August 20th, 2012

We had a small service project where we just talked about being prepared and 72 hour kits to Barangay officials. We were given t-shirts! :D

Elder Kunzler and I with Sister Angel, one of the head people in Barangay Poblation. :D

Hello Family! This week was a really great week. It started off a little hard but we really ended up with a great week! Last Tuesday we had our zone meeting, we set goals as a zone for the next month of September. Unfortunatly, Makati zone does not look like it will hit it's goal of 20 baptisms for the month of August... We set a lower goal of 15 though for the month of September. I'm pretty sure we can can get that. 15 is still really really high, but not impossible. :D We also taught about the Book Of Mormon and we sang Book Of Mormon stories. Then we practiced introducing the Book of Mormon. It went really well. :D Well last week was really great, we found a lot of new investigators and we were also able to give out more baptismal dates to people, we now have 8 people with baptismal dates. Sister Elaine, who we have been teaching for a while now, finally accepted to be baptized on a date! She should be on the 22nd of September. We also have sister Janet and Albert who are doing really good and should be in September. We also have brother Ramon who is new but really wants to change and make things right with God. Then we have Sheryl and Margorie, who we have only taught once, but accepted to be baptized on October 6. So that is the goal date for them. Things are going really good in our area as of right now. I am really excited and happy for Elaine though. We also have Sister Alona getting baptized this coming Saturday and we are very excited for her. She has really come a long way. :D Last Sunday I gave a talk on missionary work and I just went through some small things (mainly living the gospel, praying and having charity) that any of us can do to make a big difference in missionary work. We also went to a baptism in Mandaluyong last Saturday. They had 2 baptisms which was really great! We are going to have a zone activity this transfer. It's been harder to do one in the city because there's not as much to do, but we are finally going to have one this transfer! :D It was really crazy to see all of those pics. Everyone looks different. Haha. Especially Andrew! Kelsey too also looks like she has grown a lot. I didn't even recognize her. I actually think the only one who hasn't changed at all since the last time I saw him was Jason. He still looks the same! :D haha! I'm really excited to hear about Justin's call! I hope it comes this week. I'm still wondering about where he is going to go. Oh yea, I received a Dear Elder from Marie. Please tell her thank you so much for the letter and for everything! That's about it for this week! Please tell Kameron I said congrats for finishing his mission and please thank him for his service! :D That's about it for this week. I don't think I'm going to buy a new camera, I'm going to get mine fixed soon. Anyways thank you so much for everything! Have a great week! I love you! Elder Gagnon

August 13th, 2012

Hello Family! Everything is really good here in Makati. Things are going good, there was a lot of rain, but despite the rain, Elder Kunzler and I got quite a bit of work done... There was a bit of flooding here in Makati though. It wasn't too bad. I felt bad though, because on the day there was flooding we had to take the new missionaries from Provo out to work and on their first day they were in water up passed their knees! I wanted to get pics, but my camera is kinda broken.... I'm going to get it fixed today though so I can take pics. Things are going really great here. I can't wait to hear about Justin's mission call. I'm still hoping he gets sent here to the Manila mission, then maybe I could train him or be in the same zone as him. It would be really cool! :D We did a lot of finding last week, we had some success, we found a new investigator whose name is Joel and he came to church last week. His girlfriend is also a member, but is less active so we are going to be working with both of them this week. Brother Albert is doing really good, so is sister Janet. They won't be getting baptized though, because they both were not able to attend church last week. Elaine was able to go to church though, she is doing great we are going to be finishing the plan of Salvation with her this week. She is progressing really well. So is Sister Alona, She should be getting baptized August 25th. She is doing really amazing. Well, today we have to prepare for our zone meeting. It will be on the Book Of Mormon which will be the focus of the training going on for the month of August. I love the Book of Mormon. I have been reading it through for a while and I just finished Alma3. It's such an amazing book! I'm really sorry I don't have more to write. I know I have gotten bad about writing emails, it's just mostly because I am so tired while at the computer shop and can't remember everything that happened in the last week. If you guys have anything that you want to know about or any questions or anything, that would be great. I'm going to try and be better at keeping a journal this week also and then bring it to the email shop so I can remember things better. Anyways, I'm doing really great and I hope everyone there is doing awesome! I'm excited about Justin's call. I know he will get sent to the right place. I love you guys so much and have a great week! Mahal ko po kayo! :D Elder Gagnon P.S. This is Nancy (Chris' mom)....At the same time Chris was sending this email, I was online on my email sending emails back and forth with him (sort of like an email chat)...Here's a few of the things he had to say... I'm doing really great...really tired. I'm sorry but this won't be a long email... Haha. I know it might sound sad but I feel like I have finally gotten bad at writing good emails. I got to see my anak last week, Elder Villa, so that's really kool. My camera is broken though, so there won't be any pics. I'm going to get it fixed later today. I just saw the pics... Andrew is HUGE!!! How tall is he, and what is his weight? How is he doing? Oh yea, Poor Elder Villa, my anak got sent from Palawan to Manila, which is like the most populated zone in the mission, so I feel kinda bad for him :( I'm sorry about the emails. Being a missionary is just soooo tiring, I can't even think when I'm at the computer shop.... There was flooding here. it got pretty high to, way up my leg. It was kool because we had new missionaries work with us from Provo and that was their first taste of the Philippines. I'm going to write a better email next week I promise. We have a zone meeting to prepare for tomorrow, also, Elder Kunzler and I were both sick so we weren't even able to work in our area till Wednesday and that was the day we took the new missionaries out to work. My camera is a beast it just has a little something wrong with it and it can't take good pics.... I'm going to get it fixed later today... :D We were both just sick with a fever. We both feel great now. We just think that everytime one of us would get sick, we would only rest for a bit, then go out and work and then we would get sick worse, so we didn't work Monday night or all day Tuesday and on Wednesday we only got out at 3pm. So yea. We both feel a lot better now... I'm just about to finish the email. It's a little short, but it's only because we stayed inside for a while. How is Ben doing? What about Kameron? Or Derek? Is Derek doing the whole blog thing? Also, when does Ben come home? Next month? Yes I'm still here, I just finished emailing President Stucki. Haha. It's raining outside pretty hard. We're going to wait a bit before we go outside... that's good about everyone... Do you guys have any questions for me? I'm still really happy to be here in Makati. What about Andrew, does he have a calling in church? Does Justin still have his calling? Also, how is your calling and the missionary work in Montreal doing? I'm glad to hear about your calling. I'm actually really excited to go back home, not just to go home but to do missionary work when I come back! I'm hoping that I will be able to work with the missionaries a lot when I get back. Anyways, I really gotta go. I have a ton of things to do and prepare. I love you guys so much and it was great talking to you for a bit. Have a great week! Love you! :D Elder Gagnon

August 6th, 2012

Hey Everyone! It's transfer announcement day and guess what??? I'm staying in Makati for another 6 weeks! I'm really happy. Elder Kunzler and I have been doing great work and things are going really great. Last week actually we had ZLC and President asked what I thought about staying in my area for another transfer. I told him I would be happy no matter what happened and we stayed! Other kool news though is the Sisters in Mandaluyong 1st are getting pulled out and they are putting 2 new elders or sisters in there. And Elder Comish is going to my old zone Las Pinas as a zone leader. So that's always kool. And Elder Baltazar is no longer our AP. He is going to another zone and he will be training a new missionary. Elder Quintana is our new A.P. He is in a picture when I was on Palawan. He was there in Puerto when I was in Roxas. :) Things with our investigators are going really good. Sister Alona is doing great! She is really understanding everything and is always coming to church. She will be getting baptized this coming August 18th. Sister Janet was also supposed to get baptized this month, but she wasn't able to come to church last week, so we have to move her date till September. We have a few new potentials that we are working with a few goal dates, but as of right now I think Alona and Janet are the 2 who are really making great progress. It's been raining a lot here lately. It's getting really hard to stay dry... I need new shoes. I'm going to buy some rubber ones today, I'm tired of my socks always being wet. It floods a little bit here. It hasn't gotten higher than our ankles yet though. I know it's a lot worse in Mandaluyong. The Sisters in that area are all having a hard time and work has been a little bit low. Everything in Makati is pretty good though. :D I don't have a lot to say. Oh yea, Elder Glodo is going home this Wednesday. He is done his mission. I spoke to him on the phone earlier. He was one of my favorite companions. Last Thursday was ZLC. It went really well. We are going to be focusing on the BOM this month. We have a 3 hour zone meeting we are supposed to prepare for tomorrow so we are still trying to figure out what we are going to teach and practice. It's going to be great though. Also how did you and Justin do on those questions I sent last week? Were they too hard? Also that's really great about Justin's papers possibly coming in this week. You should maybe send a video of him opening it or something. If not though that would be fine. How is everyone else doing by the way? Has Kameron come home yet? If he has tell him I love him and I hope he loved his mission! :D Also is Ben really coming home next month? I can't even believe that. I'm really really nervous about going home now. It's coming really fast. Anyways, that's about it for this email. Sorry it's really short. Things are going great over here. Happy Aniversary Mom and Dad! Also Happy Birthday Dad. I love both of you guys and hope you all have an amazing week going camping! Take Care! Love you! Elder Gagnon

July 30th, 2012

Elder Kunzler, Elder Grob and I at Reynas baptism 2 weeks ago!

Some of the Makati zone at Brother Holmes house a few weeks ago! :D... The one sitting at the bottom right is Elder Young, and his great great grandfather is Brigham!

Elder Kunzler and I with a New tatay we found at an FHE! :D

Charlene's Baptism last Sunday

Hello family! It's been another great week in Makati! We were supposed to have a zone activity today but it ended not happening so I can finally rest on a Pday and not have to worry about anything at all! :D I was really happy to read you guys' email! I'm really excited for Justin. Time goes by so fast. I can't believe that this is the last week of this transfer. I have made a lot of good progress this transfer both as a missionary and in the area, Makati 2nd.. I think this may be my last week though here in Makati. I can just sort of feel it.. Not this Wednesday, but the next Wednesday is transfer day. However, we may find out on Thursday who is transferring because that is ZLC and all the zone leaders are going to be talking about transfers.. If not though, I will know next Monday when I receive the transfer announcements for the zone. I'm excited to see what will happen though. I want to stay because I love the area, but I wouldn't mind leaving because it would be something new and exciting. I love Makati 2nd though. Our investigators are doing great. Charlene was baptized last Sunday. She has a lot of good friends in the church and she even said she wants to serve a mission. So she is awesome! Sister Elaine is doing really good, she just has some things that need to be worked out first. But she is awesome! We also have Janet who came to our ward activity last Saturday. We played sports. There were pictures taken... but not by me.. I will get them from Sister Neneng... It was really fun. Um.. Albert is also doing great! He really wants to quite smoking and he will. It will just take some time. We are actually trying to find more Tatays that we can teach in our area so we can teach more families. I love being a missionary. It's the most tiring thing, but really amazing. I don't have the test that we did last week. But I do remember some of the questions. The point of the test was to see how familiar people are with the Book Of Mormon. It says in PMG P.180-181 that when you use scriptures, you should identify who is speaking and really introduce the scripture. So we asked a few questions that mostly had to do with the background of scriptures that we might use often in our teaching in the Book of Mormon. We also did another test, where we asked one person to stand and without looking at their PMGs, state the order of doctrinal principles in both lesson 1 and 2 in Chapter 3 of PMG. Here are some of the questions that we asked. . It's probably best to not read PMG before you do this... Just maybe look at the references after you take the test. XD Who is speaking in Alma 34 about the Purpose of life? (Less than half got the answer right...) Who is testifying of Christ in Nephi 10-11?(Based out of page 48 of PMG I think... Or page 47... It's at the beginning of L.2 in chapter 3 of PMG) Who is teaching about Agency in 2 Nephi 2? (Nobody got this one.... :@) What chapters in the Book Of Mormon does King Benjamin teach of Christ? Where in the Book Of Mormon does it make clear the Purpose of the Book Of Mormon(Name 2 places)? Who is Teaching of the pure love of Christ in Moroni 7? What is being taught in 2 Nephi 31? (easy question...) Which prophet does Jacob quote in Jacob 2 relative to the Allegory of the Olive tree? (One Of my Fav chapters in BOM! :D.... Nobody got the answer to this though...) There were a few others... But I forgot them. The scores were unfortunately really really low.. I guess the questions were not the easiest either. It was still fun though and people enjoyed it. :D We have another zone meeting next week. I will take pictures then. I do have a few pictures from the last few weeks though. My camera is a beast. It's still going really strong. Oh, please tell Kaylia, that I received her letter last week. It was nice to hear from her. Please tell her I will answer her questions as soon as I can. She didn't write a return address so it's going to be a bit hard... But please tell her that I said thank you! :D That is about it for this week, my time is almost up and I am still going to send pictures. Have a great week everyone! :D Love ya! Elder Gagnon