Baptism

So the highlight of the week was that we had a baptism!  Sister Glaiza was baptized, James Carlo had a fever so he missed his baptism so we will probably just move it to this Saturday.  We also committed the Monte De Ramos Family to baptism in April and they accepted so we were excited.

I had exchanges this week with a new elder in my zone from Georgia.  We had a super good time and we found lots of people.  After the exchange another companionship was having exchanges but they had to sleep at our apartment to be on time the next day so they worked a little bit and we had a pretty good time.  Aside from that we are basically teaching the same people the work is kinda slowing down but we are still working hard.

Also I was introduced to the doctrine of the Community Ministries and the Pentecostal Church this last week with two different investigators who decided that we needed to hear some pretty crazy interpretations of the bible but it was really funny.

One of the pics with me and Elder Tabelisma with lipstick on our faces was because we had an FHE and we played a game and everytime we lost we got more lipstick on our face.  Needless to say we lost a lot haha.  

Anyways I know that this Gospel leads to true happiness and helps us not have to worry about what is true.  I am grateful especially for additional scriptures that help us not be confused with the Bible. 

Love you tons!!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

Screenshot of our video chat with Wade.  We got to say Hi to Elder Tabelisma.

Video Chat

The announcement from the church about Missionaries being able to make weekly calls/video chats home happened this week.  We weren't sure how this would affect Wade's mission, but then we saw this post from Sister Argana on FB:

Dear Missionary Families,

How are you all? Hope each of you is doing great.

With the new announcement on missionaries communicating with families weekly, the mission has decided to make it effective today. 
We hope that as you do so, you will keep in mind the guidelines set by the First Presidency so that your conversations are aligned and would be uplifting and encouraging.

Have a great time talking with our faithful and exactly obedient missionaries. We love and trust them.

Best regards,

Pres. & Sis. Argana

To our excitement we were able to have a video chat with Elder Holmstead.  He could see us but we couldn't see him.  He was very excited about the news and said that talking is so much easier than writing emails. Here are some highlights from our chat:

• His companion has been sick this week so he spent a lot of time in their apartment reading scriptures and talks.
• He really wants to drive in the Philippines.  There are no speed limits and everyone drives crazy.  He said it's a miracle that they haven't been in an accident, especially when they ride the bus.
• He weighs exactly the same as when he got there.
• Elder Ababa is their new AP.  
• His batch is known as the "power batch" because all of them are Zone Leaders and AP's.
• He has seen a lot of missionaries go home because of home sickness so he thinks the weekly phone calls home will really help with those that need it.
• We talked about Come Follow Me and are excited to study together as a family when he gets home.

He didn't have time to write an email this week but he sent us the names of investigators with baptismal dates and 3 new investigators:

Baptismal Dates

Glaiza

James Carlo

William Lin

Felicissimo Sala

Other

Monte de Ramos Kids (CJ, Rel Ann, Wheng)

Maayong Semana

Hope you're having fun on the Cruise and the house is looking good.  

This week was pretty awesome.  One of the main highlights was that we got to meet with President Schmutz, a member of the Seventy.  He spent most of the morning encouraging us to Know, Feel, and Do.  All of these related to our understanding and application of the Gospel in our lives and he challenged our whole mission to spent more time finding.  

The whole afternoon we had a big discussion about the Doctrine of Christ and discussed the roles of the Godhead from 2 Nephi 31:5-21.  Elder Schmutz shared some really cool insights and we learned some really cool things that I had never realized before.  We also got to do a special MLC and talk about all the things we learned and what we need to improve on as the leaders of the Mission.

Also we have had some pretty cool miracles with our investigators.  One of them, a referral named William, accepted a baptismal date which was super awesome and then we taught another referral named Felicissimo, great name btw, but he has been coming to church and we are going to give him a baptismal date this week as well so the work has been going a lot better lately.

Also we have been playing basketball every week with the district which has been fun.  We have a Elder from New Zealand in our district who played rugby, he's big and he always bullies me when we play but it is really fun.  

I know the Doctrine of Christ is central to everything we do and it is the way to get back to our Heavenly Father. Another challenge is to study 2 Nephi 3:5-21 and list the roles of each member of the Godhead.  We made a list as a mission in one of the pics.  Anyways it's really cool.

Love you tons!!!

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission

"Enabling Eternal Conversion"

Frequent Travelers

Another great week here in the sunny Philippines :)

This week we had some fun travels.  We started off in Tacloban for MLC.  It was great to be with all the batch and have some good times.  We also had a fun activity running around the Church trying to find a lost sheep and then a super good FHE with all the mission leadership.  The next day we had a super good MLC about updating the area book and finding people to teach.  Also our mission got a new logo and it's pretty cool.  I'll find a pic of it.

Most of the work this week has been pretty normal.  We did some finding and teaching and are hoping to get some baptizing at the end of February.  We also had some members bring a cousin to church and we got an appointment to start teaching him.  His name is Felicisimo, pretty cool.

Also after I get done emailing today we are getting on another van to Tacloban because we have a meeting with the Philippines Area President.  It'll be fun as well because we will be having a zone conference with all of Tacloban, Carigara, Tolosa, and Biliran Zones so I will get to see a lot of missionaries I haven't seen in a while.

One last highlight is President Argana has challenged us missionaries to become masters of Come, Follow Me.  As I have been studying I have seen my testimony of the Savior and all the events surrounding his life strengthened.  I know it was from God and I would challenge everyone to master it as well.

Anyways Love you tons!!!

I promise i'll send pics next week sorry.

Elder Holmstead

Philippines Tacloban Mission