Picture from Manila Missionary Moms FB Page

Week ~ 12

Another one dead and gone. Transfer day is this week! Elder Sacay is leaving me this week and heading to Palawan to be a zone leader! So that's pretty awesome. I'm kind of jealous ha-ha. I'll find myself on Palawan some day ;) pretty solid week. Not as good as last week for sure though. Thursday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and found myself in the bathroom for a little longer than expected ha-ha. So, I came out and got a drink when I was done and then I decided I needed to throw up I guess (sorry for the specifics). Ha-ha so after that I went back to bed and thought I could still work. I woke up at 6:30 like I do everyday and found myself back in the bathroom. Same thing, came out and got a drink except I was super thirsty and decided to try something and drink a ton of water. AND THEN I was back in the bathroom throwing it all up and the food I ate the night before. So that was super awesome. I didn't work that day. I got to die that day almost, it was miserable, but don't worry mom! I'm fine now ha-ha and I gained all the weight back. :)

Anyways. Back to the spiritual side of things. It was a rough week when it came back to the teaching. We have more people progressing finally! Its been hard but its finally coming together. We have a family named Mike and Cecil Vinculado, they have a daughter named Princess hahaha. She's 3 and is SUPER cute. They are "Bisaya." When someone says they are Bisaya, it means they speak a different language, specifically Bisaya is a huge group of languages. Elder Sacay speaks Cebuano, Tagalog, and English. But this couple speak Cebuano, English, and Tagalog. Anyways, they're super awesome. They live with a recent convert named Jane Chua, Sister Jane is so awesome. She was baptized in December and she does everything she can to move forward the work of salvation. So with the Vinculado family, she has always pushed them to go to church. They have gone on and off since I got here, but now brother Mike doesn't have work as much so we can teach him! We taught them the first lesson this week and he asked us about the Book of Mormon. We told them both to read the introduction page and we will talk about it next time. Next lesson, THEY BOTH READ. Wow such a miracle honestly ha-ha. We talked about the book of Mormon and testified of it. They both committed to read like 2 chapters. I know they will do it, they're studs. They're freaking gonna get baptized. I'm so pumped. They have a date for August 29th! So lets make it happen! They are progressing so well and they flipping take notes during lessons. SO awesome and they have good questions! I cant wait. My new companion and I are gonna be baptizing them ha-ha so yeahhhhh. 

The language is coming along. I can hold a solid gospel convo. That's about it though. They teach you nothing about conversational Tagalog so that's awesome. I've been told by lots of people we teach that I have improved so much! So I'm excited about that! We will see how it goes with a new companion because Elder Sacay may as well be American with his English, so maybe I'll get a Filipino who doesn't speak as well! We shall see... Anyways. I forgot to mention we have been teaching an English class! It's weird cause Filipinos speak good English when they try, but it's kind of fun teaching people! They make fun of my Utah accent ha-ha. We haven't had much success with non-members attending... But we will see how this week goes. Its kind of fun though. :) Not much else to report on... We are working so hard everyday and that's what counts! That's all for this week! I'll see if this computer will let me send pics... I love you all!

Elder Lambert

Week ~ 11

FIRST BAPTISMS! 

Wow what a week ladies and gentleman. WHAT A WEEK. Monday thru Thursday were actually super lame to be honest. Nothing interesting. Brother B came back from Baguio finally. He had lost about 20 pounds, his nanay (mother) told us he was basically being starved. I felt so bad for him. He told us he missed us so yeah that's good aha. We taught Brother J on Friday night, his wife went and got us balut! Again... hahaha. So I found myself eating a duck chick thing in an egg hahaha. So gross. Good thing I had some coke to wash it down. Its been officially almost 4 months since I have had a DP. That's a long drought so please, everyone drink some Dr. Pepper in honor of me. Anyways, it was an awesome lesson. I brought a picture of the Manila temple to give to them. The lesson was supposed to be about Enduring to the End, and part of doing that is going to the temple! I told them that it doesn't stop there, next stop is the temple! So I told them to hang it up in their humble little house. He then shared a spiritual experience with me, he is a guard at Starbucks Coffee, every 15 days of working 12 hour night shifts he gets a day off. He said he went to his officer in charge to ask him if he could have this last Saturday off for his baptism. He said that his boss completely ignored him. So he told us that he walked away and said a silent prayer. After his shift he told us he went back to his boss and asked him again for the day off, his boss said IT WAS ALREADY DONE. Holy cow. Such an amazing experience. With tears in his eyes Brother J told us he knows that this church is true. And that prayer works. Even for simple things. The next day was Saturday. We got to the church and were ready to prepare the font and stuff, but we got there and a brother in the ward was already cleaning! He told us that the baptismal font was filthy dirty and he had mopped and scrubbed the whole thing. Such a flippin stud. So the baptism started and all 5 candidates got to the font. I baptized the M family, they are in the sisters area. Still super awesome. I baptized the daughter first. Then the son. And then the nanay. She didn't tell me her maiden name, so guess what, we had to do it again. And then, the second time she had a hair thing on her wrist?! I thought That was allowed, especially since it was white! So we had to go a third time and it was all good... I felt so dumb even though it wasn't my fault. Then tatay M was last. Super awesome. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to baptize Bro J, a member in the ward baptized him. He actually found Brother J 9 years ago when he was on his mission here. So I guess it was alright. First baptisms done! After the service, we were asked to give a blessing to the M families youngest daughter. She was sick, literally right after all the people left she started puking all over the tile in the church, it just kept coming. Shes like 2 years old but I guess she has a big stomach. We got her calmed down and blessed her. Elder Sacay started the blessing, and then I realized that I was right in the target zone if she was to puke again! I had a very sincere prayer in my heart that I wasn't gonna get thrown up on... She didn't so that was good.

Yesterday we had the confirmations for all 5 of them. We got to participate. Really super awesome. Brother J gave me a big hug after. Church was normal and all that. After church we had ward council meeting. I was sitting up front just chillin like a villain, and then all the sudden the ward clerk comes rollin in with 4 pizzas and 6 bottles of soda for everyone! I couldn't help but laugh hahaha. They went and bought it because I guess people were hungry? hahaha I wasn't complaining cause I was hungry too ha-ha. After ward council meeting we went to the S family and taught them about charity. After the lesson Elder Sacay told me that we should take them on a church tour! So we did, we all piled on 2 motorcycle tricycles and went to the church. We took them and showed them around the church. The bishopric and their families were all there still! So they met the ward and it was a super good experience for them. I'm glad we did it. That was my crazy week! So awesome! I hope all these pictures I attached work. The one picture is the S family, the sister next to me has a crush on me and it's kinda annoying hahaha. Anyways. The other picture is me and Elder Sacay and Elder Warner partying it up on exchanges. That's all for this week! 

Love, Elder Lambert

Cute Elders with the S family. Cute little gal hanging on Elder Lambert!

Partying with Orange soda!

I think Elder Lambert was just a little excited!!

The M Family

Elder Lambert, Brother J and Elder Sacay

I believe this is Brother J

Week ~ 10!!

Fixing the plumbing under the sink in their apartment. 

Balut-- Eating Balut from last weeks post- Remember, the fertilized/boiled duck egg! 

Eating out an American meal on the Fourth of July!!

Hello world. Another week gone. Its kind of going fast? I guess? Haha nah its good. Pretty solid week. Wednesday was the first day of leading the area by myself! We went on exchanges and another Elder named Elder L came over and worked with me in our area. I was super nervous because I knew his English wasn't very good and it was going to be my first time leading the area. I had some set appointments for the day at various investigators houses. We went out and went to our appointments, we had our first appointment at a less active/ recent convert lady named Flordiliza. She's technically less active because she hasn't been retaught all the lessons, so that's what we have been doing. It was a good lesson. Elder L has been out for over a year, so he knows the lessons and all that. That was nice. But I taught surprisingly well! I was able to keep up on all the lessons and all that. After that we went to the S family to see if we could set up an appointment with them. Which we did, it was set for the next day with me and Elder S. 

Anyywaysssss. Our last lesson was that night at our stud of a baptismal candidate Brother J! He is being baptized this week! He is a man of great faith. Last Sunday, his house had two feet of water out of his porch, but he knew he needed to go to church. He carried all  of his kids through the flooding just so he could go to church. He also works from 12 in the afternoon Saturday, until 7 AM Sunday morning. He works all of that just so he can go to church. I felt bad for him because yesterday he was fighting a losing battle trying to stay awake in gospel principles class. He was so tired ha-ha. But he made it! He had his interview on Friday and he passed! We realized he didn't pass though.. Until later that night. Elder B our district leader called us and told us that he needs to meet with President Ostler for a passed transgression! We thought it was going to move his baptism back another week. We were very upset. Elder S and I prayed that we would know how we were gonna tell Brother J about his baptism being moved. We were nervous because he wants to get baptized so bad. He's been investigating for 9 years... So he is ready! Like an hour later Elder Bullock called us and said President Ostler doesn't need to interview him! We were so excited, we didn't have to say a word about it ha-ha. So that was awesome. We will have a completed family this Saturday! So awesome! 

Thursday we had interviews with President Ostler and Sister Ostler. Sister Ostler asked me about my family and stuff and how I was doing. No big deal. President asked me more in depth about how I was doing. He asked me how I would feel leading the area in a few weeks, because Elder S will probably be transferring. HE ASKED ME IF I WOULD BE WILLING TO TRAIN. I can't believe it. I do not feel ready to train. I still have 2 weeks left of training?! So we will see ha-ha. I'm excited though. Who knows what will happen in the coming weeks on transfer day. Should be good though. 

It was a very good week. We had a lesson with Brother J where he bore his testimony to us. This was last night. He told us of how he came to know the truth. And how he has been waiting to be baptized for 3 years now, and how he found the church 9 years ago. I may not have known all of what he said, but he got emotional, so we all know of the consequences of him crying, of course I cried. It was so awesome. The spirit was amazing. I have truly loved feeling the spirit everyday since being on my mission. Its amazing.

I have a favor from everyone, Sister Ostler asked me if any of the people who email me would be willing to email some of the Filipino missionaries in my mission. Some Elders don't get any emails from everyone at all during the week. The Elder that I live with only gets letters from his family. They can't get to a computer. So let me know if you would be willing to do that :) I will hook you up. 

I love you all. PS I went back to my pipe fitting days and fixed a pipe in our apartment ;) Courtesy of Grant for teaching me! Love ya big guy:) That's all for this week!

Elder Lambert  

Week ~ 9

Balut!!!

Whaddup ya'll. PROBABLY THE CRAZIEST WEEK. So much rain. Rainy season is officially here! Most of our area floods from the rain... Like 2 feet of rain in some areas. Which makes it so we can't even get to some areas at all! We had a member call us because her house flooded, but we aren't allowed to go out into that because its not safe! So the rain has been relentless. 

On Thursday Elder Bullock called me and asked what my 4th of July plans are, I told him I had none. He's from Idaho by the way. He asked me if I wanted to come over for exchanges and go to an American steakhouse for lunch! He assured me that we had special permission to go. I was all in. I hadn't had American food like that in months. I went over to their apartment Friday night and we went to bed and planned for the day. We woke up and studied like normal and then it started to POOR rain. Luckily our apartment was on a hill so no flooding. We went out to go to our lunch, but all the way around the apartment was flooded with 2 feet of water. Only a few cars were down to go through it. We had to track down a tricycle to take us through it and get us to a place to get a taxi. 3 Americans (two big guys and then me, but i'm still fat ha-ha) and a huge Samoan piled on a trike and he took us to get a taxi. We waited another 30 minutes in poring rain to get one. Finally we got one and made it to our reservation (yes it was that fancy). I ordered up a nice stake with a mushroom sauce and shrimp on top. Of course I had to eat an appetizer;) I had some nachos, but not just nachos, MANchos. So dang good. Much needed. It was a good 4th of July here. 

In terms of investigators this week, it was even harder than last week. Brother B took off to Baguio for work! So he's not getting baptized anytime soon, besides his WOW issue... So that's awesome. Brother Jonathan took off back to his province probably to go back to his old life... So 2 PROGRESSING investigators gone. The family we have been teaching hasn't come to church yet. So they might get dropped... Brother J, the one who FOR sure will be baptized this month barely made it to church! We were so scared but he made it. He was literally skipping work to come to church! He's a stud ha-ha. Super awesome. I'll get a pic with him this week. This area is really struggling in terms of people progressing. Elder S is taking off at the End of July during transfers, so I'll be the one leading the area. That will be interesting. We are trying. People still have their agency. Not many spiritual experiences this week because it was hard to work and get to people and because there aren't many people listening! We still push on. I'm super excited for J. He and his wife are already planning on getting sealed in a year! I'll be there as long as I'm not on Palawan ha-ha.

This week was straight up crazy. This morning we woke up and our apartment was flooded! 3 inches of water! It wasn't from the rain either. We live on the 4th floor of an apartment complex and we ran down to get the water shut off. It was from our sink! So dumb. So we had to clean that this morning. I have pictures but this computer won't read my camera, so that's awesome. I had tons of pictures this week but ya'll can be patient aha. Again nothing too spiritual this week because we had a hard time working. But it was a good week. The language is still very slow. But coming. I actually tried Balut this week. On exchanges. I told myself I would never eat it again. And of course I had to mention to Bishop's family last night that I ate it, they had some on hand, so I found myself being forced to eat Balut. If you don't know what it is, look it up. Its not very good, especially when you chew the beak. Anyways. That's about it for this week. No pictures cause this computer is dumb and yeah. I love you all and i hope you all had an amazing 4th! 

Elder Lambert

Balut:  A balut (spelled standardized as balot) is a developing duck embryo (fertilized duck egg) that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It originated and is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines.