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!

KUMUSTA SA INYO LAHAT?!?

So first off I am officially past 6 Months in my Mission!!!  So thats crazy!! I'm really not counting... promise:)  It has been such a GOOD 6 MONTHS!!!  I have really learned so much in these 6 months, I have met so many amazing nice people, I can officially carry on a conversation with just about anyone in Tagalog (but of course thats still a struggle;)  also the spiritual high is an ongoing thing from these 6 months, so thats the BEST!!!

They had the official funeral service for the lady in our ward this week, and I played the piano for the whole thing!  Also our kabahay, or the 4 missionaries in my house, sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" at the funeral, it was a special experience for sure.  And the spirit was very strong as family members got up and bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and Eternal Families.  

A couple days ago we went to one of the Less Actives in our ward, and the dad of one of the girls was there, but he was drunk...  And then Bro Barcelonia, our worker that day said "Come join us in on the lesson!!"   So we ended up teaching this drunk guy with his family;) and they were obviously super embarrassed of their dad.  But we shared a lesson and the spirit was there.  The dad was bawling and saying how much he wanted to change to become a good example to his kids.  He said he wanted to go to church, to change his life.  So we told him we would come back on Sunday.  So yesterday we went there and we taught him The Restoration.  He is actually totally interested!!! It is amazing how that worked out!  I would have never guessed he would become our investigator, especially because he was totally drunk the first time!  But we extended a Baptismal Goal Date and he accepted so now we will keep teaching him, so that was AWESOME!!!

So we had a GREAT week!! But we also have some big plans this week to strengthen Vargas Ward.  I'm PUMPED!!!

Alam ko po na ang ebanghelyo ni JesuCristo ay totoo!!

Mahal ko ang buhay ko bilang representante ni JesuCristo!

Ngiti Palagi!!

MAHAL KO KAYO!!!!

Elder Alldredge

 

Eating lunch after Zone Training

We be ballin in the Philippines!!!!!

The one on the right is one of our investigators, the left is a random kid that always has a HUGE smile and says "Happy Sabbath" literally everyday we walk past!

I thought this goats hair was worthy of a picture :)