One Year Mark!!

Wow. I guess it has been a year hasn't it? Hard to believe that I was new here in this sweaty country a year ago. It sure does fly. Seems like I just got here. I wanna give some S/O's to some people back home. My first one goes to my oldest/younger sister Allie who will be signing with Westminster to play lacrosse! Keep it up there, some day you'll be as good as me!! nah jokes ha ha. The other one goes to Ciarra Green who will be entering the MTC this week you'll be so great! Don't even worry, the MTC is great!!  Anyways. This week was interesting. I hit one year. So yeah. We also had some more sickness flying threw the house. My companion and another one of the other Elders got sick, so we had to cover 2 areas again, which is always a joy. We are doing well though. The members are really helping us out here. Our Ward mission leader, Brother Nephi (yes that is his name) is a beast. He is an RM from Cebu mission. He is so good. He has the force of Ward missionaries so well coordinated. We usually have people working with us, so that is super nice. Without the members this work goes basically no where. And it makes it more fun having someone else to talk to. 

We had 5 people committed to church this week. We were going to pick up 4 of them, cause they live with Sister Melh-Jean. We get there and they all MAGICALLY DISAPPEAR. That is my favorite, when they just take off and not tell anybody, but of course they will still listen to the next lessons. So yeah. Sister Maricel and Melh-Jean made it to church. Maricel is trying so hard to not drink coffee anymore. It is a slow process, but she is making progress. She has been to church 3 times, but can't be baptized until she stops 100%. So we will keep working with her. Those are the 2 progressing the most. So we will keep working with them. 

This next week will be kind of slow because we are going to the MTC for Elder Webster and then Thursday is Zone Conference! I will be able to see Elder Leofo and Elder Jones! So I am super pumped to see the "boys" in the mission. It should be a nice day to just really get spiritually recharged and all that. I am super excited. This weeks funny experience came from a shopping trip last week. We were walking in to the big place we shop at and I saw this white guy. He had a TON of alcohol he was putting in his car. I asked him in English where he was from and he told me Europe, and then he looked at my name badge and went off on me! Told me I should be "ashamed of myself for bringing more Christianity into this country." Lots more swear words ha ha, but he flipped me off and he walked off. It was SUPER funny, I think he was from Ireland and he had a different accent. We walked off just laughing cause it was super funny. Anyways, it was a good week so far. We intend to do better. It was Holy Week this week so like no one was to be found on the streets for like 3 days. It was basically just an excuse to get drunk and party for 3 days. That was that. We saw lots of those statue things walking down the streets with lots of people in honor of Mother Mary. So yeah, I have seen it before but it was kind of interesting. It's their culture and religion though. So yeah, Holy Week was like very little work and not many people, but we were allowed to work full time during the week so yeah. That was basically the week. I love you all. The church is true.

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Hello world. This was a great week. I have pictures from what happened so prepare yourselves. I will start off with the news of the week. 1.) I KILLED my rubiks cube record and did it in 48.80 seconds. So that was cool. I actually gave my rubiks cube to a member in Rizal before I left, so I have been missing it. But this week we went to the MRC for Elder Webster and there were some Americans there picking up their parents who just finished their mission. Anyways, long story short they gave me an original rubiks cube again! Then that night I proceeded to kill my previous record of 1:06. Just in case anybody wanted to know. I promise I am focused on my mission. 2.) We also all know that Elder Lambert is quite possibly the most not flexible person known to man, so we have been working on that. Every morning for exercises Elder Eteaki LITERALLY kills me trying to stretch me. He literally makes me cry. That guy is so flipping flexible for how big he is so  he is helping me. So, the news is, is that Elder Lambert can sit and touch his toes no problem. I am ALMOST able to sit criss cross apple sauce, so we will get there. 

Anyways, now about the stuff that really matters. So one of my roommates got sick this week and had to stay home. So we ended up working with Elder Eteaki and Elder Calixto on different days and helped them cover their area again. That was fun, but on Wednesday we had Ward Home Evening at the church. Sister Maricel, her sister Lennie, and then our other investigator Sister Melh-Jean all committed to attend! So that was a good time. Melh- Jean has been an investigator for like a year now so most of the ward knows her and her little sister. So it was a welcoming experience for her. For Maricel, this lady is awesome. She went all the way to the other chapel for the RS anniversary celebration thing! The ward loves her and is fellow shipping her so well. She participates in classes all the time and answers questions so thats really awesome to see. Now, about who went to church. Sister Maricel went! She is doing so well, her 6 year old son Carlo had to stay home with chicken pox, so therefore Maricel's sister Lennie stayed home with him to take care of him, so that means that Lennie couldn't go to church. For the other people, we taught Melh-Jean and some of their family on Saturday, they committed to church. So we waited and waited and they didn't show up. So yesterday we went over there and they told us they went to church! I guess they were a little late and they waited outside. Then a member of the other ward said that church was already over so they ended up leaving. We were super frustrated when they told us that! So we told them we would go to pick them up next week. Over all, we are looking at about 4 baptisms in April. All of them are girls hahaha. We get teased a lot by the ward and our roommates, but most of them are former investigators of the sister missionaries so that doesn't help. We can only teach them with members present so it is kind of hard. They are all progressing well though. I am very happy with the progression of the area. We are so blessed. Elder W did very well this week, he is speaking a lot more in  the lessons. So that really helps me out a TON. I am really happy with this area. It is still not easy, but we are relying on the Lord a lot, because after all, this work is his right? I am loving being a missionary and its going by fast! 6 days from now I hit my one year mark. Super weird. Super weird. The pics I am sending is me with some of the members from FHE at the church! I love you all.

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week ~ 46

Hello peeps, 

To start, happy birthday to my little/big sister Allie! Your like... 18 I think? So yeah, happy birthday and keep killing it at lacrosse! (Not literally, cause that's bawal.) Make sure you be good. I will have to come home if I hear about you going on too many dates!!  

So... that's another week gone in my mission. I guess I am coming up on my year mark in a couple weeks. I don't even think about it, we are just so busy. This week was good though. Our lessons dropped a little bit this week. We found ourselves not teaching a single lesson on Saturday. I love getting punted  its my fave. We walk super super far. No biggie though. We actually contacted this American less active from Utah. He went to Clearfield high school and his name is Eddie. He is super super less active, his parents are members back in Utah, but Bro. Eddie couldn't care less now. We basically went over there and talked to him. He didn't want a message at all, so we just talked about Utah and like him and stuff. He is super nice, he just has no interest. He is married to a Filipina now and has some kids here. He seems happy! He told us basically that he has our back and if we need anything to let us know. He gave us some like.. Sham Wow sweat rags. So that was super nice of him. 

We had an investigator at sacrament meeting again! Sister Maricel Cabalquinto is super awesome. She is a 29 year old single mom. She has two kids, a 6 year old and a 3 year old. They are hooligans and sometimes distractions in the lessons. Sometimes its very hard to teach her because of them. They are fine though. They went to primary and did just fine yesterday without crying. We are also teaching Sister Maricel's sister Lennie, she is 20. We just barely started teaching her like on Wednesday. She is actually really smart and picks things up really fast. So that is much appreciated. She says that she will follow in her sister's footsteps to baptism if she knows its true. She also mentioned how she is new at the whole "listening to the missionaries thing" which is understandable. So I think that as they continue to listen, they will really progress faster. Sister Maricel is loving it. The RS did a great job at fellow shipping her. She is planning on going to Ward home evening with us on Wednesday and then she is going to try to get work off to go to the RS Anniversary party thing at the other chapel on Saturday. That would be super dope if that could happen. She is always telling us the blessings that she sees in her life since we starting meeting. So their baptismal date is set for April 16! We are super excited for them! 

We had 190 OYMS this week, so we are killing it at that. I really feel like my Tagalog is getting so much better because of all the people that I talk to everyday. I honestly can't really remember what happened this week... It was kind of a blur. I usually have like a funny moment that happened or something buuuut. Got nothin. We had a funny lesson this week though. I remembered now! So, we were contacting a referral, we made it to this guys house. His name is Caesar. The first thing he did was to announce his religion and stuff . That is always awesome to hear. He tells us he is ready to listen to us. So I started explaining we want to start with a him and he basically told me to shut up and asked me who I wanted to lead the prayer. I tried to explain again, so then he rose his arm to the square and started praying! It was actually quite funny so we giggled like a bunch of little kids. Then he basically became the missionary. I spoke like 20 words in 20 minutes and he wouldn't be quiet. Since I couldn't get control of his sermon, I started counting how many scriptures he quoted in his broken English hahaha. I stopped at 33! Super crazy. He even kept waving his finger in our direction and I was about to break it haha. ;)  On top of this, his dog sounded like is was being cooked alive in the next room over. So it was just a mess! A big waste of time I guess. ha-ha. That was about the extent of this week. Here a picture of the main area in our house. kind of messy, and then one of the nativity sets! Love you allllll. 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Nativity ordered from a member who carved it by hand.

Main area of the Elders apartment

Outside of their apartment

Letter from the MIssion Pressident

THE CHURCH OF

JESUS CHRIST

OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

2 March 2016

Dear Sister and Brother Lambert,

We are happy to inform you that your son, Elder Lambert, has recently been called to serve as a District Leader for the Las Piñas District of the Parañaque West Zone in the Philippines Manila Mission. He has shown by his obedience, humility, and diligence that he is ready to lead an entire district of Elders and Sisters. This is a significant missionary leadership responsibility.

