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| Elders with the Gabaldon family |
Wow whatta week!
So we had a great week and on this coming Wednesday we will have a training with Elder Teh of the Seventy/area presidency, then that evening he will being doing a fireside in the Rojas chapel so we are trying to get all our investigators excited about because it should be awesome. Elder Teh is also planning on doing lots of interviews and also visiting a bunch of missionary apartments so the mission is on red alert to clean up and play straight this week haha.
And just earlier when we opened our email we got a big surprise that in august that Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Bishop Dean M. Davies of the Presiding Bishopric and Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Seventy and Area Presidency will be visiting and doing special training with us in august. President said and hey you thought you were an isolated mission. I was pretty surprised about that so that's awesome.
So about the Gabaldon family, I haven't really been talking about them lately because I was super sad as they had only come to church a few times since they were baptized and have been super busy so we could never teach them anymore but this week we had a huge success with them and it has answered months of fasting and prayer. So this is what happened.
After their baptism they just got way super busy with work and they another house in mallig so we had the mallig elders go and teach them a few times but mostly they were just way busy. In the period of the last couple months they've only been to church a few times. So we kept trying to set times to teach them and they were busy and wouldn't really give us a time and some of the other times we set and they just forget or weren't there and just overall being kind of flaky. So I was really way bummed about them and was like thinking if we should've postponed their baptism back in the day or if there was something else we should have done but these last few months we have just been persistent in going by there house when we had extra time and saying hi and looking for time when we could teach them. Finally this last week we were able to find them at their shop and we were able to share with them and then we set a FHE with them this last Monday and it was great. We talked about faith in Alma 32 and we planted really mustard seeds of faith:).
Then we were able to teach them again on Friday about Eternal Families. They were really repentant and sorry about not continuing to be active in the church right after they were baptized and they said that the Eternal Families is what really helped them to be interested in the church at the beginning and then they promised us and Heavenly Father in their prayer to change and to go to church, read their scriptures and pray as a family more diligently. Then this Sunday they came to church and came early! They had a great time in gospel principle and Father had a great time in priesthood. They were also interviewed by President Munoz for the Priesthood and Satay promised president to change and that he would diligently be at church from here on out.
I have really just been just depressed the past few months about the Gabaldon family and have been thinking maybe we should of postponed the baptism or maybe their was something different we could have done but its been a huge testimony builder to see months of praying and fasting answered. They are such a great family and I want so bad for them to be an eternal family. I cant describe how happy I am this week with the progress they've made.
We also had a baptism this week. Mark Deiter is really good kid. We have been teaching him the past couple weeks and Mark Deiter has quit selling ice cream on Sunday, been reading diligently and going to church and was baptized this last Saturday by his cousin Dominic. It was a cool baptism . Another cool note, his uncle who is less active and is his employer with the ice cream and all followed Mark Deiter's example yesterday and didn't sell ice cream either and went to church with his family. It was cool.
Also one of the coolest things that happened to us this week was that we have this investigator, Karen(about 22) that is a friend of Sister Fema Tan and we have been teaching here for a while now. At first she was being taught with Fema and she got a really cool answer to here prayer but then she went to Manila for like a month and then we found out she was back so we started teaching her again. She has been doing way awesome and has been coming to church and keeping all the commitments and this last Sunday she didn't come to church and she texted one of the members and said her dad forbade her to become aMormon and for us to not visit anymore. So since it was texted to a member we decided to go visit it her and have her tell us what was going on. Anyway we got there and she told us that she really wants to be baptized but her dad forbade her. So after talking to her for a while we felt prompted to challenge her to get on her knees pray and then go and tell her dad what was in her heart. Over those few days we prayed fervently for her dad's heart to be softened and for the spirit to be with her as she did this. And it was awesome because on Sunday she came to church said she did what we challenged her to do and that her dad said that if that's what she wants to do that it is all right! At the end though she said that she got a job in Sta. Rosa, Laguna (like 12 hours away which also happens to be the hometown of Elders Valdez and Fantony) and is going to start Tuesday and won't be back for 2 months (UUGH!!!) She said she will go to church in Laguna and that she will find the missionaries when she gets there. She also isn't sure exactly where she is going so we can't send the missionaries after her. I really do think she has the desire and the testimony to go to church there and find the missionaries. I just wish she was staying here because it was such a huge breakthrough!
By the way Sister Fema Tan is doing awesome, she is teaching seminary and is thinking about applying for a mission or to BYU Hawaii. Cool.
We ate at the district president's house last night. It's pretty funny, they are both RMs and their kids are named Mohonri, Moriancumer and Jared... Do you get it?
Also very cool this week we were coming back to Rojas from an area a few miles out of the town and oddly there were no rides back for a good ten minutes(there are usually rides back within a minute or so) Then a car came down the road with 2 old Americans in it haha. It was a Couple! Elder and Sister Gottfriedson (spelling -- they are pretty new, last weds is the first time I've really talked to them) were headed to Rojas to help sister Fema with BYU Hawaii application so we were able to show them the way and after they did their business with sister fema they shared really great testimonies with Fema and her sister in law(our investigator as well) about the great blessing of forever families. (by the way Elder Gotfiedson is a former Mission President and was serving as patriarch when he was called on a mission) This whole week it seems like what our investigators and less active families that we are teaching have just needed to hear about eternal families.
So if there is one thing I learned this week is what a great blessing it is to be sealed as a family. Thanks mom and dad for living the gospel and being married in the temple. I know that families can be together forever. I love you all tons. My love for each of you has especially grown as I have been away from you and I am so grateful to be in such an awesome family.
I love you tons. Have a great week and good luck with the house!
A.J.
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| Mark Dieter (right one in white) was baptized last week by his cousin Dominic. |
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