Six Months

I hope you had a great Christmas.  Elder Paano and I did the best we could to comfort each other.  Just kidding!  I honestly thought after seeing the family, I would have a hard time focusing on the work and getting rid of the homesick feelings I had about them and my grandma.  However, the Spirit is a wonderful thing and it did just the opposite.  Seeing them actually made me want to go out and work harder.  I saw how good they were doing and how much the Lord has continued to bless them throughout the time I have been here on my mission.  As I reflected on my first six months of my mission, and just my life in general, all I could think of was how luck I am and how much the Lord has blessed me.  I cannot think of anything else I could be doing right now to show my thanks to Him than this.  Even though I am trying to "get even" with my Father in Heaven, I never even seem to get close!!

Elder Paano and I had an even better week than last week as far as tracting hours and teaching appointments go.  We also had three new investigators at church!  However, we didn't find any new investigators this week.  those new ones at church were from last week.  That is for sure something that we need to focus on for this week.  For the next transfer, I want to try and broaden our teaching pool so that we don't continue going to the same less active members or investigators who aren't really progressing.  That was also one of our companion goals.  We are going to continue to try increasing our numbers, but more importantly the quality of our lessons.  I think I may have gotten a little number crazy one day this week and lost sight of making sure we taught good lessons.  Elder Paano and I talked about it and made sure it would be fixed.

Saturday night and Sunday morning were a little tough because I knew Grandma's funeral was going on and that was tough, but I am doing better with it all now.  I know that she is with me whenever she can be.  I will go to my grave proclaiming to be her favorite grandson, so I know if she has to pick who to spend time with, she will pick me!!!!  Sorry to all the other grandkids!!!!!!

I celebrated my six month mark!  Happy 6 Months to you all--we made it!!!! Also, I tried a couple new foods this week.  Eel (yes, the snakey fish thing), frog, and rat (a rice field rat that is clean and very delicious).  I still haven't tried dog, but from what I hear it is the best of all meats!  

It was great to see the family on Christmas.  It seriously gave me the strength I needed to continue going strong.  You are all a great and driving inspiration for me.  I love you all so much!

Cole ate Christmas dinner with the Barrogo family.  One of their sons posted these photos on Facebook.

Tribute to Grandma

Cole was asked to write something about his grandma that could be read at her funeral.  Here is what he wrote:

God saw you getting tired, and a cure was not to be
So He put his arms around you and whispered, "Come to me"
With tearful eyes we watched you and saw you pass away
And although we love you dearly, we could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating, hard working hands at rest
God broke our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best!

I don't know if any poem would better describe our current situation.  God has taken the best.  And because we have a loving Heavenly Father, we know about His great plan for us.  I know that my grandmother is in that "state of peace and happiness" described in Alma 40:12

"And then it shall come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow."

I am also sure she is resting from all her troubles and labors . . . just kidding.  The Grandma I know couldn't "rest".  I am sure she is very busy teaching the gospel, in her loving but forceful way to all those in the spirit world.  I know this because she is one of those "choice spirits" mentioned in Doctrine & Covenants 138:53, who are called to continue the preaching of the gospel in the next life.

Words cannot express how I feel about my Grandma, so I won't try.  But the Grandma I am choosing to remember is the one who would threaten my football coaches if I didn't get the ball enough!  The one who never missed one of my sporting events, and the one that would give up anything to protect the ones she loved.  I hope and pray that we can all learn from the example of the Angel that our Heavenly Father blessed us with.  I love you Grandma.

Merry Christmas-Almost!

Merry Christmas!  What a week!  This week by far was the best week of my mission! We went out and we worked hard!  Despite our lack of tracting hours (because of studies), we still went and got the most work I have ever done in a week!  As you can see by my use of exclamation points, I am still pretty excited about it.  We also got to see the fruits of our labors as we had six investigators at Sacrament Meeting yesterday. We also had 16 less active members.  I know that it may be because everyone seems to be a little more religious during this time of year, but I can hope that it continues!  However, we only had 2/17 recent converts at church.  That continues to frustrate me pretty bad, but o-well.  Our only job is to invite and do all we can to help them grow in faith.  The choice still resides with them. To be completely honest, and I am not sure if this is good to say, but the most frustrating thing to me now is agency.  I know it is a great gift, but right now it sure is frustrating how some people use it.  Which helps me see how my Heavenly Father feels about me when I don't do what I know is right.

We found a new family to teach.  They have nine people in their family and are all pretty strong Catholics.  The only reason we were able to teach them is because they have a special needs child.  Her name is Mary France, and every time I would pass she would get so excited and yell, "Elder, Elder."  We would then wave to each other.  One day I decided to stop and talk to her mother and some of the others who were hanging out.  We scheduled an appointment for last Saturday night at 8. and didn't get out of there until 9:30. They have tons of questions about all sorts of stuff.  I have a great feeling about this family.  I pray every single prayer for them.  I really want to baptize a family.  I am kinda getting tired of baptizing little kids who won't come to church.  I don't think it will be very easy, because they are very firm Catholics, but I am determined and I know it is the Lord's will for them to get baptized.  I will do anything I can to help them get there.

I just received an email from dad that told me grandma passed away this morning.  I figured it would happen at some time in my mission, but even though I expected it, I wasn't ready for it.  I don't quite know how to describe my feelings right now except how thankful I am for the Plan of Salvation.  I know I am very lucky because it wasn't one of my immediate family members, but I was extremely close to my grandma and I am scared this will make me very homesick.  I am even more scared of how Satan will use this to discourage me.  It seems that as a missionary, Satan uses the littlest things to try and discourage me.

I am very excited to talk to the family tomorrow.  I love you guys and I love Grandma.  She was an unbelievable woman and I know that right now she is with our Heavenly Father.  She is experiencing EXACTLY what is described in Alma 40:11-12.

Zone Conference

We had Zone Conference this week and it was very fun. We got to sleep at the mission home and it was good to be with a bunch of other missionaries. I learned a lot that I will do my best to apply as a trainer, and as a missionary in general.  We had a good week despite only being able to get a little amount of work done because of the studies and conference.

We were able to get our investigator baptized and confirmed this week. It was a great experience and he has a lot of faith. Earlier this week, his brother-in-law (who he is really close to, and who had asked that we start teaching him and his family, was murdered in a hit and run. From what we know, he was hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle home from work. The people in the truck got out and stabbed him until he was dead.  The men in the truck were drunk and they aren't sure if it was purposeful or not. However, I feel so bad.  He had a wife (the sister of our recent convert) and a 2-year old daughter. My heart was broken for the family when I found out. The night before he was killed, he gave us food to take home and eat so we didn't have to cook. They were so interested in eternal families and I know he would have been a great leader in the church. I can only hope and pray that the same desire went with him in the spirit world. This shook up our investigator and his whole family pretty bad. However, he said he never doubted or second-guessed his decision to be baptized.  He said he knows that is what Heavenly Father wants for him and now he has a lot of questions about baptism for the dead, so he can be baptized for his brother-in-law. As for the rest of his family, we are going to try and teach them. We are waiting until the end of this week so things calm down with the funeral and everything.  But it is my hope and prayer that they will still want to listen to our message.

Death seems a little more real to me now.  Just the night before we were talking to this investigator and the next day we found out that he had been murdered.  It was a shock and it made me seriously ponder about the Plan of Salvation.  It made me think about my testimony and if I truly believe what I tell these people I know about the next life.  So, I have studied a lot about the Plan of Salvation in Preach My Gospel and D&C, and prayed a lot to know that it is true.  I don't want to be put in the situation where it has an extra special meaning to an investigator and have any doubts.  The "line upon line and precept upon precept" way of gaining knowledge and a testimony is coming to me right now, so I feel like I am heading in the right direction to get that rock solid testimony of it.  I believe it, but its not good enough for me right now.  I need to know it, so I will be able to testify with power to the people I am teaching.

We had a baptism on  Saturday and a confirmation on Sunday, so that was the highlight of the week.  However, there were only eight people at the baptism--including us and the convert.  Nobody from the bishopric or the ward council was there.  I wasn't too happy and yesterday during our ward council meeting I let them know.  I pretty much told them that we will need more support from the ward if they want us to continue to work as hard as we can to bring new and less active members to church.  I just told them, they will be held responsible for the less active members and recent converts that fall away after the missionaries leave, because we will leave and they will still be here.  I am pretty sure they got the idea.  Elder Paano was pretty shocked at how "forceful" I was.  I wasn't too happy, but the bishop apologized afterwards and told me thank you.  He said he has been trying to explain it to them, but they needed someone else to tell it to them to get the point across.  I am hoping they got  it!

One more week and then we get to talk!  I am so excited.  I need to make sure to work hard, so this week will go by fast.  I am trying my best to become the best missionary I can.  However, there are a lot of areas where I can still improve.  But as promised in Ether 12:27, the Lord will make them strong!  I love you guys!  Take care and be safe!


Here are some pictures that President Lopez posted on Facebook of the Zone Conference:

More Photos

The week started off with Typhoon Pablo.  Yep, I went tracting in a typhoon--beat that!  We went out and worked, but we didn't get a whole lot done.  The people were all preparing for the typhoon, so not too many of them had time to listen to us.  We taught four lessons in eight hours!

We had a good week and were able to get a lot of work done.  Elder Paano and I are doing our best to work as hard as possible and to adopt and adapt to the new rules.  We were a little discouraged when we found out we couldn't attend the Christmas Devotional or the ward Christmas party, but we will obey.  We know that, just as it says in Preach My Gospel, sometimes we won't understand the reasons for the rules until we test them and see the reward.  That is what we will do.

We weren't able to have our baptism this week.  He got sick with a fever all week, so we had to postpone it until this Saturday.  He is very excited to be baptized and even more excited when we told him he would receive the priesthood after he turned 12 at the end of the month.  We taught a great lesson on the priesthood and then we gave him a blessing.  He said he was extremely excited to receive that power from God.

