Wednesday, January 18, 2017
WEEKLY REPORT/ FIRST BAPTISM IN MIAGAO!
Alright so i first off i hope you are all doing peachy this week and have had a wonderful Sunday and just everything :)
So i want to start off with this letter with some Scriptures this first one can be found in D&C 84:89 it says there 89 Whoso receiveth you receiveth me; and the same will feed you. So there is obviously more to this Scripture but this is something that we actually noticed on splits with our Zone Leaders recently about a week and a half ago but If you want to really know if your Investigators are Scattered Israel, THEY WILL FEED YOU!!!!!! it says it in the Scriptures :) so just a fun fact that is actually pretty dang true if you ask me cause that is how we have been finding our scattered Israel :) Also here is another one we haven't tried this one yet but it might work and might be helpful for missionary work ;) So if would all lovely turn to the Book of Mormon to Helaman 13:4 and after turn to Mosiah 13:3 So for you familiar with the Scriptures in Helaman it is when Samuel the Lamanite gets up on the wall and in Mosiah it is when Abinadi teaches the 10 commandments so for Helaman this is what you do when the people you oym or your investigators won't let you in haha you climb the wall and once you get on the wall you tell them what is says here in Mosiah ;) So i hope you guys get a good laugh at this cross reference! it says there there 4 And it came to pass that they would not suffer that he should enter into the city; therefore he went and got upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and criedwith a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsover things the Lord put into his heart.
3 Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay yourhands upon me, for I have not delivered the messagewhich the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told youthat which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, Godwill not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time.
But other than that we have been really busy this week actually... and i just want to say this really quick all you American English speaking missionaries i am so proud of you guys teaching in English cause i got to do it for the first time in my mission after a year of being out and it SUCKED... my english is awful my companion almost busted up laughing cause of how i said things... but the lessons still went really well :) the one that was pure English was with this black guy named Isa which is 1 in ilonggo haha but he is from Nigeria.. think that is how it is spelled... but ya he is going to school here right now and we decided to teach him but he is a very interesting man and has some really good questions cause of his tribe so it is nice and helps us to really make things clear to him :) but also ummm onward from that :) i will tell more later
So we have our first Baptism within a year here in Miagao!!!! it is a mom and a dad that are being Baptized this week on Saturday so we will send pictures next pday so don't worry ;) but we are so excited for them because even right now they are just doing so amazing at sharing the Gospel with others and have already given us 3 referrals of people they want to share the Gospel with and we think that when the kids come to see the Baptism it will set a great example for them and have more of that desire to accept the Baptismal date we have for them :)
So Molita family that is our family of 6 that we have right now with a date for the 28th hopefully... So with them we are actually getting them Married within this week or the next so we have been helping them out with that and preparing for that as well and then the next week will be their Baptism :) so we have quite a lot on our plate right now and it is fun and i love it but man is it tiring... but i know that Missionary work requires Hard work and Dedication. because it has taken me 4 months of being in this area working and putting in our part to help to start to see the results and now we are with investigators coming to Church (11 yesterday!) and getting weekly Baptisms coming with if these people follow through with everything and are progressing but i am so grateful to be able to see the work start to pay off and to see the blessings of the Lord here in my second area and to see these things bring miracles to other people's lives.
Well that is really all i have for this week but i will keep you all updated and i hope you all have a safe week this week and i love you all and i miss you all so much! I hope you all have the Spirit to be with you and guide you through out your weeks and to feel the love and presence of our Heavenly Father. Remember who you are. I love you :)
Keep Smiling :)
Pagpalangga,
Elder Merrill
Jauary 8th 2017
So these are pictures we took with some of our Investigators that we are marrying actually :) they will be married by next week hopefully.... Then the next week Baptized :) they are a family of 6 and they are just amazing and have come so far in the Gospel and have changed so much since we first met them. Also Welcome to the Miag-ao Group haha where we get more investigators sometimes then members to come to Church 11!!!! we were so freaking happy about that!!!! also be careful when you go out at night... you may not know what or who is out in the dark....
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!!!!
