Last Letter!

Holy cow I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! It seems like I was just barely arriving in this foreign land and now I'm about to leave...I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to be a missionary. I've learned some pretty random stuff from how to do a Rubiks cube to magic card tricks. I've gotten better at the piano and at chess (hmu if you wanna challenge me when I get back haha?) and I have met so many wonderful people and made many great friendships and wonderful memories...But most importantly, I have grown spiritually and drawn closer to my Savior Jesus Christ. Through the good times and the bad, I've loved my mission so much and there's nothing I would trade for the experiences I've had over the past two years.

I don't think it's completely hit me yet that I'm going home but I am ready because I know there is still a lot in store for me and that I need to apply and live the things that I have learned while I've been out here. To the fam, see you guys in a couple of days (Make sure my room is clean and Jaron gives me my stuff back ha!) and to everyone else, circle August 14th on your calendars because that's when Asian Thunder becomes available as a free agent haha! Mahal ko kayo and I look forward to seeing y'all. You stay classy San Diego. Love you all!

 Elder Enuake said he wanted to make an appearance on the blog before I left, haha

 Making the most of the final days...#4thquarter #12thround

The newsletter confirms it...Asian Thunder is out!

Rise Up, O Men of God

Where has the time gone? It's come to the point where I am just not too sure what to say! We did have an Elders Conference this last week and the theme was being 'men of god' (hence the title). President and Sister Rahlf spoke to us, we had a few activities, a few workshops and of course a nice lunch.

My anak and my grandson at Elders Conference

As for the work, I still feel like we teach things sooo clearly to people and that accepting the gospel would be the only thing that would make sense for them but unfortunately it doesn't really work like that and we still aren't having much success with the investigators. Same goes for less actives who we always visit and share messages with and stuff and they say they will try to come to church but then they never do. It's just kind of sad to see because you can tell that there is an aspect in their life that was once there but now it's missing and they know what they're supposed to be doing, but they just don't do it. It just makes me realize how blessed I am to have grown up in the gospel and I'm so thankful for the family and the friends that I have. I can't wait to see you all in a couple of weeks.

The Final Countdown

Go ahead and turn up the background music. Thank you Europe for that lovely piece...Haha anyways I'm in my last cycle now and I can hardly believe it! On Wednesday before the transfers were announced there were a few guys that told me they wanted to 'kill' me (in a mission sense. Don't worry Mom, it wasn't a death threat ha.) but the honors went to Elder Cabaliza. He is from Manila and he's 21 years old. He is actually my batch so we got to the field at the same time and we were also in the same zone in Solano when we were the two district leaders there and we have both been assigned in San Pablo before so we kind of already knew each other. But he's all good-chill guy, good missionary-so these last few weeks should be fun and I'm just continuing to make the most of the time I've got remaining! Everyone asks me if I'm trunky and if I'm counting the days and stuff but we're still doing solid with the work and I try to not think about that too much ha!

Things are still going fine here in Roxas. I'm not too sure what to say because it's kind of same old same old--There's actually a lot of 'investigators' who come to church but almost all of them are the girlfriend of a member and they can't even get baptized because they are living together but not married. And none of our other investigators are really progressing so we just have to keep trying to find new ones.

President Rahlf actually also informed us earlier that because of some unusual circumstances, Elder Latu is going to be in a threesome with us for the rest of the cycle; So he will be joining us tomorrow but I'm not too sure on the details or if we will have to work in Mallig (his current area) or not so I guess I'll let you guys know next week. Deuces! #itsthefinalcountdown #europe

Surprise! New Companion for a Week

They say that life is life a box of chocolates because you never know what you're gonna get..And this last week something pretty unexpected happened! On Wednesday I had to go to Cauayan for Career Workshops (I'll explain what that is in a little bit) and I thought I would just be going with Elder Loitz since he is in the next zone over and also had to go to the workshops but President said that Elder Monilla would just come with me to Cauayan. Well it turned out that he was called to be the new AP (I must have done something right these last few weeks because he was only a Zone Leader for one cycle before becoming AP hahaha!) and he went directly to work with the APs so he could get a bit of training and learn the area faster, and that left me without a companion.

Well there is another missionary that left the mission because he had to donate a kidney to his twin brother. And that meant someone else was left without a companion, and guess who it was? Elder Kocherhans! So the two of us have been paired together for the last week and had to work in two areas that are a little over an hour away from each other. I think I've mentioned this before, but Elder Kocherhans and I have been in the same zone together three times and also we were same ward in Cabarroguis in both of our first areas so I guess you could say that we have 'grown up' together in the mission and now we are both close to going home but it was fun to work together for the last week.

We worked in Roxas for a few days and then went to Echague (part of Alicia Zone) for the weekend. I was only there a couple of days but the members and people there seemed really nice and I actually would say that I felt more welcome there than in my actual area haha. Of course, they also asked me to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday ha.

 

The Roxas/Alicia tag team

So anyways, that has been fun. And as for the Career Workshops, Elder and Sister Leslie (two of the couple missionaries) basically talked to us on how we can be more successful in our future careers and whatnot. It kinda put things into perspective a little bit because it's weird to think that pretty soon I'm going to have to worry about school and work and stuff like that....But anyways, this Wednesday is Transfer Day so I'll be getting my new (and last) companion then. I wasn't expecting to die here in Roxas but hey, life is a box of chocolates and chocolate tastes good so you might as well enjoy what's given to you right? Peace wit it.

Career Workshops: Last time seeing Elders Iuli and Lavelua

Murrica!

I mean, um, America. I couldn't really think of any other good title but I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July. There were obviously no fireworks here and we didn't really do much to celebrate it but the time is continuing to go by soo fast, I can hardly believe it!

 

President and Sister Rahlf were in America for a little while because Sister Rahlf had to have surgery but they made it back just in time for MLC this last Wednesday. They shared some great messages (our theme was on 'doing' and 'being') and as always, it was nice to see some friends from across the mission and have a nice meal. Another thing I find enjoyable about MLC is at the beginning of each meeting we usually talk and council about different concerns and other things throughout the mission and sometimes people start having mini-arguments about random stuff so I think that's pretty funny to watch.

 

This week we also had splits with the San Pedro elders and I worked with Elder Haacke in their area. I think that was the third time that I have split with Elder Haacke but he's a good friend of mine here in the zone so it was pretty solid and enjoyable....Normally at church, the average sacrament attendance is over 100 but yesterday it was sprinkling rain and that was enough to bring our numbers to below 60. Somewhat disappointing but on the bright side one of the people at church was Rose so I was excited to see her there.

Not much else to say for the week. Jeff wasn't at church yesterday. Most the other people that we've talked to haven't seemed all that interested and none of our investigators are really progressing at all but we just need to be patient and keep working hard. Earlier we had a zone activity (combined with the Cauayan Zone as well) at Magat Dam so I've got a few pics. Love you all, have a good one! 

 

Zone Pic

 We on a boat

Missin Utah Lake a bit haha!

'The Hanging Bridge'

Crazy Story - The lady who knows Dad!

So yesterday we had a pretty cool experience! Well the other week we ran into this lady on the street named Rose and we started talking with her; It turns out that she used to be a really active member like 20 years ago but she has been inactive ever since, but she said that we could visit her house. 

Well yesterday we shared a message with her and even though she hasn't been to church in a really long time, she hasn't lost her testimony or forgotten about the gospel and she still remembers Ezra Taft Benson and Gordon B. Hinckley and stuff. which is really impressive considering that a lot of members here sometimes forget the name of our living prophet haha. 

But after we were done sharing, she told us of some experiences that she had back in the day and she was saying it's funny that she ran into me because she remembered one of the missionaries that she said her family was really close to was also named Elder Larson. I asked her when that was and she was like "probably the late 80s" and then everything clicked because she also had told us that she was from Baluarte, which I remembered was one of dads old areas. So I told her that I am his son and she got way happy and said that she wants to come back to church. So that was a way awesome experience for me and I'm hoping Rose will be able to come back to church again! 

As for the rest of the week, we went on splits twice. One was with the APs and I worked with Elder Waldron who is my batch and he actually went to Timpanogas High School and graduated the same year as me. I had never met him before the mission but we have a lot of mutual people that we know and we also had a pretty solid day of work. I also worked in our area with Elder Latu who is also my batch and that was another pretty good day. And Saturday we attended the baptism of the Aurora elders.

Baptism in Aurora

As I said we were planning last week, this last week we focused a little on following up the people that we have OYM'ed and one solid investigator that we have found is named Jeff and his wife is a member. Right now he is receptive to our message but he still seems to have some doubts about Joseph Smith being a true prophet because he says that he prays but doesn't feel like he is being answered. But he was at church yesterday so that was good.

 

To answer your question Dad, I think an important thing I learned this week or at least was reminded of is that the people that God puts in our paths is for a reason. And it wasn't just the experience with Rose, we met some other people this week that whether they end up accepting our message or not, at least we are the ones who will be there to invite. And I'm so grateful for all the good examples and friends in my life who have gotten me to this point in my life. It's hard to believe that some of my friends are now RMs, others are getting married, and my time as a full-time missionary will soon be coming to an end. But I know I need to make the most of the remaining time that I have because there are still people that the Lord will put in my path that I'm supposed to help. But anyways, that was a kind of long email so I think that's enough for now. Have a good week everyone!

Straight Hastening & Straight Clowning'

Another week gone by; ang bilis naman! Seems like I just barely had 100 days left and now I think it's less than 50 (but who's counting? Not me hah!) so that's pretty crazy. And I can't believe all of my friends are starting to come home! But anyways, it's been a pretty solid week for us!

Like I said, we've been focusing a lot on finding and this last week we were tearing it up and we had way more 'contacts' (meeting a new person and inviting them to learn about the gospel, usually by way of tracting or street contacting) in a week than I have ever had in my mission. We also taught more lessons this week than I ever have before so we're definitely staying pretty busy. So we've found some new investigators, continued to teach others, but the only thing is that as of now, we still don't have any investigators that are actually progressing so this week one of our focuses is going to be on following up some of those contacts to see who is actually interested and has the desire to come unto Christ by accepting our message.

This last week we went on splits with the Aurora elders and I worked with Elder Labrador so that was pretty solid. We also went to a funeral, a wedding, I was the substitute teacher for the youth class yesterday in church, Elder Monilla had to teach the Single Adults class and also both the people who were supposed to speak in sacrament meeting didn't show up so Elder Monilla and I had to fill in (two months in a row I've spoken when it's supposed to be the Relief Society lol) so what didn't happen this week haha! Oh yeah, this nanay asked us to give a priesthood blessing to her motorcycle because she wants it to be a safe motorcycle hahaha. I think I've seen it all now! I was too busy trying not to laugh and then Elder Monilla had to explain to her that we can only bless people and houses. 

So I guess you could say that some hastening of the work has occurred here this last week, but in the words of my homie Elder Wright from back in the MTC, it has been what you call clllownin. And lastly, to my good buddy Dave (Dave Larson, that is) and to all the other dads out there, Happy Fathers Day! Have a nice week!

#hastening

It's almost like I'm back at Rancherito's again! 

#selfiesunday