So this week went by suuuuper fast because we had a ton of time for work and had two exchanges with different zone leaders and we got a ton done. We ended up super blessed in all of our lessons and finding efforts. We committed 9 different people to be baptized! Crazy. I don't know how many of those will pan out, but still glad they accepted the invitation. One of them was yesterday when we just randomly happened upon some old lady who had been taught before. She's been reading the BOM way often and said she knows it's true "always and forever". I guess she's been praying we would find her again so she could be baptized. So that was a miracle. We also had 4 investigators come to church and the ward did an awesome job fellowshipping and everything. And I had real chocolate milk for the first time since I left the MTC so that was pretty awesome too.

One of the cool parts of the week was spending some time with one of the elders here from mainland China. He's got a super awesome story and is one of my favorite missionaries here. Super Christlike and everything. It's cool how he overcame the language barrier seeing as he had to overcome English AND Tagalog. Really cool guy.

For the next week, we are goin to be super busy. Tomorrow we have a training thing for all of the District leaders in the mission. Wednesday we have to take missionaries to the airport to get visa stuff done, then pick them up again the next day. On top of that we will probably be having several meetings about the upcoming transfers, because President has already started assigning. So I'm pretty excited, but I think it will be awesome.

Anyway, I love you all and can't wait to tell you how my next week goes! And I'm dying sitting in air conditioning during studies. I don't know what to do once I'm home haha.

New Area

Perks of being in the office.

Walk in the Ricefield

Last Transfer

Heeeey everyone. So I found out where I'm transferred to. A little surprising, but I'll say that later. First about my last night in Goa.

So last week I ended up spending most of the day packing and getting ready for the transfer point, and we set up some time to go and visit Abby, Carlo, Chris, and Jane. They were happy to have us over again, and we had a cool lesson about prayer and asking God about whether it's all true. Abby at first told us she hadn't asked if it's true, so we were thinking something had gone wrong and asked her why. She then told us that she wasn't asking about it in her prayers anymore, just saying thanks that she has found the truth. So she say she doesn't need to ask if it's true anymore. Pretty cool right? Then I got transferred.

Well here's the news on the transfer. I'm in the office now as one of the assistants, with Elder Saddi from Manila as my companion. And it's been a waaaay busy week, that I'll try to sum up really quickly. For us, we are basically working a full schedule in our area, just like all of the other missionaries. Unless we have a specific thing we need to get done, or meetings to go to. Problem is, our area is super small and has been tracted out a hundred and one times. But it's still pretty cool, and we have some awesome people we are teaching.
Well one of the first things we did after transfers was a meeting with President Reeder about closing areas in 6 weeks because of missionaries going home; which to close, where to expand areas, who will take others places, where they will live and all of that stuff. Then Wednesday we took all the departing missionaries to the airport, and picked up the new arrivals, five missionaries, with only 2 from Provo MTC. We then had to give a workshop for them and the trainers (one of them was my former companion and another from my last zone) and then send them on their way. Thursday was mostly working in the area. Then Friday, I finally got my license again! After sitting at the Philippine version of the DMV for a couple hours (same as ours but way more noisy and confusing), and arguing a bit about my Utah license, I was good to go and got a nice big ol van to drive around. This came in handy yesterday when we had to go pick up some sister missionaries in the middle of a mild typhoon (we were all on lockdown) because a river was flooding over into their house.

So it was kind of a crazy week, and super tiring, but still really awesome. It's cool to work a little more with President Reeder and the other missionaries in the office. The senior couple from my first area just got put in the office with us, and they are awesome too. Bonus: I felt hot water coming out of a faucet for the first time in 18 months, not to mention having air conditioning. I'm excited to see more of the mission and work with all these new people, but I'm still a little lost. I'll get the hang of it at some point. Especially the driving. There are absolutely no laws here, so hopefully I won't get hit by a bus or anything. Anyways, that's mostly all I've got for the week! Love you all!

Well....I'm Transferred

Well...... I'm transferred. That's a little unexpected for me. I've only been here in Goa for one transfer and it's been awesome, but then we got the call this morning and I am outta here. Still not really sure where yet, I'll get that tomorrowmorning at let you all know as soon as possible. BUT it's gonna be kinda hard leaving here, especially after the awesome week we had.

So we started off with an awesome MLC where we got to talk about some of the ways to improve the mission. It went way well, and President really liked a lot of the things we had been doing with the zone. We also worked together to set new goals for the mission as a whole, with a big focus on finding, and how we need to raise the expectations for ourselves in order to push ourselves to improve. President Reeder then told us the trick to finding is to have FAITH, FOCUS, and to be FEARLESS. We need to trust that if we put for the effort, everything will click and things will get rolling. Then we also need to actually put together plans to make it happen. Then once we are out doing the work, put everything else behind and just do what we are supposed to. Really cool.

Well that set the tone a bit for our week as we prepared for a Zone Training, set zone goals, and went to work in our area. When we did the simple preparation, we were blessed a ton to get new investigators and see others progress. We taught some awesome lessons to our Golden Investigators, Abby, Carlo, Chris, and Jane, who also invited two of their friends to come and join the lessons. They completely understood everything we taught, and said they are ready for baptism. (Too bad I won't be here for that.) We also taught a family referral and that went awesome. Our newly called Elder's Quorum President and his wife (both still just coming out of less activity) came to the lesson for fellowship and to help teach. It went super well, and they are working towards baptism now. Besides that, we were able to work some with the ward to get things moving in other ways, and I think the work is about to start booming here.

We also had a cool broadcast from the area presidency here about the plans for the Philippines, and it seems like they've got some great ideas to try to clean up some of the problems here, and make everything run more smoothly and efficiently.

But anyway, I know I'm supposed to leave, so it's all good. I'm happy to be able to go and serve somewhere else and I hope that I will be of help to wherever I'm called. I love you all, and I'll let you know soon where I'll be off to!

Me and Two of the Departing Sisters from Our Zone

One of them Arrived with my Group and Now All Those Sisters are Leaving!

Some of Our Zone

Me and Some Kids

Just Out at Work

Another Week that Just flew By

Hey Everyone!

Another week that just flew by! We ended up having three exchanges over the week which kind of killed us for work in our area, but it was all a great time.

On Tuesday we got to go to Naga for exchanges with the Assistants to the President, and that was super awesome getting to work with them. They are both way good teachers and just all around awesome. Only thing is, we had to sleep in an apartment that I guess has scorpions and stuff, which I didn't even know existed here. But it turned out ok because we didn't see any. We also taught some cool people.

Then we had to come all the way back out to our area for exchanges with one of our District leaders from New Zealand and his companion, on New Year's Eve. It was kind of a crazy day full of giant spiders and eagles and teaching some awesome lessons. We decided to check on some former investigators and it turns out they've been reading the Book of Mormon everyday for who knows how long and want to be taught again. Nice. Then contacted a referral that says she wants to be baptized after we told her about eternal families (her husband died 5 years ago). She was crying at the end, and says she's excited to be taught. Ended the day with just a bunch of ice cream and hangin out at the house because of the 6 p.m. curfew.

The next day we had to go out a different district for their district meeting. There was pretty much no vehicles running to take us anywhere because of the number of people with hangovers. But we finally caught one, made it to the area, and then stood in the rain for about an hour waiting for a key to the church. Nice meeting though and a free lunch from some members out there. We tried finding a less active member, walked into his house and saw some guy. He said "Oh you're looking for Freddy? That's my brother." Then he just left. Some old lady just sitting in the corner then started cracking up saying "No that was really Freddy, my son!" So I don't think Freddy wants to talk with us.

Well after a couple days of work, Sunday finally came. Full of miracles. Our attendance went waaaaay up, and we had a whole investigator family come, that now is saying they want to be baptized. So not a bad day I think. But we'll see how that goes. Anything could happen I guess. Just pray for them haha.

Well that was a quick version of my week! Hope you're all doin great and had a good new year!

Me and the half-Filipino, half-Americankid in our ward. His Dad is from South Africa, his parents met in Japan, have lived in Spain and France, and who knows where else, and now the Mom lives here with the kids while the Dad is on business for the next couple of months in Norway.

After the Ward Christmas Party. Don't know who some of them are, but they all wanted in on the picture.