The Underground river!

Hey Guys!

Had an amazing P-day today! I'll talk about it later. Unfortunately I don't know have my camera thing, so I will not be able to send pictures home today. I also don't have my planner. But I remember pretty well what happened last week. Haha. I'm pretty worried about getting transferred next week. I really love Roxas. I love the members, the people, the recent converts, the investigators. Things are going amazing. I really hope they keep me there one more transfer. But at the same time I really hope I go where the Lord wants me to go. :)

Unfortunately I am not going to be able to do the whole day by day thing because I don't remember everything we did everyday. So I guess I will just go through some lessons and investigators that we taught last week! :) Last Thursday was President Bayaras' birthday and we were supposed to eat over there, but there ended up being a black out and we had no electricty that night. Actually almost all week we had no electricity. It's pretty hard out there sometimes and it's a pretty big problem with Roxas.... Haha. I'm used to it now though. Anyways we ate at Presidents house last Friday and we had chicken, fish and a ton of food.

Our investigators are doing great! We have been teaching this one lady, Lobick and she has been doing amazing. Every time we teach her she goes and gets everyone who is around to listen, which is great! She is also doing great! She came to church for the second week in a row. We taught her the full message of the restoration last week and she prayed about it and really believes it is true. We have a goal for her to be baptized on September 24th. :)

Sister Lee and Alfred haven't been around to much. They are both really busy trying to support their 2 kids and Sister Lee's mom. They didn't come to church again for the 5th week in a row which is really too bad because they know the church is true and they really want to be baptized and go to the temple. Sister Lee said that when she can start being active in church and her and Alfred can qualify for baptism, she wants me to baptize them both. It's too bad though because they haven't been to church in a really long time.

We visited a less active family last week. And we actually taught this Nanay who was there. Her name is Nanay Bajos. She is almost golden. She is doing great! We spoke to her last Saturday and she came to church the next day. Her whole family except the father came to church!

The Honorio family is doing great. The four kids, Jaypee, Rosbelle, Marc Joseph and Michael John and doing amazing. Jaypee reads the Book of Mormon everyday. Michael John and Rosbelle came to church last week. Jaypee said he would come next week for sure. They are all committed to baptism. We don't have a date yet, probably be in October on the 6th. Tatay needs to give up smoking and they all need to give up coffee. They are all really interested and every lesson just goes really great with all of them.

Alejandro is still doing really good. He was in Taytay visiting his parents, who were the first people baptized in Taytay. We only taught him on Saturday and it went really well. He had a lot of questions and I gave a lot of answers. Haha. It had a lot to do with baptism and I used every single verse in the Bible and the Book of Mormon I knew to support those answers. Oh and great news! He believes that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God who by the power of God translated the Book of Mormon. He knows the Book of Mormon is true too. He is almost ready for baptism. He still needs to give up smoking and drinking and he needs to get married because he and his wife, Cheryl are having a baby and they live together. He is having a hard time working that out though. I have been praying so much for Alejandro. I really hope things work out for him.

Great News! Jessa and Larry, after being taught a few times last week, were interviewed last Saturday for baptism! And of course, they both passed. We were really happy for Larry, he really struggles because he can't read, we have been reading the Book of Mormon with him and he says he tries to read and he asks for help. He gave up smoking which is great! I am really happy for him. He asked me to baptize him this coming Saturday. And of course, Jessa' father is going to baptize her. He is a bit nervous though because he hasn't done it before. We are going to show him how though, so he will be fine.

Yesterday was a great day! We had church. And how it is here is it is: Elders Quorum first, then our investigators class, then sacrament. So pretty much how we have it in Montreal, but backwards. Anyways so I get to church and there is no President Bayaras or President Larrossa. They are both in Taytay. Haha. So because Pres.Larrossa plays the piano and he wasn't there guess who had to play the piano for church? Me. Then we go to Elders Quorum and guess what? There's no Elders Quorum President, again so guess who had to teach Elders Quorum? Elder Chiong and I! haha. Then we had to teach our investigators class. We had 9 people at church that day! Which was nice! Sister Lobick brought her friend! Haha. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and taught and bore testimony of the atonement. We also had recent converts bear their testimony about it. It was a really good class. Then sacrament started and guess what? The concluding speaker didn't show up. So President Reyes(2nd councillor in branch presidency) asked if Elder Chiong would speak and I could tell he really didn't want too.....Soooooo guess who ended up volunteering to give a 10 minute talk on Pagsunod? Me. I just kind of said what came into my mind as the other speakers spoke and just things like that. It's a great topic. Haha. I think that talk, even though I wasn't prepared was probably one of my better talks. I was really happy with it even though I was just expressing how I felt. Oh and the best part of all sacrament was this. Guess who gave the opening talk in sacrament? April, our new convert! She also gave a talk about pagsunod. It was a great talk! I was really proud of her. :). So That Sunday was really good. We also had to leave that night because we had to go to Puerto.

So we got to Puerto and we had a full P-day. We had a really short District meeting then we had our zone activity. Which was the underground River! It was soooooooooooooooooo amazing! I loved it! While we were there I tried contacting this guy. He was a foreiner from France so I spoke french to him and I just told him a bit about the church. Haha. My French is a little rusty though. After that we took some pictures and walked around the beach. We saw a ton of unggoy along the trail coming back from the underground river, so I got pictures of those :). It was sooo beautiful though. Just getting to actually see Palawan was great. The beach is sooo beautiful. It was a really great day. We're going back to Roxas tomorrow morning.

So last week was really great! I really love my mission soooooo much. I love my area so much. I have changed a lot in the past 2 transfers here in Roxas. It is all for the good though. I love the Roxas area so much, even though I have only been here for 11 weeks people have really become great friends. I'm going to miss it a lot if I leave next week. Next week I will be emailing on Wednesday or Thursday. Just to let you know. It's transfer week so yea! I might be in a different area with a different companion. But we will have to wait and see. I love you guys so much! Thank you for emailing me every week! Dad I hope you get better! and I hope you're all doing fine dealing with the hurricane! I Pray for you all the time!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Elder Munk and Elder Olongayo (Chris' "brothers" in the mission) with Elder Gagnon

Hey guys!
I have good news and bad news.....I'll start with the bad news.... Haha. I forgot to bring my planner and my journal, so writing home today is going to be a little bit harder for me today...The good news is I had a good week. We taught a ton of lessons and had a few new people at sacrament.

So I know I usually do this day by day. But because I didn't bring anything to remind what I did during last week it's going to be a little bit scattered. It will still be good though I promise! Haha.

So last week, no we did not have any baptisms. We are going to have 2 that are pretty much for sure on September 3rd. Marilou did not come to sacrament last week so we have to delay her....Again... :( Larry and Jessa, are both ready though. Jessa is actually doing really well. Her family is doing a lot better. Her family has been sort of less active for a while but for the past few weeks they have been coming to church and even invited us over for dinner this week. So they are doing great. Jessa is actually really smart for a nine year old girl. Her prayers are awesome! Haha. Larry is coming along. He still has a hard time reading though. But he has stopped smoking completely which is great! We're really happy for him. And he has been coming to church almost every week since we first met him. I think he missed it once because he was sick. But yea. Larry is doing great!

Last week we contacted Guillermo's sons wife. Guillermos son is usually away. So he wasn't there but we all taught his wife, Mercy. It was actually a great lesson. Tatay Guillermo actually taught with us that lesson. We had a ton of members present at our lessons this week we only have 5 out of 29 that were not with members. Guillermo worked with us quite a bit. That lesson was really good though. Guillermo bore his testimony about going to church and how important it is to him. He said that a while ago he used to get sick. But now that he has been going to church the bread and water, that is his medicine. I love him. I'm really worried about getting transfered next September. I've gotten really close with the investigators, members, and our recent converts here. Transfer day is September 7th. :( Anyways that lesson with Mercy was really good. We never have gotten to get back yet. But we are going to this week.

