E-mail dated 9/24/18

Kamusta Kamo!!?

Well it has been another quick week! It was great to hear from all of you again! Well this week will mark one year in the philippines!! One year ago I arrived here in the mission field. I remembering just being in awe of how cool the philippines are! And now one year later everything that was so foreign about the philippines before, just seems so normal now. You asked me if I knew what I know now, would I still want to serve in the Philippines, and the answer is 100 percent of course I would! I have no doubt that this is the place that Heavenly Father has called me to, I love this place and these people so much! 

It has been a great week! We have kind of been running all over the place with different responsibilities and other stuff. The most interesting was when almost the entire zone either was affected because one sister got sick, haha we got so many phone calls. Getting updates, asking if they can visit..asking for a blessing..ect.. It is interesting be a zone leader over 8 sisters and 4 elders, haha we get so many calls from the sisters. It is good experience though, i guess!  

For sure the best part of this week was our baptism on Saturday! Sister Riza was baptized! Saturday Morning was a little stressful though... we went to the church early and our WML hadn't set anything up yet so we began to set things up and fill the font, and we quickly realized that there was no water at the church! So we began calling all the people we could to try to figure out what we could do. we ended up going to another chapel that was close and did it there. But once that madness was all taken care of it was an awesome baptism! It was special to watch Pres Tigulo baptism Riza! And after Riza was baptized she shared a simple but powerful testimony and she cried. As she was bearing her testimony she said she was just so grateful of how the church has changed her life. While watching her bare her testimony, it was powerful. Watching that just makes everything that is hard about a mission soooo worth it. It is so true what it says in D&C "How great shall be your joy if ye bring, save it be one soul unto me." Thats why a mission is so cool. It is the most important work and I am blessed enough to be a part of it!

Also the Gabawa Family is doing great. They still really want us to come everyday! It is so fun to teach them, they just want to know all they can about the gospel. We taught the word of wisdom and they committed to live it, even if it will be hard, I know Heavenly Father will help them because they have such sincere desire! 

Well That should do it for this week! I love and appreciate all of you so much! 

palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 9/17/18

Kamusta Kamo!?? 

Its been another great week! And first things first I am perfectly safe and sound. The Typhoon did not really hit here, just a little. There was a ton of hype about it though. I saw the picture on the news as we were walking by and that storm looked huge, luckily it did not hit here. We were required to prepare in case it did hit, and the day it was coming through here, it wasn't even that bad, really windy and on and off rain, we actually worked for most of the day when it came through here. 

Well other than the typhoon it has been a really good week here in Lapaz! Especially because our investigator Riza passed her interview and she will be baptized this saturday!! We are so excited for her. She is living with the 1st counselor in the stake presidency (her uncle) because her family situation isn't good, but as we have taught her, we have seen the change in her. When I first met her she talked in a whisper and was super quiet, but now she has been attending seminary, accepted the gospel and she is happier now. This will be the first baptism in this area for the whole year. We have seen so many blessings! This area used to be the zone leader area of the biggest zone in the mission, but now since the zones split, the area is improving! 

Another great thing this week was that the Gabawa Family is doing great! Ever since we set their baptismal goal date, they have been so exciting! We set them a goal date for October 20th. We teach them quite often and as soon as we end one lesson, they start asking when we will be coming back. They want us to come everyday, it so awesome! Especially as we taught the plan of salvation, wow, they were so amazed, they had so many questions and we could tell that as we taught it, they received a witness that it is true. I am really hoping and praying that this will be my first full family baptism. It will be so special if the whole family embraces the gospel! That is what we are really praying for! 

Something thats funny that I think I have told you before is that here in the Philippines people start celebrating Christmas as soon as it turns September. haha. So if you all thought it was weird in america when people start listening to Christmas music after Halloween, well here I heard it on September 1. They call it the Ber months here (septemBER, octoBEr, ect..) Its interesting. We had a zone interview this past week and we went to the mission home and the christmas decoration are already set up! 

Well that should do it for this week! A mission is so fun, it is a great experience, once in a lifetime for sure! Have a great week everybody!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 9/10/18

Kamusta Kamo??!

Its been another good week! Good to hear from all of you! I was glad to hear the utes won, even if it was an ugly game. I will make sure to wear my utes socks this week so we can pull out the win against washington! It was one year ago that I was in the provo mtc when utah beat byu in provo!!! 

