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

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!

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 :)

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!

HELLO YA'LL!!!!

Its crazy how fast this week has gone.  I seriously thought I emailed you like yesterday and now I have to do it again:)  Hahahha well this week has bee a GREAT WEEK!!!  We have really been working hard to get our investigators progressing this week and we had some real evidence that our work is paying off!! Terence and Carl Jay both passed their Baptismal Interviews!!! So they will be baptized on March 4th!!! SO PUMPED!!! Hopefully I'm still here to see it...

Yesterday at church we had 5 investigators there.  And the other Vargas Elders had 4, so it was super encouraging to see such a big group of them at church!! I taught the Gospel Essentials class for the investigators, all in Tagalog... BOO YAA:)  But ya we are really trying our best to strengthen this ward, and help these investigators to strengthen their testimony and to be happier in life.  

So I had lots of teaching opportunities this week!  I taught gospel essentials and also I gave the workshop at District Meeting, but I can't believe I am saying this... but teaching is actually more fun than not:)  It is for sure more stressful, but I learn more when I teach and dig into the topic a lot.  So I have enjoyed that!!

So one day this past week it started raining hard about 7:00 at night, and so everything was soaked including us, luckily one of the members let us use an umbrella(yes mom, i forgot to bring my umbrella:) hahaha)  So we were soaked already so of course we played around in the pouring rain for a little while;)  It was so hilarious and fun!!!

So its been a good week, and of course I learned a ton, like always:)  That is the beauty about the mission, we are learning new things EVERYDAY!!! I LOVE IT!!!

We also found a lot of less active members this week, which was awesome!  Even though some of them are now active in the Catholic church, so we will for sure be visiting them again:)  Don't worry they are nice;)

So my week was awesome and i hope yours was too!

Keep being awesome!! And being happy:)  happy living the gospel of jesus christ!!! Its the only real way to true happiness, so why not live it to the fullest?!?

Thanks for all the emails!!!
LOVE YA'LL!!!

Elder Alldredge

After the rain, I was a lot more wet than the picture shows

Mom I was taking a pic of my neatly made bed, then elder Galia ruined it.

My comp controlling the baka :)

KUMUSTA SA INYO LAHAT!?!?!?

This week has been an AWESOME week!!!! Even though we were only able to find one new investigator this week, so that was a bit of a struggle.  But she is really cool!! She is 87 years old, but she is such a nice lady, and she agrees with literally everything we said!!  She has a rough time walking so it will be a struggle to get her to church, but we will do our best!!

So the baptism of Terence and CarlJay is almost here!!!!!  We are so excited for them and they are so excited too! They are like best friends and so it is perfect because they both push each other to read the BoM and pray and go to church!!  

So along with Terence and CarlJay at church, Joanne and Jennifer went to church too!!!! We are so pumped for all of them now!! So last week or so Jennifer told us that she didn't want to be baptized because she would be the only one in her family in a different religion.  But she said she still wanted to listen to the lessons, and go to church, and go to seminary and mutual.  So we were just praying for her to have a change of heart and realize how important this is for her.  And then yesterday in our lesson she told us that she wants to get BAPTIZED!!!!!  AAAHHHHHH!!!! We were so PUMPED!!!  This really is such a miracle, and now we are just helping them to prepare for baptism!!

So the language is coming along.  I now get corrected on literally every mistake that I make in Tagalog...  hahahaha its pretty funny:)  I have my whole kabahay, or us 4 in the house letting me know how to speak grammatically correct, and pronunciation and stuff like that.  They have to correct me SO much;)  But I know that it will for sure help in the long run so its all good!!!

Another good week of smiles!!!

One of my favorite things to do is to see if i can get every single person that drives past on a tricycle to smile... It is actually SUPER FUN!!! So even just smiling or waving usually does it for them...  Sometimes i have to go extreme, like do a backflip or something... no jokelang, i wish:)  but its fun!

So anyways SMILE ALWAYS!!!!
Thank you so much for all of the emails and prayers!!!

Have a fantastice week!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

FHE with the YSA's - Looks like he lost the game!

Cool Bridge!!

Zone Conference lunch - picture from mission website

Basketball with his Kabahay on P-day!  Sent from member

HELLO YA'LL!!!!

So the biggest thing that happened this week was Zone Conference, I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE!!!  It always gets me so Pumped to go and be a better, more obedient, and more effective missionary, Its the best.........:)  Our Mission President is amazing and is truly called of God.  You can tell that in literally everything that he does, so listening to him talk is almost like General Conference... almost:)  But anyways I learned a TON and I am excited to apply those things that he talked about! 

A couple days ago we were talking with one of our investigators Sister Madriaga.  She has been an investigator for over a year and hasn't been baptized only because of her husband, who is "ayaw" or in other words will not allow her to be baptized. She has such a strong and sincere testimony and it amazes me how much she knows about the Book of Mormon and the church, even tho she isn't even a member!!  But her son that is on a mission right now said when he gets back, she will get baptized! So thats so cool!  But anyways sister madriaga told us that we could teach her kids!!  So we taught her 3 daughters that are 9, 12, and 13.  And they are basically golden investigators!  They go to church basically every week, and have been going for a while, so we are so excited for them!  AAAAAHHHH They are the BEST!!!  And I know that one day they will all be united as members of the church, that is going to be such a happy day for the Madriaga family!!  

This week our kabahay, or the missionaries in our house started doing the 7 minute workout in the morning, and it is so FUN!!!  We just laugh and workout and maybe throw in some dance moves every once in a while;)  Especially Elder Galia, he has got the moves!! And they are all hilarious!!! So we have such a good time!

Also yesterday Jennifer, our investigator told us she didn't want to be baptized, because she didn't want to be the only one in her family in a different religion.  But she still wants us to teach her, she still wants to go to seminary, and mutual, and church but not be baptized.  So this was rough news to us!  But I know that the day will come!!! She knows that this is the true church, and has a strong testimony of it! So I know that she will one day be baptized!!

Also yesterday I ate chicken feet, and they were MASARAP TALAGA!!! They tasted just like a chicken!! Weird huh?!? Chicken feet tasting like a chicken;)  But anyways I thought you would like to know that they are really good!!!

So this week was an awesome week!!

I am learning a lot, getting better at Tagalog, and smiling a whole lot!!!

So you too!!! Keep smiling!! It is always the way to go!

Thanks for all the prayers and emails!!

LOVE, Elder Alldredge

CHICKEN FEET!