15 Months in the Mission!!

Good morning to the world. 

I just can't even believe another week is gone. Time is starting to go by so so fast. As a matter of fact, I hit my 15 month mark here in the mission, today actually. It is starting to fly. I'm not sure how I feel about it! People are starting to tell me that is close to me going home! But I sure have a lot to do here in this area and especially in the mission!

This week was a little slow for me and Elder Langi. Our number of lessons are a little bit down again. We keep on setting appointments with people and they keep on missing the appointment. So that is a little rough. We do have some good people progressing though. The Manuel family is doing really well. They are continuing to come to church every single week! They just need to be married. This week we went and taught them and were very blunt and honest with them. They told us of all the blessings that they are seeing in their lives because they are attending church and all that. So what we did is we set some goals for them, goals that will move them toward marriage. They told us that money is a little tight right now. So we told them that they could wash our white shirts for us to make a little extra cash. (The missionaries are not allowed to give them money. They would if they could!!) They agreed, and we are starting them on the path towards marriage! I told Elder Langi that we have to follow them up often, because if we don't, they will keep procrastinating the day of their marriage. Haha so that's where we are at with them. They have 3 little kids who are super cute, they are an awesome family. We don't have that many other people who came to church. Kind of a little slow, now that school has started its a little busier around here and harder to teach people. Alvin Gatus (our other progressing investigator) missed church again this week. He has been working lots of overtime. He texted us several times saying to come over and then he isn't there. So that's a little rough though. We are doing our best to contact him and all that. So yeah.

BREAKING NEWS: Tondo 2nd ward now has a ward mission leader! A super active member's son just got off his mission down in the southern Philippines and now has been called as our WML! That just means that missionary work is alive now here. That makes things so much easier on us as missionaries working with the ward. So we were rejoicing over that.

This week we also had zone conference! That time is always a good time to spiritually reload. President Ostler is still super amazing. The focus of the conference was faith and goal setting. President Ostler wants us to focus our goals and raise them up a little and have the faith to make them happen. I thought he was going to raise the OYM standard from 190 to 250, but he just said make everything a little higher, and to push ourselves. It is a great application for us in life as well. We have been talking to the right amount of people, we just need to turn those into some of the other numbers that we need. I look forward into the coming weeks. I told Elder Langi we need to spend more time in areas that are closer to the church, because the super ghetto isn't too effective so far, so we will see where we end up working this week. 

Also I have gotten super fat aha. I was on Palawan and lost a good chunk of weight. Well, now that chunk is back with me! I can pound rice and Filipino food like its no ones business. It is kind of funny though. Some of my shirts were big when I left, so no biggie. Yesterday at our house, one of our neighbors had a baptism. So of course, when someone gets baptized you HAVE to throw a really loud party and drink! So we came home from church and there were tons of (some of my favorite) songs playing like SUPER loud. It was super funny. We had to get some good videos haha. We are doing well though! We are still refreshing the area. And learning a lot together. I love you all! Here's some pics of zone conference. Also this is Elder Cowen, he goes home in a few weeks. I will miss this guy. 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Happy Fathers Day!!

Good morning world, 

Also a happy Fathers Day to all the fathers around the world! Especially my dad for teaching me how to be a man and a worthy Priesthood holder. I love and miss you dad!

I guess I also saw that Cleveland won the NBA Finals. Sayang... in the conference games I wanted OKC to win, and then they lost and I wanted GS, but I guess not. I have decided that I will be watching more basketball when I get home. I am also a little sad, just because its over! NBA games are a super good and easy way to OYM and start conversations with people. But we can always bring up Lebron and Curry and relate their celestial playing abilities to the gospel, so no problem

***(Ummm... oh brother!!!)

This week was a lot better! We had 19 new investigators this week. So that added to our teaching pool quite a bit. There is only one problem, some of them are babae (girls) and we can't teach them without a member with us. The other problem is that there is basically 1 member who works with us in our ward. Which is very different from my last area where we had like 3-4 who would work with us. The good thing is, is that there is a member in our ward returning from his mission and will become our ward mission leader. So HOORAH FOR ISRAEL. We will have a ward mission leader and another member to work with us, so that will be great. We also taught a new family. I actually can't remember the name... But we will be teaching them tomorrow. We of course focus on the family aspect, and hope to make some progress with them. 

Last night we taught the Manuel family, another goal of our companionship (and a goal of mine). They have been coming to church for the last 2 months or so and are ready to be baptized! They need one more thing, MARRIAGE. We set a goal last night, we actually set several goals to make this marriage happen. We committed them to talk as a couple and see what they need to do to make it happen. They said they will talk, talk about a date and talk about the money issue and then on Wednesday we will make some real plans. The good thing is, is that our Bishop has a license to marry people. They just need a license from the city, which is really cheap from what I have heard. So we will be always following them up to make sure that it happens. That would be perfect to move a family of 6 onto the covenant pathway. 

That is about it for the work. Pretty simple. There are SO MANY people in this area. I am convinced that this is the most densely populated area in Manila. Probably the most humble area. Think of the most poor people that you can think, multiply it by 10, and I have seen it. I have seen people living in terrible conditions. I have had kids with no clothes on beg me for money. I have seen  people who talk to themselves and do other crazy things, ask me for money. I thought I was humble before, but we are SO blessed to live in a place where things like that don't happen very often. I also am glad that Utah isn't THAT polluted. The jeepney's right outside our house are so loud and have so much pollution. Our apartment turns very black because of the pollution.Good thing we clean it! I have also decided that I am king of washing clothes by hand, so come at me. Here's some pics of us in the apartment. I kind of suck at pictures. I just have no motivation because it's not Palawan. Anyways. Love you all!

