E-mail dated 12/31/18

Malipayon nga bago nga tuig!!! Happy New year!!

Well I just talked to you guys a few days ago, so who knows how long this email will be! But it was so great to talk to you guys on Christmas!! You all look and sound great and mom only cried a little so that sounds like a successful call to me! It was probably the best call yet. It was great to talk, and it didn't really make me miss home at all, no offense guys haha. 

So this week was a really good week! 

The best part about this week was the progress of one of our investigator family. The Gallo family. They are a part member family. Sister Gallo is the only member, she has been a member for a some years now, but her husband and kids are not yet members. Her husband was an investigator like 10 years ago, and he was almost baptized, but moved to manila for work and it never happened. Now they moved here like a year or something ago and they live next door to the branch president and are somehow related to our branch president. We have been teaching them for a few weeks now and they are really progressing. Bro Rameer Gallo and his 2 kids that are above 8, ram-ram and trisha have a baptismal date for jan 19. It is awesome to teach them, they are super receptive and want to be baptized so they are all together as a family. Just last night we had an awesome lesson with them and sister Gallo said that little ram-ram (9yrs old)  idolizes us as missionaries. hse siad that sometimes they will play a game and pretend they are missionaries haha. I thought that was really funny and pretty cool. My whole mission I have wanted a family baptism and I think this would be just the same, to help a family have a chance to go to the temple all together.  That was a great part of the week.

We also have 2 other candidates for january. Sister arselean and sister Irine. They are the grandchildren of the 1st counselor of the branch and they are doing great as well. They are really progressing and have a baptismal date for January 12. We are really excited for January. We are so blessed this past transfer with just people prepared by Heavenly Father to receive the gospel. 

Today we did our typical pday routine of playing basketball in the morning, it is so fun to play basketball with our district! We have so much fun! Then we all eat at our favorite place. We call it the best carinderria in Guimaras! It is really just okay, but we say that to make the people who cook the food happy! 

Well that is probably all for this week, sorry it is a little short! Have a great new years eve and Day! GO UTES! Hope they win! I know they will!!! Bang pots and pans real loud for me this year!! Love you guys

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 12/24/18

This has been such a great week!! I have felt just super happy the whole week, Christmas is close and we had a great week! I hope you all had a great week as well and are excited for christmas! I am! I am way excited to talk to you guys in just a few days!! Even though it is not a typical christmas eve right now, especially because I am super sun burned, my first time being sun burned on christmas eve! haha! 

There were so many great things that happened this week, I will just give you guys the highlights! We had a pretty normal days of work on tuesday and wednesday. Then on thursday somethings really awesome happened. We found out that we were going to present our christmas presentation from christmas conference at the nueva valencia christmas party! So I got to go back to my first area! I was so happy to see people that I haven't seen in almost a year. It was just an amazing feeling to see all of the people that we were blessed to teach in baptize last year, that they are so happy and strong in the church. They all still remembered me and it was like seeing family when I saw all of the people in that branch, they are like family to me! So that was really cool and unexpected blessing this week! 

Another Highlight of this week was on saturday, when we had sister Iris' Baptism and the Buenavista Branch Christmas party! So it was held on what is called vilches beach, which is super beautiful! There were a lot of members and we also had some investigators come as well. So first was the baptism of sister Iris. She was so excited and nervous at the same time. She was baptized by her really close friend in the branch bro Winmar. It was a pretty windy day and there were some waves, it took a couple of tries, but she was baptized! After she was baptized she got super emotional, because she has had some very tramatic experiences in her life, and her testimony she was just so grateful that the Fernandez family took her in and helped her find the gospel of jesus christ. I testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ truly does cover everything, he felt all the pain and sorrow that we have or ever will feel, so he knows how to heal us and comfort us. I saw that with Iris. She also said that she wants to be a missionary as well. It was a really cool experience to teach her and watch her accept the gospel. I am just grateful that I was given this opportunity to share the gospel with her.  

After the baptism we proceeded to the branch christmas party. We had a huge lunch, played some really funny games and some of the members did some presentations. It was just a really fun time and a great time to grow closer as a branch. 

Right now it is kind of weird for me that it is Christmas eve...but I am happy that I am where I am. It is a blessing to be a missionary and serve and teach others about Jesus Christ and his gospel. Especially around christmas, I love teaching people about the saviors birth, and about why we celebrate christmas. My testimony of Jesus Christ has grown so much on my mission, I think maybe for the first time I truly understand the meaning of Christmas. And what an amazing blessing and gift it is that Heavenly Father sent his son to earth, to show us and provide us the way how to be happy in this life and return to him after this life. No matter where in the world Christmas is special, I hope that and I know that you guys will remember why we celebrate christmas and take time to reflect. I hope you all have a merry Christmas tomorrow! Love you all so much and I will talk to you all on Christmas!!

Palangga ko kamo! 

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 12/17/18

Kamusta Kamo??!!!

I hope you all had a great week!!! Only a few days until Christmas, wow that was really fast!! But I am super excited to talk to you guys here in a few days!!

