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…
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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