Baptism!

So this week flew by. I literally don't even know where 1/2 of the week went. It's all good though! I was pretty excited for Saturday, since we had a baptism!!

So our baptism was for a 9 year old boy, whose name is Larry Coria.  The week before, we had been planning the date, and the interview.  The day of the interview, we went there and no one was home. We thought it was a little odd since they have been so excited, but we thought that something important must have come up.  Later that night, we talked to our branch president who told us that while Brother Coria (His job is a guard at a gas station) was at work, a few people came up and started firing shots.  They shot Brother Coria in the arm and the leg.  They rushed him up to the city north of us, which is about 2 hours away. Luckily, brother Coria ended up being ok! When we found this out, we contacted them and told them that it would be totally ok if we waited until they came back so that they could attend the baptism. They insisted that we continued with the baptism, even though they weren't there.

Their faith and willingness to follow through with something so important and crucial as baptism, even though their circumstances gave them complete justification to hold it off, has really shown me that it is more important to follow the Lord's commandments, then allow certain situations such as that hold us back.  Satan had been trying hard to delay Larry's Baptism, but it happened, and the spirit was strong! Especially because Larry's older brother was able to baptize him! It was his first time to baptize, and we could totally see the Lord blessing their family.

I am so grateful to know that the Lord will always be there, and he is always watching out for us and guiding us... we just have to make sure that our desires and our heart is in the right place, so that we can take full advantage of that guidance.

Also.... last night while I was cooking some dinner, there was a flipping spider on our ceiling and I asked my companion how to kill it, and he said that it won't hurt us... so we left it.  This morning I woke up, and it was gone. SO pretty much, I was freaking out a little bit. Spiders are dumb. And so are the mosquitos. Get rid of them both, and the world would be a happier place. NO doubt.

Other than that... I have 5 months left from this coming Wednesday. (Not that I'm counting or anything) But as I continue to work and bring souls unto Christ, I am realizing more and more that the time I have to do that is becoming less and less (As a full time missionary.) So these next 5 months will be crucial! #makethetimecount

Stay True! :)

Elder Walstad

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Well Hello there my friends and family! I hope this past week has been a great one!

This past week has been pretty great. We had a Zone Conference, and we have been preparing our baptismal candidate for his baptism this weekend.

In our Zone Conference, we read and studied the story about Joseph in Egypt.  I absolutely love that story, and considering that I have seen the play more than a dozen times in my life, it is important to me! :) But every time that I read it or study it, there is always something to be learned.  Joseph was such an amazing example of, what President Rahlf taught us, "Blooming where you are planted." Or in other words, making the best out of what ever situation you are placed in.  We are always being tested and tried, but while studying the story of Joseph, the things that happened to him weren't even fair. Like, seriously. I felt so bad for him. But he always made the best of what he was given, and in return he always prospered. He was always very blessed, even though his situations weren't always the ideal. That is something that I have been striving to be good at in my life. To make the best out of the situation I'm in. I haven't always been successful at it, and it isn't the easiest thing to do, but I feel like being here in the mission has really helped me learn and grow and really improve my ability to Bloom where I am planted.  

We have a few baptismal candidates, but only one has been following through, and he will be getting baptized this coming Saturday.  We are really excited for the family. The kid is only 9 years old, but the mother has come to us and asked us to please teach her child so that he can be baptized, because he missed the 8 years old mark.  We don't always want to teach kids because usually they will just go Less-Active right away, since there is no support system.... but This family (Who's name is Korea Family... but they spell is Corea) has returned and become active again in church, so we felt that it would be appropriate to teach and baptize their child. And it has been a great experience! HE has really grown and learned a lot, and having the parents in on the lessons has been great for them to.  They have really appreciated our lessons, and it has been a good refresher for them.  The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) 

Well... That's about it for this week! :) But This following week should be a good one! 

I'm super happy for all the things I am learning in the mission, and for all the eternal friendships I am creating. It's been awesome! :) #blessing.

I hope you all have a great week! full of awesomeness!

"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation." -Michael Jordan

Stay True!

Elder Walstad

Ang buwan ng pag-ibig (The month of love)

Well, this week has just flown by. It is probably because we were pretty busy this week. It's crazy. The busier we are, the less time it seems that we have! This week the main things would have to be transfer day, Zone meeting and Valentines!

So Transfer day this past week was a little crazy.  One of our missionaries was transferred and is now companions with my Trainee!! I was so happy! We also got a few new missionaries who are new to our zone, so that is exciting. I always love mixing things up a little bit.  We also got to enjoy some McDonald's while we waited for everyone to figure out their transfer stuff. And I'll tell ya, Mcdonald's here is almost as good as, if not as good, as McDonald's in Japan. Oh yeah - it's a place that all of the "rich" people go out to eat. It's a place that people go on dates. It's kind of funny because you would never want to take a date to McDonald's back home. Hehe.

We also had our Zone Meeting this past thursday.  I really liked this last Zone Meeting, because this time we prepared some videos and pictures to use along with our lesson. We borrowed the TV at the church, and just threw the files on a USB.  And we were also surprised to have President Rahlf show up for a few minutes. I think it was one of my favorite Zone Meetings so far. I'm super happy about it! And I feel like, for the most part, everyone really learned something and took away what they needed to take away.  We taught about Charity, and we studied each part of Charity.  My testimony of Charity has grown more and more, especially as I have definitely seen my Charity grow while in the mission. And it also says in the scriptures that without charity, we are nothing. So that is also a pretty good incentive to have Charity ;)

And then Valentines! We didn't do too much to celebrate it honestly. But it was nice - we had a yummy dinner at a members house, and for some reason, everyone here was congregated at the park. The kiddy park, with all the slides and swings and whatnot. It was kind of odd.. but hey, whatever floats their boats! Hehe.

Overall, this was a good week, and it's hard to believe that there are only 2 weeks left in February!

We have a couple of Baptisms scheduled for February 27th.  We are excited about that! We are also hoping to get more progressing investigators so that we can hopefully see more baptisms in the coming month! It's not easy work, but it's very very doable! Kaya namin! (We can do it!)

Well, I love you all! I hope that Valentines day was a good/special one full of love!

"The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller

Stay True!!

Elder Walstad

(Valentines Dinner at a member's house)

A week of inspiration

Well, this week we had a few meetings where I really feel like I learned So much, that my brain hurt afterwards! It is also Transfer day in a few days, but not much will be changing with that this time. Both my companion and I will be staying together at least another cycle here in Roxas!

The first meeting we had was a special training that we had along with every other missionary around the world. 5 of the Apostles including 2 of the presidency of the 70, the general YW president and so on.  It was amazing! I really felt inspired, and any part of the flame of missionary work that is burning under me that had been weakened was rekindled and is going STRONG again. I really felt an increased desire to really help those members who have fallen away (Since that is a major problem here in the Philippines) as well as helping those who are new investigators stay strong and realize the importance of becoming a member of the true church and what that really entails. 

(Photos from the mission blog)

It's a huge responsibility that we share with the Apostles & Prophets specifically, but a responsibility that I feel very humbled to share in. Knowing that I am part of helping bring back Heavenly Father's lost children is a very sobering thought. It's sacred! And even as members, we have a responsibility to make sure we are home teaching and visiting teaching, so that when we stand before the judgement bar of God, we will be able to say that we did all we could to help build His Kingdom.

The next meeting was on Charity. At our MLC. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The most inspirational, best MLC ever. It is amazing what can be learned when you take a verse so simply overlooked, like Moroni 7:45, and study it in depth.  The Spirit testified to me So strongly of the importance of Charity.  And like it says in the scriptures, no matter what we do, if we don't have charity, it doesn't matter. Everything else becomes void. 

Also, Sister Rahlf has given our mission a Challenge, starting February 14th, to do a Power read of the BOM. I think it is over a span of 60 days? Something like that. So it's not easy, but it is going to be something that I will remember forever. But one challenge that I want to leave in this email is this - let us all study Charity in more depth, that we can obtain a better understanding of what Charity really is, and how we can attain those certain attributes into our life, to make us more like Jesus Christ. To help us obtain perfection. :)

Well, it has been pretty cold the last few days. And not just a little chilly, but actually cold. Which is very odd, but VERY fantastic. It makes me happy :) It's like having airconditing outside. Hehe. I have kind of forgotten what that feels like, which would maybe make some of you giggle a little bit back home who are experience all the snow right now ^.^

There aren't any pictures this week... which I should have taken some but I didn't... I will be better about that.

Anywho, hope you all have a great week! :)

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others." -Plato

Stay True!

Elder Walstad

February now? Where has the time gone?!

Well, this past week has flown by! Each week seems to be getting a little bit faster. 

This past week, my companion got pretty sick, so we stayed in for the most part, but when we did get to go out and work, we went and taught our investigators, who are now progressing! We have a few baptismal dates set for the end of February, we we will continue to pray, fast and hope that they will follow through! :) One of them is a kid, whose family are all members, and the mom came up to us and asked us to teach her son because they want him to be baptized, as does the kid as well. So that is exciting. The other 2 were referrals from members, which is where 70%+ of our success comes from. One is part of a family. The mother, and 3 of her kids. The other is the son of a member. Overall, we are excited for the next months! :D

We also had our quarterly interviews with President Rahlf.  It's always great to get to sit down with him and have a few minutes to chat about the mission, and how things are going.  We talked a little bit about my goals for the next year, and how crazy it is that I only have about 6 months remaining! It's hard to believe.  We also talked about who the new mission president will be here in the Cauayan mission, and President Rahlf said that he is a great man who has dedicated his life to missionary service. 

And, finally, this past week - we have a sink in our apartment that is broken. It doesn't drain properly, so we can't use it.  Unfortunately, one elder forgot that, and he spit in there after brushing his teeth, only to remember afterwards that it doesn't work.  It had been fine before that... but after he spit in the sink, just 2 days later it started to stink horribly. So Today we had a plumber come over and drain it out for us.  The smell was so horrible yesterday that we almost couldn't sleep! But we just turned the fans on and that helped. Now it's gone though, so HALLELUJA! :D hehe.

(Pictures of Tanner's apartment)

Also, just thought I'd throw it out there... I'm,like, gettin' pretty buff now, so I challenge everyone to a pushup contest when I get back home.

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." -Milton Berle

Let us all strive to build our doors to continue to open new opportunities for us to grow! :)

Stay True!

Elder Walstad