Elder Joshua Degen's Mission Blog: E-mail dated 8/13/18

Kamusta Kamo!!??

1 year na ako sa mission! Well this past week I hit my 1 year mark in my mission and it was crazy to just look back and think what I have done in this past year. Its weird, I remember so vividly the day I entered into the MTC, eating at cafe rio before and everything. In a way that didn't seem so long ago, but a lot has happened since that day, probably a lot more than I thought would and it has been such an awesome year. Pres. Cruz relates coming into the mission to making a sword ( he has showed us a video), it starts out as just raw materials, but by the end it is a sharp and shiney sword. It is very true, coming in one year ago, I was like those raw materials, in the language especially and in everything else. But looking back on this past year, I have seen how Heavenly Father has helped me grow and learn so much, and I am blessed to be able to be an instrument in his hands. This past week I have studied a lot about the Holy Ghost, and looking back I can see countless times, where the Holy Ghost has led and guided me what to say, what to do, or where to go, that is such an amazing blessing in our lives.

So anyways this week has been a pretty good, got a lot of work done and I am pretty tired as usual after a good ol week of work. I have seen a lot of blessings this week again. One really great blessing we got was, Bro Jason, the one I told you all about last week, who kind of just called us out on the street to talk to him, He came to church yesterday!! Wahooo! Jason is an awesome guy, super humble and just wants to know the truth. He has already told us that he will come again next week, I am excited to continue to teach him. We were blessed to be able to find him or I guess he found us.

Also this week we have been continuing to teach Riza, but due to the difficult of her schedule, we will probably move her baptism to the 25th, my birthday, which is fine by me, I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday! As we taught sister Riza we have seen her feel the joy of the gospel, when we first began she would talk so quitely that we could barley even here her, but now she is always smiling and asking good questions.

On Thursday to celebrate my 1 year mark, Elder Schley and I Order 2 pizzas, one for each of us! It was soo good! Good way to celebrate. That is the good thing about being in the city we have all the good food and the pizza was delivered to us!

Questions…

Is it still raining a ton? Do you have a rain coat you can use and rain boots? haha nope. just my good ol umbrella. It is rainy season right now so basically at any moment it could rainy, no matter how hot or sunny it is.
Do the members in your Ward feed you dinners? If so, what do you get fed the most? We get fed sometimes, it is mostly just unexpected dinner appointments, filipinos are so nice, even if they have no idea who you are they invite you to eat. and sometimes members just refuse to let us leave until we eat.
About how many lessons do you teach in a week? Do you have a weekly goal? We always have goals, but it usually varies week to week because of if we have meetings or something. BUt the most lessons I have gotten in one week on my mission was over 30, I don;t remember the exact number.
Have most of the members there been to the temple? I think the closet temple is in Cebu, right? Is that a long distance and is it finally hard for some? I don't know about most, but a good amount have been. Cebu is the closest and it is hard, but usually there is a ward or branch temple trip once or twice a year to help people get there.