week before Christmas

Hello everyone it has been a good week. It went by way fast. Last Monday we had to go to Bacolod to finish some of my immigration papers and get an xray. I also received my trunky letter which has my plane flights home. It is crazy I will be going home in 2 months! I love my mission and will enjoy the rest. It took forever in Bacolod so we just slept at the apartment of the assistants. I also had the opportunity to visit some recent converts in Bacolod, it was great to see them. Then the next day the assistants drove us back to Sagay because they also had to go somewhere. We will have 7 baptism on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marshal, Sinthia, Chendy, Chappy and Cheann Cristine Mae and Chimby. We also had a Christmas zone conference this week. We got a lot of good food like sub sandwhich and donuts and candy. It was way good and been a long time since I had food like that. We also got to watch the Christmas devotional which was way good. I also got my package. Thanks to my family so much. I got some cookies, reese, rolos, beef jerkey, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, a shirt, a little Christmas tree to decorate a cd and some letters and pictures. All of the people here loved to see the pictures of my family. We also had seminary and an activity again and a movie night. A lot of recent converts and investigators came. Then on Sunday we had many at church we had 15 at church and 15 with a baptism date. We had the Adan family and Lovero family at church again. The two new families that were at church last week were at church again. They are really progressing and have really felt that this church is true from their experience at church. They all want to be baptized and are very excited. They said that they have been to many different churches but they feel that this church is the true church. We are happy and excited for them. Some things that President Lopez taught us in the Christmas zone conference is that for missionaries Christmas is not about us or our families, but it is about the "others" that we are helping everyday to come closer to Jesus Christ. Having baptisms on Christmas is the best way we can fufill our purpose by helping others come closer to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has given us everything and all we can give to him is our heart so having a baptism on Christmas is awesome because these seven people are giving their hearts to Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins and living His commandment.I know that the true meaing of Christmas is to help others to remember that Jesus Christ is our Savior and to come closer to Him to help them improve their lives. I love this work and know it is true. I love these people and my area. I love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas! Love Elder Mifflin

early December

Hello everyone it has been a good week. We had a lot of exchanges this week. I went to Colonia Divinia on Tuesday for a baptism interview of the Paraonda family. They are a great family and very prepared for the gospel and will be strong future leaders. Then on Wednesday I went to Minapasok and worked with Elder Gorospe. It was cool to work with him again, it has been a long time since we worked together when we were companions. He has grown a lot and is doing great in his area. Then on Thursday we had exchanges again with Elder Sanderson and I went to his area to do some more baptism interviews. Elder Agbuya did well working in the area on his own and was able to help the work continue. We were busy this week just focusing on our investigators to be baptized this week and the others with a date. We have many investigators and we are working hard to help them. Then on Saturday we had a one day rescue where we had some members help us and we visited less actives. We did a member exchange again and me and Elder Agbuya split. He worked with the first councilor and I worked with the Elders quorum president. Then on Sunday we had the baptism of Cecilia, Mark, and Jomar. They were happy and very thankful and had a great experience and shared a strong testimony. I baptized Cecilia, Elder Agbuya baptized Mark and Jomar. I was so happy, it is always a great experience to baptize someone. We had it Sunday morning before class started so that they could be confirmed that same day. We had many members there to support them. Also all of Cecilia's kids watched the baptism and they also want to be baptized. It was a challenge to get clean water but we were able to get it done. On Sunday, we had 122 attendance We had less actives there and some more less actives returned and are coming consistently. We have 2 males that have recently returned from being less active who will receive the Melchizedek priesthood next week in Stake conference. It is the father of our first councilor and also brother Roe who is the father in law of our recent convert Arnold. All of our recent converts since I have been here are active going to church every week. We also had 7 investigators at church and they have all been to church now 2-5 times. We are planning to have them all baptized on Christmas! It will be a white Christmas in the Philippines! We are doing good and seeing many miracles in this place! I know that the Lord has prepared many people for us and opened the hearts of many people. I know that He will continue to lead us to people prepared. I love this place and know it was God's plan for me to be here. I hope that it is God's plan for me and Elder Agbuya to both stay here in this place because I love this place and want to be here for our Christmas baptisms. We finally got power back this week on Friday night, it was so nice to have lights and a fan again because it is so hot at nights. It was a good experience though to not have power for three weeks. Also I honestly forgot it was Thanksgiving until after it happened because they don't celebrate it here. It was just a normal day but I hope that you all enjoyed it. Love Elder Mifflin

