Dear Mom, Dad, and Cole Family,

I found a nice but disturbing email in my inbox this morning......it was my flight plans.  I'll be flying out of Naga on my birthday but won't arrive in Utah until July 1st.  Dang life goes by way to fast.  My time here in Naga is winding down, but my desire to serve continues to burn stronger than ever.  

This past week and Elder Key and I have been giving it our all to bring our brothers and sisters to the knowledge of that which is just and true and trying to rescue those who have fallen away.  There is a recent convert family who has been struggling with the trials and cares of the world and after weeks of trying to teach them, we finally were able to help them to be nourished by the good word of God.  The tatay is a tricycle driver and is constantly working in order to just provide the necessities  of life.  The nanay is constantly watching there 5 wild children which makes life tiring.  Anyways we shared Helaman 5:12 and Ether 12:27 to just help them realize the reason for trials and for why we need to establish our foundation on Jesus Christ so that we won't fall when those trials do come.  It was a very powerful lesson in which I could really feel the spirit touching their hearts.  Unfortunately they still didn't attend church yesterday but the ward has been awesome and the auxiliaries went and visited them to check up on them.   Marbie and Jenny also attended church again this week which was awesome to see!!  They have a hard time understanding things so we're going kind of slow with them.  But I feel that they could be baptized a little after I'm gone.  

Also this past week my testimony has been strengthened about people being prepared by our Heavenly Father to hear the gospel.  Last week we OYM'ed a man by the name of Michael and another teenage girl by the name of Jessica.  On Friday Elder Key and I went to go visit Michael but when we got there he wasn't at the house.  Thankfully his mom sat us down and told us to wait a little bit.  Not too much later he arrived at the house and looked happy that we were there.  He told us that he had read the whole pamphlet and really enjoyed what he read.  We taught him about the restoration and well... he understood it better than most people that read the pamphlet.  We invited him to go to church but unfortunately he wasn't able to go.  Then on Saturday a few of the youth worked with us when we went to contact Jessica.  When we got to her home there were a bunch of people and within 30 seconds all of them were gone besides Jessica.  At first she was pretty shy of us but slowly she started to up up with us.  One of the members Jobeth was able to relate with her really well.  They're the same age, go to the same college and even are doing the same course.  At the beginning of the lesson I really didn't know what to say and I was kind of stumbling with my words. But when we started to teach about Joseph Smith and the restoration my mind all of a sudden became clear and the spirit flooded the room.  Jessica's eyes started to tear up and I knew that she was feeling the spirit.  At the end I felt inspired to extend the baptismal invitation in which she accepted but she hasn't committed to a date yet.  The Lord truly does prepare His children for us; we just have to do our best to find them.  Even if it takes 100 rejections; because every soul is great in the sight of God.

Mahal na mahal ko po kayo.  May God be with you till we meet again.

                                           -Elder Cole