Hey everyone i hope that you had a good New Years and are starting the Year of right by keeping the Sabbath holy ;) haha i love you all and i hope that you all have some really good New Years resolutions to be able to come closer to our Father in Heaven and for everything else :) but i just want to let you guys know that i love you and next week we have our Baptism for one of our Investigators and i am excited for the others because we will be helping them get everything ready for their wedding next week :) I am so happy to see the progression they are making. It is something you can't explain with how much joy you feel for the people you serve in a mission. and especially when you see them progress and see how God has been blessing them and help prepare them to make that First Covenant.
This week has been more crazy and not a whole lot of work has been able to get done cause the past couple days and even today we have to be home by 5 because of the Holidays and our President wants us to be safe. So it is for a good reason cause apparently they shoot off guns and just some other stuff but ya it is all good :) but next week i will let you guys know more about the progress of our investigators and the wedding and stuff like that :) and i will have a lot more to talk about or i will be to tired to email next week and there is a reason for that that me and my companion are going to be doing and were asked to try and so it should be real fun and challenging and will probably work us even more to death and will probably want us to carry the area book around with us hahahaha.... such a pain.... But i love missionary work and it is so rewarding and it brings so many blessings :) and i hope you have been receiving blessings as well and also New Years here is freaking crazy and so freaking loud.... pretty much you fall asleep and then at 11 you get woken up from all the crap that is going on throughout the town... haha but it was kind of weird but also good to be able to say welcome 2017!!!! and now we have 364 days till next year and to see all our progress and what not but i love you guys and i hope you have a wonderful day today and that Church was good for you all and you were all able to learn some new things :) Remember who you are. I love you all and miss you all!!!! 1 year now and makita ay kita liwat :)
Keep Smiling :)
Pagpalangga,
Elder Merrill
January 1st 2017
So these are some pictures are from last week and from christmas and ok there is a picture in here that i just had to take and it may be worthy to be in a pamphlet haha joke lang that may be bad but it was a really cool picture and i couldn't resist haha also here are some holiday lights from our area :) and from going out tracting for a super super far area.... a new family we are teaching, some super super cute baby goats :) and ya haha aslo our Christmas Dinner.... corned beef, noodles and rice... Members from Manila that were visiting, that fed us haha was happy for that...
Images pending approval
1 WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! December 19th 2016
Hey everyone so i don't have much time to do this email cause we still haven't eaten yet and have to be in the city for splits later... but so what happened from the week....
We had our Christmas Conference which was nice and fun :) it was very helpful and inspirational :) it was just with our zone though instead of the whole mission but it was still good and i had fun there we had a good lesson with our President and got to do practice teaching with him about how to use the Book of Mormon more effectively :) but it was good also work didn't get a whole lot cause of all the time being out for meetings and my companion getting sick from eating at a place called minute burger for the first time haha... who saw that one coming?? i did a little bit... he hates that place now haha.... but MIRACLE we had 10 investigators at Church this last Sunday!!!!!! so freaking happy about it and am just so happy and love these families so much!!!!!! they have a Baptismal date for the 14th of January!!! so we are super excited for them and love teaching them and see them change and really develop their testimonies and strive to live the Gospel!!!! they are two different families but we had them meet at the birthday party of the other investigator and they were able to talk to each other and get to know each other as well and guess what they talked about???? The Gospel and the Book of Mormon!!!!! i was so happy when i heard their conversation :) we also got to teach the Molita family about the Word of Wisdom at the others house while we waited for the party and honestly the field is already white. and Heavenly Father really puts people in our paths who are ready to receive the Gospel when we ask Him for families to teach. but they are so ready and were just like oh well it sounds like i should do this cause i would rather not have my kids be doing this stuff or drinking this stuff when they get older or seeing us do it! ahhh i just love them and am so happy to be able to share this wonderful gift with them and see them grow. as in i feel like they are one main reason why i have been called to Miag-ao is to help this family to receive the Restored Gospel but super awesome and this week that is all i can think of right now but ya haha....
Also we went to a place called Garinfarm today and it is a super super cool place to go to but a lot of people stare when they see the nametag haha because it's a Catholic place type thing and there are some questionable things there but oh well but super fun and we got to see a monkey!!!!! haha he was really cute you will all see in the pictures so dont worry but i love you all and i miss you all and i will wish you guys a early Christmas right now :) but i will talk to you all again on actual Christmas :) i love you liwat and Remember who you are.
Keep Smiling :)
Pagpalangga,
Elder Merrill
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