March 1 - 6, 2011

Another good, busy, fun week in the Philippines. I have now been a full year in the Philippines, dapat akong magtagalog na lang sa lahat ng mga undates ko para masaya pero gusto ng nanay kong english. :)
Well, on Monday we had a fun family home evening with a less active family. We had a few members come and we played games and had a good lesson. It was good, a lot of fun. Then after district meeting on Tuesday we had splits, I went to Hermosa with Elder Beck, a fairly new elder from Idaho, but he now knows how to speak tagalog pretty well. So it was cool to go to a new area and not worry about much. Elder Beck is a good cool guy as well. Also my companion had the zone leader's council in Olongapo, so he went up with the other zone leader and Elder Carpio was my companion in my area. That was really cool as well. Except I still don't know my area that well cuz I'm gone a lot, so me and Elder Carpio did a lot of tracting, but I got to know the area a lot more. =)
Elder Carpio is a brand new elder from El Salvador, so he still doesn't know much tagalog yet. But its funny the people talk to him thinking he is Filipino. haha. He is also a big soccer player so that was awesome talking about soccer and stuff.
Then on Saturday one of the missionaries in our zone had another baptism interview so we went to Mandama so my comp can interview her. She is a great investigator, her husband is a member who recently returned to church and she saw the change show she became interested and wanted to be baptised. So she made time to read the book of mormon and prayed and she felt the spirit telling her it was true. And she really changed as well, she is now more excited and wants to learn when before she was way shy, quiet and didn't want to even listen to the missionaries. So that was totally awesome to meet her and learn about her story. And to see the gospel really affecting, helping and changing people's lives.
Also while we were there at that church in Mandama, the young men were there cleaning the church, then it was funny, it was raining and they were playin in the rain and playin basketball with a mango. =)
This week even though we had a lot goin on we got many new investigators and taught a lot of investigators and members. And on Sunday it was cool to see them at the Stake Conference in Orani. There were so many people there, a total of 8 wards in the stake, the overflow was overflowing. :) We had 3 of our investigators attend so that was awesome.
A general authority spoke Elder Ko, who is korean, it was really good, about building zion and family and being gospel active. So it was cool to see all those people and hear some good speakers as well as the mission president Pres. Aquino.
Then after church we had dinner at a member's house, it was kind of like a family home evening as well, a lot of families, we talked and had games. So that was a lot of cool fun things that happened. From writing these updates, I actually realize all the stuff and fun things that happen. :) Well, Mahal ko kayong lahat. Elder Pennock