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'