Elder Joshua Degen's Mission Blog: E-mail dated 10/30/17

Kamusta Kamo!!!

This week is a week that I will remember for the rest of my life! I don't think that I can put into words the feelings and experiences that I have had this week, but I will sure try. The gospel is so true, wherever in the world, it doesn't matter, its true everywhere. A mission is not an easy task, but its weeks like this one that make it sooo worth it!!

So I will jump right to saturday (baptism day!!). On saturday it was raining, no absolutley pouring, like dumping buckets. It was the worst storm I have seen while I have been here. So becuase of the rain the baptism did not start exactly on time. The plan was to meet at a members house at 8, then walk (more like Hike) to the designated beach for the baptism. But it wasn't until about 10 until we were able to start the baptism, but it all worked out great. When the baptism started, it was only sprikling. To start the baptism we sang some hymns and had a few remarks by a member of the branch (sam, a 23 year old that works with us a lot and is preparing for a mission) and also elder sasa shared some remarks. Then the baptisms of 7 (Miko Geadalanga, Jay Mel Gedaca, Jeah Mae Silvestre and the Toldeo Family (4)) people took place and I had the amazing opportunity to baptize them all!! I have never felt such joy as I did when I saw all of our investigators smiling dressed in white. It is truly an indescribable feeling to be able to baptize someone and to see how happy they are afterwards. It is a day that I will never forget, I was smiling for the rest of the day. Just like in the scriptures, "this is my joy", that is so true! After the baptism, all of the newly baptized members, bore their testimonies, and I felt the spirit so strong!! While sister Jeny Toledo bore her testimony she teared up testifying that she knows that this is the true church. It was such an amazing experience to witness how much the gospel has changed their lives. I am so blessed to be a part of this great work!! (I will send Pictures of the baptism)

Now questions:

Do they celebrate Halloween there at all? Are you doing anything special on Tuesday to celebrate? They do celebrate halloween, but I do not know for sure what it is like, I know that we have a branch halloween party on nov 1. That's about all I know, I will tell you about it next week.
I know you have told me that you usually eat at someone’s house for dinner. What do you typically have for breakfast and lunch? Have you adjusted to the food? Wow good question, it really depends on the day. a lot of times for breakfast, theses sisters from our branch come by and sell us breakfast, and other times i go across the street to a little tsanggi (like a convience store, sort of, more like a little shop with food in someones house) for lunch we either go to a little cafe down the street or cook rice or ramen noodles.
Are all of your Church meetings in Ilongo? Do many of the members of your Branch speak English? The church meetings are like 70 percent ilonggo and 30 percent english, I understand what is going on so thats good. There are about 3 or 4 that speak really good english, and the rest try to speak english but, they can't, but I feel for them because I can't speak Ilonggo haha.
Have you been asked to speak in Church yet? I bore my testimony the first week and two weeks ago i gave a talk. The talk went suprisingly well, I tried to do it all in ilonggo.
Did any more of the envelopes that I have sent arrive yet? I have sent several – at least once a week. They probably have, but they are at the mission home, which is on a different island, so hopefully i can get them soon, when we go to the mission home.
Does it still rain everyday? Shouldn’t you be coming in the dry season soon? It usually rains at least a little bit everyday, it depends though.