Good morning world,

So I guess today is P-day so we are emailing this morning. We had
flights and all that yesterday along with a hour shuttle ride back to
Brookes Point so it was a long day of travel, but here we are! Today
we will be going as a district up to Mainit Falls so we are excited,
even if it is our 3rd time going up there. So we look forward to that.

So, last Thursday we had our flight scheduled to go into Manila. We
all requested (as was the idea of President Ostler) to work in former
areas to see some people that we have worked with in the past. So I
requested my first area since it is close to the mission office. Then
we got our assignments and the requests we put in were not granted. My
roommates were assigned in my area and our District Leader was
assigned in our roommates area and then we were assigned in our
District Leader's area. So it was all backwards. Anyways so not gonna
lie I was a little bit sad about that, but it all ended up working out
like always. So we go to the assigned house and then they tell us to
move and then yeah. We ended up in an old missionary house with the 4
of us. My old companion, Elder Panugao slept in that house as well
with us. It was a bit of an adventure because we had no rice, no rice
cooker, and no stove AND we didn't know the surrounding area so it was
a joy to get around hahaha. It was fun though. We worked with the
Elders on Friday in their area. So it was a good time.

Saturday was Elder Bednar! We had a huge mission luncheon on Saturday
before the big conference thing. So we got to see EVERYONE. I
basically walked in and could have started crying. It was the first
time in like 5 years that the whole Manila mission was in one place. I
saw all the homies from Elder Eteaki, Elder Jones, Elder Reber, Elder
Bernard, Elder Reyes, Elder Carter, And yeah. It was just so awesome!
I wanted to get more pics but I had to talk to the office couple about
some going home stuff. So I was a little sad but that is okay. It was
good to see all of them!

After that we went and took a huge mission picture. We had to wait for
Elder Bednar because he was to join us in the picture. While we were
waiting, church security had the idea that someone should start
singing. So one of the sisters with a CRAZY good voice started singing
"I Know That My Redeemer Lives." And then a few of them like blended
in and it was amazing. Then, we all sang "We Thank Thee Oh God for a
Prophet." As soon as we like got through half of it, Elder Bednar
walked in and the spirit FILLED THE ROOM AGAIN. So at this point, you
can all imagine where Elder Lambert was at this point. He was getting
a LITTLE teary eyed. So yeah.  I will never forget about that
experience. I know he is an Apostle of the Lord.

The first thing he said to us was, "Good morning Elders and Sisters,
are you ready to work?" I was super surprised but it turned into a
huge discussion thing with him and us. Some of the stuff he said was
very deep, but exactly what I needed. I am not going to say much about
it, you can ask me in a few weeks. I know everyone wants to know, but
it is just so long I don't have the time. But yeah. Anyways. It was a
good weekend. I love being a missionary. Time is flying. I love you
all.

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning world,

I hope everyone is doing well. I know that we are. Time seems to be
flying. I don't know what to think about it. Its like a bitter sweet
that is kind of going on in my brain. So yeah. We are just working
hard even though we are super busy. Especially this upcoming week. We
will be in Manila from Thursday night all the way until Monday
morning! Super crazy. It is going to kill the work in our area for
about 5 days. We won't even be able to attend church in Brookes that
day. Rumor has it, that I will be working in my first area while we
are in Manila ;) so lets hope and pray that it is a true rumor! I will
seriously cry for joy if that is the case. Also just a warning for
those of you that still actually wait for my emails on Mondays, that I
don't know which day we will be emailing just because of travel and
all that. Maybe on Tuesday we will be email so I don't quite know yet.
Anyways.

We had another busy week. Tuesday we were in Narra for our zone
meeting. The focus there was about inviting for baptism, since that is
basically our only focus. So that was good. We had no work that day
because of the travel... So that is always tough. Wednesday we ended
up in Mainit again. We are kind of teaching a lot of the same
families. We should probably branch out a bit, but we just get so
wrecked in our travel and all that so it is a little bit tough in
terms of the work. The Billion family is doing as well as they could
be doing. It is seriously so hard for them to come up with the money
to come to church. We can give them the money to go... But that
requires no faith. As soon as we stop giving money, they will stop as
well. So its a touch battle. We counseled in ward council meeting
about it and we will have them come up with the money for the travel
for only half way, and then the branch will pay for the fare so they
can get home. So they will basically have to pay a counterpart type
thing to get to church. We still need to build that faith so they can
come up with the 50% of what they need. In our lesson we tried to
focus on baptism and how it really relates to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. When we invited for baptism, we got rejected very kindly
hahah. That just tells me that we need to review the Restoration with
them. So hopefully we can work that out within the next 2 days before
we leave. They are so awesome though and they really want to go to
church! We just need to go the extra mile with them. It is going well
though.

The Asandy family is going well too! They came to church yesterday.
They were busy all last week because of festival stuff up in Mainit
but they still came to church so that is a good sign! We are excited
to get them moving along hopefully soon. It is just a little different
approach with them because we are having to teach so simple to them
and Nanay struggles a little bit with some stuff. Hopefully we can get
them moving before I leave. So yeah. Its going well though. Abbigail
and Ryan came to church again and they are doing well as well. They
are both in Mosiah in their BOM reading so couldn't ask for anything
better!

My companion and I are doing well so yeah. The work is great and we
are excited for Elder Bednar coming this week! It is going to be so
good we are going to be blessed. I am also excited to see all my good
friends here in the mission before I go home. Its gonna be good. I
love you all! I will try to send pics soon.

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Dear World,

It has been a good week. I couldn't complain at all. The work is well,
and we are blessed. I love my companion. I love the area. And I love
this work. All is well. I am a little numb right now, but I guess that
is expected when a missionary gets to this stage of the work. We are
pushing forward though.

This week was good. We had our Pday which was pretty normal. We had
some time to relax which is always nice. We bought some good food and
all that. So yeah. Tuesday we had district meeting and worked all that
day.We have seriously just been working in Mainit, because that is
where the best work is. We are teaching some very humble families out
there. Some of them have seriously like nothing to eat. I feel so bad
and want to help, but I think the biggest help in their life is the
message we bring. We do our best to help build there faith, but
sometimes it is just so hard to get them to church. We coordinated
with the branch about it, and we have a solution hopefully. It will
just take our investigators to put some effort into some things. So we
will see how that goes.

The Asandy family is doing pretty well. At least most of them are.
Tatay was like SO sure he was gonna come to church and then... He
didn't his wife and oldest son Jackson did. They are both doing so
well and understanding everything we teach. Even if Nanay can't read,
she is still progressing well. Bro. Jackson is always listening and
asking great questions as well! I can see him as a great future
missionary. I am excited for him. They finally came to church so now
we can make sure they stay on track to be baptized before I leave. We
have just kind of stopped focusing on Tatay because it is a little
difficult to teach him, but the other two are doing well. So we'll
keep at that.

The other family that we are teaching is the Billion family. And no,
sadly they are not billionaires. They are actually very very poor.
They are doing so well though in lessons! Keeping commitments and all
that and then we are cruising along in lessons. The only other
problem.. Is church attendence. Their concern is similar, and that is
that they have a hard time getting to church. Especially since there
are like 8 or 9 of them that want to come. So we are working that out.
The members are hopefully going to help us out as we continue to teach
them. The issue is, is that if we have members just take them to
church, then they will always rely on the members. When the members
are not taking them to church, then who will take them? They will have
been trained to not have the faith to come to church. So it is like a
balance that needs to be found with helping them, and not helping
them.

The members are working well with us. Bro. Mac Mac (the one who got
his mission call) works with us almost daily. So that is always really
nice to have. I really do love this area a lot. I couldn't have asked
for a better area for me to die in. The Lord is blessing us here right
now. We just need to get a few more people on track and we can have a
few baptisms before I take off. So we look forward to that. Sorry I
have no pics this week... I can't use the USB because it is full of
viruses. So I guess next week na lang! I love you all.

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good Afternoon world,

So first, I was on emails this morning and I had a crazy good email
typed up and I lost it all. So I am really disappointed and honestly a
little lazy now. I will try to sum it up into one email that is
shortened because I have like 15 minutes...

First and foremost: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE MOST AMAZING PARENTS
EVER! You have made it 23 years now and you have an entire eternity to
go! The girls and I love you so much and we wouldn't be anything
without you guys. Don't ever forget how much we love you.

So it was a crazy week. We had zone conference and that was super
nice. We got to go to Puerto where I also attended a meeting that has
to do with going home.. So that was a party. We learned about some of
the new missionary rules and stuff and we are having a good time
trying to implement them best. It is a bit of a challenge but we can
do it. We also broke down the Hymn "I Stand All Amazed." I will never
look at that song the same again. It is just a perfect song that
really explains the Atonement so simply. It was a great conference.
Then we had to take a long shuttle home. I also had to say goodbye to
Elder Gibson. He is one of my best friends in the mission. He and I
have been together a lot and he was a great Elder and a good friend. I
sent his pics home.

So we have been struggling with finding time to work. All of these
meetings make it a little bit hard to work effectively. We are doing
our best though. We had a decent week in terms of work. We only had 5
investigators at sacrament and that was a little rough. Most of our
investigators are from member referrals. So that is a HUGE help. I
love the members so much here.

Also on Saturday night Elder and Sister Atkinson called and told me
they were going to be bringing a mission call down to be opened for a
member on Sunday. So we had to organize that. That was a good
emotional time. We enjoyed it. Brother Dandel (MacMac) got called to
the Philippines, Davao mission. So we are excited for him! He leaves
about the same time I go home so yeah thats pretty cool. The Lord is
really blessing us in this area. So I couldn't have asked for anything
better. Also I am super fat right now so  that is pretty cool. I love
you all! And I have nothing to say about the Pats game (; you all know
how I feel.





-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning world,

Wow. I am just so excited for everything that is happening here in the
mission right now. So many amazing things are happening in our area
AND in the missions all around the world! I have a lot to say and lets
see if I can do it fast and detailed enough...

I will start with what happened on Monday and Tuesday. So we ended up
teaching the Asandy family at a Family Home Evening. The Aguilar
family (that would be the family that gave us the Asandy family as a
referral) hosted an FHE at their house on Monday. We were invited to
attend and share a lesson with all of them. We brought like 5 members
with us as well just to help us with the fellow shipping and all that.
I ended up teaching about a section in Moroni 7. It is kind of hard to
explain what I shared.. So when I get home ya'll can ask me hah.
Anyways, it was a great lesson and we had some fun games that we
played to make it more enjoyable with them. I think they had a good
experience.

Tuesday was a full day as well. We attended District meeting and all
that. I am not gonna lie, its not bad that I can just kind of relax
and listen without teaching. That is kind of nice ;) We then went up
to the Mainit area and taught some great lessons up there. We are
having a lot of success up there. The challenge we are having is that
it is just so far, that people have a hard time coming to church. We
just hope and pray that they can have the faith to come to church on
their own. It is just too expensive for us to go and pick them up. We
do our best though :)

Wednesday we had interviews in Narra with President Ostler! That was
another great experience. That was FOR SURE the best interviews that I
have had with him. He told me some great things, about the myself, our
area, and the whole mission. It was just a great uplifting experience
all the way around. We are just doing so well in the area and the Lord
is really blessing us. The best news, is that more than likely,
Brookes my last area ;)

On Thursday we worked again in Mainit. We focused on getting people
and inviting them to the branch FHE and the baptism that we had last
Saturday. The other elders had a great family that was baptized we
were hoping to get some people out to see the ordinance, but it was
either they come to that, or church. Anyways.

Friday we had weekly planning and went out to Espanola, which is like
a 40 minute shuttle ride. We go out there to see our Recent Converts.
We are doing our best to finish up some of the new member lessons with
them. It is kind of an adventure when we have to go out there, but it
is kind of fun. We usually bring a member with us.

Saturday was the day of the baptism. ALOT happened that day. As some
of you may have heard, the missionary daily schedule has changed. They
are giving us much more free agency on what we can do with our time.
It gives us more time to work, and extends our P-Day 2-3 hours. I
think the church is giving us more agency, so that when we go home,
its a smoother transition into reality. Like this morning, we no
longer have morning exercise on Pday, then i had a snack, then I had
my personal study ONLY WEARING SHORTS AND A TSHIRT. Then we showered
and when to the market to get food at like 8. Then we came to the
internet to email. So basically, we just have an extended Pday now
from 8AM-6PM. Lemme tell ya, that is pretty nice. It can potentially
let us wake up at 8 on a normal day, and work until 11 PM. Also, our
daily planning session is now in the mornings instead of at night. So
that is a little weird. We will probably know the official schedule
for our mission at our zone conference on Wednesday in Puerto. So we
are excited for that!

Sunday was a bit of a let down... We only had 4 investigators at
church. I think that lots of people are struggling right now, like
financially. The Asandy family couldn't make it, Ryan and Abigail
couldn't as well. So that was a bit of a let down. We are going to
make sure all of them get to church this week as well. The thing is,
is that we are in Puerto from like Tuesday night, until Thursday night
so that kills our work. We will sure do our best. I think that is all
for that.

Oh yeah. We had a huge FHE with some members last night. We had lots
of people come. Pictures included. I love you all. Hope things are
going well. See you all soon!

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

So Excited for this!!!

Dear Elders and Sisters,
I am pleased to announce that Elder and Sister David A. Bednar will be
coming to the Manila Mission for a special meeting on Saturday, February
25, 2017, 1.30-4.30pm at Buendia Chapel in Makati. ALL MISSIONARIES will be
invited to attend, including those serving on Palawan. Everyone needs to be
seated by 12.45pm.
Elder Bednar has asked that every missionary bring his/her scriptures and
note-taking materials. In addition, he has asked us to study the 4 talks
attached to this email.
I have had the privilege of being trained by Elder Bednar before. He is a
wonderful teacher. We will be greatly blessed as we prepare spiritually.
He believes in the principle of “interact to edify.” This means that he
will ask for your participation. You should come with 1) *one insight to
share from each talk* as well as 2) *a meaningful question about missionary
work *that you can ask. (This includes new missionaries and non-native
English speakers as well!)
We love you and look forward to this mission-wide conference.
Mahal ko po kayo,
President Creg D. Ostler
Philippines Manila Mission
-- 
Elder Ahn
Philippines Manila Mission
Office Elder
09273955101
-- 
Elder Lambert
Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning world,

Its been a great week! And to finish it off, its awesome to hear that
the PATRIOTS ARE GOING TO ANOTHER SUPERBOWL! Too bad I can't watch it
:( I guess ya'll can record it and I can watch it in a few weeks ;)

We had a SUEPR BUSY WEEK. To start off, on Monday we had a zone
activity in Narra. For the activity, we watched Narnia hahah. It was
alright. It has been like 5 years since I watched that show, but it
was pretty fun! And then we had zone meeting on Tuesday in Narra. So
we ended up not sleeping in our house. After zone meeting, we had to
travel home for like 3 hours... So we weren't able to work on Monday
or Tuesday.

At zone meeting, they discussed some changes that will be happening in
the mission. Not just changes in our mission, but changes all over the
world. We aren't sure of all the details, but from what we heard, its
PRETTY BIG. We will know a little bit more about that in a few days. I
am excited for it, even though I won't really be around to see all of
it unfold. Whatever it is, it is inspired.

Wednesday we got home and were expecting to have another day of work,
but Elder Corpuz had a fever, so our day was like kind of shot down
from that, but we were able to make it to the appointment that we had
with the Asandy family. They are doing pretty awesome! And I am doing
NOT pretty awesome trying to understand their language haha. It is so
hard to teach him. I seriously just keep laughing about it because I
feel like a new missionary, and my companion struggles with their
language too so its normal! They are doing well though. They have a
very superficial knowledge about Jesus Christ and we have to very
simply teach them to their understanding. They came to church as well!
We really wanted Tatay to make it to church, which he promised us he
would, but he didn't make it... They have a hard time with
transportation. They only have 1 motorcycle that can fit like 4 people
on it, Out of all of them, 4 of them came. Tatay was just the extra
person that couldn't fit on the motor. So this week we will really do
our best to get him to church.

On Thursday and Friday, we had to go to Puerto for my companion to
take a special English test. So that was a nice killer of like 2 days
of work. We made the most of it though. On Saturday we had a full day
of work. We were able to teach 4 member present lessons that day up in
the Mainit area. We taught Abigail and Ryan again. We are currently on
the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We focused on repentance with
them. The goal right now of the church is, "Teach Repentance, Baptize
Converts." So we are really being trained to hit that subject pretty
hard. We hit it hard with them and they understood it well. They ended
up coming to church as well this week. So they are on track for a
February baptism. We look forward to that. Yesterday we had 10
investigators at church, and some of them are coming to church, just
not progressing towards baptism because of big trials in their life.
We are hoping for about 4-6 baptisms in February. So we can do it! The
Lord is really blessing us here in this area, and the branch is really
helping too.

I think that is all for this week. I don't have any pics because...
Nothing happened so yeah. I love you all!

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning world,

I guess to start, I would like to wish my sister MCKENNA A HAPPY
BIRTHDAY TODAY! (Or I guess tomorrow for you guys.) But I know it will
be a great day for you ;) Love you!

This was a GREAT week. In terms of progressing investigators, we are
being so blessed by the Lord! We had a great week this week all the
way around. We are really doing what President has asked us in terms
of living what he has as a vision for our mission. This week, we had
12 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. WOW. No words can describe how happy I was
yesterday for that to happen. The Lord is really blessing us here in
Brookes Point. I feel like I am the best missionary at this point.
Which I hope so cause I have been out here for awhile now. My
companion, Elder Corpuz is great. We get along great and we are just
doing so well in terms of teaching. We can both switch and teach just
so well. He has been out for like 16 months now, so we both have a lot
of experience in the mission. The members are even coming forward and
giving us lots of referrals. Which have already come to church!

The best referral that we got this week was the Asandy family. They
are a referral from the Aguilar family. The Aguilar family is so
awesome. Both of the parents served missions back in the day, and
Brother Aguilar is what is called a "barangay captain." So he is
basically just in charge of the whole neighborhood in his area. He
gets paid for it and he knows basically every person who is in that
area. So he can see and knows who would be good people to refer or
bring to church with him. Anyways, so he referred us to the Asandy
family. They came to church twice now. The tatay is a really nice guy.
It cracks me up teaching them because they STRUGGLE WITH TAGALOG. They
speak Natibo... So yeah. My companion and I struggle a little bit in
terms of trying to understand them. I can understand about 30% of what
they are saying. Its almost like I am a new missionary hahaha. It is
kind of fun though. We do our best and the Natibo members help us out
a lot. Some of the members are RM's so it works out nicely. We had a
great lesson focused on the family, and how following a living prophet
can really bless a family and make that family eternal. This family
has a son named Jackson. He is like 22 years old and already wants to
serve a mission. He understands basically EVERYTHING that we teach
them and he kind of helps explain to Tatay what we are trying to say.
Jackson loves everything he is learning so far. We just need to finish
the lessons with him! We are REALLY excited about this family. Also
Ryan and Abigail Macles are doing awesome. I told them that if they
finish 1st Nephi they can have chocolate from the US. So they did it!
They are so awesome and are progressing so well. We just need to make
sure that they can get to church consistently. Then they can be
baptized. We are just doing so well in this area.

Also this week, Elder Baier has his birthday. So a member treated us
to this seafood place here in Brookes. OH MY GOSH IT WAS AMAZING. We
had fresh crab, lobster, papaya, fish EVERYTHING you can think of! We
just like had a feast, I have pics in my other email. It was so nice.
I think Dad will be jealous ;) It was a nice day. The members are so
nice. I think that is where i will have my last meal in the
Philippines ;)

All in all it was a good week. I think that is all that really
happened. Anyways. I love you all and I will send some pics!

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Hi peeps,

So this week was great! I hate to break it to you all, but I am
getting a LITTLE lazy on emails... I wish that I could just send pics
but the internet is just a little too slow to send a good amount. Just
know that I love you all and will send lots of pics if the internet
will let me.

The work this week was the best thus far in the area! We had 6
investigators at church and we got 4 REALLY nice referrals this week.
So we will be contacting those very soon. We are loving the work here
in Brookes. I really love my new companion, Elder Corpuz. He is a
great humble guy that works very hard and we both can split the time
very nicely in our area in terms of teaching. We have been working in
the Mainit area again and just killing it up there. Ryan and Abigail
are doing great as well, we started a challenge that if they read the
Book of Mormon and finish 1 Nephi, then the first one to finish it
gets chocolate from "ibang bansa." That just means chocolate from
another country that they are just obsessed with. I will only just buy
them a big Cadburry chocolate bar. But within 2 days they had both
read like 20 chapters so its working! I really love the growth that we
are having here. The Lord is really blessing us here right now. When I
got here, the area was a little bit dead but it is reviving now! So
yeah. Love you all!

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good Afternoon peeps,

Sorry I am on so late. We went to Mainit Falls in our area! Super
magandang area, and it was awesome. I hope I can send some pics later
in this email when the connection gets better. I hope everyone is
doing alright though. I am loving life and oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO
ALL!

So it wasn't a bad week. Elder Carter actually ended up transferring
this last week to Manila. So that was... Okay :) He is now in Manila.
Elder Jones actually left as well and is in Manila as well. So me and
Elder Reyes are the ones left here. My new companion is Elder Corpuz.
He is from Mindanao, Philippines, from Davao actually. He speaks like
5 different languages so that is pretty crazy. He has been in the
mission for about 15 months now, so he has quite a bit of experience
in the field. I am assuming that he will be my last companion, but you
just never know. Him and I should do very well here, just because we
are both fairly old missionaries. So I look forward to the next few
transfers.

The work was a little tough this week just because of transfer day and
then having the New Years holiday. Because Elder Jones and Elder
Carter had to leave together, me and Elder Reyes had to cover both
areas for about 2 days. We mostly covered the other area during that
time, so that was rough for the areas we work in. Elder Corpuz got in
the area on Thursday. Anyways. So far we are doing well in our area.
We have been working in Mainit area, and it has been doing very well.
We got to teach Sister Abigail and Brother Ryan again in their area.
They seem to do EVERY assignment that we have them do. Which is
everything you can ask for! The only problem is, is that they didn't
go to church. We aren't sure why. I think it is because their
fellowshipper didn't come to church either, and their house is a
little far, so we need to follow that one up. We taught them about
Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They both also prayed about it
and know that it is true! We are hoping to have them baptized on
February 4th. Maybe a little earlier. We will see how that one goes. I
am so happy about them and whats even better is that they aren't shy
to open up to us. So yeah. Its going well. I will get a pic next time
with them. We are trying to find more investigators, but a lot of the
people we talk to are Iglesia ni Cristo! Which is just another church
here. The people here tend to live in clumps. Meaning that lots of
Catholics will live in an area, and then Muslim and then Born Again
people. So yeah. We go to these areas and just get straight rejected
haha. It is kind of funny but sometimes it gets a little old. We just
bare testimony and then leave, thats all you can do.

