Hello wonderful awesome family!
You all sound like you’re doing great. I am sad that I couldn’t see the roadshow because I am sure it was awesome. Frozen is popular here too! Literally everyone knows the Let it Go song including me. The other day it came on in a store and all the little girls and even some big girls were all singing along. Braden, who did you nominate for crystal apples? Great to hear about david and lindsey's mission calls. Jennifer says that everyone is leaving within about a month of each other which is pretty awesome! They are all going to be awesome missionaries. The pig has perished! That is too bad. But she had probably the best life a pig could have in this world under the tender and loving care of Farmer Mark. This week I got a big package from the Lums! It was full of candy and toys for the kids here and also a nice letter from them. I loved it and it made my week! Thank you so much Lum family...I love you guys so much!
We are doing great here in Baybay Ward and Kilim Branch! I love these areas and the people here so much! We are very very busy with all of our investigators and our big area. This week we are getting ready for 3 more baptisms. 2 of them are Ashley and Ryan Bravo who are the kids i told you about last week i think. Their family returned to activity after the storm. Yesterday, their father receieved the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained a priest so he will be able to baptize them this week. They have a strong desire to go to the temple so we will be working with them toward that goal now. Ashely and Ryan are awesome and their testimonies and knowledge has grown a whole lot. Their grandparents are aunts and uncles are all strong members of the church so they have some great support in their lives. Ashley goes out working every sunday with the young woman visiting the inactive young women in our ward.
The other baptism will be Nanay Feliza!!! She is more than ready and has been waiting for this day for a long time now! She is continuing to be a happy humble funny old lady. The other day as we were finishing our lesson I said "thank you so much for your time nanay!" to which she responded "Our thanks is for God!" True dat!
Remember sister samorin and family?? Well Sister Samorin came to church again yesterday with her children AND HER HUSBAND! WOOO! She is still smoking but not much and they have totally cut out coffee in their family. We were finally able to committ their children to baptism on May 24 and their dad will hopefully will progress and be able to be baptized in June. Sister Samorin's father was up a wall of joy again yesterday that they all came to church. The young woman are friend shipping the oldest samorin daughter, Chabelita, and the other younger girls are having plenty of fun in primary. I am really hoping that they will continue to go to church and progress towards baptism and activity in the church. Of course, it will be a huge blessing to their lives and a source of great joy for their family.
Tuesday was our mission conference with elder and sister nielsen and it was just the best like I thought it would be. It was great to reunite with everyone and to learn from the Nielsens and the Andayas, who are all just really christlike! Elder Nielsen started out by reading one of my favorite scriptures in John 9 which is about when the apostles saw a blind man and asked Jesus who had sinned, the blind man or his parents? Jesus responds that no one had sinned and that this man was blind for the power of God to be shown forth through him (something like that, you guys can look it up.) He then said that the typhoon did not happen because of anyone's sins or need of punishment but so that the power of God could be shown through it. He talked about all the blessings that have come after the typhoon to the people here and will continue to come to these people. That is so true and applies to whatever problem or challenge we have in our life. God gives us those challenges, defects and sometimes even super typhoons to show forth his power. In John 9 as a result of the blind man's faith and healing he develops the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior and then is a witness to others of that knowledge. The same goes for us! If we rely on christ and his healing power through our challenges, our faith will be strengthened and we will experience god's love and power in our lives.
The whole conference was about overcoming trials so Sister Nielsen talked about how to overcome trials and told us about how she ran a 10k one time without a lot of practice and she said it was really hard but she just kept putting one foot in front of the other and soon enough she had finished in a much shorter time than she thought she could have. She said sometimes you gotta just get up and force your body to move and you will gain the momentum you need to keep moving forward to finish. she's just the best and I wish you all could have been there to see them talk so you could really feel it! The spirit was so strong and inspiring, it was just great. Afterwards I went up to Elder and Sister Nielsen and told them I loved and respected them a whole lot. Elder Nielsen said that they are gonna come down to Temecula and see us and I said that would be perfect and we would have them over for sunday dinner. So plan on that! Unfortunately Elder Nielsen is being released as area pres this summer and will be going back to utah to be executive secretary of the missionary department so he won't be in the philippines anymore.
So yes, I'm continuing to do great here in Baybay and enjoy this great work that I have been called to participate in! What a blessing it is so be a missionary and to be a member of this church. I know without any doubt that this gospel and my faith in Jesus Christ is the source of all of my joy in my life and in our life as a family. Keep focused on Christ and the covenants we have made. There are even greater days to come. I love you all so much!
Sincerely, ELder Manley
P.S. MOTHER'S DAY WOOOO!!! I will be SKYPING you on Monday around 11 or 1130 my time, about the same time I usually email you. So be there! We got 45 mins! I still have my normal email time too so you can email me as well!
