Hello Family!
So another great week here here in beautiful Iloilo City! Actually I am technically in a place called Molo... its all the same. I am excited to report again to everyone on how everything went. I think the big news this week is that I don't think I do not actually get to pick when I get home and they will just ship me out in October. So no more stressful decision making. I am excited that I will get a couple more weeks to spend in the Philippines as I will be hard pressed to ever come back. I just wanna go home in Sept... I'm kinda being a baby about all this.
Other big news... this time last week (like right as I left the computer shop) there were a couple good earthquakes here. I've never experienced an earthquake before! I was tripping way hard. It felt like I stood up too fast or something and I blacked out... my head was spinning and my knees felt weak. Wow... I was way confused! But there were a definite 4 or 5 earthquakes that I felt. SO we had lots of power outages and just people panicking here in Iloilo. The Filipino people are pretty superstitious and took it as a sign from God that they could be the next Japan. I think that day churches were full of people praying... but it rained Sunday so only about 1\2 of the regulars even came to church. I thought that was humorous. Everything is fine now though and I am OK... this is just another funny thing for me. There was another act or mother nature that could've actually affected me but no one knew about it. Anyways.. now I know what a mild earthquake feels like.
This last week was another awesome goal getting week for Elder Faran and I. We gave another part member family baptismal dates. The kids are the ones who aren't members. The oldest is Dominique 15, Georgie 13, and Denmark 10. Even though they are new they all want to be baptized and they came to church even though they live far away and it was raining. Filipinos are certain that if you go out in the rain you are gonna get sick so I was super impressed with them that they walked way far in the rain to get to church. We were also able to get an older investigator to finally get involved with the institute! His name is Benjamin and is actually gonna enroll and attend this week to the local institute program! He also has a March baptismal date. It was great because all of our 6 investigators with baptismal date were at church while it was raining. I was one proud missionary when they all showed up. We have also had continued success in our reactivation efforts. The ward did a good job getting our focus family, the Gamela family, involved and they even came early this last week because they were assigned to give the opening and closing prayer for sacrament and their son passed the sacrament. The ward has really responded to the new area goals for 2012 and I think we have really been able to gain their trust... it makes such a difference!
We still have lots more to get done though... it seems like the harder you work the more you notice what needs to get done and you never find the end of it. We have found a couple more less active families that need help coming back to church and more part member families that can be completed. We came short of our goal to have ten at church and came short on a couple more lofty goals we had set... so we pretty much kept the same goals and this week we are confident we can accomplish them. My excuse for this last week is we had lots of meetings and then it rained all Sunday morning... lame... i know. So I figure this week we will just get them.
Right now I am excited for March! I think it will be VERY possible for us to have 4 baptisms next month! As for February we have no plans to baptize any one, but these next coupe weeks Elder and I will be on the look out for people we can prepare for April. I really hope I get to stay in this area for a while cause I am really liking this place. It has seemed like I was just able to jump in the mix of things and already we are doing alot of great things... just imagine if I have another 5 months here! Should be a really special area for me. I already have gotten close to the members and have made lots of good friendships. And I thought back in the day that I wouldn't enjoy the city mission. IDIOT!
Today promises to be a good day... we have an appointment later this afternoon to play volleyball with the ward missionaries. We played last week after the earthquake and it was an absolute blast. I'm excited for a repeat!
I miss you all and miss you so much. I am excited to come home this fall and meet my new NEPHEW!!!! I am thrilled for another cute little nephew to play with. Anyways, I love you all and think of you all often.
Love,
Scott
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