March-ing Onward.... Get it?? MARCH-ing?

Hello Pamilya! 

Hopefully these pictures will upload by the time I'm finished... It's really hit or miss here.

To answer your question, mother-dearest, I am currently in Handumanan. That translates to something like, "the place you desire". So I guess that's pretty cool! You can Google Earth that if you want :) We do have a transfer day next week, so there's a chance that could change, but we will see!

This was a good week! We were able to baptize two of our investigators! CJ is a big guy! When we were talking to him before the baptism, we asked him who he wanted to baptize him. He decided I had better do it because Elder Monzalez wasn't sure if he could get him back out of the water. CJ thought that was super funny. We also baptized Sister A. I have been teaching her since I got here and it was so nice to see her baptized finally! She started crying giving her testimony and it was really cool to see the path she has taken to get here. She was an absolute champ during her baptismal interview. Our district leader came out and said, "Wow, she nailed every question. In-depth answers and everything!" That made me really happy! The baptismal font was STILL dirty, just in case you were wondering... We tried filling it up with a small hose... Not effective and was still dirty so we just did the normal way. I'm pretty sure the ordinance is still valid.

I have been marking up my scriptures lately and they look really nice! Sometimes I get a little distracted trying to make them... "cute"... and don't get as much reading time in, but it really gives me time to ponder the verses. I have been reading in Alma around the chapter 30's and I read about Korihor. He's not a very nice guy, is he? The part I like the most was when he was talking to Alma in the courts after he was brought before him. Korihor refuses to admit that he believes in God, but Alma is persistent, calling him out for denying his own testimony. I really liked verses 43 and 44. "

And now Korihor said unto Alma: If thou wilt show me a sign that I may be convinced that there is a God, yea show unto me that he hath power and then will I be convinced of the truth of thy words.

But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

I myself am guilty of asking for signs on occasion. Even though I have all of this knowledge and a testimony of the gospel, I still question things. In this way, I am just like Korihor. I imagine we all are, actually. But what eventually happened to Korihor? He became dumb. THAT was his sign. He definitely got what he asked for, that's for sure. If only he had "humbled himself before he was compelled to be humbled," he could have avoided that problem, and ultimately, his own death. Often times we just wait to be humbled rather than humbling ourselves. In Alma 32, however, we learn how much greater our blessing will be if WE are the ones that choose to be humble, instead of God humbling us. It made me realize how hard it must be a parent, watching your kids go through experiences that you know how to help them with, but they just don't "get it." That's probably the same with our Heavenly Father. It probably pains him to see all these struggles on earth and all of the evil, but he knows what we need and can see our potential even if we can't. If we don't have enough faith to trust him, or if we are repeatedly asking for "signs" that he is there, he's not going to be happy. He has already given us so much. We are alive, we have all these things around us that testify of him, why can't we just a have a little faith?

It's so weird whenever I have the opportunity to teach in English. It is SO hard to teach in English. My English teaching skills are SO awkward. My English has since evolved into a sort of Filipino-structured English. It'll be fun for all of you to listen to me talk when I get home. I'll need some help.

To Dad's request, here are some of the positives about being here on my mission:

I am ALWAYS laughing. The people here are the funniest people on earth. So many people here always tell me, "Elder, people here in the Philippines really don't care what their shirt says or anything. As long as it's a shirt, they'll wear it!" I have seen some super funny tee-shirts here. One of my favorite memories from my mission was in my last area. We were walking through muddy trails in the middle of nowhere and along comes this guy carrying this bamboo on his shoulder. It was just a normal day, I had walked that path probably forty times or something. I did a bit of a double-take when I realized what was on his shirt. Here we have someone on the other side of the world, in the middle of a sugar cane field, tromping around in a shirt with a United States Postal Service logo on it. I wish I could explain how confused I was at that moment, but I'm not quite able to do so. The only thing that was going through my mind was, "...what the...?" It makes me wonder where he might have been delivering that bamboo...

The people here just always laugh, even at the simplest of things. It makes me wish that people in America could become more interested in the little things. Being around other people and interacting with them is what they love here. I really like that.

Fun fact: My rice tolerance has gone up quite drastically. At first, I could only eat a little bit of rice and I would feel so heavy. Now I can just pound it. Hopefully I don't get fat...

Sorry there's only one picture, that's the only one that didn't fail, but at least that's the most important one!

Halong! (take care)

Elder Welton