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. 

Maliayang Pasko

Maligayang Pasko

Hey Everyone!

So I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We ended up being really busy here with visiting people, Christmas party, meetings, and a whole bunch of other stuff. A pretty tiring week, but good nonetheless. Most of our investigators were gone for the week, so we decided to go out finding new investigators and also visiting less active members and seeing what we could do for them. Most of them were pretty open to talking with us, and we met a few for the first time. They were smoking and asked us "Oh this is against the commandments right?" and we said yep, and they just kept right on smoking. But we did have quite a few people end up coming to church.

One hard thing was the bishop here had rented a jeep to try and get some of the less actives to be able to come to church. So we talked to the driver and had it all set, then he bailed on us at the last minute. The only problem was he didn't tell us, or anyone else. So a bunch of people were waiting, but...no jeep showed up. That was too bad.

This next week should be fun though. We have a bunch of exchanges, nearly every day this week, so we will be back and forth between our areas and others every other day. It's going to be exhausting, but fun I hope. We've got some really good missionaries here that we will get to work with.

Well I love you all and miss you a ton! It was awesome getting to skype with you (family). I was thinking about you all a lot and how grateful I am to be here, even for Christmas. But this is the last one, so it should be even better next year! I miss all of you (my friends) too! Keep up the good work with whatever you're all up too! Talk to ya next week!

Happy New Year too!

Merry Christmas!

Well another week that went super fast. Maybe it was just that we were so busy with a bunch of stuff. We had exchanges that went really well, and we found quite a few new investigators. I'm starting to get really familiar with the area, and so that's helping a ton.

A couple highlights for the week.

We went to visit our investigators Abby, Carlo, and Chris, (all about 17-19 and in college). We walked in and Abby was sitting at a table reading the Book of Mormon and a Gospel Principles book. Just in her free time. She says she's been finding the answers to questions she's had her whole life, then Carlo joined and said the same thing. They then worked on convincing Chris to come to church this week because "it's different there, at the Mormons. You feel the presence of God." We then gave them a list of questions and scriptures we wanted them to try looking up over the Christmas break, because they'll be going home for about 2 weeks and will probably have plenty of time to kill. They are going to be baptized.

Interesting thing was teaching an apostate member of the church. I'll tell you more about him over skype, but he pretty much goes out and preaches the Gospel (good thing) while at the same time spying on members and actively campaigning against the stake presidency and other church leadership (bad thing). Oh yeah, and he wants to have his kids baptized.

Other fun thing was the Christmas conference on Friday. Just went and hung out together for a few hours. And out of nowhere, President Reeder pulls out Frozen. So we watched that for the first couple hours to celebrate Christmas. Everyone was into it and stuff, and then the movie ends and the feelin hits everyone that it's back to bein a missionary again. But all told, it was a really good time and I got to see a lot of people that I missed. So cool.

Well I'm excited to skype this week. And we are trying to work out some things to do for the week because everyone will be drunk on Christmas Eve, singin karaoke, while their kids blow up fireworks. They may not really be in the spirit to listen to us, but we're gonna give it a shot anyway. And we have the ward Christmas party tomorrow that wasn't planned until after sacrament meeting yesterday. We'll see how that turns out.

Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!