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

Week 17 - I almost died

Hello po lahat

It is Typhoon season here and I thought I would leave you devoted fellow friends and family with an entertaining story of the week. So many people ask "Elder Terry are you just writing about the good things and work that is being done on the field for you" and the answer is very much so YESSSSSS! I see some of the weirdest things every day, and am apart of difficult experiences every single day, but it's starting to become normal to me so I don't write about it because it doesn't seem strange anymore and no one gets upset about it so neither do I. Dogs attack you, streets turn into rivers, you sleep in your own sweat because you don't have electricity, RICE EVERYDAY, ETC.

But this week was as little too much for me to not write about... I love sleep so much and I was completely exhausted and it was only half way through the day. Elder Barredo and I and wanted to invite all our investigators, literally every single one said they would be busy and wouldn't go for some random excuse lol" ( love agency ) so we went up "the hill of death to Tatay Radam's house and then this mini typhoon came out of no where. The hill turned into a waterfall coming towards us and we were literally holding our umbrellas completely sideways trying to block the rain but that didn't accomplish much. The rain and wind was so strong A TREE FELL right in front of us and we didn't even see it until it landing in front of us and was an inch from hitting live electric wires. It was a humbling experience and now I literally live the motto you a'int living if your not almost dying. This is just one a the few different experiences I face everyday. Of course I have bad days and rough times and disagreement, but this is all making learn to face to the Lord and just trust that everything will work out. I'm honestly just happy out here and I enjoy the work so much. It's only 4 months in and I am forgetting English words and days fly by like crazy because I get so focused on the work.

Inside the Mabini cave last Pday

 Sick tree I found

 After math of the rain this week literally every single day

 The river is twice as full now and way muddy

I hope I continue to almost die because they make great stories. haha. Please pray for me to not die here...thanks Love and Miss you all

Love, Elder Terry

Week 16 - First Baptism

KUMUSTA PO LAHAT

Fantastic week here having my first baptism and conformation this week.

The persons name that I baptized is Edgardo Radam and his story is so great I am just going to write about that this week

It started about my second week where we saw this old Tatay pushing his bike up this huge hill and we offered to help and I thought we would push for just little bit later, but 3 kilometers later and lots of sweat we were at the very top, he was a nice man, but he wasn't interested in our message. I then said we didn't walk up here for no reason so Elder Amone and I just started walking down this random stone path at the top of the hill and we walked down that for a while, but there were no houses in sight. I then said "ugh ok the first house we see we will teach and then leave." The first house we found was Edgardo Radam. This was still my 2nd week here in the Philippines so my Tagalog was super basic and I had to rely completely on the spirit. When we finished our lesson he said that through the spirit he knew that our message was true and that he would be willing to do anything to be baptized. (key Investigator)

Through more lessons we learned that he had a bad heart problem and he had to take medication and when he even just gets up to walk for a little he has to sit back down to take a break and also he hasn't even left Mabini for 4 years because of it, but he was so so respective to our message and love learning about our church. Teaching him and seeing his willingness to learn and grow was way humbling and this spirit that was felt in every lesson and so strong.

Because it is difficult for him to travel far we were planning to baptize in the river, but it is rainy season and the river was becoming too strong and muddy so the day before the baptism Elder Barredo and I talked to the ex. Mayor of Mabini, who actually owns a resort 2 mins from Edgardo's house. He was way nice and said we could all come for free because it was for such a good cause. so he was baptized in a pool at a resort.

Baptized Edgardo here at the resort

Edgardo Radam at the church just before the baptism( the bag is for his heart problem)

It was such a great experience getting so close to one of my investigators and seeing him progress made me so happy. Blessed to have met him and to learn so much from him. These are the experiences that just make the mission so amazing and the feelings are truly indescribable.


Pretty view near the Resort

​I lived the vine where I went to flip the egg but the handle broke and this is the result :D

​So That's my awesome week. Excited for this upcoming week with two more baptisms coming and one of them is the daughter of Edgardo

Love, Elder Terry

Week 15

This is been another great week here in the Philippines.

I am enjoying my new companion and working. It's been a little harder to work here at this time of year because it is officially rainy season. For the past 3 weeks there hasn't been a single day when it did not have a thunder storm. The power is constantly going out in the whole town, it is harder to go out and teach because we get stranded out in houses during a mini flood, and people don't seem to want to go to church if it rains. Obviously Elder Barredo and I continue to work hard and do the best we can, especially with building up the branch here. It is the best branch, but has a lot of work to be done and most members don't know how to start a branch because they are all new members. President Deyro gave us permission to direct the branch and the branch president ( no counselors ) to help really stabilize how the branch should run. Really excited for this once in a life time opportunity and I hope that through help from members, my companion, and of course through lots of prayer.

I was put in charge to set up everything because no one knows how to. We had a meeting after church yesterday and I talked about how we have a tiny little branch only 6 active priesthood holders and 50 sacrament attendance and our goal was to get 20 active priesthood holders and 100 sac attendance. after the success president Deyro promised a new actual chapel. We also talked about how they (the members) need to invite people to church and to talk about the church to others so it can grow. Also that we were setting up home teaching and it would be announced next week. The branch president wants to work hard but he has no idea how everything should work so we are going to meet with him a lot to help him out with callings, home teaching and how to interview people. This is the smallest branch in out mission so this will be an interesting, once-in-a-life-time experience.
PS this was all in Tagalog and afterwards the whole branch was motivated and was like dang Elder Terry is awesome, so I felt pretty great after.

Have my first baptism next week and I hope it will turn out successful and awesome.

Here are some pictures of the week

Teaching them in large quantities

 This is how a Pinoy plays pool

 A mom liked picture

 I promise I teach more than just kids

Love, 

Elder Terry