December 26th, 2012

Hello family! Last week was a good week for the most part. I don't have too much to write today because we spoke yesterday. It was a bit of a hard week because everyone was so busy going to other places for family. Things are still going really good though. :D The Albao family wasn't able to go to church last Sunday, so we were a bit sad about that. Their baptism is moved to January 19th. So is brother Chris'. So hopefully, those will be my last few baptisms before I go home. Brother Chris is doing really great. He really wants to get baptized. We ate at their house last night for Christmas and shared a message about Christmas. We also went to the Rojas' family's house yesterday. They are doing amazing. Brother Arnie will be getting the priesthood this Sunday. Actually we dropped by their house yesterday, we saw him reading a manual about the family! It was really cool to see. They are also coming with us to the temple tour this coming Saturday. This will be my last temple tour in the mission. It's kinda sad. Haha. Last week we also had a Christmas party at the ward. It was really fun and every auxillary did the Gangnam style dance. It was funny. Anyways. I'm really sorry this email is so short. I will have more to say when I come home in a few weeks! :D Anyways gotta go! I love you guys! Elder Gagnon

December 16th, 2012 - Flight itinerary...Coming home January 23rd at 9:15 p.m.!!

Hello family! Things are going great here in General Trias. We had a really great week of work and people here are really getting excited for Christmas. Last Sunday we had brother Joel Bejocus' baptism. It went super great! He was so happy to be baptized and he asked that I baptize him. It was a really great service. It's actually a good thing to have a baptism on Sunday because so many people attend. The only thing is he won't get confirmed till this coming Sunday. He has been super amazing. He has been sharing the Gospel with his friends and reading the Book of Mormon everyday and really studying it. We were really happy that he decided to join the church. His kids also counted as returned to church last week so that was also really great! Also, Brother Rojas was confirmed on Sunday so the Rojas family are now all members of the church! We are so happy for them. What was really amazing about Sunday though was right before the baptism one of the speakers dropped out! So we were really looking for someone to give a talk. I jokingly asked Brother Rojas if he would because he has done stuff like that before. He actually did it though and did a fantastic job talking about baptism! He is sooo amazing and knows the doctrine and scriptures really well. I was so surprised that someone who got confirmed that day was that ready to give a talk at a baptism. Him and his family will be coming with us to the temple tour this coming Dec.29. :D Brother Don is also doing really well. He is going home to Bacolod for the holidays but he will be back soon. Bishop has been saying that he will have a calling or responsibility soon after he gets back. We also still have the Albao family who are doing great. They are just getting ready for their baptism this coming January 5th. We really love them a lot and are sooo happy for them. We also have brother Chris, who should also be ready for his baptism this coming January 5. The ward has been really excited for his baptism because he has been coming to church for sooo long. We have been having a lot of success with less actives.. This family (Giganto family) we taught came to church for the first time in over 3 years. The ward has been working with them for a long time and everyone was really happy to see them come back. We also found someone on a jeepney who has been less active for a bit over 30 years. She is from Quezon city and remembers how good it was to be in the church. We went to her house, taught her and her family, who are not yet members and this sister went to church with her daughter. Her husband wants to come, and we actually committed him to be baptized, but cannot yet because he works everyday. They are the Maglayon family. We are also working with a lot of other new people who we have found recently who are also doing really good. Unfortunately, our ward mission leader just left on his mission. It was kinda sad. He really helped us out so much and was a great friend for all of the people we were teaching. Well next week our Pday is on Wednesday so I think I will just do a set up call sometime during the week. Don't worry! :D Anyways I have my flight plans now! I will be coming in at about 9:15pm January 23rd. It's kinda weird because I leave January 23rd, but because of the time change I also arrive on January 23rd. Haha. Kinda funny isn't it? Anyways that's about it for now. I love you guys! Have a great week! :D Elder Gagnon!

December 10th, 2012

Elder Gillette, Elder Querubin and me. This their last day in the mission!

Hello family! We had another great week this week! It's too bad that Lei went to church in Gen.Trias this week because we had stake conference in Rosario... So she probably didn't get to go to church... That's really too bad. She should try again though. Haha! Sorry Lei! Last week though, we were able to teach Brother Larry again and he is doing good. He wasn't able to attend stake conference but he said that he really felt different at church, because he hadn't been since he was really really young. He is really trying to make a big change in his life though, he has been progressing great. We are teaching the Word of Wisdom tomorrow so we are going to see how that goes. We also went on exchanges last week. I worked in Kawit with Elder Gillette who is going home today. It was a good exchange, we are both really old in the mission so it was kool to work with him. We taught a bunch of less actives and taught really good lessons together. We were also able to teach the Albao family last week 3 times! We are so happy for them they are progressing so great. They are getting ready for their baptism this coming January 5th. It's been a huge blessing for Elder Woolsey and I to watch them progress in the Gospel. Our last discussion was on faith and I love using Ether 12 to explain faith. They also told us that as they have listened to us and done the things that we have had them do, their faith has increased a lot and they feel closer to God. They also came to stake conference. Stake conference was crazy there were sooooo many people they weren't even able to fit in the chapel and the cultural hall so they had to set up a camera and put T.Vs in all the other rooms and have sort of a broadcast. We were able to save the Albaos seats but we weren't able to get in. It was still really good. The Cavite stake just split into two and the new stake President of Cavite stake is President Maurillo from General Trias! President Stucki also spoke and so did Elder Collado and Elder Ardern of the Seventy. The Rojas also were able to attend the stake conference and Brother Arnie really liked it. We were surprised to see him all dressed up in his shirt and new tie. It was really awesome. We unfortunately were not able to teach him this week. He will also be confirmed this Sunday and will receive the priesthood the following week! :D This week however, we do have a baptism. Brother Joel has been really progressing great! The first time we visited him, we gave him a goal date for Dec.15, well he has working that day so we're going to do it on the 16th. So that day, Brother Arnie will be confirmed and the Brother Biocus will be getting baptized! We are really excited for him! He has been doing amazing. We also taught him about faith last night and it went really well. Him and his kids are all coming to church again and it's really great. :D Then Brother Don is also doing really great, we are currently working on getting him a calling or responsibility in the church. Hopefully we will see something happen this week! :D Oh yea and I've really been praying a lot lately about what it is I should do when I go home in 6 weeks and I was wondering if you could maybe ask Steve if he would happen to have another spot open for me when I get home. That would be really great. I'm thinking I might work right when I get home and then go to school in September. I have a few other things in mind that I want to do but we will just have to see when I get home. Haha. Also if you know anywhere else that's really good that is hiring... please let me know. Thank you! Also.... I'm planning on buying a few things before I go home. Just things like shirts and long sleeve shirts and shoes....It's all cheaper here... So if it's possible could you please maybe put about 300 dollars on my account? Also if there's anything at all you want me to buy please tell me because it is soooooo much cheaper here. I can also find anything. Just let me know. Thank you again! :D Also this week is transfer day. I am staying with Elder Woolsey. That is about it for this week though. Not too much else to say. We are going to be working with a few new investigators we have found this week so we're really excited for that. Anyways that is about it for this week! Hope you guys have a great week! Take Care! Mahal ko po kayo! :D Elder Gagnon

December 2nd, 2012

Ocean baptism in Naic

Cavite Zone activity

Brother Don's baptism

Hello! Last week was another fantastic week. Brother Arnie Rojas got baptized yesterday. It was one of the best baptismal services ever. A lot of people were crying because it was just such an emotional service. Sister Rojas was really crying because she had been married to him for 15 years and had been inactive for most of that time, but had been praying that her husband would be taught and join the church. I actually almost cried. It was really amazing. We are so happy for the Rojas family. They are really amazing. Brother Arnie asked that I baptize him and right before we got in the water he just started telling me how excited he was to be baptized and everything. It was really amazing! Actually last week something that is pretty cool is that Brother Arnie is looking to go work abroad and his goal is to eventually get him and his family to........CANADA! He really wants to move to Alberta. So I thought it would be funny if he did end up going soon and got see the other Elder Gagnon :) Something also really exciting was Sister Quilloy, who we taught just a few weeks ago came back into activity in the church. She has just completely changed since the first time we met her. It's really amazing what can happen to a person when they repent and come back to church. She has changed a lot. Her kids will also be returned to activity next week. Then we also have Brother Cuenca, who was the first branch president of General Trias, return to activity next week and then the Biocus kids who will return to activity in 2 weeks. Their father,Brother Joel, will also be baptized in 2 weeks. So things are going really awesome! The Albao family is still doing good. They really want to be taught be they don't have a lot of time... They were not able to come to church last week. Be they still have their goal date for this December. We also found another family, the Perez family. Sister wasn't too interested in the message, but Brother Larry, who is a seaman, was. He actually invited us in to share a message, so we did. He also told us how much he wanted to be closer to God and shared some trials he is currently going through. We went back to him again and taught him the restoration and gave him a baptismal date for January 5. Hopefully everything goes good and we can get his family to listen as well. He came to church last week too for the first two hours. Also another great thing that happened last week was Brother Don received the Priesthood. It was cool. They are now looking to get him a calling or responsibility. So things are really picking up and doing great in the General Trias ward! :D That's about it though for this week. OH! We had a trainer's meeting last week, so I got to see Elder Villa and my Grandson! :D And that's about all that happened last week. It was really great and I hope you guys have a really awesome week! Take care! Mahal ko kayo! :D Elder Gagnon