We also had a good New Years! On Saturday we had to go home at 6,
which is super early just because it isn't too safe outside at that
time. After all, this is the Philippines. So what we did, is we just
bought some nice food at the market and made some NICE food! We had
chicken curry and sinigang with pork. It was SO nice. and we bought
like 6 liters of mountain dew and we just... Had a good time:) some
members came over to our house and we just ate food in our garage
thing that we have outside our house. It was a good time. Then at
midnight we ended up on our roof to watch fireworks for like 10
minutes. Even though they weren't very nice. Then we went to bed! It
was the best we could do though ;)

I was very humbled again this week. We were teaching a lesson with
this nanay named Nanay Helen. She is in one of those humble
circumstances that we seem to always see wherever you are. She lives
in a small bamboo house, that is like 5x5. Every time we talked with
her she just kept praising how much we helped her and how through the
Grace of God she gets through life. Which is true, if it wasn't for
him, we can't survive in this life, let alone the life to come. I know
that is true!

I love you all and I will send pics soon. Talk to you sooon!



-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning friends and family,

So this morning has been kind of crazy. Elder Carter was supposed to
Skype to his family, but the internet shop owner forgot and we are
kind of just scrambling now. I sure hope that my Skype works tomorrow
when I try to get on. I guess we will see tomorrow when it happens. I
am thinking that I will be able to Skype, but this is still Palawan.
So the internet is going to be very… Not good. So we just need to be
patient. It might come down to me being able to see you, but you can’t
see me, just so we can have a decent conversation. So just bare with
me, besides the fact that I will see all of you soon so no worries.

It has been a GREAT week! We have really had the best week since I
have been here in Palawan. We have TONS of great people we are
teaching right now that are part member families. We have been
focusing in an area called Mainit. It is like a 30 minute tricycle
ride from our house. It is a little far from the church, but it is
around lots of members. There are tons of part member families up
there so we have been trying to find those who are seekers of the
truth. One of them that we talked to is the niece and the nephew of an
RM here in our branch. They are Sis. Abigail and Bro. Ryan Macles.
They are siblings the kid is like 14 and the girl is 13. We taught a
great first lesson about families, read in the Book of Mormon, and
then we invited for baptism! This was all on Saturday. Then, they came
to church yesterday! It was super awesome. I think that should be
baptized. We gave them a day for baptism on February 4, 2017, but of
course that can change depending on their progression. I am very
excited about them. Another family that we have been focusing on is
the OTHER Macles family. So the Macles family is HUGE. There are like
9 kids and they all have their own families. So we are teaching some
of the grand kids and yeah. So this other Macles family is very
special. Their 3 kids, Joel, Morelyn, and Jenny Ann were baptized by
Elder Gibson last December. And now we are working on their parents
and some of their other cousins! It is so hard to explain, maybe I can
explain on Skype and then mom can type it all out haha. Basta.. It is
so awesome. We are really finding some families to teach so that we
can help them be complete and active in the gospel.

So about Christmas… On Saturday night, we were up in Mainit. Which
like I said, is very far away. We were at the Bagyo family. They are
one of those families who are Natibo, meaning they speak a different
dialect and do things a little differently. They are so kind! We went
to their house and watched Joy to the World hooked up to a small DVD
player and then a car battery. It was a very humble but very amazing
experience. They speak like close to zero English so it was hard for
them to understand the video. I translated it a little bit just to
keep them up to date on what is happening. It wasn’t too bad though at
all! I had a good time and then a member came to pick us up. When he
picked us up, we had to get Elder Jones and Elder Reyes in their area
and take them home. When we got there, I had to go and get them in the
house. Of course they invited us in and we started smashing more food
and stuff. So yeah. Lots of food. We got home a little late because of
that… But I mean. Yeah… Hahah.

Christmas day was good! We had 9 investigators at church! That is how
you know that you did well, is based on investigators at church. The
Lord really blessed us this week, and he guided us to those people who
we needed to focus on at this time in their lives. It was a 1 hour
sacrament block, and that was it. We then got to watch the First
Presidency Christmas devotional with the members. After that, we went
home and ate lots of French toast that we made at our house! Then, we
went up to a place called Espanola to work. It was about a 45 minute
shuttle ride to a member that lives there! They fed us heaps ton and
we left full. After that, we rode home and starting cooking our own
food! We had adobo and sisig. We cooked it at the house with the
members. We have like an outdoor kitchen thing that we cooked at. Then
we moved the table and ate! We were SO FULL. We even bought sparkling
cider and had some nice bottled kuwan like that  So it was nice!

