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.
