November 28

 Answers to a few questions:

(We asked about seeing where he lives on Google Earth) We don't have an exact address for our house.  All you will be able to see is the roof, but it you find two brothers in sto domingo, go down the street to the south east until you see a house with a blue roof on the corner.  Behind that house is a house with a green roof.  Thats us!

We speak Ilokano a fair amount here.  I won't say I'm fluent yet, but I can communicate on a basic level with people.  Sometimes we have to teach lessons in Ilokano to older people and I make it through.  Hopefully I will get it down though before I go home.  Elder Roche is teaching me a little bit of bisayas as well. (thats his native language.)

There are 4 missonaries in Sto Domingo.  Us and then the STLs.  Its good!  There is lots of progression.  We attend District meeting in Cabugao most of the time, but every once and I while we go south to Vigan to visit the Vigan district.  Zone meetings are held in Sto Domingo.

Hello Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have had a normal week!  We had some good finding and a fun FHE with a part member family in the ward.  It was another good week!  The members in Sto Domingo are really nice and ready to help the work go forward.

I hope you all had a wonderful wonderful Thanksgiving!  I really did enjoy getting to think about all of the wonderful thing that God has done for me here in the Philippines and I hope you all were able to feel the same peace that I did from remembering our blessings.

This week we have seen lots of miracles as we have been helping people come unto Christ.  One thing that was an especially large blessing for me was with Brother Jerome Dominguez and Lydia Bautista.  They are two of our investigators that we have been working with to help them prepare for baptism and they have been really progressing!  They were interviewed yesterday by our district leader and they were both passed!  They will be baptized this coming Saturday.  I'm so very happy for them!  It is such a blessing to see people receive the Gospel.  There isn't anything that I would rather do.

I have also been thinking this week about how important it is that we are always acting in such a way that we can be guided by the Spirit.  It is our effective Golden Ticket that will help us pass anything that we need to do in life.  There are some missionaries who really struggle to learn to teach with power or connect with their investigators, and the thing that I have noticed is it ends up being a problem with their spiritual sensitivity. They don't follow all of the commandments that God has given to prevent our sensitivity from being dulled, and they feel the effects of it.  But when we do everything in our power to stay in line with the Lord's perfect plan for us, we will be able to accomplish everything the Lord gives us.  It is really just as simple as that.

I hope that we all can always find ways to be more receptive to the promptings of the still small voice, and I pray that all of you will come ever closer to our beloved Heavenly Father.

Elder Childs

November 21

Hello Everyone!

We have had a really good week here in Sto. Domingo.  It is a really fun area with lots of really nice people.  I have had a lot of fun getting to work in the area for the first time this week.  I have met some really nice people here.  Lots of investigators (some of them new to just me, and others new to both of us) and lots of members too.

As for our investigators, they are all doing really good.  We have found some new people with real potential.  One former investigator that we have been working with.  His name is Jerome, and he is only 14, but he is wise beyond his years.  He really wants to be baptized, and all that he is waiting for is that spiritual confirmation that this is God's church.  He is such a cool guy.

One other family that we have been working with is the Bautista Family.  They are so nice and ready to accept the Gospel.  We taught them the Word of Wisdom this week and they accepted it so readily without any questions.  They commited to stop drinking coffee, and the father comitted to stop drinking alcohol and smoking cigarrettes.  They are really coming closer to our Heavenly Father, and it is so fun to see.

A family that we were able to find this week as well was the Takla family.  They are super nice as well.  We met Franklin first, the father of the family.  He was in front of his house drinking some alcohol and he was the one who actually called us over.  At first I thought he just wanted to talk about useless things, but it turned out he wanted God's help.  In his words he wanted to "Change his bad attitude."  We were able to set a return appointment to come back later in the week and when we got there, we met Franklin's wife Josie as well.  She had been exposed to the missionaries before 2 years ago when her family was being taught, but was too shy/busy before to talk with the missionaries.  Josie is also looking for God's help because their family life is not always ideal, and she really wants her children to be happy.  They committed to pray as a family, and they said they would come out to church next week.

Life is going really good.  I am really progressing a lot with Elder Roche's help.  He is a really good missionary!

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Childs

P.S.  The area is good.  It is about 2 hours away from Laoag but only half an hour away from Vigan (a big tourist spot in the Philippines).  We do have lots of investigators, but we still find a bunch because finding is super fun and really easy in the Philippines.  Everyone is usually at least willing to listen to your message.  Finding is my favorite.  The branch is really good.  They are supportive of the missionaries.  Which is always a bonus.  There have been some really good missionaries who have left the area, so the members have trust in the missionaries.

November 14

Hello Everyone!

I have had a good week!  This week was a good week.  It was also transfer week, and I got transferred!!!  What??  I was super not expecting that.  I thought I was going to be in the office until February.  But I guess I was either a bad office elder or God needs me here in Sto. Domingo.  I'm half glad and half sad that I'm leaving.  It will be nice to be able to  just focus on inviting others unto Christ full time again, but I will miss all the nice people in the Laoag 1st Ward.  My new companion is Elder Paulo, and he is super nice!  He is really good at playing the Piano!  He is a Filipino from Cagayan De Oro (in the south of the Philippines.)  

Not much exciting happened last week in Laoag.  We got audited, so we had an accountant (President Ardon) in the office all  week looking through everything in the finance stuff.  He was a nice guy, and we got some free food out of it, so I guess it was alright.

One cool insight that I had during my scripture study this week was from 1st Nephi in Lehi's dream. After Lehi went and partook of the fruit himself, he began to look around, and one of the first things he saw was his family "Standing as if they knew not where to go"  He obviously wanted them to taste the fruit as well, and so he called to them, and soon they were there with them.  One thing that the Spirit whispered to me as I read that was the importance of the role of fathers in families.  They really are supposed to be the leaders of their family, and the other members have a responsibility to listen to him, and give him the respect he deserves.  It has changed my view about teaching families. A lot of the time in the Philippines the wife will want to listen and learn about the Gospel, but the father is busy, and to some degree indifferent.  But this week that I realized that that is not God's way.  

One of the strongest RC families that we have in Laoag was baptized because the father first had a desire to investigate the Gospel, and then he invited the family to come with him.  I hope that I can help more families be like that, and so I have now decided to place more of an emphasis on helping the father's see the importance of the Gospel in their lives as well. 

Have a good week!

Elder Childs

November 7

Hey Everyone!

We have had a really busy week this week in the office, but it was good too.  I told you last week that Elder and Sister Kohls left last week right?  Which means that me and Elder Nuada are stuck in the office by ourselves, and that makes for busy lives (:  We got stuck in the office a lot this week.  Right now the biggest thing that Ive got to work on (that Im really dreading) is a video that the mission makes for all the departing missionaries with some pictures in it and such.  I am not creative enough for that kind of stuff.  But Im sure it will work out.  They're not expecting a professional quality job hopefully because I don't know if I've got that kind of a job in me.  Pray for me :)

We also got to go get our drivers licenses yesterday and it was good!  It was a really easy process.  We showed up around 8 o clock, and they first had us take a little 40 question test about signs and rules of the road.  (My favorite question was:  What should you do if you come up on produce (IE corn, rice, etc) being dried right on the pavement. Its a real problem in the Philippines (:)  When we finished that they gave us the pass without even looking at the test.   Then they asked us if we had brought a vehicle to the office, which we had so they told us to go get it.  Elder Nuada drove taking it there, and when we got to the back of the office, (less than 100 meters from where we had parked) and when we got there, they told me to drive and then they passed us off on our driving.  Then we were done!  We got our licenses!  Cool right?  I thought it was fun (:

One thing that Ive been thinking about a lot this week is how very very vital it is for us to read in the scriptures every day.  We were really busy in the office this week, and my scripture study ended up taking a back seat.  I didn't read as often as I should have, and at first I didn't really notice, but yesterday, I was just feeling really off.  I just didnt feel like I could function as normal, and after I pondered for  a little why,I realised that I had not been giving the importance to my scripture study as I should have.  I soon found some time to read,and after I had done so, I immediately started to feel better.  I really have a testimony that scripture study should always be a priority.  It will make whatever else that we have to do so much easier. 

I love you all!

Elder Childs

October 31

I have had a good week this week.  But it was pretty boring.  The saddest part was that our friends the Kohls left. :(  They had to go back to Manila to get to work in the temple.  So it is now just me and Elder Nuada in the office.  On Friday President took us all out to dinner at a hotel and restaurant. It was really good.  They also had some live bands playing and they were really really good! I was impressed!  There was one singer that really impressed me.  She was super spot on on all of her pitches and she had a really good voice.  It was fun.  As far as work goes it was a pretty normal week.  One highlight though was with Brother Dennis.  He hasn't been coming to church very much lately because he has been harvesting rice and that is an everyday job here in the Philippines.  It is hard to get a day off.  But he said that he had decided that he missed going to church so he talked to his work mates and told them that he wasn't going to come in to work on Sunday so that he could come to church and they said ok!  So we were finally able to see him again at church!  He will hopefully be baptized this coming December.  One person that needs your prayers though is Sister Michelle.  We haven't been able to talk with her for a long time, and we're not sure where she's at.  Since her mother passed away we haven't been able to talk to her that much.  Hopefully we will find an opportunity to share with her again this week.  Keep her in your prayers.  

Love,

Elder Childs

October 25

We have had a really busy week.  It was pretty sleep deprived too.  But God gave me lots of strength so I made it through alright.  I'll try and give you a good run down.

Monday was a normal day.  We were just in the office.  We had heard a little about the typhoon, but nothing about president's plans for the missionaries.  Tuesday we had our P-day and then we went out to work, but after our first appointment, one of the AP's called and said that there was an emergency and we needed to go back to the office right away.  We got back to the office and found out that the emergency was that all of the missionaries north of Laoag (there was 82 of them) were going to be coming to Laoag and we needed to get ready for them.  So we spent that night getting their sleeping all arranged, and then we planned for what was going to be happening for the next 3 days until the Typhoon had moved out and everyone went home.  We had the first batch of missionaries come in around midnight, and we shipped them off to bed.  Then we talked some more, ate some McDonalds, and then talked some more until 3:30 when the last batch of missionaries coming in that night made it to the office.  We helped them on their way to bed, and then we got to finally go to bed ourselves.  By the time we rolled into our beds it was around 4 in the morning, then bright and early the next day (6:30) we got up to go and run some errands to get ready for the incoming Typhoon.  Wednesday was the day that the typhoon was supposed to actually roll into Laoag so we spent most of the day getting ready for all of the everything that needed to happen.  President Andrada had some people come in and cater for all of us, so that was pretty tasty (:  We got back into the office around 6, and talked with President and the AP's some more.  Wednesday night we were on a signal number 5, which is the highest that the signals go, so we were getting ready for a really really strong typhoon.  We went to bed on time that night.

Around 2 in the morning I was woken up by the wind.  It was super strong and really loud in our room.  The wind was blowing so hard that it was changing the pressure in the room so that my ears were popping over and over again.  I sleep by the window and was a little bit worried that something would fly into the window and it would break and shatter glass all over me.  But I got back to sleep despite all that, and we rolled out of bed the next morning to get back to work.  The wind had slowed down some and we were only a signal number 2, but the rain was still coming down really hard.  We went over to the office and spent the first little while there running around the office tying things down in the yard around the mission home.  By the time we got it all taken care of we were pretty soaking wet.  After that there wasn't much left to do.  By thursday evening the typhoon had moved out of the Philippines area of responsibility and we were back to normal.  There wasn't tons of damage in Laoag because when the typhoon hit the mountains between Cagayan and Laoag it slowed down some, so that was a blessing. Thursday afternoon we went to one of the churches and helped pack some bags of relief goods.  They were bags with 5 Kilos of rice, some canned goods, bottled water, and some noodles for families who were affected by the typhoon. Thursday evening we still didn't have any power.  On friday we shipped all the missionaries off to their respective apartments and then starting making plans for what to do when a missionary's apartment is no longer there, or damaged so that it can no longer be lived in.  After that life was back to normal!  We didn't get power back until yesterday (Monday) Morning, so Saturday and Sunday night we slept in an apartment above the mission home.   And that's all she wrote!

We did do a little bit of service yesterday at a member's home.  Two of their walls had been pretty battered by the typhoon and some of their roof had been blown off.  We helped them put in two new walls, but weren't able to help them with their roof.  We ran out of time and had to come back to the office.

The real damage is in Cagayan.  They all lost power, and are just barely starting to get power back again.  The good news is that there were only 3 sets of missionaries that had to move apartments because of damage. Two were flooded, and one had its whole roof blown off.  There were also relatively few casualties because the government did a good job of warning everyone so that people were able to get prepared. It will take some time though for Cagayan to really recover from the Typhoon.

So that was my week!  But this week I have been thinking a lot about life. (we had lots of down time.) and one of the things that I've pondered was procrastination.  Its one of Satan's best tactics.  We always just assume that we can put it off to the next day or the next time, which doesn't always work out.  Sometimes you do get off with it, but not always.  A cool thought came to me the other day while we were running some errands.

People often wast their lives
Reading up on how to live
Only planning what they want
Coming up with plans to give
Readying all their perfect tools
And never really acting
Setting all the pieces in place
Thinking out the perfect move
Indefinitely planning
Nourishing their armies,
And never really acting
This life is the time for us to act
Its every hour is precious
Our good works are greatly needed now
Now is the time to act

I just think that its so important that we just do something with our life.  If we are moving, God will guide us into the right direction.  But if we just stand there and are too afraid to take the first step, then God cannot help us.  When we choose to move forward in life, to try new things, to try and learn (which is the whole purpose of this life), we will be blessed, and if we do it with our hearts in the right place, we will have Heavenly Father's guidance, and we will know where to go and what to do.

I love you all!

Elder Childs

Hurrican Lawin Update

This is to inform you that the typhoon has passed-by. All missionaries are safe.

Missionaries assigned in Cagayan areas returned back to Cagayan last Friday. It has been reported that there were no damages in their apartments. Cagayan areas have no electricity at this time. It is projected that this will last a week or two. Also, some areas do not have internet connectivity. If in case you don't receive an email from your missionary it is because of this reason.

Each missionary in Cagayan was given a solar lamp.

Thank you very much for all your prayers. Rest assured that your missionary is in his or her finest condition. Sister Andrada and I love them very much. Please continue encouraging them to be the best missionary they could ever be and to be the kind of missionary the Lord wants them to be.

Best regards,

President and Sister Andrada