And when ye shall receive these things...

John Thomas McGuire

Ponder them within your hearts.

This past week has been amazing!

MLC was amazing we prepared a solid training about sacrifice. I'm going to attach it just to so you all can go through it if you want. But I absolutely love training up missionaries. We did a different style of MLC doing it all on one day starting at lunch and ending with a devotional after dinner instead of doing a tuesday night devotional and ending at lunch on wednesday. I really enjoyed it.

After MLC we started up the traveling around the mission again. We drove the Tolosa Zone Circuit on Thursday and the Southern Leyte Circuit on Friday and Saturday. Zone Interviews was a different format too. We drove to each area and President and Sister Maurer interviewed one companionship while Elder Centeno and I trained the others on how to effectively update the Area Book and why we update it. So yeah,Thursday we drove down to Tolosa and then onto Abuyog and then came back through Burauen and Dagami back to Tacloban. 

Friday we drove down the coast to Hinunangan, went around the horn to Libagon and then to Sogod and then cut across to Bato, had dinner and then went on surprise exchanges with the Hilongos elders. It was a blast! I worked with Elder Estrada. He's from Davao. We taught a great lesson to their investigators who haven't progressed since the last time I went on exchanges there 3 months ago. And then we taught another great lesson to a less active brother. I can't remember what we taught. But I remember the Spirit was really strong and this brother committed to come back to church instead of going to the auto shop on sunday like he normally does. I think that's my favorite part of missionary work is helping others to feel the Spirit and remind them of their covenants and help them realize the importance of keeping commitments. This exchange was more beneficial for me than anything else. It reaffirmed to me that doing missionary work brings the spirit of peace. Earlier that day, someone had said something that had really offended me and I felt humiliated. I had a spirit of contempt on the drive from Sogod to Bato. I am just like Mom because my emotion really shows when I get behind the wheel. So I had Elder Centeno drive. When we were done with work, I had the Spirit in my heart. It seemed like all my problems were gone. I was not offended anymore. I could forgive. I forgot about myself and worried about others. I went to bed happy that night.

Saturday we had Maasin Zone Interviews. We started in Hilongos and worked our way down. It was great to see some members in Bato again. I find it so interesting that I can understand Cebuano in Hilongos and Maasin but I get really tripped up when I'm in Bato. Anyways after the Zone Interviews in Maasin we took the Elders back to Macrohon and then continued up through Malitbog. We stopped there at the elders' apartment and I searched through a box of old books and found my MTC teacher's old journal. She had emailed me and asked me to track it down. I'm giving myself bonus points for this act of service. We didn't make it back in time for our baptism but it was all taken care of. Elder Tumagoy who had actually taught the Malatbalat family was transferred from 2nd ward to 1st ward so he was more than happy to be the one to baptize them.

Sunday was great! Our Ward Mission Leader is amazing! Jules Viray gets all the bonus points in the world. President Maurer made a new rule where we have to have a 30 year old work with us if we are teaching individuals of the opposite sex. So Jules has inspired our Elders' Quorum and High Priests to sign up to work with the missionaries. He had a list of 10+ brethren who pledged a few hours of work. Yesterday, Jules went with us to go teach Brother Jumelio and then take him with us to our next 2 appointments. We are teaching this brother named Juvenel. His wife is a member from Bacolod. He's very active in coming to church but hasn't been baptized because the two aren't actually married yet. We had a very spiritual lesson about reading the scriptures. He shared with us his Typhoon Yolanda story. Tears all around. This man loves Jesus Christ so much. He knows the church is true. They are working on securing the papers they need so they can get married. I'm hoping that I can still be here and teach him and baptize him.

My personal study has been great! I finished the Book of Mormon. I read Moroni 8-10 after church. Moroni is such a powerful writer and is my hero! I put the promise to the test again. I took time to ponder about how merciful God has been to His children since the time of Adam until yesterday. Thoughts flooded my head. From the Atonement of Jesus Christ to the fact that my family had found the Gospel and I was raised in it to the opportunity I've had to come on a mission to Typhoon Yolanda to the Post Traumatic Stress to the Comeback to the miracles I've seen here on the mission. God is a merciful loving God. Miracles Never Cease for those who keep on believing. The Book of Mormon is TRUE. It is the word of Almighty God and it has brought peace and joy into my life more than anything else in this world. My testimony has been strengthened this past week. I am super excited to watch conference. I have written down several questions that I want to receive some revelation about.

This week we are going to tour Samar doing more zone interviews. I'm really grateful for all the time I have on the roads. It really is a blessing to be able to observe God's creations and to just ponder about life and everything else.

God is good. Jesus is the Christ. This great and marvelous work will fill the earth! 

Hurrah for Israel!

oh and ps... we found a monkey in Libagon. They're so coo