Super Typhoon

Hello we had a good week. We had a good Ward Home Evening on November 4. It was the bishop's idea to do the 1st Monday of the month. He is such a good bishop, I have learned a lot from him. It was a good turn out and we had many members and investigators there. We had some good spiritual lessons and some fun games. We had a donut on the string with the bishopric, musical chairs, obstacle course and many more. It was so sweet. We also spent our time wisely and had many good lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday before we were locked down in our home. On Thursday and Friday we had to stay in our home all day during the storm. We did our studies and spent the extra time doing more studies and weekly planning and other things. I also spent my time writing to recent converts from past areas, cleaned the house and just chilled and relaxed. The storm was strong here, it was a category 4 super typhoon. That was my first time in a super typhoon because last year was not too bad. Our house was fine though. No damage but it was so loud and the wind was so strong. Looking out the windows we could see the trees falling over left and right and hear the rain pouring. Saturday we spent the whole day helping the members and our investigators and doing service. It was good to help and it opened the hearts of members and investigators. It was fun and hard work. We did a lot of cleaning yards and moved many fallen trees. All of our investigators and members are ok but many of their homes are damaged. Many lost their roofs and the ones with bamboo houses had much damage to their homes. One of our recent convert's house was completely destroyed, I feel bad for them but the church is going to help them. They are happy though and the people seem to have a good attitude about this. We have no power or running water, but we have a place nearby to buy purified water. We also have a well nearby that we are using to shower. At first we had to use the members well who are our neighbors which was hard to transport all of the water, but then they helped us clean our well in our yard and it is good. We have candles and have adjusted our schedule. I feel like I am in the olden days though ha ha. We are working in the morning and the afternoon and studying at night. No one has power so they go to bed early at like 7pm. We still don't have a signal for our cell phone. Sunday we had a good turn out though. The members were still positive and happy and many went to church. We had many investigators at church also, they are excited and want to be baptized. Some we gave a baptism date this week. Sister Cecilia our baptism candidate for the November 30th brought six of her kids to church and four are over eight and want to be baptized! Also the husband of Erlinda our recent convert came to church and it was his first time. It was so sweet and he loved it and wants to be baptized on December 25. We had to postpone our two baptisms because there was no water at the church and no one was ready because of the storm. The two will be baptized this week. We also have two baptisms on the 23th of November and one on the 30th and hopefully more than six in December so we are excited. The work is going on and moving forward. We will work hard and have a good week. Some scriptures I love that really apply are Helaman 5:12 and Mosiah 2:17. I gave a talk in church and talked about Helaman 5:12 and compared it to the storm. We also need to prepare spiritually because when the trials and temptations come we will never fall if we center our lives around Christ and His gospel is our foundation. I love you all. >>>>>>Elder Mifflin

