Miracles in Luna

Oh man what a busy week I just dont know where to start! Seguro I will start with Tuesday when Elder Golle and I found out that.. Elder Golle is transferring! Usually that isnt a big deal, but because I am being trained you are usually with your trainer for the first 12 weeks. Instead he transferred to Baloan, which is crazy because its the city right next to us, and the missionary from Baloan is my new companion Elder Moreland!  
Elder Golle and I are still in the same district so we will see eachother often, and Elder Moreland is super cool. This is his last transfer so he is going home in august! Just like Elder Golle and I, Elder Moreland and I get a long really well and its really helpful that we completely understand eachother and our thoughts when we are planning or teaching!! One cool thing I really like is that we always speak Tagalog to eachother throughout the day except when I dont know how to speak correctly, its super important... OR when we want to tell a funny story and we want to tell it in English! (Its usually the last one) haha but it is really good!! Most of the week was spent helping Elder Moreland get acquainted with the Branch and the area but I will sum up this email in our story of Saturday, hands down one of my favorite days in the mission field.

So background story, we have these two investigators who's uncle is the Branch President, their mom works in the middle east so they live with their grandparents and come to church every week, love the teachings, and are so so smart. Cara and Zed are their names, I think i have mentioned them before.
So their mom, Caroline, has not allowed them to be baptized, she isnt a member but about 10 years ago almost all of her family joined the Church and she was hesitant. We found out last week that Cara and Zed are moving to the middle east with their mom for a couple months and then coming back to their grandparents and that Caroline was coming here for a couple weeks first to visit. We had planned to speak with her and the kids about the baptism and see out her reasoning. We talked to her the first time on Wednesday, she was super nice and said that she would ask her children what they wanted to do and to come back Saturday. So here was the plan: If she says yes, their baptism and confirmation at church would be July 2nd and 3rd, then they move July 5th, and come back next February.
When we got to their house she told us yes, she was okay with them being baptized here, and that she wanted to find the church nearest to their house and the missionaries near their home as well where she lived so that they would have members they can meet and ask questions/ learn which is AWESOME. She is 100% supportive and willing to help the children grow which you need to have before you can be baptized!
One BIG problem: They are moving back to her house on June 28th.. And you have to be confirmed on church when you are baptized.. Which meant that the baptism had to be that day, Saturday! Now the small problems: Its pouring rain (darn rainy season) they need to be interviewed by our zone leaders to make sure they are ready, the Branch President is at a meeting in San Fernando (one hour away) and we have to call our Mission President because they are children so President Balledos needs to give us the okay. But we dont have a phone because of transfers.. Its also 4 pm and the sun sets at about 7.
We got a lot of work to do!! So when the going gets tough the tough get going and we go to work!
We started off using a neighbors phone to call everyone and figure out if this is possible, then we went back to our house to get everything together and wait for the zone leaders. While we were waiting it started raining super hard, it was about 5:50 and they still  werent there.
Elder Moreland and I decided to say a prayer in which we asked our Heavenly Father to help us out, because we needed it. Elder Moreland prayed for the rain to stop just for enough time to have the baptismal service in the Sea and for the zone leaders to arrive.
About 10 minutes later the ZL's arrived and we went to Cara and Zeds home. As we took a trike to the home the rain stopped. And when we got to the house the Branch President was there and all of their family as well. Cara and Zed passed the interview phase and we got dressed for the baptism. Their mom was super excited and very happy for them. The baptism was beautiful. At the sea, the sun was going down about to disappear, but the lightning on the horizon illuminated the whole sky, with strikes about every 3 seconds, it was insane. After the baptism, we had their grandfather give a testimony and as he did, he turned to Elder Moreland and I and told us that he had been dreaming of this day since Zed and Cara started living with them. He never though it would happen, and was so grateful with tears in his eyes he said "Salamat, salamat, salamat" (Thank you, thank you, thank you). The whole day was tough, stressful, busy, and I was worried like crazy. But seeing Cara and Zed have huge smiles on their faces and their whole family together for the baptism.. words cant explain how amazing the feeling was.
I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is here on earth and was restored through Joseph Smith, I know without a single doubt that Our Father in Heaven was watching over us that day and made it possible for Cara and Zed to be baptized. Never have I felt so much the hand of God in my life, giving me the ability to help others come unto Christ than that day. I am so grateful that I have the chance to be a servant of The Lord and Represent Him in His work. I love being a missionary, I love the Philippines. And I love you all. Have a great week! And I cant wait to talk next week!


Crazy Pictures but a crazy week so it fits!!
--

Elder Pitt

I hope everyone is having a good week, I know I am and last week was great too! Not much happened this week so no crazy stories or experiences.. Which just means that next weeks will be even more exciting right? haha As you all probably know, the NBA finals were this week, and if you didn't know, Every. Single. Person. In. The. Philippines. Loves. Basketball. It is exactly my cup of tea (besides the part where we dont watch the games!) But every where we went, people were talking about the games and the drama and what team they were rooting for! I kid you not, families become torn apart during the Finals haha if you are a child rooting for the Cavs, and both your parents like Steph Curry, you might want to find a friends house to stay over for dinner so that you'll get a meal! Haha just kidding.. maybe.. but as I was saying, everyone loves basketball! And a lot of our lessons and examples have used basketball which again is straight up my alley! Whether its about "staying in bounds" with following the commandments or "needing to have a lot of practices before the big game" connecting going to church weekly before baptism, it connects the people! (and I get to talk about basketball!) One pretty cool thing that happened was that I was asked to teach the members of our Branch a Temple Preparation Class to help them prepare for the temple! I was really worried at first, because being a new missionary I dont really know Tagalog as much as I would like to, but it went really good! Church is so good on Sundays, and we have been having a lot of people coming to church!
Like I said not much has happened, but having time every morning to study has been a huge blessing for me. I was never a big reader nor was it ever my choice to sit down and read a book, but since my mission, I have read I think 5 books through! That might be more books than I read in all of high school! haha (sorry teachers)
The last book I read is called "Unstuck" by Robert Reynolds, who is the brother of the lead singer for Imagine Dragons! The book is all about "How the Savior frees us from our favorite sins." And how we can change our hearts and our minds to focus on loving others and doing as though Christ would do, instead of focusing on becoming upset with ourselves when we sin.. Because every one sins! In the words of Hannah Montana Nobody is perfect!!
Back to the book, I finished it in 5 days, it is a super easy read, and SO powerful as well!  He talks about having a hard heart and how that halts us from changing. One sentence he writes is "Like any item with a warranty from its manufacturer, hard hearts must break before they can be replaced." I just think it is really cool how straight forward that sentence is, if we want to change something in our lives, the change starts in our hearts, and our surroundings will follow. Im sorry I didnt have any more to talk about! But I hope everyone is doing good! Here is a picture from this morning: We have to take a trike from Luna to Baloan, where there we take a bus to San Fernando to get groceries and email on P day because Luna is too small for us to get anything.. The trike drivers refused to take anyone because they were watching the game hahaha. We had to wait till the end of the first quarter to take a trike, and I kid you not I think we broke to sound barrier flying down to Baloan so that the driver wouldnt miss anything haha. Have a great week everyone! Love you all!
--

Elder Pitt

Kumusta kayo?

Hows everyone doing? Life in The Philippines is same old, same old.. Amazing! We had a lot of business to ted to this week and it was super fun while doing it! We will start off with Tuesday night when we got a call from two sister missionaries who live about 15 minutes away, why did they call? There was a snake in their house! They 1. Refused to go inside. 2. Demanded us to go there and get the snake hahaha. Elder Golle and I started biking their way and he says quietly "Elder, I hate snakes." I started busting up laughing and so did he, and then I told him if it was a spider we wouldnt be going anywhere near that house but snakes are okay with me! When we arrived at their bahay, they were in the landowners house and told us to immediately go get the snake. So, Elder Golle stood at the door and I walked around trying to find it. Not going to lie, my heart was pounding a little when i was lifting up the pillows our moving the furniture haha but I simply could not find the snake! And then, i found it in the bathroom. I wish I had taken a picture, but the snake was about the size of a my finger and it was dead! Again, i cant lie, and I need to say that yeah I was kinda dissapointed because I really wanted to tackled this huge task of serenading a cobra and leading it out of the house. But instead i just picked it up put it in my hand and walked out of the house, nonetheless victorious! Then the next day, our zone leaders and Elder Golle and I had to look around to find the sisters a new apartment to help them feel a little bit more safe and make sure no other snakes were going to be disturbing their studies or sleep!
There wasnt much else that happened until Friday at the baptism of Onica! It was so beautiful and the baptism was held on the beach into the South China Sea! I will try and send pictures and i hope they go through! She was so so happy and everyone was in such a cheerful mood. It was so spiritual and you could feel the love our Father in Heaven has for every one of us.
Danny Mipa is literally the man! We talk to him almost every day just running into each other and it makes my day! He is really loving the Book of Mormon and prayer!
Speaking of prayer, On Sunday about 10 minutes before Church, our branch president asked me to give a talk on prayer!
I have always heard stories about people who have been asked to give talks right before church and how they felt so unprepared! I feel that too! hahaha it was good though! I ended the talk by reminding all of those in Church that I was a new missionary and if they didnt understand the Tagalog i was saying, to pray about my message later to know what I said. (I thought it was funny seeing how my talk was about prayer, but most of the people didnt get the joke hahaha) All in all this week was awesome again! I really hope the pictures are coming through, Luna is an amazing area and it is so humbling as well. One good thing about it here is that because it rains every. single. day. it gets cooler at night so sleeping like a baby is once again occuring! haha Have a great week everyone! Be safe and remember, Mahal tayo ng Diyos!



