HEY YA'LL!!!

This week has been a SOLID week, with lots of work and lots of rain, and lots of Brown OutsJ(or power outs)  fun stuff....:)

First off my companion, Elder Dolotina was not transferred!!! So that was super awesome!  But the next transfer is only 3 weeks long, so it most likely won’t last much longer, but it is a super good thing!! Because we are really working with our investigators to help them to progress, to grain a testimony, and to come to church. 

This week Jeferson is still doing really well and his testimony is growing, that’s for sure!  We watched the Restoration with him, and it was seriously SUPER SPIRITUAL!!! I loved that whole video and the discussion afterwards.   He had a bunch of questions for us about Joseph Smith, and he said I want to watch the long version about Joseph Smith, so after we left he did!! But the only sad thing about him this week is that he did not come to churchL its like AAAAHHHHHH NO!!! Because he had an eye check-up at the same time as church, so he promised that he would come next week, so that’s GOOD!!!

So we only had 3 Investigators at church, but for sure that will be going up next week, because we will do everything that we can to make it happen.  That’s one thing our mission is really focusing on right now.   To “Pray like everything depends on God, but work like everything depends on you.”  And it is such a sweet quote that I love!!! And we are doing our best to live it here in Maria Aurora!

Also this week my district leader, Elder Garcia, gave a super cool workshop and my mind was blown!! So he focused on this quote:

Nourish the thought

Reap the Action

Nourish the Action

Reap the Habit

Nourish the Habit

Reap the Character

Nourish the Character

Reap the Destiny!!!

So in other words it really starts with our thoughts, if we think positively and do all the things that the quote says, then we really will become who we want to be!  He also said “Whether you think you can or not, you are probably right!”  So we choose, if we want to be positive or not.  He applied this to helping our investigators to get baptized, to baptize weekly for the month of July, so that is the goal right now, and we are just starting now to nourish the thought that we really can help those investigators to be baptized, to follow Jesus Christ, and to become more like him!!!   I love this fact that just by being positive we are able to do God's will more fully.  And also this quote can apply to anyone and basically any topic, so YAA!!!!

Sorry for just a bunch of quotes today:) hahhaa 

nothing super crazy happened this week, so maybe next week will be more exciting!!

Thanks for all the emails!!!

Have a great week!!!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

It is rainy season!

Ward mission workers

Magandang Araw sa inyo Lahat!!!

These past two weeks have been loaded with miracles in our work here in Maria Aurora!!! One was that the Skyping worked!!!  I actually literally have no idea how it worked, its just a MIRACLE!!! My companion was not able to skype his family, just call, but the prayers were answered and it was amazing to talk to the FAM:)  I don't know why I was blessed with such an amazing family, but I'm so GRATEFUL!!!!

Another miracle that has been taking place over the past 2 weeks is with our investigator brother Jeferson.  He is 14 years old, but really he is super advanced in thinking and always has a ton of questions for us, which is literally the BEST!!!  So the first miracle, was that he accepted the Baptismal Goal Date.  And he also told us he would try to read the whole BoM before that goal date, so that was AWESOME!! Then he really started opening up to us this last week, he told us about his struggles with talking to people especially people his age, and how he only has really 1 friend, and how he always gets super nervous and basically freaks out when there are lots of people around.  But we reassured him that we would be right next to him, and help him out, and pick him up for church.  So we went to his house sunday morning, and he was so ready to go, he had a polo and jeans and everything, lookin good!! Then at the church, the older members were super nice talking to him and making him feel good.  Then the youth took him to the youth class, and I was just praying that it would turn out well.  After the class they were all in by the piano and he was playing with all the youth surrounding him, I seriously felt pure joy for Jeferson right there!!! AAAAHHHH so happy!!! So he made lots of friends and so we will continue to hope and pray that he will want to come back!! So that was just an HUGE MIRACLE this past week...

We had a Branch Family Home Evening again on Saturday night and over 40 members came!!! It was a HUGE turnout, and we were super excited!  It was a good time, and its always good to help members to become closer, and become more of a family in the branch, thats the goal!  Then we had dinner and it was super fun!!!  On Sunday we had 50 people at church, and only 2 investigators because 2 of our investigators had a fever, so next week hopefully they are feeling better!!!

Last Monday I had a crazy experience that I seriously never thought would happen in my life!  I was able to dedicate a grave of an endowed member that lives about an hour away from our area.  It was really interesting because there were no other priesthood holders out of all the over 100 people there.  So it was a really neat experience that I will for sure never forget!!

So life here in Maria Aurora is good:)  The people are super nice here, and so many people here say "Hey Joe" hahaha, so I just try to have fun with it and make them smile or something...  Also its transfers this week, and most likely I will have a new companion, but if not that would be super cool, because Elder Dolotina is a super good hard-working missionary and the members love him here!  

Thanks for all the emails!!!  Ya'll make me so happy!!!

LOVE YA!!!!

Elder Alldredge

 

Recent Converts - Devera Family

Booyaa! :)

Branch Family Home Evening

Our investigator - Brother Jefferson

Jammin' at Branch FHE!  These last pictures came from a member's facebook post.

FHE Lesson

FHE Game

Kyle being Kyle

Enjoying FHE treats

A great Mother's day was capped off with a google chat with Elder Alldredge! He struggled for 3 hours to find a computer shop that had a computer he could talk to us on.  After much patience and frustration we had a wonderful talk with Kyle!  He is so happy to be in the Philippines and to be a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ!

Hello Hello Hello!!!

I hope ya'll had a great week!! Because this week was a pretty great week here!  I learned a TON and I am super excited to apply those things I learned to our teaching and investigators this next week.  

So ya we had Zone Conference this past week!!!! It is seriously the most spiritually uplifting/Pump up/amazing experience every time I attend a Zone Conference!  Also because I am assigned in Baler Zone, we had an extra special week because we were gone for 2 days just to go to Zone Conference!! So we left on Thursday and rode in a bus for maybe 5 hours to Cabanatuan.  Then we got there and stayed the night at Elder Zachilli's house in Cab, if you don't remember he was my MTC companion!! So lets just say we had some fun talking about everything that has happened on our whole mission!!!  It was so fun!!!  Then the next day we woke up early and left to go to the church for Zone Conference.  I played the piano... of course:)  But it was a rock solid conference!!  

President Clark really is such an inspired man and he really knows exactly what we need every time!!!!  We learned about forgiveness, and how this is something that can literally set us free.  If we let ourselves be offended or don't forgive, we are literally stopping ourselves from progression, from becoming better, more like our Savior Jesus Christ, and it really is our choice!! No one can make you be offended or not forgive, so that was an awesome reminder for us!

He also talked about how miracles really are everywhere, and we must be praying for them, but also WORKING for those miracles to happen!!  And when we do this we will truly have Angels among Us.  He played that song "Angels Among Us" and it brought back some good memories back in the day;)  So ya you should listen to that again, and really pay attention to the words, its so good!!!!

We had 55 people at church this week, which was a little drop from last week, but we will work harder this next week to improve again!  But we did have 3 investigators at church. Ashelle Infante who is 12, Jonathon and JC Saludo who are 12 and 14.  These kids are pretty awesome!!! Now we are just trying our best to help them read the BoM and pray.  

One miracle I have seen over my time here in Maria Aurora is the Saludo family.  My first day here, we had a one day mission with the members.  And while we were walking down the road we saw her waiting for a trike with a bunch of little kids.  And she has been a member for 8 years but hasn't came to church in about 4 years.  So we invited her to church, and the 3rd week I was here, she came to church!!! And then this last week she brought her two sons and 3 little girls, 2 of which are our investigators!! So its such a miracle that this family is again coming to church again!! And now our goal is to help the kids be baptized to really help this mom out... The gospel is amazing and it has made their family very happy again!!!!!!  I LOVE IT!!!!

So its been a great week!!

Lots of learning and ways to improve!

Thats the beauty of the gospel, we can ALWAYS improve!!!

Have a fantastic week!!

LOVE YA'LL!!!!

Elder Alldredge

No pictures from Kyle this week so I had to get one from the mission blog.  His Baler Zone has traveled on bus 5 hours to Cabanatuan for a zone conference.

Magandang Araw!!!

So this week has just been plain AWESOME!!!

Life in Maria Aurora is so much fun and I love the work here!!!  We had some really good successes this week, which is super encouraging for our work here, these people here are so willing to listen to us here!! This is why we had another stellar week in finding new investigators, we had 12 more new investigators!!!  One family of 5 and some other referrals from a member in our ward.  A few of them really want to be taught and baptized, but haven't really reached the point where they will actually act on that desire.  So this is the goal for the week, to help them to ACT!!! Because if there is no action, there is no change.  So we will work super hard to help them to keep their commitments and hopefully the next sunday we will have some more investigators at church!!   

This week we also had a HUGE attendance at sacrament meeting, at 61!!!! BOO YAA:)  It was super cool to see the seats almost all filled even before it starts!! Which is super rare in the Philippines, because most people run on Filipino time, which is supposedly super late always...;)  But it was so cool to see so many people at church!! And we will keep doing our best to strengthen the ward!! We only had 1 investigator at church, but the next week we are hoping that number goes up too!! These members really were super happy on sunday and i know that helps the less actives because the members were super friendly, and everyone needs a friend!!  Oh another thing, just Be that friend to everyone!! Especially the people you don't see at church too often, this is what we were trying to encourage the members to do on sunday, and it was really good!!

This week we also had a Branch Family Home Evening, which was super fun and we had 32 people there, so that really helps strengthen the branch members, having fun with each other, and also having spiritual things too, it was AWESOME!!!  We also had dinner too, so perks there... more rice... always:)

Oh and we had interviews with President on Saturday.  It went super well, and I really got some great advice from President Clark, he really is such an inspired man!!! Also President and Sister Clark took the Baler Zone out to lunch at a fancy restaurant:)  hhahah there is quite a few perks to being assigned in Baler Zone:)  

So earlier this morning the Baler Zone woke up early and we went to the Lighthouse at the Beach!!! It was seriously sobrang MAGANDA!!!! The view was amazing and everything in Baler is just absolutely gorgeous!! So we took a ton of pictures, and had fun with the Zone!! Don't worry I'll send you some pics;)  Also we hiked to a cool waterfall near the beach, so that was SWEET too!!!

Well I hope ya'll had an amazing week!!! Thanks so much for your emails, it makes me so Happy:)

And if you forgot to smile this past week... then SMILE now!!! And all week:)

LOVE YA'LL!!!!

Elder Alldredge

 

Baler Beach for P-Day!

Baler beach

Baler Zone dinner!

Interviews and apartment check

Sight seeing with the zone!

FHE with the Maria Aurora Branch!