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