So this week has been a very fun and great week!! A lot of travel, but it was worth it! So this past week on tuesday and wednesday was the philippines iloilo mission christmas conference!!! It was soo fun!! So the first day we did this light the world balloon releasing thing, watched mr krugers christmas, watched some other little videos, heard the testimony of those who will be going home next transfer, and then went to an apartment close to the mission home to sleep. There were like 30 of us in this one house, so lets just say that there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on. Then the next day each zone gave their presentations that they prepared, it was really fun to watch. We kind of messed up on ours, but it was still okay. My former zone, Lapaz zone, did the best, I was proud of them!! We also had a huge feast, played games, did a gift exchange ( I got old spice deodorant wahoo) and that was basically it! The best part for me was just seeing everyone, I have made so many friends here on the mission, it was great to see them all! I even got to see Isaac Taeolii from murray. It was a really fun christmas conference! 

So Christmas conference was for sure the highlight of the week, but the rest of the week was pretty great as well!! We know have got a feel for the area now, we know where most everyone and everything is now. We don't get lost anymore so that nice!! Probably the best miracle that happened to us this week was with the sister I told you all about last week, how we walked with her son home and then she Immediately let us in the house and was willing to listen. That day we felt prompted to share the book of Mormon with her. And this week when we went back to teach her, she said that she gets a great feeling everytime she reads the book of mormon and she is already in 1 ne. 19! Wow! What an awesome experience it was to teach her, she told us that the Book of Mormon was different than other religious books she has read, she said she understands it better, she basically already has a testimony of it.  That is the first time that something like that has happened on my mission, I know and am so grateful that she was prepared by heavenly father to hear our message. We have been so blessed with many people that have been prepared by heavenly father to hear the gospel! 

We are very excited for the baptism of sister Iris this saturday! It also the branch christmas party. It will be held at the beach! Should be a lot of fun!! Sister Iris is so excited and her close friend at the branch and her are talking about serving a mission, that is so cool!  I will give you all of the details this next week! 

Well it just a few days I will be talking with you guys so that should do it for this week! Love you all and talk to you soon!!! 

Elder Degen  

  

E-mail dated 12/10/18

Kamusta Kamo??!

Well this week has been another good one! We got everything in the apartment finally settled down so we were able to focus and just work the whole week! Got a lot of great work done and we found some more new investigators. Filipinos are the nicest people and it does make it easier that everyone has a christian background.An experience we had this week was we were talking and walking with this kid until we reached their house and his Mom was outside and before we could even explain who we were she invited us right in. We talked with her and shared a Book of Mormon with her, and she was so grateful, it was a really cool experience. It is awesome how Heavenly Father is preparing people.  We have been talking to a lot of new people by asking questions about where places are because we aren't completely familiar with everything, but it is a great opportunity to share the gospel. 

This week we got more into a schedule of teaching our investigators and their progress so far is great. Especially with Sister Irish, she is awesome. She has great member support, she is close friends with a ton of members. This week we shared with her the Restoration Video and The Plan of Salvation. She is so interested and loves learning about the gospel. As we were teaching her about the Plan of Salvation she thought it was so cool, that this is what we do all the time ( share the gospel) and she expressed her desire to serve a mission as well. She is super excited for her baptism on Dec 22 (which is also the branch Christmas party) .

This is probably the area where I have walked the most. Our area is huge and there are not many rides, especially at night. so we just walk. Sometimes we are so tired we come home and go to bed at like 9 haha. But it is great sleep because we are so tired. But it has been a lot of fun so far, members are willing to help and the Lord has blessed us. Looks like we will have a few more baptisms in January. 

Well that should do it for this week! Tomorrow and wed. is the mission christmas conference and I am super excited too see everyone! It should be so fun!! This is my last one so I better enjoy it! I appreciate and Love you guys so much. Thanks for the constant support you give! You are the Best!!! GO JAZZ GO UTES(on new years eve)

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 12/3/18

Kamusta kamo??!!!

Well this week has been a great one! It has just flown bye! This being our first full week here in Buenavista was great, we got a lot of great work done and are starting to get more familiar with the area and members! It truly is a blessing to serve here! 

So this week we were incredibly blessed with people to teach. We have opened an area that has just been waiting for missionaries so these people could be taught. There are a lot of part members, most of are investigators are already living with a member and have been coming to church and are so willing to be taught about the gospel! One of our investigators we are teaching is sister Irish, who lives with the family of the branch president ( she was basically adopted by the pres fernandez) we have taught her a few times now and she has a baptismal goal date of december 22, she is so excited! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and after we taught her a couple of times and explained baptism, she was excited! We have also been blessed with 2 other investigators that are living with the 1st counselor, his grandchildren actually. They are awesome as well and come to church every week! And just yesterday we were able teach a part member family ( the wife is the only member), and the brother and 2 kids are so willing to listen and they came to church as well yesterday! We are so truly blessed to be able to teach these people about the gospel. Its not often that this happens like this when re opening an area, but we are just very grateful! The area is also so beautiful, I will send pictures later! 

Also this week we have been practicing for the annual mission conference! The whole mission will get together dec 11-12 for our mission christmas conference! Every zone will give a presentation and ours we will be singing samoan song, tagalog song and bunch of other cool stuff, we are going to win! We will show the mission where the best zone is! haha!

Today we went to Iloilo and finally got a cellphone, its been like 10 days without one, kind of been hard to coordinate, but now its all good! we also finally got an iron and a table wahoo!

Well I love and appreciate all of you guys a lot! You guys are the best! I am so blessed and grateful for this chance that I have to serve a mission here in the philippines. It is the best! Being a missionary is so fun, experience that you can't get anywhere else! Love you guys and have a great week!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen