Happy Thanksgiving

This was a great week!  It started off extremely spiritual with the meetings with the new missionaries and then we were able to get some great work done.  Being an AP is a great opportunity.  I have very humbly prayed and asked for divine help as I try to do what I feel so inadequate at being able to do by myself.  It is so great being with three other missionaries that have the same desire to work and to see the blessing this is in people's life as I do.  I am so excited to watch the work in this ward!

This week is going to be a pretty busy one for us.  We have exchanges coming up with Bacolod North, Bacolod South, and the Bago zone leaders.  I am excited and know that we will have another successful week with many more miracles.  We have a great investigator named Sister Nieva.  She is a perfect example of the rich and the learned.  She truly has been so prepared by the Lord to accept this gospel.  She is very excited and is extremely in tune with the spirit.

I was really hoping to have great news about the football game, but it's okay.  I told Elder Doane earlier today that no matter what happened with the game, I wouldn't be more proud than I was the day that Kody told me he was going on a mission and nothing would stop him from serving.

I want to share an experience that I had a couple of days ago.  I was really trying to figure out what I have gained from my mission that has changed my life.  That sounds weird, because every week I share experiences that have changed my life here.  But, this was more like what has really changed me.  I thought about it for a couple of days actually and I just barely received my answer--actually during emailing you!  I now know that this gospel is true.  Before it was just something that I felt or something that I "hoped" to be true because I didn't have a lot of other things to go on.  I said I knew and I used that when I bore testimony because in my limited knowledge, I really thought I did know.  But now I KNOW it is true.  I know it, not just feel it.  I hope I never lose it, because I am more genuinely more happy than I have ever been in my life right now.  It sucks being away from you all, but the fact that I wake up every day with a smile on my face is because I am doing the things that bring true happiness.  So, when I get home and start complaining because I don't know what to do, just slap me in the face with this email!

I hope you all  have a great week!  I love you all so much!  Hope you have a good Thanksgiving.

First training as an Assistant to the President

Feeling the effects of no sleep

Elder Peralta and me

The food is always the best part of our meetings

New Assignment

This was a good week.  Yesterday we had 134 people at sacrament meeting in Canlaon.  Much better than the 77 my first Sunday here.  Elder Edem, Elder Bragas, Elder Cudac, and I have truly witnessed miracles in this area.  Together we had 16 investigators at sacrament meeting.  This area would really explode if another companionship was placed here.  The field is white all ready to harvest--we just need the laborers!!!

So here is the news . . . I was assigned as an Assistant to the President today.  Honestly, I have mixed emotions about it.  I am excited because it is a great opportunity, but I am a little sad about some of the changes.  Please pray for me.  I am going to need them!

It is my first day as AP and I am already not going to get a P-day!  I have until noon to do what I need to get done and then we are super busy.  We have 15 new missionaries from Tacloban arriving today and I have to give one of the trainings for them.  I can't believe they are adding missionaries to our mission.  We are already over capacity, but it's all good!  The more, the merrier!  I really am praying that I show up and I see Elder Murdock, but I don't think I am that lucky!

One of the great things that I realized this week as I reflected on my mission is this:  When you look for faults in people, you find them.  As you may have noticed, it has been over a month since I have complained about President Lopez.  I took a long time one day and thought about everything.  I realized that I had started looking for faults in him.  I stopped looking at the things I admired about him when I got here, and started looking for reasons to complain and to do my own thing.   Funny how during that time, it was probably one of the harder parts of my mission.  For the last month I have really tried doing what President Bangerter told me to do.  I'm trying to look for the qualities he has that qualifies him to be such a great mission president.  It actually started about a month ago when Elder Nielson of the Quorum of the Seventy came to visit.  He said that missionaries are assigned to mission presidents, not missions.  I think this can apply to all of us though, no matter what situations we are in.  Looking for the bad in people is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It stands in horrible opposition of it.

On Wednesday we had our zone training with President Lopez.  He showed us a video of what it looks like in Tacloban right now, and within seconds I was bawling.  I cannot believe the destruction over there. I hope all of you know how much I love these people,  I have really grown attached to them.  Somewhere between getting mad at being called "Joe" 24/7 and all the poverty, I have truly fallen in love with these people.  The worst part is that even if you were to visit here, you could never understand by just spending a week with them.  I have never met a kinder people in all my life.  They would bend over backwards just to help a complete stranger who doesn't speak their language and is fresh out of America.  So many times I have seen people who own little more than the shirt on their back take a family into their home because the family lost theirs.  Everyone here believes in Jesus Christ (except the Muslims in Mindanao), even if that faith is a little misguided.  It hurts to know that such good people had to suffer so bad, because they don't deserve it.  But, if there was ever a country that will pull together, it is this country.

Also on a sad note, Brother Contreras, the father of that family that I haven been teaching in Canlaon, the ones I really care about, came to church on Sunday!  Okay, that part isn't sad, but it is kinda sad that the day he comes is my last day in the area.  I guess now is the time I really need to trust in Heavenly Father.

I love you all so much!  Kody is going to bring home a state championship!  I'm telling you, it is meant to be!!!!!!

Post Typhoon Yolanda

I am so glad to hear all of the missionaries are safe.  One of my best friends is serving the Tacloban right now and I have been a little worried about him. I know that the Lord takes care of His missionaries, so I am sure he is fine.

Being in San Carlos for three days was a little crazy.  By the end of it I was fighting to get out and just be outside!  It is amazing how much better it is being out and about working.  Being inside for all those days was just torture for 9 people who are used to being out of the house 10+ hours a day.  We only proslyted two days last week and it had to be the longest week of my mission!  By Friday afternoon, I was ready to tear some heads off!  I am sure all of you can imagine me after 24 hours non-stop with 8 other guys!  All in all, it was fun.  Elder Shaffer, Elder Ellis, Elder Pulsipher and I just pretty much sat on the balcony for three days watching the storm, talking about life, etc.  I was good, but it got me super trunky!  All of these natural disasters are pretty crazy experiences for a kid from St. George.  I mean earthquakes, typhoons, and an active volcano that burps smoke about once a week is a little sketchy for me, but I guess it is all part of the experience!

I sure hope all of you have your 72 hour kits ready.  Why?  Because we were stuck in a house for how many hours?  72!  Hmmm, I think that must be a coincidence!  Seriously, one thing all these things are teaching me is that the prophets are for real.  Two weeks ago, Neil L. Anderson warned all the people he spoke to here that they needed their 72 hours kits.  What more evidence do we need that these men know things that we don't!  Also, all of these things are getting me so excited for the second coming!  It is close, I am just praying I get to see it happen.  If not, I am going to have a front row seat from the Spirit World!!!!!!

Coming back to Canlaon on Saturday was interesting.  We got to our house and it was flooded.  We spent the first three hours just trying to fix up our own house.  After we got all the water out, we went out and visited investigators and members.  The good news is that most of the houses were left intact and not too much damage was done to anything but banana trees. There were a couple of homes that fell over because they were only made of bamboo, but the church was open so they were able to stay there during the storm and nobody was seriously injured.  After that, we both had the impression to go to the church.  We went and the relief society was passing out relief goods, so we helped for a bit.  We kinda felt like we were wasting our times, so I was unsure why we had both felt inspired to go there.  As we were about to leave, six kids showed up and asked to borrow a basketball to play.  Elder Bragas immediately said, "Yes, but first we are doing a devotional."  And, that is the story of Canlaon Branch's first basketball day! What started as a church tour with six little kids turned into over 50+ young and college-aged who showed up.  Honestly, we were unprepared for that many people, but we are going to talk about ways we can improve.  I just thought it was pretty amazing that something unplanned had such a crazy turnout.

Unfortunately, there is nothing cool to update you on--just a super boring week!  I love you all and hope you are all doing well!