I think this was our week in a short email. We had a GREAT week. The
Lord is blessing us at the best time of the year! It has been another
humbling Christmas as we have been here to share the gospel. I have
loved every second of it. Sana we can Skype tomorrow! We shall see.
Love you all and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth

Good morning friends and family,

Merry Christmas to everyone! This was a good week. We had lots to do
and were super busy. Monday we had our P-day and just worked. Tuesday
we had zone meeting in Narra. Basically, we got home late from that
and had no work that day. We just had a good training from the zone
leaders and all that. We learned about really going out to find
scattered Israel. Basically we learned how to better apply the
training from our Christmas zone conference from Elder Haynie.  It was
really good to see some of the Elders in the zone. Elder Gibson and
Elder Monson go to Manila every month for meetings and they got some
stuff from my luggage. While they were in my luggage, they pulled out
2 of my ties that they thought would be funny to wear at zone meeting.
So that was a little funny haha. That was our Tuesday I suppose.

Anyways. Our first official day of work was on Wednesday. Me and Elder
Jones went on exchanges in his area. That was a nice rest if you know
what I mean. We taught 7 lessons in his area. We basically killed it.
It made me really see where our area is lacking. I came into our area
and it was kind of… kulang. (ya’ll can translate that if you want.) We
worked and just had a good day in his area. In the mean time, the
other two elders were supposed to be working in our area. I guess
Elder Carter got sick, so they were unable to work. So that was
another day in our area with no work. Thursday we worked hard and
prepared for the Christmas party that was happening on that Saturday.
We taught a few lessons. But for the most part we were rejected to be
honest haha. We were trying to go to an area and find new people, but
it just happened to be where there are lots of Iglesia ni Cristo
members. We just got basically told off all day haha. We had lots of
OYMs though! Nothing much came out of it though. We recontacted a
former investigator of Elder Carter’s from a while ago. Her name is
Anna Mae and she is like 19 years old and has a kid. She is actually
very interested, and we were able to teach her mom who was there as
well. So it was nice to finally get someone who was willing to listen.
We basically just ended the day very tired and sweaty. Friday was an
okay day as well. We weekly planned and I did my best to get a feel
for the area and what we should do for it. This area has a few
challenges, just like all of the areas, but it is a great area. We
also went to the church to have some of the RM members teach us a
dance for the Christmas party, but then we figured it probably
wouldn’t be a good idea, so we just ended up singing anyways. Friday
we worked, did some more finding again so that we can have some new
people to teach. Saturday was a day that I was really looking forward
to. It was a day where we got to go be at the church and feel the
Christmas spirit and spend time with the members. For various reasons,
we need to make some friends and build some trust with members. It was
a great opportunity to see and be with the members. I have a lot of
friends here who are new RM’s and some are preparing to leave on their
missions. We have a lot of fun together with those guys. I got to know
lots of new members and stuff. AND on top of that, we smashed a lot of
super nice food! We ate lechon baboy! It was another one of those pig
things that tastes oh so good. We sang songs and lots of the members
performed like dance number things. It was a lot of fun and some good
laughs. Another one of those stress reliever things.

Saturday we went to church. The thing is, is that there has been an
UNREAL amount of rain here in Palawan for the past 3 days or so. Like
it has hardly stopped. A lot of our area was flooded yesterday after
church. After all that, we had about 3 investigators at church again.
We are doing well in that sense, we just need to really push them
harder. That is what we are lacking in our area is pushing people to
baptism. We just have a hard time inviting people and teaching them on
a consistent basis. We are having fun though. Sometimes a little
rough, but not bad though.  I am really loving it here and I guess
Christmas is in a few days. So I will see some of you soon! Love you
all!


PS i will work on some of the pics

-- 
Elder Lambert

Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth