Have you been sufficiently humbled?

 June 24, 2019

Yo yo yo..."Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humbled? Inspired by this scripture in Alma 5:27, and also by the service that my comp and I did this past week, the focus of this weeks email is on being humbled.

So this week, we had the unique opportunity to do some service for one of the members on his rice field. He's just about to plant some rice, but first, this means he had to plow the ground to prepare it for planting the rice crop. He has this tiller machine to plow with, and at first it looked kind of fun, but let me tell you, that was some of the toughest manual labor I've ever done! We plowed for 3 or 4 hours, and the unrelenting heat was only making the job tougher. I could legit wring out the sweat from my sweat towel when I was done. Super gross, but super true.

However, as I looked at my blistered hands, and felt my aching body, drenched in sweat, I thought to myself, "How insanely lucky am I? Seriously, so lucky, to be humbled here in the Philippines." I then reflected on some of the luxuries of life that I have enjoyed all my life--luxuries I've taken for granted, without even thinking to give thanks to God for them. I seriously consider myself to be so so so very blessed to be here in the Philippines, and especially for the opportunity to be humbled by the people, surroundings and the work here. I often think that every teenage foreigner should experience a third world country for a couple months of their lives; and if they embrace the opportunity, their priorities and outlook on life will change and begin to align with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I invite you to ponder the words of Alma, and ask yourself, honestly, if you have been sufficiently humbled.

On a funny note, last night at our investigators house, the investigators and members that are working with them started debating... "Which tastes better; dog or cat?" I had no input.

Miracles are happening here in Baco and we should have 6 or so baptisms in July!!

Love you all! Humble yourselves! ;)

 

Classic Philippines!

 

Not just a tan line... DIRT!!!

This man has a shirt of a panda reading, what I want to say is, The Book of Mormon... haha

Elder Grant's reaction when he saw me at zone conference.

Gangs, Flying Wolves, and I Miss My Dad

June 17, 2019

First of all Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. You have a bigger influence on us (kids) than you know, speaking from experience.

It was an eventful week! I'll try to give you the highlight reel so this isn't excessively long!

So first of all, my companion caught me off guard and made me question my Tagalog... We were walking, when out of the blue, he hit me with this question, "Puwede bang lumipad ang mga lobo?" which translates to, "Can wolves fly?" After confirming that I understood him correctly, I laughingly said, "No". He was genuinely so surprised that they couldn't fly. I asked him why he thought that they could, and he told me that he had seen a movie called "Rampage", and in it, there was a flying wolf... That gave me a pretty good laugh.

On Friday, we had exchanges. We were in a different area, teaching these two super sweet old ladies, when all of the sudden this big Filipino comes out of nowhere and speaks English to me, asking, "Do you speak Tagalog?" I replied, "Yes", in Tagalog, and then answered all of his subsequent questions in Tagalog to prove my point. However, I noticed that he was speaking to me in English and he had no Filipino accent, so immediately, I realized that he must've lived in America for a long time. He abruptly told me that he'd be right back, and after buying a couple cigarette sticks, he returned and proceeded to interrupt me in the middle of the lesson, while everyone paused, looking back and forth at us, not understanding, as we spoke in English. He proceeded to explain to me that when he was eight, he moved from the Philippines to San Jose, CA. Then pointing to his tattoo of the word "bloods", he told me he had joined this gang there! He said he had done some crazy crazy things in his time as a member of the bloods gang (without going into any details). Apparently, he got deported in 2014 and left his wife and two kids there in San Jose... I felt like I had better get back to the lesson, but before I told him that, I asked his name. To which he replied (pointing to the tattoo of it on his neck), "Emmanuel, but you can call me EJ because we're friends!"...So I guess I'm friends with a former member of the bloods gang. After EJ went his own way, we finished the lesson with the nanay, and then asked her to give the closing prayer, which she gladly agreed to...But then she gave it silently, as we bowed our heads for three minutes, until she finally said, "Amen" haha!

On a spiritual note... we had seven RMs work with us yesterday, so we did splits. Both of us had some amazing lessons! We each found new people that were either referrals or part members, and in both instances, they said they wanted to be baptized as soon as possible! One of the RMs that was with me, jokingly said, "We're available tomorrow if you are!" This area is starting to blow up, and we anticipate seeing a lot of baptisms in July and August! Also, on the splits, we taught a less active family that had once been incredible, strong, and faithful members in the past, but for whatever reason, they stopped attending church. We had maybe one of the most powerful lessons I've had on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, with this family. We each testified of Christ's atonement and it's ability to change lives, no matter how far off the covenant path we may seem. The branch member's testimonies were so powerful and the Spirit seemed to be overflowing from the family's home. After all the powerful testimonies, I turned to the family and said, "We love you. We need you. But more importantly, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you and need you on their team. Will you come back to the Church of Jesus Christ and join the winning team?" With tears in his eyes, and a big nod of approval, the father said, "Yes" on behalf of his whole family. I may have also gotten a little teary in that lesson...

