Elder Dallin Espiritu: 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!