January 27

Hello Family and Friends,

Wow another week has gone by. It has been great.  The weather has
finally decided to warm up,so it is back  to its warm self.  Everyone
is getting ready for the hot season coming up.  So I am super excited
for that. I love this area, it is so great.  I love this branch and I
love all the branch missionaries here.  I keep on praying that I won't
have to leave this area when transfers announcements come next week.


On Friday, President Guanzon came down for zone interviews. It was so
inspiring.  President Guanzon is so great.  He is so humble and I
learn so much from him.  After the interviews he talked to us about
faith in setting goals. He said of course we need to set goals with
names in mind, but always remember the standard of excellence and even
if you don't have a name it back it up with set your goals with the
standard of excellence in mind and have the faith that the Lord will
lead you to those extras.

Rodel is doing so great.  He is such a golden investigator.  He was
truly searching for the truth, but just didn't know where to find it.
He is so excited for his baptism next week and he also really wants to
serve a mission in a year from now.  So that is just great. Rodel is
really funny when we teach him, because he hates commitment
invitations. We will teach him about a commandment and then commit him
to live it and he gives us this look and is like of course I will live
it, that is why you are teaching me right.  It is really funny.

Rodel is the best thing to happen for Christian.  He just needed a
little extra push from a friend.  He is so great.  Yesterday he gave
us a referral and we taught her at his house and he bore his testimony
about the book of mormon and the restoration.  He was so funny, he was
like here is the book of mormon, let me tell you what I learned from
it his week and then he told the story about the tree of life.  It was
so great for him to testify.  I remember when I first got to this area
and Christian was still struggling to get a testimony and it seemed
that he was one of those eternal investigators, but now look at him,
he is doing so great and is testifying how he knows it is true.

We also had a couple new investigators, Bro Nazer.  Bro Nazer was just
a crazy store we met him and invited him to come to church and HE
CAME.  That was like the first.  He was kind of confused, but he had a
good experience and came and played basketball with us this morning.
One of the greatest things that I love in the phlippines is that when
we teach everyone just surrounds us so a lot of people join lessons
and it is a great way to find new investigators.  We see so many
miracles and the Lord's hand his in this work.

We also taught a couple of workers that have been doing some work on
our chapel.  They are from manilia, but are working here because they
are part of a contracted thing and they will go back in a couple
weeks.  Renaldo actually had a baptismal date with the missionaries in
Manila, but left to come here for work.  We taught him a couple times
and invited him to come to church.  It was exciting and he was so
great.  It is so cool to feel the love for these people, even when we
were not the missionaries who taught him, but just to see his faith
and testimony.  He kind of has a crazy story because he is always
moving around to different areas for work, but he always seems to
manage to find the missionaries.  He was talking about all the
missionaries that have taught him.  He will hopefully get baptized
when he gets back home.


-Sister Richins