Letter to Dad...
That's exactly how Lehi's dream starts too, he wandered around for awhile in the "dark and dreary wilderness" and then he finally turned to the Lord and prayed.  I remember when Jared and I got lost in the rhino hahaha, but I can't remember if we prayed or not, but I think we did. 

When we work out on the roof, there is always a guy down on the road preparing for his business.  He is an umbrella repairman.  Every morning from 6 to 7 he is down there preparing and then he works trying to sell and repair umbrellas until night time.  One of the missionaries said that he probably only makes about $4 a day, but he is one of the hardest working people that I have ever seen.  Every day he's down there, probably working super hard so his kids, one day, will not have to.  As I've been watching him, I thought about myself and how I kind of coasted through high school and a lot of other stuff, never really taking things seriously, even when they were.  As I watch him, I realize how freakin lucky I am and I decided that I'm not going to waste my blessings anymore, I decided that I'm always going to try to develop my talents and be really diligent when I get home.  Right now I decided that I'm going to get good at drawing, so I drew a couple pictures of Jesus.  I'm also going to learn how to play the piano when I get home and I'm going to read a lot more. I'll send you a picture I drew, this is the starting point, but I'm gonna get a lot better.

Our investigators are doing awesome!  We have a couple families looking good for mid June and a couple new ones looking good for July, but we always have about 5-7 people come to church.:)

 

 

 

I was searching and searching for their faces in the crowd....

Elder Zesiger didn't have much time to write us this week so he shared the email that he wrote to his mission president.

My week was cool, here is some stuff from my letter to President, but other than that we had a flood!  It started raining like crazy and then all of the sudden the streets turned into rivers up to our knees!  It was awesome!  I was playing around in it and jumping and then I looked around and I was like, where is Elder Magno, then I saw him running and he was already like 100 yards away hahaha he hates rain. You also need to buy the lamb of god musical and listen to the song where Peter realizes that he denies Jesus and says what have I done, its one of my favorite songs and sounds like Queensrych.   I also gave a talk in church yesterday!  here is my email Dear President, I am happy with our week. We had some really great experiences with the Spirit and our investigators and area are starting to progress and it no longer feels like we are pushing them into the font, but that they actually want to get to know and follow Christ. It is one of the greatest feelings in the world. 
One miracle that has happened in our area lately is the testimony that has been given and is still being given to the T family. They are amazing and Elder Magno and I love them. They were former investigators but never went to church until last Sunday. Yesterday, I was giving a talk, so I was up in the front looking at the audience. I was searching and searching for their faces in the crowd but I couldn't find them. I started to pray and tell Heavenly Father that we have been doing our very, very best every day and that we just needed him to help them come to church. I was getting so nervous as the meeting started and they still weren't there. I was praying and praying and then finally I opened my eyes and I saw Elder Magno smiling and walking to the door. I was so happy when I saw nanay t and her family walk in the door. It was amazing! hahahah
Another very cool experience that I personally had was with Elder B last night. He has an investigator which I'm sure he has told you about. His name is R and Elder B has been with him on his journey to baptism since he arrived in the area. R was supposed to be baptized yesterday, but when Elder B and Elder G went to pick him up, they found him outside with no shirt on, and drunk. This was devastating for Elder B. His is an amazing, amazing missionary and an awesome example to me, but he often worries that he is not good enough. During my personal study, I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 57. As I was reading, I was praying to Heavenly Father and asking him why something like that could happen, why one of his servants could work so hard every day and worry so hard for the people that he serves and loves that it causes him to lose his sleep, and he still does not receive the blessings of his labor. It didn't seem fair to me and I wanted to know why. Without ending my prayer, I turned the page and my eyes fell on a group of verses that I have read many times before, and were highlighted. "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand."
I prayed again and thanked Heavenly Father for the answer, and last night I shared the experience with Elder B. He told me thank you and said that he really needed that, the Spirit was there, and it was a cool experience.
I love being a missionary. As I search for Heavenly Fathers hand in my life and in the lives of others, it's impossible not to be happy haha. I know that he has a plan for all of us, and most of the time we don't understand it, until we have passed it and can look back. But the cool thing is that we can always have faith that he does.

