Elder Zesiger was transferred to the Santa Mesa area of the mission.

Letter to Mom....

We pretty much just walk, our area is huge so we ride a jeepne for 30 mins just to get there hahaha.

Thats soooo cool about Caden (he won class officer)!   It's pretty fun here.  I'm with the zone leaders again and one of them is Australian so I actually do have an English speaking kabahay!  Its weird hahaha. I think I like it, but I am trying to just speak to him in Tagalog anyway so I can still get better haha, but its kinda weird since we both know English:)  My ward is cool, there's a guy there that knows Spencer Atkinson's big sister Tyler and also McKenna Brown's big brother hahaha.  They were in his mission, in Taiwan & 3 months in California.  It's pretty cool.  The obedience here is a lot lower and that kind of bugs me because I was raised in my last house with like 100% obedience, but I'm fixing it.  But I'm pretty excited for this area!  I still really want to go to Palawan dang it hahaha.  But I guess Heavenly Father will just heal me when it's my time to go there!

Love, 

Elder sexy girl as they call me because the natives can't say Zesiger hahahah

Letter to Dad....

It was so sad to leave my old area haha.  Especially since we had two baptisms lined up for the next week, and I love them both.  Before I left, we visited my recent converts and Marilyn started crying and then at the end she prayed for me for about 5 minutes straight that I would be safe.  It made me cry haha.  A couple members came with me to the transfer point too and it was hard to say goodbye.  My new area is called Santa Mesa, it's in Manila.  It's cool you'd love it.  There has not been a baptism here for over a year!  It's awesome it sounds like the beginning of one of those awesome missionary stories!  We've also got a baptism next Saturday so that's cool.  My companion is pretty cool, he's fun to be around, but he is really discouraged and is really slacking on the obedience.  Which I don't like because if we are going to have miracles here, I need his obedience too.  I gave up emailing back and forth with you guys and listening to Def Leopard haha so we might as well be exactly obedient.  My area is huge!  We have to ride a jeepne and travel for 30 mins just to get to it.  My new house is hilarious hahah.  Remember on Billy the Exterminator when he would go into those houses and there were just cockroaches all over the dishes and stuff?  That's what my apartment is like hahahaha.  They are everywhere and every morning in the bathroom they have like secret meetings and there are just tons of them hahha.  There isn't much going on in the area right now.  But we've got some cool potential oyms so its looking good I'm pretty excited though! 

Thats sooooo awesome that caden won too!  I was praying for him like crazy hahaha!

Elder Zesiger

We haven't had any pictures lately because he is worried that the computer they use may have viruses that will infect his camera. :(  So we rely on ward members to send them.

I had a cool experience with the Spirit earlier this week.

Jeff asked him some questions about the language and the food...

I can say anything that I want to now and understand everything.  I need to polish my grammer, but people can understand when I speak and i can understand them now and it makes things so much better haha.  I haven't dreamed in it, I day dreamed in it one time, I was thinking back to Moab and your stories and when you were telling one you were like, "at tapos sinabi ng bishop namin" and then I noticed and I was like whoa!  I've dreamed about the money though haha one time I was at McDonald's with my friends and I paid with 5 peso coins haha. Another time I was using the metal detector in the back yard with Coby and I found a treasure chest so I opened it and it was full of 5 peso coins I was like how did these get here! haha.  The food is getting good, its kinda boring cuz every single meal is rice with pork or chicken and then some kind of vegetable, and that's it, breakfast, lunch, and dinner haha. I miss roast, but I don't really think about it haha.

I had a cool experience with the Spirit earlier this week.  We were walking up this really steep street and a face popped into my head, I couldn't remember his name cuz we hadn't taught him for 2 months and we only taught him one lesson, but his dad died and we testified to him that he would see him again and the Spirit was strong.  But I kinda just ignored the prompting as we passed the alley that led to his house, we started to go down the other side of the hill and I still felt like we had to.  So I told Elder Mangaoang and we turned around back up the hill, we knocked on the door and I still didn't remember his name, but I knew I had to be there.  An old lady answered and said "what do you want"  Anong problema ninyo? haha  I said that we were looking for her son, I wasn't sure it was her son, but I was fishing for a name haha.  She said Herbert?  Bert Rili popped into my head and i said Yes!  But he wasn't there, we set an appointment and left.  As I walked away, I was thinking "was that really the spirit, am I even in tune or just lost in my own thoughts, is Heavenly Father even helping us, or are we just one in 75,000 of his servants that don't really matter.  As I was discouraged and thinking, we passed and store that was blasting "You're love is like BAD MEDICINE, bad medicine is what I need" hahaha it was awesome!  I remembered what you said and I thanked Heavenly Father for the reminder that He loves me.  It was cool.

