Catholic. She said that as soon as she entered she wasn't worried anymore. The things bothering her and all her worries were gone, she just felt at peace. She said she really liked that feeling and felt that God had shown her where she needed to be.

It's when I hear about experiences like that that I don't feel shy or doubting when I promise people that they will feel peace, the Holy Ghost and God's love for them when they come to church. In the same lesson Michael and his mom were there and shared their experience with coming to church. Those were really cool to hear too. The Tilanas family is awesome! Although Nanay (Mom) has seemed to develop this need to feed us, even if we aren't teaching them that night.She and Michael came to some other appointments with us and then we were going to head home. Nanay asked if we were going to stop by the house, I said that our appointment with them was tomorrow, she still just asked "So, are you going to stop by the house?" She knew that our curfew was still an hour away. So to answer the question I flipped a coin. Jose Rizal, the Philippine hero on the piso, said that we would stop by the house. and that resulted in us getting food.

Well, we are looking forward to a good week, and we have some (more) new referrals from the Tilanas family to teach. Our investigators are doing great and I love teaching them. Sharing with them the gospel message.

Michael is still undecided if he will serve a mission, I'm going to tell him that if he converts his girlfriend, who lives in Brunei and is a Muslim, when she comes to visit in April, then he doesn't have to serve a mission and he can continue in his awesome missionary work just here in Ayungon.

Well, love from the Philippines. Man, the hot season is getting closer, and we can feel it.

Elder Phelps