I have been called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Philippines Cauayan Mission. This blog is managed by my parents. If you would like to contact them, you can email at lindalarson1598@gmail.com

Monday, February 23, 2015

Zone Conference

This last week we had Zone Conference! For our Christmas Devotional we went to Santiago but this time we were just combined with Bambang Zone. It was great as always-the two subjects that President and Sister Rahlf focused on were 'eternal progression' and also sharing the light of Christ. There were several quotes that I liked but here are just a few of them:
"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always have gotten."....."It's not about being the best, it's about being better than you were yesterday."....."If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill."...And lastly, what Elder Bowen of the Seventy told us when he visited us back in December--"We are not here to maintain the Church. We are here to GROW the Church."

I think that there are times that we are doing 'enough' and we have the tendency to be content with that, but I know that we can be improving and become better every day!!....Aside from the messages, the food was good, we had a 'contacting' activity and then we wrapped things up with a testimony meeting and I also had the chance to bear mine so that was pretty sweet. 

Saturday we had a 'One Day Mission' which was the auxiliary leaders from Solano District came and presented a workshop on how to share the gospel more effectively and then we split into groups and visited less actives. I don't remember if we do anything like this in America but the concept is kind of funny to me sometimes because it is basically like choosing one day to actually do some home/visiting teaching (which they should be doing monthly anyways hahaha) but it actually turned out pretty well I'd say. 

Yesterday I talked in church about standing up for the standards of the Church in times in trial, relating the bad example of Lehonti in Alma Chapter 47 and the good one of Captain Moroni in Chapter 48....Jessica came to church with her husband here in Villaverde yesterday and I think hopefully she feels welcome here and enjoys it even though there aren't too many members and we don't meet in an actual chapel. Carl did not come this week though.

Mom you asked what has been a 'significant tender mercy' and I would probably just say not only the fact that I have felt really comfortable in the language since probably around my 1-year mark but the fact that the last few months I feel that I have really improved in my teaching skills. I don't know if I have really had a 'favorite person this week' but I got some solid pics at Zone Conference with some of my good homies so I guess that will have to do.  


Elder Taumalolo                                      Elder Cruz

                                    Sis. Pavino                         Elders Glassie and Kocherhans
                   
                                                 
                                                 Elder Glassie, Sis. Akau & Sis. Mariano

Monday, February 16, 2015

V-Day! And Answers...

Valentines Day.... I hope you guys had a wondrous day and week. Because I love you all. :) <3 <3 #xoxoxo I, of course, didn't get to go to Tucanos and have a nice meal or anything like that, but we did have District Conference so I guess at least we kind of had a group date with all the other missionaries...But no really, it was good haha. President and Sister Rahlf came and President Rahlf spoke on the 'worth of a soul'. Sister Rahlf talked on courage. Okay Mom, I guess I will try to answer your questions now...

Our week was good. Biggest success? Hmm...finding has still been good. When I first got to this area, we literally only shared messages with members because we had no investigators but now we actually have investigators to teach. So that's nice. And they are actually interested in our message. And some are super progressing! I mentioned Jessica last week...She is super good in the lessons. Picks up way good on everything we teach her. This last week-in just the second lesson we taught her- she was asking us what she needs to do to get baptized. And she came to District Conference yesterday. Talk about golden! We extended a goal date to her for March 7th! Carl Louie also came to church yesterday but we haven't been able to actually teach him yet because he goes to college in Solano and that's where he stays throughout the week. 

As for biggest challenge...Nothing too challenging comes to mind... Jarone hasn't really been progressing lately and this last week he basically told us he wasn't really interested in listening to us anymore. So that kinda stinks when people choose to stop investigating the gospel but I guess it happens. Also having to always push my companion to stay motivated and diligent can be frustrating at times...but at least the work is still going good and I am seeing a lot of progression happening in our area. 

Spiritual prompting? Hmm. Well this was back when I was with Elder Costacio but I haven't shared this experience yet, so now that you've asked, I guess I will...One time we were on our way to a member family's house. Normally we plan what lessons or spiritual thoughts we are going to share with people, but this time we didn't have a plan and said we'd plan something later on if something came to us. Well when we were almost to their house, Ether 12:27 popped into my head but I didn't say anything. Then as we sat down before the opening prayer, Elder Costacio opens his scriptures, starts flipping the pages, then he stops and points at Ether 12:27 and asks me if he thinks that would be a good message to share. It turns out that the family had very recently had an unexpected trial come into their lives and they told us that this was exactly what they needed to hear. I thought it was really cool how the Spirit whispered the exact same thing to both Elder Costacio and I even though we didn't even talk to each other about what we were going to share beforehand.

Hope that answers your questions Madre...After that, I don't think I have anything additional to say. This week we have Zone Conference and we're also gonna go on splits so that should be fun. Oh and I know I'm not the greatest chef, but this is how I cook popcorn. I think it's pretty clever...

Orville Redenbacher is in the building

Monday, February 9, 2015

Cycle 12 - Week 2

Oh sorry I forgot to mention last week but yeah, Elder Baquiran has been out almost a year now. Also of the eight elders here in Solano Zone, I go home before all of them, even though I still have 6 months left. So that is kind of weird to be one of the older guys in the mission. And also sorry that my titles haven't been all that creative lately...

Anyways, it has been a pretty good week for us. We got a few referrals from the Solano sisters and two of them are investigators that have been attending church in Solano the last few weeks but they are actually from Villaverde. Carl Louie (19 years old) and Jessica (21). Carl's girlfriend is a member in Solano. Jessica's husband is a less active in Villaverde) both came to church yesterday and they both seem like they have a lot of potential and have been very prepared to receive the gospel.

So I'd say that we have finally found some success in our finding and we have been able to teach more lessons simply because we have more people to teach. My comp still makes me laugh a lot...funny guy this one. Sometimes it seems like his desire to be more diligent is getting better but other times I feel like I am still having to push him a lot for him to be motivated. But you know, just gotta keep doin' my thang, right? We still get along fine though so everything is chill. We also ate "one day old" which basically describes itself but yeah it is a fried baby chicken that is one day old and it still has the beak and everything haha. It wasn't turrible though...So yeah, have a good week everyone. And Happy Valentines Day to all the lovebirds out there and if you're single, welllll, I guess I'll be back eventually hah. Laterz.

Am I reckless 

Hit me up?

Monday, February 2, 2015

New Comp

So like I said, I got a new companion this week. Elder Baquiran is from Manila and he is 21 years old; Our first week together was pretty good. He is a nice guy and I think he has the right desires to do what he is supposed to but I have to kind of had to push him to actually be a diligent worker. But the good thing is, he has responded pretty well as I have tried to help him and we actually ended up teaching more lessons this week than Elder Costacio and I achieved the past few weeks.

Jarone didn't come to church yesterday. It has been hard to tell how committed he is to being baptized because in the lessons when he teach him, he is fine and says that he will come to church but then when Sunday rolls around, he only comes when he feels like it and so he is not always in the mood...We haven't found many new investigators but lately we've met a few new less active members that we didn't know before so one thing we will continue to try and focus on is our re-activation efforts.

One other thing about my companion is that he is rather entertaining because he always makes me laugh even when he doesn't try to; like for example the other day we were playing checkers but then we decided we were hungry because it was time for dinner so I went into the kitchen and cooked my noodles and by the time they were ready, Elder Baquiran already fell asleep. And he also skipped breakfast that day because he took too long getting ready to go to District Meeting so he only had one meal that day hahaha. And he snores wayyy loud every night-which is something I almost forgot that people did up until this point-so I had to move my mattress into the other room haha. He's a silly one...But anyways, that's about it for this week. Have a good one everyone. I'll let you know if anything funny happens in the next 7 days or if anything chill goes down in our work. Deuces!