August 1st, 2011

The New Puerto Zone after the latest transfer

Elder Gagnon with his new companion, Elder Chiang


Hey guys!

This email probably won't be as long either because it is from Wednesday until now! It was a good few days though. Elder Chiong and I are doing great! We have a lot of plans for this transfer! We're both really excited!

So last Wednesday we had transfers. After I emailed you, we went to Pres.Bayaras to talk and have dinner. Then we went home. Haha!

Then on Thursday we visited some of the members in our area. We also taught Sister Lee. We just kind of shared a message since she pretty much knows everything. Alfred is away now. Our plan for them is the 20th of August. Hopefully it works out and we're able to get everything we can to get them married and teach them all they need to know before baptism. Sister Lee said Alfred is doing great. When he was home about a week ago, she was telling him that coffee and smoking are bawal sa simbahan ni JesuCristo and apparently he is stopping and wants to stop. He is a great investigator, I wish he was around more often. They both really want to get baptized. After we visited them we went to Tatay Guillermo's. He wasn't there but Nanay was. So we spoke to her to see how she was doing and she is doing great! Her daughter was also there, so we started teaching her and she is really interested. She goes back and forth though from here and Dumaran though. Then we got a text from Sister Rose to go to her parlour, so we did and she randomly told us that Alejandro was expecting us, even though we didn't set an appointment. So we went there and taught him a lesson. He had a few good questions like about where the Jaredites came from. Then after a long discussion, he asked who Joseph Smith was. So we set a return appointment for tomorrow on Tuesday and that is what we will teach him tomorrow. :) That night we had a dinner appointment at Sister Arcenas and that also went great! I can't remember what we had though.......

Friday was a good day. We did weekly planning and it took a little while longer. We plan to go to another area this week. So that is what we are going to do on Saturday. We will either go to San Vincente or Magara, and our goal is to have a small meeting house out there and find new investigators to teach out there in one of those two areas. Apparently members in San Vincente have referrals, but there isn't anyone out there to teach them. And actually we went to Magara on Saturday but I will talk more about that later. Anyways after weekly planning we went to Marilou and Larry and taught them. Larry is going to be interviewed on Saturday for his baptism on August 13th. So we are excited for him. He is really coming along good. Still has a hard time reading. But last time he prayed and it was just a really great heartfelt prayer. It was sooooo good. After that we did a bit of finding. Then we got a text from Pres. Bayaras that there is a girl who is nine, who wants to be baptized but of corse needs the missionary discussions. So we went to their house and taught them about prayer. She has already been active in church for a while. Our plan for her is on the 13th. Later that night we visited Sister Arlene(member) and her husband. We shared a message with them. Brother still doesn't want to hear about or stop smoking. He just isn't interested yet. He will come around eventually though.

Saturday we went to Magara, by trike. It was long...... two hours.. We had to go to talk to April's parents because she is getting baptized on the 13th and we need their permission. So we went with Nanay Aurino, Sister Erlinda (April's grandmother, who got baptized a few weeks ago) and Chris. It took a long time to get there. But we spoke with the father and he said he has no problem at all. He was actually really nice. So everything seems fine for her. After that we visited some of the members that live out there, like not where he is but about an hour closer to our house, still in Magara. So we actually had lunch there. And later on we left and made our way home. So we got home and found out that we did not have our cellphone. Turns out Elder Chiong had it in his pocket and it fell out when we were on the trike......... So yea. We lost our cell. Later on we visited Sister Estoce, which went well. We just want to teach her whole family. She is nice though.

Sunday we had Church. Went alright. We had Larry, April, Jesse(the 9 year old) Alejandro, and Marrow, who kinda came out of nowhere. He is the husband of a member. Nice guy. He had a lot of questions in our investigator class that I wrote in my journal about. The really special thing though was our recent converts, Marlinda, and Guillermo, actually answered his questions. Which was just amazing to see. We're going to teach him this week either tomorrow or Wednesday. After church it rained...alot. So we stayed inside for a while, studied and then went out later. We went to Lee because she couldn't go to church because her baby was sick throwing up. :( Anyways we also went to Guillermo and shared a message with him. Then we helped Lee with some stuff around the house then went to Pres Bayaras' for dinner! The Taytay Elders, Slept over last night because they are 4 hours away from Puerto and we're only 2.

So this morning we woke up at about 3:30 and went to district meeting which was good! Elder Chiong is a new district leader and he did good for his first time today. We worked out a few good district goals. Then after that we bought a new cell, with the permission of President Stucki. And went home and now we're here!

If all goes well this Saturday at either Dumaran or San Vincente we will have a sacrament over there next Sunday which I am really excited for. What we might even do is split both of us...I will go one way with a ward missionary and Elder Chiong will go the other. It would be cool if it worked. We're still talking things over with President Bayaras. He is really excited to do work with us over in one of those 2 places. I know Magara has some former investigators that Elder Belarmino (The new A.P) and his companion found. So I would like to find some of those. We will see how things go! Everyone here is excited to go down there.

Anyways thats about it for this week. Hope you enjoy your vacation and tell Andrew he had better pass summer school. And Justin, good luck with your calling! I know you will do great! Anyways thanks for everything guys! I love you!

Elder Gagnon