E-mail dated 1/28/19

Its been another great week here in Buenavista!!!

 

Well not sure how much I have to update you all about, it has been a pretty normal week, but a good one! 

We are still working closely with our investigators that have an upcoming baptism in February, we know it will be in February but we are not sure when! But the Gallo family is still doing great! Ram Ram still wants to go with us wherever we go! He puts on a white polo and carries his book of mormon around haha, it is so funny! He is going to be a great missionary some day! His little sister also likes to pretend to be a missionary.They are an awesome family and we are really excited for them to be baptized!! 

This week we had zone interviews on saturday so we got to go to Iloilo and be interviewed by pres cruz! It was a good interview. He really wants the mission to focus on teaching families and using the Book of Mormon! I think it is the best things we can focus on! Our interview also meant we got to go to McDonalds afterwards mmm which is always a blessing. It has been a month or so since I last ate there haha! 

Sorry for the short email,but I love you guys!

ELder Degen

E-mail dated 1/21/19

Kamusta kamo??!!!

Its been another really fast week!! It is time to email again! Sometimes I sit down to email you guys and I don't really have an idea of how to or what to say to you guys, and this is one of those times! But I will try my best to not make this email boring...hopefully they're not usually boring. 

This week was a pretty good one though. Although we did get what you call "punted" a lot this week. Which means we would go to our appointments and they were either not their or told us to come back at another time, but nonetheless we still got some good teaching done this week! And also a lot of walking haha! This week we have continued to teach and to help build the testimony of the Gallo Family (Bro Rameer, RamRam and Trisha)  and also of Arselean and Irine. They are doing good and it was for the best to move their baptisms. Arselean and Irine have a date for Feb 2, we feel by then they will be ready! The Gallo family we are still helping and also have a date for Feb 2. The Gallo family is a lot of fun, especially the kids, every time we walk by their house, which is like everyday, they always ask "magtudlo kamo der?" (Are you going to teach us elder?) They really enjoy being taught and they said they want to go on missions as well when they are old enough. Ram ram is even counting down the years until he can serve a mission haha! This week after we taught them one night, they wanted and got permission to come with us to our appointment with one of the members that lives close to them and they loved feeling like a missionary! haha! I think it is cool that even though they are so young they already want to serve! I will send pictures of us with them later! 

Also this week we have been teaching this really awesome nanay, nanay jessie that we just met on the street. She has got to be one of the nicest ladies out there. She just wants to know where the truth is because she is confused with the many churches. As we taught her the restoration and especially the Book of Mormon it was really cool to see how excited she was to read the Book of Mormon. When we came back she was very excited to tell us all about what she read.  She also asked us randomly if we pray for her and we of course answered yes we pray for you. And she told us that sometimes we will just pop into her head at night and she told us that she knew we were praying for her, so that was really cool. We have a plan to invite her to be baptized this week! 

Well I am not sure what else to tell you guys...oh I did eat like a ton of Mangoes and we just bought 2 more kilos earlier. Guimaras is famous for mangoes and wow they are sooo good and now it is starting to get more in season so they are getting cheaper wahoo! just thought I'd share that for no reason haha! 

Well it was great to hear from all of you again this week! I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well, glad to hear that the Jazz are doing well! GO JAZZ! Well Love you guys and hope you have another great week!! 

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Joshua Degen

E-mail dated 1/14/19

Kamusta kamo??!! 

Hows everybody doing??? Hope you all had a great week !! As for Elder Alegado and I here in Guimaras we are doing great! It has been another fun week for us here in Buenavista! A busy week, but a good one! Also I jammed my finger playing basketball earlier so this email might not be too long, my finger is really fat! 

This week we have been teaching a lot of lessons and working closely with those that have a baptismal date (Gallo Family, Sisters Arselean and Irine). And as we have continued to teach them, we have felt that we needed to move their baptismal dates just to make sure they are more prepared for their baptisms, so it will be a more spiritual experience for them. So this coming week we won't be having a baptism, but in the coming weeks we will! It is for the best, It isn't important when they are baptized, it is important that they are prepared and ready. They are all still doing good though. Something really cool with the Gallo family is that little ram-ram (9yrs old) takes his book of mormon to school and shares and talks about it with his classmates, how cool is that. Our 9 year old investigator is already a missionary. That is his goal to serve a mission, he talks about it everytime we teach them! I think he is awesome! He is very excited to be baptized along with his Dad and his sister! 

This week has been a busy one because there was a lot of meeting and baptismal interviews within our district so it has been a week of going back and forth to Jordan ( the main part of Guimaras), but it is just part of the responsibility. So it is all good!

One really cool thing this week happened yesterday! So for church yesterday the whole Guimaras district (3 branches) Met at the Jordan chapel for a Philippines nation wide broadcast! And guess who was presiding...Elder Holland! So Him and the area presidency were in a chapel in Manila and then broadcasted it to the whole Philippines! And wow it was such a cool broadcast! Elder Holland gave an awesome almost 40 minute talk (it looked like he had no notes). He talked a lot about the recent changes and how the church has been working on them for a while. He talked also about the growth of the church in the Philippines. He also talked about the life and example of Jesus Christ. He focused on what Christ said in the Garden of Gethsemane "thy will, not mine be done". He invited all of us to follow that and do the will of the lord always, even when it is hard. It was really cool because I could tell it was completely by the spirit. It is always great to hear from an apostle!! Elder Holland said that they will do broadcasts more often instead of just visiting a single stake they can reach more people when they visit! I am excited for the next one!

Well that should probably do it for this week! I appreciate all of the prayers,emails and love! You guys are the best! Love you all!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen 

E-mail dated 1/7/19

Kamusta Kamo???!!!

This week has flown by, it has been another good one though! It was great to hear from all of you and I am glad that you all had a happy new year!! It is still crazy to me that it is 2019 now. 2018 flew by!! But 2018 was for sure one of the most memorable years of my life! I got to spend the whole year serving these awesome people here in the Philippines!! It is such a blessing and a lot of fun! 

So yesterday at church was by far the most that has attend since we arrived here in Buenavista. Yesterday we had almost 70 people at the branch service yesterday. That may not sound like a lot, but that is a huge improvement from our first week here when it was only like 25. It was good to see people who hadn't been to church in a while, come yesterday! We have a goal to keep increasing and increasing the attendance. Because when there were no missionaries here for like 10 months a lot kind of went less active, but slowly but surely we are trying our best to help them! I think the 2 hour block will really help, it will really make the 2hrs at the church really meaningful.

This week we have had some great lessons with Sister Arselean and Irine! There baptism will be on jan 19. They are getting really excited! We just need to finish a few more lessons and they will be all set. We will just have the baptism at the beach and I am going to have Elder Alegado baptize because it will be his first time! Next saturday will be a great day! 

This week we were also blessed with some more great new investigators. This past week we visited a member that just got back from work in Manila and it turns out that there are people living at her house that have been taught before and are willing to be baptized, but haven't been going to church just because this sister was working. Now that this sister is back, they all committed to come to church next week. I truly testify that no matter where, there are people prepared to receive the gospel, it is our job just to find them! I have really seen that in this area, especially re opening the area, we have been so blessed! 

Well that should probably do it for this week! Thanks for everything guys! You all are the best! Love you all and have a great week!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen