The first time I will get to see and shake hands with an apostle!

Hello Family! This week was amazing! Transfers were not stressful at all and my new companion, Elder Berse is awesome! I don't know if I said this last week, but I'm his last companion. We're having a great time. Makati will be the first area in my whole mission where I had more than 2 companions in an area. Elder Berse is really cool. He is the only member of his family and his mom just recently started getting taught by the missionaries. He wants to teach his family when he gets home. Also before his mission he worked at Jollybee which is a fast food restaurant, just like I did. So we have quite a bit in common which is really cool. Last week, Elder Duero and I went to say good-bye to a few investigators and members here in Makati. He was an awesome companion. We also got a long really well and had a ton of fun and success together! Last Saturday was a really great day. We had April's baptism. It was a great experience because Mark, Her husband, was able to baptize her. It was a really amazing thing to see and I'm sure they also had a great experience. They have plans to go to the temple in one year which will be another great and amazing experience for both of them. April is really strong and has a great understanding of the Gospel. I will send pictures of her baptism after this email. Our other investigators are doing really good. We have Kennedy, whose baptism had to be moved because he couldn't come to church. Albert is doing really good too, but couldn't come to church and Mark is getting baptized this week. We have a ton of referrals to contact this week. Last week we received 30 and didn't have time to contact them last week. We will do that this week though. Also this week, we get to go to the temple on Wednesday and tomorrow, I don't know if i mentioned this, but we have a zone conference. But not just any zone conference, Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the 12 is going to be there! I'm really excited, this will be the first time I get to see and shake hands with an apostle! The whole mission is going to be there, except the missionaries on Palawan. Oh yea, last week we had the missionaries going to Palawan sleep at our house. Elder Morris finally got to go there (he wanted to go there for a while). He is going to be re-opening an area out there with my old anak, Elder Villa! So that was really kool, I'm sure they will get along. I don't have much else to say... Brother Zaldy is now out of the hospital. Elder Duero and I visited him last week and he wasn't doing too great when we saw him. But he is doing a lot better now so that was good to see. Me on the other hand, I'm sick with a cold again. So that's too bad but I'm getting better I think! :) Thank you so much for everything. I love my mission so much. It's going by really fast. I only have 6 transfers left. It's really weird. I love this work so much! It's all true! I hope you guys have a great week! I love you all! Love you! Elder Chris Gagnon!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend - Called home!

FHE at the Nativadad's house

This is at Neneng's house. She is the Relief Society President!

Ward Cleaning Activity

Abigail was baptized in Mandaluyong!

This is at the Stake Presidents house. He fed us Macdo after we finished teaching April.

And last but not least, Sheryl's Baptism. The assistants were also there!

Hello! It was great to talk to you all just earlier! We're having a good P-day. Elder Duero is just getting ready to leave and go to his new area. We had a good two transfers together. I'm excited to be companions with Elder Berse. I've worked with him a few times and he is a great missionary. Last week we had a few good lessons. April was interviewed for baptism last week which was awesome. We were able to to teach again and we already knew she was ready we just had to review what she had already been taught. Kennedy wasn't able to go to church last week... So we have to move his baptism for June. He is doing great. We have been teaching him the commandments and there hasn't been any problems. He is just not going to church enough. Mark Tort is doing great and he is ready for his baptism on May 24th. Actually last Sunday we were able to teach Albert who lives in the same compound as Mark who we had spoken to before and invited him to church and he has come 2ce so far. He is also doing really good and we were able to commit him to be baptized in the first lesson. There is no goal date yet though, but he will have one the next lesson. It was weird because Elder Duero wasn't my companion it was me and a few youth, one preparing to leave soon to go on his mission. It was a good experience for all of us though. Oh something that isn't good...Brother Zaldy, the one who was baptized last March is in the hospital and he cannot walk and he wasn't doing too well when we went to see him. We have been teaching a few less actives but we need to find more. We're running out of people to teach... So Elder Berse and I are going to be doing a little bit more finding this transfer. We're still going to have baptisms though. We just need to have a bigger teaching pool... Oh, last week we had a few baptismal interviews. That was good. I like interviewing people for baptism. They are usually really ready and have great testimonies of the Gospel. :D Well. I thought I would have more to write. I guess I don't....I'm really tired. Haha. I actually didn't sleep well last night. I think I might have sounded a little bit tired on the phone. I'm going to send some pictures today! :D I hope you guys have a great day and an amazing week. I love you! :D Elder Chris Gagnon

May 7th, 2012

Hello Family! Things are going great in good old Makati! We're having success and looks like May is also going to be another great month! :D We had ZLC last week which went really well. Makati had the most baptisms in a really long and we had the second highest amount of baptisms out of all 12 zones! We also discussed a few of the problems we are having in the mission and I think the biggest one we spoke about was the morning schedule. There are a lot of missionaries who don't follow the morning schedule and either don't wake up on time, don't do studies or don't leave on time. I'm not perfect with all of those. But I try really hard and now I have made it a goal that before the end of the month I will be perfect with everything about the morning schedule. :D Last week we were able to teach Mark Tort. He is a part member and doing really well. He is actually really smart for an 11 year old. Yesterday he came to church and told us what faith meant. We left him Alma 32 and he was able to tell us what faith was and how to show faith. He is getting ready for his baptism this coming May 19th. We also have Kennedy who we taught 3 times last week. He wasn't able to come to church last week, but he is doing really great! We taught the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Word of Wisdom and he doesn't have any problems with anything and that is great! Brother Avila also came to church for the first time in a long time. He came with his wife and kid. So we are finally seeing progress which is great! Elder Duero and I have been seriously teaching him since we got here and that was the second time he came to church. Elder Duero and I were surprised but really happy and hope that he and his family will continue to come. We had 12 investigators come to church today which was the most we had since we have been here in Makati. These were all people who we had taught a least once before. April came to church today too which was really great. We are finally hoping to teach her. Her baby was blessed last Sunday by her father in law, the Stake President. I really like President Arzaga. He is a good teacher and leader. He does things that are so different. He also really cares about missionary work. He always welcomes investigators, and always asks us how the work is doing, I always tell him the work is going great! Last week I also got to work with Elder Baltazar. President Stucki told him a few weeks ago that he and Elder Hernando need to go on more exchanges with Zone leaders, so Elder Hernando worked with Elder Duero in our area and I worked with Baltazar in his area. It was nice to work with Baltazar again. We have grown a lot since the last time we worked together when I was in Roxas and he was in Taytay. We taught a few good lessons. They actually do not get a whole lot of time to work in their area so when I worked there it was the first time in 3 weeks that missionaries had been in that area. So yea. It was a lot of finding... Hehe. We had fun though. He is a really great teacher. And I actually learned a few different things from him. We had a really good day. There was one point where he didn't know where he was going because most of the times they have a car and just drive everywhere. So there was one part of the day where we had to walk into a gated community because that is where one of their investigators live and we couldn't find the entrance. At first we tried going in through some village, which was wrong, then we walked around the whole gated community and tried the entrance that cars use, then we found out we couldn't walk in through that way, then we had to walk back and through the gate. It's kinda hard to explain here. In other words, we walked for about 2 hours trying to get into a gated community. It was ok though. We still had a great day. Well, today I have to buy the calling card. I will be calling sometime this week. Possibly on Saturday so expect a call on Friday night or Saturday morning.... I'm not sure when I'm going to call for Mothers Day. Elder Duero and I are still going to talk about it. I will do the set up call though on Saturday. That's about it for this email. Sorry if it's short. I hope you guys have an amazing day though! And an even better week! I'm excited to call home this week, this will be my second to the last phone call home before I come home. It's really weird. I don't like how fast time goes sometimes because I still have a million things I want to get better at in the mission. One of my focuses right now is how to more effectively use the Book Of Mormon. I can do it really well but I have a plan to know it inside and out before I leave. I'm also working on how to plan effectively. Things are going good though. I'm learning a lot. :D Next week is transfer week so hopefully it won't be as stressful as the last one. Hehe. It will be fine. I know how to handle transfer week better now so everything will go more smoothly this time. Anyways. I gotta go! I hope you guys have a great week! Love you! Elder Chris Gagnon ! P.S. Oh yea! Please also tell sister I miss and love her too! Thank you!

