Goals

Kamusta Everybody!

 The past few weeks here have gone really well! We have gotten adjusted to our area and have been building a pretty good teaching pool. We have been focusing on the less active priesthood holders. It’s been a little bit difficult because there is a big group of them that are all friends, and they are all waiting for the others to come back to church before they do.

 This past week we had our zone Training meeting and there was also the area broadcast. Both meetings were really focused on goals. In our zone training meeting we talked about the desires of our hearts. Desires are what we prioritize, and are manifest in our choices and actions. I think we often have lots of wishes but sometimes don't act to make them happen. In the area broadcast there was a really good quote I liked about making sure that our goals are focused on the plan of salvation, it motivated me to try and make more of my goals and desires centered on the gospel this year. Sometimes spiritual goals are hard to measure, but they yield the most lasting results.

It has been fun re-experiencing with Elder Nikau all of the unique things here int he Philippines; trying new foods, learning the language and one of the highlights of the past week, getting chased by a very large crazy lady asking for money. 

 Hopefully everyone is doing really well!

  Ingat 

Elder Merrill

Calamba 1st

Kamusta Everybody

 This past week has gone really well! I was transferred to Calamba Laguna and my new trainee is Elder Nikau from Australia. We have spent a lot of the week getting to know the area and meeting the members.  Wednesday for New Years we had to be in the Apartment by 7. We woke up at around 11:30 and sat outside to watch all of the fireworks. Our apartment is really close to the city plaza so we were really close to the big fireworks show.  Everyone also had really loud horns that they blew at midnight. 

 We have been doing a lot of tracking and were really blessed to find the Mozo family, one of the first people we tried to talk with. Brother Mozo was outside and we stopped to ask for directions. We talked with him a little about the church and then he invited us to come back. We got to teach him and his wife on Saturday and it went really well. His wife is very familiar with the bible and said how she really wants their family to be able to attend church and be united. We're excited to be able to teach them again tomorrow. 

 The ward here is somewhat small, about 70 members came to church yesterday. And there are a lot of less active priesthood holders. I'm excited over the next while to be able to try and help build up the ward here. The Bishop is really excited about the work and gave us a list of members to find and visit. 

 I hope everyone has a great first week of 2015!

 Ingat

   Elder Merrill