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Elder Pitt

Birthday Week!!

Hello everyone! The last time we talked I was 18 but now I am one year older and wiser too! This last week was awesome! We had a meeting with the entire district and after we had a boodle fight! Its where you take giant leaves and put them on a table, then take rice, meat, drinks, mangos, and anything edible you can find and throw it on the leaves, after that everyone just stands around and fights for as much food as you can eat.. Let me tell you missionaries can EAT so it was awesome! (and a little competitive hahaha) During the week we were able to meet a lot of really awesome and amazing people. Most of the people here have lived here their whole lives its crazy! We met nanay omo.. Shes 103! It was awesome she wakes up around 10, sits around all day, has her great grandson get her whatever she wants, then goes to bed. THE LIFE! We also met a lot of people who wanted to know more about Christ, we told them they came to the right place haha, On Friday we went on an exchange, where the leader of our district and his companion, exchange with other companionship. Elder Moreland and I worked together that day and it was so so fun. First off, he is really cool and knows so much about Tagalog so I was able to ask any and every question I had, also, we just talked and talked while we walked and talked about home and life! He lived in Utah for College so we talked about school and the States! He is also super funny so we just fed off each other the entire day haha. On Saturday we had a half day mission for our Branch! Any member who wanted to come, came with us to different members houses to invite them to church the next day or give service! It was super fun, the Luna Branch is so awesome. On Sunday it was my birthday! Some how someone found out in our Branch and they sang hay birthday to me 3 times! 3 TIMES hahah i felt like the ipod was stuck on repeat but they sang in english so at least I knew the words right?? The greatest part of the day? 9 people that we have been teaching came to church! It was acked and the members were so welcoming and helped everyone get to where they needed to be! This friday we have a baptism! Onica is 10 and just moved in with her mom and aunts family who are members and I swear she knows more than I do she is so smart! She said she wanted "the americano" to baptize her so Friday is going to be another great day I cant wait!
One thing I wanted to really talk about today was our investigator Danny Mipa! I cant explain how much I love that guy! He is the most humble soft spoken man I have ever met. And without a doubt, he is the poorest man I have known in my life. I asked Danny if I could talk about him and he was all for it, Hes 26 and works as a fisher man. After his work he walks around finding glass bottles to turn in for money than goes to his small single person home and counts to see if theres enough money for dinner. If not, only rice will he cook. We met him and have been teaching him, and on Sunday after church I asked "Danny how was church?" (In Tagalog) and he looked at him, pointed to his heart and in the little english he knew he said "It feels very good when i am with us at church. This is my first time, I want to come back tomorrow."
If only we had Church everyday I would bring him there. He loves reading from the Book of Mormon and never knew how so much good can come from just one book! Elder Golle and I both get so excited when we run into him because although he is so so shy, he always has the biggest smile on his face talking to any one.
All those times people didnt want to listen or made fun of us for wearing ties dont matter when youre with people like Danny, who are finding out more about themselves and the love our Father in Heaven has for them. Its a blessing just to know Danny Mipa.
The rest of the birthday was awesome! We had a cake from a member given to us and SO MUCH FOOD! I had to bust out the thanksgiving pants after the many meals we were given hahah, I love the work here and wouldn't want to be doing anything else on my birthday! One thing that I loved talking about was our Articles of Faith, which outline the basic beliefs of our Church! This week was great and it will be a great week to come! I hope these pictures come through, sometime they are iffy! Have an awesome week everyone!
Love,

Elder Pitt