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Week of June 12

Hi world.

I guess there goes another one. It's crazy how fast the time is starting to fly. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Its just crazy to me.

This week was pretty good. Elder Langi and I are still trying to figure each other out. We get along just fine! It is just the teaching portion that needs some work. He is about 10 months in the mission, his Tagalog is getting there. Its super nice though that I have some help in the lessons now.I love the guy. 

We were a little low on lessons this week, which was kind of a downer, but we are trying to kind of refresh the area right now. We actually had about 5 members give us referrals yesterday at church. So our goal this week is to really contact them. We have some appointments with like two of them to go with the member. So those are our big goals this week. 

We had some good lessons this week. We actually talked to this bald guy named Jaime this week. We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that we would come back the next day. So we did and ended up teaching a great lesson. Bishop Altrez ended up working with us. He is super super awesome. He was catholic before, and then married a Mormon and spent 4 years trying to prove the church wrong. Then he ended up being baptized! So basically, he knows how to teach and testify and has a great conversion story. Jaime and his wife are about 50 years old and they have tons of questions. So we look forward to hopefully getting a nice lesson with them tonight. Our other lesson this week was with a guy named Alvin Gatus. His wife is a member and he may as well be a member! He goes to church every Sunday, he just hesitates for baptism. I have made him my personal target to get this guy baptized. He is so ready, he just doesn't know it yet. He is super awesome though and knows all the lessons. So we will be going on Wednesday to teach him. Should be good. 

Those are the two lessons that stood out to me this week. Honestly this week was a little uneventful. We are just talking to tons and tons of people and doing our best to contact them. Its super crazy when you want to even contact half of the people we talk to. But we do our best! 

That's all for this week honestly haha. I love you all!

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Transferred to Tondo!

Hello friends,

So I guess it happened! I was transferred... I left the Las Pinas 1st ward and am now assigned in Tondo 2nd ward! I honestly wasn't expecting to be transferred, but I will be honest, I needed a change. I left Elder Webster in Las Pinas and I am now in Tondo. Tondo is known for being kind of a broken down area. There are are fair amount of squatters and homeless people here. We are right next to Manila Bay, specifically where they unload lots of big cargo box things from off of the big ships. So there are lots of big trucks pulling big trailers through our area. And all these trucks bring lots of polution! So you can say this area is pretty dirty. So far I love it though! There are SO many people here. It is unreal the amount of people here that we can talk to. Compared to my last area there is probably 10x more people that we can talk to. 

So, my new companion. He is definitely straight from Tonga. His name is Elder Langi. I kind of already knew who he was, because he was trained by Elder Leofo. So I thought it was funny when I heard we were companions. Also, when I left my first area to go to Palawan, he was the one who replaced me. So that basically means that he was the one who baptized the Vinculado family! So yeah, he was assigned in my old area. He is super cool. He is probably 5' 10'' and 200 pounds. He is just a lean guy, but not as lean as Elder Eteaki is. Anyways, my new roommates are Elder Lopez and Elder Cibuco. Elder Lopez is actually Puerto Rican from Laz Vegas and Elder Cibuco is from southern Philippines. I am the oldest missionary in the house, so i get all of the questions from everyone. And 3 of us are foreigners, so yeah. Its pretty fun. I miss the old roommates though. Elder Cibuco has only a 3rd grade education, so he isn't very good at english. As a matter of fact, he can't speak it at all. So that companionship has a big language barrier. Me and Elder Langi have no language barrier at all. He is about 90% on his English so thats good. He still struggles with Tagalog but I can help him out pretty well. I look forward to this new area with Elder Langi. He actually is always buying me food, even if i tell him I don't want any haha. He is super nice. Hopefully I don't gain weight... haha!

So the new area... We went to church yesterday and it was pretty interesting. There were like 140 people that attended. It was good. The ward has a some problems from what I have heard, so we will see what we can do. We also had 5 investigators at sacrament! That one blew my mind, I haven't really ever had that happen before. The funny this is, is that I barely know these people and to be honest I don't even know their names... One is the Manuel family I believe. They are a family/couple who wants to be baptize and has been progressing, their concern is is that they aren't married... So that's a tough one. I haven't had a chance to teach them so this week i can give a better explanation for next week. The other is a part member family named Alvin Gatus. His wife is a very active member but he just hasn't made it to baptism. He has been coming to church for almost a year now, his concern is that he is easily offended. So if someone forgets to shake his hand, he will get offended. So that's always a fun one. We will hopefully teach him this week and get a better feel for his concern. The other one is this 17 year old kid named Kenneth. He was actually the first lesson that we taught in this area. He was supposed to be baptized the week before I came, but his parents said no. He is dating a member and apparently he has worked with the Elders before in our area. We went and talked to his mom about it, and she is okay with him being baptize, but his dad doesn't want him to. We were unable to contact the dad last week, so we will try again this week. He came to church and has a real desire. So that should be a baptism in the next few weeks we are hoping. 

This area has TONS of people to talk to and invite. And I will be honest, it is nice to get some help with OYMs and stuff. But I also miss Elder Webby! It was fun being companions with him, but I needed a change of scenery. I REALLY miss the members in Las Pinas. Especially the ones who would work with us frequently. Its okay though, i will see them again! 

This next week I am hoping to get some good pictures sent to you guys. Its hard because all of the internet cafes here don't allow USB, so sorry about that! I will do my best to get some pics next week. I love you all! 

-- 

Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth