Christmas Trees??!

We'll start off again with my companion's height...

One day, we were in a gas station convenience store, when I lost my companion because the aisle shelves are too tall for him, and I couldn't see him anywhere. Finally, I called his name aloud, and then I saw a little hand pop up, so that gave me a good laugh!

On a different note, one day last week we did service; which was good because we hadn't had the opportunity for awhile! So every year here in Baco, it floods really bad around December. Last year it was super bad, and it kind of destroyed the elementary school that is right across from our apartment, so the branch put together a service project to help get it back in shape for when school starts again. We did a whole lot of weeding, cutting down trees, as well as sweeping and cleaning. It was a great experience except for one small thing... fire ants.

Holy cow they were everywhere, and they were literally, attracted to me. Like, I would watch them come from long distances, and they would walk straight towards my legs. For some reason, they had some racial bias or something, and didn't care to eat any of the Filipinos... But I got wrecked! They kept climbing on me and biting, and it hurt so bad haha! The Filipinos kept laughing at me, and then told me that this is an advantage of being a Filipino. After 5 hours of service, we went back to get ready for the day and proselyte. I looked at my leg and it was super red with little bites, but not too alarming. However, later that night, I removed my sock and the bites were huge! I took some pics, but I decided that if someone sent me a pic like the ones of my swollen, red leg, I wouldn't be happy, soooo I made the executive decision to not send it you guys haha. Luckily, my mom packed me some anti itch and bug bite cream stuff that really helped, and now, thankfully, they're in the process of disappearing. So once again (I can never do this enough) shout out to my mom for being awesome!  

Another day, we decided to do some finding in an area that we felt like had potential to progress. We had no idea where to go exactly, so we just got on a trike and told them the area, which was Dulangan ll. The trike person asked us where, and I just said, "Umm.. I'm not sure, but I'll tell you where to stop..." I then nervously looked around for where we should stop, while my companion was looking at me like, "Are you getting any revelation?" Then all of a sudden, I had a feeling we were at the spot. We told the guy to stop, and we got off and started walking down the road. I realized that I had been there, when I was new, but had forgotten about it. I remembered some elderly people that we taught, who weren't progressing super well, and I figured that was why I felt we should be there. So we started the long walk to this person's house, and then probably just 5 minutes later, a lady saw us and ran up to us and said, "Elders, finally you came to my house!" Turns out that this lady was less active, but had been waiting for the Elders to visit her. We talked with her, shared a quick message with her, and then asked if we could teach her family in 2 days, when we would be returning. She said yes, but that she lost her BOM, so I gave her the one I had. When we came back she had already finished 1 Nephi!! I was so impressed! She was very prepared, and we were able to teach an awesome lesson to her family! So cool!

Okay last thought, sorry!

One night we were walking. It was super dark, but there was a kazillion fireflies (I actually counted) and they were lighting up all the trees around us, just like Christmas! It was so cool! We started singing Christmas songs, which was pretty funny! Then somehow, through this experience watching the fireflies, we transitioned into talking about the Celestial Kingdom. My comp asked me what it's like in the Celestial Kingdom, and I told him a little about Section 137, when Joseph Smith says:  

1 The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell.

2 I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire;

3 Also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son.

4 I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold.

He started getting super excited and said something along the lines of, "Wow that truly is our purpose on Earth, to qualify for the Celestial Kingdom." So true! Don't ever forget it! You all have the potential to be joint heirs with Jesus Christ, Himself, in the eternities, dwelling in unimaginable beauty and glory. May we all make the necessary changes and efforts in our life to achieve such a Celestial blessing.

-Elder Wolferts

Zone Conference

ANOTHER DR. APPOINTMENT?!

May 20, 2019

Lets start with a miracle, shall we? 

So one day, my comp and I were working hard, doing a lot of finding, and as it got later in the day, we had walked so much and were so tired. Everyone goes to sleep sooo early and no one was accepting us anymore, so we were about to start the long walk back to the apartment, when we decided to try one more house. CLASSIC, it's always the last house!! Anyways, we were surprised to not only be accepted, but happily accepted. Like these people were so happy to see us. We quickly found out that they had been taught by missionaries before. Not sure why they were ever dropped, but we ended up giving a powerful lesson one and extending two BGDs on the first contact, which they accepted. We then coordinated with a member to pick them up and take them to church the following Sunday. They even called us Sunday morning to make sure this person was still coming. It was so awesome to see them at church! Such a blessing to have met them. I know that Heavenly Father prepared them for us. 

Okay, now for my dr. appointment. So some of you know that I had to go to the city to get surgery on my toe, a couple months ago, and I guess it was time for me to have another appointment. But get this, this time the dr. came to me! Traveled all the way from America because there was no one of his specialty, here in the Philippines! You might have heard of him, his name is... drum roll please.. DR PEPPER!!!! Shout out to the parents for sending me some dr pepper!! It's been almost 10 months since my last DP! I decided to go to the top of our house (we have this cool stair case that leads to the top and you can look at stars and stuff) to drink the DP. I even blessed it that I would feel my mom's love when I drank it (which I did), and that it wouldn't explode on me because it had been on a boat for 2 months. After cautiously opening it, I was nervous that for some reason I wouldn't like how it tasted. WRONG. It was amazing!! 

Also on Sunday, 10 minutes before church started, the Branch President came up to me and hit me with the classic, "Elder, we need another speaker. Can you give a 10 minute talk?" Of course I accepted, but this is the second time in a row that this has happened to me here, so I was a little upset. Sooo what was I going to talk about? Yep, repentance. Haha don't worry I didn't chastise the branch, but I did let them know how important repentance is and that it should never be seen as something you do when you sin, but rather something you do to bring yourself closer to Jesus Christ. I talked a little bit about the Atonement of Christ and the story of Enos and the joy I feel repenting every day. It is definitely a lot easier to give those "on the spot talks" now that I know the language! I prayed that Heavenly Father would fill my mouth, as I spoke, and I testify that he did exactly that.

I'll end with a weird experience. We decided to go to the Branch President's house for the last appointment, one night, because we were pretty sure they had relatives staying with them and we had the restoration video and wanted to watch it with them. We stopped by and sure enough there were some relatives there. One lady that was visiting had just come from working abroad in Italy. We explained to her a little about our church and then found out a little bit about her life and that she was a member of the Born Again Church. Then we watched the video, and after it was over she was crying and said she felt super good. But she followed it by saying, "Our religion is the same, we pray to God also!". My comp and I were like whaaaaat? We testified that we are not the same, and told her how we have a prophet today. After which, we gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon. Sometimes it feels like people know that what we say is true, but they feel like they're comfortable where they're at, in their life, so they don't want to change. Sometimes I have to remind myself that everyone has agency, and our job as missionaries, is to give people the chance to use their agency correctly!

Sorry such a long email! 

Ipinapagdasal ko po kayong lahat! Mahal ko pa kayo!

-Elder Wolferts

DP! Also, I look as if Iron Man was sponsored by Nike.

Found some shades on the ground. Decided that that was the cue for a picture.

To put my comp's height in perspective. The kid on the left is 9 and the kid on the right is 12. My comp is 22... haha

Deluxe 3x Air Con

March 13, 2019

For starters, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms.

I want to give a personal shout out to my mom for being the person that's been the best example in my life. She has been there every step of the way and has dealt with me for 19 years. Definitely the best mom out there. Rumor is second place is still up for grabs...

This week was a good one! We had zone conference and it was the best one yet! President's workshop was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was able to learn so much and the spirit was so so strong! The highlight was when he had us close our eyes and try to imagine all the sorrow and pain of our life; and then imagine suffering all of that pain in just one single moment; THEN multiply that by everyone who has ever lived, or who will ever live on the earth; THEN multiply that by infinite worlds...and there you have the Atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! My mind cannot comprehend His sacrifice, but I walked out of that zone con with a desire to use His amazing gift as much as possible. The Atonement of Jesus Christ really is the most important thing EVER.

On the way back from zone conference, I traveled with my old MTC comp, Elder Linton, who convinced us to purchase the 3x deluxe air con tickets on the boat -- the tickets were only 30 pesos (about 60 cents in US currency). I thought it was just going to be a scam. But I was pleasantly surprised when they took us to the upper deck level, to a room that had a huge tv and speakers, and was filled with comfy chairs that had plenty of leg room. Only 3 other people ended up being in the same room as us! I'm still confused why no one else buys the 3x deluxe air con tickets, because they are virtually the same price...haha. But, I think we might have a new tradition...

Also, this past week I went on exchanges with Elder Baker, our district leader from Canada. We had such a great time and our exchanges started off with a BANG... literally. I was praying as we were leaving the apartment, when suddenly, lightning struck! There was no separation in sound between the lightning and thunder -- it was SO LOUD, but I kept on praying. When I finished my prayer, we opened our eyes to a naked old guy looking at us. Definitely a weird start to the day... Later we got on a jeep, and I wasn't paying close attention, and we went a little too far. Instead of going back to the area we intended to go, we decided to tract in the area where we were let off, and we found an awesome family!! It was really our lucky day because later that night, we got free dinner from a member as we were walking by their house. After dinner, we were buckling in for an hour walk home (because there aren't usually trikes at that time of the evening), when out of nowhere, a trike pulls up and the driver said, "get in, it's free!" So we got a free trike ride back to our apartment! Good times!

The mission is the best! Wouldn't trade anything in the world for what I've learned so far!

LOVE YOU ALL!

The blue house is where we're trying to get to, but this guy was NOT having it...had to take a detour

Hot Cocoa Weather??

May 6, 2019

So to start out, it is definitely not hot cocoa weather...

Funny story tho. We just got done having a really good lesson with someone at around 5pm, and it was still really hot...maybe like 85 degrees. We were about to leave, when she  told us to wait because she had something for us. Somehow, she must have forgotten that it was hot, and she brought us hot chocolate (I say hot chocolate, but it is really this "chocolate" mix stuff that's really bad). It would have been rude not to drink it, so of course I did, but by the end I was sweating so much haha!

Also, we went to a birthday party for an older guy! In the weeks leading up to his birthday, he made sure to call me several times to tell me that his birthday was coming up and he was expecting a gift from me. I had nothing... I searched in my bags and almost thought about giving him Vitamins, at one point...haha. But then I saw that Elder Richeson had left some of his b-day stuff (including banners, balloons, and noise makers) when he was transferred, so I just brought that and hoped he wouldn't get mad at me. HE LOVED IT! We had such a fun time celebrating in his humble home! Filipinos are so appreciative of the smallest things! They're awesome!

Elder Rabanal and I have been working hard. Our new favorite thing to do is finding investigators, using temples to inspire them. We introduce our message and talk about families and how our message will bless their families. Then we start talking about temples! We show them pictures of temples, especially the ones in Cebu and Manila, and testify to them of their holiness. We then tell them a little bit about the priesthood, and how through temples and the priesthood, their family will be able to be together forever. This has made our finding so much more effective and the Spirit is so strong in the lessons! I miss temples so much! Never take them for granted! 

In the Old Testament, I was reading about King Solomon and the temple he built. When he gave the dedicatory prayer, a cloud came in the temple, representing the presence of Jehovah. I know that temples are a connection between heaven and earth, and that God and Jesus' presence dwell there!

Love you all! Visit the temple for me, if you can!