A Complete Turnaround!

            Wow.  I can't believe how much the area has changed in just one week.  I have A LOT to share with you guys this week, because it's been one of the best weeks of my mission so far.  I just did not think that it would ever happen here in Mamonit.  We worked with our Ward Mission Leader almost everyday this week teaching less active families and some new investigators.  We had our first lesson on Tuesday with Hay Jhae, who we met last week through street contacting.  It was the longest lesson I think I've ever taught as a missionary.  It's not really how I wanted it though, because usually if you teach long lessons, people become disinterested with the lesson and want you to leave.  We're just lucky and blessed to have found Hay Jhae.  She is very interested so far.  I thought that we were going to lose her at first, because of how long our lesson went (1hr 30mins), but she was with us the entire time.  Elder Dela Paz really likes to teach everything on a given subject, so that's pretty much why it went so long.  We taught all of Lesson 1 (Prophets-Holy Ghost) to her.  She had some really good questions about our lesson that we were able to answer, so that was also good news.  We also got another new investigator this week, Bessie, who is the girlfriend of one of the RMs in the ward.  We had another great first lesson with her as well.  She even came to church yesterday!  (But I'll talk about church and stuff later).  She also had some really great questions that we were able to answer.

From left: Jordan, Jerome, Oliver, Bro. Marvin, Elder Dela Paz, and Bro. Marvin

Jerome and Oliver

            Jerome's baptism was on Saturday! It was such an awesome day!  Unfortunately, the attendance was really low, but at least everyone who was supposed to participate in the program showed up.  Jerome's a funny kid.  After he was baptized, he quickly went back underwater, because the water felt good (haha).  The missionaries have been teaching him since March or something, so it felt good to see him be baptized.  It was the first baptism the ward has had since March.  After the baptism, we went to a less active's house to eat lunch.  One of the cats kept jumping on the chair to look at the food on the counter.  Every time I would try to scare him away, he never really moved.  I pretty much just pushed him off the chair until he went to the chair on the other side.  I tried to do the same thing, but he just wouldn't move.  I gave a gentle bump on the head like a Wak a Mole which made him hit his chin on the table and then he just looked up at the ceiling with closed eyes with a loud meow like, "Oowww.  Seriously?  Why did you do that, man?"  I couldn't stop laughing for at least a minute.  While I'm on the topic of animal cruelty, I'll share a quick story from a couple of days ago.  Back in Kalikid while I was with Elder Talento, whenever we would see frogs or toads in our path, we would run up and kick them.  A couple of days ago, we were walking when I saw a big frog in the middle of the road.  I ran up and kicked it.  It was a little dark, so I couldn't really see where it went, but I just heard it hit the branches of the tree next to us at least ten feet in the air and then heard it land on the ground.  (Yay for frog kicking.)  Later that day, we started Week 1 of our Ward Reactivation Plan.  Since it was the first week, I didn't really expect it to be well attended (like 

Jordan, Jerome, Oliver & Elder Dela Paz

the baptism earlier in the day), but I was shocked when at least 25-30 members showed up including the bishop and stake president.  We had to split up in four different groups because of all the people that showed up.  We had some really good visits with all of the less actives that we were able to visit.  Together with all of the four groups, we taught 13 lessons that day to less actives.  The fruits of our labors were answered yesterday when we had in increase of at least 40 people attend sacrament meeting.  Our attendance was 153 (110-115 during the other weeks).  We had less actives, recent converts, and an investigator all attend.  I couldn't believe what just happened.  I never dreamed of this EVER happening in this area even a couple of weeks ago.  The members are now finally stepping up to their callings and duties and are excited to do missionary work.  It was probably one of the best Sundays that I've ever had so far on my mission.  There's now a mission prep class in the ward for all of the ward missionaries which is pretty well attended.  Wow.  So the first two transfers of struggling in this area are now finally paying off.  Elder Dela Paz is great.  He is very liked by the members.  We had to leave after sacrament meeting yesterday to Padapada so that Elder Dela Paz could get his Patriarchal Blessing.  That was a neat experience.  It made me think about my Patriarchal Blessing that I received a year and a half ago and all of the blessings that have or will be fulfilled.

Jordan and co. with WML Bro. Julio

            The Lord continues to bless us with miracles in our area.  I'm eternally grateful for the work that the Lord has blessed us this week.  So hopefully, our Faith will bring more miracles in the upcoming weeks.

            Mom, I've only found one of the $20s so far in my box, I haven't opened up all of my boxes, so I'm sure (hope) they're still there.  Oh.  If you could send my little Preach My Gospel in my next package that would be great.  I figured that would be really helpful and easier to bring to Zone Conferences, interviews, or wherever.  I’m sending a few pictures of Jerome’s baptism - and one of a spider that visits me in the bathroom every couple days.  (We have become good friends.)

            Thank you for all of your prayers and support.  I felt them this week as we worked and probably had the best week’s worth of missionary work ever so far (38 lessons).  Mahal ko kayo!  I hope that you have a great week!  You're all awesome!

            Elder Jordan "Miracle Believer” Royal

This is the huge spider Jordan introduced us to today!