Peace Out Parañaque... - 10/2/2016

Well. We out. It's been a fun time in Paranaque... My new area is the Manila 1st Ward! Whatever that means...  I'm honestly not quite sure what to expect.

I've been called to FINISH TRAIN. AGAIN. What. Silly President what are you thinking... Haha jokes, whatever he's thinking is obviously what the Lord wants for me right now. Oh boy. My new companion is Elder Petersen. He looks familiar.... I'm thinking he might have been a Lone Peak kid... but then again, Petersen is a common last name. So I don't know.

ANYWAY. This last weekend we had another baptism: the baptism of Junalyn Villanueva. The harvest here in Paranaque has been great. Elder Jovita and I have enjoyed much success and have witness many miracles and tender mercies of the Lord. God is good.

I think I'll just post a few pictures to show what happened this week. We had a service project and did some other fun things this week. I didn't fall into any poop puddles this week, so that's a plus.

Sorry for the short emails, today is just a lot of "getting ready to transfer" stuff. But I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It was a fun 3 transfers here.

The church is true. The work still moves forward.

-Elder Ahn

...Aaaaand Strike Two....

.....Captain Clumsy strikes again. Also, keeping this email short. Not much time. Haha.

So guess who fell into dirty sewer water again.... Ha.

I'll spare the details. Let's just say that I'm extremely accident prone, especially at night time when we're walking around and it's hard for me to see. The Filipinos like to joke about my eyes and they claim that I keep falling into these crud puddles "kasi singkit" or because my eyes are small/squinty. Oh well. This too I will endure. Haha.

SO COOL STUFF. Our entire District has baptisms this coming Saturday! Haha so many awesome things are happening. More people are entering into the waters of baptism, General Conference is coming up soon.... Ah I love it.

So lately, I've been increasing my study on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I remember something from Preach My Gospel that says that as your understanding of the Atonement increases, your desire to share the Gospel increases as well. This is a very great truth.

As we come to understand what the Atonement is, why we need it's redemptive power, and how it helps us personally, our desire to share this knowledge and help others find peace increases as well. So many of our brothers and sisters are searching for peace in their life; so many of them have something missing. The Gospel is the answer, and central to the Gospel is Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I'm so grateful for Him, and that He suffered and died for us. Now, one of my favorite hymns is "I Stand All Amazed" because really, that's all we can do... be amazed, wonder how and why he did what he did, then come unto him.

This Church is true. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He's created a path for us to return, freed from the burden of sin, to our loving Heavenly Father... And we are all truly blessed for that.

Well, love you all. Don't forget the love of our Savior this week as you do all your studies, work, and other shenanigans.

-Elder Ahn

COME HOME NOW - 9/18/2016

Eventful week.

So I'll start with last thursday.

There are four of us elders in our apartment, and last Thursday, we went to the dental office at the MTC because everyone had an appointment except for me. All was well, just some normal fillings and such, but then one of the Elders actually got surgery and had a root removed. We thought everything was fine; he was numbed down and everything and we were all happy eating food about an hour later. Elder Macanlalay and I went out to proselyte while we left our two companions to rest and heal a bit, but then later that night we got some texts from the Elders at the house. The first text said "please buy gauze for me", then we received the "get home now. I need a blessing" text and Elder Macanlalay and I were like "Oh no." so we got home as fast as we could. When we got home, Elder Dao Ayan was sitting on his bed with a bucket under his mouth so that his saliva and blood could drip out. Haha the poor guy... he told us that the bleeding wouldn't stop, but then we received a text from the Mission Nurse saying that it was a normal thing, so we gave him a blessing to comfort him and to help stop the bleeding. He's fine now thankfully, but yeah... not fun for him and super scary for us to get a text saying "GET HOME NOW I NEED A BLESSING".

Earlier this week we also had zone meeting. Lot's of things learned and much revelation received. Oh yeah, they asked me to play violin again for  a little musical number, so that was fun.

