Pictures from the Baptism

Heaven on Earth

This last week had to have been the best week of my whole life. Elder Pati-on and I had the opportunity to baptize the investigators of the Sister missionaries in our Branch. We held it at the ocean and on the beach and it was the most spiritual and joyful experience. The joy that you could see on the investigators faces was amazing and the spirit was so powerful. It is a day and a moment that I will never forget.

I know that this is the true church and that living the gospel brings joy. I have seen that in my life and the life of others. Let us remember what Christ did for us. Because of his atonement we all have another chance to return back to Heavenly Father and we can over come any challenge that we face. Life is meant to challenge us and give us trials because that is how we grow and learn and become stronger. Don't see your trials as trials but see them as future blessings.

I love you all, and thank you all for everything.

Elder Lewis

Pictures

Baptism Service, Sister Lhea

Dinner with the Rafanan family

Spider as big as my hand that came into the apartment

​Family Home Evening with the Rafanan Family

Easter

Kumusta po kayo? This last week was great. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week and it was so much fun. I got to spend all of Wednesday in Cabugao and it was a lot of fun. This week we also found some new investigators with a lot of potential. We didn't get to work with the members as much as we wanted but we have this week to do all the work with members we can.

One of the investigators is a 15 year old boy named Sunny and the other is a man just over thirty that is a professional painter for the city of Sinait. They are both very receptive and so we can't wait to get to teach them.

Not a whole lot else happened this week it was just a pretty average week. However this Sunday is Easter. Easter is such an amazing holiday because it is all about the resurrection of Christ and his atonement. One of my favorite videos the church has put out is about the Resurrection of Christ. It is called Because of Him. So I would like to extend a challenge to all of you, I want you all to watch that video and think deeply about what the atonement means to you. To me it means "pagbabago" or "changing" every second of every day we have the opportunity to change our selves and make our selves better. I know that the only way back to our Heavenly Father is by using the Atonement of Christ to repent and become better. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo Amen.

Love,

Elder Lewis

Exchanges

Out finding on exchanges

Walking across a dam

Out finding on exchanges

We walked across a dam on exchanges

Hard Work Pays Off

So over the last few weeks it seemed like all the hard work we had been putting in on getting the less active members to come back to church wasn't getting anywhere. Yesterday however we saw the payoff of our work. We had many less active members come to church, not all of them came so we still have work to do and we hope we can get them to come back again next Sunday.

We had quite the amount of times to work with members this week and it was so much fun. Saturday we had this thing called One Day Mission where a lot of members for the whole day do missionary work. For the entire day we got to be out with the members. The members were a huge help and we got more lessons done that day because of them.

Last week we also had Zone Conference so we got to hear from President and Sister Andrada as well as the Assistants to the President. It was very helpful and the advice and training they gave us showed us some better ways to improve out area and make our area very strong in the work. On the way home we were on a bus so full of people that the whole middle aisle was full of people standing with us missionaries pushed up against the door. It was a blast.

The thing I learned most this week was that when life becomes the most difficult for us then we have to push harder than ever to ensure our victory. I know that if we persevere and endure to the end we will over come all of our trials. Hold onto the iron rod.

Elder Lewis

Pictures from Sister Nancy in the Sinait Branch

Writing a Happy Birthday message for Sister Andrada

One Day Mission with the Members

Ingat ka

I Love the Members

So this last week has been really good. We had many opportunities to work with the members and it was amazing. Having members with us in the lessons made it so much nicer. We have really been focusing on less active members and some of them came back to church on Sunday, it was so amazing to see them. At first we were really wondering if they were going to be there and the joy I had when I saw them was napakamaganda.

This week we were invited over to the Branch President's house for dinner and it was a lot of fun, we got to be with him, his wife and his daughter. They are an awesome family.

I have learned a lot this week about patience and seeing things from other people's perspectives. The beginning of the week we had plans with members and then the members would text us back and when they did it was at a time when we were no longer able to work with them because we were in a different city for a meeting. I was getting really frustrated, eventually we got to work with them and we were talking to them and they had been busy with work and family. I really learned that we just need to go with the flow of things and even if it gets hard we just have to press on.

Mahal ko kayo

Elder Lewis

On P-Day We Went to the Zoo

Guwapo siya

The animals really like the camera.

The animals really like the camera

Tiger Iang

Watch out Aidan. The seals are coming soon. 

We went to the zoo on P-Day