We taught a new family yesterday and they agreed to be baptized.  The mom and dad are both my age, married, and have a baby girl.  It is crazy seeing so many people my age with families already, but that is not uncommon here.

We continue to try finding new people to teach.  OYM-ing (not sure what this is--I will have to ask Cole) is not one of my strongest abilities.  I get really nervous and it is even harder for me to speak Illongo.  However, we will keep practicing and try to become better at it.

This week we have our zone conference on Wednesday.  We get to sleep at the mission home, so that may be fun.  I am kinda expecting a solid helping of new rules, but it is to the point now that I just laugh.  I figure there aren't many more things President Lopez can make "bawal" or forbidden for us.  He is starting to get creative, so I guess we will see!  We have received about 13 pages of new rules in the last couple of weeks.

I love you all as much as ever!

I was worried Cole wouldn't get his Birthday package in time,
but he sent this picture showing he had received it.

The Bandoy family bought him cupcakes.

The Borogo family baked him a cake.

Cole and his new companion, Elder Paano

They celebrated Thanksgiving in the mission home.

Another photo on Thanksgiving that President Lopez posted
on his Facebook page.  It is great to have a "techy" President.

New Trainer/Trainee

Wow--what a week!  We didn't think we would transfer, but President Lopez hadn't made transfers yet when I wrote last week.  We found out Wednesday night that Elder Esteves was transferring and I didn't know I was training until about three hours before I met Elder Panno on Thursday. I like Elder Paano.  He is nice, and to be honest, my goal for my mission is to like all my companions.  I don't want to ever complain about any of them, so if I don't like them, I'm not sure you guys will ever find out until after my mission :)  He is 25 and the first missionary in his family.  He is very very short!  I think we will have fun as long as I am always trying to keep his needs in mind like Elder Estevez did with me!  He has been a missionary for 24 days and I have been here for 3 months.  I am not completely comfortable with Illongo and he doesn't speak it at all.  He speaks Tagalog and a little English.  It is sometimes hard to communicate, but o-well!  He has a strong spirit with him and even though for right now our lessons are half Tagalog and half Illongo, the people we are teaching understand it perfectly and say that we teach very well together.  That is definitely a blessing for our companionship right now.  I have confidence that he will learn the language quickly and if we are able to continue to have this spirit with us, we will do great things here in Handumanan.

So I am not sure Heavenly Father ever wants me to feel comfortable on my mission!  I wasn't comfortable at the MTC, then as I started to get a little bit, I left for the Philippines.  I didn't feel very comfy here at first, then I start to feel comfortable and Elder Estevez transfers and I am put in a leadership position and right back to feeling uncomfortable!  I could really use your prayers for the next three months!  I know your prayers for me with the language are helping.  My language ability has increased in unreal amounts the last three days.  Funny how the Lord qualifies who He calls!

Right before we met our new companions, President Lopez had a short interview with me.  He asked me why I was called to be a trainer.  My reply was, "To be honest President, I was hoping you could tell me.  I can't speak this language very well and I don't feel completely comfortable as a missionary yet."  He responded by saying the reason I was called to be a trainer is one, he felt the inspiration; and two, because I am obedient.  He said the only thing he cares about is obedience because he knows the rest will follow.   He said he knows he can trust me and knows I will teach Elder Panno the importance of obedience.  He said he doesn't care that I can't speak the language or anything else.  So, that is why I'm a trainer!  I thought mom would like to hear that I'm being 100% obedient!  At least to my knowledge I am!!!  I love you guys and cannot wait to talk to you on Christmas! Hope everyone is well!

Still Together

Elder Estevez and I had a good week and we got a lot of work done.  We thought that this could be our last week together, so we wanted to go out with a bang, so to speak.  However, we are both really excited to see the Lord still has more work for us to do here in Handumanan together!

We had a small miracle happen this week.  We had a ward activity a couple of weeks ago and a couple non-members came and also some less-actives.  One less-active teacher brought his friend who is deacon age and a non-member.  Anyways, that non-member is taking the lessons and progressing like crazy.  His less-active friend is becoming quite devoted now that he realizes he is being an example to his friend!  Hopefully we will be able to continue to reactivate him and bring his friend and his family (who have been listening to the last two lessons) into the church.

It was a very busy week.  We taught 45 lessons in total, and we usually only teach around 30-35.  Everything just happened to mesh for us this week.

Sorry I don't have a lot more to write about.  We just worked for the most part and taught and went about our daily lives!  I hope you guys know how much I love you and continue to miss you. I hope you all have a great week!

Mission Tour

The Mission Tour with Elder Evans was a great experience.  It was good to see President and Sister Lopez again.  It was great to feel the spirit and feel the "flood" of personal revelation.  The two things I want to share were my impressions on the Law of Consecration and the "you get what you go for" speech by Elder Evans.

