Week ~ 3

Holy cow. Another week done and dusted. Last weeks email kind of sucked, sorry for that haha. I'm trying to be better. I also wanted to thank all of you guys for the Happy Birthday wishes! I had as good of a birthday you can ask for being on a mission haha.

 We had stake conference this weekend so that was nice. Saturday (my birthday) we had the adult session in Makati city. So we had to take a jeepnee there and walk, it was a good old sweaty time, but when am I not sweating? haha we ate at Subway! That was a big deal. American food is a big deal. It was air conditioned so that was good. But we had the adult session right after Subway which was ALSO AIR CONDITIONED. Big deal. It was good though. They focused a lot on member help with the missionary work because thats kind of the struggle right now, so that should get better! As well on Saturday we had the baptismal interview for Brother Ken, the little 8 year old we've been teaching, he is SO excited. So we have a baptism this week! So i'll have pictures of that. Elder Sacay is baptizing him at Brother Ken's request which is fine haha as long as he gets baptized! I'm excited for that.

 Last P day we played basketball for like 3 hours with our district and some Filipinos. Apparently they were amazed at my "skill?" Last time i checked I suck at basketball hahah. But yeah. 

And yes mom members feed us a lot! Last night our bishop fed us fried chicken and other Filipino food. Super yummy! Bishop then proceeded to go buy us Cokes hahah. If anyone wanted to know the Philippines has the best mangos I have ever tasted hands down.  Last P day we bought stuff to make mango banana smoothies! SOBRA MASARAP. We are for sure getting more smoothie stuff. You white Americans have no idea what you are missing out on. So yummy. We eat super well everyday. We cook every meal if members don't feed us so thats good.

 We have also been teaching this kid named J.... He's a member referral from his brother who we just recently reactivated. The kid is 18 years old and he had Word of Wisdom problems. We have been working with him and helped him realize that no one is perfect! And sa pamamagitan ng Pagbabayad Sala ni Jesucristo we can get through anything! He is kind of slow and he has a hard time understanding but we are working with him. He has a baptism date set for July 4th! So hopefully he keeps progressing. 

This week was also Zone Conference. We had 3 zones there including the northern most one on Palawan. We went over President Ostler's new vision for the mission! Basically, he wants us to lead people to the temple. That's the goal. We kind of just baptize them along the way hahaha. It was good though. 

We learned how to do family history work and use that to talk to people! I have my family history booklet and I've taped pictures of my family, friends, and the temple in it! We have found talking about our family history work to be so effective in talking to people. I like to talk about back home because the people think that white people are so fascinating! Its weird to me. 

This work is so awesome! I saw a lot of progress in the language this week, its coming along. Slowly but surely! This work is true ladies and gents. I love you all, My camera cord is struggling (probably because its fake) I'll figure that out! Love you all! And thanks again for the birthday wishes. You guys are amazing.

Love, Elder Lambert

Elder Lambert's arrival to the Mission Home in Manila

President and Sister Ostler, Elder Lambert, Elder Sacay

President & Sister Ostler & Elder Lambert

New Missionaries to the Manila Mission

New Missionaries with their companions

Week ~ 2

Another week down! Time flies. I'm basically always tired so thats cool. This work is hard. But its worth it! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and just practiced teaching and a few other things. I met the Zone Leaders so that was good. We had lessons just about every day this week with various less actives and investigators only some of them are progressing, others aren't progressing at all so we just pray for them no matter what! 

We are teaching the Bautista family, we met them on the street and so far they are accepting! They have a baptism date so we will just have to see if they can attend the required church days. Another investigator we are teaching is Brother Romy, he was another guy we met on the street. So far he is accepting and he has a baptism date! But he also said hes catholic and has a hard time changing religions. So we will see how that goes. We also invited 3 less actives to attend church and they all did yesterday! So we are seeing progress. We'll see how that goes.

 I taught Elders quorum yesterday on flooding the earth with the Aklat ni Mormon so that wasn't too easy haha. it went well though. This week Elder Sacay and I didn't plan too well for meals so yesterday we had a member bring us lunch so that was an answer to our prayers! And then for dinner we asked the stake patriarch to feed us hahaha. He's super awesome. His son taught me at the MTC. They're an amazing family. The people here are so loving and are always there to help us. I just wish we had more people to come to appointments with us. We pray for that everyday!

 But Overall this week was good. On P day we went to the "Megamall" to buy a specific item. That place made malls in the states look like babies. The square footage was like 10 times bigger than South Town mall. On top of that is was 6 levels... So basically its mega. On top of that the "Mall of Asia" (which we aren't allowed to go to) is 10 times bigger than that . So thats cool. Its the biggest mall in all of Asia. Thousands of stores. They love their malls. 

We have a baptism for sure set for May 30! It'll be my first baptism! It's for Brother Ken he's an 8 year old so excited for baptism! I can't wait. Anyways. This week has been good. I need to take more pictures. So I'll work on that. And thank you everybody for the happy birthday wishes! It should be good haha. I love you all. 

Week ~ 1

I'm here! Finally. ha-ha! I'm in the Manila mission! I'm serving in the Mandaluyong 2nd ward! I'm serving with Elder Sacay! He's from the Philippines. But the Southern Island. he speaks very good English so that makes it very easy for me to understand him. Lessons are still very hard for me. The language isn't easy. Luckily the people here are very loving and they can understand English pretty well! So that makes it a lot better.

I love the Philippines. I'm no longer "trapped" in the MTC so thats a relief haha, I loved the MTC but its better to have some freedom. We are teaching several people right now, and we actually have like 14 baptismal dates! The only catch is, a rule that Elder Oaks of the quorum of the 12 brought here when he was the area president, but the rule is that a potential investigator has to attend church 4 Sundays in a row and if they miss one their date gets moved back! It's hard to keep them going to church, but that's probably the reason why the Philippines has a 95% retention rate! The highest in the world! So hopefully we can have a baptism soon! I'm excited about that. 

It's so hot here. No AC in any buildings except for the church. I don't stop sweating, but I'll get used to it. The people and members here are so loving with the missionaries. We get some kind of food at the majority of our appointments so that's good ha-ha. 

President Ostler is a super nice guy and very loving toward his missionaries, I look forward to getting to know him. I love the Philippines and I look forward to more time here! I also got to Skype my family and friends today and it was perfect to hear their voices and see them! So, that was good. I love all you guys and miss them! Also, I encourage EVERYONE to read their scriptures personally, AND as a family! As well as family and personal prayer. Another thing, family home evening is so important... Please do it. I love you all!

Love, Elder Lambert

I asked Tanner to send me a picture of his tag. :)

This is Tanner with his MTC companion, he said he loves him but he is doing much better now. ;)

This is Tanner with Elder Luna. He said Elder Luna is very special to him. Elder L. came to the MTC with practically nothing but a willingness to serve the Lord. Elder Lambert got very emotional when talking about this cute Elder. Apparently  he has no family support and worked his way to his mission by doing massages. (Not the best pic... he kinda looks like he stuck his finger in a light socket... :))

Skyping for Mother's Day ~ May 10, 2015

Brand new Missionaries out in the Field!

The Mission President and his wife keep a mission blog:

Here is the link for that:

http://thephilippinesmanilamission.blogspot.com/

 President and Sister Ostler took the new missionaries to see the American War Memorial Cemetery.  "We talked about the thousands of people buried there and many more never found whose names are listed on the walls.  We talked about their willingness to sacrifice so that others could have freedom."

Direct Quote from The Philippines, Manila  Mission Blog, kept by The Mission President and his wife. President and Sister Ostler:

"Then we asked them to ponder what they are willing to sacrifice so that their brothers and sisters in the Philippines can have eternal freedom.  This is a time when they can really commit to the Lord what they will sacrifice.

We take them back to this cemetery at the end of their mission so they can reflect on their sacrifice and to make commitments about what they will do with the rest of their lives.

It's such a wonderful day.  These missionaries are truly the "salt of the earth"."