E-mail dated 11/27/17

Kamusta kamo?!! Maayong Adlaw sang Pagpasalamat! (Happy Thanksgiving!) 

It has been another great and busy week!! 

So this week just flew by!! I wish i could tell you everything that happened this week, but I can't! I will just tell you about the best parts! So one of the coolest things this week was when we taught one of our investigators with a baptismal date of dec 17 (The Taton Family) about the word of wisdom. So both of the parents drink coffee every morning and were pretty hesitant at first to even consider stopping, but then we had a great lesson with them. And it wasn't great because my language was perfect or it flowed good, it was great because the spirit was so strong! We explained the word of wisdom simply, but she didn't really understand why she couldn't drink coffee. We then shared some scriptures, I shared 1 Nephi 11:17 

17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.

The spirit was so strong and we promised here that if she has a real desire to be baptized, that she could follow the word of wisdom, even if she may not know exactly why. Sometimes it is hard to do somethings that we may not know they exact reason but, It is so important to remember that we have a loving father in Heaven, so if we know that we don't need to know everything. 

Also this week we had a special training in Iloilo city with President Cruz. The main emphasis of the meeting was about the church's Light the World Campaign. Light The World is all about serving others for 25 days in December. It may just be small service, but thats okay, the idea is to let our light shine before the world and just share happiness with others. Just imagine if all members of the church did this, wow that would have a huge effect. Elder Salamatin and I have made a goal to serve a member or nonmember everyday of December and ask for referrals. I encourage you all to go on LDS.org and do this. Light The World!

1. Did you do anything special for Thanksgiving? Yes. We had a delicious Thanksgiving "Feast"  of rice chicken and  Mtn dew! Also all the elders in our apartment talked about unique holidays we have in our countries since we are all from different countries, it was cool! 
2. Do you have any activities planned with other missionaries coming up? Yes we have Christmas conference on dec 8 with the whole mission, so i get to see my friends from the Mtc.
3. Are you still washing your clothes by hand?  How long does it take you to do laundry and when do you do it?  Isn’t there like a laundromat you could take them to? Yes, but recently I have been paying a member to do it, so pday can actually be pday. When I do it, it takes at least 3 hours and then however long to dry. 
4. Do you have strong priesthood leaders in your Branch?  We have pretty strong preisthood leadership, which is a blessing. We are working on getting 15 active and tithe paying preisthood members so we can get a chapel. 
5. How are you sleeping?  Is it really hot at night and do you sleep with a mosquito net over your bed? I am sleeping great. It isn't hot because we have AC in our bedroom, sooo nice! And no mosquito net.
6. Have you had to do any door-to-door contacting or how do you get your investigators? We have done that a few times. It is fun, instead of knocking you just yell "Tag balay". Most of our investigators come from referrals or just street contacting. 

Well that should do it for this week! Thanks for all the emails, I love you guys!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/20/17

Kamusta Kamo??!! 

Nagkasal si Gavin!! Medyo buang pero malipay gid ako para sa ila. (Gavin is married. Kind of crazy but, I am very happy for them!) 

It sounds like it was such a special day for them. on Wednesday morning (so tuesday night for you guys) I was doing service for a member of our branch and I was thinking about you guys having a good time at the reception. I am glad you were able to read my comments, sorry it was kind of short, but oh well. That cafe rio at the wedding sounds soo good right about now. Especially a good ol taco. mmm. Sorry for fantasizing, but I have had rice for almost every meal for like 8 straight weeks. To be honest, I thought I would get sick of it, but if you are hungry you are hungry so, I don't think I will ever get sick of it. Well, sounds like it was a great wedding day and I am sure you are glad its over and Gavin is out of the house haha just kidding Gavin.

Well This week has been another great and successful week for us here in Nueva Valencia. This area is so awesome and I am so blessed to be here. The field truly is white and already to harvest here. This past week we taught a ton of lessons and we now have 10 investigators with a baptismal date of Dec. 17 (White Christmas). It was such a blessing, to see these people willingness to follow the commandments. 2 of our investigators right now are sisters, the Segovia sisters Nigelle (8) Nicole (10). They are from a part member family, their older sister is the only active one. And even though they are just kids they are so willing to act and follow the commitments we give them. This past week I gave them a Book of Mormon stories book that I bought in the Provo MTC. They are very good at reading English so I was happy to give it to them. They always read it, their older sister even said that they sometimes fight over who gets to read it, haha how awesome. They come to church every week and I am excited for their baptism. As for our other investigators, we are struggling to get them to consistently come to church. It made me sad that they didn't come to church, but I have to remember that people have their agency, but sometimes I wish I could just pick up all of our investigators and bring them to church. But, I know it doesn't work that way, they need to exercise their own faith. So instead of focusing on the negative things, like if an investigator doesn't come to church, I focus on the positive things or the blessings that I have received. It always makes things better, if we focus on the blessings instead of the trials. So I would encourage you all to always focus on the blessings instead of the trials. I know it is hard, its hard for me too, but when you step back and recognize all of the blessings, the trials become smaller, I promise

What part of my testimony has grown the most? Wow that is a tough one, it has grown so much, I am not sure if I can describe it, but I will try. I would say my testimony of Prayer and scripture study has grown the most. These are very simple things, BUT in Alma 37:6 It reads
 6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. 

This scripture has become one of my favorite, while I have been on a mission. Just by doing SMALL and SIMPLE things GREAT things are brought to pass. I can testify of this, even though praying and reading our scriptures may seem very small, I can promise you all GREAT blessing will come to pass if you do those small things.

This scripture also gives me peace with my language. Because here it says, "and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." so even though I can't communicate that great, I can only say Simple things, that is okay, because through small and simple things, great things come to pass.

Well thanks for all the emails and encouragement, I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/13/17

Kamusta Kamo?!

Isa pa maayong semana diri sa pilipinas. (one more good week here in the philippines! That is closest translation) 

So this week has been another awesome week!! There was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth it. So this week we have been trying to get more investigators and invite our progressing investigators to be baptized on Dec 17. And wow we have been so blessed here in Nueva Valencia, we got a ton of new investigators this week and have 5 investigators with a baptismal date of the Dec. 17, what a blessing. The people are so awesome here, one of our investigators who we only taught for about 5 minutes about the Book of Mormon, is already coming to church. Another one of our investigators, Dominic, he is so awesome. So this past week Elder Salamatin and I split on sunday ( a week ago sunday, 8days ago)  because we had so many youth from our branch willing to work with us. And to be honest it was kind of scary, I had to be the one leading everything. But, it was a great experience, while we were on splits we met Dominic, I led the lesson of the restoration in my broken Ilonggo and we invited him to read the restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. When we returned a few days later he had read the Pamphlet and some of the Book of Mormon and we reviewed the restoration with him and invited him to be baptized and he accepted. So I just have to testify that Heavenly Father uses us, no matter how much we have or how skilled we are, he uses us. It is just like the Savior feeding thousands with a couple of loaves of bread and some fish, he uses us for even if we aren't the best in the language or the most skilled at speaking or not good at....whatever, we can all be an instrument in the Lord's hands if we are willing. I am so blessed that Heavenly Father was able to use me, I can do so much more with Him than I could ever do on my own. And I know that you all can have the same experiences in your lives. Reading in your emails that sometimes you are out of your comfort zone when you do new or hard things like sharing the gospel, I am definitely a witness of this. The second day in the provo mtc, we talked about how going out of our comfort zones makes us better and helps us do things that we couldn't before, at the time I didn't really believe that, because at that time I was in a whirlwind of emotions and way out of my comfort zone, but as I have continued to work and PRAY, I have seen this promised fulfilled. So I encourage you all to trust in the Lord and I know that he will make you more than you could ever be on your own. 

Questions…

1. Have you seen any improvement in the language in the past couple of weeks?   ( So to  be honest I don't really see progression in myself, because I just want to be fluent haha. But according to others, I have improved. I just try to learn everyday. Thank you for your prayers, they are much appreciated.)
2. How often to you have activities and/or meetings with other missionaries in your mission?  Are you going to the main island soon? (So every thursday we have district meeting at the jordan chapel with all Guimaras missionaries because we are only one district. Also every monday we all play basketball at the jordan chapel. And on Dec. 8 we are having a Christmas Conference In Ilioilo City with the entire mission, so I get to see my buddies from the MTC, I am excited.
3. You said last week that you walked (hiked) a lot each day.  Any ideas about how many miles you walk a day?  How are your shoes holding up?  Yes, we hike/ walk a lot everyday. I don't know how many miles, they use kilometers here, but I would guess at least 3-5 miles.  My shoes are fine! 
4. What food(s) do you miss the most?  Has anything  really grossed you out? So the foods that I miss the most is definitely Mexican food. I have been emailing tanner and I am so jealous, he is eating tacos everyday.  Basically the only thing that has really grossed me out here is sardines, I just can't do it, they smell so bad. But other than that I have actually began to really like fish.  
5. When do you finish your training?  Are you the first missionary your companion has trained?  I finish my training on dec. 18, but they have moved transfer day to january for some reason, so I will be with Elder Salamatin until january at least, which is great for me, we are doing some awesome work together. And Yes I am the first missionary he has trained. 
6. Describe a typical Sunday.  So sundays are awesome, we wake up, study, and then head to church at 9. This week was another awesome week, we had so many people there again and we took a picture of all of us inside the meeting house and are going to apply for a chapel. After church we return home, eat lunch, then head out to work. On sundays a lot of youth in the branch like to work with us so that is great!

Well Thank you all for the emails and love and support. Have a great week!!

Halong

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/6/17

Kamusta Kamo!!?? 

This week flew by, but what a great week it was! What a blessing families are! As I have been on my mission I have realized what an amazing blessing my family is. I have seen some other families where only some embrace the gospel and others do not, it is sad, but it makes me realized how blessed I am to have the great family that I have and blessed that you all love and support me. Earlier this week I was talking with Bro Rhen Poll ( the very first member from Guimaras to serve a mission) and he said that his family disowned him when he joined the church. But the gospel had changed his life so he stayed faithful and served a mission is manila. He is so awesome, he has helped me so much, he speaks great english, so he helps me with the language. His story just made me think about how blessed I am, so I encourage you all to remember how blessed we truly are to have this gospel and our awesome family! 

So this week we started working in a new part of our area called comian. Comian is a very bukid area. Which means it is very rural, it is literally like hiking in the forest. There is a group in comian and there are a lot of members, but almost all are less active, so we are trying to reactive a lot of less actives and we also have a goal to have 10 people baptized on dec. 16 for a "white Christmas". We already have found a few new investigators and are still finding more, but they do not have a date yet. We walk sooo much in this new part of the area, it is so tiring, but worth it because it has been a while since missionaries have worked there and this area needs the help of the missionaries. 

Also on sunday, we had the most people at church that we have ever had. There was probably close to 80 people crammed into our small meeting house, but it was awesome. Since it was fast and testimony many members bore there testimony about the growth of this area, it is amazing. The field is white and all ready to harvest here. 

1. Do you have any more investigators you are still teaching?  So, we have some, but they are all very knew investigators. We had a good lesson with one of them and invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and I have been praying for her. 
2. How was Halloween on Tuesday?  How do they celebrate Halloween in the Philippines?  So Halloween in the Philippines is actually on Nov. 1 and 2. But, it is very different than american Halloween, here it is more like memorial day, everyone goes to the cemetery and leaves flowers and candles and other things. But, we did have an awesome branch Halloween party. We played games, ate a lot of food, and the youth of the branch insisted I get my face painted. 
3. What are you most looking forward to this week? This week I am most looking forward to seeing the progress of all of our new investigators. 

Thanks everyone for the emails and the updates on everything!

I love you all! 

Palangga Ko kamo!

Halong

Elder Degen