E-mail dated 8/6/18

Kamusta Kamo??!

Well another week has just flown by. My emails usually start off with the same kind of dumb sayings, but thats because I am just typing and thinking what I should tell you all about this week at the same time. This week was another good week, lots of rain, lots and lots of rain, but also lots of new investigators and little miracles. On saturday I think it was pouring rain all day, literally all day just dumping buckets, its really fun because I think the Philippines forgot to invent something called a drain. 

So a little miracle experience that I would like to share with you all happened last monday night. So last monday night after our pday we went out to work and all the people we planned to go to were busy or were not home. So there we were walking in the dark in the rain not really knowing what we were going to do. As we were walking I guy under a waiting shed thing called out to us and asked us where we were going and what we were doing, we then sat down and talked with him, a super nice young probably 20 something year old guy. As we talked to him just had a nice simple conversation and then it moved to the topic of church and he had so many questions and he just really wanted to know what is the truth. We talked to him for a while and didn't answer all of his questions, but I felt prompted by the spirit to tell him that this is what he is looking for. I remember just feeling the spirit so strong it was almost as if it wasn't me saying the words. It was so cool, we also felt prompted to say a prayer right then and there before we left, which we normally don't do, but after the prayer we set a return appointment and later in the week we had an awesome first lesson with him, brother jason. I am super excited to continue to teach him. I know that I was and am so grateful for being led by the spirit. I have such a strong testimony that everything happens for a reason, Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect. I am grateful that we all have the opportunity to be led and guided by the spirit if we are seeking for it. 

So that was probably the coolest experience of the week. We are still finding a lot more new investigators and still have a consistent investigator, Sister Riza living with the 1st counselor in the stake presidency. She is still doing great and progressing towards baptism, she is reading the book of mormon diligently and will be prepared for he baptism on August 18. I have seen a lot of little miracles in this area since I got here and it is great. ALso this week we had the chance to eat at McDonald's twice to that is always a great blessing. Tasted like america! 

Questions…

1. Is it different being a Zone Leader over sisters rather than Elders?  I would assume that the Sisters follow all the rules and don’t cause any trouble, right? (wink, wink) Well being a zone leader here is a little different than in my last area. So here we have STL's (sister training leaders) that get all the stuff and report to us from all the sisters , then we just have the other elders. So its a little different, but basically the same, don't get to go on many exchanges or stuff like that, but it is still good. 
2. Have you had the chance to bear your testimony in your new Ward yet? Yes I did my first week in the ward. I haven't given a talk in sacrament meeting since my first area, haha. I hope you guys aren't expecting me to come back and be good at public speaking, because it looks like thats not going to happen. 
3. Any fun activities coming up soon? Hopefully we will be having a last distrcit/zone activity before elder schley goes home, but other than that we have MLC coming up soon next week, thats not really an activity, but there is always great food so that should be great. 
4. Are you going to do anything on Thursday to acknowledge your one year mark? As of right now I don't have anything planned, but I will find something to do in commemoration!  

Well that should do it for this week! I can't believe that this coming week I will have been out for one whole year. Man, it has been an amazing year, learned more than I could have ever imagined. There is nothing else more important than this, that I could have done in the last year and there is nothing more important than this, that I could do in this coming year. I am so grateful that I made the decision to serve a mission and I am looking forward to all of the great and awesome experiences that await in this next year.  Love you all!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Joshua Degen