Happy Birthday Tatay!

Hey guys!

I am going to start this email by saying, Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

I'm actually in Taytay right now. They had an interview for baptism today. The internet cafe isn't really great here. I'm not going to be able to send pictures.... sorry again. Last week went alright! We found some new investigators and guess what? April is getting baptized this week on Saturday! We're really excited for her. She has been ready for a long time and yea! We're happy that her parents allowed her to be baptized. We're really excited for her.

So last Tuesday was a good day. We taught Larry about the law of tithing which went good and then later on we went to the castle that Elder Glodo and I went to last transfer. This time the members were there. I got to meet the owner of the castle. He speaks every language. Like he knows a lot of the Filippino dialects, speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and a lot more. Haha. He is a nice guy, he builds castles for a living..... They are inactive though. We shared with them a message from the Book of Mormon and it went really well. We told them to come to church, and unfortunately they didn't. Brother actually left last weekend because he is building another castle somewhere else in the Philippines. He is half Italian, and half Filippino.

Last Wednesday we dropped by Tatay Guillermo! He is doing great! Just really excited about everything, about church and about going to the temple in one year! He is amazing! We actually taught his daughter that day too, Mary Grace....I cannot remember what we taught them though. I don't have my journal with me right now... I think we might have taught about prophets. Anyways I remember at the end of the lesson I felt impressed to give her a Book of Mormon. She said there was nothing really changing in her life at the moment so I said I would like to give this book to you and I know it will change your life. We set a return appointment with her on Friday! Her husband is in IloIlo and she lives with Guillermo and she has 2 kids. Then we went to Alejandro. I cannot remember what we taught him either. I think it might have been the work of wisdom. He is doing sooo good. He is actually one of my favorite investigators. He really wants to stop smoking and drinking and has been making progress. We set a return appointment with him on Friday too. After we taught him we taught Dorothy, a referral from an inactive member. She is doing good. I actually committed her to baptism that day. We're hoping she progresses. She has really loud kids though.....That night we taught a child, Jessa Rosal and taught her a lesson on prayer. She is a part member. She is nine years old so we have to teach her before she can be baptized. She is going to be baptized on the 20th of August. And that is about it for Wednesday!

Last thursday we did a little bit of finding in the morning. We taught Marilou and Larry. We taught them that they have to keep commitments if they want to be baptized on the 20th of August. Neither of them went to church. Larry is doing really great. He wants to be baptized. He just has a hard time remembering what we taught sometimes. Last week was the first time he didn't come to church in a while. Other than that we're really hoping and working hard with him so he will be ready for his interview this Saturday to be baptized on the 20th of August. Later on we visited the Honorio family. They are old investigators that Elder Glodo and I found. It was when I helped that guy carry water. Only Nanay and Jaypee, the 2nd to the eldest was there. We taught them though and Jaypee actually seemed really interested. Which is good except we never got to go back to him last week. We plan to get back to him this week though. After that we taught Jeffery, Cricel, Caren, and Marise. We taught them about seminary and how they should attend. We also committed them to baptism. They have been to church quite a few times already.

Friday was a good day. I woke up and decided to fast for Alejandro and I just prayed that our lesson would go well with him. He was our first appointment after we weekly planned. So we went there and the lesson went really well. It turns our he read our reading assignment that we left him and he also read "Our Search for Happiness"! WOW!!! We taught him about Christ's church and he believes that there was an apostasy, the only thing he has a hard time with is if Joseph Smith is a true prophet or not. After talking a lot, we ended up committing him to baptism. We are going back to him tomorrow. I'm excited to go back and see if he prayed or not. After that, we taught Sister Lee. She has been doing great. Hasn't been able to come to church lately though.... :( Alfred hasn't been around the house for awhile. We spoke to a new girl who is now living with her. I forgot her name though.... She came to church though!!! :D Haha. We shared a message with them about the importance of church that day. After that we taught Mary Grace again! She is suuuuper interested. Like her father when we first found him. Haha. She read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. And we just went over what she had read. She didn't end up going to church. But she is doing great though. She really likes reading! Later on we taught Jessa about Christ's church and the apostasy. We gave her a baptismal date on the 20th of August. We are excited for her. Her father will baptize her of course. He is also excited. He was sick that day though and we gave him a blessing. :)

Saturday April was interviewed and we also taught her a small lesson. She passed the interview and she is going to be baptized on this Saturday. After that we shared with Larry and Marilou. We went over prayers again because Larry is having a hard time praying and remembering how to. He has completly stopped smoking and drinking though, which is great! We need to find out what kept them from church though! Later on we taught Jeffrey, Caren, Cricel and Marise and we shared about reading the scriptures. The lesson went good. They were really quiet though. Still doing good though. They are really quiet though... Haha.

Sunday We went to church and it went alright. We only had Marrou, Jessa, Rommel, April and the girl whose name I cannot remember at church. It was good to see them. Rommel actually kind of came out of nowhere. He is a nice guy. We are going to start teaching him soon. He is friends with Presidnet Bayaras. Marrou still does not want to meet with us. We visited their house that day. He is the husband of the president of the relief society. Nice guy but doesn't want to get baptized because he is always away. Which is too bad. That day we actually got punted from all our appointments. So yea! We ended the day with a dinner appointment at President Bayaras'. I cannot remember what we had. It was good though. Haha.

Yesterday was "PDAY" and we spent all day at district meeting, then made the 4 hour shuttle ride to Taytay and slept here. We got back at around 7 last night and we had a dinner appointment at their group leaders house. He has a guitar so I played a little. Then he started playing and he is actually amazing. He sings too. He has such a great voice. We sang a bunch of songs like Hotel California, The Boxer, a few Beatles, the Leader of the Band. He is really really talented. Like really talented. Like he should be famous. We had dinner there that night.

Then today I worked in Taytay. We taught a few really good lessons! And had an effective work day here. I worked with Elder Baltazar and we had a good day.

Anyways I really have to go! It is late and past our curfew. I need to get back to the bahay. I promise I will send tons of pics next week and a video! Haha. Please thank the Carpenters for their letter! I really enjoyed reading it. I don't get mail too often. Haha. I would also like to thank Elder Nye for writing me. He will probably read that in about 5 months when he goes home. Haha.

I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything!!!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon

Happy Birthday Tatay!