July 24th, 2012

Hello Family! Last week was a good week. We had interviews with President Stucki yesterday so today became our Pday. Things are going really good. President told me I might be staying in Makati! I'm really excited! Things are going really well in our area. Even though I have been here for a long time I still really want to stay. If I did stay this would become my longest area in the mission. Last week we had our zone meeting. It went really well. We made a test on the Book of Mormon of things that were in PMG and we were a bit disappointed with how well the zone did... The highest was a 7/10... Some of the questions were a little bit hard, but it was still all based on things in PMG, so it should have been a lot better.... Anyways we also talked about daily planning and why it is so important and how to tell if you daily plans are effective. It was a good meeting. Our investigators are doing really well. We will have another baptism this Sunday after church. Sister Charlene will be getting baptized. We are really excited for her. We also had a baptism last Saturday, Sister Reyna was baptized. She is doing really great and will be a strong member. She also wants us to start teaching her brother, but he is never around. Hopefully though we will be able to teach him. All the pictures that were taken are on Elder Kunzlers camera. I will get the pics from him though. It's also really kool that Derek is now a missionary. I'm really excited for him. If you could, please send me his mailing information so I could write him. I'm really excited for him. I'm also really excited for Justin. I really hope he is studying hard. He will need it no matter what mission he serves in. Also, I have been getting sick and exhausted more often, it's mostly because there's a lot of rain though and floods. We're just really tired from working really hard. Don't worry though, I'm eating fine and I'm taking vitamins. :D To answer more questions, yes I did get my guitar back and I still play it a bit. I haven't really used the CDs that much though. It would be better just to maybe buy just a USB that he can use and plug into speakers. That's what we use now when we want to play music and it's good. There are those though, who use Ipods and speakers. Just make sure his mission president knows about it though. Also, I never really used the big blanket I got, but that's just because its 100000 degrees out here. I also never sewed anything because I can get that done here for really cheap. I use the shoe shine every once in a while, whenever we have interviews or zone conferences or other big meetings. Everything else I think I use... I'm not sure though. I think if you just sent Justin out with 7 white shirts, a few pair of pants, a lot of pairs of socks, a good razor to shave, tooth paste, PMG and a compact sized quadruple he would be fine. He can mostly buy everything else in the place wherever he will be assigned. (Unless he gets assigned in Palawan, then maybe buy him a few ties, and bed sheets.) That's about it though. I love this mission. Yesterday I had to text Elder Comish because I needed a number from someone in the Cavite zone. He texted it back and I said "Thanks batch! Love ya Batch!" Then He texted back and said "Love ya too batch. 6 Months na lang! :D" It was pretty funny and it made me realize that yesterday, I have exactly 6 months left in the mission. I'm really not excited to come home. I mean I am, but I just don't know what I'm going to do once I come home. I want to start thinking about what I'm going to do but there's no time. It's just really amazing how fast time goes by. I love my mission! I love serving and working hard and teaching and everything about it. It's been one of the greatest and happiest things I've ever done. Anyways, that's about it for this week. It was a great week. Thank you so much for all of your support! I love all you guys! Take care! Love, Elder Chris Gagnon

July 16th, 2012

Batch from the MTC - Elder Morris, Elder Comish and Elder Gagnon

Hello family! We had another excellent and tiring week. Elder Kunzler and I have been working so hard in our area. Things are going really amazing too! Last week we were able to commit 2 more people to baptism on a specific date. We committed Sister Janet to August 25th, who is a friend of sister Bunny, a member here. And we also committed Sister Elona to August 4th. Both are doing really well and really progressing. Sister Janet even came to church without her friend, Sister Bunny. Things are looking great in August for Makati 2nd. This month we are going to have 2 this week. Sister Reyna is going to be baptized this Saturday and then we have Sister Charlene on Sunday. They are both really excited and we are really excited for both of them. Also doing really good is Brother Albert, He still has word of wisdom problems but it's going down a lot. He is doing really great. We are also still teaching Sister Sheila who is doing pretty good and should be baptized on August 18th. Then we also have Sister Elaine, who came to a baptism in Mandaluyong last Saturday again and she loved it. I think her going to those is really great because she gets to see the love of the members to each other. She also gets to meet a bunch of other missionaries which is really kool! :D Last week we also had ZLC. It was really good. All the batch that I came with to the Philippines with was there. Elder Comish is still the Zone leader in Cavite, and Elder Morris the Zone leader in Narra. It's always great to see batch! The ZLC was about a lot of different things. President said that we really need to be inviting people to be baptized more often. We also spoke about faith and how we can retain new converts to the church. It was a good ZLC and a lot of what we discussed is what we will be discussing in our zone meeting tomorrow. Elder Kunzler and I are still not 100% sure what we are going teach, but it will be a great lesson! :D Well, I don't have much else to say. I need to take a nap today. Things are getting crazy in Makati. Elder Kunzler and I have both been working harder than ever. Everyday we have just come home exhausted. And it's usually like that but even more so this transfer. I'm sorry if my emails have been really short lately. It's just because I'm really tired though and can't really think about what to write. I think I might bring my journal with me and just copy what I write in there and send it to you guys. That's really great about Justin sending in his mission papers. He is going to be a fantastic missionary! The only advice I would have for him is to memorize Preach My Gospel and read a chapter of the Book Of Mormon and the New Testament every day. Elder Kunzler thinks he is going to England and I think he will be going to Germany. We both say he is going to Europe though. I'm also really excited for Chris Morales. I could see him serving in......This mission! Haha. Maybe he will and I will train him! That would be really kool. I know he will serve in the Philippines though. Possibly San Pablo mission or Quezon City. It would be sooo kool if he served in the Manila mission though! Keep me updated on everyone who is about to leave and where they will be serving. That is about it for this week though. I love you guys so much! Thank you for painting my room, oh and please tell Christian Ocay that I was happy to hear from him and also I met someone who knew him when he was serving a mission who lives on Palawan. She's also an RM and they were in the same district. I can't remember her name because she was in the Puerto Branch. Anyways please thank him for the letter. Have a great week everyone. I love you! Elder Chris Gagnon

July 9th, 2012

Elder Kunzler and Elder Gagnon with the "McDo guy"

Elder Gadberry, Elder Grob, Elder Gagnon, Elder Kunzler and Elder Pugmire at Chilis! :D

Hello family! Last week was really great here in Makati, we're working really hard and great things are happening in our area! We didn't have a lot of time to work in our area last week because of meetings with the stake and stuff, but we still got a ton of work in and had a lot of success. Things with Elder Kunzler and I are going great! Last week Elder Kunzler and I taught district meeting in the Mandaluyong district, because their district leader, Elder Grob, was getting an operation. So we taught about chapter 4 in PMG and focused mostly on relying on the spirit. It was a good district meeting. After that we were told that we had a stake coordination meeting, but it ended up getting cancelled. So we went to the stake center for nothing.... It was too bad because we cancelled some appointments that night.. We had stake coordination the next day though and it went great! We just focused on how to improve the missionary work in the stake and what problems the missionaries are facing and what problems the leaders are facing with the some of the missionaries in the zone and what we could do to improve those kinds of things. We also reported the work for the last few months and had a great meeting. We also got to go to the temple last Wednesday which of course is always great. But we won't get to go for a while now because it will be closed for a month. Oh and last Friday, Elder Kunzler turned one year in the mission! So we went to Chilis and spent some money on a lot of food! We went with Elder Grob and the other office elders because it was also Elder Grobs 1 year in the mission day. We have a lot of people we are teaching that are really progressing great! Elaine came to a baptism with us in Mandaluyong and loved it. She made friends too with Sister Campoto, who is in our zone and just loved the whole baptism. She also came to church the next day. We are also teaching Sheila, who is doing sooooo great now. She is living the word of wisdom, and was able to come to church for the first time last Sunday. Elona, who we are teaching came to church last Sunday also. Albert didn't come because he had something to do but he has committed to quit smoking once and for all. Reyna is doing great and will be baptized in 2 weeks, Charlene will be baptized in 2 weeks. We are teaching a lot of less actives who are also coming back to church. The work is just going great. Elder Kunzler and I make a great team! Our teaching is going really well and we are working really hard. Also, last week we hit almost all of the standards of excellence. We almost didn't get the standard for new investigators (10) because last Sunday we only had 6, but then we visited a less active member, and found a family of 5 who now wants to be taught and wants to come to church! So we ended up having 11 new investigators for the week! It was just a really amazing week. I really think this new family will progress too. They are really receptive and have questions and want to come to church! :D This week we have a ton of people to go back to and teach. We also have ZLC this week which I am excited for. ZLC is always really great! I don't have much else to write in this email. I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for your support! I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you! Elder Chris Gagnon! :D

July 2nd, 2012....Happy Canada Day!

New companion Elder Kunzler

Elder Berse, Elder Bueno, Elder Fisher and Elder Gagnon at the DiVisoria Mall

Elder Gagnon, Elder Querebin and Elder Berse at the mission office

About to attempt eating the "Big Burger" in under 5 mins. Elder Querebin was the only one who succeeded and got his picture on the wall!

With MTC missionaries they worked with for a day

Hey Family, I hope you enjoyed the quote I put in the subject box. I heard it last week from Elder Kunzler and I really liked it! :D Last week was really tiring. We didn't get to work in our area till Thursday but the work we did was really great. I got sick last week too so we only got one lesson last Saturday. Elder Kunzler is an awesome companion! We're getting along great! We teach really well together and we're both working really hard. He was also really happy that we became companions. We're going to do great this transfer! Our investigators are doing really great! By the way things are looking, we are going to have at least 2 baptisms this month. We are going to shoot for 6 though. We have a lot of potentials. Sister Reyna is doing great! She has been to church for the last 2 weeks so we are looking at the 21st for her baptism. She is already really strong and reading the Book Of Mormon everyday. We also have Sister Charlene who came from Leyte. She was taught before and really wants to get baptized, so we have her scheduled for the 22nd. She is also really strong and has a testimony that Jesus is the Christ and restored his church through the prophet, Joseph Smith. Sister Sheila is also doing great. We extended a baptismal date to her in August. She is doing great though and wants to be taught everyday. So we're going to try and visit her as much as possible. There were 2 weeks where we couldn't visit her and she realized how much more she really needed to be taught and how bad she wants the gospel in her life. We are going to try and help as much as we can. Then we have Albert who is also doing great, we didn't get to teach him, but he came to church and said that he was doing great and that he wants to hopefully be taught tonight so we are going to him tonight. Things are really great in Makati, we're seeing a lot of great things happening in our area. I'm really grateful to serve here now with Elder Kunzler. Oh yea, another great thing about him.... His favorite band is Muse! :D Also, he is from Utah, He is also part American Indian and the anak of Elder Duero. People here say he looks like Jacob from Twilight. We actually saw each other when we were on Palawan and Elder Duero talked about him quite a bit. We're gonna have a great transfer. Oh yea, I was sick a little bit last Saturday but now I feel great! Things are going good with my health. Oh yea. The MTC exchanges happen once every transfer. Since the MTC is so close to us, occasionaly they will do a proselyting activity with actual missionaries like me. So Elder Berse and I took 2 missionaries out teaching actual people. It was a good experience. Also the Temple tour is just a tour around the temple with sister missionaries teaching about the temple and other things about the church. It's a great experience! That's about it for this week. I have to get going now! I love you all and hope you have a great week! :D Love, Elder Chris Gagnon