E-mail dated 7/30/18

Kamusta kamo!!??

Te, sini nge semena okay just kiding it would be way to hard to write the whole email like that! But this week has been a pretty good one! It is so crazy to think that it has almost been a year now out here on the mission. I emailed my batch mates from the MTC and we were just reminiscing about our good times and how fast the time has already flown! I know that this next year is going to go by even faster so I am excited and ready to make the most of it! So this week was a full week, full of experiences, little miracles, and just a full week ups and downs. 

So This week on tuesday we had zone interviews with President Cruz. So on tuesday morning after we ate a great breakfast at McDonalds (yes just as good as in America) we were walking to find a jeepney to ride to go to the mission home to interviews and a very unexpected and awesome thing happened! I ran into Sister Jeny Toledo from nueva valencia, Guimaras my first area. She and her kids were the very first people I was blessed enough to teach and baptize. She was the very first lesson in my whole mission, like day 1 in the field we taught her. She was with 2 other people that I was blessed enough to teach, she was with Nanay Nita and Amanda, 2 amazing people that my trainer and I taught most of the lessons and they were awesome, but we both got transferred, but those 2 got baptized right after we left. It was so so cool to see them again, it had been so long since I had seen them, seeing them again brought me so much joy and happiness. Especially seeing Sister Jeny even tear up a little. I know for sure that Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect, more than we can comprehend. There were so many things that we planned or didn't plan to do that morning and somehow we ran into 3 people that I know so well from a different island, that is no accident. That short encounter with them was just an awesome spiritual boost, it gave me an amazing reminder that, that is why I am here. The gospel has made them so happy and I was blessed enough to be the instrument to bring it to them. I just thought of how there are so many just like them that I could help. so though quick and unexpected, it had a big impact on me. 

Another awesome miracles that we saw in our area this week was, we were able to get 7 new investigators in one day. We have seen the blessing of people just joining lessons or them walking up to us and basically asking us what we are doing here and our response is we would love to tell you why. It has been a pretty good week. As of right now we will be having a baptism in August. Our most progressing investigator right now is Sister Riza. Riza just recently moved from a bad situation into a great one. She now lives with the 2nd counselor in our stake presidency. She is 15 and already is going to seminary and has a ton of friends in the ward. She is really cool and loves to learn about the gospel! 

Also this week we had zone conference and since we are the zone leaders we got to (not had to, but basically had to) give a presentation to the zones. Our presentation was a training that we received at MLC, it is a really great training for me to listen to, but I have never like presenting, but the presentation actually went okay, so that was good! It was my first time, so hopefully It will just become easier if I get the opportunity to do it again! 

Questions…

1. Where were you in the picture you sent home where your companion was on a small bridge over a lot of water?  It looks like the jungle and reminded me of the pictures the boys sent home from Africa. So in that picture we were in the most jungle part of our area, our area is mostly city, but that was a cool picture so i sent it to you. 
2. Is your apartment in the city or is it in a more remote area? City
3. Are you still close to shopping and food places?  Is there a McDonalds in your area? Yup still close, its great! Although no McDonalds in the area, but if there is zonce conference or any meeting we can go.
4. How does being a District Leader compare where you are now to when you were in Iloilo?  Is it the same? Being a Zone Leader is about the same, the difference is the missionaries I am serving with, so I am still getting used to what their concerns are and how I can help them. 
5. How big is the ward?  About how many attend on Sundays? It is a decent sized ward. I have only been there 2 sundays, this sunday we had about 140 ish.

Well It was great to hear from all of you this week! Thanks for everything you guys do for me! You all are the best!!! That should do it for this week! 

Have a great week!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Joshua Degen