National Day of Service

This was a busy week for us again. Busiest in a long time. We had our slow days where we taught only a few lessons but for the most part it was good for us.

Brother Negad's baptismal interview is on Sunday! We are very excited. It will be the first complete family that I will baptize on the mission. We had a lesson with Len Dojoles again. We showed the Lamb of God and the Restoration. She really liked it. We were shocked because she came to church this Sunday. We don't expect her because of her boyfriend and the need to attend the Inglesia ni Cristo church. It was a good day to see her come again. As far as Ruby, she is going back to her work so she will continue the lessons over there. Joemar, the cousin of the ward mission leader, is doing pretty good. We have taught him a few times. He is a little bit slower but we have the time to explain. I don't think he has much religious background. We still don't know what is going on with Ansaldo. We are really wanting to know the problem. It is frustrating but maybe it isn't the right time for her right now. Tabligan is the same as normal. We think he is waiting for someone to come to church with him. We are working with some other investigators and members to go to him and invite him to church so he has someone to come to church with him.

We had a lot of investigators at church again. We reached 8 investigators. It is a pretty good time right now to be working in Manapla. We are getting close to having a lot of investigators getting baptized. They are starting to see the fruit of the gospel and are starting to accept it.

On Saturday, it was National Day of Service. The ward put on a project for us to do as a ward. We attended it to help out. We planted some trees called mangrove. They are the trees that grow in the water. It was a fun project.

So right now it is summer in the Philippines. It is very hot. I hear it will get hotter in May. I don't know much about the fruit. I haven't ate much here. Mostly fish and rice. Sleeping is ok because you have a fan running over you so it isn't too bad. You get use to it and besides, you are too tired not to sleep.

Love you all,

Elder Nielsen

10 Investigators at Church!

The first of this week has hard. We had a hard time teaching people. But in the end it turned out to have a lot of miracles.

This week we went to one of our farthest areas. It is San Pablo. It is on the mountain side. It is about 4-5 kilometers from our house. It was a long distance. We contacted some of the less actives we had over there. We also returned to Central Manapla because we had some referrals over there and an investigator. It was good to go there because we now understand our map in the area book.

As far as investigators, we had Renelyn's baptism. It was a great experience. It was good to finally have a baptism from Punta Salong. Brother Negad is progressing. He is on schedule to be baptized on May 11. Cherry Mae doesn't want to listen to us so we don't think that she will be baptized for a while. We don't know what is going on with Tabligan. They said they will come to church on Saturday but they didn't come. We are still waiting to hear if they want to join because they are listening to a lot of religions right now. Brother Baldos seems to be doing good. He likes the church but he doesn't come to church. It will help to have missionaries there to pick them up to come to church. Len Dojoles really likes the church. She doesn't believe some of the teaching of Inglesia but she loves to listen to us. She says that her faith increases when we teach but it doesn't when they teach. We are just waiting to hear what she has to say. Padernal really likes the church. They are hesitate to come to church right now. We hope that as we teach they will feel more comfortable coming to church.

We saw a huge miracle in church this week. We had 10 investigators come to church!!! We were surprised because we only taught some a few times and others we hadn't met. We had some come from San Pablo that we hadn't met before. They came to investigate the church because the daughter's boyfriend wants her to join the church. It was great to have them come. Her name is Ruby. I don't remember the mom's name. We are seeing a lot of good in our area right now.

The training went well. President, as always, gave us a lot of insight and taught us how to better teach the restoration. He teaches a lot and really wants us to be Preach My Gospel scholars.

I love you all.

Elder Nielsen

At the baptism

 

This spider was about four inches long!

 

General Conference (shown this week for us!)

This week was pretty interesting. First of all, Tuesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Doane from Arizona came to Manapla. We went to Punta Salong. He loved it there being on the ocean. We got to eat crab there mmmmm... Then Wednesday we looked at the house for the Punta Salong missionaries and after we were told that President Lopez doesn't want it. We talked to bishop about this because we have to go through bishop to talk to the land lady. He then talked to the stake president who then talked with the mission president. Make a long story short, we are now taking the house. It was a long process. Then we had general conference this week!!!!! The missionaries here were amazed at what Elder Nelson said. We like it but it will be hard to get to the point where the ward mission leader is filling our planners. We really like Elder Bednar's talk as well. It gave us a greater aspect on how to teach the law of chastity here because a lot of people don't marry. They don't have the money to marry so it gave us some insight of how we can help them marry and enter into the waters of baptism. We also liked Elder Holland's talk about how a desire is good enough. If they have a desire it should move them forward so that they will follow Christ and then enter into the waters of baptism. Those are some things some of our investigators are struggling with right now.

As far as investigators, we have quite a few progressing. Renelyn came to church this Sunday so we held her interview for baptism. She will be baptized on Saturday!!! One referral that we received came to church as well. His name is Joemar. He is the cousin of our ward mission leader. We will start teaching him this week. We also had a girl that is a part member come to church. Her name is Cherry Mae Oca. We are hoping to baptize her on May 11 but it is hard to teach her so we will see. Brother Negad didn't come to church this week. We were sad. He is still progressing though. Brother Tabligan is starting to progress again. He wants to make the right decision so he is praying and studying. Nono is also progressing. He would have come to church this week but he had to stay and watch the crab business this week. He will attend next week. We started teaching the Padernal family this last week. We taught his parents but they weren't interested but now they seem very interested. They really like what they teach. They are inviting us to eat right now. We are a little bit shocked. They have a true desire to come unto Christ.

We set up our dinner appointments. Sometimes we set up lunch appointments as well. It depends on us if the members feed us or not. We are responsible for set them up though.

I love you all. Remember the words of the prophets.

Elder Nielsen

PS we had a bus take us to general conference.

Working Hard

Well, this was a slower week but I think it is because of the warm weather. It has been extremely hot the past 3 days. I think it is close to the record. If you don't have a fan going you are sweating bad.

We still got a lot done though. Renelyn is on schedule. Her interview is on Sunday but we don't know if it will happen because of general conference. We go to Cadiz to watch it and you have to take a bus to get there. We don't know right now if the ward can get a bus but for now you have to pay to go. It is hard because lots of people don't have money to go so they stay home. Sister Babila didn't come to church this week. She has a family problem so she isn't coming to church. Brother Negad is came though. He really likes the church. We were very happy he came. Ferly has an older sister that has been in Manila for the past 10 years. She came home. We started teaching her. Her name is Len. She likes the church because it changed her dad so he started reading the Bible and telling them to go to church. She came to church. We don't know if she will baptize. It depends on her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is Inglesia ni Cristo and if they marry, she will need to be Inglesia as well. We are waiting to see what happens. It could be 2 years before she is baptized because she won't go be with him, because he is in the US, until 2 more years. That gives us a lot of time to work. Nono is really progressing. He won't commit to baptism right now because he is smoking but he is trying to stop. We are trying to get him to church right now. Everyone else is moving along. We are trying to help them but they aren't doing anything with what we teach. We just try to listen for the spirit to tell us what they need.

Right now we are working with over 30 investigators. It demands a lot of time but we do the best that we can with it.

We e-mail at a place they call an internet cafe. It is a place with a lot of computers that you pay to use. There is several in a barangay.

Our apartment is really nice. I will send pictures next time. It has tiled floors and has a shower. President says it is the only working shower in the mission. The Anderson couple says it is the nicest apartment in the mission and is for the best missionaries in the mission. Haha. I don't believe the best missionaries, more like the luckiest.

The MTC provided sheets and blankets.

I am looking forward to seeing general conference and hearing from the living prophets.

I love you all. Remember who you are. You are a child of God.

Elder Nielsen

Easter Week

Wow time has sure flown by. I don't know where it went.

Transfers have come and gone. And we were so excited because transfers were here. We were on exchanges with the zone leaders when the announcements happened. The zone leaders were being moved from Victorias to Caduhaan. We got back together and they went to pack. Then we sat at home and waited for the announcement and none came. So Elder Bermudez texted the APs and asked if we were transferring. They responded that we were both staying in Manapla. No exchanges. So we prepared to start the next day. The next day we went to a member’s house because their son came back from his mission. He came in that day. Here you aren't released until the Sunday you get home. He had no companion so the bishop told us to take him with us. We texted President Lopez and he told us to have him stay at our house. So we were a tri this week.

As far as investigators, Renelyn Ortega is really progressing. She has great faith and she really wants to be baptized. We are teaching her as fast as we can right now because she is scheduled to be baptized on April 20! We are excited because we will get a baptism in Punta Salong. Everyone else isn't progressing. We are hoping that they will once we get more missionaries in there in May. Brother Tabligan isn't progressing again. We are wondering what is going on right now with him. We are praying that his faith will strengthen. We lost some of our investigators this week. Sagal doesn't want us to return anymore. We don't know why and haven't been able to talk with them for a long time. Padernal doesn't want to join the church. It is sad but we have more time to focus on some of our investigators that need our help. We are teaching a special child right now. She understands very little so president says we can baptize with the approval of the bishop. Bishop says to go ahead with the baptism so she will be baptized on April 27. Her name is Gemma. We are hoping to baptize her with the parents of the family she stays with. Sister Babila is a long time investigator. She had a concern that has been resolved so now we are hoping to baptize her on April 27 as well. Brother Negad really wants to be baptized. He is progressing really quick. He didn't attend church this week. We are looking at May 4 for him.

As far as Easter traditions here, well there is none. The only day they celebrate is Good Friday. They have a parade that shows the life of Christ. They march around town with it. It was pretty cool and very Catholic. I forgot it was Easter until a person said to us "Jesus lives." Otherwise I forgot. It isn't a big deal here.

President wants Punta Salong to open up next transfer. That is what we are working for right now.

Love you all. Remember that through Christ we have hope. Because Christ atoned for us, we can return to live with God.

Elder Nielsen