FAM!!!

This week has been a great week with a highlight of MY FIRST BAPTISM!!!  Ronald and Romel were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.  Oh man, they are so cool!  I was able to baptize both of them, and I did it in Tagalog!!  On Saturday morning Elder Lastierre told me that it would be cool if I did it in Tagalog, so I memorized it and did it without messing up…Thankfully;)  They really fit right in with the YSA’s in our branch so it is perfect! 

The Gudoy twins are progressing and they have helped us to find and teach their cousins!  Rosemary and  Katrina, the Gudoy’s cousins, are doing super good also.  Katrina is really like perfect for the church!!  Holy she is amazing!  She came to church and the baptism, she is already past 1^st Nephi 17 in less than a week, and her testimony is growing a TON!!!  The only problem is that she is not married so if we can get her going on that then she will be ready!  Also she has a daughter who’s name is Karen, and she is literally my favorite sister I have met!!  She is so funny, and always smiling, its hilarious!  Also she is 2 years old;)  And every time we go over there she runs up to me, says ELDER!  And sticks out her little hand and shakes every ones hand that is there.   Also she cannot say her k’s so one time she was showing us a picture of herself and then we asked “sino ito?”  (who is this?)  And she would say “ATU” even though its supposed to be ako for (me/I)  and it is so hilarious!! 

So while all of you were feasting away with Thanksgiving;)   I spent Thanksgiving night teaching and luckily the Gudoy’s fed us spaghetti!!! So it was a glorious Thanksgiving!!

It has been raining and it got a little bit less hot lately, and basically everyone here is freaking out saying how cold it is!!  Because its going into winter here in the Philippines.   It is so funny, because they literally have no clue about the cold! 

Last Monday night we had Family Home Evening at the church.  Me and Elder Lastierre planned it and invited the YSA’s and youth.  It was seriously so much fun!  After an object lesson from Elder Lastierre, we played games, and let me tell you Filipinos are hilarious to watch when they play gamesJ  So their favorite thing about these games is when the person who messes up gets lipstick drawn on their face.  They all freak out and die laughing everytime, its so funny!!!  So yes I may have had lipstick drawn on my face a few times;)

Well this week was so fun!  It was good to finally see a baptism come out of 2 great guys!!  

Make sure to have a great week, keep smiling, keep sharing the gospel, keep serving, keep doing good!!

Also NEVER SUPPRESS A GENEROUS THOUGHT!!! this is probs my favorite quote.

LOVE YA'LL!!!!

Elder Alldredge

Elder Lastierre, Romel, Ronald, Elder Alldredge

Romel and Ronald's Baptism!

Home evening with the YSA's

Baptism group

Cool guys getting baptized!

Baptismal service

Cutting down coconuts

Enjoying the fruit of their labors!

3 Zone Conference

Zone Elder's Choir?

Zone Conference meal

Kumusta?!?!?

Yo this week has been sobrang mabuti!! We were really able to focus on our investigators that are progressing and help them out.  Ronald DeGuzman and Romel Lorenzo passed their Baptismal Interviews! So they will be baptized this coming Saturday, oh man we are so PUMPED!! They are also so excited, everyday they tell me how many days until the Baptism, so the countdown is on:)  They have come so far and they really are so ready to be baptized!  

Mary Fey and Mary Joyce, the twins, are progressing and are doing so good!  They went to the stake young women's activity on friday and they apparently had the time of their lives!  So they are usually so shy, and hardly ever speak, so getting them to go was an accomplishment.  Then they brought their non-member cousin Rose Mary (hahaha I just realized, that's a lot of mary;)  Anyways well they had so much fun at the activity, and according to the young women, they were crazy and the life of the party!  So major major improvements!! It really is so good to see them gain so many friends in the church, and to be happy while they are here.  Also we are now teaching Rose Mary as well, so BOO YAA!!!

This week we had 90 members at church and we had 7 investigators, NEW RECORD!!! Again!!  So we got to 7 because of Loui Bernan.  This guy is the funniest guy I have ever met!  He is a little bit off, but just as nice as you can get. And he came to church even though we haven't taught him yet!!  Also he is the one who stopped us to introduce himself, right before he sang at the Friday night LaPaz town party thing.  That was hilarious!!! So obviously we usually don't really go near there, but since one of our investigators was singing in it, we went to watch and compliment him.  And it was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen!  He got into it so much, and he was actually pretty good!  But hopefully he is accepting when we teach him!! 

