You are probably sick of me saying this but this week was the best ever! Everything just went right for us here in Caticlan. So I am sure a bunch of you have seen the pictures of my new area. Ya it is that beautiful. So much has happened this week i will do my best to have it all make sense in this email.
So last week at this time we just had our bags, a box of Book of Mormons, and knew 1 member. We were able to find and move into our apartment and and find a place for a meeting house. We found so many members and got them excited about having church in
Caticlan.
So Monday night last week was a great start. We heard that there were members in this one neighborhood and so we asked around and that led us to one of the biggest houses I have ever seen. My companion never hesitates to do anything so we went up and knocked on their door and when they saw us their faces lit up and were so happy to see us! They let us in and made us dinner. They have 11 kids and they are an awesome family. they live right on the beach and they even have a pool. In my whole mission I have never seen a house with a pool! They are all members but have been less active for a long time. They are excited to have church close to their house and they are going to be a HUGE help to us! They came to stake conference with us yesterday which was a 2 hour trip!
So that was awesome then Tuesday was even better. We went to the famous island of
Boracay! A member who lives their came with us and showed us around. We met a ton of members who were about to cry when they found out that we were going to start having sacrament meeting in
Caticlan. They were so happy and really missed the church so much! We would just be walking down the street and people would call us and ask where the nearest church was! It was amazing. We went on the beach and talked to some life guards who are members and they were so excited that they could go to church again! It was the best. Then the member who was with us (who has tons of big time friends) took us to some amazing beach resorts to have dinner with the owners
cuz he has tons of hook ups. It was amazing!!!
Boracay really has so many different kinds of people from all around the world. We testified to Koreans and gave pamphlets to Russians. It was awesome. I have learned so much just this week. We met a member from American as well. He is a RM and was the public relations director for
BYU Hawaii. He lives on
Boracay and will help the church here grow!!! So many miracles!
style in this area and gain the trust of the people here. It is been awesome one of the coolest things I heard someone say this week was from this lady named Regina. We haven't even taught her yet but last night she came up to us and asked us why we were so different from other people and why can't there be more of you. We explained very briefly about why and she was like "even though you haven't taught me yet I think I know your message." It hit me hard and goes to show people notice a lot more about what you do than what you say. I can go around just testifying about the Restoration and Jesus Christ and people will listen to what I have to say but I have seen the power of service and actions. Just like the scripture that is on my plaque back home. Alma 17:29. And when I do talk and I do teach. I still try and stay out of the way of the Spirit.