One of the most memorable experiences of my whole mission...

All the Canadian missionaries in the mission. Elder Koochin, Elder Gagnon, Elder Leavitt and Elder Orth

Shakey's pizza for Elder Gagnon's 21st Birthday with Sheryl,Joy and Elder Duero

More birthday pizza at the Nativadad's house....

...and some birthday cake!

Another night at the Nativadad's house

Hello! Had another great week! It was really good. Sheryl got baptized! Which is great! It was such an amazing baptismal service too. Attendence was ok, the APs were there and we did our special number. I played guitar and we sang "When I Am Baptized". It went pretty good even though we didn't have any practice. Sheryl's testimony was definitely the highlight of the whole service though. It was really great and one of the most memorable experiences of my whole mission. She talked about how she was converted and her whole experience. It was almost like a talk. She is really strong and I know she will be a great member of the church. :D Last Sunday I was sick. :( I didn't feel well at all, my head was aching and I had a stomach ache. I think it might have to do with the heat. It's really hot! Haha. Unfortunately we didn't teach one lesson that whole day.... Which was a first for me. I don't think there have been any days where I taught no lessons at all.... Anyways it was too bad.. Church went good though. Elder Duero and I taught (Oh I guess we did teach a lesson!) the investigator's class. We weren't really prepared because we found out we were going to be teaching 2 minutes before we taught. This is the second week in a row it's happened.... I don't mind teaching but it's a lot better when someone actually has a prepared lesson to bring to the class. Steve Martin came to church again which was good and so did Kennedy who should be getting baptized soon. We just have to hope that he doesn't have any problems with the commandments. Steve Martin by the way is too amazing! We actually haven't been able to teach him at his house yet because of his work hours. But we drop by his store every now and then to see how he is doing reading. And he is doing great. Last week we gave him a Gospel Principles book on Sunday and he finished reading it on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we gave him True to the Faith and Our Search for Happiness (we are running out of things to give him to read) and he read that by Sunday. He says he loves reading what we give him and that's all he really does when business is quiet(which is like all the time). He just has a few questions, which we want to answer but can't because he is always working and his store is outside so there's not much we can do. He's trying to take time off though or change his schedule so he can listen to us. We're hoping to have 3 baptisms in May, but I think we can get 5 right now. We're teaching 2 part members, Kennedy, and April who is still moving from Cavite. Unfortunatly we had 2 investigators who were progressing move from here to Tatay Rizal which is in another mission. So this week we're hoping to find more people to teach both among the less active and non members. We're running out of less actives to teach. We need to find more this week. Things overall though are going pretty good. For the month of April we had 5 less actives come back into activity and for the whole Makati zone we had 29 which is the highest amount ever by a long shot. Makati also had the most baptisms for the month of April out of all the city zones. We had 15 which is the highest in a long time. So things are going really good! You guys are right, I messed up, I meant to say in 2 weeks. It's coming up... I don't know how I'm going to call this time actually because we actually have reporting Sunday night which takes about 20 minutes. And we usually do ours at 8:00pm... So yea. I might actually call Monday morning here... I will do a set up call though some time during the next week to be for sure... Also, what I meant to say last week was that I haven't received any of the letters that Danny has sent yet. I'm sending him one though soon. So yea. I don't have a whole lot to write this week. I'm still feeling kinda sick so yea. I will send pictures this week though. Sorry If this email is really short. Thank you so much for everything and have a great week! :D I love you!!! Elder Chris Gagnon

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M TEACHING STEVE MARTIN!

Hello family and friends! This week was really good. We had zone meeting with President Stucki yesterday so today is our Pday. :) It was really good to see the pics of you guys at Florida. I'm sure you both had a good time. Interviews went really well yesterday and so did the zone meeting. The last district meeting of every month is taught by the zone leaders, so yesterday Elder Duero and I got to teach the whole zone. This last month for the zone was great so we spoke of some of the great successes we had and all that great stuff, then we also talked about Charity and Love and the doctrine of Christ then we had a practice inviting investigators to be baptized. It was a good meeting. The interview with President also went really well. We talked about some of the things that are going well and some things that need to be improved in the Makati zone. He is really happy with the growth of the zone though. He also wanted to know what thing we are struggling with the most was, whether it be mission rules or anything. I told him my weakness right now is planning, because I'm not the best at it and I know it's something I have to work on because it's really important. There are just times where we don't plan as much as we should and times where we could plan things a little bit better and set better goals for different things and stuff. So I will be working on that a lot this transfer. :D I'm really excited! Things are going really well though, we have a few more baptismal dates for May, and Sheryl is going to be baptized this Saturday! :D Elder Duero, the APs and I are going to do a special musical number for the baptism too. We haven't decided what that will be yet though, but we will figure/plan it out. Also! This is a really kool story but a few weeks ago I spoke to someone on the street whose name is Steve Martin (hehe) and he has been searching through a lot of religions, he almost talks to everyone that's a missionary. So I gave him a pamphlet and taught about the message of the restoration. We found him at his work which is like a 1 minute walk from our apartment and he spoke to us and asked us for another pamphlet so I gave him a Book Of Mormon and introduced it to him. He had a few questions for us but told us he wanted to come to church. Last Sunday guess who came to church all dressed up and everything? Steve Martin! We were really surprised but really happy to see him. He has a lot of questions about the church and we plan to teach him at his house. It's just really hard because almost all the time, he is at work, and of course that's not the ideal situation to teach him. So we are trying to be able to teach him at home because that would be a lot better. But he said he felt the Spirit of God while he was at church especially during the investigators class (which we taught :P). But he really likes study classes like that and even asked about study classes we have in the church like seminary and institute. It will be cool to see how Steve Martin progresses. I'm really excited for him. (I CANT BELIEVE I'M TEACHING STEVE MARTIN!) I also had quite a few baptismal interviews to do last week. 3 in Manda 1B and 1 in Manda 2A. Unfortunately the one in Manda 2A will not be baptized on the day she was supposed to. She will not be ready quite yet. I was surprised too. That was the first interview I had where I did not pass someone..... Also doing really well is Kennedy, I'm pretty sure he will be baptized in May, we just need to teach him more during the week. Also April was not able to be taught last week because she is busy getting ready to actually move here to Makati. So pretty soon she will be here for good and won't be going back and forth from here to Cavite. Also Elder Duero and I have been worried because our pool of less active members to teach has been going down because a lot of them have returned to activity and we need more people to rescue. Last week we had 2 people find us who want to come back to church because they have been less active for a really long time. Also, something else really cool. We had a recent convert move from Laoag to here, whose name is Albert and he is actually the brother of someone that we had spoken to on a jeepney a while ago who said her brother just joined the church but she isn't yet a member and at that time was not able to be taught. But we are going to try this week. We actually saw the girl today and said she wanted to join her brother at church but wasn't able to make it. So a lot of good things are happening in our area. We are always finding new people to teach and the people we teach are doing pretty good. I think May will be another good month for our area. Transfer day is coming up and Elder Duero and I both think that Elder Duero will be transfered because he has been in Makati for 4 transfers now as a zone leader. I really want to stay. I love Makati. I love the city too. I also really love my mission! :D That's about it for this email. I'm sorry if it is a bit short. I got your guys' package last week. It was great to see letters from you guys and also from Justin and Danny. I just watched the video that Danny sent. I miss those two a lot and all my other friends. Please tell them I love them and also miss them very much. Also please tell Danny I haven't any of the letters he sent. :( I will be sending one soon though! :D OH YEA! Also next week is Mothers Day so what I thought we would do is just do what we did last time when I called you guys at about 8pm here on Sunday. Let me know what you guys think! I gotta go now! Thank you so much for everything! I hope you all have an amazing week! :D Love you! Elder Chris Gagnon

Carlito was baptized!

Hello!

Sounds like you guys are having a great time in Florida! Haha. Well right now it is P-day and we did quite a bit of cleaning the apartment. We had apartment checks last week, so that went really well we didn't fail! Hehe. Everything is going great though in our area and in the Makati zone. In our area last week we had 8 investigators at church which is actually the most I've had since Roxas I think. I don't know if I've ever had 8 in STA Monica. I don't remember though... Either way, Elder Duero and I were really happy. :D We met a few new investigators last week and things are going well with our progressing investigators.

Last week I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Declaro in my area, he came from Roxas, Palawan. So I got to find out about the converts I had over there. They are actually almost all active. Larry moved away to a place near Puerto but I don't know if he goes to church there and Mel Arcenas moved away from Roxas to a place where there isn't a church yet....so he is no longer active. But everyone else is and I'm happy about that. Actually he doesn't know, but he thinks that Roxas is going to the temple soon, obviously I don't know if they have or not, but if they do that means April, Karen and Rocel will be coming to do proxy baptisms! So I really want to find out when they are coming and see if I could get permission to go see them at the temple. It would be soooooo cool! Also, he said that in October they might have another temple trip, which would mean I might get to see Tatay Guillermo and Merlinda get sealed and see Nanay Erlinda get her endowment! I heard that Nanay Erlinda actually might have a calling now so I'm really excited for her. It was just really good to know that the people I baptized are still active. I'm really happy for them. Oh yea! And last Saturday, Carlito was baptized! I'm not sure if Cheryl was baptized, but I think she was too. I will just have to find out.... I know Carlito was though so I am also really happy for him. :D

Last week was my birthday and yes, we did do a little something. Of course we worked really hard and then at about 7 at our lesson with Sheryl, we had pizza! Actually Sister Joy, who is Sheryl's friend at church bought the pizza. So we just had a lesson and had pizza. The lesson went really well. We taught the word of wisdom and for Sheryl there really isn't any problems. She is definitely ready for the 28th of April, this week will be her interview. We are really excited for her! :D

After that lesson and dinner we went to teach Kennedy, who I don't know if I've said this in my email is the boyfriend of a member, Andrea Natividad, so we teach him at the Natividad house. When we got there and they found out it was my birthday they said we needed to do something, so we ordered pizza and they gave me a slice of cake. It was really nice and I was really really full. :D

Things are going really good with Kennedy, he has a baptismal date on May 19th and he is coming to church! :D So we are really excited for him. We have a few more potentials for the month of May, and actually we saw April again and plan to visit her this week so she might actually be baptized with Sheryl on the 28th. We will know this week though.

Last week we also had ZLC and it was a good experience. It's always good to see friends in the mission. Our plan for the month of April is to stay the course, the mission is doing better and better and we don't want to fall but gradually improve and improve. There wasn't a lot of changes or new announcements for the mission. We just want to keep growing and be consistent. Makati Zone has improved so much in March and April. This April we might have the highest number of baptisms in over a year... So we're really excited for the whole zone. Everyone is working really hard and doing a great job. I just want to sort of stay consistent and not fall...

Also, this week we get to go to the temple. I'm really excited because it's almost been a year since I have been able to go. :D

Well, that's about it for this email. I didn't get your package yet but I might tomorrow. We will just have to see! :D Thank you so much for sending me money! It will be used wisely. Thank you so much for the support that you guys give me! I hope you have an amazing time in Florida and that everything goes well with Justin sending in his papers. It would be soooo kool if he got assigned to the Philippines Manila mission. This really is the best mission in the whole world. OH! Also, please thank Auntie Lynn for her card and the Blakemores for their Dear Elder! :D I was really happy to hear from them. I hope you guys have a great week!

I love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Transfer week/Holy week/Easter week was really stressful!

Hello Family!

We had a super stressful but great week here in Makati! We got very little work done the past week, but there were some things of course which did go really well. :)

I'll start with last Tuesday, we had a district meeting, Elder Duero and I attended the Makati District meeting. It went really well. And we also said good-bye to the 2 part time missionaries. Actually Elder Koochin, got transfered to Alfonso which is Dasmarinas Stake which is where one of the part time missionaries are from so that is kool that they will still get to see each other. Unfortunatly one of them actually didn't get replaced by a new missionary. Elder Malits new companion is Elder Declaro, who is also a new district leader. Elder Declaro is Filipino, and he was actually the one who took my place in Roxas after I got transfered. Elder Koochins replacement is Elder Bueno, who was a zone leader but is now a district leader of the Mandaluyong district and we also have sister Verma from India who is in the same district as Sister Gupta so they actually knew each other before the mission. Sister Guptas new companion is fresh from the MTC so yes, she met David Archuleta! Her name is Sister Richardson, and she is from Utah. She actually also sang for the General conference and you can see her a few times. It's pretty cool. The Makati zone is really cool right now and things are going really well as always. :D

After the district meeting last Tuesday we hurried back to our area to get some work done and we were able to teach Sheryl who is still doing great. We taught about faith and it was a great lesson. Sheryl's friend in the church who was present at the last 2 lessons has really been helping out and everything has been going great with Sheryl. After that we had to run back to the mission office at 7 to pick up Elders who were going to Palawan on Wednesday. So we didn't have a whole lot of time to work in our area.... And then they slept in our house. The next day at about 3:30 I had to wake up and take the ones going to Palawan to the office and Elder Duero went later to bring the one Elder going to Coron. It was really early and I didn't get a lot of sleep. Haha. So I stayed at the mission office until the leadership meeting at 7:30. It was a good meeting and the whole mission was there. It was great to see people that I haven't seen in like a year because I was on Palawan. I also got to see Elder Glodo which was cool. He's with one of the other Canadians in our mission. After the transfer meeting we had to go to the mission home for 2:30 because we were going to work with the new missionaries for their first day. I remember my first day, I worked with Elder Curwen and Elder Polanco in the old zone leaders area in Makati zone. It was funny on the jeepnee we had to pay and one of the new missionaries could not stop laughing because he thought it was so weird haha. I got to work with Elder Woolf that day. He is from Utah and he is going to Pasay zone. Elder Duero got to work with his grandson in the mission because his trainee is training him. So that was also really cool. I can't remember where he is going though. Elder Woolf and I only got to teach once to the Morales family. Then we went to a dinner appointment and had to go because we were already late at getting them to the mission home. We got in a taxi at about 7 and got to the mission home a little bit before nine because of crazy traffic. It was unbelievable! It usually takes us 20 mins to get from our apartment to the mission home but because so many streets and stuff were closed we couldn't get there! It was crazy!!! We ended up sleeping in the mission home and it was really nice because even though I messed up because I should have left earlier, President and Sister Stucki made sure I had a good stay and everything at the mission home, they even fed us breakfast. They are really, really good people.

A few hours after we left the mission home, we had to go back and work with new elders going to Palawan. There was so much travelling it was nuts. That day, which was Thursday we got to teach Sheryl again and a new family who will come to church this coming Sunday. It was really nice. Then they both left and that was the end of working with other Elders. Needless to say, transfer week/holy week(Easter week) was really stressful. :)

General conference was awesome though! I loved Uchtdorf's talk too! I thought it was the best one of the conference. Also, we were really surprised to see April at the conference! She now has a baby! She came and she is now ready to be baptized. We are thinking that if everything goes well and if she still wants to be baptized it will probably happen with Sheryl on the 28th. We are really excited for her.

I love Makati, It was weird being in the city at first but I'm used to it now, so it's all good. Also yes, the activity was a success for the most part, we found a few potential investigators and all of our investigators actually came to the showing. It was a great event. :)

Things are going good in our area, I love being a missionary and sharing the gospel. It's such a great thing to do! I'm excited for this week because we have a lot of potential investigators to go back to. And also, there is Zone leaders conference which is this Friday the 13th. It should be another great experience. Oh, and also, Carlitos baptism is this Saturday, another reason to be really happy!

Thank you so much for all the support! I love you guys so much! Thank you for the package! I haven't gotten it yet but I think it will be here tomorrow when I go to the office. We will just see. I love you guys and hope you have an amazing week! :D

I love you all! :D

Elder Chris Gagnon

I'm in an internet Cafe right now in tears...

Makati zone meeting

Elder Gagnon and Elder Duero at the service project

Primary kid handing out flyers at the service project

Hello Po!

I'm in an internet Cafe right now in tears. I usually read President Stucki's emails first then I read your guys' last. But before I read your guys' email I just want to share what President Stucki sent.

Dear Elder Gagnon,

I am pleased to hear how things are doing. Yes, you and Elder Duero are staying together. I am pleased to hear about the less-active members you are working with and teaching. That is exciting about your new investigators as well.

You will be pleased to know that I received approval from the First Presidency for Carlito to be baptized. Another reason to rejoice.

I commend you for going to the rescue of your brothers and sisters. The Area Presidency has encouraged us to stay the course and continue this great rescue effort to help less active members come back. While we do that, I encourage you to continue using your spiritual eyes and ears to find investigators to teach among the less active members of the church. I promise you that the Lord will help you find many investigators to teach among the members and help you complete families so they can eventually go to the temple.

Keep up the great work. We have reasons to smile and be happy. This truly is the Lord's work. As you stay focused on your purpose, you will accomplish what the Lord has called you do. You are in our thoughts and prayers. I sure hope you have a wonderful spiritual week!

Mahal ko po kayo,

President Stucki

So Carlito will be getting baptized soon! I am soooooo excited for him! It was such a big blessing to teach him and I can't even describe how I feel that he is getting baptized. :) Anyways, I am now going to read the rest of the reports and emails. :)

This week has been super great! Never received so many texts asking about who is going where and who their new companion is going to be. Haha. Everyone is super excited about transfer day this Wednesday. I know what's happening. Hehe. Only Elder Koochin and Sister Terano are leaving, the 2 part time missionaries are going home and they will be replaced with 2 new missionaries fresh from the MTC. And yes, Duero and I are staying for round 2!

Last week we had to teach for the last week in March and discuss our successes and everything for the month of March. We had a good month. We had 8 baptisms for the whole zone which is the best in 4 months. Elder Duero and I also really prayed on what we should teach to the zone and what we wanted them to learn and apply in the work. We finally decided to teach about the doctrine of Christ which will be the focus of the mission for the next three months and we also tied that in with getting investigators and less active members to church seeing as that is the mission goal. The mission plans on returning 3500 less active members to church. So we tied the doctine of Christ to bringing people to church. Then this week for the first week in April we had more investigators at church and we had 6 come back to activity (4 were in our area). Elder Malits area even had 19 less actives at church! So if the keep going they will have 19 less actives returned to church. We also had 5 baptisms in the zone, so it was quite a good start to the month. :)

We were super happy! Nanay Morales and her kids came bringing 3 of them back to activity in the church and also tatay and their 3 other kids came for the first time! We have been working with the Morales family since we got here and that was the first time all of them came to church! Also we had Alex Garcia who was inactive for 2 years come back to activity and we are going to start teaching his brother this week.

Last week we also met Sister Sheryl who was a referral from the APs. We actually taught her with the APs last Tuesday and that was sort of like them passing her to us. She found the church and came 2 Sundays ago but to the APs Chapel. She was taught once by the APs then by us and the APs. She is really nice and really prepared. I don't think I have ever met someone more prepared in my whole mission. She understands everything and then acts upon it. She has been to church 2ce and she has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month. Oh and last time we taught her she gave us a cake because she appreciates us teaching her! She is really nice.

We also have been teaching Kennedy who also has a baptismal date but needs to be moved because he didn't come to church last week... He will be baptized in May though. :) We also got to teach Tatay and Chris Suarez who are also doing really well but couldn't come to church because they went away last Wednesday but will be back tomorrow. They are awesome though.

Last Saturday we had a service project. We cleaned the streets around the church and spoke to everyone and invited everyone to our Ward activity on Friday. We are going to have a big screen projector placed outside and watch movies about Christ. It should be a really great experience. Also during the service project. We met a family, spoke to them and invited them to church. It was really great to see the ward really involved. The next day 4 of them attended church and we havent even taught them yet. We plan to teach them tomorrow. They are super nice though! They live in a huge compound really close to the church and a few people seem interested in listening to our message.

I love Makati so much. It's so great to be a missionary. I love it EVERYDAY! Haha. Thank you for the package you guys sent. I should be getting it soon. Also thank you so much for all your prayers. I have to go now because time is up. Oh yea. and the word I sent last week, "kahanga-hanga" means something like wonderful or something like that. It's really deep though and people are surprised when I use it. People are starting to say that I sound like a Filipino when I speak Tagalog. I don't feel like I do and I still have this pangit white guy accent. Anyways. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! Mom, good luck with your new calling! I hope and pray that you will do great. I know you will!

Love you guys!

Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S: HAPPY EASTER! :D

Things are looking great in our area!

And that is us at an FHE at Sister Dimacalis' house!

Makati zone without the A.Ps or the office elders singing at the groundbreaking, From left to right, Elder Koochin, Elder Duero, Elder Victorio, Brother(part time missionary) Encarnation, Me, Elder Malit, Sister Gupta, Sister (another part time missionary) Conjelado, Sister Terano, Sister Lopez, Sister Mohrmon and Sister George

Elder Duero and I at the goundbreaking!

Hello Family!

This week was super awesome! We got a ton of work done and things are looking great in our area! :D We had almost no distractions last week so we were really able to focus on our area and on work almost the whole week! :D

Last week I got to go on splits with Elder Victorio in his area. He is actually Elder Koochins anak and he is in his third transfer. He is a good elder. I'm going to recommend him to go senior for the next transfer. Elder Koochin is probably going to leave next Wednesday because this is his 4th transfer here. So yea. We will see what happens. This transfer is going by so fast. Transfer day is already April 4th. I'm pretty sure Elder Duero and I are staying together which is good. :) Anyways, working with Elder Victorio was really good and we had a good time until I got a text from Elder Duero saying we had a surprise meeting with the stake. So I went back to my area, met Elder Duero then went to the stake center. It was just about a ground breaking for the new chapel. the zone was invited to go and we did a special number. We just sang the Spirit of God. It was good. The ground breaking was really good too. There was no rain. :)

Last week we lost one of our baptismal dates. We had Glenda who was committed to be baptized on April 21st, but she left and is now in another mission. We referred her to the Elders in that mission though. It was cool though because later that day we had a lesson with Kennedy and we extended the invitation to him to be baptized on April 21st. He accepted! He has been to church 2ce so far and is doing really great. He is really receptive and understands things very well. :) Also last week we found a tatay and his son and the came to church last week and they both really liked it. It's a bit hard though because the son only speaks Tagalog and Visaya and the tatay only speaks English and Visaya. So teaching them is like a halo of all those languages. Elder Duero only uses Visaya because that's his language and I kinda just use Tagalog when I speak to the son and Taglish when I speak to the Tatay. Haha. I'm going to start learning Visaya though so I can just use that. :) They both seem really good.

Also this week we got a referral from the A.Ps. They taught this 24 year old girl last week and gave her a baptismal date. They say she is super golden. She was actually the one who found the missionaries. But last Saturday the APs realized that she lives in our boundaries so we have to be the ones to teach her and she technically has to come to church in our ward. We're going to meet and teach her at the stake center this week with the A.Ps. It should be really good.

Also, one of the best parts of last week was Sunday. We had 6 investigators at church, which is the highest amount of investigators in who knows how long and we also had 3 people come back into activity meaning they have been to church 4 times in a row. It was very good to see. Also! The best part of church was....Zaldy (our recent convert) received the priesthood! He is now ordained to the Aaronic priesthood to the office of a Priest. Oh and also guess what? HE HAS A CALLING!!!! He was called right after to the Young Men's Presidency of the ward as the second councellor. Elder Duero and I couldn't believe it. We were super happy for Zaldy. I know he will do an amazing job in the Young Men's Presidency! :D

Well that's really about it for this week. This coming Wednesday I get to work with missionaries from the MTC. It's part of their training, so that should be fun I think. I will be working with 2 and Elder Duero will work with 2. So yea. It should be fun.

Oh yea, About my area. It's not like San Pedro, San pedro was kinda like Lasalle with like a million more people. Makati is kinda like New York City or Downtown Montreal with a lot of buildings, traffic, people, noise, big malls, McDonalds. Everything you need you can find in my area. Palawan on the other hand was like Camp Tamaracouta with a lot of people and you couldn't get anything. Haha. Yes, it is humid here. I felt that wall of humidity when I came back from Palawan.

Oh yea, and now that I am in Makati the mission office is really close. It's about a 30 minute walk from my apartment. It's right beside our stake center actually. It's out of my area though. It's in my zone though so I can go there if i need to and not have to get permission from anyone.

Also that's super kool about your new calling! Is that the investigators class? Or is that the class that Brian Carpenter used to teach? I can't remember what the names of the different classes are called, so yea. Anyways if what your talking about is the Book of Mormon, you should also use the Book Of Mormon study guide the institute uses. If you can somehow get one. I have been reading it with the Book Of Mormon for a while and it's really good. I have learned a lot. :)

Anyways good luck with all of that. Also please thank everyone that wrote me and I haven't received anything yet but yea...Thank everyone :)
I love being on a mission so much. It's the best thing in the world. I love you guys so much and hope you have a Kahangha-hangang (deep tagalog word I learned last week. Hehe.) week! Thank you!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon

This week I hit my year mark in the Philippines! (from week of March 19th, 2012)

Elder Duero, Elder Buasen, Elder Smith, Elder Wong and I at the top of our apartment after going on exchanges.

Me and My BATCH! We were all at the training meeting last week. Elder Comish is a Zone leader in Cavite and Elder Morris is a district leader in San Gabriel.

Then this my batch in the field. All of us came to the mission field at the same time. That's Elder Morris, Elder Antonio (District leader in Narra) Elder Teodoro (District leader in Cavite), Elder Comish and Me!

Hello Family!

This week was another great one! We had so little time to work though, we only had a total of like 18 lessons or something this week, which isn't very good we usually get in between 25-30, so yea.... Anyways besides that though it was a good week! Unfortunately, April did not get baptized yet. She had her baby last week. We are going to be seeing her this week to see how she is doing and stuff though. :)

Last week, we had a huge 2 day training meeting with all the District leaders and Zone leaders. It was definitely the longest meeting ever. It was really good though, President Stucki made a really cool comment that I liked, he said there are a million books on being leaders and stuff and he said there is no better books than the scriptures. It's so true. I love the scriptures so much. :) Also we had practices on teaching doctrine but it was weird because I had different companions, and we were teaching in english which made me realize how easy teaching really is in english. Haha. After the first day of the meeting we got to work with Province Elders, who also slept at our house. So yea, in our mission there our 6 province zones (Narra, Puerto Princesa, Naic, San Gabriel, Cavite, Dasmarinas) and 6 city zones (Makati, Makati east, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Manila, and Pasay) and the province Elders worked with the city elders. I got to work with Elder Wong, who just took Elder Comish's place in Taytay and Elder Smith who is in the Narra zone on Palawan. They are both district leaders. Wong is a really cool guy. We had fun working together. They said it was weird to work in the city though. Haha. I can't believe how lucky the district leaders are though, they got to fly from Palawan to come here. Haha.

Last Tuesday we did an exchange. I worked with Elder Malit in his area. I actually took his place here in Makati as zone leader, but he just stayed in his area, became a district leader and trained. Then zone leaders area moved from his area to Makati 2nd. He is a really good teacher. He is from Quezon City which is super close and his dad was a mission president in the Tacloban mission. Actually his dad released Elder Guarino almost a year ago. So that's pretty cool. It was fun working with Elder Malit. We taught really well together and had a fun day. He goes home next transfer so he will probably finish in the area he is in now.

