Sunday, December 16, 2018

NEW COMP

December 17, 2018

So on Thursday, I said goodbye to Elder Johnson and I got my new companion Elder Ferrer! He is quite the opposite from Elder Johnson. He's coming in at a whopping 5' 4" weighing 99 lbs. This is his last cycle in the mission, so we will only be companions for 6 weeks. He's a super talented guy! He is insanely gifted when it comes to drawing and cooking. I walked upstairs one day and saw this crazy amazing oil pastel... I asked him how long it took him to make, and he said 30 minutes! CRAZY! Next week I'll have to send a pic of some of his work. He understand English pretty good, but doesn't speak it too well. This has actually been a blessing for me because now I speak Tagalog almost all the time and I can already see my Tagalog improving a lot. Earlier this morning, I took Elder Ferrer to the gym for the first time in his life going, ever... haha. He was scared. But no one was there except for us so that made him a little more comfortable, and I was able to teach him some things. I'm not sure if we'll be going back next week though... haha. 

Christmas is super close! I hope you all have a great Christmas season! Don't forget to read Luke 2! 

Monday, December 10, 2018

Training is almost done?!?!?

December 10, 2018

Crazy this is the last week of my 12 week training! I've learned a lot, but my Tagalog still needs a lot of work. I'm beginning to understand the majority of what the Filipinos say so I'm super happy about that. The first cycle went by kind of slow, but this cycle has flown by! Tomorrow I'll get a call and find out who my new companion is and then transfers are on Thursday! I'm excited but nervous!

On Wednesday, I had exchanges again with my good friend Elder Grant! It also happened to be his birthday so that was really cool! We started out the day with a trail run to this awesome view - unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera! Afterwards, we played some basketball with our companions. We did our studies, and then I led my area and we did some really good work. We taught some good lessons and I was super happy that I was able to understand pretty much everything that day. Elder Grant and I were able to give good lessons. I prayed earlier for the gift of understanding and I could really tell that the Lord helped me out that day, because the next day, my understanding was not nearly as good as it was the previous day with Elder Grant. 

Crazy that it's so close to Christmas. Sometimes I forget the time of year it is when the temperature here is in the 80s! I hope all of you have a great Christmas and make sure you #LIGHTTHEWORLD

Mahal ko po kayo!

Thursday, December 6, 2018

4 months whaaaaat!

December 3, 2018


Four months already?!?! That's crazy! 

This week was a pretty good one. Elder Johnson and I are making really good progress in our area. We found this awesome couple that accepted an invitation to be baptized on January 26th and I'm pretty sure they will make that goal! We even accidentally left a whole bag of bananas that a member gave us at their house and when they texted us we told them they could keep them and they were super happy! 

On Friday, there was a brownout in the middle of the night that lasted for 2 hours! A brownout is just what they call a power outage here. Let me tell ya, in the Philippines, you need a fan by your bed at night or it is crazy hot. I know it's snowing and is way cold back in the states, but the Philippines is allergic to the cold so they don't really like it or something. Anyways, I wasn't able to sleep for those 2 hours, :( but when I heard the sound of the fan coming back on, I was on cloud nine. Brownout's are pretty common, but usually will only last for like 20 minutes and don't happen at night that much. I decided to buy this pamaypay (which is a woven fan thing) from this person we were teaching. It's my best friend when there's a brownout and it only cost my 10 pisos. Which would be like 20 cents in USA haha! 

My companionship with Elder Johnson is coming to an end. Transfer day is December 13! Crazy how the time flies! 


Wednesday, November 28, 2018

BINYAG!!

Monday, November 26, 2018

If for some weird reason you don't speak Tagalog, binyag means baptize or baptism. SO YES, I got my first baptism on Saturday! I was actually able to baptize two of the members of an AMAZING family. I'm not allowed to say last names, but the family's first names are Prudencio (Dad), Belgean (Mom), Crystal (Daughter), Heart Joy(Daughter). I had the honor of baptizing Crystal and Heart Joy! They are so so so awesome! The whole family turned around their life after hearing the gospel. They quit all word of wisdom habits immediately, and even stopped selling coffee and cigarettes at their little humble tindahan -- a very small store of little things you can buy at someones house -- even though coffee and cigarettes are really big sellers. They are super poor and the dad works really hard to provide for the family, but he stopped working on Sunday when we told them about keeping the Sabbath day holy. They truly are a golden family. The baptismal service was awesome, and afterwards, they bore their testimonies. POWERFUL! Holy cow the Spirit was there. The mom talked about how she and her daughter used to always fight and now they're best friends after hearing the gospel. The daughter talked about how at first she hated Church, but now she needs it her life. The father shared his testimony about how he knows his family can be together forever. This was definitely the best days of the mission. Elder Johnson and I walked back feeling so so happy! It was awesome! 

I have learned so much from this amazing family and I'm so blessed to have been able to be an instrument in the Lord's hand in testifying about the gospel. I honestly don't know if I will be able to top a baptism like this one, during the rest of my mission! 

Pics:

A happy Elder Wolferts and Elder Johnson
The family and me and Elder Johnson. Feat. Bishop and some random dog
THE AMAZING FAMILY

Monday, November 19, 2018

Zone Conference and Hospitals...

This week felt like it flew by! My comp was super sick this week and so our mission president told him to get tested for parasites. Wednesday, we only went to one appointment, and then he was looking terrible so we went back to the apartment. We played some chess and listened to some Christmas music, haha... it was awesome! Then at around 7 p.m. there was a brownout -- which is when there's no power. It was super dark so we decided to do what any teenage boys would do when there's no power... tell scary stories! Haha... so after a while, telling stories, Elder Johnson was in the middle of telling a really good one, and I was on the edge of the seat... when BOOM the power comes back! At our apartment we have something called a jetmatic, that pumps water so we can use our faucet, but when it's getting water for us it makes the LOUDEST sound. So...when the power came back on, the jetmatic made the sound right at the same time all the lights and fans came on. It scared us to death! We both jumped like crazy, hahaha! 

The next day we went to a hospital in Lopez to have Elder Johnson tested for parasites. The hospital we went to is not much of a hospital. When we went in the testing lab, it was super dirty and not very sanitary at all. It's crazy the things we take for granted in the states! When we got his test results back, we found out he had... nothing. Haha... they just told him to stop drinking soda and eating fatty foods. So we waited for like 4 hours for nothing.

We also had Zone Conference this week! It was good and it was super fun to see some of the Elder's from my batch. After zone con we went to a place called "Dadbod" with the whole zone. They have huge burgers and they're actually pretty good, for the Philippines, so that was fun! 

We also got zone jerseys for basketball! Haha...when we play, Elder Grant wrecks me, but it's still fun to play every Saturday morning! 


Monday, November 12, 2018

Book of Mormon

November 12, 2018

This week I completed the Book of Mormon! Wow, it was so awesome to read it in 3 months and actually study it with real intent, starting out my reading sessions with prayers! It's funny how everything makes sense and connects when you actually consistently read the BOM! I took Moroni's challenge, after reading it, and my heart just started pounding. When I finished my prayer, I didn't even realize that I was a little teary eyed hahaha! ITS TRUE PEOPLE... IT IS TRUE! 

That same heart pounding way, of feeling the spirit, has happened to me a lot. On Tuesday, I was reciting the first vision in Tagalog, like I've done dozens of times, but for some reason my heart just started pounding a lot, and not because I was nervous that I would forget it. Then, I started choking up a little bit, and I imagined Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! After I finished, I looked at the person we were teaching and by the look on his face, he obviously felt something, and then I looked at my comp and he was CRYING! So awesome! If you don't have a testimony of Joseph Smith and the BOM, I strongly encourage you to pray about them because I KNOW they're true! 

LOVE YOU ALL

Pic of a district lunch we had! Tasty! 

Pictures of our apartment.





Monday, November 5, 2018

Elder Grant and I Were Companions!!!

November 5, 2018
Haha... Elder Grant and I were only companions for one day, but it's still crazy that it happened! Since my companion is the district leader, I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with everyone in the district and Elder Grant, of course, is in my district... So the last Tuesday of the cycle, we got to be companions! We were both a little nervous because of the language barrier, but we killed it! The day started out with a morning run around the super cool Philippines scenery, and then back to the apartment for some good studies, AND THEN the real challenge, proselyting! I did so much better with the language than I thought I would, and I understood a good amount! Elder Grant and I were able to find 7 new people to teach and we taught some really cool lessons! 

Halloween came around, and looking around here in San Pablo, I couldn't tell a difference haha... so that was kind of disappointing! But they have All Souls Day on Nov 1st which is when they go visit their dead ancestors and put lit up candles outside their doors, I guess one for each person they knew that died that year or something, and for me, it was a little sad to see all the candles everywhere! The next day, Nov 2nd, is All Saints Day, which is just an excuse for everyone to drink and get crazy, so we had a curfew at 6 pm. Luckily, we have a chess set at our house. I don't know if all of you are familiar with my chess skills, and I don't mean to brag or anything, but I was 6th grade chess champion! No big deal (it's actually kind of a big deal! Haha...) so it's fun seeing my comp, who's actually pretty good, get super frustrated with me when I play him. It's been years since I have played, but it's so fun! 

The language is getting there, People! Yesterday, I taught a whole lesson by myself after a dinner appointment. They are members, so they pretty much knew everything I was teaching, but HEY, it's improvement! 

Mahal ko kayo! Ang totoong simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga huling araw!!

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

1st Cycle Completed!

October 29, 2018

So, on Wednesday, I will have completed my first cycle in the field! Crazy how fast 6 weeks goes by! Through all my mistakes, my Tagalog is finally getting decent! haha! Understanding Tagalog is still hard because they speak so dang fast! But my comp, Elder Johnson, said that I am learning way fast, compared to most American's, and there was even one lesson, where he said I didn't make any grammatical errors during the lesson, which I'm sure was my first time ever -- even though I still don't talk nearly as much as my comp does in lessons! I'm so excited to be able to speak and understand the language well enough, to the point that I will be able to learn about those I teach and express to them just how much I love this gospel and how happy it's made me, and also to be able to speak well enough to just become friends with them! 

Last Friday, I went on exchanges with this Filipino, Elder Agustin. This was my first time leading the area, and it was kinda stressful, but it turned out alright. Something cool that happened is when we were tracting, we found this family and the father had just passed away 40 days earlier, at the age of 28. I can't imagine how devastating that would be. We usually teach about the Restoration of the Gospel, but I felt impressed to shift the lesson and talk about The Plan of Salvation. As Elder Agustin and I explained The Plan briefly, the Spirit was so strong and the woman started crying when we testified that she would be able to see her husband again. THE GOSPEL IS AWESOME! 

Also, last Tuesday I got to see all my missionary batch again because it was the 5 week checkup -- this is where the Mission President checks in on us and makes sure we're doing everything we're supposed to. It was so fun to hear of everyone's struggles and successes, and I got to see my Provo MTC comp, Elder Linton, haha!! he's the best!

Mahal ko kayo!

Me, my MTC comp, Elder Linton, and Elder Grant

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

One Month in the Field

October 22, 2018

This month has gone by fast, but when I look back I've done sooo much! Walked A TON! Easily eaten more rice than I have in my whole life! Struggled with the language, and also discovered that I was better than I thought at Tagalog in some things... haha! Oh, and also every morning for breakfast I eat oatmeal, and it's honestly the best! haha I love oatmeal and I have really mastered it! I buy these little cinnamon packets and brown sugar to put in my oatmeal. Then Elder Grant and I share this fruit drink called Tang and we just talk, it's honestly the best! 

But Mom, if you think that's all I cook you are wrong! I've perfected cooking rice! It only took me burning it three times haha! Also Elder Grant's companion is a native Filipino and has been cooking his whole life so he is teaching us some pointers! 

This week we had Zone Conference, and once a year a member of the seventy comes, and this happened to be that time. So Elder Teh of the seventy came and it was super awesome! He talked to us a lot about having the Spirit with us and relying on it to help us in our lessons, as well as to not rush through lessons. Silence in lessons is always okay! This is when the Spirit often works the most. 

CHURCH IS SO SO TRUE!!! I have learned so much over these almost 3 months and there are so many things that I do now in my everyday that I want to keep doing after my mission!

 Mahal ko kayo!

Award for cleanest apartment! 

Sunday, October 14, 2018

General Conference!

I know everyone saw General Conference last week, but here in the Philippines they broadcast it the following week because we are 14 hours ahead of Mountain Daylight time. It was so awesome to watch conference as a missionary, and it was nice to finally hear some uninterrupted English for a couple hours haha. This was the first Conference that I can say I intently listened to all the talks! Super cool! We are so blessed to be living in a time of abundant revelation. The 2 hour block with the family integrated teaching system is a great idea and I feel like it will work really well! Also, it was so exciting to hear of all the new temples to be built! The hardest recent revelation from our prophet, to implement in the Philippines, is the name course correction. We always introduce ourselves as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and 90% of the time they have no idea who we are until we say the word Mormons and then they're like Ohhhhh Mormons! So my companion and I said we're never going to refer to ourselves as Mormons and we will just let them be confused until we show them The Book of Mormon... haha. It's funny because when President Monson was the prophet I couldn't picture anyone else taking his place, but now that President Nelson is the prophet, I can't think of any man more fit for the role. I know these men are called of God!

So I've had some things that I have not yet told my Mom about (sorry Mom) like chicken intestines, which aren't actually that bad. But I was on exchanges with Elder Grant's companion, Elder Rebuya, and he "treated" me to some grilled chicken blood liver and chicken intestines from this little side row bbq grill stand that was a little sketchier than usual. I ate it, of course, and it wasn't actually bad. Well that's what my taste buds said, but later on that's not what my stomach said. That night I was feeling fine until around 10:30, when I was going to bed, my stomach started killing me. I took some stomach relief medication and tried to get some sleep. I couldn't fall asleep all night and then finally around 1:30am I got up to go to the bathroom and puked a bunch in the toilet... GROSS! Hahaha... after that I was able to get some sleep, and then I felt fine when I woke up. My body still needs to adjust a little more before I eat more of that! 

CHURCH IS TRUE! Never forget it! Love you all! 

I realized I haven't send a good pic of my comp and me!
Gross spider!
It's Christmas time baby! Haha... From Sept-Dec they celebrate Christmas here!

Monday, October 8, 2018

Spiders in Lopez...

This week went by really fast actually!

My companion is the district leader, so I do a lot of exchanges with other missionaries and proselyte in different areas. Tuesday, I was in a city called Calauag. It was a super cool experience, but the kids LOVEEE Americans here, even more than they do here in Lopez, so they would follow us around and listen as we taught other people! Haha they always say phrases like, "What's up" "How are you" "Hey Jo"... They're funny!

The rest of the days this week were pretty standard! My Tagalog is getting better, but there's still SO MUCH improvement needed. Understanding Filipinos, as they speak, is extremely difficult. It's hard to know when one word ends and another begins because they talk so so so fast! 

Oh, one day I got back from proselyting, and as I was walking upstairs to change, I almost stepped on this HUGE spider haha! It scared me so bad! Elder Grant's Filipino companion told me not to kill it, but I wasn't looking to wake up with that thing on my face soooo... I killed it haha! 

This week was good! We haven't viewed conference yet because we don't get it until a week later! I did hear that church will only be 2 hours, starting next year, so that's exciting!

Love you all! 



Monday, October 1, 2018

First week in the field!


First full week is finally completed! It was a long week! 

On Monday, my companion and I traveled to San Pablo City for district leader training because my comp is the district leader. It was a 5 hour bus ride, and had to spend the night so we went to stay at the zone leaders apartment with 8 other elders. SLEEP OVER! Haha... we laid out all these mattresses and then played monopoly... AND Elder Wolferts took the W! 

Tuesday, I sat through the 5 hour district leader training, but then afterward we got to have real pizza, so that was good. Then we made the long bus ride back to where we live.

Wednesday through Saturday, we were back to a normal schedule and got a lot of work done. I'm still rocking the broken Tagalog, but I have faith that I will learn... eventually. 

Sunday, I was asked to bear my testimony and I felt like I was able to express myself really well! The ward is super nice, I just wish I could talk with them more!

I hope everything is going well for all of you in the states! The church is absolutely true!


Filipino Views

FILIPINO KIDS! haha... they're awesome!

 I rode this sick rail road cart thing to an appointment! It was like riding a roller coaster!

Sunday, September 23, 2018

In The Field

September 24, 2018

Holy cow I've been busy! We didn't get a p-day before we went into the field, and then we just barely missed it when we got there, so it's been almost 2 weeks! But for the rest of the mission my p-day will be on Monday, Philippines time, or Sunday night in the states!