Some pictures from Santa Mesa, Manila, Philippines. 

This week was amazing for me!!

Letter to Mom....
This week was amazing for me!  The doctor said that my eye is good and he cleared me to go to Palawan, he just said that I need to go one more time in June to see if its stable:)

My miracle for you came when we were on our way to church.  We usually go to pick up people before it starts so we went by to pick up A* and the T family.  We couldn't find A* and apparently the whole T* family was gone, but the mom was waiting for us at the Jeepne stop.  So we rushed over there but we couldn't find her. I started praying that we could somehow find her anyway.  We waited for a while and we couldn't find her, so we just started walking to church.  We were almost there when a Jeepne pulled up behind us and Sister T jumped out all ready to go to church!  Hahahahah I was sooooo happy:)   Later that night we talked to her and she said that she had doubts, but when she went to the church, most of her doubts have been resolved and next week she's bringing her whole familly!

 

 

 Letter to Dad...

 Yesterday I had one of the coolest experiences of my life.  It started about a week ago.  We were oyming (Open Your Mouth) and this guy just kinda yelled at me "you're Mormons right?" and then kept walking by.  We ran up to him and were like "YEP!"  We got all his info and found out that his girl friend is less active.  The next day we went to try to find his house, but we couldn't find it, so we kinda just forgot about him cuz we talk to so many people.  Then on Saturday night, he texted and said that we could come visit him on Sunday.  So yesterday we went to his house.  They were super excited to see us and they immediately fed us.  Apparently the girlfriend used to be a ward missionary and even had a mission call to temple square, but then went less active.  We started the lesson and I asked her if prayer still played a big part in her life.  She immediately burst into tears.  She said that she left the church because of sin and she started to attend other churches to find comfort.  But she has always known and felt in her heart that the church is true.  She said that sometimes she just hates herself because she knows where she needs to be, but she does not know how to go back.  She just reads her Book of Mormon and prays.  She said, with tears running down her face, that she has been praying every night for the longest time for Heavenly Father to send missionaries to her and her boyfriend.  And then all of the sudden we showed up!  She said that she can't even express how grateful she is and that she will do anything to become active in the church again.  At this point I was fighting back tears too.  I testified to her in an incomprehensible voice, because I was crying too haha, that I know that Heavenly Father loves her, I know that he has a plan for her, I know that Heavenly Father has heard all of her prayers and he knows her desire and that through Jesus Christ, she can come back:).  

It is so amazing to me how many miracles happened for her prayer to be answered, we even failed to find the house and Heavenly Father still gave us a second chance and made everything work exactly perfect to answer the prayer of his daughter that he loves.  It is ssooooo amazing to me!  I love it!  On the long walk back home I was literally jumping around and testifying to Elder Magno about how much Heavenly Father loves us and how cool it was that we get to be a little part of her and her boyfriends salvation!  When we got home he was like: "You were overwhelming today". Haha I was like "why?"  he said "I was so tired cuz we were just walking and walking and you were just too happy"  hahahahahahaha  I love this work and I know that it is true.

Mother's Day

Letter to Dad...
Dad I was praying that you would say something cool in your email that could help me.  I have been super, super stressed this week since my interview with President.  It was really, really amazing.  He told me that he was counting on me and that he knew that I needed to be here to get this area back on track.  I told him that I have a problem about comparing myself to others and he told me that the secret to unhappiness is comparison and the secret to happiness is gratitude.  He told me that he is super grateful for me and he is amazed at how fast I can love the people and how fast they love me.  He told me that I don't get to see the other 200 missionaries, but he does and he is really grateful for me and that I am one of the ones in the mission that he is really counting on.

So this week I've been super stressed making sure my companion and I are 100 % obedient each day. It was stressing the crap out of me not knowing what to do or if I was doing the right thing.  I was praying last night that your email would have some answer and it did.  I need to have fun with him, I think that will make him more excited about the work and make me feel better too.

Also, just to prove that it was revelation, the song "I see both sides now" has been stuck in my head all week and I even wrote down some quotes from it like "you gotta walk through the darkness before you stand in the light" .  and then you said red rocker hahaha

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Letter to Mom...

 

I go to the eye appointment tomorrow after our skype.  I'm feeling good now hahah.  Sounds like Costa Rica was awesome! sounds like Palawan haha.  I don't think my life is like that right now.  Imagine you are in Salt Lake City, but there is garbage everywhere, and everyone is smoking, and every single person is always staring at you like you are an alien or a rock star.  It's pretty cool haha (but Palawan is cooler)   My interview with President was awesome and it made me feel special, but it kinda scared me cuz in about the middle he started telling me about his mission and how he served in the office for like 9 months and how it was really, really hard, and it made him cry.  I don't want to go to the office.  He also said something really cool though, that he is praying for and counting on to save this area.

I love cereal and mac n cheese, send me just food and jerky and food and stuff, I love you guys:)  

She didn't realize it but she felt the Holy Ghost

Letter to Mom...

  I got sick from food poisoning for like 3 days and had to go to the hospital and I missed being able to just say " Mom can you make me a cheese tortilla, or go buy berries, or whatever." Thanks for always being an awesome mom:)  Other than that this week was really fun!  The first day I was sick I just kept working and we got 12 lessons!  I felt like I was going to faint at the end, but it was awesome!  We also had a baptism on Saturday.  I'll try to send pictures I've been studying my patriarchal blessing a lot this week, and I was wishing that I had dads notes on it and he just sent them again!  Its crazy to see how much Heavenly Father loves me.  I'm going to try to Skype on Tuesday morning between 9 or 11 so it'll be like before 7 to 9 on Monday night for you guys.  I love you soooo much mom. 

Letter to Dad...

I got food poisoning I guess haha it sucked I'm still pretty sick now.  We had exchanges so I just like pretended that I wasnt sick and we taught 12 lessons it was awesome!  But by the end I was almost dead.  Thanks for sending me those patriarchal blessing notes I have been studying it a lot recently and I wanted them haha.  Today I studied Lehi's Dream while looking for charity in it because those two things are really prevolent in my blessing.  I couldn't find it so I read Nephi's one too and I totally forgot that the fruit is the love of God, which is charity haha the whole dream is about charity and then Christ says that it is the most joyous thing to the soul and the greatest of all.  My blessing says that I can develope it and in Moroni 7 it says that only true disciples of Christ recieve it, so thats pretty cool.  I also had a cool experience with the Holy Ghost and Elder Magno.  His record for his mission of lessons in one day was 6, I was determined that we were going to break that.  But there were no people on the street at all.  So I said we should stop and pray, so we did.  We found a guy and "oymed" him and it went no where.  So we kept oyming around him, and then he came up to me and said we should try this lady in her store, cuz here people's houses are like converted into stores.  Elder Magno and I were kinda separated so I took one of the ward missionaries and we started to talk to her through the store window gate thing.  She said she was Catholic and didn't have time.  I said that it was ok and that she could change hahaha and testified that it would bless her family and it would onely take 5 minutes. she said ok and I started.  After the First Vision I testified and stopped.  She was kinda crying and she was like "you're a great preacher"  she didnt realize it, but she felt the Holy Ghost it was cool. We broke Elder Magno's record and got 7 lessons and 52 oyms it was a fun day, but then I got sick.

 

I love you guys  while I was sick I kept thinking about how many missionaries have parents die on their missions and it was scaring the crap out of me.  So be safe on your way back home!

 

 

Here is the monkey that lives near his apartment.  He calls him May May.