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

transfer back to the jungle

Hello family, my time has flown by here in Bacolod 3rd ward. It was such a great opportunity to serve as Assistant and feels just like yesterday that I started my time here and now it is over. I learned so many things and saw so many miracles. It was amazing how we kept the weekly baptism going. When I came, Elder Galanza had opened our side of the area just the transfer before and had many companions. Then my time with Elder Dy was a challenge because we only had 2 assistants. We were able to see miracles when it seemed like our weekly baptism would stop, then we were able to keep it going. We were also able to do exchanges with all of the zone leaders and to train them which was such a good experience. Then my time with Elder Peralta we literally tripled or x4 our work. It was awesome and we had so many lessons and many investigators at church each week and many baptisms. I would never trade my experience here for anything, I have learned so much. I will never regret my choice to serve a mission. If I had not served I would never be who I am today and the people we have helped come unto Christ may have never known the truth. I am so touched by the testimonies of our recent converts, especially the change they have had in their lives from reading the Book of Mormon every day. I know that the greatest miracles in life are not the parting of the Red Sea or healing the sick or the raising of the dead, it is in the change of ones heart when they repent and get baptized. There are so many investigators left in our area that are doing great and progressing towards baptism. I know they will be baptized in the future. I wish that we could have baptized the Sangco family. I hope and pray one day they will realize that the only way to true happiness is by repentance and baptism in this church. I am so excited for what lies ahead for me in the future. I know that God has a plan for me. I have seen His hand and miracles every day in our work. I know that I have been assigned where I have for a reason. I am excited to train and to open the new area of Dian-ay. I know that God has prepared people for me out there. I know that they will be baptized as long as I do my best to be obedient and follow the Holy Ghost and work hard. We will see miracles in Dian-ay just like all of my past areas. As for last week, the planning for the MLC worked out fine. We got everyone to work on Monday night and the sleeping arrangements went well. I was spiritually uplifted at the MLC. That is why I love having it at the mission home, it is the closest feeling we can get to being in the temple out here where we don't have one. I was impressed by the trainings and especially the attitude and the excitement of the new zone leaders. I know they will continue to do miracles with the new generation of leaders in the mission. Our work went well this week also. We were able to have six baptisms on Saturday. I had the opportunity to baptize brother Marvin, he is a part member, we have helped his parents to return and his older brothers are strong recent converts. Also the five others were from the Tan family that are part members. Their Grandma is an active member. I kept having the strongest feelings that we needed to visit them back when we started out with four in our area because they were former investigators. They progressed from day one and went to church every week until baptism. On Sunday we had 8 confirmed because of the two that were not confirmed last week due to the stake conference. I will continue to do my best and work hard for the rest of my mission. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Love Elder Mifflin

Busy, busy, busy...

Elder Mifflin is still in Bacolod City, working in his third transfer as an AP. He loves the work and this area (ward) has been able to meet the mission president’s goal of at least one baptism weekly for the past 4 months. Besides teaching and doing exchanges with zone leaders, the APs have had the opportunity to help many sick missionaries this month, including hosting them in their home which sleeps 12. Here are a few brief excerpts from Elder Mifflin’s letters this month: “I am amazed at the miracles we have seen this week. I have seen God’s hands in our work and people really being guided by the Holy Ghost… the work here is really exploding right now… My companion is a great missionary and is a very hard worker. His testimony is very powerful. He has a great attitude…I am excited this week to help all of our investigators prepare for baptism. I know that there is no other place I should be right now because this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this is the only way to true happiness and salvation. I invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon and ponder it in your hearts and ask God if it is true and I promise you that you will come to know just as I do that it is true.” Elder Mifflin invites us to pray for his investigators. He only has 6 months left, not that we’re counting the days or anything…

still in Bacolod as AP

Hello everyone this has been a good week out here. We moved our house again to a bigger one. It has two floors and we have many missionaries sleep here when needed. We had more exchanges this week. I worked in Murcia with Elder Saure who is my batch. We had a good fun day. His area is out in the nature. We had some good teachings. I helped him work on the things that they need to. It is nice to get out of the city for a day. Then the next day I worked with Elder Doane in my area. He is a way good missionary. He is an American and we enjoyed some Mcdonalds and some pizza. The good thing about Bacolod is we can get a lot of fast food and also we have department stores with everything in there. I helped him with how to begin teaching. He is very spiritual and helped me also to learn how to have the Holy Ghost more powerfully and to be humble to the spirit. The next day we had a training with the new missionaries and their trainers from last transfer. On Saturday we had a way good baptism of sister Jessica. It was a way good experience. I saw how the gospel really helped her to change her life and have true happiness. Her older sister is a way strong recent convert from June 8. Her sister spoke at the baptism. Also her mother was there which was way good. I had the opportunity to baptize sister Jessica. I could feel through the Holy Ghost that this work is true. I felt so happy and so good thinking how far she had come. When she was baptized she said that she felt so so good and was so happy. The gospel has literally saved this girl's life. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to help Jessica know the truth. She is so thankful also. The next day we had a good missionary fireside after church where we trained our ward missionaries. Our ward mission leader is way good. We have a baptism next week also and hope to have them each week in August. It is transfer week which will be way busy. I am still Assistant though, and will stay in my area. I love that area so I am way excited. I know this church is true. When we apply the gospel it will change our lives. I know true happiness comes from living the gospel. I know Christ is our Savior and the restoration is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I love you all and hope you have a good week. Love Elder Mifflin

Elder Mifflin in Bacolod as assistant to mission president

Elder Mifflin continues to work hard in the Bacolod area as an assistant to the president.  He is very busy training, proselyting, and supporting the logistical efforts of the mission.  He and his companion do splits with zone leaders from other areas and taught 66 lessons between them in a recent week.  He quotes his current bishop "The greatest miracles are not in the parting of the Red Sea, healing the sick, or raising the dead.  It is in the changing of one's heart." Elder Mifflin states,” I love this because it is way true.  It is not easy to change our lives and live the commandments.  Once we are truly converted we realize that living the gospel is the best way for happiness.  As missionaries that is our great quest each day. Trying to help people change their heart and accept the restored gospel is a great challenge.  When we see it happen though and have success, it makes every challenge worth it to have helped them change their life.  I know this work is the Lord's work.  I know there is no other place that is more important to be than on my mission.  I miss my family and the great summer vacations, but I will have those for the rest of my life. Right now the chance I have to change people's lives in the ’Pines’ will never come again.  I will enjoy it because I will be home soon enough.  I love you all.”