Magtratrain na ako

Well it's been another transfer! And I got some news just the other night, that I'm going to be training a new missionary starting this transfer. I go on Wednesday to the Mission Home to pick him up, so he will be from the Manila MTC. That means he will be Filipino or Polynesian most likely, but I just have to wait a couple more days to find out! I'm way excited but also a little nervous, but I know it will all work out because that's what I've been called to do for the next two transfers. So that means I'll be stayin in Paracale for at least another three months, which is ok with me because we did some work this week.

The highlight of the week may be Anghelo, who has only been an investigator for about a week and a half now. When we went to visit him on Tuesday, our second visit,he said "Sorry Elders, I only made it to 2 Nephi so far. It had been four days. Another day, he said he was having a hard time praying because he scared of Satan or something. We offered to give him a blessing of strength so he could resist temptations and such. We came back the next day and he told us that the blessing worked and he felt strength. He hadn't left his home for about a month, but he felt strong enough to go outside and walk around. We told him all he needs to say when he feels temptation is "I am a child of God, and Satan doesn't have power over me." He said he's been doing that and it works. So he's still progressing way fast, we just need to get him to come to church now!

We were also able to finally teach our investigator Maria. She is set to be baptized at the end of the month. She's been out of town for a while now, but we finally got the chance. She has still been reading, which was her big problem initially, and now she's doing better than ever. Her mother, Victoria, we will probably have to stop teaching soon. We've spent about 3 weeks with her trying to help her give up her little statues of saints, but she won't do it, even though she knows the Book of Mormon is true. She's kind of stuck where she is right now, and can't progress anymore. We are going to give her another chance, but my trainee and I will have a lot more work to do.

We were also able to invite a couple to be baptized in March, and they accepted! They are both so nice and are very excited about the possibility of an eternal family. They have three little kids, all under 4 I think. As soon as they start coming to church and get married, they will be prepared for baptism!

This week was an awesome week for some of our investigators, and I'm even more excited to see how next week goes with my new companion! We are gonna do some work and baptize all of Paracale! Thanks everyone for everything and I hope you have a good Valentine's Day!

Elder Van Boerum

2/9/14

 One of the member's kids

His name is Abinidi, Abi for short

 Innah, our part member family investigator.  She has been taught for a couple years now and wants to be baptized, but can't yet because her father won't give permission.  Her mother is a member.  We sometimes get to teach her right there on the beach!

 Noriel, Elder Llanera, and Tatay Umerez.  Noriel and Tatay Umerez work with us all the time!

 Us and some of the members

 Climbing the buko tree

 Nametag pictures!

Fiesta!

Well for the past two weeks we have had a Fiesta here and Paracale, which means a big party and a bunch of parades and stalls on all the streets selling really cheap stuff! It was fun seeing all the people coming to Paracale to be at the Fiesta, but it ended up getting in the way a lot of the time for us to teach. A lot of people said they were preparing for the fiesta and were busy, and stuff like that. But we still had some amazing experiences. 

One of them was contacting a referral named Anghelo. About two weeks ago, we got a referral from a member about her friend Marcy. So we went to go contact Marcy. Her neighbor came out first and said she's home. Then Marcy answered, but she basically blew us off and said "Oh yeah you can come back. I'll just let Tess (the member) know when I'm available." But we never heard from her again. So that pretty much means she's not interested. We ended up leaving, thinking that we didn't get anywhere. Then last week Sister Tess tells us that Marcy's neighbor, Anghelo, wanted us to come and visit him. So we went back, wondering why he wanted to talk with us. I ended up feeling prompted in the lesson to ask him why he wanted to listen to us. He ended up telling us the story of how he and his wife got together when they were 18 (he's 24 now), had a few kids, but it ended up going bad and now they are separated. He said his friends were having a really bad influence on him, so he was avoiding them and felt alone. He prayed to God for a sign to find the way to change his life, when he saw us and thought we could be the sign. We ended up having a really good lesson on the Restoration with him, and he said it all made sense and he was very willing to pray about it! I think he will progress so well and I'm so happy we got the chance to help him!

That was probably our miracle of the week. We had a couple other really good experiences, but now I'm out of time! Sorry but I'll try to get more time next week! Love you all and hope you're doing great!

2/2/14

Watching the Parade

 One of the members, Noriel. He leaves for his mission next month!

 Me and one of the members

Part of the street dancing parade