He and his companion, Elder W, will be responsible to set an example for the missionaries in their district. They will teach, train, and coordinate the missionaries in their district. They will plan and carry out district meetings and activities. They will have the opportunity to inspire and improve the missionary service in their district.

We are excited about this opportunity for growth in your son. We are grateful for his example of dedication to the Lord’s work. We are grateful he has accepted this opportunity, and we have great confidence that he will bless the lives of the missionaries as he serves.

We are so thankful for his efforts. We are humbled to be able to serve with him and the rest of the incredible Philippines Manila missionaries. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful son with us.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Creg D. Ostler

Philippines Manila Mission

Week ~ 45

Picture of Elder Lambert and Elder W. visiting the MRC (Missionary Recovery Center) right next to the MTC in Manila.

Hello world. This work is just too awesome. I love it, even if it is the hardest thing known to man. This week was kind of crazy. I will give some quick background. So Elder E, Elder S and Elder C are a trisome companionship in our house, Elder E ended up with a condition called "Sore eyes" in our society, we call it pink eye. Anyway, so he can't work so what happened is Elder S worked with me and Elder Webster and we covered both of our areas. Elder C stayed at the house with the big man (Elder E). Anyway, so we worked that day with the 3 of us. On Saturday (since I am now a District Leader) we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, so it was me, Elder S and then Elder Sm. Elder Sm has been out for a while now and is super super humble and awesome. He is from Illinois. Anyway, I will tell the story of the last lesson of the day. So we had been working all day and the last part of the day we were knocking houses and tracting. Elder Sm knocked a house and I took the house directly next door. Elder Sm ended up getting in for a lesson and then he walked in. I was the last to walk in. I saw something that I have never seen, like maybe only on TV. I saw a nanay (a mom) holding a child. But I will be honest, it didn't look like a child. I saw it, and was in shock. It was a child that had a head that was probably 4 times the size of mine. Now, we ALL know that I have a big head, or a "bulbous" head as some of the homies call it, but this child had a very large head. It was born with a SEVERE birth defect. Severe might even be an understatement. I didn't know what to do in my shock, so I asked a simple question. I asked how old the child was. The child is 3 years old. So this nanay is the tender age of 24 years old. So we sat down and started talking to them about their day and everything. We kept it super casual. We started to teach about how the gospel can help us with any problems. The nanay then proceeded to tell us her whole life story. I will give some quick points to her life: 1) her mom died when she was 6 and the dad abandoned her. 2) she has no siblings. 3) she was homeless. 4) she has basically no family except her "asawa" (husband) who is working all day to pay for hospital bills. So basically what I got out of all of this, is I have a good, easy, happy life. I was mind blown at the type of trials that she has in her life. She did a good job holding herself from together, until the end. She shared that she sometimes asks herself if there is a God, and why God gave her such a hard thing in her life. We have answers for that, but not an immediate answer that people always want. We did our best to basically share our testimonies. Elder S basically told her that he doesn't know ANYTHING about what she is going through, but the Savior does. He started to choke up, but we all know I was probably choking up 5 minutes earlier, but it was my turn to speak after that. I bore a solid testimony about the importance of the Atonement and that The Savior DOES know our thoughts, problems, and feelings. It was a super tender lesson. We all walked out of that lesson in a sort of shocked state. The spirit was so strong. I couldn't even believe it. Anyway, that was my spiritual experience for the week. I don't have a pic of the baby, cause I am not sure how appropriate that would have been, but yeah.

 This week was a fine week, we went to the MRC again.  I again saw a sister who was in the MTC when I was there so I talked to her for a bit. She was a batch behind me so we were never close, but it was fun to see her. That trip was another all day excursion through the depths of Manila. I got some DP for me and Elder E so that was a good thing that happened. 

One sad thing though, we didn't have any investigators at sacrament. We had so many people promise to go to church, but no one came. The investigator who came last week went missing in action, so that was lovely. Sister Maricel is doing super well. She is now "75% leaning toward baptism," and not only 50%. So we are making progress! We taught a great lesson about repentance to her with Elder Sm so that was good. Elder Smith is a beast so yeah. I learned a ton from him. He is completely 100% fluent, I hope some day I get that way! It was good though. Sister Maricel said that she has work off to go to church next Sunday, so she should make it. We will continue to contact those other people who promised to go but didn't. We are doing well though. The area is doing way better now. We have lots of people to teach and stuff, if they are at their house of course ha ha. Elder W is doing better at the language. Sometimes its super hard when we are around lots of people, but I love that! So it's a nice balance. We are just having fun and all that, I love my roommates, we just party and make lots of food and stuff so yeah. (after the work is done of course!) That was the gist of my week! I have no pics cause... idk what kind of pics to take cause its not the beautiful island of Palawan anymore ha ha. Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth