Hi Mum and Whanau,
Thanks once again for the emails and the pictures. It's awesome to be kept updated on everything back home. You know, there are some missionaries out here on their missions that don't receive emails from their family at all. Mahirap 'yun. Mum, next time you visit the Filipino sister missionaries at the Visitor's Centre in Temple View be sure to say, "Maayong buntag, maayong hapon, or maayong gabii." Translated that means, "Good morning, good afternoon and good night."
This week has been good. We had exchanges with one of the other Elders in my District. It was cool to work in another area.
On Tuesday Elder Ofahulu and I went out to work in NIA village and Roque One compound. We had a good day and visited some of our investigators and less actives. Rubina is one of our investigators and our plan was to teach her about baptism and set a baptism date. We started our lesson by sharing a scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants section 42 where it says something along the lines of, "If thou lovest me ye will serve me and keep all my commandments." I asked Rubina, "What are some of the ways that we are able to follow Jesus Christ? She gave answers like reading the scriptures, going to church and praying. We then shared another scripture found in 2 Nephi 31 where it talks about how we need to be baptized and explained that even Jesus Christ as PERFECT a being as he was had to be baptized. At this point we invited Rubina to be baptized.... awkward silence filled the room and it seemed as if time it self stood still or had ceased to be… dom, dom, dom... Then she said, "Yes!" I remember at that point my heart felt like it was beating faster and I was so excited that I almost wanted to hug everyone there. Hehe. It was awesome and to finish off the lesson we shared our testimonies and then handed the time over to one of her friends that were there with us to share her testimony too. It was amazing to sit and listen to the testimony of this once less active friend now testify of the truthfulness of the Church. It was great. Well, that was our day.
On Wednesday we visited some awesome families and met a recent convert that had been taught by an Elder MacDonald from New Zealand and he had been given a Maori Book of Mormon with the NZ National Anthem in it and the Haka. Cool aye. We visited this one house where they were mixing up cement so that they could make stairs in front of their house. I got in there and helped them out and it was awesome to be able to give that spontaneous act of service. After that we went to Sister Ivy's house for dinner. Super sarap. We had chicken afritada and banana-que with fruit shakes as our beverage. Awesome dinner.
On Thursday we had exchanges and I went with the other Elders to their area and met their investigators and members which was awesome. We visited a few people and later went to one of the houses and had dinner. Sarap. Adobong manok and we had magnums to end the night and then sleep.
On Friday we swapped back and then had to do our weekly planning. Once that was finished we went out and worked and had a few challenges but we were able to teach two great lessons to Ruby about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. It was good. We also found the referral that was given to us by the Office. We texted him found where he lived and then went over and talked with him. We call it BRT (building relationships of trust). He is an amazing guy - golden as they would say in the mission. We didn't teach him a lesson but I told him that I felt inspired to give him a baptism date. So I did and he accepted and we all agreed that we needed to review and reteach all the lessons to get him ready for baptism. Awesome! Dinner that night was at Bishop's home and we had beef sinigang with bangus and ice-cream for dessert. Mmmm... so good.
Saturday we were booked out with a Stake activity followed by a baptism which we were invited to sing at. It was a good day and because we had eaten at the activity we didn't need dinner.
Sunday came around and we were meant to pick up one of our investigators but he had a fever and texted to say he couldn't make it. Sayang. Church was good and it was packed, which makes us and Bishop happy because they can see that our work is paying off. I had to interview one of the other Elders investigators for baptism and that was awesome. She will be getting baptized on Saturday and we have been invited to sing there too. Cool. We were invited to a dinner at the Arucan family home. They know Tito Mike Ramirez. Sister Arucan had a picture of the family. Dinner was amazing - BBQ ribs, kebabs, chicken, pancit and ice-cream. So, so good. The members dropped us off at home after dinner and it was a good night.
Today is our P-Day and we splurged a bit because we are sure that Elder Ofahulu will be transferred next week. Boohoo!!! But such is life. We went and had pizza at Shakeys.
Thanks for everything Whanau. I know you are always there for me. I am trying my best and I realize that the time is going by quickly and I only have like 7 months left until I walk through those airport doors like Elder Stefan Huysmans did last week. Hehe. Trunky... lol
I love you all. Take care.
Elder Chadderton
P.s. Tell Cola I got her package and I got your letters too. Thanks.
P.p.s. Photo's still aren't working but next week I promise.
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