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