The Evangelista Family and brother JM were baptized on Saturday and it was awesome!

August 20, 2017

Letters to Dad...

That's funny about Caden  It was cool to get a picture of him and Coby.  Coby's hair is crazy!

This week was fun for us.  We taught at meetings for most of the week though, but one of them was amazing.  On Friday we had the new missionary 3 week follow up meeting and we tried something new.  All of the new missionaries came with me and Elder Fiesta and the trainers stayed with President and we had a discussion about how things are going.  They all said that things were going alright until this one Filipino said that it has been terrible for him.  He said that he and his trainer never talk to each other, they just walk, and walk, and walk and that he feels so bad.  When he gets to the apartment it is just silent and he feels like the time goes so slow.

He also said that he feels like he and his trainer have nothing in common and that he will never get along with him and that he does not know what to do.  I was able to share about my training.  How at first I didn't understand Elder Arnejo and how we fought.  When I would be in the house at night I would feel super alone too as they were always out in the kitchen having fun and speaking Tagalog and I was by myself.  I later found out when I was like 17 months in the mission that they weren't even speaking Tagalog, they were speaking Cebuano which is why I couldn't understand them haha, I just thought that I didn't speak Tagalog good.  Then finally Elder Arnejo and I talked and I found out why he was doing the things he was and we became best friends for the next couple weeks before the transfer.  We told this young elder that he should have that talk with his trainer as well and that everything would work out.  He was nervous and said that he was too scared to do it, but when we offered to talk to his companion about it, he quickly got the courage to try it himself haha.

Later in the night we got a text from him thanking us and saying that everything was ok now and that he was happy.  It was awesome and it made me think of your letter that you sent me my first p day in the field.  I felt like I was about to die and you told me to remember those times because they would help me help others.  You were right.

I love you dad, please finish the trans am , I believe in you

Elder Zesiger 

August 27, 2017

Ya I've known it for awhile I just haven't told you haha.  It is October 18.  The boat sounds fun, but I'm excited to snow board.  

This week was fun and we got to teach a lot of cool people.  One of the coolest's name was Diyosel.  She is just super prepared and so is her sister and they will go to church this next week.  I feel like Heavenly Father is blessing us more than ever, but I also feel like Satan is working his hardest on me as well, to discourage me and make me feel unworthy to be here.  I do feel like I am closer to Heavenly Father than ever though and He is guiding us in everything we do.

I got to speak at a funeral of our second counselor who just died.  He died of a heart problem and his wife has stage four cancer right now.  Right when I got here, we had an investigator that we used to teach at their house.  For about 3 months I used to go to their house about every other day.  I was texted that I would speak at it about 30 mins before the funeral started so I just got up and spoke by the spirit.  I cried at the end of my talk and the spirit was strong.  Before we left, the family came up and thanked me and it was one of the best experiences of my mission.

I love you Dad.

Elder Zesiger

Letters to Mom....

August 20, 2017

haha ha sounds awesome!  Coby's hair is crazy! hahaha  If I am right then he is going into 9th grade, if that is true, that's crazy too!  I can't believe everyone looks so different haha, this is the first picture I've gotten in awhile that I can see them good.  I think I look exactly the same haha.

We had a super fun week.  The Evangelista Family and brother JM were baptized on Saturday and it was awesome.  You had a part in JM's baptism.  We found him a while ago because of the umbrellas.  We had just gotten them and I wanted to get everyone's attention so I opened it inside the little restaurant that we were eating at.  JM saw it and came over and ate with us and he was just baptized!  So thanks, I'll send you a picture.

Most of our week was spent teaching at zone conferences.  We had a meeting everyday Monday-Friday.  We had pizza everyday too so within the week I had 16 slices of pizza, other than that I just ate rice and chicken so it wasn't a super healthy week.  We were worried that our area would've died since we were gone for so long and we have some really cool families that we are working with, but when we finally got back to our area we were surprised to find that everyone was doing great and that Heavenly Father had been helping them.   

I don't go back to the eye doctor until Sep 22.  You're talk was awesome, I printed it and wrote about it in my journal.

I lov eyou mom

Elder Zesiger

August 27, 2017

That's crazy!  Ya I can take him on a ton of adventures IN MY TRANS AM.  No, I did not have anxiety, I just had a love of sleep and an under appreciation of school.  

We had this cool experience teaching this girl named Coleen.  She is 20 and was holding her anak.  We asked her what was one time she remembers that Heavenly Father had answered her prayer and she said that about a year ago, her dad died when she was pregnant with no husband and her mom disowned her and kicked her out of the house.  We taught her the restoration and the spirit was there.  She wasn't too receptive, but I realized that I've been really blessed in my life and I am really grateful for you and dad always living the gospel.  Love you mom

Elder Zesiger

The work is going awesome right now, actually better than it has my entire mission and I love it!

August 14, 2017

Letter to Dad...

The work is going awesome right now, actually better than it has my entire mission and I love it haha.  I think I'll stay here, there is only one more transfer.  But I feel like even though we get less time in the area sometimes, Heavenly Father makes up for it by leading us to the people who will accept our message.  

We had a pretty cool experience in the airport.  Our flight was supposed to be at 9am but it got canceled and we had to wait there until 4pm.  We couldn't drive back to the area because our car's licence plate can't drive on Tuesdays.  We felt prompted to talk to this one lady.  She was from Canada but is an active iglesia ni cristo over there.  I kept asking Heavenly Father in my head wondering if it was time for us to leave and go talk to someone else, but I kept feeling like we needed to stay.  We ended up talking to her for 2 hours.  After that, we went to a little restaurant and got some food.  We talked to the girl next to us and she happened to have a friend who is a member and has offered her a Book of Mormon before and she was wondering what it was.  As we were teaching her, another girl came over and listened and she had a ton of questions about life too.  Then a nanay came over and gave us bananas and candy and said that missionaries used to teach her too and that she wants them back because she has been reading her Book of Mormon.  After we taught about the first vision, one of the girls asked, why did feel so good as you shared that?  "because it's true." We said.  We gave them all stuff to read and they gave us their info for missionaries to go to their houses.

As I thought about it after, I realized that we would not have been in the restaurant at that time if had not obeyed the voice of the Spirit to talk to and keep talking to the uninteresting lady.  It was awesome.

I also ate a hammer head shark.

I love you dad

Elder Zesiger

Letter to Mom...

That's awesome!  Thanks for the pictures!  I am excited to read your talk later.  I scrolled down and saw my name in it, so you probably cried haha.  A lot of stuff happened this week for us.  We flew over to Palawan and had a zone conference.  Our flight ended up getting canceled and we were in the airport for about 10 hours but some awesome stuff happened, I'll email it to someone else so I don't run out of things to say.  We also ate some hammer head shark that the elders found at a market on the street, it was awesome!  I'll send some pictures later.  We made it into shark nuggets. haha

When I spoke in zone conference, I taught about faith and I shared the story about you praying in the hospital bathroom when dad had his stroke and how your faith kept our family together at that time.  I didn't cry.... but I was close.  It was a spiritual moment.  The next day, when we were back in Manila, we had to go to the airport and pick up President Fermanis and he told me that when he heard me tell the story, he thought of the sons of Helaman and how they doubted not that their mothers knew it.  He said he could feel that that is how I feel about you.  It was cool.  I love you mom.

Other than that, the Lord is blessing our area more than He has at any time in my whole mission and a lot of people are excited about the gospel and going to church:).

I love you mom,

Elder Zesiger

It was cool to see how the Spirit has been working on her, we didn't do anything.

Letter to Dad...

July 30th

This week was awesome for us.  It was transfer week and we had to go on a lot of special assignment stuff. 

We saw a lot of miracles though too.  This lady named Dole reached out to us a couple days ago and said that she wants to be taught again and go to church.  We dropped her before because she never kept commitments, but for the last couple months, she said she has watched us walk through the rain and she said that no one would do all that unless it was true.  She is coming with her family to church on Sunday.  It was cool to see how the Spirit has been working on her, we didn't do anything.

I had to be an stl again too, but I'll email mom about that.  I love you guys and thanks for being such an amazing family.  I am going to go eat burger king now.  I love you dad.

Elder Zesiger

August 6th

Hey dad, that sounds awesome for the trans am, that sounds like a good plan.  It'll be more fun to do the interior together, as long as everything else is done I'll let it slide haha.  It'll be cool to be the first one to drive it too.  That is crazy about Russell though, I'll be praying for him, it was cool what grandma said that they prayed for him in the temple.  I love that story at the end, I think it is amazing that the Lord gives every single one of His missionaries those kind of experiences if they will do their best.  I love those recordings, we were all listening to them as a whole office, I'm glad you waited a long time to send them because if you would have sent those right when they were recorded, I would have cried and been sad haha. That's amazing about Bishop too and also Caden that he got those golf clubs!  It is a good thing that he'll be playing golf next year and not this one so that he won't wreck me when I get home.  This way I'll have a year to train too before he gets super good and he's not fun to play with anymore haha.

We saw many miracles this week too and actually had the most investigators we've ever had at church in my whole mission.  It was awesome!  Every night and morning since the beginning of May, Elder Fiesta and I have been praying for a specific amount of people that we could be guided to and baptize and it looks like Heavenly Father has heard our prayers.  I'm super happy right now about everything because it looks like home life is gonna be fun and mission life is the best!  I love you and I am grateful that you are such an awesome dad.  Thanks for working on the trans am with me and taking me dirt biking and snow boarding and showing me good music.  Thanks for serving a mission and always sending me amazing emails that got me through when my mission got hard.  I love you dad.

Elder Zesiger

Letters to mom...

July 30th

2 Nephi 25: 26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

We had some cool miracles this week too.  But one of the coolest came when we had to go talk to some sisters yesterday.  There is a sister that hasn't come out of her house and won't talk to her companion for a couple days, so President sent us to go talk to them.  It was funny when we got there.  The one companion let us in and the other one was on her bed with her blanket over her face.  She told us to leave, but I think she was expecting the sister training leaders because when I said "hello:)" she got up, ran to the other room, and slammed the door! hahaha

We talked to her for a bit, but she wouldn't come with us and didn't want to go to church, so we blessed the sacrament and gave it to them.  It was a cool spiritual moment and the one sister was crying because she was so happy that she still got to partake of the sacrament.  It reminded me of going to the Bowdiges with Andrew and giving them the sacrament.  I'm grateful that I've always had it easily accessible.

Sister Geralyn's husband Jonel was baptized on Saturday and it was awesome.  He bore his testimony that he has felt Heavenly Father's love for him and knows that this church is true.  It was amazing to see the change.  I will try to send you a picture.

I love you mom, 

Elder Zesiger

August 6th

That's awesome about the reading!  You guys can totally make it!  Thanks so much for the package mom.  I waited and I opened it on time this morning and it was awesome!  You're going to do awesome with your talk!

Our week was awesome!  Last week I emailed about a lady named sister Dole that we used to teach but she didn't progress, then she saw us walking in the rain for a couple of months and decided that the gospel was true.  Well we taught her more this week and she accepted the invitation to be baptized and came to church with her kids, it was awesome and it is just crazy how you can work so hard and have nothing happen, but then Heavenly Father just does His work and makes up for everything.  He teaches us to try our hardest but even with all of that, we still have to rely on Him.  It is cool.

Good luck on your Book of Mormon reading this week, thanks so much for you doing it, you are helping the other kids in an amazing way, I wish I read it before, but I am on track now to finish it 9 times before I get home.  I love you guys.

Filipino Money

Elder Zesiger