Last Saturday was the baptism of Lauro Gabriel! He's solid. When he bore his testimony, he was saying like "There is a different feeling in this church, and when I was baptized... I felt something that is difficult to explain." and he also bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Restoration... it was a blessing to witness and hear. The spirit is working in the hearts of all people who open themselves to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's an amazing opportunity to witness it happen around us everyday as missionaries.

This is all I have to email right now. Currently the other elders are telling me to log out because we're out of time.

You all take care. The cold season is starting up for ya'll. Don't freeze.

Also take care with school! Don't stress too much!

-Elder Ahn

People Don't Know How to Give Directions Here - 9/11/2016

Sorry I'm so bad at sending emails with lots of details... There's just never really enough time to email.

So let's start with... BAPTISM this coming Saturday. Lauro Gabriel passed his baptismal interview so we're excited to see him enter the waters of baptism this Saturday.

Also last week we had Zone Conference, and it was nice to see all the familiar faces and receive guidance from fellow missionaries and President and Sister Ostler.

So story... After Zone Conference, we were trying to get a taxi, but none of them wanted to take us to our apartment because it's "too far away" so we were like "FINE DON'T TAKE OUR MONEY" so we then tried to get a jeepney to take us to the train station, but all the ones that passed us by were full, so we ended up searching for transportation for like an hour and a half. Well, we finally got a jeepney to take us to the station, and we took a train to "Baclaran", but then we got lost after that... Haha so we ended up wandering around and walked down this really long road in search of another jeepney to take us to our apartment, but there were literally none. And all the taxis still didn't want our money. All in all, it took us like 3 and a half hours to get to our apartment, when normally it should have taken 1 and a half hours. Needless to say, I'm sure we looked funny as a group of 4 missionaries wandering around as a group, asking people for directions on how to get home.

I think this is about all for now.

AH WAIT.

Miracle.

So we had these 2 progressing investigators last June/July, and they were almost ready to be baptized, but they moved and we couldn't find out how to contact them or find them, so that was unfortunate. But then last Saturday, we were wandering around by a members house, AND WE FOUND THEM IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD. Then the next Sunday THEY CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN. So that was a miracle. We thought they were long gone, but they happened to be right. Sneaky sneaky.

Well this was my week.

You all have a good week! Mahal ko kayo!

-Elder Ahn

9/4/2016

Sometimes it's hard to focus on what I'm going to email because there are always 20 kids around me screaming while playing Leauge of Legends and Dota... Haha but i'll try my best right now.

First off, we've got another baptism coming up! This guy named Lauro Gabriel... he's like 60+ and has strong faith in Jesus Christ. He also has a strong belief in the Restoration of the Gospel, in Joseph Smith, and it always intrigued with what he reads in the Book of Mormon. He told us that he's been wanting to try to come to church, because the church is literally right next to his house... but he's been too shy to enter because he doesn't know anyone there. Another tender mercy that we found him, talked to him, and now he's preparing himself for baptism.

What else.

We've been doing a lot of finding this week... and man the blessing have come.  For example, we found a couple the other day, and we were like "Hey can we share our message for like 20 mintues?" and they were like "Yeah sure thing come on in!" and it turns out that they've been taught by missionaries in their province before! So we're looking forward to hopefully seeing them progress.

I guess random thing: So all my white button up shirts are super baggy, so I got them all tailored, and people have been like "Wow Elder Ahn! You got skinny!" So I guess all my white shirts made me look fat before. Hopefully I don't get too fat here because man it's easy to get fat here. #ricefordays

We taught one of our Less Active members the other day, and we shared about the Atonement, the Sacrament, and Keeping the Commandments. Elder Jovita shared that because of Jesus Christ's infinite and atoning sacrifice, the least that we can do to "pay him back" is to keep his commandments, especially by going to church. After that, the LA member cried and said that he'd never heard or thought of it like that before, and yesterday he came to church... So that was awesome. It's such a blessing seeing the power that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has on all people if they willingly accept it and His love.

This is all I have right now.

I'll send pictures next week probably.

Let's all press forward! Ingat kayo lahat!

-Elder Ahn

TAKE THAT SATAN

aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAANNNDDD BAPTISM. Take that Satan.

Andrea Torres was baptized last Saturday and it was a marvelous day. Her desire to change and follow the Lord is amazing to see.

Needless to say, a number of things happened that day.....

So we'll start here. The former Ward Mission Leader left on his mission last Friday, so there was no one to create the Baptismal Program for Saturday.... and we were like "Oh dang, the baptism is in 4 hours and we have no program and no one knows how to do it" So i was like "Okay I'll try to make something that looks pretty" so we went to a nearby computer shop and I made the program. But when we finished, I went to the front to pay.... aaaaannnddd all my money was gone. Stolen. Ha. Some *insert rude name* stole my money while we were inside the church. I left my bag on the couch outside the clerks office, WHILE WE WERE IN THE CLERKS OFFICE, and that's when my money got stolen. So that was fun. But all is well.... I'll survive until the next support  fund comes in (2 days)...

But other than all that... we're super happy about the baptism. We're looking forward to a couple more within the next few weeks, so stay tuned kids.

What else.

So yesterday night as we were heading to our last appointment... and Elder Jovita stopped to talk to someone, and I turned my back to a little hole filled with really dirty water and garbage and an assortment of other things, aaand I back-stepped right into it. It was super delicious. So I can check that off my list of things I've done in the Philippines: stepped into dirty sewer water up to my knee. I don't know, I think I'm just clumsy.

Oh yeah! Transfers! That totally didn't come to mind because me and Elder Jovita are still chillin' here in Paranaque, so yeah! Elder Macanlalay has a new companion, Elder Dao-Ayan. He's super kind and speaks like 4 different languages.

That's about all I have to say right now. It was a good week!

The rain has finally started to slow down and it's been sunny the past few days... so we'll see how long it lasts. Haha!

Sige, Ingat kayo lahat, mahal ko kayo!

-Elder Ahn

INCOOOOMMINNG BAPTISM

This upcoming saturday will be the baptism of our investigator Andrea Torres! WOOT.

She's great. Her absolute desire, willingness, and humility to follow God's commandments and accept the Gospel is amazing and humbling to see.

Ha so funny story, last saturday was her interview and we told her that it would be at the church, then an hour before the interview she texted us and was like "Can we have the interview here at our house? I'm preparing food so we can all eat and stuff" and we were like "uhhh..... hindi pwede sister ('no can do' sister), it needs to be at the church." and she was like "oh.. okay." But everything worked out because Elder Jovita and I were able to go over afterwards and eat.

Last week was a little harder than others...

I now have first hand experience and a firm testimony that missionary work DOES NOT WORK unless there is COMPANIONSHIP UNITY.

We struggled being open with eachother, but earlier today we discussed everything and fixed everything, so things are back to normal and OK.

This is so applicable with any relationship; whether it be with family, friends, or above all, with a spouse. If both sides are not open about everything, then there is no progression and anger and resentment just builds and builds until it eventually explodes. Last week I often thought to myself "Hm. So this must be kind of what it's like to fight with a spouse" because as companions, we're always together. Haha I guess God is just sending me a foretaste of what the future might hold. XD

Needless to say once again, things are alright now. I love Elder Jovita. This little guy is teaching me so many priceless lessons, and it's great.

I can't think of much else.

Ummm......

Yeah that's it for now. I'll keep this one short and sweet. I'll find a better way to organize my thoughts so that when Monday comes, I'll be able to say more.

Transfers are in two days so yeah, my mind is just everywhere right now.

Alright peace. Mahal ko po kayo lahat.

-Elder Ahn