Happy Birthday Mom!

Well, I already sent a specific email to Mom, but here it is again:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this week was transfer week. It went mostly as expected. I stayed, Elder Johnson transferred. My new companion is Elder Eastin. He is also from Phoenix. He is pretty cool. I like him. We are doing great so far. Working really hard.

The way I described the progress of Alijis to others last transfer was that if it were an airplane, we were flying along smoothly and then a duck got sucked into the engine and we started heading down. Now we are heading back up.

We found a ton of new investigators this week and taught some really good lessons, unfortunately none came to church this week... Due to requirements set by the Area Presidency here in the Philippines, if none come to church next week and for the next four weeks, we won't have any baptisms this transfer. But that's not really the important thing anyway. As long as they do eventually get baptized. Elder Eastin and I are still exercising our faith that some of the people we found this last week have the potential, drive, faith and all that stuff to be prepared for baptism on December 17... my last Saturday.

I've got a feeling that this transfer is going to fly by. It's only been a week, but with the way we are working time just flies. We just got our zone calender emailed to us too, and they (the office) have a lot planned for us: exchanges, zone activity, leadership trainings, zone leader council, and specialized trainings. And let's not forget the special christmas conference!! That should be way fun. Last year it was just some short inspirational messages, food, and games! With a small gift from the Mission. Towels (bath or hand. Depending on which you want/ needed).

While we have been finding this week we have had many interesting experiences. Many that just come with meeting new people and especially people not interested in our message. We have heard pretty much every excuse, and they are all pretty lame if you ask me. None of the reasons to not listen to us was that they simply weren't interested, they would just lie and say they had somewhere to go or something like that. Also as we meet new people we are exposed to what their beliefs are, and you get some pretty strange ones. Especially the baptists here in the Philippines. They don't know anything. Even the catholics take on a somewhat baptist point of view if it meets their situation. Elder Eastin and I were talking about why people join certain religions and it just reminded me of something we discussed in my Theory of Knowledge class in high school. It was just after reading The Life of Pi. And the two different versions of the story. Which one do you believe and why? Many of us chose the story involving the animals because it made us feel better. It's the same way with religion, we choose what makes us feel good. Nowadays you can pick and choose a religion to meet your lifestyle. If you are lazy and don't want to feel obligated to actually do anything, there are a ton of religions out there for you! I just thought it was interesting.

Well, we are going to continue our hard, full of faith work this week!!
Love you all!!

Elder Phelps