The Law of Consecration really hit me hard, so this week I studied it a lot.  My studies took me to the story of Amulek who literally gave up everything he had and all he had worked for to be Alma's companion.  The amount of faith that would take is unbelievable to me.  When I think about it, yes, I did give up some things to come on a mission, but all the things I put on hold for two years were given to me by God.  I came on my mission thinking I was paying Him back for all the blessings He has given me, but I am still WAYYYYY in debt--He keeps blessing me!  So, it really should have never been a question on whether I was coming on a mission or not!  I have made a resolve that however and wherever I am needed, my future family and I will do whatever Heavenly Father asks of us.  There are just too many blessings to be gained by obeying his commandments.

On the last part of the training by Elder Evans, he very emphatically beated into our minds the "you get what you go for" way of finding investigators.  I feel like that was pretty important!  When a special witness of the Lord says that five different times, I think it is best that I listen.  So, that is what we are going to do.  I have already found four of the biggest houses in our area and I told Elder Estevez that we will talk to those people this week--whether he wants to or not!  I never thought of things the way Elder Evans did.  It really was a great eye opening experience for me.

Another thing that I realized this week is how scared I was of changing.  I told Melissa that I wasn't going to change on my mission, and for the longest time I tried to fight it. The truth is, my mission is changing me, but not in bad ways.  I am the best I have ever been right now.  Without the decision to come on a mission, I don't know what would have happened to me.  I know now that everything I do will be for the good of my family and for our Heavenly Father.  I didn't realize how selfish I was, but when you are put into a situation where you think about other people 24/7, that changes.  I can already say that when I step off that plane at the end of two years, I won't be the same Colton James.  I will be about 100x better.  I cannot explain how thankful I am for this decision I made.  It isn't easy--not a single thing about it is, but it is so worth it.

In case you couldn't tell, this was a great week!  I miss you all like crazy, but right now I'm just living the Law of Consecration and blessings will come!

Always one who wants to be the "center" of attention!

All 100 missionaries in the Bacolod, Philippines Mission

Mission Tour Luncheon photo that President Lopez posted.
Cole is the one standing up (in case you couldn't tell)

Another Week Goes By

Things are going good here.  I am very excited for the upcoming mission tour with Elder Evans from the Seventies.  Elder Esteves and I are doing great.  We are having so much fun together and to be honest, neither of us want transfer day to come!  However, that is part of the job description.  I am so thankful that President Lopez was inspired to put us together.  He is the exact person I needed to help me with my transition phase.

This week we had very good lessons.  A few of our lessons seemed like marathon ones, but they were great opportunities to feel the spirit and some very big concerns were taken care of.  Also, this Sunday we had 10/16 recent converts at church--including all 5 of ours!  That is something our ward has been struggling with (retention of converts), but we are working closely with the leaders to try and solve that issue.

We moved into our new apartment on Saturday.  It is amazing!  After the renovations that Brother Menoza made, the house is definitely a "Celestial" apartment. 

This week I studied about Captain Moroni.  He has always been my favorite scripture hero and now is no different.  He has all the charaacterstics that I hope to possess as a leader and as a man of the priesthood.

Like I said in my last email, that week was rough because we lost two of our investigators.  I was especially close to them because I thought I would finally start fulfilling the blessing President Bangerter gave me when he said I would especially help fathers and older men.  Well, these were both fathers and potential leaders.  When they decided to drop us, Satan took that opportunity to destroy my confidence in just about everything.  I felt incredibly lost and felt like it was pointless to have me be here.  He was winning at that point.  Then at Family Home Evening on Monday night, Elder Esteves answered my prayers with a story he told.  I would like to share it now, and then I will explain what I got from it.

The King and The Rock

Once upon a time there was a mighty king.  This king had the biggeset kingdom in the entire land and his subjects did everything he asked them to do and they did it without delay.  This type of obedience was due to the fact that anyone who disobeyed the king's orders was killed immediately.  Because of that, the kingdom ran smoothly and the king had absolute dominion.  One time the king had to go to a neighboring kingdom.  He called a particular servant into the chamber and gave him an assignment that was to be completed before the king returned in one week's time.  There was a rock in front of the castle.  This rock was much too big for any man to move and everone in the land knew it.  The king commanded this particular servant, who was one of the smaller servants, to push this rock for him and the king would have him account for this task when he returned from his trip.

The king left and the servant got up every morning at dawn and pushed this rock.  The rock would not move, and at night the servant would return to his house very troubled because of his inability to move the rock.  This took place every day for the whole week.  The night before the king was to return, the servant was still pushing this rock and it had not moved.  The servant knew in the morning he would be put to death because he hadn't succeeded in the king's task.

The next morning he went to the castle and reported to the king that he had not moved the rock.  The king replied, "I never told you to move the rock.  All I asked you to do was push it.  Because you pushed it all week, I know I can trust you.  When I leave this kingdom, it will be yours to rule." 
So, because of this servant's obedience, he received the kingdom.

Now what I got out of this story, and what I am slowly realizing, is that Heavenly Father never told me to baptize everyone I see or talk to.  He only asked me to try.  I am here and I am trying.  Being a missioanry is tough and nothing I could have done would have prepared me for this.  However, I know I am a better person right now, and I know the lessons I am learning will help my future family.  If I am every pouty on here, I am sorry.  Satan doesn't give missionaries a break--ever!  Sometimes it is the most discouraging thing ever, but I am trying hard!  I love you guys so much.  Hope you all have a great week!

Four Months Down

We had another good week here in Handumanan.  I went on two companionship exchanges this week.  First, I went to Paglaum to work with Elder Daplin.  For the second one, I went to Aligis to work with Elder Javvillo.  It was a great experience.  I truly look up to Elder Javillo and we had really good chemistry while we were teaching.

A less than awesome part of our week was when we were told one investigator didn't want to continue the lessons.  I took it pretty hard, as I really felt close to this man, and I thought one day he would be a great leader in our church.  That happened on Saturday and it kind of killed the weekend for me.  However, I guess I just need to keep on going.  These times will happen.  It is so funny how fast things change in the mission field--especially with the language.  I am not amazing by any means, but the improvement this week was remarkable.  I made progress in my understanding, for what felt like the first time my whole mission.  Hopefully I will continue to make progress!  I know I have a lot of room to grow as a missionary, but I am gaining confidence every day.

We will be moving into our new apartment this Saturday.  We are very excited and the apartment is amazing with the renovations!

There were a bunch of kids playing soccer at our zone activity.  I started playing with them and afterwards I called them all in and we took a picture.  I just happened to have a bunch of "Plan of Salvation" pamphlets (a spiritual prompting before we left the apartment) and I gave each of them one.  I taught a quick lesson about it, right there in the middle of the soccer field.  It was fun!  We had a prayer and all.  The best part was that I did it all by myself.

Please continue to read your scriptures and pray hard.  That stuff really is important!  I promise you blessings will come if you do this.

Just got finished playing some "basket" on our P-day.
I love it because I can dunk with ease here!

The life of a missionary!  This was after daily planning.
Elder Esteves saw me and got a picture of it.

The Demon Monkey
It didn't like me taking it's picture and tried attacking me!

My first taste of fresh coconut milk--right off the tree!

The Lachica Family
They will go down as one of my favorites!

An Update from Handumanan

This week was another great week for Elder Estevez and me.  It was also fun to work with Elder Felix one day.  I learned a lot from him and I continue to learn a lot from Elder Estevez.  We had another baptism this week.  We were a little worried because we have two progressing investigators and they both need to be married before anything can happen with them.  We were praying for a miracle and one happened--actually 11 of them!  We have 11 new investigators!  It was amazing.  It seemed like we always happened to be at the right place at the right time.

There was a point this week during our companionship study that I was very frustrated with my inability to speak the language well.  Elder Estevez did a good job of comforting me and telling me to just keep trusting in the Lord.  I really felt my faith in the gift of tongues wavering, but after some very earnest prayer I think I have it figured out.  I am not a patient person, and the Lord is always trying to teach me patience,  One day I will learn it, and I am sure everything will go a lot smoother!

Elder Estevez and I will be together for sure until November 20th.  That is when my training will be over and then I don't know what will happen.  Transfers happen every six weeks, so we will just have to wait and see.

I got my first haircut a couple of weeks ago.  The dude was definitely gay, but he made it well known to me that he doesn't like Americans--only black people, so I didn't have anything to worry about.  A 10-minute massage comes with all haircuts in the Philippines, which was really awkward, but I had to keep reminding myself that he doesn't like Americans!  It was a great haircut, and even with the awkwardness, Gems (yes, that is his name) is my new go to hairstylist!!!!

We found a new house for Elder Estevez and I.  President Lopez told us he wanted us to find a new house so it would only be the the two of us.  Our new one is way better than the one now and the owner is even making some renovations.  We should be able to move in at the beginning of November.

The Philippines is a lot like America as far as grocery stores and malls.  I can get everything I need, so all the shopping Melissa and I did was kinda wasted!  I am sure I will use the things we bought though.

Brownouts happen all the time here.  They usually only last an hour or two, but sometimes for the whole day.  The worst part is that when they do happen, we don't have any water.  The typhoons don't affect us here, mainly just in Manilla.  All we get is rain for about three straight days.  Other than that, nothing too serious happens here.

Right now we are in "winter".   This is the coolest time of the year, but it is still really hot.  I am not excited to see what summer is like!  Summer is January through April.  The rainy season is May through August.  Winter is all the months that end in "ber".  They start their Christmas season Septem"ber" 1.  It is a long season--with Christmas music, lights, and everything up during this time.

You might want to be sitting down when you read this . . . . I am 199 lbs. and am the proud new owner of a six-pack!  What's up stud!!!!  Tell Kody to watch out!

I love you guys so much and hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Elder Wilstead

Thirteen Weeks and Counting

Hey Everyone!

Elder Estevez and I were both sick this week.  He is feeling better, but I am still trying to get over it.  I was struggling all week with energy, but we ended up logging the most hours we have yet.  Needless to say, this is a much needed day of rest!

We taught a Jehovah Witness this week.  That was very frustrating.  They use a different bible than us and every time we said something, she had a verse that would disprove it.  She must be taking one of those "how to confound missionary" classes!  I was really frustrated and didn't know what to do, so at the end of the lesson I just said, "I know what we are teaching you is true.  I knew from the moment we walked in that you wouldn't believe a single thing we said, but I promise you, whether in this life or the next, you will know what we said is true.  i hope for your sake you recognize that before it's too late."  She didn't like that, but o-well.  I felt the spirit so strong as I said it, so it's okay!

After that it was a pretty dull week . . . except for the tsunami.  It was up on the main island, but for three straight days it did nothing but rain.  There was another blackout yesterday that lasted for 12 hours.  Gotta love all these trials!  It's okay, because they will only help me grow, right?  The mission is tough, but it is fun.  The days are slowly starting to go by quicker.

I was thinking and praying a lot for you guys this week.  I had a bad feeling that you guys aren't doing good.  Then after one of my prayers I got a feeling that was pretty amazing.  I realized that our Heavenly Father can protect you guys way more than I ever could.  Nothing I can do is better for you all then what I am doing right now.  I don't know if that feeling was wrong or right about you guys not doing good, but please trust the Lord.  He is protecting you guys--He promised me.  That might not make a lot of sense to you, but when I get home I will tell you of one of the greatest experience of my life.  I'm sorry to leave you hanging, but I want to say this face-to-face.

We have four really good progressing investigators right now.  The Lachica family--Sister Nenita and her son, Jordan, are the only non-members.  They are being baptized on October 13.  I love them so much!  I will try sending a photo of me with them.  Anyways, Sister Nenita has had three husbands and they have all died.  She has eight kids and so much faith.  She asked us  how to pay tithing and fast without us even mentioning it.  We are the fifth set of missionaries to teach her.  I truly believe that Elder Esteves and I were foreordained to teach her.  It is so wonderful!  I cannot explain the love I have for the people we are teaching.  it is weird because I don't understand a lot of what is said, but they said they know I care and that I am telling the truth.

Next is Brother Romer.  I love him because he speaks better English than I do.  When I am struggling, he tells me to speak English!  He is a baptist and has tons of questions, but I know he knows it is true.  He is really smart, so he keeps saying he wants to take his time with this--a really smart answer ha ha! I know he will be baptized, but it will be a little bit longer.

Next we have Darlyn Abas.  She is 20 and has a kid.  Her boyfriend and her aren't married.  Try teaching the law of chastity to someone your own age with a kid.  Awkward!  She is struggling to find her birth certificate and can't get baptized until she has that and is married.  She said she will still come to church until she can be baptized.

The people here are awesome.  It is a struggle some days, but it's okay.  It will all be wroth it in the end!  I love you all and pray for you each day.  Be safe, read your scriptures, and pray every day.  The blessings will be more than you can handle, I promise.

Love,

Elder Wilstead

President and Sister Lopez visited Cole's apartment to do an apartment check and personal interviews.  They posted these photos that they took while they were there.

Elder Estevez, Cole, President & Sister Lopez

I'm not sure what to think about this!  Kinda bare, but I guess if 

they keep having the power go out it might be for the best that 

it isn't very full.

First Zone Conference

Well, another week down!  We had some really good days this week where we taught a lot of people and some days that no one was interested in our message.  Those days are so frustrating, but it is okay.  There is always this week.

So, about dearelder.com letters-- I love them!!!  I received one from Mom, Cooper, and Grandma W. this week.  I like them because I can reread them over and over!  So, if people ask, that is the way to go!

Monday was great!  Hearing that you guys and Melissa are doing good makes my whole week go smoother.  I finally got to work out and take a small nap, then we had family home evening with the Goza family.  Fun stuff!

Tuesday there was a brown out all morning--no electricity or water.  It was rough.  I didn't shower and had to dry shave.  The power came back on right after we left to make contacts.  The work was okay that day.

Wednesday was the hottest day ever.  I was melting, no joke!  We taught nine lessons and that was a ton!  We received three new contacts so that was good.  It was the busiest day ever and I was so tired.

Thursday we had a Zone Conference.  I got to see Elder Doane and that was way nice.  Also, when I am around President and Sister Lopez it feels like a home away from home, so that is good.  I saw my first Americans since I got here too!  That was refreshing.  It lasted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then we taught a few lessons and made a lot of street contracts with return appointments for Friday and Saturday.

Friday was a busy one.  We taught a lot of lessons and got some new investigators, except a lot of the people we had made return appointments with weren't interested.  That was frustrating.

Saturday is the worst day of the week.  I hate Saturday mornings because I know Kody is playing and I want to watch him so bad!  Then all of the people we contacted the first two days were uninterested . . . all 12 of them.  I was discouraged and the language was really bad that day.  Just not a good day. Satan is relentless!!!

Sunday I watched a dog get ran over by a car on my way to church.  Then he got up and kept going like a champ!  It was a proud moment for me.  I also almost got attacked by a monkey in a tree . . .yes, a real monkey.  I will try to send a picture next week.  The monkey didn't like the flash too much!   I am also going to try sending a picture that looks like a random street.  I took it from some dude's motorcycle.  That is how we get around here.  It is a trip!

Well, that was my week.  I will tell you about great lessons or spiritual experiences when they come.  I recommend you guys read, "Our Search for Happiness."  It is a great book and a short one.  I loved it.  Love you all tons!

Photos from the Zone Conference--Cole's mission president posted these on his facebook page.

Cole & Elder Estevez

Chop Suey

Malungay Soup

Bacalod Zone

Afritada

Rambutan and fresh bananas

Photos From the Philippines

                This week was a good week!  I am starting to get better at combating the culture and all that comes with it!  So, I will answer your questions from last week and then tell a little about my week.

                A typical day consists of waking up at 6:30 a.m. to do laundry--by hand!  Be thankful for washing machines!  Then personal study from 8 to 9 and companion study from 9 to 11.  Then we prepare things for the day, buy our sudan (what we are eating with rice), and eat lunch.  At about 1, we visit some homes, teach some lessons, and give a lot of blessings to sick people.  That is my favorite part.  I promise some pretty big things, but I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I know they will come to pass based on their faith.  Anyways, we do that until about 8 and then I have language study.  At 9 we have daily planning and then we eat dinner and go to bed around 10:30.  Then we do it all again the next day!

                As for the humidity--ridiculous!  I sweat all day, every day (even at night).  We have fans in the apartment that make it better, but still!  The rain is not a good thing either.  It rains every day and absolutely pours.  It would be awesome except it gets even hotter after the rain.  But I still love the rain, and usually we are soaked when we return to the house.

                The food is still growing on me.  They all eat fish, and it is disgusting so I don't eat that.  I eat a lot of chicken, pork, chorizo and rice. 

                Elder Esteves is a champ!  He is so excited about the work and has 8 months left, but wants to extend longer.  He is very obedient and a great example to me.  He is good at English too, so that is a plus.  He was a convert when he was 14 and was the only member in his family, but since being on his mission, his mom was baptized.  I love him.  It is fun with him!

                The people are the nicest, most humble people ever!  The women work hard and pretty much support their families.  The men in the church work very hard, but the other men here just sit around and do nothing.  It makes me so mad!  I just want to tell them to go to work and support their 8 kids!  Families are really large here!

                I email from a computer cafe and get an hour.  It is a very stressful time and I am trying to work on the most efficient way to get everything done.  I am running out of time, so I can't tell you about some funny experiences now. 

                My week was good.  We got five new investigators.  I also had my first baptism!  It was a great experience.  Other than that, it was a regular week.  I love you and I am doing great!

People who came to support Regine at her baptism

Elder Esteves, Regine Mae Mani & Cole
Cole's First Baptism

I have no idea the story behind this photo.
Hopefully we will hear about it next week!

I will have to find out what this is a photo of.
It might be his apartment, because he said
they had one of the nicer ones in the mission.

Typical home in the Philippines

Cole &  Nolito Jean

Investigator who reminds Cole of Logan

A Week in the Philippines

Monday:  We had FHE with the Resuma family.  It was pretty fun.  The food was gross, but oh well!  I'm learning to just deal with rice and whatever we are eating with it that day!  It got me really excited for doing family home evenings with my family when I have one!

Tuesday:  We had our first district meeting.  Our entire district lives in our apartment--a whopping four people!  Elder Lozada is the district leader.  His companion is Elder Sobrevega and then Elder Esteves and me.

Wednesday:  We didn't get a lot of work in today.  We left the umbrellas at the apartment because it was sunny, then out of nowhere the biggest rainstorm ever came.  The raindrops were the size of ping pong balls.  That continued the entire day.  We were at a member's hut for about two hours. We are teaching a boy named Nolito Jean right now.  He is so awesome.  He is 11 and reminds me so much of Logan--same smile, same personality, same laugh.  He looks like a Filipino version of Logan! Anyways, I get a little homesick when we visit him, but it's alright.  His baptism is next Saturday.

Thursday:  Today was hotter than Hell!  (Not a swear word--I'm referring to the place!) We taught a lot of less active members.  That seems to be all we do, but it's okay.  We need to bring people back to the gospel as much as we need new members.  I also had coconut milk fresh off the tree!

Friday:  This day was pretty much of the same--visiting less active members and such.

Saturday:  More lessons with less active members.  We only have three investigators right now, so not too many actual lessons.  I thought I was going to come on my mission and baptize tons of people, but I feel like it's going to be a lot more bringing people back to the gospel.  Which is just as good I guess.  Most of the time people don't come to church because they need to work so their families can eat. . . it is so hard to watch!

Sunday:  Filipinos aren't very reverent in church!  I don't understand anything that is said, but I am trying so hopefully soon I will start to get something out of the meetings.  Later, I had an interesting experience.  We visited a family who had been inactive for 10 years.  I got the feeling they were waiting for us. I felt that I needed to tell the God loved them, so I did and they were very happy to hear it!!!!

First Email From the Philippines

We received our first email from the Philippines (not counting the one that told us he arrived safely).  Here is a copy of it:

Oh my goodness. This is pretty crazy. It is like nothing I have ever experienced nor will ever experience again in my life. If you guys could see this place you wouldn't believe it. I have yet to be in a house that is bigger than the piano room.  No joke. Most of them don't even have a floor, just dirt. Some of them are literally made out of bamboo. I will never take things for granted when I get back, that is for sure. Our apartment shocked me when I first got here, and it is one of the nicest ones in the whole mission. I have a shower, but it cuts in and out every couple of minutes and the water is cold. Oh well!! It feels good because it's so hot here!

I have already lost a lot of weight. I can see my abs! I am not eating a ton, because I don't really like rice but I am learning. It is tough to speak the language.  I don't understand anyone! It's okay, I will learn. We are so busy all the time and I am tired all the time. It's hard to wake up in the mornings, but I have to do work if I want to help people and that is the goal.

Everywhere I go I hear, hey joe, or CANO (short for americano) but it is fun. Little kids will always run up to me and compare their skin to mine. It is hard for me because I feel so prideful and selfish all the time. These people are so happy with their lives and everything they have and I complain about the stupidest things. I need to be more grateful and forget about myself.

My companion is awesome. He is very helpful and good at English, so he helps me a lot. He is so humble and loves missionary work, so that is good. I lean on him a lot so I am glad that he is so comfortable with everything!

Now for the best part! I have a baptism on Saturday.  A 14 year old girl named Regine Mae Mani!  I'm new, but she said she "has a good feeling about me" and wants me to do it! It is probably because I'm an American, but oh well!!!!

He Made It

Cole made it to the Philippines!  It was great getting to talk to him on the phone when he was waiting at the airport, but the time went by way too quickly.  His mission president is awesome.  He had Cole email us as soon as he got there so we would know he arrived safely.  He also told him to have us "friend" him on facebook.  When I got onto facebook I was excited to see that he had posted photos of Cole at the airport, at dinner, and even with his new companion. Technology is great!

New missionaries arriving at the Bacalod Airport

Dinner at a local restaurant

Lunch in the Mission Home

 Jollibee's spaghetti, palabok and Champ hamburger 

Cole and his new companion/trainer, Elder Estevez

Cole with President and Sister Lopez

Thinking Like a Missionary

Here is part of Cole's letter this week:

"I am loving being a missionary. It's so great. I miss you guys so much, but I don't know if I would rather be anywhere else. I know a mission is exactly where I am supposed to be and I cannot wait for it to start really counting. The language is coming well.  I feel comfortable teaching lessons in it, but if I am doing anything other than that I am completely lost! I seriously cannot wait to get to the Philippines. I already have my favorite lesson to teach.  It is by far the plan of salvation. I know the investigators I practice on now are fake; but still, it is the coolest thing to feel the spirit when I tell them they can live with their families forever. I can't wait to tell people in the Philippines that very same thing and watch how they react to that knowledge."

A Letter Home

Just thought I'd share part of Cole's letter this week.  It is awesome to see the growth in him.

"We had to lay down the law to some of the districts this week.  I was going in there thinking I would give dad a run for his money on the greatest freakouts ever (Snow Canyon talk).  Elder Doane noticed this and decided we needed to pray before going in there. It was a good idea because I was furious, but after the prayer I was calm and knew what had to be said.  I pulled some scriptures out of nowhere.  Ones that I have only read maybe once or twice and I was quoting them word for word.  It was crazy!  It seriously turned out totally different than I thought it would. It actually ended up being very spiritual and very awesome."

"I got a letter from Coach Hosner this week,  It was really cool.  He gave me a great quote.  One that I have shared a bunch of times already.  He said (and I felt like we were in the locker room before a game), 'Forget about yourself. Forget about everything you are leaving behind and all of the things you THINK you miss.  Forget about all of that, because what you miss you don't even know yet.  The first time you see a grown man cry because he feels the spirit, or when you baptize a man and change the lives of his entire family for eternity, or when you use your priesthood to bless the sick and work miracles. Those are the things you will miss, and you don't even know it yet.'  I'm telling you what . . . I don't know of a lot more things that have gotten me more pumped up to do missionary work.  I love that man to death!"

A Day in the MTC

We asked Cole what a typical day at the MTC was like for him.  This was the schedule that he sent:

6:30 a.m.      Wake up/Prepare
7:00 a.m.      Planning with Elder Doane
8:00 a.m.      Breakfast
8:30 a.m.      Gym (His favorite time--no surprise there!)
9:30 a.m.      Personal Study
10:30 a.m.    Additional study
11:00 a.m.    Language study
12:20 p.m.    Lunch
1:00 p.m.      Companion study/Additional study
2:00 p.m.      Classroom instruction
5:00 p.m.      Dinner
5:30 p.m.      Classroom instruction
8:30 p.m.      Meetings
9:30 p.m.      Back to the room
10:30 p.m.    Check our zone's rooms
11:00 p.m.    Go to bed

He said that all of the classroom instruction was spoken completely in Hiligaynon, which makes for some really long days when you don't understand much of what is being said.