Week 21 - Miracles Everywhere

The Purpose of B.A.T.C.H. using love

Since the day I showed up in Mabini Area Alaminos Zone my companions and I have been praying, fasting, and working day after day, trial after trial and seeing the small bits of success every day always made it worth it, but the prayers have truly been answered and miracles are taking place here. We have been focusing on Less Actives like crazy and working with members left and right and getting them motivated for missionary work, and this week was Branch Conference so we saw this as a great opportunity to get ALL the members to use B.A.T.C.H. (Bring A friend To CHurch)-the genius of President Deyro.

Our average Sacrament Attendance for the past 10 years has been 40 to 50 people, 2-3 ISM's, but this week we hit a record of 85 people in attendance and a total of 15 investigators with 6 different FULL families investigating the church. Before my mission I would never even think that this would be a reason to rejoice, but after working here month after month and seeing our tiny little church building become completely filled with children sitting on laps and fully grown men sitting on the floor with the lack of space and chairs available truly brought tears to my eyes. The biggest thing I learned from this experience is to just LOVE you ward, branch, or even your tiny little meeting house like your own family and use them to their full ability because they are one of the most powerful tools you have.

I love being a missionary more than I ever thought I would, or can even describe and I will work my self to death if I have to to build the kingdom of God because seeing families and friends come together is worth every single bit of it all.

beautiful view outside a members house

 My district at district meeting

 Elder Barredo and a crazy kid

That is all for this week thank you all for all the love and support and emails.​​

Love Elder Terry

Week 20

HELLO PO

It's been a nice fun week. Everyone is worrying about transfers and meetings and Elder Barredo and I are staying together again in Mabini so it was a successful week just focusing on our work. Sacrament attendance is slowly rising and Investigators are progressing and tons of less actives are coming back. The key to missionary work for me is just working your butt off and enjoying it while you work and just always pretend like you know what you are doing even if you are completely lost(which is always). We have been exploring new areas in our zone so it's been way cool, and It's been raining a ton, but it has also been way hot at the same time.

We also got 2 brand new missionaries in our district and it was low key nice seeing them be scared and freaked out just like I was. I forgot how much the Tagalog has progressed and how I am getting the hang of things. I pray everyday to be successful and have the gift of tongues to help as many people as I can. Other than that just normal things happened this week like face planting in mud, getting yelled at by random strangers, and crying myself to bed haha. (I actually haven't cried on my mission at all lol but I did face plant in mud and I got back up and kept working lol. It made a good story for the people I taught later in the day as I smiled through it all.)

So yeah...Some pics

Having fun exploring new areas

My only friend

 IDK

 Elder Carpina and I chillin on splits as people buy us food

Love Elder Terry

Week 19

Hello po Lahat

Success here in the Philippines as I continue to see the Lord's hand in my mission helping achieve things I could never accomplish without him. We had BAPTISMS here in Mabini and we even had the highest Sacrament attendance ever in Mabini with 58 people. President and sister Deyro went to our branch this week so that was good timing haha.

Baptism days are by far the best days because it's the day where you can sit back and see the work that has been done. I remember when I first met Sharry May who was super shy at first and knew very little to nothing about our church and when we met kisses she was just so excited to learn more and she was literally willing to do anything to be baptized. Now they have been baptized and received the Holy Ghost, been to church 6 times (and counting), and they are even half way through reading 1 Nephi in the Book Of Mormon. I see the joy in their lives and the amazing example they are showing to everyone, especially their families. The gospel truly is perfect and it is here TODAY to help and bless everyone's life, they just know not where to find it. This is the motivation that gets me out of bed in the morning and out of the door and to push through every single day no matter what because we have the message they need and they are just waiting for it to come. I LOVE my mission so much and I learned a lot through these everyday cray and amazing experiences. Here are just a few of the pics from this week.

pic for the mom

Elder Barredo, Sharry May, Kisses, Me

RICE RICE RICE RICE RICE HOT HOT HOT HOT HOOOOOOT

 Las Vegas, Philippines

That is all for this week

Mahal ko kayo lahat

Elder Terry

Week 18

Kumusta po kayo lahat

Short message this week with not much free time and A lot of work to do.

It's been a fantastic week and the investigators are slowly improving and the branch is growing and prayers are being answered. It is gratitude week here in the Urdaneta and it is by far my favorite time because you can just sit back and look at the progressing that has taken place. Less actives are coming back, members invited friends to church, and people are motivated to work and improve. Almost got attacked by a very large dog, but I didn't, so I am grateful. haha

The Cows do not care

 Investigator reading the Book of Mormon on the way home from school

 The wind was strong

 My Motivation

That's this week in the best mission ever

Love, Elder Terry