Dalagan

Hello!

Man. This week was nuts - so many people taught, ENDLESS hours on the bus, and so much more. We worked SO hard this week and we have been finding many new quality investigators! It's so amazing how much we have been blessed recently. This work is truly a joy!

This Saturday was such a crazy day. We had been working so fast and traveling around so much the whole week that we weren't able to visit our investigators as much as we had planned. Our schedule for Saturday involved visiting all of our investigators on the mountain, the farthest part of our area, and then attending a wedding/baptism in Bago City for the Sister's baptismal candidate. We had missed so much sleep this week because of our travel and fitting in teaching appointments that when it came time to plan on Friday night, it was already 10:45pm, we hadn't eaten dinner, and we were sweating buckets because of the Summer heat right now. As we looked at the time constraints for the following day, we said, "Well... It looks like we are gonna have to run tomorrow if we want to visit all those people....." So that's what we did. We traveled up to the mountain, got off the tricycle, and just started speed-walking/jogging. We made a 30 minute fast-walk through the field into a 15 minute jog. We got to the first appointment, tried to let our clothes dry out, taught a lesson, and then started running to the next one, which was about a 30 minute jog through the fields again. After all that, it started DUMPING rain, so we had to hide inside the only member's house in the area. Because of the time restraints, we had no choice but to run through the rain when it didn't let up. The rain was actually quite nice, seeing as it made the intense heat cool down. It guess that's a blessing.

We did our best to dry off on the ride down the mountain, and then grabbed Elder Rabila's clothes from the apartment and got on the bus. We made it JUST in time for the wedding. I then assumed my place at the front and conducted the opening part of the wedding ceremony, picked whatever hymn that came to my mind, introduced the speakers, and then gave the time to the solemnizer. I then assumed my position as wedding photographer, just like the good ole days, and documented the entire wedding. It was a WONDERFUL wedding. Sisters are so much better at setting up weddings than Elders, that's for sure!

We are teaching one young man right now that is about 14 years old. Last night, we looked for him at his house but couldn't find him. We then went to the basketball court that we always see him at and, lo and behold, he was there! Elder Rabila said, "Hey, look at him right now. He's a big fish now," observing that he had somehow managed to join in with guys a bit older than him. That's such a big deal growing up, I totally forgot about that! I said, "I don't think he's gonna want to listen right now; he's with the 'big fish'." He then replied, "Oh yes he will. Especially if a bigger fish calls HIM," referring to us. I realized he had a point! We asked him if we could teach him when he was done playing and he was fine with it! We ended up just standing by and watching them for a while. As I watched this group of somewhat rambunctious young men, the words from Joseph Smith History came to my mind. He said, "I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God," very similar to what I was witnessing on this basketball court. I realized in the moment, that this investigator that we had been teaching seemed to parallel the life of Joseph Smith. As we taught him, we asked how he was doing following the Word of Wisdom, to which he responded, "I haven't had any problems! I don't drink coffee anymore, and I don't do any of the other things. I stopped after you taught me about it last time." We asked him if his mom had said anything, to which he replied, "I told her that I want to follow whatever the Elders teach me because I know that it's true and that it's for my own good. Then she just said, 'alright, whatever you want to do as long as you are being good.'" We were so impressed by his desire to follow Christ. I reflected upon it as we walked home and talked to Elder Rabila about it. God must really know his children if he knew he could trust a 14 year old boy with such a great calling. Just like this young man we were teaching, I think Joseph Smith must have had the same attitude of, "I'm gonna follow this because I know it's true and that it's for my own good."

What cool experiences. I am so blessed to be in this area. I hope that things continue to improve and that these people come to know Jesus Christ even better. I have recently realized that EVERYBODY here in the Philippines loves Christ, but very few of them actually KNOW him the way that we do in this church. They don't understand his compassion, his sternness, his loving voice, and his call to obedience. I had always figured that they already knew Christ, but have recently learned that the Christ I know is much different than theirs. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the testimony it gives of Jesus Christ. We need this second witness if we want to be able to recognize his voice when he comes.

What a marvelous work. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Welton

Saved by Grace

Maayong hapon sa akong mga abyan!

This was a GREAT. WEEK. What a great opportunity to be a missionary.

We had a baptism this week! Angel Y-------, the grandchild of Sister P------- we baptized in March, was finally baptized! She is great. She was SO SO SO excited to get baptized and has been waiting for a long time. She has actually been an investigator for a long time, but was lost when the Elders were pulled out of one of the proselyting areas that we are now covering. We were able to recontact her and start teaching her again. On our first visit with her back in February, we found her house and then taught them. When we were talking about their religion, her friend said, "I'm Baptist" and then Angel said, "I'm Mormon!" quickly following it up with a, "ah, well I guess not QUITE yet..." She is great. The baptismal service was wonderful, and it was just great.

This week was full of a lot of learning for me. I finally decided to finish the book that you sent me, Mom, titled "Believing Christ" I think my procrastination of actually reading this book must have been part of God's plan for me because it couldn't have been more timely. I shared last week about Elder Holland's talk about TRYING and being found "spotless before God at the last day," and I thought about how HARD it must be to be spotless. I guess I didn't quite understand the concept of grace last week. This book described the principle of grace so clearly. I have only recently started to understand the doctrine of Grace in the LDS context. I had always kind of ignored the idea of grace, thinking it to be more of a Baptist doctrine that provided a "free ticket" to heaven if we just "received Christ." I have recently come to understand that it is nothing like that. We don't get a free ticket to heaven just by believing, but through this grace we can become perfect. WE ourselves won't become perfect, but because of the covenant relationship we have with Christ, we can be CONSIDERED perfect when we face our God at judgment because of our flawless partner which has paid for those imperfections we have. In the book, it explained how Christ knows that we will not be able to keep all of the commandments all of the time, but that he expects us to TRY. He ASKS for us to be obedient exactly obedient all the time, but doesn't EXPECT that we will be able to meet that commitment all at once. 