I don't have a lot of time to talk, but here's a quick run down of the last 2 weeks!
  • I had balut (an egg that the embryo is allowed to develop, then boiled and eaten from the shell) the last night at the Manila MTC and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm definitely not crazy about it.
  • I traveled to San Pablo and met my mission presidents, President and Sister Davies! They are so so awesome! 
  • I am assigned to the Lopez 4th ward area and GUESS WHAT! Elder Grant has been assigned to the Lopez 1st ward and they are right next to each other and so we room together, which means I will be seeing him every day for the next 12 weeks, at least...so that is so so awesome! 
  • My trainer is Elder Johnson and he's a cool guy, but is definitely an introvert. I'm trying to get to know him better. 
I have been busy with learning the language, walking everywhere, being sweaty 24/7, having random rain storms come out of no where, and making people laugh with my terrible Tagalog. It frustrates me to not be able to communicate what I want to say to the people of the Philippines, and then look like a "dear in the headlights" when they talk a million miles an hour. 

I miss everyone so much!

If you ever want to send me something the mission address is:

Philippines San Pablo Mission
Km. 73 National Highway
Brgy. San Juan
Alaminos, Laguna 4001
Philippines

Eating balut with Elder Grant
Elder Grant and his compaion, me, my companion and the other companionship we live with

New batch of San Pablo Missionaries at the mission home




Tuesday, September 11, 2018

First Week in Manila

September 10, 2018

This week has gone by really fast! I like it better here in Manila than I did at the Provo MTC. Everyone here is super nice, especially all the Filipinos! The culture is awesome and the food is good for the most part. Except one night, they served us just a fried fish that hadn't been gutted or anything and it had it's head and skin and everything! This one elder was trying to get everyone to eat the fish head whole and he said it was really good, but we all knew it wasn't. Then he popped four fish heads in his mouth, and with a fake smile and a little bit of gag, he said, "see, it's good..." Then 30 seconds later he threw up! hahaha... so that was nice. I've eaten more rice this week than I've had in the last year! They give you a TON of rice with each meal! 

I'm in a trio and both my companions are really cool! There's Elder Stewart, who is from a small town in Utah that I'd never heard of. He is really quiet, but super funny when you get to talk to him. Then there's Elder Astudillo from Chile, who apparently is the first person from Latin America to be called to the Philippines. If that's true then that's way cool! He is the funniest guy. He taught himself English a couple years ago and is super good at it! 

The Manila temple is super pretty and majestic looking! I was able to do an endowment session and it was so cool! When people go there to do work in the temple, they have the men wear these cool white shirts that have designs on them, and you don't tuck in the shirts or wear any ties! We visited the temple later and I got to practice my Tagalog with some of the members there. It was a cool and humbling experience! They are such a happy people and love talking with Americans.

In one week I'll be done with my MTC experience! Crazy how fast it goes by! Can't wait to see the people of San Pablo!! 


Manila Temple
Super awesome family I talked to that had the cutest little girl!
First Mangoes in the Philippines! SO SO GOOD!
Some funny artwork of Sponge Bob, Patrick and Squidward, my comps and I found! 




Thursday, September 6, 2018

Philippine Bound

I safely arrived in the Philippines!! The humidity hits you hard when you get to the country, but I can already tell I'm going to love it here!

2 super cool things occurred while I was traveling to the Philippines:

1. I just got done eating some Panda Express in LAX, when one of my good friends Elder Browning came up to me and told me he had been trying to give out a Book of Mormon for around 30 minutes and was having no luck. He asked me if I wanted to join him, and of course I said yes! I said a silent little prayer, while we were walking, to be able to feel something different when I see the person who needs to hear a quick message and receive a Book of Mormon. We walked around for awhile with no spiritual vibes, and then we saw a big group of missionaries who were walking over to our gate, and asked us if we wanted to come. We told them, sure and went to go get our stuff, which was just past the food court, and as I was walking by the food court, I looked and saw a couple who was probably in their 40s, smiling at me, and I smiled back at them for the brief second. The spirit told me that these were the people that needed to hear the gospel. Elder Browning and I got to where our stuff was, and I told him that we had to go back to the couple because they were the ones who needed The Book of Mormon. The couple weren't really the nicest looking people that you would think would be the ones to accept a gospel message, but I knew the Spirit told me they were the ones... so without even thinking I approached them and talked to them. I asked them some basic get to know you questions and then I told them that I was prompted to talk to them. Well as we talked a little more, it turns out these two people, Eric and Claudia, had been watching us and were wanting to ask us questions about why we were here and why we looked so happy, but hadn't had the courage to ask us. Elder Browning and Elder Grant, who was also with us, chimed in and we all told them why we were here and what our message was. We gave Eric a Book of Mormon and he told us he would read it and treasure it. He told us that while talking to us, he felt something special and that he knew we believed what we had taught them. So Eric and Claudia were super cool...

