Baptisms & Exchanges

September 30, 2019

Hi everyone!! 

First of all it's my mom's bday so if you see her make sure to say happy bday to her because she's the best! I love my mom and I'm grateful for her wohooo. 

At the beginning of this week Elder Mulipola and I went on exchanges and I learned a lot from him. He's been out for about 15 months. He's a really good missionary and is kind to everyone. One thing he taught me was to just be myself with people, try to make them laugh, and not be so tense when I teach. It was a really good day. 

That same day we went to teach Jason. Jason is someone Elder Hedman and I found. He's about 30 years old and very nice. He was shy at the beginning but he's opened up a lot. It's been fun teaching him and getting to know him. 

I got to go to my first baptism. My companion baptized a person the Sister missionaries were teaching in our area. The Spirit was very strong!

This week we also got to work with a couple of church members who are trying to prepare for missions. The first one was Josh. He's 19 years old and about to submit his papers. Working with him was awesome. He has a strong testimony and is very respectful. He's great at talking to people and being nice in general. The other member we worked with was Jm. He's 19 too and very cool!

So quick story. When we were working with Josh we were trying to find members in a certain area. We asked some people and no one really knew. We asked a Nanay (mother) and she told us a place to go. We could definitely tell she was just making things up, but we went anyways. 

We had to walk up some stairs and their house was the only one up there. They weren't the people we we're looking for but the people we met were very nice. They have a big family and all the kids are really young. After talking to them we figured out the dad was a member but the rest of the family wasn't. That was a tender mercy Heavenly Father gave us!

I want to say how grateful I am for my family! Teaching families here is so fun. Because of some of their situations they may not have the best houses, but even though they don't have much they all have each other. They are still always happy. I love that about the Philippines!

We had  a dinner appointment last night and the family we went to was the Melecio family. They are all members. They kept apologizing for their house and that it wasn't good enough. They said "we may not be rich but we're all happy!" They all got involved with the lesson. 

Families are so important in our lives and we should treasure the times we have with them. 

We have 3 people who have commitments to baptism dates. Rey's is Oct. 12th. The 2nd person lives with Rey. We taught him once and he asked, "Can I just be baptized with Rey?" :) We just need to teach him and he'll be ready. 

The third person is Jason. We found him while looking for another church member. He might get transferred for work but we are going to talk to the others and let them know he has a date.

Ingat everyone (take care). Love ya!

-Elder Espiritu

Exchanges with Elder Mulipola

These pieces of wood are a bridge to get to this home

We usually teach in humble homes like this

Dinner at my Tito Mem and Tita Merce's home

With my cousin Mikee, Grandma Belen, and Tita Bennette

Zone Conference

September 23, 2019

What's up everyone!

Well this week we had zone conference. So everyone here on the mainland in Manila all met up at the mission office. 

Zone conference was really cool. I got to meet a lot of new missionaries. Our zone is pretty cool. I got to talk to a lot of people there. I really liked zone conference because of the things which were taught. 

President had us ask questions and we had a good discussion. When the AP's taught they talked about repentance. It made me grateful for repentance, that we have the opportunity to become clean every day. Zone conference made me realize there's some things you already know, but you can always learn it in a new way.

This week I got to go on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Compas. He is also my roommate. We got to go to my area. The two families Elder Hedman and I have been teaching are both named Hernandez. 

One of the recent converts in our ward is named Angel. Her mom is a member but her brother and her dad aren't. It's been fun teaching them. They are super nice and they always give us snacks haha. 

The other Hernandez family aren't members. The mom's name is Russel. Her husband passed away about a year ago. She has two daughters and two sons. They are all very nice and they love Elder Hedman and me. They're awesome! 

I was grateful to be able to listen to our beloved prophet this week. It's amazing to hear the insights President Nelson has for all of us. He's so happy and I love hearing from him. Thanks everyone for your support and love you all!

Elder Espiritu

Our Laundry Room

Where I do my studies

Zone Conference

Our kitchen

One of the last rainstorms and 

what our upstairs looks like

Working Through Sickness

Sept. 16, 2019

Hi everyone!

This week was rough. Elder Hedman and I were sick some of the days this week but mostly Elder Hedman which was kinda sad. Some days we had to come home a little early which was okay cause we got to study a lot.

We still had a good week and got a lot of work done. We're getting along really well. Elder Hedman's really funny and I'm learning a lot from him every day. 

We also had a lot of meetings this week. including District council and a meeting at the mission office with President and Sister Fermanis. The meeting was just for the new missionaries out in the field. President answered a lot of our questions and it helped a lot. 

So even though Elder Hedman was sick I still got to work and go on an exchange with one of my kabahay (people I live with), Elder Omer. He's been out about a year as well. We went to his area but we had no teaching appointments. So he made me just go talk to people and practice my Tagalog on people. 

He would pick a random person and say "hi can we ask you a question?" and then he would look at me and say "Elder what was your question?" So I would have to practice my Tagalog and it was great. I learned a ton from doing it for a couple of hours.

Something sad happened this week. A 7 year old boy was in the hospital sick with dengue fever. Some members asked if we could give him a priesthood blessing so we did. Sadly, later that day he passed away. 

Yesterday we attended his funeral with some of the members from our ward and our stake president. It was a great service and definitely got me thinking about the gospel when it comes to little children. 

In Moroni chapter 8 it talks about little children and baptism. There's two scriptures from that chapter that I really like. 

The first one was 8:12 "But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God and respecter to persons for how many little children have died without baptism!" All children are alive in Christ and He loves them all so very much. 

In 8:17 it says " And I am filled with charity which is everlasting love wherefore all children are alike unto me wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love and they are alike and partakers of salvation." 

I love these scriptures so much. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love all little children. 

I know through the plan of salvation Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and a plan for this family. Through His love and care we can get through everything if we continue to have faith and trust in Him. 

Our Heavenly Father loves us all. Thanks everyone for everything and have a great week! 

Elder Espiritu

At the barber getting our hair cut

After one of our dinner appointments

Weights at our house

My Tita (Aunt) Bennette was visiting from Hawaii

At church (posted by one of the members)

Week Three in My First Area

This week it rained quite a bit, which was fun. I have an umbrella. I just never use it so Elder Hedman and I always get soaked when we are walking everywhere. Filipinos always have umbrellas and don't like getting wet so when we don't have umbrellas they just stare at us and look at us so weird. But we got to teach a ton of people this week. 

We met a family of all girls and we've been teaching them quite a bit. It's going to be fun teaching them. They really seem to want to know about our church. Everyone here loves their family. I love teaching families here because they all want to learn together. We found quite a few more people and we're excited about that!

There's one new gentleman we are teaching who is very different. He's from Ghana and is a pastor for a Catholic church. He lives with 6 other pastors who are from Kenya. We met him by going to a less active member's house who wasn't there but he was home outside on his porch. It was nice because he only could speak English so for once I started to talk to him hahaha. It was awesome. I shared a scripture and so did Elder Hedman. We're going back to teach him more. He also said he wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon so we got one for him.

I really like the people here. They are all so kind. There's so many people in the streets and in the neighborhoods we go to. We usually teach our lessons in places called squatter areas. There's a lot of people in those areas and it's really fun talking to them.  

Our ward is so awesome. All the members are so nice and they love feeding us. We definitely get a lot of dinner and lunch appointments haha. This week in church the Bishop asked all the new missionaries to the ward to bear their testimonies. So Elder Hedman, Sister Quebec, and I shared ours. All the members told me after they thought I was going to sound Filipino but no I definitely sounded American ;) I was grateful for that opportunity to share my testimony in Tagalog/ English. I was so nervous but it was an amazing experience! 

This week I've been studying about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for this principle in the gospel. I've learned so much about it. 

I read a talk talking about the Atonement (I can't remember who it was). He talked about how people think they aren't worthy to repent. And they are too far away from Heavenly Father and say "what's the point in trying"? 

I've come to learn that if we have a spark of faith we will have hope, and then we can become better and become like our Savior Jesus Christ. 

There was one scripture that I really liked about this topic. It's Mosiah 27:25 "And the Lord said unto me marvel not that all mankind yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters." 

As we continue to repent every day we "must be born again" and have a change of heart. I love this scripture and the teachings of it. 

Miss you all and hope everyone's okay!

Elder Espiritu 

On the back of a trike

Our church building for the Paranaque 4th Ward

Me repping my cousins' city

Week Two in Parañaque

Sept. 2, 2019

What's up everyone!

My week was pretty good. Because Elder Hedman and I are fresh starting our area we're still figuring where all the members are. We've found some new people to teach which has been really cool.

My Tito and Tita (uncle and aunt) had me and Elder Hedman over for dinner it was really fun to see them. 

Video from his Tito Mem

Dinner with his Tita Merce and Tito Belmin

I still think it's so funny how many people stare at us. People still roast me for not being able to speak Tagalog hahaha. When people talk to us I just shake my head and try my best to understand. I'm glad we're finally figuring out our area so we can teach more people every day. 

With the Bishopric of our ward
*Thank you Brother Juancho Gallano for this pic

Our area is far away from our house. We have to take 1 jeep and usually about 4 trikes to get into the middle of our area. Sometimes we have to take 5 trikes to go to another part of our area. So we spend quite a bit on transportation.

I found a scripture that helped me out this week It's Galatians 5:22 " But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith".

As we continue to diligently seek for the Spirit in our lives we can continue to feel all these things. That even when we are suffering we can still feel love joy and peace. 

We can still be happy if we constantly search for the Spirit. I'm grateful for the power of the Holy Ghost to guide me in my every day life. 

Love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Espiritu

This family is Elder Hedman's father's sister (who was adopted from the Philippines), her husband (who served in the Manila mission about 15 years ago) and their kids. They just moved to Manila this summer for two years to manage the temple construction site for the new temple. The mission president gave them permission to treat Elder Hedman and Elder Espiritu to a meal. 

My mission parents, President & Sister Fermanis‎ 

Elder Tueller at the temple when I was still at the MTC. He played basketball at Bingham

My district leader from Idaho Elder Compas, another one of my kabahay (live with)

Elder Mulipola from New Zealand, one of my kabahay 

Pics of my area

A trike (tricycle) - one of the forms of public transportation we use a lot