bad to good and good to better

TyBlog10.20.2013 It has been a good week. We had exchanges on Tuesday in Colonia Divinia. I did another baptism interview. She is 16 and very prepared for the gospel. Later we went to the Bishop's and I met his family and had dinner. We shared a 15 minute lesson and he gave us some referrals in our area. He trusts us because later that week at our baptism and at sacrament he shared the same verses we shared in the 15 minute lesson, 3 Nephi 12:14-16. Then the next day we didn't want to wake up early for the only jeep ride and be tired for the mission tour so we hiked back. It was so beautiful and took about 2 hours. It was a sweet hike of crossing rivers and really muddy, but so relaxing. Then we traveled to Bacolod for the mission tour. Staying in the hotel was sweet and I took a hot shower, my 3rd one so far! The mission tour was so great. It was a revelatory experience. We got some good food and cool to see everyone. Elder and Sister Nielsen came, he is a general authority and the area 70 president of the Philippines. I learned how much our family and future will be blessed from our missions It has been true in my mission. I loved Elder Nielsen's talk about "In the strength of the Lord." It is a talk by Elder Bednar about the enabling power of the atonement. I encourage all of you to read it. It talks about the journey of this life is to go from bad to good and good to better. (Mosiah 3:19) We go from bad to good through the redeeming power of the atonement when we are cleaned from sin. But we still need to go from good to better. It is only possible through the enabling power of the atonement. It talks about how we need to act and pray for strength to change our circumstances not have our circumstances be taken away or changed. We all need the enabling power of the Atonement every single day. I also loved the training about establishing the church and helping the recent converts to stay active. That is one thing I have always been trying to do, but I want to apply it better and help other recent converts stay active. It was really cool to learn from Elder Nielsen knowing that he has been in meetings with the Prophet and that he is a way cool, normal guy, and I felt the truth of his words thru the Holy Ghost testifying to me. Then on Saturday I had the opportunity to baptize Erlinda, it was so awesome and the spirit was so strong. She was so happy and thankful. It made me so happy to know that God knows all and sent me here to this small place on the other side of the world so that I could baptize her. I love you all and I'm excited for my birthday. I am getting old, can't believe I'm almost 21. I know this church is true. Love Elder Mifflin

charcoal games again

TyBlog10.13.2013 It has been a good week. We had a family home evening last week with a less active family, some active members came and played some fun games with the charcoal. In district meeting we prepared for the mission tour. We also had exchanges and I worked with Elder Burnett in Minapasok. We worked on how to harness the power of the members and how to help our recent converts to stay active. Elder Agbuya did a good job in our area and they had a good day. Then on Wednesday we found many new people from referrals. We contacted three referrals that I got from a member in Bacolod 3rd ward once she found out I was here in Dianay because it is her home town. She is the young women's president and we always visited her. She referred her family, one is a less active and the others are not members but are very open to our message. The less active brother who is 18 came to our activity on Saturday and also to church with his little brother who is a part member. We are also teaching the cousin of our recent convert and current investigators, he came to our activity and church on Sunday. We are making sure each investigator has a good fellowshipper to help them come to church. We had a lot of people at the activity on Saturday after general conference. They played volleyball and basketball and then we watched the restoration movie. All of the less actives and the investigators at the activity came to church the next day. We are having a lot of success with the youth. We raised our investigators at church to 6 and also we have 6 with a baptism date. We are excited. Our next baptism is on Oct 19, it is Erlinda the grandma of Don who is a recent convert. We have seen so many miracles with her and the members have helped a lot. She has many friends at church and is very excited for her baptism. We have a baptism for Nov 2nd and plan on four baptisms on Nov 9th. I enjoyed general conference and received a lot of revelation that I will apply. Our bishop is awesome, the original plan was for all the wards to meet at Sagay and watch conference, but Bishop just downloaded it and we watched it at our church. It was good because we were able to have an activity after on Saturday and also on Sunday we had many people at church, but if it was in Sagay which is like a 30 min drive, there would have been few people. I love general conference. I have no doubt that this church is true. Just listening to those talks reminded me that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, I could feel such a strong witness as he spoke. I could feel God's love so strongly during that conference in a small meeting house in the middle of a small town in a 3rd world country. Our district is doing well. I am trying my best to help them to improve and work hard. We have 24 with a date in our district right now! Elder Busselberg and Elder Sanderson have a bunch of investigators that are very far away. It is not possible for them to come to church so under bishop's approval they are doing a special sacrament there each week and planning to baptize them all. The work is going well here in Dianay Ward. With four of us here and the two in Colonia we have doubled our work and the attendance is increasing. We are staying very busy and find it necessary to keep 4 missionaries in Dianay and 2 in Colonia. We are excited for the mission tour and will work hard this week. I love you all.

TyBlog09.29.2013 "Bukid"

As for last week we worked hard. Elder Agbuya has been sick this week, but he has pushed through it and is getting better. We have still worked every day. On Tuesday we had a good district meeting. I am happy that I can share some of my experience with the missionaries in my district. Then on Tuesday we had exchanges, I went to Colonia Divinia to do some baptism interviews. It is far away in the bukid (jungle) in the middle of nowhere. We had a bumpy one and a half hour jeep ride up into the mountain. We had a good day of work and the interviews went well. They had 4 investigators that I interviewed and they were all baptized on Saturday. Then the only ride back home is at 4am so we had to wake up on Wednesday at 3 am and ride the bumpy jeep down the mountain. We got to our apartment at like 6am and slept for half an hour and then everyone else woke up. I wanted so badly to just sleep but I just prayed for strength and worked a normal day. I know that God gave me strength. We are trying our best to involve the members in fellowshipping our investigators. One of our investigators is very open to our message and to baptism but she was shy to come to church and had not come yet because she had no dress and no friends. We found out a member nearby knows her so we have been visiting that member and shared about missionary work and the blessings and invited the member to help her come to church and come with her. The member even said that Erlinda could borrow her extra dress. It worked and the member came with her and gave her the extra dress. Sister Erlinda had a great experience. She received a lot of revelation and said she knows our church is true and wants to come every week and to be baptized. We also had a baptism on Sunday that she saw. Her date is on the 26th of October. The baptism on Sunday morning before church was Joren, he is the coolest 8 year old kid ever and is the next door neighbor of our first coucilor. He is now the only member in his family. We are teaching his family but his parents don't want to be baptized, but they are ok if their kids are baptized. He comes to church each week with the 1st councilor. He is way cool and wears a white shirt and necktie every Sunday. I was the one who baptized him, it was a cool experience. His testimony was so cool, he said he was thankful that he was baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ. We also had a cool experience with brother Arnold who is our investigator who will be baptized on the 6th of October. He has been coming to church for over a month and believes and is living all of the commandments. He recently married his wife who is a member. He also just got a new job. He had work every day on Sunday and would not be able to go to church. We taught him about Sabbath day and he said he wanted to come to church every week. We committed him to ask his boss if he can come to church and share why. He showed his faith and did it and was at church on Sunday and will come every Sunday. It was ok with his boss. It was a cool act of faith. We have a lot of investigators that we are teaching right now. Our main focus this week will be to get members to help them come to church because we only had 2 investigators at church this week. We are hoping for many baptisms in November though. We found this sweet family, it is 3 families in one house. They were taught by the missionaries before but they never went back. We went back and they received us warmly and accept everything we taught and we are excited for them. We also went to Family Week Celebration on Saturday and got a lot of food from members. For the training Elder is doing great and learning fast, I am helping him to lead as much as possible. We will work hard this week and are excited to see many miracles. Love Elder Mifflin

TyBlog09.22.2013 - Out of the city, back to the jungle...

Hello everyone it has been a good week. I enjoyed my last days in Bacolod doing all I could to keep the work going and help the recent converts to endure. My new area is Dian ay Ward. We have 4 missionaries here living in the same house. We are in Sagay stake, near Escalante. Our area is jungle bukid similar to Stop Aguinaldo, which is just on the other side of the mountain. Our area is Cebuano Illongo mix which is funny. My new comp is a Filipino from Pagasinan, age 24 and speaks Tagalog and English. He is a convert from 2010 and the only member in his family. I knew he was a good missionary from the 1st time I saw him. He is working hard to learn the language and already had a baptism. For our work I feel peace and have been able to find all of our investigators so far. We haven't gotten lost or anything and have learned the area quickly. We have several new investigators, one of whom is a Tagalog speaker. He is really open and accepted baptism. I know that God has prepared people for us to harvest and is preparing people right now. We plan to have a weekly baptism here. We had 61 people attend church this week. I have met most of the leaders here, and we did a lot of 15 min visits, and had a ward council. The members are good here and happy to help us out by doing member missionary exchanges. We are excited for our work this week. We are excited to do miracles. So far the training has gone well and my comp has good teaching skills, is participating in all of the lessons, and bore his testimony in Illongo on Sunday. He is happy and enjoying the work. The members are also excited to have 4 missionaries in their area. We are excited for the zone conference and will do our best this week. It is a little weird to be away from Bacolod again. No more fast food. Our area is like 30 min from Sagay so we have to get all our food there. No internet in our area, just small stores. I am happy and know this church is true. I love you all. Elder Mifflin