Baptism & Facebook

This week was pretty busy. We had zone conference and a baptism!

During Zone Conference we talked a lot about The Book of Mormon and why it's so important when we teach. I learned a lot and it helped me out. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion and now that I look back, I really wish I read The Book of Mormon more. So I think everyone should try to read it. It will help you so much in your life. Also, at Zone Conference we found out we're allowed in our mission to post on Facebook once a week. So everyone hit me up on Facebook. 

On Saturday we had a baptism. The person that got baptized was Jenny Mate. She's 15 years old. Jenny is awesome. She was really excited and she looked so happy. 

The ward was super supportive and it turned out great. I'm happy to be a part of that experience with her. She worked with us with some of the other ward missionaries yesterday. We went to Mhye and Clark (people we're teaching) with them. 

A couple of weeks ago we set a baptismal date for Mhye and Clark, so it was really cool to see Jenny (a young girl that just got baptized) bear her testimony to them because Mhye and Clark both came to her baptism. They also saw her earlier at church when she was confirmed a member of the church. I thought that was a cool experience. 

One thing I'd like to share is how I keep realizing how grateful I am for the Atonement of Jesus Christ the longer I'm here on my mission. In Alma 34:10 it says "For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beasts, neither of any manner of fowl, for it shall not be a human sacrifice, but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice." 

Because Jesus's sacrifice was an infinite sacrifice it means His atonement is an infinite atonement. No matter who we are no matter what we do, we will always have His atonement to use in our lives. We don't have just a couple of chances to change and repent of our sins, We have INFINITE numbers of times to change and repent. 

Please use this gift every day. I have here and I've seen so many different changes in my life. :) I know it is an infinite atonement and we can use it in our lives. 

Love you all! Thanks for the support!

-Elder Espiritu

We performed "I Am A Child Of God"

at Jenny's baptism

Pics from baptism

Zone Conference

I Love Lil Kids

What's up everyone!

This week was a really good week, we got a ton of work done! 

Elder Dumanjug and I are getting to know a ton of people here in this area. Elder Dumanjug is so funny. He loves English and I think it's awesome. 

We were walking to the church the other day and some of the other Elders in our district told us to come play basketball with the ward. They texted us "Okay, hurry! We need ya'll for real." I asked Elder Dumanjug if he understood it and he was like, "What the heck? Why do we need to yell?" He was so confused. I thought it was pretty funny, but if it isn't funny, my bad. ("ya'll" came across to him as "yell") haha

Two Sundays ago, we got a referral from the ward. The referral's name was Jenny Mate (pronounced "Mah-teh." She's about 15 years old. She grew up in the church but her family went less active and she never got baptized. We met her last Sunday and started teaching her every other day. And now she has a baptismal date for this upcoming Saturday. That's gonna be awesome! She's really excited for her baptism. 

I love kids here. It's insane. Several times this week, we would be walking down a street or trying to find certain members and some lil' kid would be outside and say, "Hi, Elders!" We would ask how they know we are Elders and they would say, "Were members," or they would say "Some people like you used to visit us." 

I have two stories about little kids here. 

Elder Dumanjug and I were going to a place in our area that was far from the chapel called Irawan. We hardly go there. We took a multi cab and these two kids are coming home from school. One girl and one boy. We started talking to them and we found out the girl's mom used to be taught by missionaries. We went to her house and taught her. 

After we taught her we left and got lost in that area but when we got lost we found a ton of members where their kids were just outside and said "Hi Elders". If that one lil girl never had talked to us we wouldn't have found any of those members!

Another story...we went to the first counselor of President Fermanis (President Mascara) because he lives in our ward. We shared scriptures with three of his grandkids. Before we started to teach they were being kinda bad. When we started I shared a scripture about commandments. 

After we read the scripture I asked President Mascara to share what he thought about the scripture to his grandkids. He said we need to be obedient and follow all of God's commandments. He asked his lil 5 year old granddaughter "Are you gonna be obedient and follow all the things the Lord wants us to do?" She didn't answer. She just stood up and started cleaning up all the toys from earlier and that's all she started to do. I guess that was her answer haha. She was gonna follow what her Lolo (Grandpa) and what the Lord says. 

There's a scripture in Moroni in the Book of Mormon that talks about how Christ feels about lil kids. In Moroni 8:17 it says "And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love wherefore, all children are alike unto me wherefore, I love children with perfect love, and they are all alike and partakers of salvation." 

It says in The Book of Mormon several times that we need to become as little children because they have the light of Christ in them. Seeing all these little kids this week has definitely helped me see that in them. 

I'm doing good here! Love ya guys!

-Elder Espiritu

Notes from our video chat with Elder Espiritu:

While teaching one of their investigators, Jenny, Elder Espiritu talked about his older sister, Breanna who was stillborn (she would have been 25 this year) and his nephew Tristan who died of SIDS at 5 weeks old four years ago. 

He taught Jenny that although they both passed away, he will be with them forever because of the gospel. This thought made Elder Espiritu really emotional. He told us he felt the Spirit so strongly he almost cried while teaching.

He loves training and he has a really good trainee in Elder Dumanjug! Elder Dumanjug soaks up everything Elder Espiritu teaches him and is so hardworking. Although he loves training, he also said it comes with responsibility since now the buck stops with him in their companionship. He is learning how to lead by example and relationship skills he knows will help him in his life. He loves the opportunity to serve! 

Last Pday we went to the crocodile
farm so here's some pics

My boy, Elder Dango and I 

Went on a hike this morning with the district 

Elder Heward and I. He's from
South Jordan and went to Bingham 

Utah boys 

Figuring Out Our Area

This was a really good week for Elder Dumanjug and me. I feel like I finally know this area pretty well. It's a lot easier to plan out all our days here haha. 

We found a lot of less active members and got to share with them. We went to one member earlier last week. It was the first time I've met her so when she came to the door she told us to come in. She introduced us to her husband who isn't a member, but he's from Austin, Texas. He's a pretty big dude so when I saw him I was really confused, and he was kinda tan so for a second I thought he was Filipino. I spoke to him in Tagalog and he looked so confused. Then I realized he was from the States haha.

His real name was really hard to pronounce so I forgot it but his nickname was RJ. Elder Dumanjug and I got to know him really well. He and I talked about stuff from America. Elder Dumanjug loved it because he really wants to go to America some day. He loved us talking about our country to him. Rj is a really cool guy and kept talking to me about politics. 

I tried to ask him what he liked to do. He said he was into computer games and video games so I tried to see if I knew all about the games he kept bringing up. He was just going off about all the different types of games. He said growing up he wasn't a religious guy, but he was willing to listen to the scripture we had to share. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it on his flight back to America the next day. Hopefully he reads it.

Back when Elder Nimenzo was here we found two sisters (Ferlin)that haven't been to church since they were little girls. Now they have kids and they're a lot older. We've been visiting them and all their cousins, nephews, and nieces. They've started to come back to church every week. They're so nice and every Sunday many of the kids come to church and they love it there. 

Elder Dumanjug and I have found a lot of new people to teach. We taught a ton of lessons this week and where busy. This upcoming week we are packed with appointments! Yesterday alone Elder Dumanjug and I set up 15 appointments for  this week. The work is good and our teaching pool is getting a lot better!

I've been focusing on how we need to have patience in our lives. If we have trust in Him and submit to His will we can become happy. 

I realized I have no patience at all so I've been studying it a lot every day. I found a scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 101:38 and it says "And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye posses your souls, and ye shall have eternal life." 

From this scripture I've come to realize how much patience our Father in Heaven has for us. He's not saying "dang why do they keep on making that same mistake"? He has patience for all of us, because He loves us all so much. 

As children of God we're not perfect. So that means we have to be patient in our lives, especially with others. As we have patience with others we all can become closer not just to each other but to Heavenly Father. 

I'm grateful for the patience of Heavenly Father for me and I'm grateful to be here in the Philippines and the opportunity to teach about THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST to all these people! 

Have a good week everyone and if anyone needs anything let me know!

-Elder Espiritu 

Service project

 some of the kids that come to church with us

we helped this nay and tay pound some bean things
(idk what they called)

our area

Elder Espiritu's next mission president this coming
July was his uncle Fred's first district leader
in Belgium in 1987! Here they are pictured at a
2008 mission reunion.

The Taal volcano within the Manila Mission boundary erupted last week. Elder Espiritu is in an area south of it and was fortunately not affected. Our prayers go out to those who have been.

We are grateful for Sister Fermanis, the mission president's wife. She is always so good at keeping our families updated!

Happy New Year 2020

Jan. 6, 2019

Happy New Year everyone!

It's crazy to think that it's 2020 now. I realized that I'm going to be here in the Philippines this whole year, I thought that was pretty cool. 

On New Year's Eve I had exchanges with Elder Torres, the new zone leader. He's a Filipino and he's awesome. We went to a lot of the people the zone leaders are teaching. We went to Rodell and Hannah (people they're teaching).

They are a couple who just barely had a baby and they're really progressing. Rodell wants to join the Marines so he's waiting to apply. He's really nice. I think he's the only person here that hasn't made fun of my accent when I speak Tagalog so I like that dude a lot. Our lesson went really well. We talked about the Resurrection and he understood it well. 

I didn't know how loud it was here for New Years. Everyone goes crazy! Everyone revs their motors and blows these horns. There's some fireworks too! Here they start doing firecrackers in the afternoon of New Year's eve and they are super loud and sound like gun shots. So the first couple times I heard them I got so freaked out and thought we were being shot at. Elder Torres told me what they were and just made fun of me haha. 

(Filipinos have a superstition if they jump when it's New Years they will get taller so this is Elder Torres jumping when it was New Years hahah) 

Elder Dumanjug and I had a really good week. I realized once I got him out of his shell he's freaking funny and people love him here. He's doing really well. He's such a good missionary. He's killing it and teaches with such power and authority. 

There's a couple of people we are focusing on and that's Tatay Morata, May, and Clark. Taytay Morata's wife is a member but he's not. I met him my first week in this area and with this new year he said he really wants to change. I've seen him change over time and wanting to listen to us. He's really cool and I'm sure he's going to progress well. And then May and clark. May is Clark's mom. They've been taught by Elders in the past so they know a lot already. Clark is 18 and he seems interested just like his mom. 

The last time we visited them, we talked to them about faith and it was such a good lesson. The Spirit was so strong. Elder Dumanjug and I had a whole different lesson planned but literally last second we changed it. It showed me that the Holy Ghost truly does guide us in our lives if we seek His guidance. 

I'm really excited for this new year! I'm grateful for all your support while I'm here!

-Elder Espiritu 

Other snippets from the family’s video chat with Dallin:

There are around 194 missionaries in the Manila Mission. He said about half are in Manila (the big city) and half are on the islands of Palawan (where Dallin is).

He mentioned that a lot of extended families in his area live close by each other so when they teach, it’s convenient to get referrals.

He said he they are also teaching two sisters with the last name of Ferlin.

He really enjoys being in the Santa Monica First Ward. Members are so nice and very helpful in doing missionary work. It makes a difference when they have the support of the bishopric and the members. 

He and his companion share the apartment with the Zone Leaders, Elder Larson (from Arizona) and Elder Torres (from Dumaguete, Negros Occidental, Philippines). 

Both his trainee/companion, Elder Dumanjug and the Zone Leader, Elder Torres are Visayan. Both elders have spoken to Dallin’s Mom (Belenda) over video chat in Visayan (one of the 8 major languages in the Philippines). Belenda & his brother, Joseph (served in Laoag Philippines) chats with Dallin in Tagalog. 

Elder Larson and I

New Years Eve

a member invited us for breakfast
at this beach on New Years day