Baptism!

Sorry everyone. I know you are all sick of the short emails, but I am way down on time this week. We were at a wedding reception for the branch Presiden'ts daughter earlier, and it took a ton more time then we thought. Anyway, our week was pretty good, and I was able to baptize and investigator of the Sister missionaries here, so that was really cool. Everything else is goin great and I love you all!

6/16/14

Prayers for Stanley

Hey everyone! We had another pretty good week in San Fernando. We contacted one referral named Jorge and he's already come to church! He's a really humble guy,so I'm hoping he will accept the Gospel. We have also continued teaching most of our other investigators, and even had some success with two less active members, teaching them for the first time in forever. Sadly, our investigator Stanley just found out he has cancer, and I don't think he really has the money to pay for treatments, so please pray for him! We are trying to get him baptized soon so that he can have some additional strength as he goes through this.

Also congrats to Anika and Jesse on your calls! I'm super proud of you both and I'm excited for you both to get out here too! We've got almost all the world down now, except for Australia or Polynesia. I hope you are all still doing great! I love you all and will try to send you some more next week!

6/16/14

Elder Poulton and Elder Van Boerum

Elder Brent H. Nelson of the Seventy

Hey Everyone!

So our power went out last night, and was still out this morning so we changes all of our plans and now I've got a very limited amount of time to email, so I'll give you a very quick rundown for the week.

We were visited on Wednesday by Elder Brent H Nelson of the Seventy so he could talk to us for a bit and try to motivate us to work hard. Turns out his brother is in the stake presidency of Holladay Stake. Pretty Cool. He had a lot of really cool things to say, especially about finding, so we are really making a push for that in the mission right now.

Thursday I got to leave the mission for a bit to go to Legaspi and do some immigration stuff. It was cool to see the other mission and meet up with Elder Poulton from my district at the MTC.

Besides this, my week was pretty uneventful. We did commit two of our investigators to baptism and they seem pretty excited. I also got a new companion, Elder Lapana from Samoa. Things are still going pretty great! Still tough, but what mission isn't?

Love you all and I'll make more time next week!

6/2/14

New Ties I bought!

Handmade Machetes

Hey everyone I don't have a whole lot to report this week. Work was super slow because we had to spend a lot of time working with the new sisters in our area. Two of the elders in my apartment got transferred to another zone, because the sister's area wasn't safe, so we got the sisters as their replacements. The don't know their area at all so we had to show them around everywhere. Besides that we had service projects, exchanges and all that fun stuff. One really great thing that did come out of the week is that one of our investigator families came to church yesterday! They are really great and told us they are really searching for the true church and seemed to enjoy meeting some of the members. They already have questions about baptism, so we plan on inviting them this week. 

One thing that isn't so great about the upcoming week is that...I'm getting a new companion. There was an emergency exchange in another area so one of them will be coming to be my new companion here in San Fernando. I know it's going to be kind of challenging, because I'm still pretty new to the area. But I'm up for the challenge and plan on doing what I'm supposed to do. Missionary work. We rarely get to chose what challenges come our way or when they come, we just have to know that the Lord trusts us to handle them and grow from them. I know whatever happens was meant to be and is just a part of the plan that was made for me before I even came to Earth. I can't choose what comes my way, but I can choose what to make of it. And I plan on making a struggling area into a successful one, no matter what setbacks come.

Love you all and hope you're doin great!

5/25/14

Getting the Work Moving!

Hey everyone!

We had kind of a rough week this week. What everyone told me about this area is turning out to be kinda true. The work here is pretty rough, but Elder Petero and I are determined to turn that around! We had a meeting with the Branch President and his Clerk yesterday to discuss ideas for getting the work moving here. We settled on doing an activity with all of the auxilliary leaders in the branch to work on getting them motivated to work with the missionaries. We are going to have some of the older members in the area come and tell about their conversion stories from back in the day when they had to walk super far to make it to church. There is one sister who was one of the first people baptized here in Naga back in the 80s. Now she and her husband have to stay home because they are super old and her husband can't walk anymore, but they are some of the sweetest old people I've met here. Super strong testimonies, so we are hoping to have them remind the other leaders here of their own conversions. The problem is, not all of the leadership positions are filled, and some that are, are filled by less active members. So we are hoping to fill all the open spots then really try to move forward with our work here and help San Fernando become a ward finally.

Besides that, the work here has been ok. We have one investigator, Stanley, who has really started progressing. He's already accepted a baptismal date and has started abstaining from alcohol and smoking and came to church yesterday! We just hope we don't run into any other problems with him.

Well, that's mostly my week! Like I said, it was rough so I don't have a ton to talk about. But I love you all!

Elder Van Boerum

5/19/14

San Fernando

Hey everyone! I'm running short on time again because of skyping earlier, but I just wanted to send something really quick.

I just got to my new area last week. It is San Fernando in Naga Zone and I have been called as the new District leader here! The last District Leader here was my second Companion, Elder Asbell and he just went home last week after his two years. From what I have heard so far, San Fernando is one of the toughest and most struggling districts in the mission right now, but there's been a good series of hard working missionaries starting to get things moving again out here, so I'm just hoping to keep moving forward with that! My new companion is Elder Petero from Fiji who just got out of his training and he is great. For being so new in the mission, his Tagalog is really good. One of the harder parts of the area right now is getting used to the new language here, Bikol. The granddaughter of one of our Less Active members always comes up to me and speaks straight Bikol and I can only get a couple of words out of it sometimes. I haven't heard Bikol since I left my first area and I never even learned any there. But I'm up for the challenge of learning that too to try and communicate more effectively here.

So far the work here has been ok. We have a couple of potential baptisms coming up so we are working really hard on that, but we also have to try and balance that out with our work for the Less Active members. That with trying to get used to being a District leader and the new area have made the last week super tiring, but we've started getting some good work in, and I already gave my first District meeting and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! We talked about asking questions and using the scriptures to teach more effectively. My District Leader's message at the end was just about D&C 122 and how trials help us grow, so I encouraged the members of my district to make a list of the trials they've had on their mission and with each trial, list how it has helped them to grow. So far I really like our district, and we will be adding two new sisters into the district this week as they open a new area in San Fernando! So far this transfer has been great and I'm excited to see what I can do here.

Love you all and hope you have another great week!

Elder Van Boerum
 5/12/14

Baptisms!

Ok everyone, I'm sorry to say this again, and you are probably sick of hearing it, but I really am short on time this week! I'm getting transferred tomorrow, so I have to spend some time packing all my stuff for 6 hours of travel tomorrow (at least). Anyway, we had a great week last week that ended with three baptisms that we were able to do in the ocean. The were Eman 8, Arman 9, and Leonard 11. All brothers and the sons of an inactive member we found about 6 weeks ago. They were really happy afterwards and it was a great time! Anyway, I love you all and I'll email you more next week from my new area!

 Elder Jakob Van Boerum

5/4/14