This week has been a very very busy week! We had MLC, DLC ( so the district leaders comp came with us) and Stake conference all in one week. Its been a tiring, but a lot of great things have happened this week! So on tuesday and wed, we had mission leaders council and it was pretty good. We had some great trainings and practiced more effectively using the Book of Mormon. That has been the big emphasis of the mission lately. And it is great. We should never take the Book of Mormon for granted, it is the most powerful tool, it answers questions and it is the foundation of the whole church and our personal conversion. 

Another great thing that happened this week was just the great miracles that have been happening. We invited 2 families to be baptized this week! Including the great referral family that is coming to church and loving it. We have been blessed to recieve referrals of families who are prepared to here the gospel. We extended a date for the Gabawa family and they are excited every time for church and to learn more about the gospel. We have had some great lessons where the spirit has been so strong. 

Also this week I had the opportunity to go on a sort of exchanges with a brand new missionary, fresh out of the mtc. His trainer is a district leader so he worked with me and my companion worked with another elder whose companion is a district leader. I had some flash backs to when I was a fresh trainee and wow I am so glad that I am where I am now. Going on exchanges with him just built my testimony that the gift of tongues is so real. I remember exactly how he felt, not understanding a word, just saying simple things. But Heavenly Father blessed me and now the language is no problem. I am glad actually that it was a struggle at first, it just allowed me to grow so much more. And the people are so much more willing and accepting once they see your dedication to learn their language and be like them. I mean I already have the Filipino height!

Then on sunday we had a good stake conference. We had some investigators attend and they really enjoyed it! Pres Cruz game a great talk on the Book of Mormon and then we gave a Book of Mormon or sometimes 2or3 to each member and invited them to give it to someone! We handed out a total of over 1000 copies of the Book of Mormon! And we have already received a referral from someone who gave it away! Sounds like we had stake conference at the same time.cool

Anyways that should do it for this week! Love you guys! Have a great week and GO UTES!!!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 9/3/18

Kamusta kamo??!

Well hopefully this email will be better than the last 2, I was kind of rushed the last 2. I will try my best to do better this time!  I was very glad to hear the utes did as the should and beat weber state! I am excited to hear all about how the utes do this year! 

Well this week has been an eventful and pretty busy week! So this week on tuesday was transfer day. Elder Schley went home so I was just with the other elders in our zone until my new companion got here. BUt on tuesday we had to go to this huge bus terminal called Tagbak terminal for transfers. And since this terminal is a part of our zone it is ours responsibility to keep track of all the missionaries that came through the terminal. It was a long day full of many phone calls and trying to coordinate everything, but everyone ended up in their new area safe, as far as I know. So My new companion is Elder Tolentino. He is from Manapla Negros, Philippines so he is a native speaker of the language. He is a really cool guy, loves basketball, so I think we are going to have a good companionship. He is just a few transfers ahead of me in the mission, but this is already his 6th area. Also along with transfers an area opened up in our zone, so now their are 8 sisters and 4 elders in Lapaz zone/district, it is a very unique zone, but it is a fun group of missionaries. 

So once transfer day was over, it sort of turned into a normal week, not really. I don't think there was one day that actually went as planned. We were kind of all over the place this week, between giving people blessings at the hospital ,taking people places and many other things. At the end of the week it settled down and we were able to get some great work done. We were able to contact some referrals and get a lot of new investigators! It was awesome, one day we got 6 in one day. On saturday we were able to teach the family referral that came to church last sunday, it was an amzing lesson. They told us their great experience they had at church and during the lesson sister asked, "How do I join your church?" So of course we were way excited, that is the first time and investigator has asked that. 

Something kind of funny happened yesterday. So we were at this one appointment, where they would not stop talking, so once we fiinally got out of the lesson, it was dark. Our next appointment we had to go through this jungle ish area and then cross a bamboo bridge, but I had never made this excursion in the dark, but I was confident I could do it. Well as we traveled, with only our tiny cell phone as a flash light, things quickly changed from familiar to very unfamiliar, up until the point we were just  lost. I had no idea where the bamboo bridge was or where we were. We finally asked people where the road was and when we found the road we came out like the complete opposite end of our area, it was an interesting adventure. 

Well that should do it for this week! Sorrry no pictures, I need to get my camera fixed, its being all weird. But Thanks for all the emails and support each week! Love you guys!!! 

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen