June 27

Its been another good week, but we don't have a lot of time.  We're traveling back to Laoag today for a reunion of the trainers and trainees.  Sorry I didn't email last week, we didn't have any internet here in Gattaran.

The work is going really good here in Gattaran.  We have found a lot of new investigators with lots of potential!  We have had some coming to church and reading and doing everything that they should (:  There is one that is going to be baptized on July 16!  Pray for her!  and pray that we can finish the lessons before then.  Her name is Angelica, and she is really good!  She really loves the BOM and the Gospel.  She is 16.

The best teaching moment this week was probably when we got to teach Angelica.  We went to her house and got to talk with her about the plan of salvation.  She is really good.  She has such a huge desire to learn about this Gospel.

I love you all!  Sorry for the short email.  Bawi ako sa susunod.

Elder Childs

June 13

Hello Everyone!

I am still alive here in Gattaran, and still loving it!  The mission really is the best.  This week we have seen some success.  It is fun to open an area, because you get to see the area go from nothing, to really growing.  We have seen a lot of miracles here this week.  Maybe I'll share one or two with you.

In our weekly planning last week we felt that we should set a goal of 4 sacrament attendance, even though we only had potential investigators at that point.  So we worked all week to get some investigators to commit to come to church on Sunday, but they weren't able to over and over again.  Attending church is actually one of the hardest things for people here in the Philippines, because they have work to do every morning.  They don't have days off a lot.  But we kept working and working.  Saturday came and we still hadn't gotten any solid yes's.  But that night, we went and taught a part member family, with 2 investigators.  At the end we committed them to come to church, and they accepted!  I was super excited!! But I didn't really think we were going to reach our four.  But the next day we went to church, and sure enough, there were our two investigators, ready for church!  I was so happy to see them there.  We sat down and listened to the speakers and partook of the sacrament, and when it was done, we were talking to some of the members, and one of the members came up to us and introduced two of his friends that he had brought to church to us! I was so excited!  The Lord had answered our prayers, and had truly made a way for us to reach our goal!  It was great!  

I know that the Lord helps us reach our righteous goals, if we are willing to do our part. Thats all I've got!

I hope you all have a lovely week. 

Elder Childs

June 6

Hello!

This week I have learned lots and lots!  I told you that I get to train this transfer and that has been a great experience so far!  I have really loved getting to know my trainee. His name is Elder Ibanez and he is so excited to be a missionary.  It is fun to be with him.  He is from Quezon City (close to manila) and he is 18 years old. He's got lots of good ideas for the area, and thats good.  Its a pleasure to work with him.

I have really learned a lot about myself as I have been training. It really makes you think when you are in charge of really showing a missionary what a mission is all about.  Its hard, but really fun. I have really learned a lot about myself, and have seen myself grow as well. 

One thing that i've really learned is to appreciate the little successes every where.  That not every success is a baptism, but that there are so many things that we do every that are huge for our success.  We need to always be looking out for them because those are little gifts from Heavenly Father.  Since we're opening an area, it is just a lot of finding right now.  There were some missionaries here a while ago, but there wasn't really any records in our area book.  But we have been working hard and have seen a lot of potential here in Gattaran! I think that we will be able to have a lot of success here. (little and big)

But just for you guys to get a little picture of our area, it is 50 ish barangays.  Each barangay is kind of like a little city.  Well maybe more of a village.  There are not a lot of houses in each barangay.  Just a little group in the middle of a LOT of rice fields.  In the center, or the biggest part, there in the Market, a hot dog stand, and some carenderias (kind of a homemade food restaurant) with a couple of other stores.  But its not very big.  There are no super markets or anything like that.   Most of our area is out of the centro so we take a tricycle every morning.  The people are super nice, and are usually willing to come out and talk, which is a big difference from Laoag.  Here if you go to a house, the person will at least come out and talk with you.  That didn't often happen in Laoag.  There are a lot of people that haven't heard of the "mormons" yet. But I love the opportunity to get to talk to them. We have most of Gattaran in our area, but there are a lot of areas that aren't opened yet.  Our farthest area is 4 or 5 hours away, if you're not going too slow.  So we can't really go out there yet.  Its a really big area, but we're focusing on the close parts to the church so that it isn't too hard for investigators to come to church. Its a great area, I really love it! I haven't taken any pictures here yet, but next week I'll take lots!

I love you all!!!

Elder Childs

Me and Elder Ibanez with President and Sister Andrada:

We went to Appari for Pday!  Its pretty pretty there (:  It was really fun to get to see the Ocean!