We had my very first Zone Conference and that was such a fun and inspiring day!!  I got to see my MTC friends, and talk to them at lunch.  Which btw was sobrang MASARAP!! It's always nice to be cooked for:)  So we had a bunch of workshops from the AP's, the STL's, and President and Sister Clark.  They talked a lot about setting our expectations high, higher than now to improve and become better missionaries.  I loved every minute of the conference and I was so sad when it was over.  President Clark is such an inspired man and he has big things planned for our mission, and I'm pumped to be a part of it!!

I also went on exchanges with Elder Eppich this week, and it was super fun to be with an American for a day!  Also this week I ate a RAT!!! It was spicy and I didn't enjoy it, but i did it!! So thats what matters:)  

Well thanks for all the emails!! I love you all!

Have a fantastic week! Smile lots:)

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

Rat!  That's disgusting

Young single adults

On our way to Victoria for a baptismal interview with Brother Pogz

Cleaning up the outside of our house with some YSA's YO!!!

More cleanup

This week has been a long week, but still a good week!   We had no workers for 3 days in the afternoon so we couldn’t teach most all of our investigators and appointments, because they are mostly all sisters.  So we walked and walked and walked and walkedJ   One time we walked out way in the bukid to the Gagar family which was maybe 3 miles each way!!! But we ended up not being able to teach anyways, because again we didn’t have priesthood so we couldn’t teach just sisters…  But walking through the trees, dirt paths, and bukid was sobrang maganda!!  Meaning everything was beautiful!  This was more of the Philippines that I expected when I opened up my call, not really what LaPaz looks like.  The wooden bamboo houses in the trees and everything like that, so it was super cool to see that, finally!!!

Our investigators are progressing so well and we had 6 of them at church!!!!!  Oh my you have no idea how happy we were to see them all at church!!  So Ronald and Romel are still doing so good, and they are now just preparing for baptism.  They both told me they are so excited to become a member and to be baptized.  They love all the friends that the church has provided, which is like the best thing ever!!  Everyone needs a friend in the church to stay strong, and they have about 10-15 YSA’s to help them out!! 

Also Mary Joyce and Mary Fey the twins are doing awesome as well!  They came to church again and are reading and praying every day.  We watched the First Vision 15 minute version with them in Tagalog, that was a cool experience.  But the Tagalog version just doesn’t compare to English, even the Filipinos admit it is not as good as it is in English.  That was on their birthday, so they fed us also!!!  They had some rice cake thing with a whole lot of pansit.  So Elder Lastierre kept telling them oh, pansit is Elder Alldredge’s favorite thing ever!!! Pansit is like small noodles mixed with vegetables, and it is pretty good but for sure not my favorite.  But because my kasama said it was I had to show them I liked it so I just kept eating…  And eating…  I ended after my 5^th plate and they thought it was pretty hilarious that I liked it so much.  So I guess I did my part in making them feel good about their cooking;)

We also have two new solid investigators this week.  One of them is Revson Gomez, and we found him OYMing(Open Your Mouth)and he has already been taught all the lessons but for some reason he didn’t get baptized. So he already knows basically everything that we teach him!  It’s the best!!! Also Bernie, one of the YSA’s that work with us a lot gave us a referral which was his cousin.  And she is so good, so willing to listen and learn so hopefully she keeps up the good work!!

I am doing ok on the language even though there are no big improvements that I can see, it is ok because I know it will come!!!

Well thanks for all the emails!!  Have a great HAPPY WEEK!!!  

LOVE Y’ALL!!!  

Elder Alldredge

Zone activity - Dodge ball

Out in the Bukid!  Boo Yah!

The twins birthday party!

The Philippines!

Family and Friends!!!

Kumusta Lahat?!?  This week was a great week and I learned a ton!! I also hit my 3 month mark… CRAZY!!! So our investigators that we have are doing good, even though we don’t have very many. 

