Pictures

Week 15

       

Hello everyone this week has been a good week.

This week has gone by way fast and this transfer has gone by way fast. It feels like there just isn't enough time in the day. I only have one week left with Elder Natural and then he will go home.  I don't know yet if I will stay in Canlaon or go somewhere else, but I do know that I will get a new companion.  We are doing are best and trying to end it well.

First of all this week we found rats in our apartment! ah it was so scary they were behind my dresser.  They are usually just in the pipes and don't get inside. So it freaked me out. There was a mom and she had like five babies.  The mom ran away we don't know where she went but I think she went outside because we haven't seen her since.  We put the baby rats outside and I took a picture of them. I am so so so so so glad they weren't grown up yet.  Also last night we saw a huge tail of a big rat coming out of the pipe and it was squealing so that was scary ha ha.  At least that one can't get in it is too big. There was also a dead bat inside the church on sunday so that was funny to it smelt so bad. 

You guys will never stop laughing when I tell you this... I taught my companion how to BEAN DIP. I wish I would have done it earlier ha ha he loves it and now he is always giving me bean dips, it is also a great way to cheer him up when we get down. It is so funny.  He will always remember me for teaching him the bean dip and also what SMORES are I made him some this week. Eating smores reminds me of my family and camping in priest lake.  I love them more than anything.  We just cook them on the stove though because we hardly ever have any free time to make a fire.

This morning to enjoy our last P day together because next week we are going to Bacolod to send Elder home, we went to the big tree again. This time though we woke up at 4:30 and then hiked to the big tree with our branch mission leader who is about my age ha ha but he is way cool. It was a great sunrise and I got a lot of beautiful pictures. We also saw some ostriches which was funny they were in a farm we got some pics. It was nice to hike and just relax though and enjoy some nature and clear my mind. 

Another funny thing that happened to me this week is I took the follow up language test for the pilot program. Or at least I tried ha ha it was in Tagalog and I have only forgotten Tagalog since I left the MTC. 

Ok for the work this week.  We had another good week. We have some less actives that we are working with who are so close to being rescued which means they come to church four weeks in a row.  One family is the Bandoy family. Bro Bandoy has already been rescued but his wife is doing way good now and has been three weeks in a row. They are great and we are having a family home evening there tonight. Also Sister Bandoys parents are less active and they are so awesome especially the dad. He is so so so old but he is a gangster. He wore these sweet green and white converses, green pants, a green and white button up, and a sweet truckers cap to church, he has got steeze. We are helping them return they were less active forever and the dad is unordained so we are helping me prepare for the priesthood. 

We are also working with Mario Belado, he is so humble and looks like my homie Nate Johansen it is so funny but we are preparing him for a calling a to receive the melchizedek priesthood. We are helping him understand the importance to sacrifice work for to keep the commandments and he will be way more blessed. We are working with many more though. We usually have between fifteen and twenty lessons a week. We have also found some new investigators from teaching the Lauds Sister Bandoys parents, it is her sister and also her brother and their families so we will see what happens. The work here is great and the people are great, sometimes it just progresses slow though because it is so spread out here and it is hard for people to come to church and it is hard to get people to work with us besides on weekends.

Anyways though we are having progress with the Peral family a referral family we have been teaching for over a month. the mom used to have a baptism date. She doesn't want to be baptized until she knows our church is true though. So we are helping her to understand and recognize her answer and help her understand that she need to act to receive an answer. We have invited her and her family to church every week, we even stop by before church and nothing, but yesterday they finally came! Which was awesome and due to a great powerful lesson on Saturday night with the help of our branch mission leader and President Magsico about the plan of salvation. We are excited about them they are a great family and hope to continue to help them progress towards the truth. Anyways there is so so much to tell I could write all day, but I just want you guys to know that I love you all and I know that God is our Loving Heavenly Father and we are all his children, he has an amazing plan of happiness for us possible only through Jesus Christ and His gospel. I am so thankful for these blessings in my life and know that all people need the gospel of Jesus Christ. It isn't always easy here though. The language is coming but it is still hard I am getting better at speaking more but still need to improve and speak less english and remind Elder to hit me. Sometimes it is hard to laugh and focus when you can't understand the joke ha ha. But it is coming and I know it is possible to be fluent one day. I have improved a lot and can understand a lot better but it is still hard. But whenever it gets hard or I get down I think about how much I love my family and how blessed we are from the gospel and that all people need this and it gives me strength to push on every day. I need to trust in God and Jesus Christ every day as we all do. I love a talk by Elder Wirthlin in 2008 he says "Come what may and love it" this reminds me of my mom. We all have challenges each day but as we put our trust in Jesus Christ I know we can have strength to overcome any challenge. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Love Elder Mifflin aka nature man

Pictures

Week 14

   

It has been a good week. We are still just working with pretty much the same people as usual this week. Some good news though, one of the people we are working with is officially rescued which means that he has come to church for four weeks in a row.  It is Raymond Babor the same person who blessed the sacrament last week, he has truly repented and it has been awesome to help him remember what is important.  For the rest of his family their problem is that they are really poor and have to work on Sundays. They all came before besides the dad but then didn't come last week. We are trying to help them realize that from obedience to the commandments of God they will be receive many more blessing than from working on Sunday to get by.

But ya the work is going good I am still just trying to improve each day and help these people understand the truth.

We went to Bacolod again this week for a zone leader training because my companian is a zone leader. They wouldn't let me and this other missionary who isn't a zone leader join the training but it was nice to relax and hang out with him. He is in my zone and we have become good friends.  I also took some time to update my journal. It has been very hard but so far I have kept a journal for every day of my mission.  Sometimes since we are so busy I have to catch up for like three or four days when I get a chance but it will be great to look back on all the memories.  They did let us eat lunch though.  It was like a thanksgiving feast to have some american fast food. They had KFC and some asian food it was so so good ha ha but I feasted and later had some Mac dos I ate so much I felt sick later but what can I say I love some good old fast food ha ha.  I also took the chance to get a normal haircut ha ha so ya i just got a normal "6" everywhere haircut but it was funny the guy who cut my hair was so surprised that I didn't want the philipino style ha ha.  

During some of my spare time in Bacolod I read some April general conferance talks from 1989 "Beware of Pride" Ezra Taft Benson, "Our Kindred Family, Expression of Eternal Love" Elder J. Richard Clarke. "Irony" Elder Neal A. Maxwell and " Let Love be the Lodestar of your life" Gordon B. Hinckley. They were all great and it was cool to see talks from that long ago you should read them if you get a chance. I especially loved a quote from Gordon B. hinkley, "Love is an ANCHOR like the polar star, in a changing world. love is constant. It is the very essence of the gospel. It is the security of the home. It is the safeguard of community life.  It is a beacon of hope in a world of distress." I love how he says love is an anchor, that is why I am here serving because I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have perfect love for all people and through the Gospel of Jesus Christ everyone can find peace and happiness in this life and everlasting joy in the next life. I know this is true. I also am here because I love my family so much and am so thankful for the opportunity to be with them forever. I love Moroni 8:16 and know that perfect love is what I have for my family and what Heavenly Father and Christ have for all. 

Anyway, I am doing good. This transfer has flown by because we have been doing a bunch of stuff and Elder Natural is leaving in two weeks so I don't know if I will stay here or go. Also to help me speak the language I started doing this thing where I can't speak English anymore and everytime I do Elder gets to hit me. It is so hard and I always can't go a whole day but I am trying ha ah.  Also this week we got food at this restaurant and I thought I ordered just a normal dish of meat, turns out it was cow intestine. It wasn't that bad but once I found out what it was I stopped eating it cause I wasn't sure if it was safe ha ha. Anyways I love you all and good luck with everything and always remember to trust in God.
Love Elder Mifflin