Hello and Happy MONDAY:)

This week has been a rock solid week, and a super busy week!! Me and my companion are really trying to help our investigators and to find new ones this week. This was our goal this week, to find more people to teach, and help come unto Christ. And it really worked!! We OYM'd a bunch or in other words we introduced ourselves to a TON of people, and we were able to find 10 New Investigators to teach this week!! So it was a huge success, and now we are working help them pray about the things we taught them, so hopefully more progression in their testimony happens this week!!  

We had a new record again for church attendance at 55!! BOO YAA:)  We are trying to help the members get more excited about church, so we are holding Family Home Evening at Members houses and then inviting Investigators, Less Actives and whoever can come.  It was a really good time last week, and we probably had almost 20 people there.  

Also on Sunday I gave a Talk in Sacrament meeting for the first time in my whole mission!! It was about the simple basic things that we are always reminded to do, but sometimes we still forget to do them!  I also taught the Gospel Essentials class for all of the Investigators and Recent Converts, and then in Sacrament Meeting I played the piano.  So as you can tell, the missionaries in the Maria Aurora branch are relied on very heavily to help the branch out. But it is super fun and the members are awesome!!  Also it helps my Tagalog out a lot when I have to use it so much, so there is another perk to it;)

Last P-day I went to the BIGGEST TREE IN ASIA!!! The Balete tree, and lets just say it was a big tree:)  We were able to go inside it and take some pics so it was fun!!  So there is lots of super cool things to do on P-day here in Maria Aurora, so hopefully I'll have some cool things like this every week:)  

And I saw another American... he was a Caribou:) hahaha it is a famous caribou, because it is like the only white one ever!! I'll send you a pic of it next week.

It has rained a bunch here in Maria Aurora and apparently it is like that just about every week, because we are near to the ocean.  But don't worry mom I still have my umbrella;);););)

Its been a great week here in Maria Aurora, I hope ya'll had a good one too!!

Thanks for the all the emails!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

Elder Alldredge

The Balete Tree!  The biggest tree in Asia!

Balete tree

Inside the Balete tree

Balete tree

Millennium Tree

Elder Alldredge and Elder Dolotina

FHE in Maria Aurora!

KUMUSTA SA INYO LAHAT!??!?!?

So this week has been a pretty normal week and not much happened...  Except that I was transferred, to MARIA AURORA, BALER!!!!! Like what in the world?? I never ever thought that I would get assigned here, it seriously is SO BEAUTIFUL here!!! Everything is so green and there are a bunch of mountains and rivers, its awesome! I have yet to go to see the beach, maybe next P-day hopefully:) 

So on Wednesday I learned that I would be transferred so I was able to say my goodbyes to the members and investigators in Vargas.  Oh man I learned so much in that area, and it was such a good time with some amazing people there!! But the ward in Vargas usually had around 170-180 members at church, and now here in Maria Aurora on Sunday we had a HUGE 53!!! And I'm not kidding about the huge, because this was the biggest church attendance they have had in many months.  So lets just say I will be playing a lot bigger role to help the branch function on Sundays especially.

But the members here are so nice, and I am so excited to serve here!!  Also the members here are very supportive of the missionaries, which is so great!  My first day here we had a one day mission, and over 20 people came and we went on splits and visited a bunch of less actives and other members.  We had good success which is why the church attendance was high on Sunday.  But we are going to keep that number going up!!! That's the goal:)

My companions name is Elder Dolotina and he is a super awesome hard working Elder!! He is 25 years old and he is from Antique, Iloilo, Philippines.  I am his follow up trainer and I am so pumped to do some WORK here in Maria Aurora!!!

One awesome thing that happened was we got OYM'd by a lady, in other words, a lady came up to us and straight up asked "can I have that book from your church?" So of course we were so pumped to give her one, and hopefully this week she will keep that desire to learn more about the church!!

So anyways its been an AWESOME week!!!

I am so excited for this area, and with my new companion!!

Thanks for all the emails and the prayers:)

Have a great week, and SMILE ALWAYS!! Its just more fun that way:)

LOVE YA'LL!!!

Elder Alldredge

The Madriaga Family!!

Joanne Jennifer Catherine and Rowela

Workers in Maria Aurora - meeting for splits I think

Elder Dolotina and Elder Alldredge

On splits finding people to invite to church

Great member missionaries!

Baler apartment!

Maria Aurora, Baler

Splits with members!

Apartment on 2nd floor

Magandang Araw sa Inyo!!!

So this week has been a fantastic week!  With a highlight of General Conference!!!  One thing I really noticed is how much love Thomas S. Monson received from almost every single speaker!  This truly testified to me again that he really is a Prophet of God!! He needs our prayers because he is the Living Prophet of the Earth today!  And his talks were so Powerful!!!  I loved his first talk and the focus on charity, love, and kindness to others, something that I definitely am working on!! 

But my very favorite talk was Ronald A Rasband.  This talk hit me like a BRICK WALL!!! So apparently I have lots of work to do in becoming better at listening to the promptings of the Spirit!  So now that is my goal, to become a First Prompting Responder to the Spirit!!

One of our Investigators, Princess Bacaro, is really doing well and she is preparing for her baptismal interview this weekend.  She is only 9 years old, but she reads every day and has such sincere prayers!!  She went to General Conference and she said that is was super cool!  Even though it was in English, so idk how much she understood;)  But she enjoyed it anyways!!

So I just realized I haven't really told anything weird about the Philippines in a while, so my bad!;)  I have just gotten used to most everything here, so I don't notice things very much anymore, but i'll work on that so you can hear some of the things that happen here.  But one quick thing is that I get called Joe all the time!!! its cuz i'm white:)  But usually these people don't really want to talk after that say that:) I have tried OYMing them many times, haha its hilarious!! They get very scared, hahaha!!!

So my favorite 2 quotes from General Conference 

1. "Come as we are, but don't plan to stay as we are" -Elder Holland

2. "Our progress is the Lord's work" -Elder Eyring

I just noticed they are both about improving. Something that is needed literally everyday of our life!!! We must be progressing or we are moving back!! But I love that this is what the Lord wants for us as well, and he is willing to help us do it!

So its been a good week, as you can tell I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE:)

Have a great week!!! Thanks for all the emails!

LOVE Y'ALL!!

Elder Alldredge

KUMUSTA FAM?!?!?

So this week has been an UNFORGETTABLE AWESOME WEEK!!!  So many fun things happened, and it was so much fun!  

So first off the biggest and most important thing that happened is that Joanne and Jennifer were BAPTIZED on Saturday!!! They really have changed and are rock solid in the church!  They have a bunch of really active friends in the church so they are in good hands:)  But the baptism was so special!! They were so nervous for some reason before the baptism, but after they couldn't stop smiling, it was AMAZING!!!

Also this past week was my 19th Birthday!!!  And let me tell you, right here in Vargas is the place to celebrate a birthday:)  We had a Family Home Evening at one of the members house and they invited basically all the YSA's and fun people:)  I gave the object lesson and then afterwards we had a BOODLE FIGHT!!!  It seriously was so much fun!! The people here go crazy when there is a bunch of food in front of them and no utensils to use;)  But anyways, my birthday was a good time, and Thank you for all the Birthday Wishes!!!

We had Zone Conference on Friday and it was so inspiring and I really have so much to work on... its not even funny:) but I'm so thankful for the ideas and encouragement to improve and become a more consecrated missionary.  That is our theme this year as a mission, Consecration.  So President talked about becoming a Consecrated Mission, and the miracles that could happen if we did it, but of course it starts in the companionship.  So that was a great boost to continue to become better!!!

Also we are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission.  We started back in January but I finished a little while ago, and it really was such an amazing experience!! We marked all about Jesus Christ.  His attributes, and any references to Jesus Christ.  And it is amazing, this book really is another testament of Jesus Christ!!!  And I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!  So this is something maybe you can try, marking all about Jesus, it is a for sure testimony builder!!!

Also my favorite quote from President Clark at Zone Conference was "Don't expect to change in great ways if you are not willing to do great things."  SO GOOD RIGHT???  

So as you can tell this week was pretty AWESOME!!!

Sorry for capitalizing so many words;)  hahah i was a little excited:)

Thanks for all the emails!!! 

LOVE YOU!!! 

And keep smiling:)

Elder Alldredge

Jennifer & Joanne's Baptism

Birthday games for Kyle!

Party time!

Boodle Fight ready!

Boodle Fight!

Kabahay Baptisms!

Great YSA Support for Jennifer and Joanne!