Monday, March 27, 2017

Magandang araw sa inyo lahat!!!

This week has been a great week!  Our investigators are doing well as we had 4 at church on Sunday! But there  was a little let down because 3 different ones that said they would go to church didn't come, so hopefully next week!!! 
But Joanne and Jennifer have been progressing so well, and we have been teaching them a lot, and helping them to be ready for their interview last saturday, and they passed their baptismal interviews!!!  So they will be baptized on Saturday!! This is so exciting, because they are so ready and are pumped for saturday!  

I was also able to baptize a little girl in our ward this week, Hannah Grande.  She is such a funny little 8 year old girl, that I used to teach sometimes when we had all of Vargas to ourselves.  So she knows me and not the other Elders very well, so I got to baptize her!!

We had Family Home Evening at the Bermudez home last monday, and they were sealed in the temple on Wednesday!!!  They were so excited to finally be sealed because they waited the 1 year after their baptism for this!  They have two little kids Jaylord and Ashley and they are the funniest kids ever, they always scream "ELDER ALLDREDGE!!!"  Whenever we pass by their house, that always makes my day:)  But anyways they were all smiles after they got back on Wednesday from the Temple, and this is what the Gospel can do!! It helps families to become Eternal Families!!! And where in the world could you find something more happy than that?? It amazes me, and I am so thankful for it!!

We played basketball this morning with some members in our ward, and it is so much fun, just laughing the whole entire time:) hahah I guess thats just the Filipino way!!!
One quote I heard this week that I love!
"The busy man makes a way to serve, while the non-busy man makes excuses not to."  
Just some food for thought that has really stuck with me this past week!!
Well I love you all!!!
Have a fantastic week! 
Keep smiling:):):):):):):):):)

LOVE, Elder Alldredge
Baptism of Hanna Grande

Hanna Grande - 8 years old

Dinner & FHE at the Bermudez home

Shirt and bag from Baguio.  Brother Barcelonia gave them to Kyle in honor of his Mom and her mission in Bagiou

Monday, March 20, 2017

Hello to everyone!!!
Especially to my brand new baby niece BROOKLYN!!!  AND NOW I'M AN UNCLE:) Now that's just plain awesome!!! haha She is ADORABLE!!
Ok as you can tell i'm just a little bit pumped;) 

So this week has been a pretty awesome week!  We had Ward Conference here in Vargas and we had the very most members at church by far, 232!!! BOO YAA!!!  That was super cool to see, so many members, so hopefully they will keep that up and keep coming to church!!!  We also had a huge lunch after ward conference at Bishop's house with so much food! And you probably guessed it... it was RICE:) hahaha always!!  But they had a bunch of different "ulam" or "food you put on rice," is the english form of that:)

This past week we had interviews with President, at our house!! So you'd better believe that our house was shining when they came;)  We were so ready to impress them with our house, and it WORKED!!! hahahah:)  Interviews with President are seriously the BEST!! I learned so much and realized so many things that I can do to improve as a missionary!

We had another man in our ward pass away this past week, so we had another funeral service on Sunday.  They are seriously so spiritual with all the hymns sang, and the testimonies born.  Especially about the Plan of Salvation and how Families can be Together Forever, it was a neat experience!

So it was St. Patricks day on Friday in America right??  Well here literally no one has any clue about what it is... So I tried to explain it to a bunch of Filipinos in Tagalog and it totally didn't work at all:)  They all thought it was the weirdest and most pointless holiday ever!  And I might have to agree with them;)  But its fun, and a different day, so that makes it awesome!!!  But anyways what my kabahay got out of it was just pinching, hahahaa:) basically no matter what, even if they do have green;) 
So I hope ya'll had an amazing week!! 
And have one again next week, with lots of smiles:)

LOVE YA'LL!!!

Elder Alldredge

Home visits and interviews with President & Sister Clark

Sister Clark sent this to us this morning to show that he still has his Christmas tree up!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Kumusta sa Inyong Lahat!!!

This week has been a roller coaster of a week!  Lots of super encouraging things happened like Ward Council, and the willingness and anxiousness of the ward to help us out.  And also some struggles with investigators and less actives and stuff.  But HEY its all good!!  I have some plans for this next week to hopefully really improve our area, so we will see how that goes:)

Yesterday after Ward Council we went to one of our investigators, Nanay Ingasalo, and we had such a cool experience!!  So nanay had a stroke like 5 years ago, and she has a really hard time walking and she basically never leaves the house, so that is really sad.  But we brought some members to her house and we shared to her with her husband.(he is a very active member)  So all along nanay has told us that she is not able to leave the house. But while we were just talking before the lesson nanay said "I really want to go to the church" then we asked "what church?" she said "the Mormons..."  So now we know that there is a desire to go and we are working out in finding a way to get her there.  Apparently one of the members has a wheelchair that no one is using so hopefully we can use that and just come and pick her up and take her to church!!!! So then we shared and the Spirit was so strong, and it was so cool to be able to just testify to her that it was the Spirit that was there, letting us all know that this is the truth.  AAHHH It was SO AWESOME!!!

I realized this past week that fans are literally my best friend.  I dont think that I could live without them here in the Philippines;)  We had a brown out this past week, meaning no water or electricity for most of one day, and let me tell you, studies were rough that day:)  Hahaha but we had electricity by night time, so we didn't have to go candle style... yet;)

Joanne and Jennifer are still progressing and doing very well! They have gone to church 4 times now and are doing so good!! Their baptism is coming right up!! APRIL 1ST!!! BOO YAA!!! They are very excited, and we are doing our best to help them be ready.
We have gone jogging and played some basketball this week in the mornings, and it is the best!!  My kabahay is good at basketball so we have some really fun games:)  
Have a fantastic week!!  Keep smiling:)
Thanks for the emails and prayers!!
LOVE Y'ALL!!
Elder Alldredge



Rice drying on the road.  This happens quite a bit :)

Basketball early in the morning :)

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Hello Family & Friends!!!!!

So this week has been an AMAZING WEEK!!!  Mostly because we had 2 BAPTISMS!!!  Carl Jay and Terence were baptized on Saturday and it seriously was such a special day!  We have worked super hard to get these two ready so it was so fun to see them actually get baptized, and then confirmed on Sunday! So that is the biggest Highlight of the week!! 
Oh and yes I am still here in Vargas if you didn't notice already;)  So thats awesome, the members here in Vargas are starting to notice our work, and the baptisms, because it has been almost a year since the last one here.  So thats super awesome!  Now we are working towards April 1st which is the baptism of Joanne and Jennifer!!  Also the other Elders in our ward, have 3 baptisms on April 1st too, so that will be a totally white out:)  Now we just have to help them to get ready...:) 
This week was also very good in finding new investigators!  We found 6 New Investigators!!  And also a lot more potential with those 6, because 2 of those from the big Ulzame family, and they have cousins and a lot of people in their house who are super nice!! So when we finally find the right time, hopefully we can teach that whole family! Also one of the sisters in the fam, said that she used to go to church but she was never baptized, so hopefully that becomes a thing!!
Also 3 of the other investigators are from one family, the Talenio family!!  And the nanay(or mom) came late so she wasn't counted as a new investigator, but we talked to her and she said that before their whole family went to church 4 times, and she even had her interview, but it didn't happen for some reason.  Now they are going to a Baptist church close to their house, who is also paying them to go to church there.  But I believe that we can help them realize again where the truth is, and how many more blessings can come from the gospel other than money... So hopefully it works out:)  Big hopes for this next week;)
Anyways so I found my favorite Tagalog word... Even though I can't pronounce it:) it is nakakapagpabagabag...  hahaha try saying that 10 times fast:) or even once... if you can say it once correctly i would be amazed:) Because i can't at all, and more than half of the Filipinos can't say it right either;)
But anyways its been a good week!!
Thanks for all the letters and prayers!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Keep smiling:) ALWAYS!!!
Elder Alldredge
Baptism for Carl Jay and Terence!


Philippino Games at FHE!



FHE at the Bishop's house!