It's December!?!

So this past week was pretty great! We had a lot go on, and it was pretty awesome! I learned a lot of great things in my studying and I am falling in love with reading more and more each day :) (that's something I never thought that I would say ^.^)

So we had Sixto's baptism this week! I was SO happy! It was such a great baptism, and the spirit was so strong! Sixto was so incredibly happy, and the testimony that he shared, thought I couldn't understand everything he said, was very powerful! You can just tell that he knows this church is true! And then Sunday, he received the Priesthood! So now he can baptize his kids and he is actually going to be baptizing one of our investigators this coming Saturday! :) Woo! Another Baptism! :D 

I feel so blessed and I am so grateful for each and every one of the baptisms that we've had so far. On Saturday, it will be my 7th baptism :) And what is great is each one of them are quality baptisms! :) 

I also tried making some Alfredo sauce this week... and it definitely didn't taste like Alfredo sauce. Haha. It got super clumpy and I ended up just throwing it away. Fun times :)

I have started to study the Book of Mormon in DEPTH, and just in the first 9 chapters, I have found SO many blessings of following the gospel and following the Commandments.

Always remember to follow the commandments and you will be blessed for it! :) You will Never regret following the rules and being obedient ^.^

Stay True!
Elder Walstad

Leihka, Cris (a recent convert), and Leihka's mom

A crazy week!

So this week was a pretty crazy one! We had a lot of different things happen. I still can't believe it all has happened in just a weeks amount of time. 

So a member of our branch passed away this last week.  I think he had Kidney failure, or a disease in his heart. Either way, he was really suffering, and I think that it was a blessing in disguise, because his suffering was put to an end on Tuesday. His wife, however, decided that she was not going to eat, because she was too sad. I think she has eaten though.. hopefully! Otherwise it's been almost a week since she's eaten. But they had a funeral service yesterday, and it was pretty good. We had a 2 people speak on the Plan of Salvation, and how we will all be able to see our loved ones again after this life. I love how much hope we have from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It brings so much happiness.  Of course, death is sad, but knowing that we will be able to see everyone again after this life... that is such great news! Which I am out here sharing with the people in the Philippines! And I love it! 

We also had Sixto's baptismal interview on saturday, but we hadn't been able to teach him the whole last week.  We went to his house probably 10+ times, and he wasn't there. We thought that we were going to have to postpone his interview, and push his baptismal date 1 week later.. which was really discouraging, because he had been SO excited about his baptism, that it would be sad to have to make him wait longer. But - we did find him, finally! About 25 minutes before his interview was scheduled. So we called our Zone Leaders to hurry up there so that they could interview him. We gave him one last lesson while waiting for the Zone leaders, and it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons that we have had with him.  He told us how grateful he is for the gospel in his life, and how happy he has become.  He then told us a story about how His family was struggling financially, and he wasn't sure what to do, because he needed money to go to church.  He told us that he had been praying, and he even paid tithing the week before, with the little money that he had, and he said that he went outside one day and there was a man standing there, and he asked Sixto if he would want to come work in his Rice field.  Sixto said that he was filled with joy and he knew that the Lord had blessed him because of his faithfulness.  And we discovered that that was the reason he wasn't at his house the last week; because he was helping that man in his Rice field. So really, everything happens for a reason, and there is always a blessing if we look hard enough! 

Sixto passed his interview, and with tears in his eyes, he hugged Elder Abadines and I and told us "Thank you so much for teaching me the truth, and helping me find what I have been looking for." 

I am so grateful for the chance I had to teach Sixto.  He was truly a "golden" investigator, and now that he is being baptized, I am filled with so much joy! He will be such a powerful member of the church :) These moments are what make missionary all worth it! :)

Always remember to recognize the Lords hand in all things, and remember to always turn to the Lord, and he will bless you :) 

Stay True!

Elder Walstad

Another fast week!

Wow! this week flew by! We had a lot happen this week. I would say that the main highlight of this week was the baptisms which we had! President Rahlf attended the service with the AP's, so that was awesome! ... But of course, since he decided to come, almost everything went wrong. Haha. We had one of our speakers bail on us, and then our candidates (Ronalyn and Elaine) were 45 minutes late. And almost no one showed up.  There were more missionaries there then members from our branch. Haha. But it was actually a great service! The spirit was really strong, and it turned out quite successful! Elder Abadines baptized Elaine and I baptized Ronalyn. We are hoping that their family will start to come to church and accept a baptismal invitation! 

I had some great spiritual experiences this week! I experienced the Gift of Tongues in a very real sense. I was able to teach almost exactly what I wanted to say in English 100%! It was pretty amazing, and I was actually surprised that I could remember a lot of the words that I used! But it was definitely the spirit drawing from my "Well of knowledge." I also have been studying in the Jesus The Christ and I have been learning A LOT about Christ's life. It is amazing some of the facts, that make so much sense. Like how Jesus' youth, he still had to mature and grow and learn just like everyone else.  Everything he knew wasn't just given to him all at once. So it just shows the importance of gaining a knowledge for ourselves. If you get the chance and have time, you should totally read Jesus The Christ.  It is a great book! :)

So in Tagolog, "Guwapo" means Handsom. It is funny .. pretty much every single investigator that we teach, they tell me how "Guwapo" I am, and how they want my skin and my nose and how they want to trade me bodies. And it's funny. In the Philippines, the people want to be whiter. So they have soap here that has "whitening cream" or lotion that makes you whiter. It is so hilarious, so when people see me, they tell me how much they want to trade skin ;) Silly silly people. Hehe. 

I am grateful for the experiences that I am having and for all of the great things that I am learning here on my mission. I look forward to, and am very excited to see how much more I grow while on my mission. 

Stay True!

Elder Walstad

Here's Tanner, being Tanner :0.  He said he was bored for a minute, and this was what he came up with!

Fast week!

This week has been gone by pretty quick! I officially made it through my first cycle! And I started a new planner today, so that is kind of a wake up call for how long I have left... haha :o But this week actually flew by! It was amazing to see all of the blessings that we received this week! I'll share some - 

So with Sixto, we taught him on wednesday, and he told us that he had read the whole WOW pamphlet, and that he had stopped everything... but that he had been tempted by his friends to drink a little bit of wine for a birthday. He said that he felt horrible afterwards and he immediately repented. He said that he knows he can overcome his addictions and that he live the WOW. It is AMAZING to see such strength in a person and such a strong desire to follow our Heavenly Fathers commandments. We then gave him a priesthood blessing after the lesson that he would be able to completely overcome his addiction, and on Sunday, he told us that he has completely forsaken everything. Smoking, drinking, coffee and tea. I can't express enough thanks for Sixto. It is so amazing being able to teach him. The spirit is always so strong.

So we received a referal from a member last week, and we followed up with it on Saturday. His name is Christian Sapla. At the beginning of the lesson we asked him if he had any questions for us, and he asked us what is not allowed in our church, and I thought "Oh no.. he's gonna turn us away." But we told him beer and cigeretts are the main "Bawal" or "Not Aloud" in our church. He nodded his head and we continued to teach him. The Spirit was SO SO strong, especially as I taught him about the atonement. He then asked us "How can I become like you?" He was asking how he could become a missionary!!!!!!!!!!! :O I couldn't beleive my ears! Then, both him and his sister asked us "How can we become members of your church?" :O

I was stunned. Is this real life? haha. We told them that they needed to attend church and then be baptized, and they accpeted our baptismal invitation. ANOTHER golden!!!! The spirit has been so strong this week, and I love it so much!!! 

I have been trying really hard to focus and stay busy on the work, and we have had a lot of success. We have 2 baptisms this Saturday, and we are so excited! I will make sure to send pictures next week! 

I love you all! And always strive to have the spirit with you ^.^ It makes a difference!

Stay True.

Elder Walstad

Making Deep Fried Oreos

Standing in a Rice Field

Family Home Evening Group

Pizza!  He even ate it with the veggies on it (Gasp!)

A GOLDEN!!!!!

So, you can probably tell what I am going to be talking about by the title of this email :)

We have a Golden Investigator!!!! It is SO amazing!!!! It is such a blessing! His name is Sixto (I think I may have mentioned him before ^.^) So almost 2 weeks ago, we went to his house, and he wasn't there. We went back a few days later and he still wasn't there. We started to become sad that he was just trying to avoid us and that he wasn't interested. Come Sunday - of last week - HE WAS THERE AT CHURCH! :D We were so ecstatic! He paid attention during the whole 3 hours, and even added in some comments during priesthood! The whole branch was so loving and accepting towards him, and I think that really helped!

 After church, we went to his house, and taught him. He told us that the previous week had been busy and he was out working in the rice fields all day every day. So we understood. He then continued to tell us how important this church is, and that he thinks that he has found what he has been looking for. WOW! THEN, he went on to explain how important it is for him to be baptized, because he had been studying in the Book of Mormon and the Bible about baptism, and it teaches that no one can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven without being baptized.  

He is so anxious, and it is incredible to see him grow. He eats up everything that we tell him, and he is so excited when we come teach him. He has also told us how important it is that his family joins the church too, so we are hoping that his wife will start listening to the lessons too.  We haven't had any luck yet, but his kids have started to show some interest. It is amazing! I feel so blessed, and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for Sixto Quiape! :)

We also had Zone Conference this week, and that was insanely fun! It was SO great to see my mission president again, and the advice/teachings that we received from him and his wife was so great! They focused a lot on overcoming temptations (The influence of the world) and also obedience. "Obedience is the first law in heaven..." I love this! It shows that, even God, has rules that he follows. Without rules, there would be complete chaos!

President Rahlf also told us a story, and it goes something like this (Sorry for the lengthy letter, I'm almost done! ;)) - There was a father who had a young son who loved to go outside and play with his dad. One day, when the weather was just right, and the father wasn't too busy, he took his son out to fly his first kite. The son was so amazed, and kept telling his father "Dad, it's so beautiful! It is so wonderful! Look at it, it is so great, flying so high! Why can't we untie the kite so that it can fly up higher and higher?" The father looked at his son, smiled and said "The string is what's keeping the kite in flight; if we untied the string, it would come crashing down." I love this story!!! President Rahlf said "Sometimes the things(rules) we think are holding us down are really what is keeping us up!" It is so true! I LOVE THAT! 

Remember to always be obedient, and follow the rules! Even if it's not the popular thing to do, or if they seem silly or hard. They are there for a reason, and the blessings you receive far exceed the moment of pleasure you may have from breaking the rule. 

I love you all! Remember who you are :)

Stay True!

Elder Walstad 

4-week Missionary Training at the mission home

Fresh Coconut!