2. During my flight to the Philippines, we had random seats in the middle rows of the airplane - 4 seats to each row. I sat next to Sister Hale, a Sister in my district who also going to San Pablo. The seating in our row was me, Sister Hale, a guy named Terry, and then Terry's wife. Terry is a super smart native Filipino who speaks 7 languages fluently and has had an all around successful life. He has been a devoted Catholic, and as we struck up a conversation with him, it started out with him trying to preach to us his beliefs, and it felt almost as if he was trying to convert us. But, long story short, after 3 hours of talking to him with Sister Hale, while the whole rest of the plane was sleeping, he began asking us all of these questions about our church. I found an opportunity to bear to him my testimony and tell him the story of Joseph Smith. As I did so, I felt the Spirit prompt me to say what I needed to say. It was so awesome! Scriptures kept coming to my mind that perfectly answered his questions. Later, Sister Hale and I both told each other we felt the Spirit so strongly as we talked to Terry. At one point, he asked us for a Book of Mormon, and luckily Sister Hale had an extra one. At this point, we slept for a little bit, and then probably talked to Terry for another couple hours about life and about the gospel. As we pulled into the airport in the Philippines, Terry asked us if he would be able to be a missionary and excitedly, we told him yes, he and his wife can serve a mission. He asked how this can happen, and we said that he and his wife will have to learn more about the church and then, be baptized. He excitedly asked, "When can I be baptized? I want to be baptized!" WOW SO COOL!! Haha we exchanged contact information and told him we would refer him to some missionaries in Cebu, where he and his wife live. 



During our conversation, Terry also gave Sister Hale and me four pieces of advice to be successful in life, and I thought it was so cool so I will share them with you. He said:

1. Show others you care. Interact with them.
2. Be optimistic. 
3. Smile.
4. Always pray.




The Philippines MTC is super cool. Upon arriving, I got to see my cousin Elder Lewis who was so nice to welcome me with a bag of treats! Also, the food here is so much better than the food at the Provo MTC... but I hear they serve balut here so I'm a little nervous for that. I didn't really sleep a whole lot on the plane because I was talking to Terry so much, and I was so so tired yesterday, but they let us go to bed at 7 and I slept for11 hours last night, which was nice. 

There's more I want to say, but this email is already so long! 
I think yesterday with Eric Claudia and Terry I was able to get a little taste of missionary work and how exciting it is. I couldn't be happier for this opportunity to help others come unto Christ, as I've already done in my life, and allow them to feel the same happiness from it that I feel everyday! 

The Church is true.

Saturday, September 1, 2018

LAST P-DAY IN AMERICA

August 31, 2018

Holy how the time flies!! This Monday I leave for the Manila MTC where I'll stay for 12 days! Not really looking forward to a flight to LAX, followed by an 8 hour layover, then followed by a 17 hour flight, that will put my in a country where their timezone is 14 hours ahead. If I did the math correctly, I should arrive around 7am in the morning in Manila. If I know the MTC, rather than having time to unpack and settle in, they will most likely just throw me into some more classes when I get there.
With that being said... I COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED!! I am so ready to go to the Philippines!!!

It seems like every single time I lie in bed I think to myself, "Wow that was a long day", but then it also seems like every time I go to write my weekly email I think to myself, "Wow this week went by fast!" so I guess that's the MTC for you! Crazy that I've been here a month!! 

For me, I think I get mad at myself when I'm not good at something. If any of you know me well, then you know that I like to be good at the things I do. Tagalog is a difficult language and sometimes I get mad at myself when I can't remember things or I don't know what to say. I definitely feel like I've been making some really good progress with the language, but I also maybe thought I should be at a better level by now. UNTIL... one day in class, my companion and I gave a lesson. This was the first "no notes" lesson that we did, and we just went in with a few memorized phrases, a handful of words, and a reliance on the Spirit. Our  lesson flowed so well and it was crazy how I was able to form sentences and bear my testimony in Tagalog, in ways that I hadn't studied before or planned to do in the lesson. When the lesson was over my teacher got wide eyed and said, "That was one of the best lessons I have ever heard at the MTC." She said she didn't want to puff us up, because there is always room for improvement, but that she was so impressed with our progression in the language. This was such a self-esteem booster for me and put me on a "spiritual high". BUT obviously this was not just Elder Wolferts and his little training, but rather The Holy Ghost guiding me with what to say. The gift of tongues is real, but it requires work and faith to become apparent.

Also, my love for The Book of Mormon has become so so real over this past month! If there is one thing that I regret not doing before the mission, it's reading The Book of Mormon without complete real intent. I read it daily, but often times it was a right before I fell asleep kind of a thing, where I only read 20 or so verses and have about a 10% retention rate of what I had just read. As I've studied it for around an hour each day while I'm wide awake, beginning with a prayer, a highlighter in my hand, and a desire to learn, I have leaned to love The Book of Mormon so much. It is incredible. Everyday I look forward to the time where I get to read it. If you are not reading it right now with real intent, please do. I promise you will be blessed and be happier every time you read it.

Wow -- sorry for the long email filled with no funny experiences!! I guess I just felt like sharing spiritual experiences this time!!!

Also, Mom and company, don't hate me because I took ZERO pics this week haha! I promise I'll have some pics in Manila next week!

Love you all!!

Friday, August 24, 2018

LEAVING EARLY!!!

This week was a good one! 


On Sunday we were given the exciting news that some of us will be leaving for the Manila MTC on September 3rd! 10 DAYS!! I'm super excited because things in the MTC get super repetitive and I'm ready to shake things up a bit. The reason we are going early is because there are so many Philippines missionaries and only a certain number of visas can be accepted at a time, so lucky people like me get to go a couple of weeks early. We'll spend an extra week at the Manila MTC, so I'll be there for 12 days! Meaning in about 3 weeks I'll be in the field!!! 

On Saturdays, instead of having a night class, we have it in the morning instead, so we have a lot of time to chill in the evening. My district and I started a weekly "Family Home Evening" on Saturday nights, where we get our studies done early and for the last hour of chill time, we sit in a circle out on the grass - and thanks to my awesome sister and parents who hooked me up with an ipod nano and a speaker full of hundreds of church songs - we jam out to some spiritual songs and eat a lot of snacks and talk! Haha it's seriously the best time and it reminds me of talking to my friends and family, because that has been what my district has become to me. They're seriously so awesome!

On Tuesday Elder Christofferson came to the MTC and talked about the recent statement made from President Nelson that we are not "Mormons" or "LDS", but members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He emphasized that this is not a name change, but a course correction on previous mistakes. He also said that President Nelson received revelation that the Lord is not pleased with us for not addressing ourselves correctly, regarding The Church. This makes perfect since to me, because I don't wear Mormon's name over my heart everyday, but rather the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It was also cool because I was probably about 20 feet to the left of Elder Christofferson, front row, as he addressed this vital message.

Wednesday was a great day because ELDER MURDOCK came! Hahaha... I was so happy and eager to see him because I talked to this super cool guy in the branch presidency who happens to have lived in Kaysville. He told me there was another elder from Kaysville coming, and then I told him that he's one of my best friends. I asked him where he will be staying, and it turned out that he is in my hall! It was so good to see Jake and talk to him!!

I miss you all so much! 

Love,

Elder Wolferts


PICS:


Goodbye to Elder Jensen :-/

Elder Murdock!!!

Elder Linton needed to get a new retainer, so we got to go into the "real world" and get SLUSHIES!

Elders from Davis High School!




Friday, August 17, 2018

MTC LIVIN'

Each day here seems to go by kind of slow, but then when I look back at things it seems like last p-day was only a couple days ago! I finally consider myself fully adjusted to the MTC. This week my companion Elder Linton and I have really become best friends! We both told each other that there's no one in the district that we'd rather have as companions! Which is saying something because my district is so awesome! We're all super close and love to laugh with each other! 

A couple funny stories that happened this week: There's this super funny elder who's Samoan named Elder Kamiti! This guy is a nut job haha! He's got all these nerf guns he brought and he'll always find opportunities to shoot you with them! He doesn't speak very good English, but we love him and he is so funny to talk to. Anyways, one night while we're getting ready for bed, he pops his head in our door and points at me and says, "Can I pop back?" At the moment my back could use a good crack, so I agreed. He ends up doing this 5 minute massage on my back and then tells me to breathe in, and then when he says breathe out, he pushes down on my back and the LOUDEST series of cracks follow. Everyone who was watching was like "Oooohhh... Dang! are you alright?!" But it felt so good haha! 
Also this same Elder and another Samoan Elder came into our room last night and jumped up on Elder Browning's bed, who rooms with us, and together they sandwich hugged him! He was like, "Get off me!" and they were both like, "Whhaattt, do you not like oreos?" Hahaha... I was laughing super hard and my companion got a vid of it!

Now time for the spiritual stuff! On Wednesday we were reading about how the Gospel Blesses Families in PMG. We read it as a district in class and it is stuff that I've heard a bunch, but never in my life have I felt the spirit testify of the truth of it as it did when we read that short passage. I kept looking back at the words trying to see if there was something that I hadn't picked up the first time, but it was all fairly basic things that I've been taught all my life. While I was overwhelmed with the spirit, I couldn't help but think that this was going to be a life changing concept to the people of the Philippines, as it's clearly already changed my life. I love this gospel and there is no other place on Earth that the Lord would rather have me be.

Love you guys! Love reading your emails! Thanks for all the support!

Elder Trevin Wolferts


Pics: I finally got a camera! Soo this is only 2 days worth so I'll have more next week!



1. Finally, a really good breakfast in the temple cafeteria!
2. Temple trip with Elder Linton

3. Elder Kaden Argyle
4. Davis High School Elders!! Elder Grant and Elder Hinton



Friday, August 10, 2018

NINE DAYS IN!

Hello everyone!! The days of this past week seemed to go by so much faster than the first couple days I was here. I finally have an established missionary schedule and I'm finally breaking out of my bad habits of going to bed late and sleeping in as opposed to the new daily schedule as a missionary, where I'm the first one in bed around 10ish and I get up at 6:30 every morning. 

This week has been a crazy one, but a good one! On Sunday Dallin H Oaks daughter, who is a world class violinist, came to the MTC to perform some spiritual songs with her family -- each plays a different instrument. She also talked to us about overcoming adversary and relying on the Lord. It was super inspiring! Every Sunday night at the MTC we watch a different spiritual video and on Sunday, we watched "Character of Christ" a Christmas hour long talk that Elder Bednar gave at the Provo MTC a couple years ago. Watching it was life changing for me. Holy cow, never have I ever heard a better talk that struck me as hard as this one. He shared examples of how Christ turned outward to help others in the hardest times of his life when the natural man would undoubtedly turn inward and think about himself. He also shared stories of people who have demonstrated this same Christ like love. I'm not sure if it's on YouTube or anything, but if you get the chance you should listen to at least some of it!

Every Tuesday there's a devotional with a special guest and this week it was the General Relief Society President, Jean B Bingham. She talked about patterns in real life and then compared them to patterns in the scriptures such as the pride cycle. I thought it was a good talk, but then after we had a discussion with our district and it was POWERFUL. Somehow people got talking about why they decided to go on a mission and what they are sacrificing to go. One guy said his friend died a couple weeks before his arrival date and he didn't know if he wanted to go on a mission, but he felt as though his friend told him through the Spirit that he has to go. Another guy, who's actually super funny and chill, said his biggest fear about the mission isn't the language or disease, but that his bulimic sister, who's only 15, might take her life because she suffers with severe depression and has verbally talked about suicide multiple times. We testified to him of the Savior's love for him and his little sister and then when we said the prayer, we prayed for one thing and one thing only, and that was that his little sister would be okay and would feel Christ's love for her. 

My district is awesome and everyone has become such good friends with each other. One day I did the thing where you flick your wrist and your finger to make a snapping sound, and then everyone started trying it. Now whenever they see me, they show me how much they've improved (although, usually I hear nothing but the wooshing sound it makes from flicking them so fast and no snapping sound, haha. I'll keep you guys updated on their progress ;) 

Alsooo my companion is way cool! He's 6 foot 4, Tongan, and super funny. We get along really well. BUT he still hasn't sent back his phone haha... we both keep forgetting. He took the battery out and it's only a flip phone but still he should send it back! 

I miss you all so much! I'm super sad that I don't get to see you guys for the next 2 years, BUT I know without a doubt that the Lord would not want me any other place on Earth! This is the true church and the field is white in the Philippines! I can't wait to testify to them of my love for my Savior.

 If you ever want to make my day at the MTC :) my MTC mailing address is:

Elder Trevin Shaun Wolferts
SEP19 PHI-SAN

Or there's also this super cool thing where you can send a letter to me through dearelder.com
Love and miss you all!