When I think of all the mistakes I have made and am currently making, it makes me realized how BADLY I need that saving grace in my life. It also made me more fully understand this work that I am a part of. I am beginning to understand exactly WHY I need to help people to be baptized. If only I had learned and understood that doctrine more fully a bit earlier, you know? What an important thing for missionaries to understand. If you don't yet understand grace or haven't even begun to understand it, you are missing a BIG piece of the puzzle. I hope to learn even MORE about it in an effort to believe Christ's promises a little bit more.

As I have tried to come closer to Christ, I have started having so many feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, and many other things that make me feel like I can NEVER make it closer to him. Perhaps Satan was trying to hinder my progress and keep me from coming closer - I have no idea! But as I started reading the scriptures, I came across a classic verse that I have read MANY times, but had not yet understood it in this context; Ether 12:27.

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And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

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So, apparently those feelings of inadequacy I had were NOT from an enemy, but rather from a caring friend that wants me to be better. Those feelings I had were not a sign of me distancing myself from Christ, but rather of me drawing nearer to him. I guess we sometimes think that coming unto Christ is like getting a big old giant warm hug from a good friend, but I guess once a solid relationship has been built with Christ, been neglected, and then picked up again, He makes sure to let us know what we have neglected in our absence. It's not because He doesn't love us, but rather that He DOES love us and wants to make sure we make the right choices and become what the Father needs to accomplish his plans. What an interesting thing. So perhaps when we feel inadequate despite our best efforts to draw nearer to Christ, that is his way of telling us we are doing what he wants. I hope that all of my "weak things become strong."

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

Conference

Hello sa tanan!

Man... Things are starting to feel so weird lately. I feel like I just barely got here and now I have my flight itinerary! Wow. I really feel like I need more time, but I guess there's a reason that missions are timed so precisely. It seems as though I am just barely getting a hang of it all!

Conference this week was so great! I really learned a lot that I want to apply in my future life. I find it weird how much my view on conference has changed. I really tried my best to prepare myself for conference this week and it was amazing when it came time to watch it. The topics that stuck out to me this time were mostly about marriage, school, and fatherhood, which was so weird, because I didn't really think I would find that interesting at all. The talks that talked about families and eternal partners and stuff are the ones that seemed to influence me the most. It's weird to be close to moving on in the next few years to these kinds of things, but it's exciting and unknown!

We had a very HECTIC day Sunday. One thing I have learned here is that technology really only works in two places: America and inside church buildings. Elder Holland talked about the viewers of conference being comprised of people in the conference center, people in their homes, people at the stake centers, and then the people crowded around a computer screen... We were that last one... We worked for two days trying to figure out how to show this to the members in our area and we failed at EVERY corner. Every idea we came up was ruined by old dvd players, wrong file formatting, corrupted files, laptop chargers without power adapters, and straw that broke the camel's back: the wifi hotspot ran out of prepaid credit... In our final efforts Sunday morning, we were able to get a members laptop and show just one hour of the morning session before it ran out of credit. It seemed as though Satan was really against us yesterday, but I hope that there was something gained from our sacrifice and efforts. It's hard to see it now, but I imagine I will find out what good was done at some point in the future.

We made it down to Bago to catch the tail-end of the afternoon session. As Elder Holland spoke, I felt as though he was talking to me directly. After such disappointment, I felt somewhat dejected by our failure. Elder Holland then talked about those who will receive eternal life.

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Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is thereto help you keep going. If you fall, summon His strength. Call out like Alma, "O Jesus,  have mercy on me."   He will help you get back up. He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek.

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I hope that I can feel "spotless" before God. I am so grateful for Conference and our Prophets!

I hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Welton

It's not what you thought it'd be....

Hi.

The work is so great in Ma-ao! I just love it here.

So, the volcano blew up this week! I guess that's pretty cool. We were actually really surprised when we found out that it blew up because we didn't feel or see anything! We were just walking around, proselyting ON the volcano when it happened. The way we found out was pretty funny...

About 6 pm, we were far from the road, out in the sugarcane and rice field looking for a house. We crossed this super awesome bamboo bridge that I will try to send a picture of next week. But, anyway, when we got to this guys house, we were greeted like this;

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Him- "Oh, hey, what are you guys doing out here, it's late! There's no more tricycles!"

Us- "Yeah, we know. We were just planning on walking back to Ma-ao."

Him- "That's like 5-7 kilometers!"

Us- "Yeah... We're kind of used to walking places. It's no problem!"

Him- "Ah, okay...."

Us- "..."

Him- "The volcano erupted."

Us- "WHAT???"

Him- "Yeah!"

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It really wasn't too big of a deal - just some ash came out - but we were a little surprised by the news!

We had a miracle this Sunday! We have been making an effort to fast for our zone and for our area every week on Sunday. We were praying that everything would go well on Sunday because we were expecting a lot of investigators to come to church and members as well. We brought our fans so that it wouldn't be hot and tried to make it the best we could. When we got there, it felt like NOTHING went right... It was so frustrating. But once we got to testimony meeting, we heard some of the most BEAUTIFUL testimonies I have ever heard. The investigators and members we had there were in tears. It was so weird that the what I asked for to go right was not what God gave us. I wanted them to feel comfortable and to not have anything go wrong, but what ended up happening is God prepared the members to bring the Spirit to the meeting. After all, that's all that's needed anyway. GREAT EXPERIENCE. Sometimes the things we ask for aren't always what we really need. But it's always BETTER than what you asked for. That's a comforting promise.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton