CHANGE IS COMING

CHANGE IS COMING (new president of the Philippines slogan) DUTERTE

Its been a busy couple of weeks. Transfer announcements come by last Monday and I was assigned in a threesome, with new area but same zone so i wasn't moving too far from where I was originally. Transfer day comes along and as we are about to head out the door all packed up ready to go, I get a call to go to a new zone called Montalban. So I am now in the land of Montalban! its super nice, our house is spacious and has a shower! My last area was bucket showers all day. Running water all day, last area only at night... I feel like im livin large now a days. We have a really good area out here, people are super nice like always, mountains in the distance, the elders that live in our house, their area is a place called WAWA DAM. search it we should be going on a pday here soon which I am excited. I miss doing some out doorsy stuff, waterfalls hiking and all that. 

My new companion is real cool, from cali, he will be going home after this transfer. He is hard working and a fun Elder. We have had similar backgrounds so we automatically clicked. My first week here has been super successful, we received a text from the sister in the ward next to ours and they had an investigator move into our area and she is absolutely ready for baptism. Its awesome, we call these people golden investigators. They have received their answer and are ready to be a member of this wonderful church. Our first day as a companion ship, we were introduced to a sister/ mother by a member and had a great lesson with here. She offered the closing prayer and started to tear up. Now those tears are not because we are sad, they are tears of joy. That feeling she described to us after the prayer was the Holy Ghost giving her a answer to her prayerful question. It was quite beautiful and these moments man, are the moments that help me realize why I am out here. 

If you are thinking about serving a mission. Do what you need to do to become ready, it will take sacrifice but thats okay cuz i promise you this is worth it. People need your help and will be prepared to hear your voice! 

I love you all and especially thank you for the love and support you all show me.

Love,

Elder English



Wawa Dam (also known as Montalban Dam)^[1] is a gravity dam constructed over the Marikina River in the municipality of Rodriguez in Rizal province, Philippines.^[2] The slightly arched dam is situated in the 360-metre (1,180 ft) high Montalban Gorge or Wawa Gorge,^[3] a water gap in the Sierra Madre Mountains, east of Manila. It was built in 1909 during the American colonial era to provide the water needs for Manila.^[4][5] It used to be the only source of water for Manila until Angat Dam was built and Wawa was abandoned. Due to insufficiency of water supply for Metro Manila, there was a strong clamor to reuse the dam.^[6]

LOVIN LIFE!!!

LOVIN LIFE

Dearest friends and family,

First off I love you and thank you all for being you. I miss you all but I am having the time of my life out here, and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I learn so much each and every day its almost weird but how I enjoy it man. This week was really good for Elder Newman and I. We are trying our best to get our investigators to come experience church. I like using a term here to get people to realize they don't know what they are missing out on here on these warm Sunday mornings. "How do we know whether a food is delicious or not?" They usually say "we try it," although we have gotten some out of the park answers a couple times haha, but then compare food to church, we will never know if we like it if we dont try it. Gets the people thinking a lil bit. 

Here is a cerpt of the email I sent to our mission president:

This last week, much of my personal study has been focused on faith, because of a Less active who asked us a question on how he can truly build his faith to be stronger. We gave him the answer I think most missionaries would have given. Read, Pray, Got to church, but I was disappointed with our answer. I wanted to go into more depth, to truly help him increase his faith, of course reading, praying, and attending church will be the best place to start, and he knows that. Luckily I had a talk given to me by Elder Stratton way back in training that I had not read until this last week. It is called "Increasing our Faith in Jesus Christ" He explained how the 12 apostles wanted the same thing, to better to increase their faith. They had asked Jesus Christ what they must do to better increase their faith. Christ gave a parable about a servant and a master, how the servant had worked all day in the field then comes back to the master expecting a break because of the such hard work put in. The Master had him continue with his duties with out time to sit and relax, or take a break. the apostles were confused while expecting the answer to pray, read, treasure up the word of God. They got the opposite, what Christ was explaining how we are always in debt to our Father in heaven. Our Faith is grown by giving/ dedicating our life to the LORD and his son Jesus Christ. It never stops, our faith is either increasing, staying at the same rate or descending. 

I am super happy to be here on a mission to give myself to the LORD, This is the best time of my life. I love this work and coming closer to our Heavenly Father each and every day. Its crazy for me, I've dreamed of being out here since I was baptized and being here now almost doesn't seem real. Have to pinch myself sometimes. But I love it, the trials and realizing the significance of a trial in the midst and enduring while enjoying. The life of a missionary, how you see things from a different perspective out here.

This talk I shared isn't exactly quoted but its how I understood it. I hope it helps you to grow your faith each and every day! 

I love you al,l keep being yourselves and having fun.

Love,

Elder English