This week has been a very interesting and fun week!!  We were able to do lots of finding and talking with people, and just doing anything we can to help our investigators to progress.  And we for sure had some success! 

One of the really cool things that happened was that Tatay Amang Alipio prayed by himself for the first time in his entire life!!!  MIRACLE!!!!  Now this may seem small, but it was a HUGE improvement for him.  He is making improvements and I LOVE that!  Even though he has a rough time walking and idk how he will be able go to church, even though we will do everything we can to help him come, but I love the idea that his being able to pray now, and that can and WILL change his life…

I had exchanges this week with my District Leader in Baler, because they are struggling in their two areas, because of the lack of missionaries that companionship are in the mission, so we got to go help them out.  It was super fun and I learned a TON from our district leader Elder Robinson.

We had 3 investigators at church on Sunday, and one of them brought a friend that we will be a new investigator this week, which is AWESOME!!! We are really using the members right now a lot, and they are a HUGE help to us, giving referrals, and working with us sometimes! This is the effect of a diligent and willing to help member=new investigators=baptism, and that means they have the thing they need to enter the kingdom of God.  But it all starts with that referral, or that friend a member has, and to show enough love for that friend, and to give them the opportunity to listen to a message that could change their lives on into eternity.

One other thing that I loved from the letter from President Johnson this week he said, “The Greatest and Most Profound of all of God’s Blessings is the Savior Jesus Christ.”  Then he wrote John 3:16, and it is so TRUE!!!  Christ gave his life so we can change our lives!!  This is THE greatest blessing we could ever receive… 

Thanks for all the letters and prayers!!

Good luck in all you do!!!

LOVE YA’LL!!!

Elder Alldredge

Sister Janice's Baptism!

Sister Janice

Trike Selfie! Pack on the whole district!

White sand beach for P-Day!

Volleyball!

Member missionaries!

This week we had a BAPTISM!!! Sister Janice Mirontos was baptized and it was a great day!! She was super happy and we were all just excited for her and her family.  The baptism was super interesting because of the Filipino culture here, sometimes you just gotta laugh and realize that hey… I’m in the Philippines, so it’s funnyJ  Her kids all came to the baptism, so hopefully her oldest son will gain that desire as well, we are teaching him too when he is there, so hopefully we can help him realize how important this is for his life.  Also Nanay Verginia was able to come and see the baptism, because she is the aunt of Sister Janice.  She loved the whole thing and is super excited for her baptism in 3 weeks! She was not able to come to church yesterday because she was hurting bad Sunday morning so next week na lang, but it’s all good she is excited!  So that is the biggest and most exciting thing that happened by far this week here in Maria, but it’s been a pretty good week, and it just FLEW by so fast! Sometimes idk how it happens so fast but here I am emailing once againJ

So this week I have strengthened my love for Personal study!  I cherish that hour, and now I do my best to be ready by 7:50 so that I can have a longer personal study, it’s amazing that even the “dreaded Isaiah chapters” can somehow come alive if you really study hard, and use everything that we have to understand everything that is there!  Also I realized the importance of preparing for questions and stuff like that for investigators.  Even though I am preparing for investigators better than ever before in my personal study, I am getting more out of it as well! It’s super weird how that works, but it’s awesomeJ

Ok so this week was not super interesting, and other than the fact that this morning we went on a District Activity to a WHITE SAND BEACHJ Yes we played volleyball on the white sand, we also played football, and drank coconut drinks, and chilled in the bamboo hut next to the beach… life is awesome!! And seriously nature is so beautiful!!! I LOVE IT!!! Don’t worry I’ll send you some pictures ;)

Thanks for all the pictures and emails!!

LOVE YA’LL!!! 

Hope you had a great week!!

Elder Alldredge

Hello, this week has been an amazing week with a TON of insanely AWESOME things that happened!!!  So first off Sister Janice passed her Baptismal Interview, so she will be baptized on Saturday the 22^nd, we are so excited for her, and she is super excited too!!  Our District Leader, Elder Robinson told me after the interview about something that sister Janice said that was the coolest thing ever!  So apparently he asked about her feelings about the Book of Mormon, because she is like past Helaman in the BoM. Then she told him that she has read so much because she has prayed about it and she knows that it is the word of God, and that it is all true.  It is super cool to hear about when your investigator really is letting everything sink in, especially when she is acting on her own, to really come to know that this is true, I am so thankful for the investigators that are willing to act!!!

This week we also had our first interviews with President Johnson.  It was a super cool experience for me, and I learned so much from him!!  He is such a fun President, and just easy to talk to so I LOVE THAT!!!  He committed me as the trainer to do ALL I can to improve the work in our area.  Then he asked if I was willing to work myself to deathJ  So of course I said “YES!!!” and now I am just doing the best I can to fulfill that promise, and I LOVE the feeling that I get coming home after a packed day of just plain missionary work!!

So when President came up to do interviews, the AP’s and Sister Johnson came up too, so we basically had a mini Zone Conference in Baler…  For only 6 of us missionaries, we had the AP’s give us workshops and training, it was GREAT!!!  So one of the AP’s was assigned in Maria before so they got to come and work in our area!  I seriously love working with experienced missionaries, because there is just SO MUCH TO LEARN!! 

Also this week I was reaffirmed to the Power of Prayer.  It is the best way to get help from heaven, we MUST ask or we aren’t gonna get what we want, so I love that and never ever forget to use prayer in everything!!

This week was the death of my journalJ I filled up the entire thing to the brim!! Its crazy to think that I’ve been out that long to fill up a whole journal, but I did it!!!

I hope ya’ll have a great week!!

Don’t forget to smile and just to improve every dayJJJJJJJ

Thanks for the emails and prayers!!!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

We liked the cheetah/jungle chairs

Exchanges with the AP's at the Devera house

This week was a stellar week highlighted with Zone Conference, President Johnson, and church on Sunday.  So Zone Conference is always such a fun time!  All of us in the Baler Zone went down in a members car, so that was niceJ Then we stayed the night at some Elder’s house in Cabanatuan, and went to Zone Conference the next morning.  So we got there and they started with handshakes with the new mission president.  So usually I go play the piano and after about 2-3 songs everyone is done shaking hands with President, but not with President Johnson, hahahaa I seriously played over 10 hymns before he finishedJ He is hilarious and was making all the missionaries laugh and it was so different!!  But anyways I am super excited about President Johnson!! He is from Seattle area, he served a mission in Manila, Philippines, he is 66 years old, but he has the energy of a person a lot younger;) It’s awesome!!!

On Sunday me and my companion experienced a HUGE Miracle!!! It was at church, and my companion had finished his talk, and I stood up to talk, and my talk was going ok, and then after about 2-3 minutes we had 3 investigators walk in the door!! I couldn't help but just smile so big, because I LOVE THAT FEELING!!! It is seriously just pure joy when an investigator decides to come to church, and when they enter in the door, oh I think that might be my very favorite part of missionary work!! After they walked in i don't know what it was but i just kind of felt empowered, like the spirit was there so strong, just drilling me right in the chest, I really didn't follow my plan for my talk very much after that, it was totally all the spirit, and i think that is my first talk in sacrament meeting that that has happened to me... It was an amazing experience!! So the investigators that came to church were Sister Janice who will have her baptismal interview on Saturday, and also her Aunt, Nanay Verginia who is paralyzed on her arm and recovering from a stroke last year. Let me tell you I have seen the physical progress in the 2ish months we have been teaching Nanay Verginia, and now on Sunday she was able to come to church!!! She was even able to climb up the stairs to get to our church, MIRACLE... So now we will continue doing everything that we can to get them ready for their baptisms! They told us yesterday in the lesson that they will keep doing everything to be ready, they are Excited, and so are we!!!

So those are the biggest things that happened this week, and ya I’m just excited right nowJ A couple investigators are progressing, and we are working hard to help this branch out!

One thing that I learned from President Johnson that I thought was super cool!  He taught a way for personal study, in the Book of Mormon a pattern that I really like.

 1.Prayer

 2.Read

3.Write/Ponder

4.Pray

5.Reread

TRY IT!!! It is a super good way to do personal study, and I have really had some solid spiritual experiences from doing it!  But I’m gonna keep doing it cuz I’m not that good at it yet, but ya I like it so far!!

Oh and we played football on the beach last p-dayJ too bad only 2 of us actually knew the rules;) hahaha but they learned pretty quick and it was a blast!!!

Thanks for all the emails, and the prayers!!!

LOVE YA'LL!!!!

Elder Alldredge

 Those pics of us was on the way back from Zone conferrence. haha yes thats elder robinson;) he is hilarious..

 that kid is my favorite kid here in maria!

a view from the door where i personal study on pdays:)

This week has been a solid week, and let me tell you I have learned a ton this week!! Idk what it is with having an anak but I feel like I learn more and more every single weekJ  So nothing super crazy happened this week, but it has just been a good, happy week of missionary work!! So here is 3 things that I learned or relearned over again…

1: All of us have Spiritual Gifts and it is up to us to find out what they are and to use them and develop them in the very best way that we can! 

2: The Spirit REALLY DOES give you the words to say IF we trust in him to do it!! I love this and I have been able to feel the spirit more in the lessons, so I LOVE THAT!!!

3: I still have not figured out why I am seriously SO BLESSED!!! It is insane hearing stories of members and their families and all the things that happen to them in their lives. Lets just say we are blessed to live where we do, and I just hope to never ever take that for granted because it is a HUGE Blessing!!

The Maria Branch had 54 people at Church, and we are getting more attending classes every week! Which is super encouraging!! Because a lot of times the members will just leave after Sacrament meeting, but when they actually attend classes, church is so much better!! So I LOVE the change that I am seeing in the members there;)

One cool story that happened while teaching the Word of Wisdom to Nanay Verginia and sister Janice.  So we taught the lesson and we hadn’t even committed them yet, but Nanay was like “OH ok I get it, well then I should probably stop drinking coffee, and stick to milk and Milo instead!”  Hahah it is pretty cool to see someone just get why these things are important to do, and how it can improve their lives…  Our investigators are so cool!! We are just hoping and praying that they keep improving and progressing towards Baptism!!

Also I gave a workshop and I found a super cool quote from the 4^th Missionary, It said ”Our Greatest Work, Our most important Creation is and ever will you.”  I love this and its so true, when all is said and done it is all about who we become, SO COOLJ

Also I baked cookies again for District Meeting in our oven;) I think we are like the only apartment in the mission that have an oven… ahhaaha

I hope ya'll have a great week!!!

LOVE YA'LL!!!

Elder Alldredge

Ashelle's baptism at the Parang River

Baler - P-Day before transfers

Elder Alldredge and Elder Ismael

Member's beach house in Baler

Elder Alldredge and Elder Ismael

Baler beauty!