Dear Family and Friends,
Well I'm just going to start out this all about Saturday and the awesome stake baptisms we had. Oh man it was awesome! There were actually 33 baptized it was an awesome event and I'll be sending a picture in the next couple weeks of all the baptizers and people getting baptized in their white its freakin glorious!
We then tried to see some investigators to take at the last minute but of course none of them could go, and worst of all we went to Patrick last, one of the 3 getting baptized that night and not only was he not there but his neighbors said him and his friend Michael left the last night and hadn't come back. So that was pretty worrying. So both being in bad moods we went to buy some food when this guy started talking to Petey in English. He was way confused cuz that usually means a filipino trying to mess with us. But it turns out he's Korean and is here for work. He's really cool and oh man really rich and wants "to learn about the Mormon" cuz he's only heard good things about it. So we gave him our number and he said he would call us this week when he gets some time off of work. He really needed blessings. Then we were to meet our investigators at 2 to get their baptismal clothes and head over to the stake center but one of them had "Jubilee practice" this big celebration that's happening in May about the church being here for 50 years and the youth around here are doing a dance at it. But anyways we finally got to the stake center and Patrick hadn't shown up and we hadn't heard anything from him yet so we just figured he wasn't going to show. Then I walked out the door and there he was! Just standing there asking where his clothes were. haha I was just too happy to see him there and then have all 3 of our baptisms there. It was really awesome and I got to baptize him and Rovhiecar and Petey baptized Anna. It was a good day and then Sunday was good as well when they all 3 got confirmed. Then Patrick gets the priesthood next week, that'll be cool too.
Sunday was also a good day. We got 14 investigators to church, not quite 23 but still really good. Problem was (maybe not a problem) is almost all of them were new investigators, people we'd only contacted before or hadn't met before. Most of our actual investigators didn't show so that was disappointing. The rest of the day we went to most, almost all of those new ones to go teach them. All those lessons went really well and lessons like that, people like them get you really excited about coming back, so much potential.
But enough about me and my week! My next pday is Wednsday cuz the next day is transfers. I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone! I feel like it just started and now there's only a week left! Crazy how time flies and I hear it only goes by faster, which really isn't okay with me it scares me, I'm gonna blink and it'll be over!
But I love you all and sorry I'm out of time! Tell everyone I love them and I'll try to keep you all updated on everything as best as I can, and if I'm getting transferred next week, we'll see!
love
Elder Stover
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
2-14-11
Hello everyone!
kumusta po kayo lahat? ayos lang? o ayos naman? ako ay ayos naman! ang linggo nito naging sobrang magandang! excited ako talaga. (Please how are you all? Okay? The week it was super good. I'm really excited. I'll get to why exactly in just a little bit. I've been teaching Anna since the first week I got here and I'm really excited cuz her testimony has grown so much since that first lesson. That's when its cool, to be there from the beginning all the way up to baptism. The gospel really really does change people and definitely all for the better.
Then Thursday was just a good solid day as well as Friday. Got in some decent lessons and better than that we really seemed to get along better this week, especially on the weekend. We've agreed on things more than we have in the past. So that's always a plus. One awesome thing was that we taught arjay, one of our longtime investigators a really good lesson. The last time we went over there we didn't teach him cuz he didn't want to listen. Then we came over again and he had a totally different attitude, so ready to be taught. We asked him if he really wanted to be baptized and he sounded very sure he did. "sinasabi ko sa inyo gusto ko" he said that like 3 times which basically means, I'm saying to you I want to. It was cool he wasn't so shy as he's been in the past so that was cool. We invited him to our movie night tonight to watch the Joseph Smith movie.
Then Saturday was a way fun day. We had the interviews for the 3 getting baptized this Saturday, on the 19th for our stake baptisms. (by the way on that day our zone has 35 baptisms set up for that day and 11 completed families.) Is that crazy or what?? 35 ppl getting baptized in this stake/zone on the 19th. The work is really moving out here in Calookan. But then we found ourselves with some time and decided to go to the unknown, San Rafael Village a part of our area we have never been to. We're pretty sure no missionaries have ever been there or at least not for a couple years especially because there's no members out there. So we basically just explored and we talked to some people , contacted some people and even taught a family. It was hilarious cuz babies here don't wear diapers or pants or anything , just a shirt (I know its backwards) and in the middle of the lesson the baby just pooped all over the mom! hahaha oh man it was hard to not laugh cuz all the other kids definitely were haha. But over there its either rich or squatters (very poor). cool experience.