We also had the chance to hear one of our investigators named Aries testify that we have changed and given direction to his life and that he is super grateful for us.  He reads about 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon everyday, he's awesome.

I felt I needed to share The First Vision....

I went to the eye doctor again and I'm sick haha.  I have an auto immune disorder called Posner-Schlossman Uveitis Anterior. Apparently, it's pretty bad because it can make me blind and lead to other auto immune disorders, but if I live a healthy life style and have regular eye check ups for the rest of my life, I'll be fine.  It sounds expensive though lol.  Its reoccurring, so last week my eye pressure was back up to 41 and I had iritus again but I feel good haha.      

Yesterday we were behind on oyms from conference so we had to get 55 in one day, but we only had 2 hours left to work.  We ended up accomplishing it, which is a miracle in and of itself, but the coolest part happened within one of the oyms.  We oymed a group of about six guys in their 20s sitting down on a bench.  As we began to talk, one of them asked me what is different about our religion compared to catholics.  I said that our religion is a restoration of Christ's original church through a prophet named Joseph Smith and that church and authority is on the earth today.  Then I felt that I needed to share the First Vision, something we never do in oyms.  So I did and the Spirit was awesome!  I tried to think about each word as it left my mouth, and by the end, he kind of shivered and said that he had goosebumps hahaha.  We are teaching him later today.

I also had a lot of opportunities to use my priesthood this week, One of the members called us because his 70 year old mom had slipped and fallen in the bathroom and her head was really hurt, they asked me to bless her.  So I followed your (Dad) council and said a prayer that the words would not come from me and I blessed her that she would be OK and know that Heavenly Father loved her.  We then took her to the hospital.  She is ok now and healthy.  Then as I was finishing the blessing, one of the sister missionaries called and said that she needed a blessing, so we went and asked her who she wanted, she chose me, so I blessed her.  That also happened with an investigator and another member, so I gave 4 blessings this week!  It was crazy and really cool.  Conference was also awesome too!

I had a couple cool experiences this week too that came from adversity.

I had a couple cool experiences this week too that came from adversity.  We still worked super hard this week, but it was sad because R*** moved permanently to Cavite and S*** moved to Baguio and B*** still needs permission and E*** wont let us teach him and J*** dad wont let him get baptized and K*** didn't come to church.  So everything fell apart, the thing that made me really sad was that R*** moved, because pretty much my whole mission I have prayed for her and taught her and worked on her marriage and baptism, she was even the first lesson that I taught!

As I was feeling sad about this, we were teaching a lesson at a members house about service, I asked the dad "what are some simple things that you can do to serve others?"

His reply was totally out of context, and seemed random, but to me, it was revelation.  He answered "Do you ever think about why Nephi was so obedient? or why Moroni stayed faithful even when he was the last of his people?  That's kind of how you are as missionaries.  Appointments don't work out, people you care about fail, and most people don't even care what you have to say.  But you are called of the Lord and are on his errand and he will bless you, so always remember that and keep a smile on your face."  It was incredible.  He didn't know anything about our investigators, or how I was having a hard time, but Heavenly Father did.  It's hard for me to trust him sometimes because I think I like to be in control of things, but when I do trust him, things get simpler.  Then, the next day, President Mortimer came over to our house for a surprise inspection, he is the 1st counselor in the mission.  I told him that story and he said, " I would just like to confirm that that was a message from our Heavenly Father directly to you and that he knows you and loves you."  It was awesome, not only did Heavenly Father give me a message, but he also sent a confirmation the very next day!

As I read the Book of Mormon it always talks about how the children of men are so quick to forget the Lord their God and that is totally me.  I receive these crazy things and then a couple days later, it feels like I need another one.

I was reading in the BOM and the Our Heritage book and it was talking about all these super successful missionaries, and then I thought about you, and then I thought about how people have told me how I'll become AP (a couple more have since I last told you) and it's so hard for me to see all of that happening.  I try to just think of the now, but its hard, I think about the future a lot.  I was asking Heavenly Father why he is not fulfilling his promises that are so abundant in the scriptures.  I am praying, I am fasting, I am working hard, but I am not bringing thousands to the knowledge of the truth.  This really bothers me a lot of the time.  Then this thought entered my mind: "You have been saved for this time, I know your purpose, trust me."  It's hard for me to trust him, but I'm trying.