It's really eye opening to be in a different country and see how different religions worship our Savior.  Because such a large number of the population are Catholic; they had what we call "Holy Week" where they did a bunch of different things (I don't know exactly what) throughout the week and where you couldn't do certain things on certain days.  I'm not going to lie, I saw a poster that said "Day of Abstinence" on such and such day and I just busted out laughing.  But this last week was really difficult to get lessons due to the fact that nobody was home.  Literally.  And we had an early curfew for three days in a row. 

But despite the fact that this week was rough for lessons, this has been a very successful week.  One of our investigators Joselito volunteered to work with us this past week during his free time and he told us that after he gets baptized he wants to serve a mission like us because he admires us for what we do.  The only draw back is that he's married.  So when we told him about couple missions he got excited because he doesn't have to leave his wife and he gets to go on a mission.  This man has helped change my life and my perspective on giving service with a smile and being grateful for what God has given us.  The Lord has truly blessed me to be able to meet such wonderful people during my service here in the Philippines.

I'm proud to announce that I finally have a funny experience that is worth mentioning here in my email.  On Wednesday when we were teaching Joselito; his dad came walked in and was extremely drunk, and I mean out of it.  He started talking to Elder Joaquin and told him to teach him but he's not going to listen to it.  Okay I'll cut straight to the good part.  When we were about to leave and he was shaking my hand he gave me a kiss on the cheek.  Then he said "Kiss mo ako"  (It's even funnier in Tagalog) I don't think I've ever blushed that much in my entire life; so I just stood there awkwardly and didn't do anything until he started yelling a little bit.  So I took advice from the wonderful people of France and pretended to kiss him on the cheek.  Well needless to say it worked.  This is going down as one of the most eventful moments on my mission.I'm so glad that all of you have encouraged me to be here and to serve our Heavenly Father in this fight to bring our brothers and sisters in the Philippines to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Mahal na mahal ko po kayo!!  May God be with you till we meet again.

This past week has been an eventful one; even though a lot of it was spent sitting.  We had zone conference and general conference in one week; which meant a lot of traveling, really sore knees, and very little work.  But for what we were able to work, we were really blessed.  Joselito one of our newer investigators said that he had prayed about the Book of Mormon and that he feels that it is true.  Both he and his wife accepted the baptismal invitation!!!  The great part about all of this is during one of our lessons; Joselito invited one of his cousins to join us in the lesson.  Let me just say that he is one of our new investigators and he has a baptismal date!  The Lord really is preparing His children to hear the gospel.  But like Elder M. Russel Ballard said in his conference talk, we as members need to assist Him in inviting others to hear the gospel.

One thing that really hit me this week was when we attended our zone conference.  President Reeder taught us about "Personal Revelation"  and of how sometimes we rely to much on the Lord to give us revelation when we haven't done our part.  If we truly are seeking guidance from the Lord we need to act first; and then act upon the answer we receive.

Life truly does move by when you are serving others.Play hard and have fun.  Mahal na mahal ko po kayo!!!  May God be with you till we meet again.