But then yesterday, Sunday, oh man what an awesome day seriously. Wanna know how many people we had there at church? 23! 23 people! We like practically doubled sacrament attendance! Oh man it was seriously awesome! Everyone who has a date for baptism was there plus some new ones, a couple people who have investigated the church before but stopped and oh man its legit!! We were so stoked. Petey's personal record is 20 for his mission and we totally shattered it! Man oh man its crazy cuz it was a blessing we totally didn't deserve. We didn't have an awesome week of work, with temple day on Tues and not working on Wed. We didn't do anything spectacular just tried and in the end the Lord blessed us so immensely. It's really how it works in life. When you think you deserve blessings that's when they aren't going to come. You need to be humble and have hope but still be humble and they will come. The Lord really does love us and he loves all his children. It's just awesome that that little miracle happened for these people just to get up and come to church, especially cuz some of theses were the first time they'd ever been to our church. Very cool. I shared Alma 16:14-16, something I read this week.
But we have baptisms this week its gonna be awesome! the stake baptisms is going to be awesome and I'm excited.
Hope everything is going well and I love you all. Thanks for all the support and love I know I have every day
Love
Elder Stover
kumusta po kayo lahat? ayos lang? o ayos naman? ako ay ayos naman! ang linggo nito naging sobrang magandang! excited ako talaga. (Please how are you all? Okay? The week it was super good. I'm really excited. I'll get to why exactly in just a little bit. I've been teaching Anna since the first week I got here and I'm really excited cuz her testimony has grown so much since that first lesson. That's when its cool, to be there from the beginning all the way up to baptism. The gospel really really does change people and definitely all for the better.
Then Thursday was just a good solid day as well as Friday. Got in some decent lessons and better than that we really seemed to get along better this week, especially on the weekend. We've agreed on things more than we have in the past. So that's always a plus. One awesome thing was that we taught arjay, one of our longtime investigators a really good lesson. The last time we went over there we didn't teach him cuz he didn't want to listen. Then we came over again and he had a totally different attitude, so ready to be taught. We asked him if he really wanted to be baptized and he sounded very sure he did. "sinasabi ko sa inyo gusto ko" he said that like 3 times which basically means, I'm saying to you I want to. It was cool he wasn't so shy as he's been in the past so that was cool. We invited him to our movie night tonight to watch the Joseph Smith movie.
Then Saturday was a way fun day. We had the interviews for the 3 getting baptized this Saturday, on the 19th for our stake baptisms. (by the way on that day our zone has 35 baptisms set up for that day and 11 completed families.) Is that crazy or what?? 35 ppl getting baptized in this stake/zone on the 19th. The work is really moving out here in Calookan. But then we found ourselves with some time and decided to go to the unknown, San Rafael Village a part of our area we have never been to. We're pretty sure no missionaries have ever been there or at least not for a couple years especially because there's no members out there. So we basically just explored and we talked to some people , contacted some people and even taught a family. It was hilarious cuz babies here don't wear diapers or pants or anything , just a shirt (I know its backwards) and in the middle of the lesson the baby just pooped all over the mom! hahaha oh man it was hard to not laugh cuz all the other kids definitely were haha. But over there its either rich or squatters (very poor). cool experience.
But then yesterday, Sunday, oh man what an awesome day seriously. Wanna know how many people we had there at church? 23! 23 people! We like practically doubled sacrament attendance! Oh man it was seriously awesome! Everyone who has a date for baptism was there plus some new ones, a couple people who have investigated the church before but stopped and oh man its legit!! We were so stoked. Petey's personal record is 20 for his mission and we totally shattered it! Man oh man its crazy cuz it was a blessing we totally didn't deserve. We didn't have an awesome week of work, with temple day on Tues and not working on Wed. We didn't do anything spectacular just tried and in the end the Lord blessed us so immensely. It's really how it works in life. When you think you deserve blessings that's when they aren't going to come. You need to be humble and have hope but still be humble and they will come. The Lord really does love us and he loves all his children. It's just awesome that that little miracle happened for these people just to get up and come to church, especially cuz some of theses were the first time they'd ever been to our church. Very cool. I shared Alma 16:14-16, something I read this week.
But we have baptisms this week its gonna be awesome! the stake baptisms is going to be awesome and I'm excited.
Hope everything is going well and I love you all. Thanks for all the support and love I know I have every day
Love
Elder Stover
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| With Elder Spiller (from Australia) on a member's roof top |
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| "Where's biggie?" |
2-7-11
Hi Family & Friends!
I know I'm learning patience everyday I've been out here. Like this week me and elder peterson reached mission standard on all key indicators. That may not sound that cool but thats very legit, something that doesnt happen very often. I mean I don't want to sound like I'm focusing on numbers too much cuz sometimes I feel like it, but they are important and are there for a reason. The best part of getting standard is it means we had people at church. A lot! 10! Thats the most since my first week. It's so awesome that really completes your week, cuz every week it seems come like saturday you feel real good about your week, taught lots of good lessons, new investigators, committed a ton of people to church. Then sunday comes and no one shows up, but not this week. A family we weren't expecting really at all to come came We taught them after church and as we came out he pointed out a picture of Jesus giving the apostles authority and told me what was happening in it. It was so freakin rad oh man thats the best feeling when you see they're actually getting it, actually learning it. I think thats why I love teaching kids the most cuz theyre so like innocent and not hard headed like all these old catholic people that dont even know what they believe in other than they're catholic.
But ya it was awesome having 10 at church. and better than that we had a baptism! 2 actually, Randolf and Maria Macasling who I've been teaching since I got here. It was fun. I love those two. That Saturday wasn't really a good day, getting punted all over the place but then after the baptisms I felt so good. Oh man baptisms are what its all about, that is what gets you really going out here on a mission. I love it. That's number 4 and 5 for my mission (including Nicole of course haha)
I know I'm learning patience everyday I've been out here. Like this week me and elder peterson reached mission standard on all key indicators. That may not sound that cool but thats very legit, something that doesnt happen very often. I mean I don't want to sound like I'm focusing on numbers too much cuz sometimes I feel like it, but they are important and are there for a reason. The best part of getting standard is it means we had people at church. A lot! 10! Thats the most since my first week. It's so awesome that really completes your week, cuz every week it seems come like saturday you feel real good about your week, taught lots of good lessons, new investigators, committed a ton of people to church. Then sunday comes and no one shows up, but not this week. A family we weren't expecting really at all to come came We taught them after church and as we came out he pointed out a picture of Jesus giving the apostles authority and told me what was happening in it. It was so freakin rad oh man thats the best feeling when you see they're actually getting it, actually learning it. I think thats why I love teaching kids the most cuz theyre so like innocent and not hard headed like all these old catholic people that dont even know what they believe in other than they're catholic.
But ya it was awesome having 10 at church. and better than that we had a baptism! 2 actually, Randolf and Maria Macasling who I've been teaching since I got here. It was fun. I love those two. That Saturday wasn't really a good day, getting punted all over the place but then after the baptisms I felt so good. Oh man baptisms are what its all about, that is what gets you really going out here on a mission. I love it. That's number 4 and 5 for my mission (including Nicole of course haha)
Also on Wed. we had interviews with President Delamar. It was cool he came to our stake center and his wife and the AP's did some workshops with us while we waited for our turn with president. We also ate and brought our own food and someone bought horse ulam and I ate some, it wasn't great but not bad haha.
On Tues. I did my first service here, but in a different ward, helping the tonsuya elders in the morning with some concrete stuff at a members house. Then I went that day on splits with Elder Aquilena, he's a filipino and way funny. I like him a lot. It's the second time I've split in that same area so some of the investigators remembered me and were like Elder Stover! haha that's always fun.
Seen lots of interesting things this week of course. Me and Elder Spiller saw an 8 year old smoking and took it from him and stomped on it. Then the next day me and Peterson saw a 5 year old puffing a way! oh man it was almost funny. oh and yesterday we saw a 10 year old with a cigarette. Word of wisdom is definitely a problem here haha. The 14 year old parambita girl is totally in love with both of us, its gross. She tried to hold my hand the other day and leaned in to kiss Peterson the other day. Its funny, we laughed about it later. All you have to do is have white skin here I swear its crazy! really weird.
Seen lots of interesting things this week of course. Me and Elder Spiller saw an 8 year old smoking and took it from him and stomped on it. Then the next day me and Peterson saw a 5 year old puffing a way! oh man it was almost funny. oh and yesterday we saw a 10 year old with a cigarette. Word of wisdom is definitely a problem here haha. The 14 year old parambita girl is totally in love with both of us, its gross. She tried to hold my hand the other day and leaned in to kiss Peterson the other day. Its funny, we laughed about it later. All you have to do is have white skin here I swear its crazy! really weird.
But i love you all. Hope everything is going ok. Have a great week and I promise I'll keep working hard out here. Nothing else out here to do but work hard that's my mindset. Been called by God to serve Him below. No better calling, nothing more special
Love
Elder Stover
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| I'm pointing at the ocean near one of the member's homes, yes that is one of their homes in the background |
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| Other then the dirty water he says it is beautiful. |
1-31-11
hello family and friends!~
This week was good. I went on splits with Elder Trono, a brand new elder whos a filipino. he's way awesome, a convert to the church with a rock solid testimony who just is really straight with investigators cuz hes been there before too. He's really funny too. But overall this week was really good. We got this huge ward directory which has all 601 members in our ward on it with their address and stuff. Its cool but hard cuz people's addresses aren't the most specific and you really got to do a lot of asking around. But we taught a few who said they'd be coming to church and everything. Of course they didn't but its hard not to feel good after good lessons like that. Saturday had to have been the hardest.
first of all i just want to say i am not skinny. i probably look exactly the same right now as i did when i left i swear! haha that picture that everyone is referring to me as not being healthy and needing to eat is cuz it was taken a month ago and yes i did need to eat. and eat i have. a lot. lol i love the food a lot and i am always hungry just ask my comp especially when we come home at 9:30 - 10pm and i just pig out on everything i can find haha. so really do not worry about my weight "problem" hahah
Ok well this week has been a really good one. me and Elder Peterson were on pace to get mission standard on everything going into Sunday. but like has happened every week I've been here we only got 6 at church, 2 under standard. If people don"t go to church 2 times in a row you have to move their baptismal date. It's a really hard thing. I mean something I've learned this week is to not focus totally on numbers. there is no joy there. They are definitely important but its all about those people that those numbers represent. It was a rough Sunday for the both of us.If you focus totally on numbers you lose a lot of the meaning of the mission and something I've realized, is to never ever think the Lord let you down, especially as a missionary. The Lord will never let you down only other people, those investigators when they use their agency wrong. It really sucks but I guess it's exactly how Christ feels whenever we disobey His commandments and what He has taught us. He probably feels like we did on Saturday, so full of hope that great things were gonna happen the next day. But then those people make the wrong choice and you kinda get down. You can't lose faith but you get a little disappointed.
This week was good. I went on splits with Elder Trono, a brand new elder whos a filipino. he's way awesome, a convert to the church with a rock solid testimony who just is really straight with investigators cuz hes been there before too. He's really funny too. But overall this week was really good. We got this huge ward directory which has all 601 members in our ward on it with their address and stuff. Its cool but hard cuz people's addresses aren't the most specific and you really got to do a lot of asking around. But we taught a few who said they'd be coming to church and everything. Of course they didn't but its hard not to feel good after good lessons like that. Saturday had to have been the hardest.
I love you all and hope all is going well!
Another great week on the mission it really is the best two years and such a blast I love it.
Oh and I bought a pair of shoes, two shirts, a usb drive for pictures (8GB) and speakers for all under 2400 pesos (about 55 bucks)
I love the Philippines hahah
love you all
Elder Stover
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| At Jean & Cheche's baptism with Elder Calder |
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
1-24-11
hello family!!
my new companion is Elder Peterson. he's a redhead from Ogden who is really good at snowboarding (he kinda looks like Shaun White haha) and just came from the office. This is only his 3rd area and 7th transfer.
Our ZL's are setting up a stake "give a referral day" this coming month hopefully its really fruitful, but ya me and Elder Peterson work well together. Despite missing two days in our area of work we still got mission standard in a few areas which is pretty good. This week will be awesome, the first full week of my 2nd transfer!
Our ZL's are setting up a stake "give a referral day" this coming month hopefully its really fruitful, but ya me and Elder Peterson work well together. Despite missing two days in our area of work we still got mission standard in a few areas which is pretty good. This week will be awesome, the first full week of my 2nd transfer!
But ya I'm very excited for this transfer for sure. We have 12 investigators with a date for this coming month! I don't think they'll all make it, a few word of wisdom problems and of course coming to church problems. Nobody wants to come at 9(30) in the morning and we're the only ward in our building idk why we don't move it later but anyways ya its gonna be a good transfer. Elder Peterson is a very spiritual teacher, quiet and I like that as it invites the Spirit when you are soft spoken.
Alam ko po na totoo ang simbahan nito. alam ko po na ito gawain ng Diyos. Nagpapasalmat po ako so pakakataon nito maglingkod kay Jesucristo, sa Diyos at sa kanyang mga anak. Mahal ko siya at lahat mga anak niya. Nagpapasalamat po ako sa kanyang tawad sa akin, dahil masama ako dati at gawin ko hindi mabuting mga bagay minsan. Alam ko po na kailangan natin lahat pananampalataya kay jesucristo, sa Diyos at sa kanyang paraan. Alam Niya lahat na kailangan natin gawin, lalo na matulong sa kapwa tao natin. hindi ok dito sa Pilipinas nagmimisyon kung walang ebonghelyo at pagbabayad-sala ni jesucristo at kung hindi ko alam ang ebonghelyo at ang kasayan na ibigay niya sa lahat tao sa sanlibutan na sobreng malungkot ako. suerte ok. sobreng suete. Mahal ko ang Diyos at alam ko po na Mahal niya ako. sinisabi ko po ang mga bagay nito sa pangalan ni jesucristo, amen.
i love you all and i keep you in my prayers always
Love
Elder Stover
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| The beautiful sunset. |
1-19-11
oh man where to start.
well its been 10 days almost and oh man has stuff happened this week. well let me just start with the biggest news i found out today (actually last night) my comp is getting transferred! neither of us were really expecting it and he wasn't preparing me to lead the area for this transfer. oh well tho. well lets just start with our week. we had an awesome day (we thought) on tues. i mean it was good but not quite as we thought at the time. we found 3 awesome investigators. the first one we didn't have anywhere to go and were on our way to a members when a girl came up to us (one of the millions that constantly swarm us for high fives and to ask our names, and asked if we were Mormons. she told us to come to her house and turns out her family is inactive except her step dad who isn't a member. but he really wanted to listen and is a really nice guy. he looks just like Steven Tyler except Filipino! he has this sweet mullet and oh man he's cool. he fixes shoes and is super masipag (hardworking). he even came to church with his wife. he has a date to be baptized too! only problem is his wife isn't actually his wife, she's married to her old husband who lives in Samar. so ya that'll be interesting. we sometimes can get live in exceptions to be baptized in those situations.
then after that we went to one of our other investigators and instead taught her cousin and he was kinda cool but i think he just likes to talk about religion and we haven't seen him since he's a busy high school teacher. then the best of all.
then on thurs. i went on exchanges in tonsuya with Elder Quinney, he was in the MTC with me, one transfer ahead of me. we went to his area, the squatter really poor gross part of his area. man my area ain't that bad. haha. but it was fun cuz we're about at the same level and we taught real well. I was enjoying that day, a lot of fun as he's a real good hardworking elder.
but ya Patrick the 14 year old from a broken home, hes, so awesome. we committed him to read 2 Nephi 31 about Christ's gospel and not only did he read but he took notes like a scripture journal! that's crazy i didn't even start doing that til less than a year ago. plus he's not in school and with his family situation probably hasn't been in a while. the other appt he thanked us for teaching him instead of the other way too. he's so awesome he's gonna be so ready on Feb 12 i cant wait to baptize him. his best friend is a member too so he's got that backbone too. but the best of all is Jennifer and Anna. we wanted to teach WOW but after finding Jennifer hadn't gotten an answer about Joseph Smith we focused on that and found out that the problem we always knew was at the back of her mind. her mother in law is an inactive member and said some extremely bastos (rude) things to her. so she has that bad association with Mormons.she loves what we teach but we always knew there was something. we talked about forgiveness and then Ether 12:6 came to my mind and i couldn't get it out of my mind. it was totally the spirit. my comp didn't think it was a good idea but then we read it and she said it hit a bullseye in tagalog. oh man its amazing cuz that scripture didn't make perfect sense to share with that situation you know but its exactly what she needed to hear. that's the definition of missionary work.
Love you all!
until monday
Elder Stover
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| With the Macasling children and Elder Peterson - 2nd companion |
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| At the Macasling children's baptism just being silly |
1-9-11
Hello Everyone!
My training was awesome! i loved it soo much! but it totally made me fat. i didnt eat much before for a lot of reasons. i lost a bunch of weight and even got sick again last week i forget to tell you. idk wat i eat but sometimes i feel crappy. but i ate a ton at the mission home for two days and have been eating a lot more since! im still too small for my pants but still. not wanting to get rice cheeks. but ya tuesday was a good day. we were able to get in some lessons over at the other end of our area (we alternate every other day) we
went to teach Anna who we committed to baptism last week. Its Jean, anna and Jennifer and their kids in the same house (Jean doesnt have kids she's like 20). But Jennifer is Jean's sister. Anna is Jennifer's
husband's brother's wife. (sisters in law basically, hipag) . we taught to Anna the plan of salvation and invited Jennifer to listen too. She has a ton of questions just like Jean her sister had. then off to my training at the mission home. we got picked up by the APs and i saw all my batch! i even saw Elder heather! oh man i missed him, i like him a a lot more now that hes not my comp hahaha. hes changed quite a bit tho i think the mission is making him realize the importance of obedience which is good.oh its good. its called the fundamentals of PMG. its made by the presidency and the apostles to have missionaries get the most out of preach my gospel. there's 8 total lessons and we got the first 4. first two on Wed and the next two on Thu. i learned a lot a bout the Doctrine of Christ, revelation through the Holy Ghost, Revelation thru Prayer and Revelation thru the Bof M. Wayy good learned too much to put it all here. lots of good practice. Basically
its all about pausing as we teach, pondering and allowing the Spirit to enter to help us as we teach. Like President Delamare said the Holy Ghost works in peace and quiet and when we're yapping it cant enter
the room. really good stuff. The APs are awesome especially Elder Higa he has one more transfer so this was his last workshop as an AP. then i got back actually excited to be back in my area and Friday went
well. we got to teach a referral. his name's Patrick, 14 years old, the friend of a reactivated family. he's really awesome and was way focused as we taught. hes ready for baptism already and we commitedhim. his family recently split up and he knows he needs the gospel its cool. but i love you all im loving it here. its such a different environment but i get more used to it everyday. its wierd being discriminated at times, ive never had that! like sometimes Jeepneys wont stop for us cuz we're americans its wierd! and just about everywhere you go everyone always yells "hey joe!" "wats up joe!" wats your name joe" or
"americano!" especially the kids they always want high fives, sometimes its cool a lot of the time its annoying haha. i have my own responses for each one. "kumusta jose!", "ang langit (the sky), or "saan?" (where). good times messing with them haha. or its great when girls (really old and really young) tell us to date them! or worse on new years this old lady tried to kiss me! oh man i was scared haha but i got away!
LoveElder Stover
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| Ian and his tailored pants that are too big! |
| Second baptism with Cheche and son with Elder Calder - first companion |
1-3-11
Kumusta pamilya ko! mahal ko kayo! Nagpapasalamat ako sa lahat gawin ninyo! marami salamat =)
(Hello Family! I love you! I appreciate all you do! Many thanks.)
(Hello Family! I love you! I appreciate all you do! Many thanks.)
not a lot of investigators other than Jean and Cheche my first baptisms but a lot of the area and me and the such. Apparantly ill be going on exchanges maybe next week with Elder Quinney who is only one transfer ahead of me, i knew him in the MTC. itll be interesting we're both ok at the language but itll be in his area so easier on me.
the Macasling family is going ok. I guess they had some kind of trouble or something on sat night so they didnt come to church. and so Randolf hadnt come for two weeks in a row which in our mission to be eligible for baptism you have to come 4 times in 5 weeks. so ya we gotta push back his baptism. its not good. We havent seen tatay (dad) for a couple visits so idk how thats working. theyre not the strongest family together its hard to see. but we're trying and i know that nanay (mom) really wants to help her family and change.
Cheche is doing awesome. Her and Jean are awesome and have been to church everyweek since ive been here. We even got to teach Cheche's husband on sat cuz she wasnt home and we taught him about the restoration. He ate it up! Speaking of agency we only had 2 investigators to church yesterday. 2! after 1 last week we're doing terrible. We dont understand why either we're working hard and come saturday night we were really excited, jus boasting in the Lord and all we'd been able to do and how awesome our area was doing. maybe we were being prideful idk we jus felt positive about everyone and the lessons we'd taught to them. We committed Anna, Jean's brothers wife who she lives with to baptism! she knows joseph smith is a prophet and we thought she'd be at church with Jean for sure but she slept in! ughh! i used to think getting ppl to have a testimony in Joseph Smith would be the hard part out here but its not the hardest part. Its getting them to understand that if Joseph smith is a prophet then this is the true church and getting them to act on that! to go to church! its tough because it makes so much sense in my head but not to them. Floretta and Cherry, a mother and daughter we teach, had a testimony of joseph smith too but when we tried to committ them to baptism they said they werent sure. i think we waited to long to committ them, shoulda been right when i was getting that impression but we both kinda waited. Plus they asked if it was bawal (forbidden) to go to other churches after being baptized. Its those Catholic roots man theyre hard to break.
but its been a crazy week this week. we did actual tracting this week, like a lot of it for a couple days and it came with some interesting results aha. at one place this lady told her daughter to tell us she was sleeping but then she came out for something and when she saw us coming towards her she like ran away with her kids it was so funny! haha oh man. we did it like twice and she ran away both times haha. so we did get some new investigators 15 for the week. quite a bit so we dont have a lot of time to see all of them. now its jus the hard part of weeding out the ones who arent reallly interested and the ones who have been prepared for the gospel, ready to do. its reallly the hardest part.
yesterday was a crazy day too ohh man. we went on splits after, me with JR like last week (an elder preparing for a mission) and a deacon and two young women who came with us. we saw a bunch of LA that they knew and it was cool to be theretaking the lead in all the lessons, i dont really do that ever here with Elder Calder haha i jus share a few parts. but they were a ton of help in finding places and teaching, theyre all really cool. But we went to this one LA young man JR knew.
but then after that we went to teach another LA friend of JR and ended up teaching his nonmember parents. i taught him lesson 1, mostly by myself for the time. the problem was i felt i should just share about the restored gospel blessing families and prophets that bless us but one of the young woment took it to Jospeph smith so i taught that too. then as i was closing, a different La member that was sitting kinda away from us asked wat joseph did that made him a prophet. i told him translate the Bof M. but he says then he's jus a translater and where was his scripture. so i told him about D&C and those revelations, prophesies thru Joseph Smith. then he said moses led the children of israel. so i said that other prophets didnt "do" anything for example Nehemiah. it was soo stupid. but the Spirit was long gone from how strong it had been so i jus bore testimony to wrap it up. when ppl want to argue its hard not too and when u do, even a little the Spirit is gone. Idk how some missionaries can bible bash with ppl. it has such a bad result and effect. We need to teach with the Spirit to comfort them. something ive learned this week (D&C 50:14)
i love you alll soo much thanks for all you do, all the prayers.
I love you all again and ur always in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Stover
tell nicole everyone here thinks i look like John Cena! - (We find it very funny, if you know who that is)
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| First baptism - Jean |
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| At the Manila temple with the Macasling children at Christmas time |
12-27-10
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| Navatos Ward in the Philippines |
Hi family & friends,
On wed we had your average day. woke up studied and went to teach a lesson at 1, but we got in a couple more before Jean and Cheche's baptisms. it went pretty well, i baptized them both and it was good.
then we started our exchanges. i went to work with Elder Huish in Panghulo and it was a real good day. we taught 14 lessons! not only that but we had to stop at 730 to meet my comp for him to do a baptismal interview for one of their investigators. not a bad days work. Then friday we had our mission conference. Ohh man was it good. we got our new mission rules. Then we had a good program. some things i got out of it were how we need to give our hearts to Christ thru obedience and helping Him with His work by serving others. but ya that devotional/ conference was awesome. I saw a couple of my batch too it was nice to catch up with them and see how things are going and realize its really not as bad here as i first thought. A great Christmas scripture i found this week was John 12:46. its all about Christ's purpose and the reason we celebrate Christmas. i shared it with a few less actives and investigators on Christmas Day its a good one.
so ya after we called home we went and saw a few ppl and taught a few lessons. We went to see Cheche and actually met her husband. He works 7 days a week all day and so he's never home. He's a real cool guy and if we could jus have time to teach to him i know he would accept the gospel. And complete that family, its so important here cuz there's too many part member families and thats why so many go inactive. He did come to church on Sunday tho for her confirmation which was way good the ward already knows him and if we could jus have time to teach him it'd be perfect.
but ya the rest of the day we worked with ward members. the youth love coming with us on sundays and they show us a bunch of less active members we can go visit and tell how we missed them at church. And i went in my area by myself for the first time! i split with JR a 20 year old about to go on a mission and so i taught my first lesson here by myself. and it was the 10 commandments! even E Calder said thats a hard one for him and it was my first time in tagalog! haha we had a lot of members present so they all laughed at me and corrected (almost translated) some parts haha. but i used the 10 finger thing the missionaries taught to Nicole and it helped a tonn. it was nice tho. but ya mission life keeps moving forward here. Ive had a battle with a cockroach, our house is infested with ants and there was a rat in our drain yesterday (i drowned him) and it doesnt affect me as much anymore. I used to be terrified of rats before and i still am but im manning up like i told dad. Time to just deal with stuff and just love the good stuff. The Lord's teaching more lessons than i can even recognize right now. I love it. i really do. Even rice isnt bad anymore. and all the wierd stuff isnt weird either. i mean it is but i just eat it.
but i love you all i hope everything is well and Christmas was everything you wanted it to be
i learn so much everyday its hard to take it in. im excited for another full work of week thats when i learn the most physically spiritually emotionally and mentally
Greatest work there is very true statement
love
Elder Stover
On wed we had your average day. woke up studied and went to teach a lesson at 1, but we got in a couple more before Jean and Cheche's baptisms. it went pretty well, i baptized them both and it was good.
then we started our exchanges. i went to work with Elder Huish in Panghulo and it was a real good day. we taught 14 lessons! not only that but we had to stop at 730 to meet my comp for him to do a baptismal interview for one of their investigators. not a bad days work. Then friday we had our mission conference. Ohh man was it good. we got our new mission rules. Then we had a good program. some things i got out of it were how we need to give our hearts to Christ thru obedience and helping Him with His work by serving others. but ya that devotional/ conference was awesome. I saw a couple of my batch too it was nice to catch up with them and see how things are going and realize its really not as bad here as i first thought. A great Christmas scripture i found this week was John 12:46. its all about Christ's purpose and the reason we celebrate Christmas. i shared it with a few less actives and investigators on Christmas Day its a good one.
so ya after we called home we went and saw a few ppl and taught a few lessons. We went to see Cheche and actually met her husband. He works 7 days a week all day and so he's never home. He's a real cool guy and if we could jus have time to teach to him i know he would accept the gospel. And complete that family, its so important here cuz there's too many part member families and thats why so many go inactive. He did come to church on Sunday tho for her confirmation which was way good the ward already knows him and if we could jus have time to teach him it'd be perfect.
but ya the rest of the day we worked with ward members. the youth love coming with us on sundays and they show us a bunch of less active members we can go visit and tell how we missed them at church. And i went in my area by myself for the first time! i split with JR a 20 year old about to go on a mission and so i taught my first lesson here by myself. and it was the 10 commandments! even E Calder said thats a hard one for him and it was my first time in tagalog! haha we had a lot of members present so they all laughed at me and corrected (almost translated) some parts haha. but i used the 10 finger thing the missionaries taught to Nicole and it helped a tonn. it was nice tho. but ya mission life keeps moving forward here. Ive had a battle with a cockroach, our house is infested with ants and there was a rat in our drain yesterday (i drowned him) and it doesnt affect me as much anymore. I used to be terrified of rats before and i still am but im manning up like i told dad. Time to just deal with stuff and just love the good stuff. The Lord's teaching more lessons than i can even recognize right now. I love it. i really do. Even rice isnt bad anymore. and all the wierd stuff isnt weird either. i mean it is but i just eat it.
but i love you all i hope everything is well and Christmas was everything you wanted it to be
i learn so much everyday its hard to take it in. im excited for another full work of week thats when i learn the most physically spiritually emotionally and mentally
Greatest work there is very true statement
love
Elder Stover
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