July 4

I have had a good week!  We see miracles every day.

This week started out slow, because we had to go to Laoag on Monday which is about 6 hours away, and we were there until Tuesday, and didn't make it back to our area until Wednesday in the morning.  But we started working, and we started to see some success around Thursday.  It all started with a vision.  Not like Joseph Smith's vision though.  Just one of those visions that you make for where you want to be in life.  We talked about how we need to have a vision for the area,  a goal of what we are going to do to help God's children come into the fold.  So we started brainstorming and that is where things really picked up.  On Thursday we were able to teach some really good lessons, and met some new people.  On Friday we had a very productive weekly planning session, and were able to teach some good lessons to some investigators, who have since started progressing, and on Saturday we were able to find a lot of new investigators that have a lot of potential!  On Sunday when we got to church we had a lot of our investigators make it out to church, and they all had a really good experience.  It was so fun to see. I have really grown in my testimony of the need to really set a goal, and then work to achieve it.  It makes life move by so much faster.  I'm just sad that it took me so long to learn this simple lesson.

Angelica is doing good, we are just trying to finish all of the lessons before her baptism.  Her baptism is on July 16 hopefully, as long as we can get through all of the lessons before then.  But she is super excited for her baptism.  She is the only one that we have been able to talk to in her family.  Her parents are always in the rice fields when we go to her house, but we are hoping that this week we will get to meet them.  She was a refferal from one of the members.  He actually got her and her friend to go to church!

It was just the internet that was out last week, not the power.  But power outages are pretty frequent here in Gattaran.  Sometimes its just five minutes, sometimes it's longer.  But you learn to deal with it.  We aren't in the house most of the day so it usually isn't a problem.

The water that we get from the well is all of our water, except our drinking water.  We buy drinking water separate. We don't really have running water in our apartment.  For showers we have a big bucket, and then a little dipper that we use to pour water on ourselves.  That's pretty much how it is in the whole Philippines.  Well at least the Laoag mission.

As for budgeting, we withdraw all of our support on the first Monday of the month, and the I just use envelopes.  I put 1500 pesos in every envelope for every week, and set some money aside for water and electricity bills.  It's easier to budget when you can look at all of your money.

Thank you for all of your prayers, I pray that the Lord will bless you in all of your life.

Elder Childs

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!

May 30

Hey Everyone!!!

This week was the end of the transfer, but I've got good news!!  This next transfer I get to train, and I am super excited!!!! I was really hoping to train, but didn't think that I would be able to, because President usually calls Sunday evenings if you have a calling such as trainer, district leader, zone leader etc, and I didn't get a call. But this morning when we were playing basketball he called and asked if I was willing to train!  I'm super excited!  I will get to meet my trainee on Thursday, and I can't wait!  We're going to open an area in Gattaran, and it should be fun!  Its a pretty rural place I hear, but has a lot of pretty places!  Its the rainy season right now and in Cagayan that means that every day we get rained on.  I can't wait!

Other than that it was a pretty boring week.  That was probably the most memorable moment.  I ate some cool food though that was fun.  Its called Abul Abul, and they are tasty.  You guys should all try them!  I won't even explain.  Just look at the picture (:

One thing that has really hit me recently came from this video.  I would highly recommend watching it.  One thing that really hit me though is that what Satan wants for us it to look backwards.  To look at all of our life and say, what could I have changed here.  What could I have done different, or why didn't I do this, or that.  

But that isn't what God wants for us.  He wants us to live our life forward.  To every day, say, what am I going to do today, to become more like the Savior.  We obviously have many things to learn from our life, but no one ever got anything done from moping about yesterday.  It is important to learn from our mistakes, but what we learn means nothing if we don't ever learn to actually apply what we learn.  

I have seen a lot of people who get stuck in the past.  In things that they have done or that have been done to them, and to be honest, they are never happy.  I have also seen a lot of people who always look to what they can do, what they can change NOW, and they are the ones who are happy with their lives. 

I know that everyone who learns to apply this principle, will find happiness in their lives, and will see the Savior carry their life farther than they could ever imagine.  That they will accomplish wonders.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Please pray for me that I will know how to help my new trainee (:

Elder Childs

Abul Abul - It's TASTY!

Me with some members.

A returning less active family that we've been working with.

I'm going to miss all of these members!

May 23

Hello Everyone!

I have had a really good week this week!  We had a stake conference this week, and it was super good!  We had Elder Pangan come and visit us, and it was really good!  They talked a lot about service, and our responsibilities as members.  One thing that I really liked was a video that Elder Pangan showed.  It was the bible video of John 21.  The story of John going fishing again.  A message that we can learn there is how important it is to serve others.   It reminded me of something that I heard a week or two ago.  There were a couple of missionaries in a different mission, and it started to rain, and it was coming down pretty hard, so the two missionaries texted their mission president and asked?  "Should we still work today?"  And all that they recieved in reply was, "If you think that the rain is stronger than your faith, don't work."

In life, there are a lot of times that we don't have the ideal situations in our life.  Sometimes, like the first apostles, we face loss and being lost.  Sometimes it isn't sunny.  But the thing that we have to remember is, that we can decide if we are going to keep doing the Lords will, keep finding His lost sheep, or if we are just going to fall back into the same routine that we always had before we came to know our Savior.

Jeffrey R Holland said, "The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty" and if we love the Lord, we have a work to do.  It does not matter what happens to us, we must continue doing His work.  We must show our love for the Savior.  And I know that if we do, if we continue to serve, we will recieve the Lords help.  We will see miracles in our life, and we will find peace and joy in our life.  I know that that is what God wants for us.  I know that is what God will do, if we will do our part.

I have truly seen that.  That the time when you feel you cannot go any farther, that you cannot do any more, and you try and take one more step, that is when you see the most help.  The time when you see the miracles that God has waiting. I have seen that help time and time again, when I feel like I have hit my wall.  When I feel that my body or my emotions or my intellect cannot take any more.  That when I try and make that one more step, God gives me help that I did not know that I could receive.  I know God will do that for you too.

Elder Childs

Lunch at Rafael's

May 16

Good Morning!!!

Or afternoon or night.  Depends on when you read this.  But my week has been really good!  Our area here in Laoag is really progressing right now, and it is so fun to see.  We have some really good investigators that are really progressing right now, and there will probably be 4 or 5 baptisms next transfer!

I think that I'll tell you about just one right now though.

Her name is Marigi and she is 22 years old.  She is studying to be a doctor in manila, but she's here for her vacation.  She really wants to know for herself if this is the true church, and she is doing everything that she needs to to find out.  She has that faith that God will answer her prayers, and so she makes sure she reads every day and that she is at church every week, and she prays with all her heart to know, and I have seen her testimony growing. It is so fun to teach her because she really likes to learn, and she always has good questions that make us think.  

All the others are doing good as well!  Maybe I'll tell you about some others next week!

Yesterday though, we talked about sacrifice at church, and why it is so essential.  Ever since the world began, sacrifice was a part of God's law for His children.  Before Christ came, it was in the form of an animal sacrifice, but after he came, he fulfilled the Mosaic law, and gave a new law for us.

In 3 Nephi Chapter 9, verse 19-20 we read,

“Ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood, … and your burnt offerings shall be done away. … And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit”

To be honest, a broken heart and a contrite spirit is really hard to give.  It means that we feel true sorrow for all of our sins, and that we are willing to humble ourselves before the Lord, and submit to His will.  And that can be a tough thing many times. But that is where we really see who is truly converted and who is just going through the motions.  When living the Gospel no longer becomes easy, but becomes a real sacrifice, what do you do? Do you choose to continue to do what is right, even in the face of great opposition, or do you give up and give in to the temptations of Satan?    That is where we really learn about ourselves and our conversion. 

Here in the Philippines I have seen the sacrifice of many wonderful members as they try and live the Gospel.  There is a recent convert who instead of selling her goods on sunday, she chose to keep the Sabbath day Holy.  There was  another who canceled his plans to go work in another country to accept a calling of the Lord.  Another closed his store every sunday.  Many others paid the fare to get to church, out of complete faith, trusting that God would provide, and still others have walked for miles to just get to church.  

Not all of our sacrifrices will be the same, and God does not require the same of everyone.  But my question for each one of you, is what sacrifice does God want from you right now.  What do you need to change in your life to live more in line with His teachings, even if it may not be easy.  I know that if you really think about that, the Spirit will tell you what you need to do, and you will be able make that change.  As you strive to make those changes, the Lord has promised that we will be blessed with more blessings than we imagine.  The Lord will honor those who sacrifice for him.

Have a marvelous monday!

Elder Childs