Its been a solid week like always, especially because we had a BAPTISM!!!! Sister Jessica was baptized on Saturday and it was a super spiritual baptism.  She was super ready, so I was able to baptize her.  Then she came to church on Sunday and received the Holy Ghost. We are now trying to work with her and her husband to gain a big desire to go to the temple in a year, it really is the goal of the branch, but I feel like now I can see more of the big picture in missionary work, I feel like before I was just trying to help everyone to be baptized. But now I know that they need that enduring Faith in Jesus Christ, they need to Repent, and one thing that President Johnson is really stressing with us is that they need to be having personal revelatory experiences in their studies of the Book of Mormon, they need to be converted to that, to understand why it is important, and be reading everyday.  Just like all of us need to be doing, its crazy how big of a difference you can see in an investigator, when they are truly reading the Book of Momon.  I have truly come to love the Book of Mormon here on the mission.  I look forward to Personal Study every day, and its never long enough.  So thats my challenge to everyone, make this hour or 30 minutes or 15 minutes, the very best minutes of your day, study and answer your questions and doubts, and you will see a change in you.  Thats really what this life is about, Change, changing to follow Jesus Christ, to become more like him, through living the gospel and serving everyone around us. Ok so i just realized I just went on a big rant about the Book of Mormon, lets just say I know that book is true and there is converting power from reading and praying about it.

We had exchanges in Kalikid this week, and I was able to work with my ka-bahay Elder Galia, we were seriously laughing the whole time, telling stories about when we were ka-bahay, he is such a funny Elder, but its crazy to see how much we have both changed in over 6 months. 

Other than that we are really having some success in finding and having progressing investigators in our area, we found 6 this week, and 9 the week before.  President Johnson has really been teaching us how to do this affectively and its working, our whole zone really is finding a TON of investigators these past couple of weeks, and I know that the success is coming to the Bongaler Zone.  

Thanks for all the emails and prayers!!!

Love ya'll!!!

Elder Alldredge

Jessica Pascua - New member!

Great support for Jessica!

We had a little Halloween Party and 2 investigators came!

Time goes way too fast, and I am trying to slow it down but i think its still speeding up!!!!! 

On Sunday during the closing hymn I found out that if you want a super super spiritual experience, you should have a primary kid play the piano in sacrament meeting.  And if it works out like it did in our Branch on Sunday you just might cry, not a joke, the little 10 year old girl played it SUPER SLOW, but the spirit was SO STRONG!!! And if you want to make it better sing #86 How Great Thou Art.  It was seriously an amazing experience, thinking about all the words and really how GREAT our God is, I love him and that closing hymn strengthened that testimony for sure!!

We were walking through our area and we visited a less active member, we talked to him for a bit and planned another time that we could come back and share with him.  Then we asked him if he knew of any other members that were nearby.  He pointed further down the dirt path into a place we had never gone before, so lets just say we were PUMPED!!! So we left and went and visited the Estigoy family, who has been members since the 1990's sometime, but are less active and we are now helping them out to come back to church, hopefully next week!  Then we left and then without even saying anything we both turned down a different dirt path.  Then Elder Sauro my companion asked me "Why are on this path?"  so i had no idea, and then he said "well maybe there is a purpose that we turned down here" then we came to the very first small cement house and we saw some little kids playing inside with their mom.  So we Introduced ourselves and they were seriously so nice!! Then turns out one of them was actually the best friend and referral of one YSA's a couple days earlier!! So we taught 4 of them there, and they are such a nice family, even though the kids are CRAZY:) haha But I know there was a purpose for randomly turning down that path, I know that we were led there, because that family is ready to hear the gospel, one of them said she will be coming to church next sunday and hopefully the rest of them too!! There's the Miracle of the week:) Miracles are AWESOME!!!

We also had ZOne Conference on Friday and I just love learning anything from President Johnson.  He seriously BLEW MY MIND!!! Sometimes I feel like there is too much to learn at those conferences, and I can never get it all in my notes or brain;)  But lets just say I got a lot of places that I can improve, its just a work in progress.  But I'm sure I will learn a TON more this week with exchanges with the AP's and a 2 hour talk with President Johnson about the Bongaler Zone.  Super stoked for that!

Your emails make me happy, thanks for that!

Ya'll are the very best, have a Fantastic week!!!

LOVE YA'LL!!!
Elder Alldredge

Cool house!  Kyle's Camera is still broke so these are Elder Sauro's pictures

YSA's

Working with YSA's

We had a miracle this week with one of our investigators. She was an OYM because we were asking her about her next door neighbor who we were planning on teaching. So we asked if we could share with her and we set up an appointment. We came back and shared to her 2 times, the lessons were solid but nothing super special, we felt she had potential, but we knew there needed to be something more. She told us about a really good friend she had that is active, so the next lesson we brought her with us and it really changed the whole picture, she seemed to listen better, and she was more into the lesson. She accepted the BGD and then her friend said she would come pick her up on Sunday, which she did and Vanessa went to church. She had a really good time, and it was so much better to have her friend showing her around instead of the missionaries. I now have a way better understanding for why lesson staffing is important. It increased my knowledge and we will continue to strive to use that with ALL our investigators. 

We also had exchanges with my old district leader in Baler who I am now his ZL haha its so weird, but anyways it was super fun!!! So they drove like 3 hours to do this and it was just downpouring but they said we didn't come all this way to not work, so we went out:) Within about 15 seconds... maybe... we were drenched but we kept going of course it was super fun, we taught lots of lessons in the beautiful Philippines rain:)

So we just got back from Tarlac thats why we are so late to email, because my companion took the English test.  So I'm sorry for another short email... I'm getting worse and I am so sorry mom:):):):):):):):)

But I read an article that will change the rest of my mission... it is the one Breanna sent me last week, I read it twice this morning on the bus, it is called the "miracle of a mission" by Jefferey R. Holland and its amazing!!! I know that this time is a time for missionaries to give it all, and thats what I am trying to do, and will keep working at doing better at that, because this time isn't even mine, and its only two years, but it is two years that I will think about and tell stories of for eternities.  I love my mission.  I love the Philippines, and the Filipinos, its the best place ever to go on a mission:) It really is more fun in the Philippines:)  I would recommend it to anyone...

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

Elder Alldredge

It is so hard to beat a week where you get to hear all the apostles speak, and lets just say I LOVED it so much!! This really is a "missionaries birthday or christmas" its such an amazing experience every time!!!  I will never ever take General Conference for granted again, there is WAY too much to learn!! I know know know that questions are answered, that prayers are answered, and inspiration is given to everyone who wants it, seeks for it, and is worthy of it.  I seriously learned so much and I could go on and on about the things I learned but if i were to sum up what i learned in maybe a sentence i would say, that people aren't perfect, not even the apostles, not even the prophet, but through steady living of the gospel, letting our light shine to others and looking for and finding the light in others as well, we can be happy, we can have true joy, and i love that truth!!  

There was also a ton of quotes and other things, but the one quote that stuck out to me a ton, and probably a lot of people was "Love without Service, is like Faith without Works"  That is something I feel like I need to work on and it opened my eyes, I always teach about faith without works is dead so we need to act, and that added part just added to my testimony and knowledge of service.  Also in Bonnie L Oscarson's talk I love this, and I believe everything she said with all my heart, the first question should be who can I help or lift up in this meeting, or wherever we are, if we are looking with eyes as Christ would, we would find that ONE who really needs a friend, or really needs a compliment, or even just someone to pay attention to them, such a solid talk too!! 

We worked hard this week and are really trying to improve our area, we only had 1 investigator come to General Conference because it was in another city, but we are super excited for all of our investigators!  Here in Palayan the members are super nice and we are now trying to work with them as much as possible to really get it going here... I still havent figured out this whole leader thing, but my companion is awesome and super patient with me to learn.  

Just so you know, ya'll are the best!!

i love reading all your emails, and i leave emails pumped every time:)

Thanks for the prayers!!

Love ya'll!!!

Elder Alldredge

So this week was CRAZY week and a TON of things happened... I am now in a different area, with a different companion and a totally different assignment, with a lot more responsibility:)  I am in Palayan City Branch, and it is super awesome here!!! My companion is Elder Sauro and he is from Samar, Philippines.  He is super fun and I LOVE it here in Palayan.  It is all hills, like up and down and up and down, over and over all through the streets, its a pretty good leg workout;)  

This week we experienced a lot of success in finding, we found 11 people, and 10/11 New Investigators were from Referrals, with the new way that President Johnson taught us to ask for referrals, and let me tell you it is amazing!!  I know that it was totally inspired, because the new investigators really are ready, or at least prepared to a point where they can choose what they want to accept.  And my new companion has taught me a bunch about teaching like that, and I have already learned so much from him!

So for one example of the referrals becoming investigators.  We recieved a referral for Edward Onia, so we were trying to find his house, and we thought it was this one house, and the guy told us that they don't entertain people people like us, and we thought that was Edward, but we decided to try the house next door, and we asked and apparently Edwards house was inthe back of that other guys house, so we go there and meet this super awesome family, and they let us right in and we taught a super solid lesson!! Thats only one example, but its a good time, i love teaching families, it just feels so much better and you can literally see these people becoming an eternal family, now thats the best!!

So I was able to play basketball for the first time in over 6 months.  Because we aren't close to the beach anymore, so we can't play beach volleyball or football;)  But it was super fun!!!

Well I love you all and thank you so much for het emsil!!!

Elder Alldredge

This week was such an awesome week!!  We had Zone Conference in Cabanatuan so we left on Monday to go.  Elder Shmutz was there and he spoke to us a lot which was amazing!  He is in the Area Presidency and he is the one that spoke in last years October General Conference.  The Spirit was so strong in that meeting as he taught us how to better recognize and follow Spiritual promptings, and a lot of other things too.  He is an amazing man of God, and you could feel the power in everything that he said.  But I also realized more that the General Authorities are still people, they still make mistakes, they still have weaknesses, but they have just learned and are continuing to learn from everything that happens to them.  I also heard about President Hinckley that he would never walk away from talking to someone until he learned something new, about anything.  Because he just loved to learn and he knew that everyone had something amazing to share.  some food for thought lang:)

Also I had one of the most spiritual lessons of my whole mission this week.  So we went back to visit Mylene, the one i talked about last week, but she wasn't there, so we walked away and as it started to rain, Mylene was running toward her house, so she told us to wait there and she would come back and we would go to her friends house.  So we went there and started teaching Mylene and her friend Nanay Vergie.  So we shared the whole Restoration, and it was a solid lesson, and she accepted to be baptized, and then I asked again if they had any questions, then Nanay Vergie said "Will I see and know who my daughter is in the next life?" She then went on to explain that about 2 years ago her 22 year old daughter had passed away, and that she had been told that she would see her again but that she wouldn't even recognize her in the next life, and this was really troubling her.  Then we testified with all of our hearts that she would see and know her daughter after this life through living the gospel.  She then put her face in her shirt and was crying for a couple minutes, the Spirit was so strong and then she thanked us so much and asked when we could come back.  I know we were led to her so she could feel the spirit and come to know the truth, i am so excited to share the whole Plan of Salvation to her tomorrow.  Because it is all so true and I know that!

So its been a great week, we were also fed at Costa which is the nicest restaurant on the beach by the Senior couple.  It was awesome!!

I will be sending pictures today, sorry it took so long:)

Thank you all for being awesome, I LOVE YA'LL!!!

Have a good one,

Elder Alldredge

P Day trip

Hey so this week has been a solid week, we had a lot of fun and were able to work quite a bit.  On Sunday we had a miracle that hasn't born fruit yet but it for sure will!!! so i'll tell ya about it.... So we OYM'd this old guy and he was pretty open and said we could come back next time and teach him, so we went back on Saturday to find him drunk laying in his hammock.  So after talking to him for a little while(because sometimes drunk people are fun to talk to:) also you can get a ton of information on people that might be interested in listening to our message, yes we were using that drunk guy to his best potential;) then he told us that someone had asked him for the pamphlet that we gave him, but he didn't know who, cuz he was drunk.  So we left walked about 100 steps and then saw a little path going to the coconut forest, so we felt like we should try it.  So we did and we met Sister Mylene and she was the one who asked for the pamphlet!! So literally we were guided by the Spirit DIRECTLY where we needed to go.  Now we haven't been able to teach her yet, because we didn't have priesthood, but she has read the whole thing now and we will go and teach her in the next couple days.  I LOVE MIRACLES!!!

Other than that we talked to a lot of people, and have a TON of return appointments that we can hopefully get going this week.  We did exchanges with the Baler Elders to get my companion more ready to lead the area, because I might be transferring next week, but i'm not sure yet...  

I have also added something to my personal study that i absolutely LOVE to do!!! I take questions, either my own, my investigators, or even questions that I know is true but looking for scriptural evidence backing it up (ex:What scriptures help us to know that Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are separate?) Then you look up scriptures and you write down everything, feelings, impressions, and awesome scriptures that have really just built my faith.  I believe that this is a very effective way to build our testimony, and it can work with any question we have!! We just have to study it out in our mind and of course with the scriptures and prayer. 

Other than that, I am so sorry that I haven't send very many pictures lately, and that is because I need to buy another USB so my camera doesn't get viruses, its a problem, in the Philippines:)  So we are leaving for Cabanatuan later today so hopefully I can get one there and send a bunch next week.  

In Cabanatuan Elder Shmutz of the Area Presidency will be visiting our Zone Conference, so I'm super excited!! I am also playing the piano piece for the choir and its hard, so if you could prayers are a big help:)
LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Thanks so much for the emails and prayers!!

Elder Alldredge