Last week we also had an FHE at the Chua familys house and it went really well. Our investigator Kennedy showed up and he looked like he had such a fun time. Elder Duero and I did games. And we had so much fun. Kennedy really wants to be taught but we didn't get to him once this week which was too bad.

Also last week I got to give a talk in sacrament. I was asked to speak about finding people to teach. So I just used a few personal experiences and a few references in PMG and a bunch of stuff like that. It went really well. :)

I don't have a whole lot more to write about. The training meeting took up a lot of the week..... It was really good and I learned a lot. :)

That's really cool about all the heat back at home. And about Jason being in the same class at Danny! Tell them both I said Hi. And I will try and get out some letters in the next few weeks. I've been really busy though.

I love being a missionary. It's going by so fast though and I don't really want it to end. This week I hit my year mark in the Philippines, which is really weird because this is the mark where everyone says is their peak in the mission, where you're really good at everything and have everything really down. I don't feel exactly like there. There's still a million things I have to improve on and get better at. I've learned almost everything I need to learn it's just really applying everything.

Well, everything is going really fine though. The Makati zone has had 8 baptisms so far this month! Elder Duero and I are really happy for the zone and next month looks like it might be another really good one. :)

Well that is about it for this week. I love doing the Lord's work. It's the best thing ever and I would encourage everyone who is preparing to go back from home to just GO! It's the greatest thing they will ever do! Thank you so much for supporting me! And I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon

It's nothing what I expected but more than anything I've hoped for!

Hey Everyone!

We had a great week here in Makati! Elder Duero and I got quite a bit of work and we are really starting to see success in our area. To let you know, Everything went as planned last week. Sister Rose-Mar and brother Zaldy were both baptized last week and it was just really amazing. The 1st Councillor, Brother Art in the welcome speech said that he saw a physical change in Brother Zaldy when he was baptized. In fact, I specifically remember him saying that he looked like he was baptized in water full of Tide. Haha. It was kinda funny. Brother Zaldy is gonna be such an amazing future leader. He already wants to start working with us and he has a bunch of different ideas for finding people. He is awesome! This week we might have a baptism or we might not.....It depends if April can or not because she is pregnant and is due this week. So yea. We don't necessarily think that she will be fully 100% ready. Haha. She was intervied last week though and passed but yea. Well. We will just see what happens...

Last week we also taught the Saberola family and they have been taught for a really long time. They haven't been to church once yet. They are really receptive though and yea. Anyways. Last week we had a lesson about the word of wisdom and we found out they have a bit of a problem with that. But they committed to it and I think they will do good. About 3 days after we taught them we had another appointment with them. They weren't there but I felt that I should write them a note. So I did and just left it there. The next day we saw all 3 of them at church! I was super happy! It was just a little note. I think it was a nice note though. haha. Elder Duero and I were both really happy to see them there. :)

We also began teaching someone new who is the boyfriend of an inactive member, his name is Kennedy. He is also really kool and he also came to church, With his girlfriend. We were really happy to see that. We have our second appointment with him on Thursday so we will see how things go! :D

Something that was kinda disappointing though was we had been working with this inactive family, the Morales' and we had a really spiritual lesson about the Book of Mormon and it was super amazing. We thought for sure we would see them there on Sunday. But we didn't so yea. Hopefully this week. We're going to keep working with them. They have really strong testimonies and I know they want to come back. We have been working with a few less actives here. This week we should have 2 coming back to activity, which means they have come to church 4 times in a row after being inactive. Actually this person we're teaching gave us a few people to teach who we plan on visiting this week and she might even work with us. So hopefully all that goes well. :)

Oh yea, I also went on exchanges this week. Every week we have to go on exchanges, last week I worked in the Mandaluyong 1B area. I worked with Elder Koochin who is a district leader. He is also one of the 4 Canadians in the Manila mission! It was a good exchange. He seems to be doing alright. We did some finding, I did a baptismal interview and we taught a family who is getting ready to be baptized soon. And that was it. :)

Elder Duero is one of my favorite companions, we are getting along great, the Makati zone is also doing great. For the last 3 months I think we averaged about 3 baptisms for month for the whole zone and so far this month in March we have 6. So things are going good with that. Also there's this new thing called the green zone and what it is, is it's the standard of excellence for the key indicators listed in chapter 8 of PMG+4 more made by the area presidency of the Philippines. So we have 11 key indicators that we can have standard of excellence on and of course the goal is to have all of them green, or to achieve all of them. It's pretty hard. The week before ZLC we had 24% in the green zone. But last week the zone went 38% Green which is really good. This means as a zone we achieved 38% of all the standards of excellence. It's a bit harder for Makati zone because we have the APs and the Office elders and they don't get to work a whole lot. But we're really happy about going 38%green. We just have to keep going up and up. :)

Oh yea, and also to answer your question, Cebuano is also going good. It's just a bit different. :) I'm still learning though.

And that is about it for this week. I don't really need a whole lot. Everything I need I can get for way cheaper here in the Philippines. I guess if there is anything it would just be Ringolos. I miss those. I don't really need a whole lot of candy. I get enough of that at members houses actually haha. But yea. I can get almost anything I want here and for a lot cheaper... So yea. I plan on buying shoes soon. Because both the pairs I got at home are wrecked. I left one of my pairs on Palawan and actually I had a pair of rubber shoes that a going home missionary gave to me. So I used those for a while but then I gave them to Mike in STA Monica because his shoes got wrecked from working with us everyday. So now I only have one pair of shoes. But I can buy shoes here for really cheap and they are good. All in all I don't really need anything. (Maybe money?) I don't know how my accounts are doing. So yea. I'm probably going to buy shoes next week.

So yea. For my birthday, all in all, maybe just a few letters with pictures. That's really all I want. I don't really want a package. Just pics with letters. That is all! :D

Speaking of letters I'm actually sending one out to Ben today. That's cool that he also just became a Zone leader. I thing he will do great!

Anyways, that's about it for this week. I hope everything is going great at home. How is Justin doing with his mission prep? How is Derek doing with his mission prep? Who is is preparing to leave? It would be cool if someone from home got to serve here. Philippines Manila Mission is the Best! I love my mission so much! It's nothing what I expected but more than anything I've hoped for! I Hope you guys have a great week!

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Only 4 Canadians in the mission...

Hello!
We had a great week in Makati! Things are going great!
Elder Duerro and I just got back from SM which is a really
big mall. We went to their department store and there's a bunch
of stuff. I'm pretty sure that was one of the malls that your
friend was talking about. Haha. We spent a really long time
looking at ties because they have so many nice ties. We both
bought one. It's nice to be in Makati because everything is so
fast and convenient. I also bought a new dictionary today
because the one they gave us in the MTC is too small and I
know most of the words in it. So today I bought a big
dictionary and a little Cebuano dictionary. Elder Duero
is from Cebu so I thought I would start learning Cebuano
this transfer! Haha.

Last week was really good. We got to teach district meeting
which was on "To begin teaching." We really emphasized
not just starting the lesson but actually introducing the
lesson to the investigator to show them how it will have
a personnel relevance for them. It was pretty good. What
I usually like to do for practice in district meetings is have
missionaries give me their planners then I pick a name in
there and have them practice what they will be teaching
later on that day so then later that day they can teach
what they practiced. It was a pretty good meeting. Next
week we're going to be going to Mandaluyong district for
Elder Koochins (who is also from Canada) District meeting.
Then on Wednesday I get to work with Elder Koochin in his
area. That will be kool because I've never worked with
another Canadian before. There are only 4 of us in the mission.

Last week we also had zone leaders conference, or ZLC.
It was really cool. It's just a really big discussion about
everything that is going on in the mission and it's with
all the zone leaders. I got to see Elder Comish again. Haha.
His companion is really cool. His name is Elder Labinpuno
and he actually took my place when Elder Nye trained in
San Pedro. He is 2 transfers younger than me and he is
really talented. Him and I were in a group that had to think
of ways where we can help all the missionaries in the
mission become Preach My Gospel Missionaries. How we did
that was the zone leaders went into groups of 4 then we
just discussed concerns and questions that President Stucki
has and then we presented ideas and things to the rest
of the zone leaders and President. The whole mission right
now is really focused on going to the rescue and finding less
active members. We have a mission goal to re-activate 1700
less active members by the end of this year, which is
the equivalent of a strong stake. So far we have a few
people coming back here in Makati. So far I think the
whole mission is at 400 or something... It's going pretty well. :)

Oh, my ward here in Makati is Makati 2nd. These last 2
weeks everyone has been asking what happened to the sisters,
because it was been sisters in this area for 5 or 6 years.
so yea. Haha. I love this area though. We have a lot of
potential. We now have 2 baptisms that are happening this
week on Saturday and then one more the next Saturday on
March 17th! So we are really excited for that. Also, this
tatay, Brother Suva who we have been working with, whose
wife and part of his family are members came to church
last week for the first time ever! We were super happy
about that. Missionaries have worked with him forever!
And he finally came to church. His wife was really happy
and told Elder Duero and I that she is really happy that
we are teaching him. Getting baptized this week is Sister
Rose Mar and Tatay Zaldy. Tatay Zaldy is one of the coolest
people ever. I don't have a lot of time to write everything.
But I love this guy and he is going to be a really strong
member and future leader of the church.

I don't have a lot more to write about or a whole lot more
time. I have so many things to fill out here on the computer.
I had exchanges with Elder Pasqual last week who actually
isn't even assigned in our mission. He is from Mindanao but
he will be serving in Utah Salt Lake City mission. He is a
funny guy. Haha. He will do great in Utah. It's just weird
because he leaves half way through this transfer. So yea.
I'm not sure what's going to happen to his companion,
Elder Malit. We will just know what we just know when we
get to that point. Also, the stake president does not own
that hotel. Actually when we were there it was with the
1st councillor of the bishopric and he just works there
but is like a boss I believe. He is a really nice guy.
We had a family home evening there last weekend. I didn't
get any pictures though. I'm sorry! :(

Actually I didn't take a whole lot of pics last week.
It's been super busy. I will try to send some though. :)
Thank you so much for all your prayers. I hope this week
will be a good one. There's a few baptisms happening and
I have a baptismal interview. So hopefully everything is
going great! Thank you so much for everything! I love all
of you so much! Have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon!

More pics from Santa Monica before he left...

More pics...

Went to church with President Monson's daughter!

Hey guys!

What a week it has been! I'm sorry to hear that your all sick! I have some news! Things changed a bit.....I'm still a zone leader in Makati but the day before transfer day, President Stucki changed the zone leaders area in Makati to an area where there were sisters. Their work was pretty low so they put Elder Duero and I in there. Soooooo......I'm shotgunning again! Haha. This is the 3rd time. And this time it's weird because as zone leaders we are supposed to be the leading area in the zone but it's almost impossible because we're both new to the area. haha.... Being a zone leader is fun though, we get texts non stop from everyone in the zone asking about stuff. Haha. It's like being a normal missionary, just with lots of texts from people in your zone asking questions. Sister Gupta, who was in Puerto district also got transferred to Makati zone and she is shotgunning and training a new missionary. It's super fun being in the city. It was a bit weird at first because people are so different but it's interesting. I actually had a hard time teaching my first day here. Everything is good now though.

Our area is really kool. It's way different. There's no trees, but a ton of buildings. It's like downtown Montreal so it's pretty cool. The work is doing really good. Elder Duero and I teach super good together. When we got here we only had 2 people with baptismal dates and they weren't even sure according to the area book. Now as of yesterday we have 7 and plan to give out at least 2 more this week. 3 of those are actually going to be on March 10th, so we're really excited for that because this place hasn't had a baptism since November. I'm pretty excited. Right now were teaching Rose-Mare a housemaid of a member, so she is going to be baptized on the 10th. Then we are teaching Zaldy Lazaro, a Tatay whose children are members and are active. He will also be getting baptized on the 10th. He is really cool. Then we are teaching the stake president's daughter in law, April, who will also be getting baptized on the 10th. The Stake president is really cool. We went to go visit April one time and she wasn't there but he was and we had a really good talk about the goals for the stake, we set a day for stake coordination where the bishoprics, Auxiliary leaders, and the zone leaders attend. The stake president is great though, he lives in our area and he has a few great ideas for missionary work. He actually helped us set up an appointment where we are going to teach a high school the word of wisdom. So that should be interesting! After talking for a long time about a bunch of stuff he asked if we had eaten supper and we told him no and he took us to Macdo and fed us there. It was random but cool.

We spent a lot of our time last week meeting different members. They seem really awesome. I like them a lot. Last Sunday we went to church, and guess who was there? Thomas S. Monson's Daughter! Haha and so was Elder Augustin of the 70. It was kind of weird going to church with them. Sister Monson also gave a fireside that night for our stake and that was really cool. She is actually the 2nd councillor in the general YM's presidency. She spoke a lot about her father and prophets and just some things that we didn't know about President Monson. Did you know his favorite hymn is Have I done any good in the world today and There is a green hill far away? Also his fav color is yellow!

Also during church I had the pleasure of teaching the investigator's class because no one prepared a lesson.... so I taught. Haha.

Well I don't have a whole lot of time here. Things are going great here I love the area, my companion, everything. I have no complaints what so ever. :D

Oh, also, my nephew in the mission is following up my anak, Elder Halterman, who is Elder Munk's (who is my brother) anak, is follow up training Elder Villa. So that's pretty cool he's really cool and tall! :D

Thank you so much for all the updates at home, Lei did text last week. I'm so happy for Derek! He's gonna be an amazing missionary! I got a letter last week from Ben, so if you could email him just saying I love him and I also wrote him a letter that would be great! Well thank you so much for everything I'm going to send some pics hopefully. I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!

Gihigugma ko Kamo!

Elder Chris Gagnon :D

Going back to the mainland....new zone leader in Makati!

At Nanay Montilla's house

Puerto district at the crocodile farm

Elder Gagnon and Elder Villa in Irawan

On a carabao clearing land on Tatay Carleto's mountain

Hey Guys!

Last week was a pretty good week. I don't have a lot of time to email today though because we both need to use the same computer today. Anyways...Last week was really good. We have been working with someone who has been inactive for almost 10 years. Last week, we had a lesson about the baptismal covenant and we committed him to go to church, but something that I have been doing for a while and it has really been working is having the person we're teaching write down their committment. So I have a little book of sticky notes and stuff and I had him write it and he came. It's worked for a few other people too with other committments. Anyways it was great to see him at church because last Saturday I found out I would be leaving the island. So I'm going back to the Mainland!

So you're probably wondering where? So I have a story first. We were taking a multicab to the crocodile farm and I was hanging on the back with Elder Villa. When we got to the crocodile farm, I looked at the phone and saw a missed call from......President Stucki. A few seconds later Elder Berse got a call telling him that he would be the new district leader here in Puerto. Then I get a text from President saying Elder Gagnon, when you have the time please text me when I can call you. So I texted him right away and he called. Then he told me that I was going to be...... A zone leader in Makati stake and my companion would be Elder Duerro. I'm super excited! I didn't think I was going to be a Zone leader this transfer... I'm pretty excited! I leave Palawan on Wednesday morning. Elder Halterman, who is Elder Munks Anak is going to be following up my Anak in Santa Monica. It's pretty exciting! I'm going from a really province area to a really city area. Also, Elder Comish also got a call from President saying that he will be becoming a zone leader in Cavite.
I'm pretty excited and nervous. I think it will be a ton of fun though!
Anyways....I really love Sta Monica. And I'm really grateful I got to serve there. The people are so nice and I love them so much. I'm also really going to miss Puerto district. We had a pretty good transfer as a district. I'm really sad I won't get to see Carlito get baptized though. I'm still excited for him though. He is really strong and won't stop coming to church. We got to do service for him last week and we plowed the ground at his mountain. It was fun. I got to ride a carabao! haha I will send pics!

Anyways I'm sorry about the job mom, but everything will be ok. I know that for a fact. That's good about the weather though. :D I'm sorry this email is really short! I love everyone so much at home! Tell Stephen that I miss him and love his face.

Also thank you so much for everything! I love you guys so much and pray for all of you every day.

Mahal ko kayo!

Elder Chris Gagnon

So proud of Derek and thank the Kaufmans!

Service day at the coconut farmer's coop in Puerto Princesa




Hello Family!

We had a good week in STA Monica! I don't have a
whole lot of time to write this week. It's been
getting hard because leaders now have to fill out
companionship exchange forms every week and that
takes a bit of our time on the computer. So I don't
have a whole lot of time to write!

I hope everyone is doing well at home. I got an email
from Derek about him sending out his papers. Please
tell him I am so proud of him going out! Please tell
him to keep me updated and to email me when he gets
his call to serve! Also, please thank the Kaufmans for
emailing me and telling me how everything is back at
home and congratulate Rebecca on her baby, Sadie!
I'm very happy for all of them!

Well last week was pretty busy, we found a few less
active families that we taught, one of them was really
offended by a member, they are the Hitosis family.
We shared a lesson about scripture study and why
it's so important. It was a really good lesson.
They even said that it was a really good lesson.
I didn't want to share about the sabbath day
and why it's so important because they know why it is.
I think if they can just build their faith by reading
and prayer then they will actually have a desire to go
to church, and right now, they don't have that
desire yet. They're a pretty tough family...But I know
that as they do things that our heavenly father expects
of them, they will regain that desire to go to church! :D

For the first time since we met him, I didn't have an
opportunity to teach Carlito for all of last week. I only
saw him once at a going away party for the branch president's
daughter, who is moving to Utah! She is getting married over
there in Salt Lake. I'm excited for her.
But yea. Carlito wasn't able to come to church last week.
He had something he had to do for the community he lives in.
Sister Paz came though and so did Cheryl and her sister, Caren!
Church was awesome yesterday! We had so many inactive members
come back into activity. Last week we just officially had the
Cullamar kids come back into activity. Which was awesome to see!

We are also teaching a new guy name Lowell Gabuat, his
father has been inactive for a while and Lowell really
wants to come to church and apparently he came but there
was no one at the door so I think he might have left.
He is also doing great though. We plan to give him a
baptismal date this week. We also have a plan to give
out a few more so if everything goes perfect, we will
have 12 baptismal dates and all of them will come to church! :D

Last Friday we had zone conference, the day before I
went on exchanges with Elder Munk and that went really well.
We teach really well together. Then zone conference was great!
We got to practice and learn about teaching skills. In one of
the practices it was me and Elder Villa teaching my last 2
district leaders, who are now the zone leaders in the Narra
zone, Elder Chiong and Elder Peterson and Sister
Stucki were watching. Haha. It's kinda nerve-racking having
all these leaders watch you teach. We did alright though.
I learned quite a bit from the zone conference. Oh yea,
and I don't know if I told you guys, but Elder Baltazar is
now one of the Assistants to President. It's him
and Elder Hernando who was here when I first got to Palawan.
They both thought it was funny that I am still here on Palawan.
Haha. Anyways it was nice to see Baltazar again. I miss being
in the same zone as that Elder.

Anyways. It was a good week! I love you guys so much! I hope
you guys are doing great at home. I didn't receive your email
so I don't know. But I hope all is well and have an amazing week!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hello PO!

We had a great week this week here in STA Monica. Before I start everything though....Happy Birthday Mom!

Well we taught Carlito and Pass, of course, and they are doing great, Sister Pass was baptized last Saturday, Elder Villa performed that baptism and it was a very great day. Sister Karen, who we have started teaching again came to the baptism and it was really nice to see her. She is also doing really well, but didn't come to church... :( Both Cheryl and her sister are coming though. So that's good. We also had 3 less active members come back to activity last week, which means they came back to church and attended 4 times in a row! It was really great! We were really happy to see that. Things are going really well in STA Monica. We need to start planning for March though because right now we only have a few potentials for baptism and they aren't attending church...yet...

The Torenueva family is doing pretty good, they didn't come to church last week though, that is the less active family that has a child that isn't baptized yet. We had a plan to baptize her next week but do not want to and can't because her mom is still less active...

Last week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges in Elder Cooper's area. It was a good day. We got a lot of work done and I got to meet some of their investigators and people they were working with. Their area is stuggling though.... I'm a bit worried. Actually this week the work was the lowest it has been this whole transfer, especially for baptismal dates. We had a really good week the week before but we really dropped this week, so I'm kinda worried. The last district meeting was about baptismal dates too and how we can't just have them for a stat but an actual goal date for an investigator we are teaching. We practiced teaching what we were going to teach and extending a baptismal date. The Zone leaders were also concerned about how the baptismal dates were going down and they gave a commitment to the zone to give out 5 in a week and a half. Then this week it went down.... I'm not yet sure what we're going to do for district meeting tomorrow.

Things are going really well though in STA Monica. We're teaching quite a few good families that haven't come to church yet but we have plans to help them come. Also we had someone who was trying to debate with us but at the same time he was saying that he didn't want to debate, so that was kind of annoying...

Oh, and also something pretty cool, we have a dinner appointment everyday this week, so that's going to be exciting. We're going to ask the appointments if they could bring a nonmember friend though so we could teach them. I hope it works and we are able to find new people to teach! :D

Anyways I know this email was kinda short, but I really have to go. I still have to do an evaluation form for Elder Cooper...

So I love you guys so much! Thank you for all that you do and thank you for all your prayers! I hope Mom had a great Birthday and I hope you guys have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon