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