E-mail dated 2/25/19

Kamusta kamo??!

I am still getting used to this whole calling every week. It is really weird, but I like it! But anyways, i love getting good laughs from you guys every time we call! Our family is the best! 

Well like I said. the highlight of this week was for sure the baptism we had on saturday! It was hopefully suppose to be the gallo family (bro included), but it was still such a special experience! So on saturday morning we all went to a beach call navalas for the baptism of Ram-ram and tresha Gallo. It was low tide which made it interesting, we had to walk way for out into the ocean, which i am not complaining about, the water felt great. I had the opportunity to baptize Ram- ram (Ramyr paul is his real name) and Elder Alegado got to experience baptizing for the first time, by baptizing tresha. It was a special day. After they were baptized, they both shared very short, but profound testimonies. Ram ram said in his that when he grows up, he wants to be a missionary! That made me really happy, that what we are doing, he also wants to do someday! I also know that the Lord will provide a way for their dad to get married so he can be baptized  as well, so they can be complete as a family! I love the Gallo family so much! Teaching them has been the an awesome experience! Seeing them happy makes me really happy and makes the mission worth it!

Earlier today we went on a hike for our zone activity. We hiked up what they call balaan bukid (holy mountain) Its called that, because there is this huge cross on the top, because everyone here is christian. The view was so cool! I could see 2 of my previous areas in iloilo (city and LaPaz) We got some awesome pictures! Also when we got to the top, we all had a discussion and testimony meeting about the atonement of Jesus Christ. It was really cool and fun activity!

Well that should do it! I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to serve a mission! Serving a mission is the best decision I have made! It has changed my whole perspective and it is such a great experience, that I can't even really describe it!

Love you guys have a great week! 

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 2/18/19

Kamusta Kamo!!???

THIS IS SO WEIRD! I JUST CALLED YOU GUYS! I am still in shock that this is going to happen every week! But thats pretty awesome! IT was great to talk to you....but that just means these emails are going to be very short now..sorry haha! But I basically told you the stuff that happened this week!

So I am training again... Elder Hampel from north ogden utah and he is 6'4 so i will send some comical pictures later haha! so yeah our area split into 2 and I am now in buenavista A and it is a pretty good split pretty even of members and investigators, so i am excited to get a lot of work done with 4 of us here. This sunday at church we already saw the effects, we probably had the most we have ever had at chruch in my almost 3 months here. so that was really awesome. Also on saturday night we had a great branch activity, i wish we had those more often, it was so fun! 

Yeah so with the Gallo family, it was a heartbreaker, so apparently they aren't married.....that hurt. But I guess they just want tresha and ramram to be baptized and then their dad will start working out the papers so they can get married. It was hard, but we still have strong faith that the lord will provide a way for him to get married and baptized! 

So its been a pretty crazy week! But, yeah really crazy. A lot happened, but I am excited for the future, its going to be fun!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 2/11/19

Kamusta kamo???!

Well its been another fast week, well actually this one felt kind of long but it was another really good one! First of all that is really crazy how much snow you guys got! Wow! I showed the pictures to my companion and he was just in awe haha! He wishes we could have some of that here. I told him that its cool the first couple of times and then after that it is just kind of annoying and really cold! haha so I hope you all are surviving the crazy storms! 

As for us here in Buenavista it has been a super rewarding week! Yesterday we had 9 investigators attend church! It was so great to see them make the effort to come to church!  We now have 7 investigators with a baptismal date, including the 2 we found or got because of our fast last week! It is awesome to see our investigators make good progress! 

So the Gallo family is still doing great! I love them! Their baptismal interview will be this coming week! They are super excited, especially the kids! I am so excited for them and for their baptism on the 23rd! They have been some of my favorite people to teach in my entire mission! It truly has been a blessing to teach them and become close to them! 

Questions…

1. You told me transfers are on the 12^th.  What are your feelings?  Do you think you are being transferred or will you stay put? Transfer day will actually be on the 14th and we don't find out until tomorrow whats happening. But my feeling is that I am staying, i am pretty confident that i am staying. at least i really hope so! 
2. What would you say is the hardest thing for your investigators to gain a testimony of?  (tithing, word of wisdom, etc.) Here in the philippines everyone believes in jesus christ and almost everyone is religious in some way.  So in my opinion the hardest is probably the restoration. Most people just think it doesn't matter where you go to church or how you worship as long as you do it.  

Well sorry for the short email! I hope you guys are all doing great! I hope you enjoy the emails even if they are short! 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 2/4/19

Kamusta kamo??!!!

It has been a great week! wooo! I was happy to get all of your emails this week! 

Wow I can't believe it is already February! Time is flying, January went by so fast!! Time goes by so much faster the longer I am out on the mission! It is weird! But this week was a really awesome week, a lot of miracles or even just tender mercies as well! 

This week we been focusing on the Gallo Family and they are doing great! They are progressing great and we have another goal date for them on the 23rd of February and as long as they just keep doing what they are doing they will be baptized on that day! Yesterday it was fast and testimony sunday and I had one of the most special experiences on my mission. Sister Gallo (member) bore her sincere testimony and how grateful she is that her kids and her husband are at church and will be baptized. She said she is especially grateful that she has seen the influence of church and the gospel in her kids because the kids always want to go with us and do missionary work. As she bore her testimony with tears in her eyes it was hard for me as well to hold back tears. Just little experiences like that is what makes a mission so cool! I love the Gallo family and I am so happy that I am able to teach them the Gospel and see the effect it has on them! That is for sure something I will not forget, the spirit was very strong!

Another cool experience I had this past week was just a couple of days ago (Sat/sun). So we started our fast sat. after lunch and it is always hard to fast, but this time there was a numerous amount of times we were offered food, but somehow we stayed strong all the way through.  We were fasting for many things, but specifically to find new investigators that are prepared to hear our message and wow, it was a miracle. That very day we found 2, great, awesome new investigators and they came to church too! One of them is a 54 yr old lady, sister Elizabeth, she came from Negros island and she was taught by missionaries over there and in our first lesson with her she asked us when she can be baptized, wow! Then also that day we went to visit a  kind of less active family and after we taught them, Bro mark, the husband of sister percalin who is not a member told us that he wants to be taught! We were so blessed, and I have a firm testimony of sincere prayer and fasting, it truly can change hearts. Heavenly Father really does hear and answer our prayers, but we also have to do our part! That is a huge thing that I have learned on the mission! 

Oh and today we had an awesome zone activity!! Wahoo! We went to a resort called Andana in Nueva Valencia! I got to go back to my first area! And also bro rhen poll ( member from nueva valencia) came with us! Holy cow it was so cool! The view is amazing! SO what we did was play beach volleyball for a while, walked around and looked at all the cool views and then got mango shakes, it was such a fun zone activity. Guimaras is a beautiful place! I will send pictures! 

Well that should probably do it for this week! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Palangga ko kamo!

Elder Degen