Our message is Napakahalaga!

Hey Family!

Last week was really good here in STA Monica. We taught a few new people and had some really cool experiences. It was all really good though. Today Elder Christie and I are going to buy some Christmas gifts for people and send it home today. I hope you guys are excited. Anyways my week was really busy, as usual. :)

Last Tuesday we found a big family, the Perez family and they are all Inglesia Ni Cristo. It was funny we actually taught brother a few weeks ago at a member's house and we got his name and address and have been visiting for a while but he hasn't been there. So last Tuesday we visited him but only his older sister and her daughter and grandaughter were there. This grandmother kept telling me to just join their church but she was saying it in a sort of degrading way that I didn't like, so I continued to just kind of be friendly and then out of no where she told me to get my bible. So I took out my little Tagalog bible and I was a little bit frustrated at this time so she told me to go to a verse that proves their church is right. (When she told me to go to that verse I was ready to go to war, and no that isn't good but yea.....) Anyways, the verse she told me to go to had nothing to do with what she was talking about so I kinda felt bad and just told her we weren't here to debate or bible bash, I just told her we wanted to share a small message that could really help her in life and become closer to God. So she decided to listen and we just taught the first 3 principles in lesson three and left her a Lesson 1 Pamphlet. We also visited an old investigator who had been taught for almost 2 years and has now forgotten everything. Then we found this American guy! He is from the States but has lived everywhere. After talking to him for a while we found out that he had actually been baptized in Puerto Rico and hasn't been to church in 6 years! He is living here with his new wife and kid. We plan to go back to him this week and teach him and his wife. It will be great! Haha.

Last Wednesday we taught Tatay Carleto and his wife the Word of Wisdom and that went really well. They both committed to live the Word of wisdom. We did some finding in Irawan that day. OH! We also taught Karen who was the one who had to get married in order to get baptized. Well she doesn't want to get married anymore. She really has a big testimony but we found out that lesson that her husband tried to kill her last week. So she does not want to marry him, but at the same time she does not want to get separated because she needs money to support her kids. It's really sad but I just know that even though she can't get baptized I know that God knows her real intents and how strong a testimony she has. She is amazing and I really felt bad for her. It was really really sad :( We also taught Jennifer the message of the restoration that night and she seems to be doing really well. She is reading from the Book of Mormon but still hasn't prayed about it to know if it is true. So we will be following up on that tomorrow.

Then on Thursday we taught 2 referrals, Nelson, who seems to be doing all right, still committed to baptism but hasn't come to church yet. We also went back to the Perez family that night and taught the whole message of the restoration and there were quite a few people there. The best part was definitely at the end when we finished praying and the nanay that tried arguing with me before said, "I feel really good" She said she had really good feelings. We will be going back to her tomorrow and hopefully it all goes well. :)

Friday we went to Irawan again and taught Levi who is new. We taught him the Restoration and it went well. We also taught Tatay Carleto and his wife the plan of salvation and actually had some new investigators there. So it was a good lesson. That night we ate at Pres Maico's house and had a ton of food!

Saturday we went finding and found some new people and we taught Dina who was a referral. We taught her the message of the Restoration and I was impressed to give her a baptismal date right then and there. So she will be getting baptized on the
17th of December! That is our goal for her and her family. We also taught Jennifer and watch the video of the Restoration with her. She said she still hasn't received an answer from her prayers. But I know she will as she continues to pray and read from the Book of Mormon. :)

Sunday we only had one investigator at church. Everyone else, Nelson, Carleto were watching Manny Paquio fight. Yea....Later that day we did some finding and we taught a guy named Brother Acomb. He actually didn't really want to listen but I just kind felt like going bold and told him that he NEEDED to listen to us because our message is Napakahalaga. So we finally got in and we actually got into a really good discussion. He opened up to us during the lesson and told us that he had actually just gotten out of jail. So yea. :) It was a good lesson though. We will go back to him hopefully tomorrow and teach him the message of the restoration.

And that was about it for this week. Elder Christie and I have a ton to do today. I guess I will answer a few questions. One that "cobra" was not that big. I would just call it a snake. Yea it wasn't that big. And I don't think I'm going to be here after this transfer. I have a feeling this transfer will be my last on Palawan. I love it here and I love STA but I have been on Palawan for a while now. I'm actually the 4th longest here on the Island. People usually stay for 2-3 transfers and only have one area here and then go back. I'm in my 4th right now and I'm in my second area. So yea. I think I'm probably going back. If not maybe I'll stay here for Christmas. But so far the longest I have ever stayed in an area is 2 transfers so yea. We will just have to wait and see :).

Also, I have a request. If you could, could you please send some ideas for object lessons for any of the first 4 lessons in Preach My Gospel. I love using object lessons and I have thought of a few and use them while teaching investigators. But I get bored of using the same ones, so I'm trying to think of new ideas. So if you guys have any ideas that could help please send them! :D Thank you!

I love everything about the mission. I really have grown so much and I just love everything I do everyday. I really love all you guys and I hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Chris Gagnon!