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love and need all of you on their team!

-Elder Wolferts

Some pics of our hike, earlier this morning.

Mga Binyag!!

June 10, 2019

First of all it's mango season! I think my mango count was 16 this week! Seven of them I bought, and then people always offer us mangoes, because half of the people here on the island have mango trees around their house. That's an offer Elder Wolferts cannot refuse. 

We also got a new branch mission leader yesterday because our old one moved to Manila for work. Elder Rabanal and I referred this RM--who is such a good example to the branch, and without a doubt the coolest member--to the branch president, and next thing we know he was sustained on Sunday! We met with him and then he worked with us all day yesterday, giving us rides everywhere in his trike. We had some amazing lessons. Just to share one: We were teaching a referral from one of the members (amazing guy), and then the members older brother came into the room because we were watching the restoration video. After the video, we found out he isn't a member, but he is a formerly taught person. This man is incredible. He has already read The Book of Mormon from cover to cover, and shared with us that he had seen a white figure in his dream after he finished it. At the time, his only problem was that he wasn't married and they didn't have a whole lot of money to come to church. After powerful testifying, and our new BML sharing some perfect scriptures, the couple were both in tears. We extended a baptismal goal date and told them we would help them through the process of marriage. Then the BML told them not to worry about having the money needed, for going back home from church... "Just get to church and I'll give you a ride back every week." Holy cow that was such a crazy offer because they live super far away. I'm seriously so excited to work with this new BML. 

On Saturday, we had two baptisms! I have been waiting for this day for a long time, as we have been working with this couple for awhile. Brother Rodel has literally changed his life with the gospel. It's incredible how I've seen his countenance change, from the first time I met him, to after his baptism. The gospel changes lives. Has it changed yours?

I tried to get Elder Rabanal to baptize one of them, but he told me he wouldn't be able to get them out of the water... which in all honesty, he was probably right hahaha. After the baptism, Brother Rodel treated every single person who attended the baptism to lunch! Such an awesome guy!

Love you all!! Stay worthy!

New Mission?

June 3, 2019

Well, looks like I'm staying here in Mindoro. Which means that on July 1, I'll become a part of the Cavite mission! I'm excited, but sad that I'll be leaving Elder Grant...

SIKE! Elder Grant is coming with me!! He got transferred to an area that is going to Cavite, also! Crazy that we started together on the same day, and now we're gonna end together on the same day, but in a completely different mission!! Shout out to Elder Sanders for being in the Cavite mission right now; which means on July 1, we'll have 3 people from our high school there!

Next week, we have 2 baptisms!! So excited! It's a couple, and they're so awesome! We have been working with the husband, Rodel, for awhile, and finally, he's stopped drinking! We shared Mosiah 27:29 and the conversion story of Alma the younger. Afterwards, he told us that Alma the younger is just like him. He's felt like he's been in the darkest abyss, but he feels so good, now that he has the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yesterday, I felt impressed, seeing him and his wife at church, to bear my testimony. I talked about how I've seen the Atonement of Jesus Christ work and literally change Rodel's nature. I then testified that Christ's Atonement is infinite in reach, but we have to use His great gift. Change isn't easy, but it is possible through our Savior's Atonement.

Another cool experience, yesterday, was when we had a teaching appointment late at night, and there was a power outage, so we decided that we would just drop by anyway and say hi. Right before we got there, the power came back! We had such a good lesson and the spirit was so strong; and then right when we left, the power went out again. We were like, WHAAAAT that's crazy! We know that Heavenly Father helped us teach one of His daughters.

We'll end with a bad experience... So one night, we went to a members house, and after we shared a lesson with her, she's like, "Oh Elders, I have some food that I'm just about to throw out, because it's gonna go bad soon"... After refusing a couple times, she insisted we eat, so we had to accept. The food she had on the platter looked like pork with this dark sauce... I was a little confused because she was pretty poor and meat is pretty expensive. I took a pretty good amount because I was hyped to eat some meat. Mistake. It turned out to definitely, not be meat. I have no idea what it was, but this was the first time in awhile that I had to force something down my throat. It tasted like pure fat that was super soggy, with like some kind of sauce that I decided not to ask what it was. I kept trying to look for opportunites to sneak some of it back onto the platter, and off my plate, but the old lady that cooked for us was watching me the whole time... haha. After that experience my companion gave me some really good advice. He said, "When eating Filipino foods always take a small sample, and then, if you like it THEN take a lot." That would've saved me some trouble!

Love you all!!

Hope you all eat something this week that you don't have to force down.

-Elder Wolferts

pics:

Awesome referral one of the members gave us! So excited to see him progress!

New cycle, new planner

Island Life

Some kids were playing with a baby bat and it kept screeching while we were giving a lesson haha!