15 July 2013

Magandang araw po!

Kamusta!

Banaue Rice Terraces

Well this will be rather short because earlier, we went to Banaue rice terraces and so we didn't get back until later in the afternoon. It is such a beautiful area and really just amazing to think that it was all man made over 2000 years ago. I think the Batad rice terraces are a little better though. And its cool factor is higher because we actually walked through the rice terraces on the mountainside rather than take pictures off the highway. 

It has been another week of exercising faith and trying to find new investigators. We are still in dire need of a bigger investigator pool. But, with the Lord's help and exercising faith, nothing is impossible. Our greatest success this week was with the Eneja family. They are sealed in the temple and brother is an RM, but he works in Cebu and only comes home for one week every 6 months so we haven't met him yet. We found them by tracting and when we walked by, we saw sister just arriving home so we said hello and she replied "hello Elders". That is when we found out she was a member and even though they have been sealed, they have been inactive for over 6 years. They have 3 kids-10, 8, and 5 years old. We discovered that neither the 10 or 8 year old haven't been baptized yet, so we started making more frequent visits and started teaching them. We told the branch president about them and he volunteered to come with us to teach and invite them to church. Sister agreed because she said she had some things to discuss with President in private in his office. Sure enough, they came to church as a family (minus brother who is in Cebu), and we saw sister walking out of President's office with a receipt for having ordered a Liahona subscription, Scriptures, and garments through online store. When we taught them later that day, we committed the 10 and 8 year old (even though she technically isn't a convert) to baptism for next month, and they agreed very excitedly. We reminded them that it was a family event, and they all needed to help each other come to church every week, live Word of Wisdom, and read scriptures and pray. It was funny because when we briefly explained the Word of Wisdom, the kids immediately tattle tailed on their mom and her cheeks turned bright red and started laughing. Kids don't know how to lie! Haha.

Yesterday I also got to give a talk (yet again....) in Sacrament meeting, so I decided to be a little more bold and basically review Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from April 2012, "Merciful Obtain Mercy". I think it has become one of my favorites now because it is a problem that is ever so present. 

That will be it for now! Salamat po para sa lahat, and

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Nay