Bye Bye Elder Ferrer...

January 21, 2019

Sooo... Elder Ferrer left for the mission home yesterday! Crazy how fast the time went with him! Right now I am temporarily with another Elder who's companion went home also. On Thursday, I get my new companion so that's always exciting! I'm eager to see if Elder Grant is going to leave me and whether we'll have to do the missionary thing like normal missionaries where we don't live with our friend... 

On Tuesday, we did service for this member in Elder Grant's ward. His farm is in our area, so we were both invited to do service for him. We used a hoe like tool to get the ground ready to plant some rice. After we were finished preparing the ground, we walked to his coconut trees and got some coconuts! We sliced them open, and after drinking the delicious coconut juice, we scraped the insides and ate the white fleshy part. Let me tell ya, the coconuts here are soooo much better than in the states! 

On Friday, we visited this far away area that I had never been too. This area has a lot of members living there, and every single member we visited is less active. Our reason for going on Friday is because this random guy called us, and when we answered, he asked to speak with an Elder Lopez. Turns out, Elder Lopez served in my area something like 2 years ago. We explained to him that Elder Lopez isn't in the mission anymore because his mission is done and he is back home now, and that we are the missionaries in this area now. He told us that he wanted us to visit.

We brought a member along, who knew where his house was, and the member told us that we have to go over two mountains to get to his house. I laughed... He didn't... I soon found out that he wasn't joking! It was sooo far away, and was quite a workout to get there! When we finally arrived at this man's home, he was chopping some coconuts and had a huge pile! So guess what we did? We ate some more coconuts! He was so nice. It saddened me to see the living conditions and the poverty that he has to deal with. He works so hard hauling all these coconuts and he doesn't get a whole lot of profit. It was good to talk with him and share a little message. 

Have a great week!!!

Elder Grant Pt. 4

January 14, 2019

Pogi si Elder Grant

Elder Grant and I had exchanges for what might have been the last time! I'm going to stay in the same area for sure because my companion goes home next week, but Elder Grant is most likely going to leave and go somewhere else. Sad. Still is so crazy how I ended up rooming with one of my super good friends from high school! We were in my area, and we got punted from all of my afternoon classes, so we decided to do some finding. We walked in this little jungle area, for what seemed like forever, and found some really cool and humble people. Then we continued walking and walking and kept finding. We found a lot of people, and we probably walked 7-10 miles! It's a good thing I like talking to Elder Grant, haha! 

Also on Thursday, Elder Ferrer and I visited this less active family that was up in the mountains. They had fresh coconuts so Elder Ferrer chopped them up and we drank the juice and then scooped out the edible part. It was super delicious! I forgot to bring my camera so that was a bummer, but I'm sure we'll do it again! 

On Sunday, Elder Holland spoke at a stake conference broadcast that was viewed over the whole Philippines! It was way good! He talked a lot about preparing for the second coming and being an active member. He said that a lot of the time we determine if someone is active by if they go to church or not. He said we need to determine if we are active in the 166 hours, during the week, when we are not "at church". It was a super powerful message and Elder Holland always delivers his talks incredibly. 

I miss you all and I hope you don't determine that you're "active" in the church because you go to 2 hours of church a week. It's about what we do during all the time in between. Thank you for your examples and prayers!

Giant cockroach coming closer to Christ

2019 WHAAAAT?!

January 7, 2019

Crazy how fast this year came! 2019 sounds a little strange to me, but I'm excited for it! Everyone is so nice here! For New Years Day, every single person we talked to would invite us to eat. I have never been more full! AND on top of that, we had an appointment with our bishop who served me pancakes! He just kept putting them on my plate!! I think I had 10 pancakes! We still went to bed at 10:30, but once midnight hit, I was suddenly awoken by the loudest fireworks ever!! It scared me so bad! They have no chill here when it comes to fireworks! They're a lot different than the fireworks in America, and they're so loud! I was talking to Elder Grant a little bit because we couldn't sleep, and then the next morning I mentioned to him how loud the fireworks were, and he told me he slept right through it. I was like "No way! You were talking to me for like 20 minutes last night!" But he denied it. Haha what a crazy guy.

Yesterday, we went to the stake center and watched the Philippines area plan for the year. It is really good. They are really stressing the importance of getting the members involved in ministering and strengthening the family. I saw Elder Astudillo -- the Chilean that was my companion in the Manila MTC. He is so funny and we are such good friends. He sees me and runs over, and says in his funny Chilean accent, "Elder Wolferts I had a dream that we were playing FIFA last night, and I beat you 5-0! You were so sad and I was so happy!" Haha, FIFA is a soccer video game that we both like a whole lot. We often joke around and claim to be better than the other person. So now I have an appointment in 2020 to play FIFA against him to prove to him that his dream is just that... A dream.

I hope everything is amazing for all of you! Thank you for your prayers and all your support!! 

The kids here collect spiders and then put two of them on a stick and have them fight to the death! ahaha 

Happy New Year!

December 30, 2018

This week was a crazy, but good one! Christmas was good, but different because we worked! We shared scriptures about Jesus and testified of Him and talked to the people about the true meaning of Christmas. Then on the 26th here, or the 25th in the states, Elder Grant and I happened to have exchanges again, and we did our video calls to our families! We only get 45 minutes and that was the quickest 45 minutes of my life! After our calls home, we had a good day of work and ate A LOT of food! Everyone invites you to eat with them when they're celebrating!

I also experienced my first birthday on the mission! It was cool to focus more on teaching others than on myself, but I did treat myself to a cake! It looked really good, but turns out the frosting was pretty much just butter and this was a half frosting half cake kind of situation, but don't worry, turns out my companion really liked the "frosting" hahahah!!

We've also been experiencing SO MUCH RAIN! One day we didn't work because everywhere was flooded! We only had 20 people at sacrament because it was so rainy. Elder Ferrer and I were the speakers, because those assigned didn't want to come to church! We only had 1 investigator come to church and HE WALKED! He lives pretty far away, and he said where his house was the water was up to his hips!

Also, we had a baptism! I baptized the daughter of an excommunicated member. His testimony is still super strong, and right after I performed her baptism, he came into the bathroom and hugged me and cried. The spirit was super strong! 

If you want the secret to happiness... read Mosiah 4

May your next year be full of happiness! HAPPY NEW YEAR

MALIGAYANG PASKO

December 23, 2018

The legend, the charmer, Elder Johnson and the elders

This week has been a good one! On Wednesday we had our Christmas zone conference. It was a lot of fun as we watched a slide show of some of the missionary work throughout the year. The spirit was so strong as I saw pictures of missionaries teaching, sharing, and baptizing. I also got to see my old companion Elder Johnson who is now a zone leader. It was so good to talk and laugh with him! Afterwards, we made the 5 hour bus ride back to Lopez from San Pablo and got back at midnight, but the missionary grind is real so 6:30am the next morning we were up and ready to go.

Christmas packages!!!

 Brother Gab's baptism

Saturday morning, we had a baptism for brother Gab! Wow this guy is awesome and I have loved teaching him. He is 20 years old and his cousin, Vince, who is also in our ward, baptized him. Gab has literally turned his life around, and after his baptisms, he shared his testimony about the Atonement and the gospel and said he wants to serve a mission! The spirit was super super strong! 

LECHON

Later that day, we had our ward Christmas party! It was awesome and we had lechon for dinner which is a whole fried pig! It was tasty! Then for Christmas sacrament meeting the primary kids gave a Christmas program! It was so fun to see these little Filipino kids share their testimonies and sing primary songs! 

I love this gospel and I love that, during Christmas, I get to remember my Savior, my Redeemer, and my friend Jesus Christ a little bit more than usual. I know this is the true church. It has shaped my life and I have seen it change the lives of those we teach. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!