But Ronald and Romel are doing so good!  So they had a Word of Wisdom problem right?  They smoked and drank coffee and tea.  But as of today they are about 10 days without any of it!!  This is amazing to me!  I really know that prayers work, we pray for them every day several times, because these two really will be amazing members of the church, and hopefully missionaries in the coming yearsJ  Yesterday they texted us and told us that their mom and grandma are so happy because they have stopped smoking!  They also promised to finish what they have started, which means they have their eyes set on baptism, which is SO GOOD!!!

Also the twins Mary Fey and Mary Joyce Gudoy are doing amazing as well!!  They are reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and they even came to Sacrament meeting on Sunday!  We were so excited to see them at church it’s not even funny.  They are so shy so we knew this would be the hardest thing for them, and they said next week they would go to all 3 hours of church, so they are doing great!!

We also met a guy from France who is staying here for 3 weeks with his Filipino wife.  He spoke little English so we did our best to communicate with him.  We tried to teach him lesson one but he kept saying in his broken English that it is impossible for him to believe in God.  But his wife was very kind and accepted the BoM and said she would read it, so that was cool!  Also is was super sweet to hear them talk in French to each other!! 

Also November 1^st was absolutely insane, there was so many people because we live near the cemetery.  We even had a lock down at 6:00 because so many people would be outside, and you never know what could happen so we were in our house by 6.  

So every night I have been having Missionary Dreams!!  And sometimes I talk in my sleep while teaching or talking to someone in my dream.  One night Elder Lastierre woke me up because I was sitting up in bed and I had said Salamat Po!! And Ingat Po!! Which means thank you and take care…  And I said it very loud so it woke my companion up.  He told me about what happened and we were dying for like 10 minutes at like 2:00 in the morning, it was hilarious:)  #MISSIONARY MODE

Well LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Thanks for the emails, and have a fantastic week!!!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

Hello from the other side... of the world!!!

This week has been a big growing week for me, I feel like I have learned more from my personal study and my companion than any other week.  I was able to give the workshop in District Meeting so I did some extra study to prepare.  I am getting the hang of this missionary thing and this week I start taking the lead in planning along with the lessons as well.  More responsibilities for me because I am officially over halfway through my training!!  Transfer announcements were exciting even though nothing happened to me of course.

This week Ronald and Romel continued to progress.  But we taught the Word of Wisdom and this is their problem.  We are trying to encourage them everyday, and we have the YSA's texting them every morning reminding them to obey the WoW  and they are improving but hopefully this week they stop all together!!

We taught Brian and Lener in the car wash last night and we committed them to be baptized, and they accepted.  So the problem with Filipinos is that they will commit just to make you feel good, or they will commit and hide, because they don't want to tell you straight up that they really don't want to be baptized.  But I really hope that these two will follow through!  I feel like they are kind of the bad boys in town, but they are super nice to us, so thats cool:) 

I went on exchanges with Elder Eppich this week and it was fun to be with an American for a day.  He goes home next transfer along with my companion, so he had lots of advice for me to soak up.  We had so much success in finding that day!  We had 10 new investigators, and we had 38 OYM's.  Which were both my highest in my mission so far.  I know numbers don't mean a thing(Best Two Years;);), but I enjoyed the success of that!

At church on Sunday the Primary President came up to me and said " You are American so you should know the tune of this Primary song, will you sing it for the Primary kids?"  Hahahaha it was pretty hilarious:)  But I went in and sang "Search, Ponder, and Pray" to the Primary kids.  Also last week we caught spiders and they fought... to the death!  So the big spiders here are harmless to humans and they don't bite hardly ever so I see people playing with them all the time.  So we had our own Spider Fight:) 

Oh and this morning we woke up early to go play volleyball at the church with the YSA's.  So the volleyball in the MTC was so good, but the volleyball here is literally the worst.  It is still hilarious to watch, and every once in a while I would get a good set to spike.  But most of the time everyone is just laughing because no one can hit the ball:) 

Thanks again for all of your letters, I LOVE THEM!!!

Missionary work is hard but fun!  

Have a fantastic week!!!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

Cool truck we found!

The District

More cool sunsets

I like this house!

Little chick!

Yes I did eat it all!

Way to embrace the culture!  Yuck