Another family that we have really been working with is the Honorio family. Last week we had Sister Rose work with us when we taught them. She is really good at teaching. We taught them about Joseph Smith. This time the whole family was there and it went really really well. Jaypee, the 2nd oldest actually came to church but didn't come inside because he was shy. The rest of the family had stuff to do but want to come to church next week. I'm excited for them. I went to their house last Sunday with Elder Lipasan, a greeny in Taytay, Elder Bagahansols replacement and Chris our ward mission leader. I asked what they thought about Joseph Smith and they said because of the things which they felt they believe that it is true. That really surprised me. Haha. Hopefully next week they will all be able to come to church.

Mary Grace is doing ok. We only taught her once last week. Interested, but says she cannot come to church because her kids are too loud....

Lee and Alfred are also doing great. Tatay Guillermo was at their house last Sunday. I was teaching with Chris and Nanay Aurino. It wasn't even a lesson. We were just talking about temples. It was really good though. Lee is really sick though and she is having a hard time. Her and Alfred both want to get married and be baptized and go to the temple but they are having a hard time getting to church. Sister Lee's mom, Nanay Erlinda has been really encouraging though. Tatay Guillermo said that he really wants to go to the temple in next October in 2012, that's when the temple trip is. He also said it would be great if I could witness their sealing. That would be really great! I'm already excited for them!

Last Thursday we had zone conference. It was really good. President Stucki decided that the mission goal for 2011 is to have 300 baptisms in one month. I think it's a great goal that is going to make the whole mission stretch. Every companionship is going to have to have 3 in one month to do that. After he spoke about a few different things we were taught about how to find and role played for a bit. It was cool though because before we role played, Pres Stucki, and Elder Belarmino (New A.P, who is a legend in my area) actually taught Sister Stucki and Elder Afaga to show us a demonstration. It was cool to see him teach. He is obviously really good. So we went and practiced. Then he spoke about another new goal that the zone has which is contacting 10 referrals in one week. Getting referrals is pretty hard a lot of times people just don't give them. Most of the ones we do get though end up progressing though. Anyways it was a really good zone conference. :)

We found another few new investigators that came to church this week. One is Lobick who was a referral and sister from a member. She is doing great. She really wants to change her life. Every time we go teach her she invites everyone around to listen. It is really kool. One of the people she invited is 76 year old Alejandro. I really like Alejandro. He came to church 3 days after we met him. Haha. He is also looking for religion though which is really kool. They live in the same house but it's like a boarding house so a few different people live there. It's good. :)

Speaking of Alejandro, the younger one, he is still really doing great. He came to church last week. We had 6 at sacrament last week. He is still having a hard time accepting that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. Doing good though.

I had a cool experience today actually that Elder Staples shared. So I don't know if I told you about this but me and Elder Glodo received a referral from Tatay Palatino. It was his grandson. Me and Glodo actually met him in Roxas and when we met him the first thing he told us was that he wanted to be baptized because it was one of his requirements for school to have a baptismal certificate. So obviously me and Glodo thought that he was doing it all for the wrong reasons. Anyways it turned out that he actually lives in Puerto, which is the zone leaders area. So we gave his name to them. Anyways today Elders Staples was saying how great he is doing. He reads everything they give to him and explains every detail in that chapter and in every other chapter around it. He also quit smoking! And he is working with the missionaries. He went to one lesson with them and just ended up working with them the whole day bearing his testimony about how true the gospel is. He is getting baptized next week, which is AMAZING! I'm excited for him because like the change is really amazing. He really only wanted to get baptized because it was a requirement for him and now he is like working with the missionaries. So I think that is just great!

I love my mission so much.

Please tell Theresa I said Congratulations and I'm really happy for her. Also Please tell Antonia that I said Hi!

I love you guys so much. I love my mission so much. It really is amazing. Thank you so much for all your support!

Mahal Kita!

Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S. Pics: This is Me and my brothers in the mission, we are all sons of Elder Guarino. We're also all on Palawan. In the middle is Elder Olongayo, then on the left is Elder Munk. Elder Olongayo and Munk both go home together. Guarino trained Olongayo and then right after trained Munk, then 2 transfers later, he trained me. Then he went home :)

So that is it. I don't know why but the comp will not let me send any more pictures... Sorry! I Guess that's about it for this week. :(

I love you guys!

Elder Chris Gagnon

April's Baptism!

April's Baptism August 13th, 2011

The Group Leader's house in Taytay

Crossing a river in the jungle in Taytay to get to a baptismal interview

On their way back from the interview in Taytay

Hello po!

Last week was really good! Starting from last Wednesday we had a good few days here in Roxas. April got baptized and she was really happy! She bore a really great testimony after she was baptized, except she said she was really thankful that Elder Glodo and I taught her and she didn't mention Elder Chiong, who was the one who baptized her. Haha... Sounds like you guys had a really good week with the diet and all that stuff and Sam's cottage. That sounds awesome! It has been really hot here in Roxas and I actually had a bit of a sipon last week, which is too bad. I have a harder time speaking Tagalog when I have a sipon. Speaking of Tagalog, I am actually studying a new language now. I want to learn Cuyonon which is like the language here in Palawan. Everyone understands and speaks Tagalog but a lot of peoples' main language is Cuyonon, so I'm going to try and learn it. It's a bit different, kind of like a bird. Haha. I have a small notebook that I carry around with me where I used to write Tagalog words but I haven't written any in there in a while now. So now I'm learning some Cuyonon words. It's kool. :) For "magandang umaga", which is "good morning" in Tagalog, in Cuyonon it's Mayadgna Temprano. Haha. Anyways, this is a little bit about how my week went last week.

Last Wednesday we went to Larry and Marilou. No they do not need to be married. Alejandro needs to be married and so does Alfred and Lee. Larry and Marilou are just friends. Marilou is 39 and has kids and her husband is in jail. Larry is the 18 year old who can't read. They are both doing alright though. Unfortunately we had to move their baptism to the 27th along with Jessa because we couldn't do their interview last week. After we taught them we taught Alejandro. He is doing great. Yes I have read Our Search for Happiness. I finished it in the MTC and I read it 2 more times here in the field. Great book! I also read Our Heritage and Jesus The Christ :) So after we visited Alejandro we went to an inactive family, the Cortez and we shared a message with them. They are really struggling with money right now.. But Sister came to church last week. So that was good to see. Hopefully Brother is about to come along sooner or later. He really wants to come back. After that we taught the Honorio family a small lesson. They're a good family that is starting to progress. Really nice. After them we had an FHE at Lee's house. It was really fun. April actually gave the spiritual thought, which was great! It was a good night. Hopefully we can have one more before I get transfered, which might be in three weeks. I want to stay though. I love it here. There's a lot of people leaving and coming in next transfer though so there's going to be a lot of changes....

Thursday we had a really good lesson with Guillermo's daughter Mary Grace. She is doing great. Really interested. We taught her about Joseph Smith and that went really well. After that we went finding for new investigators and had a bit of success. Later on we taught the Honorio family again. There was a drunk guy there so it was a little bit harder to teach..... After that we had a dinner appointment at the Cordero Family and we ended our day there.

Friday We taught a referral from Sister Arlene in the morning then we went back to our bahay and did weekly planning. After that we taught Alejandro and he said he is having a hard time accepting that Joseph Smith is a true prophet because so many people are claiming to be prophets these days. That is his only big concern. And he needs to get married and stop smoking. He is a great investigator though. Really wants to know what the truth is. After we taught Alejandro we taught Dorothy a small lesson about families. She hasn't really shown a whole lot of interest though. We're going to keep working with her though. After that we taught Honorio again. We taught them about Christ' church, Apostasy and Joseph Smith. We had Nanay Erlinda and Tatay Guillermo working with us that day. They both bore testimony of the church which was really great to see seeing as they had gotten baptized one month ago. It was a really great thing for me to see. :)

Saturday we taught Larry. Marilou wasn't around but we saw her afterwards and she said that she hasn't been sick and that she would come to church the next day. She didn't though... We might have to push her baptismal date back because it's been a few weeks that she hasn't come.... We had a good lesson with Larry though. He is still getting ready for his interview. Doing great though. He has a strong desire to get baptized. After that we taught a new investigator Evlynn. The lesson went really well. Nice family. After we taught them we went to the chapel to clean and fill the baptismal font. Then we had the baptism for April. Elder Chiong baptized her and Michelle, Pres.Bayaras' daughter, gave a talk and then Sister Larossa also gave a talk. Michelle spoke about repentance and Sis.Larossa spoke about Baptism. Great talks! After the Baptism we went to see the Estoce family and set a return appointment for the next day.

Sunday we went to church. We only had four investigators there. One was a friend of Sister Ada, Sister Yang Yang. Then there was also Rommel, who we are going to start teaching this week. It's a bit hard because he works a lot. Then we also had Jessa and Larry at church. After church we went on splits. I worked with Sam who doesn't really talk too much. Or does. Just not much in lessons. Or at all..... We taught Evlynn again. Her husband was there that time and he seems like a really nice guy. We're going back to them on Wednesday. We also visited Tatay Palatino to see how he was doing because he wasn't at church that day. He got really sick and actually asked for a blessing. So Sam and I both gave him a blessing. After that. We went to Mel's house. We shared a small message with him then he asked if he could work with us, so he did. We went to Estoce's house. We taught them about Joseph Smith. Mel did great. He answered a few of their questions. It was a long lesson. They had a lot of questions... Haha. They are from Zion's church and Sister is a Sunday school teacher. It was a good lesson. After that we went to President Bayaras' house and had dinner there. Good day.

So that was about it for last week. If you could please tell Theresa no I did not get her Dear Elder...I actually wrote her a letter about last April or May I think. Things do take a while to get to me. I guess email is probably just the better was to send things from your end but I can only write letters to friends back home. I also sent one to Justin and Danny. Did they get anything? If you could ask them that would be great! Oh and A&W! I sent them a letter too. Haha. I am going to write some letters today. I'm going to write one to our ward today. :) We didn't have district meeting today because we have zone conference on Thursday so today is a PDAY almost all day. We have 2 dinner appointments mamaya that I am looking forward to:). To answer your question: Yes, we have district meeting every Monday. So we have Pday all day. Not until 6 like most missions. But here in Palawan it's different. We have to wake up every morning at 3:00 a.m. to take a shuttle at 4:30 that goes to Peurto and arrives there around 7. Then we have to take a 2 and a half hour trip back. So we don't have too much of a Pday. It;s even worse for Taytay because they are 4 hours away from Puerto. Elder Baltazar has been there for almost 4 months now. I think he is going crazy. The shuttle is not fun... Haha.

I love this area. It is really beautiful. I'm going to send some pictures now from last week at the baptism and in Taytay. Taytay is beautiful. Especially in the jungle which is where Taytay's interview was last week! I love my mission and all the people here in Roxas. I'm really worried about getting transfered. Our zone leader Elder Black said it is possible I might leave.... I hope not though. Anyways! I hope everything is great at home! I love you guys so much! Thanks for all your support!

Mahal ko po kayo!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Happy Birthday Tatay!

Hey guys!

I am going to start this email by saying, Happy Birthday Dad! I love you!

I'm actually in Taytay right now. They had an interview for baptism today. The internet cafe isn't really great here. I'm not going to be able to send pictures.... sorry again. Last week went alright! We found some new investigators and guess what? April is getting baptized this week on Saturday! We're really excited for her. She has been ready for a long time and yea! We're happy that her parents allowed her to be baptized. We're really excited for her.

So last Tuesday was a good day. We taught Larry about the law of tithing which went good and then later on we went to the castle that Elder Glodo and I went to last transfer. This time the members were there. I got to meet the owner of the castle. He speaks every language. Like he knows a lot of the Filippino dialects, speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and a lot more. Haha. He is a nice guy, he builds castles for a living..... They are inactive though. We shared with them a message from the Book of Mormon and it went really well. We told them to come to church, and unfortunately they didn't. Brother actually left last weekend because he is building another castle somewhere else in the Philippines. He is half Italian, and half Filippino.

Last Wednesday we dropped by Tatay Guillermo! He is doing great! Just really excited about everything, about church and about going to the temple in one year! He is amazing! We actually taught his daughter that day too, Mary Grace....I cannot remember what we taught them though. I don't have my journal with me right now... I think we might have taught about prophets. Anyways I remember at the end of the lesson I felt impressed to give her a Book of Mormon. She said there was nothing really changing in her life at the moment so I said I would like to give this book to you and I know it will change your life. We set a return appointment with her on Friday! Her husband is in IloIlo and she lives with Guillermo and she has 2 kids. Then we went to Alejandro. I cannot remember what we taught him either. I think it might have been the work of wisdom. He is doing sooo good. He is actually one of my favorite investigators. He really wants to stop smoking and drinking and has been making progress. We set a return appointment with him on Friday too. After we taught him we taught Dorothy, a referral from an inactive member. She is doing good. I actually committed her to baptism that day. We're hoping she progresses. She has really loud kids though.....That night we taught a child, Jessa Rosal and taught her a lesson on prayer. She is a part member. She is nine years old so we have to teach her before she can be baptized. She is going to be baptized on the 20th of August. And that is about it for Wednesday!

Last thursday we did a little bit of finding in the morning. We taught Marilou and Larry. We taught them that they have to keep commitments if they want to be baptized on the 20th of August. Neither of them went to church. Larry is doing really great. He wants to be baptized. He just has a hard time remembering what we taught sometimes. Last week was the first time he didn't come to church in a while. Other than that we're really hoping and working hard with him so he will be ready for his interview this Saturday to be baptized on the 20th of August. Later on we visited the Honorio family. They are old investigators that Elder Glodo and I found. It was when I helped that guy carry water. Only Nanay and Jaypee, the 2nd to the eldest was there. We taught them though and Jaypee actually seemed really interested. Which is good except we never got to go back to him last week. We plan to get back to him this week though. After that we taught Jeffery, Cricel, Caren, and Marise. We taught them about seminary and how they should attend. We also committed them to baptism. They have been to church quite a few times already.

Friday was a good day. I woke up and decided to fast for Alejandro and I just prayed that our lesson would go well with him. He was our first appointment after we weekly planned. So we went there and the lesson went really well. It turns our he read our reading assignment that we left him and he also read "Our Search for Happiness"! WOW!!! We taught him about Christ's church and he believes that there was an apostasy, the only thing he has a hard time with is if Joseph Smith is a true prophet or not. After talking a lot, we ended up committing him to baptism. We are going back to him tomorrow. I'm excited to go back and see if he prayed or not. After that, we taught Sister Lee. She has been doing great. Hasn't been able to come to church lately though.... :( Alfred hasn't been around the house for awhile. We spoke to a new girl who is now living with her. I forgot her name though.... She came to church though!!! :D Haha. We shared a message with them about the importance of church that day. After that we taught Mary Grace again! She is suuuuper interested. Like her father when we first found him. Haha. She read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. And we just went over what she had read. She didn't end up going to church. But she is doing great though. She really likes reading! Later on we taught Jessa about Christ's church and the apostasy. We gave her a baptismal date on the 20th of August. We are excited for her. Her father will baptize her of course. He is also excited. He was sick that day though and we gave him a blessing. :)

Saturday April was interviewed and we also taught her a small lesson. She passed the interview and she is going to be baptized on this Saturday. After that we shared with Larry and Marilou. We went over prayers again because Larry is having a hard time praying and remembering how to. He has completly stopped smoking and drinking though, which is great! We need to find out what kept them from church though! Later on we taught Jeffrey, Caren, Cricel and Marise and we shared about reading the scriptures. The lesson went good. They were really quiet though. Still doing good though. They are really quiet though... Haha.

Sunday We went to church and it went alright. We only had Marrou, Jessa, Rommel, April and the girl whose name I cannot remember at church. It was good to see them. Rommel actually kind of came out of nowhere. He is a nice guy. We are going to start teaching him soon. He is friends with Presidnet Bayaras. Marrou still does not want to meet with us. We visited their house that day. He is the husband of the president of the relief society. Nice guy but doesn't want to get baptized because he is always away. Which is too bad. That day we actually got punted from all our appointments. So yea! We ended the day with a dinner appointment at President Bayaras'. I cannot remember what we had. It was good though. Haha.

Yesterday was "PDAY" and we spent all day at district meeting, then made the 4 hour shuttle ride to Taytay and slept here. We got back at around 7 last night and we had a dinner appointment at their group leaders house. He has a guitar so I played a little. Then he started playing and he is actually amazing. He sings too. He has such a great voice. We sang a bunch of songs like Hotel California, The Boxer, a few Beatles, the Leader of the Band. He is really really talented. Like really talented. Like he should be famous. We had dinner there that night.

Then today I worked in Taytay. We taught a few really good lessons! And had an effective work day here. I worked with Elder Baltazar and we had a good day.

Anyways I really have to go! It is late and past our curfew. I need to get back to the bahay. I promise I will send tons of pics next week and a video! Haha. Please thank the Carpenters for their letter! I really enjoyed reading it. I don't get mail too often. Haha. I would also like to thank Elder Nye for writing me. He will probably read that in about 5 months when he goes home. Haha.

I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything!!!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon

Happy Birthday Tatay!

August 1st, 2011

The New Puerto Zone after the latest transfer

Elder Gagnon with his new companion, Elder Chiang


Hey guys!

This email probably won't be as long either because it is from Wednesday until now! It was a good few days though. Elder Chiong and I are doing great! We have a lot of plans for this transfer! We're both really excited!

So last Wednesday we had transfers. After I emailed you, we went to Pres.Bayaras to talk and have dinner. Then we went home. Haha!

Then on Thursday we visited some of the members in our area. We also taught Sister Lee. We just kind of shared a message since she pretty much knows everything. Alfred is away now. Our plan for them is the 20th of August. Hopefully it works out and we're able to get everything we can to get them married and teach them all they need to know before baptism. Sister Lee said Alfred is doing great. When he was home about a week ago, she was telling him that coffee and smoking are bawal sa simbahan ni JesuCristo and apparently he is stopping and wants to stop. He is a great investigator, I wish he was around more often. They both really want to get baptized. After we visited them we went to Tatay Guillermo's. He wasn't there but Nanay was. So we spoke to her to see how she was doing and she is doing great! Her daughter was also there, so we started teaching her and she is really interested. She goes back and forth though from here and Dumaran though. Then we got a text from Sister Rose to go to her parlour, so we did and she randomly told us that Alejandro was expecting us, even though we didn't set an appointment. So we went there and taught him a lesson. He had a few good questions like about where the Jaredites came from. Then after a long discussion, he asked who Joseph Smith was. So we set a return appointment for tomorrow on Tuesday and that is what we will teach him tomorrow. :) That night we had a dinner appointment at Sister Arcenas and that also went great! I can't remember what we had though.......

Friday was a good day. We did weekly planning and it took a little while longer. We plan to go to another area this week. So that is what we are going to do on Saturday. We will either go to San Vincente or Magara, and our goal is to have a small meeting house out there and find new investigators to teach out there in one of those two areas. Apparently members in San Vincente have referrals, but there isn't anyone out there to teach them. And actually we went to Magara on Saturday but I will talk more about that later. Anyways after weekly planning we went to Marilou and Larry and taught them. Larry is going to be interviewed on Saturday for his baptism on August 13th. So we are excited for him. He is really coming along good. Still has a hard time reading. But last time he prayed and it was just a really great heartfelt prayer. It was sooooo good. After that we did a bit of finding. Then we got a text from Pres. Bayaras that there is a girl who is nine, who wants to be baptized but of corse needs the missionary discussions. So we went to their house and taught them about prayer. She has already been active in church for a while. Our plan for her is on the 13th. Later that night we visited Sister Arlene(member) and her husband. We shared a message with them. Brother still doesn't want to hear about or stop smoking. He just isn't interested yet. He will come around eventually though.

Saturday we went to Magara, by trike. It was long...... two hours.. We had to go to talk to April's parents because she is getting baptized on the 13th and we need their permission. So we went with Nanay Aurino, Sister Erlinda (April's grandmother, who got baptized a few weeks ago) and Chris. It took a long time to get there. But we spoke with the father and he said he has no problem at all. He was actually really nice. So everything seems fine for her. After that we visited some of the members that live out there, like not where he is but about an hour closer to our house, still in Magara. So we actually had lunch there. And later on we left and made our way home. So we got home and found out that we did not have our cellphone. Turns out Elder Chiong had it in his pocket and it fell out when we were on the trike......... So yea. We lost our cell. Later on we visited Sister Estoce, which went well. We just want to teach her whole family. She is nice though.

Sunday we had Church. Went alright. We had Larry, April, Jesse(the 9 year old) Alejandro, and Marrow, who kinda came out of nowhere. He is the husband of a member. Nice guy. He had a lot of questions in our investigator class that I wrote in my journal about. The really special thing though was our recent converts, Marlinda, and Guillermo, actually answered his questions. Which was just amazing to see. We're going to teach him this week either tomorrow or Wednesday. After church it rained...alot. So we stayed inside for a while, studied and then went out later. We went to Lee because she couldn't go to church because her baby was sick throwing up. :( Anyways we also went to Guillermo and shared a message with him. Then we helped Lee with some stuff around the house then went to Pres Bayaras' for dinner! The Taytay Elders, Slept over last night because they are 4 hours away from Puerto and we're only 2.

So this morning we woke up at about 3:30 and went to district meeting which was good! Elder Chiong is a new district leader and he did good for his first time today. We worked out a few good district goals. Then after that we bought a new cell, with the permission of President Stucki. And went home and now we're here!

If all goes well this Saturday at either Dumaran or San Vincente we will have a sacrament over there next Sunday which I am really excited for. What we might even do is split both of us...I will go one way with a ward missionary and Elder Chiong will go the other. It would be cool if it worked. We're still talking things over with President Bayaras. He is really excited to do work with us over in one of those 2 places. I know Magara has some former investigators that Elder Belarmino (The new A.P) and his companion found. So I would like to find some of those. We will see how things go! Everyone here is excited to go down there.

Anyways thats about it for this week. Hope you enjoy your vacation and tell Andrew he had better pass summer school. And Justin, good luck with your calling! I know you will do great! Anyways thanks for everything guys! I love you!

Elder Gagnon

Hey guys!

Last week was great! As you're probably wondering, I stayed here in Roxas and I am super happy I got to. I was worried that maybe Elder Glodo and I would get transferred. Unfortunately this email is probably going to be a little short because I don't remember much of what happened last week. So I'm going to just write some really awesome things that happened.

So last Monday we had district meeting, it was the last time we would see Elder Hart, one of our zone leaders. He is now home, which is kool. He was a really good zone leader. After that we had our last zone lunch at Jollibee, which is like the Pinoy version of Mcdo. I don't like it too much. Haha. After that we went to a mall, bought food for the week and I also got a shirt...And that's about it.

Tuesday I honestly cannot remember what we did. I didn't write it anywhere. I was not diligent in keeping my journal last week:(

Wednesday we worked with the Teaching Assistants. I got to work with Elder Taylor, it was really kool. He is such a great missionary. I learned a ton from him. We taught Larry that day about the law of chastity. His baptism is being pushed back till the 13th of August because he was sick and couldn't go to church last week. Then we taught Lee and Alfred who is back but left last Sunday to work again. We taught the restoration and we set a date for both of them to be married and baptized. It will be on the 13th of August along with April. We were not able to visit her parents. We're are going the next Saturday. She is really ready though. She's awesome. After we taught them we visited Tatay Guillermo and Marlinda to see how they were doing and I shared from 2 Nep 5. That's my favorite scripture to share from. It's about happiness. Actually can you guys find all the things that Nephi and his family did to live after the manner of happiness? Let's see how many things you guys can find. Read the whole chapter and try to find all the things :P. So we shared with them, Elder Taylor was impressed, he thought I had been out 4 transfers and he was talking about how good my Tagalog was, then I told him I was only on my third and he was really surprised. We found 2 more investigators. They both went really well. It was a really great day.

Thursday and Friday we found a new investigator who has a ton of questions. His name is Alejandro and his parents were actually the first people baptized in Taytay. I like teaching him a lot. We taught him with Sister Rose. She is great. She answers his questions for us which is like the perfect situation. It should be members answering the investigators questions. It was really great. She has a really strong testimony of the church. Anyways he came to church last week. He had questions there too. I can't remember anything else from those days.....

Saturday there was a youth activity. We went there and then after we went to Sister Lee's with Mel, and Chris. Mel is awesome, he wants to go on a mission so bad and he is always asking us when he can work with us. It's hard sometimes though. The members here are amazing. Elder Glodo worked with other youth and they went to see Jeffrey, Caren and Cricel. They all came to church too. We plan on giving them a baptism date this week or next.

Sunday was Elder Glodo's last Sunday. We found out in the morning that he was transferring but we didn't know where. So we just visited a few members that day and everything went well. He has been here for a while now. I think about 4 months. That night we had a party for the Thomas' because they are leaving on Thursday. So we went to Puerto and had transfer announcements. Elder Glodo found out that he was going to Las Pinas which is my old zone. Then Monday night, President Stucki congratulated him on becoming a new zone leader. So not only is he going to my old zone, but his is going to be in the same house that I stayed in and in the same chapel I was in. He is nervous. He didn't think he would be a zone leader. He was surprised.

Monday and Tuesday I cleaned in Puerto, the zone leaders are moving so we had to get everything out of their apartment, so Elder Staples, Elder Baltazar and I did that. I had to wait till Wednesday to come back to Roxas. Later on we went to a dinner appointment at a restaurant with Puerto's investigators. The next day we taught a lesson to an investigator in the zone leaders area. It went well. I worked with Elder Staples both days.

Then today, I said goodbye to Elder Glodo. I'm going to miss him. He was a good companion. Then I said hello to Elder Chiong! He is from Mindanao and he is actually Elder Morris' last companion. He is a district leader here. He seems really kool. We're still getting to know each other. He has been on his mission for almost 9 months now. I think this transfer is going be great!

I spoke to President Bayaras and he has an idea for an area that should be opened up. So we're going over there tonight to figure things out and whatnot. It's going to be a great transfer here in Roxas!

I love you all so much! And thanks for all your support. I have to go know! Gotta get to Pres Bayaras' tonight. I'll send pics next week, I promise and sorry this email is really scattered!

Love you!

Elder Chris Gagnon

Really, really great week!

Elder Gagnon eating a chicken head:) The Puerto Zone, from left to right starting at the top(Elder Hart, Sister Duncan, Sister Martinez, Sister Barra, Sister Terrano, Elder Staples) then on bottom (Elder Glodo, Elder Baltazar, Elder Quintana, Elder Hernando, Elder Bagahansol and Elder Gagnon) Elder Glodo and Elder Gagnon with the new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Stucki This is at the Baptism, from left to right: Elder Glodo, Tatay Guillermo, Mel, John Paul, Marlinda, Erlinda, Rocel, Caren, Stephanie, and Elder Gagnon Hey Family! Had a great/busy week last week! It was great! Really,really great! Haha. I know I looked a little scruffy. I didn't shave that day because we left Roxas and it was our P-day. And yes, I did need a haircut and I got one last week! Don't worry, everything is great! So on Tuesday we started our day getting back to Roxas. We went to our investigators and asked them if they would be ready on Saturday for the baptism. A lot of them said yes, there are a few that did have to wait though. We went over the baptismal interview questions with them that day. It went really well. It's cool reading something in English and saying it out loud in Tagalog. I've been doing it a lot lately. But there were not any problems. Oh and it turns out we only have 12 baptisms comming. Jericho Bonbon is actually 8 so he counts as a branch baptism, but his older brother, John Paul is 12 so we had to teach him. That day went really well. None of our investigators had any problems. Except Nanay Erlinda forgot who Thomas S. Monson was! We just taught her really fast and everything went well:) Wednesday we had the interviews. So the Zone leaders, Elder Hart and Elder Staples came down to Roxas and interviewed Guillermo, Marlinda, Erlinda, Stephanie, Caren, April, Rocel, Mel, and John Paul. Sister Lee still has to wait for her husband Alfred to come back so she did not get interviewed. We're going to wait for August for her to get baptized hopefully with Alfred. Alfred is great though. Everyone interviewed that day passed. They all did great! That night we dropped by an inactive members who had his daughters birthday that day, so we had a bit to eat there, then we went to Sister Lee's house and ate again. We had wild boar, which was great! Thursday we dropped by to see Marilou, who hasn't come to church in a while. She still really wants to get baptized but it looks like she might have to wait till August too. She didn't come to church this week either because she was really sick. Other than the fact that she is sick, she is doing great and still really wants to be baptized. She has been taking the discussions for a long time now. She is doing very good though. Please pray that she will feel better. We also received a referral from the Assistants in ILoILo. So we contacted her and we taught her with 2 nanays in our ward. We taught a small lesson, and the nanays both bore their testimonies and it was really powerful! Working with members can be really effective, especially when they tell how they were converted to the church. That night we dropped by all our investigators who were going to be baptized on Saturday. Unfortunately April could not be baptized because we still haven't spoken to her parents (they live in Dumaran, which is about an hour and a half away). We are going to do that this week though. But the investigators we schedualed for Saturday were Tatay Guillermo, Erlinda, Marlinda, Rocel, Stephanie, Caren, John Paul and Mel. We got all their information last night for the Baptism/Confirmation record. Friday we had interviews with President Stucki. So we left the house at about 8 and got to the chapel in Puerto at 10. We got there, had pizza a little while later, we got interviewed by Sister Stucki first, then we had to wait a little while for President because he was still interviewing Elders from the Narra zone. We had our shuttle at about 3, so we had to leave at 2:30. I finally got interviewed at like 2:20ish. My interview was like 5 minutes and I had to leave. Haha. It was really short. Our new Mission President seems really nice. Sister Stucki is also really nice. That night we went to the chapel and made a program for the baptism the next day. Elder Glodo and I were both really excited. That night we cleaned our apartment because Pres and Sis Stucki, The APs, President and Sister Thomas (2nd councillor in the mission presidency) and the zone leaders were going to be at our apartment the next day, so we had to make sure it was really clean! Saturday was the big day. We went to our investigators house early in the morning just to let them know to bring extra undergarments. Then we went to the chapel to fill the baptismal font. The water was green..... Haha. It also took forever to fill up. Anyways we pretty much just cleaned the chapel until the baptism started. It went really well. First we all took pictures, then we started. Sister Ada gave a really good talk on faith and repentance and President Reyes(2nd councilor in the branch presidency) also gave a good talk on baptism. After that we proceeded with the baptismal service. First Elder Glodo and I showed a demonstration, then we went to the font. I baptized Mel, then John Paul, then Stephanie, then Marlinda, then Erlinda. It was really amazing! They were all really happy when they came out of the water. It was a really spiritual experience for me. It was my first time baptizing someone. After that, Elder Glodo baptized Tatay Guillermo, Caren and Rocel. They were all super happy! After we all got changed we invited all the new converts to bear their testimonies. They all did great! I was amazed to see all of them talk in front of everyone. It was amazing. After that President Stucki spoke for a little bit. He welcomed everyone and then said that they need to focus on the temple and that the 2 new young men can start focusing on becoming missionaries. After we closed, President Stucki spoke to Tatay Guillermo (I translated) and he gave him a picture of the temple in Manila. It was really nice. After that we got our apartment checked. Then we all went out for dinner. Sunday we only had 2 investigators at church. But they were both new! Alfred(Lee's husband) came back from work and he went to church. Lee couldn't come because she was sick and the same with Marilou (her baptism now has to be pushed back till August.) She also could not come because she was sick. We also had Gerald come, he is a kid that we have been teaching and he also goes to seminary. Sacrament took a while to get to because we had to confirm 8 new people. The speakers only really spoke for about 4-5 mins each. Haha. It was a great day though. After that we went to work. I worked with Chris that day and also, Mel, who was baptized the day before, worked with us too. So it was good to see them both come and work with us. We didn't get a whole lot of lessons but we spoke to a lot of people and have some return appointments. That night we ate at President Bayaras. Monday was yesterday. I didn't get to email because the computer shop here was full. So yesterday we had our last district meeting this transfer. Elder Hart (one of our zone leaders) goes home this transfer so next transfer we will have a new zone leader. Odds are I am probably going to stay here in Roxas. Elder Glodo thinks he is going to transfer next week. There is a lot going to happen next transfer, they are announcing new APs because the current APs go home in September, there's a ton of new areas opening up because there's a lot of new missionaries coming in. It will be interesting to see what happens! They are opening up Quron next transfer which is an island off of Palawan. They are sending 4 missionaries there. It will be cool to see who gets exiled there :P. They have to take a boat from Palawan to get there. There's going to be a lot of changes next transfer. I just hope I stay. haha. We had dinner at President Bayaras' last night. Again. It was good, he enjoys feeding the missionaries. So that's about it for last week. It went really great! I'm going to send some pictures now! Hope you enjoy! Please tell Elder Bell I said Hi again! I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything! Love Elder Chris Gagnon

13 upcoming baptisms!

On the fort (Fuerte de Santa Isabela) in Taytay

Dinner in Taytay(left to right)Elder Gagnon, Elder Baltazar, Elder Glodo, Elder Bagahansol


Hey guys!

Another great week here in Roxas! I'm going to start this email by answering all your questions so I don't forget to do it later. One, I am in the Roxas branch. Two, I would actually prefer it if you didn't send me anything. There really isn't anything that I want or have to share with my investigators. Toothpaste and deodorant are fine here. Thanks though! Three, there is no area in my mission with a bike, there are only 3 missionary companionships with cars; the Assistants to the President, the teaching assistants, and the office Elders. They are all in Manila though. It is all walking or taking a trike. And to get to District meetings we take a shuttle ride, which is like a big van. It takes us 2 hours to get to district meetings every Monday. Yes I will get to perform some of those baptisms. The only hand sign I can think of is the one with my thumb and index finger. It means Gwapo, which is handsome in English. And finally no, there really isn't service. Of course we try and offer our service as much as we can, but most of the time there isn't anything. It's rare. And the reason nobody is around during the weekdays is because they are all working now, school started about a month ago, so kids aren't home and parents are all working. I don't know how to describe what town/city it is like.... It's like Chateauguay, but Filippino style. Haha. I can't really describe it. My area is also huge. It takes about 3 hours if we were to go right through it. I love it though! So I hope I answered your questions well enough! :)

Last Tuesday I actually worked with Elder Bagahansol for exchanges. He was the first missionary in his area, Taytay. It's amazing there. I got to go there yesterday(Monday). We worked pretty hard. We found a pastor and taught him. There were also other people there that we shared with. Their family name is Estoce. They are very nice. We also taught Sister Lee, April, Caren, Stephanie, Rocel, and Erlinda about the importance of reading scriptures. They are doing amazing. Stephanie is only 11 and she goes to seminary and does all the work. We also taught Mhel that night also about studying the scriptures, he also goes to seminary. He is also excited for baptism!

Wednesday, I was still working with Elder Bagahansol. We taught Tatay Guillermo, and Sister Marlinda about the law of chastity, which went well. We followed up on their word of wisdom and Nay and Tay both stopped drinking coffee! Sister is really excited for her baptism. Later on we taught Amor about part of the plan of salvation. We don't get to see her as often because she moves back and forth from here and Puerto, which is 2 hours away. We also taught Larry that day about the Book of Mormon. It was a really long lesson. He doesn't know how to read, so things are a little bit more difficult for him. He is still good for the 30th of July though. That night we had a dinner appointment at President Bayaras, which was great...we had Pork Adobo.

Thursday, Elder Glodo came back. We did groceries that day, then taught Lee and everyone about the law of chastity. Later on that night we visited a less active, then after that we got invited over to President Bayaras' for dinner again. So we went and I cannot remember what I ate..... Haha.

Friday. We taught Guillermo and Marlinda about tithing and they said they would pay it. Then we taught Marilou, and Larry. We taught Larry about the Word of Wisdom and with Marilou we just followed up on how she was doing and stuff and we shared a message with her, which went well. Later on we went to a ward activity, played basketball and met a few more people who want to be taught. So that was it for that day.

Saturday, we went to Dumaraw because we had to speak with Rocel's parents to make sure they were ok with her being baptized. They said it was all good, which is great. Things are also good for Stephanie and Caren. It took us 2 and a half hours to get to Rocel's house. It was forever! Haha. We also shared with them about the restoration. While there we also found an old investigator who is Sister Lee's sister! Her name is Veronica. She can't get to church because it is so far for her:( Starting next transfer I want to start going out to Dumaraw more often. I want to see if maybe we could get a small meeting house out there or something starting next transfer. I will get to ask President Stucki this Friday because this Friday is interviews with the mission president. Which I am excited for. Apparently he is a lot different than President Howard. There is going to be a new training program for trainers in the mission and it's like a day to day schedule. The idea is that the trainee will be as good as the trainer after 12 weeks in the mission. That night we also taught John Paul, who is ready for his baptism on the 23rd.

Sunday was another great day! We went to church and had 14 investigators there! We had Guillermo, Marlinda, Rocel, Stephanie, Caren, April, Mhel, Larry, Veronica(Lee's sister!) with her daughters, Anamie and Evalyn, Erlinda, and John Paul. Lee couldn't come because she was sick, and Marilou could not some either because her kids were sick. Great day though, we went on splits, I was with Chris and Sam, the 2 ward missionaries. We dropped by a few less actives, we dropped by Mhel and taught him the Word of Wisdom, we also taught John Paul the Word of wisdom, we went to Jeffrey, Cricel, Marise, and Caren, and taught them the word of wisdom, and then we taught Larry the Plan of salvation. All lessons went very well. Our investigators are really great! They understand everything very fine. We will be giving a baptismal date to Jeffry, Caren, Marise, and Cricel next week for August 14th. That night we had another DA at President Bayaras'.

Monday we had to go to Taytay for a baptismal interview that Elder Glodo had to do. It is nice over there in Taytay. We played basketball that night and just relaxed. There isn't a computer shop out there though, so that is why I am emailing on Tuesday. We left to come back home this morning at 7.

I'm really happy here. Everything is going great. The zone leaders also called us yesterday and wanted to know if we could have the baptisms on the 16th because President Stucki will be here and he wants to see the baptisms. So this week, Marilou, April, Caren, Stephanie, Rocel, Guillermo, Marlinda, Erlinda, and Mhel will be getting baptized on the 16th, then the next week, on the 23rd, John Paul, his younger brother Jericho, and Sister Lee will be baptized, then on the 30th Larry will be baptized. So we're really happy for all of them because they are really ready and are excited and they all really want to go to the temple. It's great to see them all enthusiastic!

Sorry if this letter was a bit scattered and short, I'm actually feeling a bit sick right now and we have like a million and a half things to do to prepare for the baptisms this Saturday. I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything!

Mahal ko kayo!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon

We have 12 committed to baptism!

Chris with his monkey friend

On top of the castle in Roxas

The castle in Roxas

Hey guys!

This week was amazing! We had a ton of successes! It really went great! We found some new great investigators and our progressing investigators are really starting to progress very well! Elder Glodo and I are both really excited for all of them! By the way, Happy Canada day!

Monday was great, we had a FHE at Sister Lee's, a lot of our investigators were there and the kids even attended seminary that night and continued to for the rest of the week! There's 4 of them, Rocel, Stephanie, April and Caren.

Tuesday! I think I wrote more last Tuesday in my journal than any other day on my whole mission. It was a really good day! First Sister Anne came to our apartment because she wanted a blessing of comfort because she was leaving that day to Manila. So Elder Glodo gave her a blessing, then we said good-bye and that was it. Then we went to the palengke to buy food, and over there we met Sister Aurino who ended up having us over for lunch. While at the palengke we got a referral from President Bayaras. So we went to Nanay Aurino's house and she fed us lunch which was really good, we shared a small message with her and spoke for a bit. She knew Brother May (my MTC teacher), he had actually been to her house when he was an A.P here in the Manila mission with Brother Perry(one of the MTC tutors.) She said they were both really smart and great at Tagalog. So after that we went to Marilou's and went over the baptismal interview questions with her and she did great. While we were teaching her, a neighbor of hers named Larry (who was at church last week)was there. He was taught by the missionaries a long time ago, but left to Puerto and now he is back in Roxas and wants to be taught again. He was so excited he asked if he could be baptized with Marilou on the 9th. Of course that cannot happen because we have to make sure he is prepared and everything. So after that we went to Tatay Guillermo's house and set a return appointment for the next day. While walking away from his house, I saw a kid about my age and he was carrying 2 huge things of water, so I offered to help. I took one and brought it to his house. His name is Marc Joseph. We shared a message with him, his cousin, and his parents. It went great, we shared a message about families. Then right when we left and I shook his hand he said (in Tagalog) "Come back". So that was great! I was happy:) After that we went finding and only taught one lesson. Then we taught one more lesson to 5 teenagers whose grandmother is a member. They are all about 15-16. At the end of the lesson one of them prayed and they already knew how and they understood the lesson perfectly. It was a really great day!

Wednesday was another great day. We taught Tatay Guillermo, his wife and his granddaughter, Rocel and 2 of her friends about faith and repentance. Then we taught Brother Alfred, Sister Lee and her mom, Erlinda, about faith and repentance. Both lessons went really well. After that we went finding and found one new investigator named Amor. Later on we went with a few of our investigators to seminary but when we got to the church we found out it was cancelled! :( That night we had a DA at the Cordero family. Brother Cordero used to be the branch president. We had fried chicken and rice and a bunch of other stuff I cannot even remember..... Haha after we ate we shared a message about faith!

Thursday, we taught Marilou about the law of fast and asked her if she was ready for her baptismal interview next week. She said she was! Which is great, we were really excited for her. After we taught Marilou, we taught Brother Larry about prophets. I asked him to read something and that was when we found out, he cannot read. So I read it for him and we continued teaching. He still really wants to be baptized. After Larry we went and taught Marc Joseph and his family. His family wasn't there but he was, so we taught him about prophets and that also went really really well. He really listens, our lessons with him are great. After that we went with our investigators to seminary and there were more investigators there then there were members! Haha. We had 5 of our investigators there and there were 3 members :P Haha. After that we went to Mhel, he is 14 has been to church a few times and is the grandson of Sister Arcenas. He wanted to learn about the Gospel so we taught him the message of the restoration, and committed him to baptism on the 23rd of July! We're super excited for him also, he already has a lot of friends at church and already goes to all the activities. He's a really smart guy.

Friday! Marilou had her interview with the Zone leaders and it went great! She passed of course and everything was great for next week on the 9th! After we taught her we went to Tatay Guillermo, Merlinda and Rocel taught them about baptism and the Holy Ghost. They were really excited about it. It was a very good lesson. We gave them a date also on the 23rd of July and we are really excited for them. They are all really amazing investigators who just love the Church. Again, we're really excited for them and their decision, Tatay wants his kids to be baptized too, but they are not in Roxas. After that we taught Amor again, it went alright, she is very nice but doesn't really say much. After that we went to seminary again with our investigators, and our next appointment was supposed to be at John Paul(his mother is a member but he isn't baptized, his mother wants him to be baptized so we have to start teaching him.) We spoke to his mother that night and we set a date for John Paul also, on the 23rd of July. After seminary, we went to those 5 kids that we had taught the other night. We taught them about prophets, but this time there were only 4 of the kids, which was alright, the lesson went very well and they all said they would come to church on Saturday.

Saturday was another great day! In the morning we went to Sister Lee's, and we found out that Alfred actually left and he is gone for 2 weeks. So that is really too bad. But we did teach her, her mother Erlinda, Stephanie, April, and Caren. We taught them about Baptism and the Holy Ghost and committed them all for the 23rd of July! So we're really excited for them, they have all been great, they went to seminary every day and they are all good friends with the members in the branch. After them we went to Marc Joseph's. He wasn't there but his brother was and we taught him a small lesson about the plan of salvation. We found out that their Sister had died a few years ago. So that is why we taught that lesson. After that we taught Tatay Guillermo, Rocel and Nanay about enduring to the end and again, that went great! They are really excited for the 23rd. We went finding for a little while and taught a few lessons. Later on we went to the house with 5 investigators and there were only 2 there. I should probably say their names haha. There is Jeffrey, Marise, Cricel, and Caren. We taught them about Christ's earthly ministry, and it went really well. And that was about it for that day.

Sunday. We went to church and 13 of our investigators were there! There was Anthony, the husband of a member of our church, who we didn't even get to visit that week, Lee, April, Erlinda, Guillermo, Marlinda, Rocel, Stephanie, John Paul, Marise, Jeffrey, Cricel and Mhel. It was great! We were happy to see them there! BUT! Marilou wasn't there. So we have to postpone her baptism till July 23rd, which is pretty unfortunate. We went on splits that day, I worked with Chris. I went to Marilou's house and told her it had to be postponed. Unfortunatly, Larry also didn't go to church. We did teach him that day though. He now has a baptismal date on the 30th. After that we visited some inactive members and taught Mel about the Book of Mormon. All in all it was a great week. We have 12 commited to baptism, 11 on the
23rd and we're really excited for all of them!

So yea! Things are pretty busy here! But I am really happy especially for our investigators, they are all really excited. I'm happy for all of them. Things sound like they are going great at home. Please congratulate Patrick and Anik on their wedding. Sister Howard is home now. Last I heard she was doing great! There are a ton of changes taking place here with the new mission president that I learned about today at district meeting. I don't have time to talk about them all though. The mission is really changing though.

Anyways that is about it for this week. I love you all so much! Thank you so much for all of your support! Till next week!

Love,

Elder Chris Gagnon!

Finally....pictures from the Philippines! :)

Elder Gagnon and his new companion Elder Glodo meet at the airport in Puerto Princesa

Elder Gagnon with the both the Narra and Puerto zone missionaries

Elder Gagnon with Sister Juliet Ramos and her family

Las Pinas zone Family Home Evening at the Razo family home

Sister Penaranda's baptism with Elder Guarino, Sis. Penaranda and Aljie

Elder Gagnon, Elder Guarino (Chris' trainer) and Elder Guarino's trainer


Hey Guys!
I had a great week last week! Got quite a few new investigators and quite a few are really starting to progress really well! I'm going to start off by saying sorry. I did not bring my camera with me this time because I thought it wouldn't work..... I will bring it next time though and will send a few emails of pictures. I promise. Sige!

So last Tuesday, we emailed first thing in the morning, then that day we taught Sister Lee, Brother Alfred and their neighbors, Tatay Guilliermo, his wife, and Sister Lee's mom! We taught them part of the Plan of Salvation. That was the first time Tatay's wife actually listened in, usually she was too busy, or just didn't want to, so it was nice to see her listen. She participated too and had lots of questions and everything. It went really well. Then we taught Marilou about tithing and she said she has no problem with it. Her baptism is still going to be on the 9th of July and we're really excited for her. After her we taught the husband of a member, Brother Anthony. He is really nice, we taught him a small message about prayer. After that we went finding for a while and that was it for Tuesday.

Last Wednesday we went to see an inactive member who lives at a castle. Yes. A castle. She doesn't think she will come back to church which is really too bad.... It's because the owner of the castle is Italian and has her watch the house all the time. She is really nice though. Don't worry I got some pictures of the castle :P After that, we went finding. But no one is really around.... Like no one at all. Our area is like a ghost town during the weekdays. At night we visited an inactive family. They don't want to go to church, they don't want anything to do with it either. :(

Thursday, the Elders from the Taytay area (an area from our district) came over because it was their Pday on Thursday. They asked to take it on that day because the next day was zone conference, where all the Elders and Sisters from Palawan go to the Puerto Chapel and have a meeting with the Assistants to the President and President Howard. I'll talk more about that after, but anyways the guys from Taytay live 4 hours away by shuttle and on the way there is our house, so they came to our house and emailed here, had lunch with our Branch president, President Bayaras, then emailed and made their way over to Puerto, which is 2 hours away for us. So we only got to work till 5 that day because we had to catch our shuttle ride at that time. We stayed at the Elders house in Puerto that night. That day we taught Sister Marilou from 1 Nep 8 and we also shared a small lesson with Sister Lee and Alfred about going to Church. We didn't teach them about the Plan of salvation because Sister Lee had questions about Church. So that's what we taught :) After those 2 lessons, we made our way over to Puerto.

Friday. Woke up went to zone conference. This would be the last time we would see President Howard and I think it was also his last zone conference so that would have been the last time he had seen a lot of the missionaries. It was a good conference; we spoke about heroes and we practiced contacting and how to begin teaching, which went great. President Howard also spoke to us about how much of a miracle Sister Howard was. And how we really do need to be obedient. He also said that the Manila Mission might split again next year as the Manila mission North and South. I also spoke with Elder Afaga, he is one of the AP's and he said he read my blog, which is funny. He said he found it by accident when he was looking for pictures of the Philippines Manila mission. So, Elder Afaga....if your reading this. Stop! :P Elder Afaga also told me that I was lucky because for a long time when they were doing transfers trying to figure out where everyone would go, he said that my picture was in the Pasig zone, which becomes part of the Quezon city mission July 1st. If Elder Jance(the last Elder here in Roxas) didn't get sick and go home, I would have been there in the Quezon City mission. Haha. So also at that meeting, since it was President Howard's last, he gave every missionary a mission president's blessing. It was a great blessing. And then at the end we all sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again to him. It was pretty emotional. I am really going to miss Presidnt Howard. He was really great, nice, exciting, and really hard working. I also loved his history here. He was one of the first 17 missionaries sent here to the Philippines, he was set apart by President Hinckley and got to watch the country go from like 6 members to 650 000. I'm gonna miss him a lot. After that we just went home, we got back at around 7.

Saturday we did a lot of finding and found quite a few new people. We taught the Plan of Salvation to Sister Lee, her mom, Brother Alfred, Tatay Guillermo and his wife. We invited them all to come to church the next day. The lesson went great. Tatay has a harder time understanding because his main language is Ilongo, which I don't know. But Anne does and she was with us, so she helped him understand. It went really well. The wife of tatay had a lot of input and it was really great. After that we went finding, taught Anthony, and visited a few inactive members. 2 of the families asked for blessings for their sick children, so we did. And Yea. One of the less active families came back to church the next day.:)

Sunday. What a crazy day! K so it started off...I went to go remind Tatay Guillermo and Sister Lee about church. So I did that with a ward missionary, Chris, while Elder Glodo went to remind other people in another part of our area. So we went to church, got there about 8:30 and President Bayaras says "Elder, we need you to introduce yourself to the ward because I didn't get to do it last week." Then he found out that the 1st councellor in the branch presidency wasn't going to come in that day, and he is the only person in the branch who plays piano. So he asked me, "We're also going to need to you to play piano." And this is like 10 minutes before church starts, so luckily they had a simple hymn book there that I used and played the 3 songs for sacrament. Another thing was before church started we had 11 investigators there! So we had a pretty big investigator class. We watched the Joseph Smith story and it went really well. Like really well. Yea. So after church we went on splits, I worked with Chris and Elder Glodo worked with Sam, our other ward missionary. It went alright we went finding and we taught Sister Marilou about Charity, which also went really well.

And that is about it for last week! It was a good week all in all. Please tell Elder Bell I said "Hey", and I hope he is having a great time doing missionary work in greatest place on earth. The last missionary had high blood pressure and apparently he was also a little home sick and wanted to go home... So I do not think he will be coming back. He was out the exact same time as me. We did not get any rain last week. All is great over here in Roxas! We are in a branch, but there was more than 100 people last week at sacrament. So I don't know why it isn't a ward yet.... Anne is also leaving tomorrow. She is moving to Manila tomorrow. The other language, Bisaya Ilongo, is nothing like Tagalog. At least to me it's not. My companion doesn't understand it really. It's a different dialect, so Im sure there are some similarities.

So that's about it for now, I gotta get going... I got your package last week by the way! Thank you! Thank you so much for everything! I love it here on my mission. I'm doing great! I love you all! Talk to you next week! Thanks for everything!

Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S Tell Dad I said Happy Father's day. I know it was last week. But yea! Happy Fathers Day Dad! I love you!

So once we finally got the monkey off me....

Hey Guys!

Sorry I'm emailing a little late, I'm actually doing this Tuesday morning before we go out to work. It has been a great week here in Roxas! It's sooo amazing here! Everyone lives in tree houses made of bamboo. It's super amazing. It's a lot different from the city too. There are not as many people in the streets and not all of them speak Tagalog either. Some can understand Tagalog, but only speak Bisaya. I have a harder time with some of our investigators now. I'll pick it up though. Anyways this email probably won't be too long but, yea....


So last Wednesday I moved in, met some members, and had a great time.


Thursday, I got to meet some of our investigators. We had a member, Anne working with us the whole day so that was great. She is a returned missionary who works with us almost everyday. It's great. So I got to meet most of our progressing investigators. Their names are Marilou, Brother Alfred and Sister Lee, Brother and Sister Ibanez and Tatay Guilliermo. So I got to meet them and we just kind of shared a few small messages with them and yea! It went really great! That night we had a dinner appointment at the branch president, President Bayaras' house. He seems like a really nice guy. He knows english pretty well. Which of course is great:) For dinner that night we had this bamboo thing, I can't remember what it is called and fish. I also tried this small shrimp thing that apparently no non-Filipino likes. I tried it though and it was good. Just a bit salty.


Friday, We had to get food because there was none.... So we did that, then had lunch, then went finding, found some people, then we taught Marilou about baptism and now she has a baptism date for the 9th of July! I'm really excited for her, she is really nice and just understands everything very well. After Marilou we went to another investigator's house, Christine, and we taught her about prophets. Then we went finding for a little while longer, then we had choir practice for the rest of the night because last Sunday was branch conference and the choir was singing for it.


Saturday. Saturday morning was cool. We were having personel study and I looked outside and saw a monkey on top of our neighbors house! So we went outside and got pictures with it. It was cool. It stayed there for a long time too. Sister Anne came to meet us at our house, the monkey was still there so she picked it up, and put it down. I picked it up too. Actually it stayed on me. It wouldnt let go of my shirt and would freak out if I or someone else tried to move it. So once we finally got the monkey off me, we put it down, and tied it to a chair with a leash sort of thing. After that we taught Sister Lee and Brother Alfred about the sabbath day and what goes on in our church. It went really well! Sister Lee actually came to church that day! It was great! So on the way back to our apartment for lunch, we got some bananas, and gave some to the monkey and then let it go. And don't worry! Yes I washed my arms and put on a new shirt after touching the monkey! Anyways after lunch it started raining really hard. And here we're not allowed going out because of the coconuts that could fall from trees and kill us, so Anne ended up going home, and we ended up studying till it was time to go to choir practice again.


Sunday! We dropped by a few of our investigators houses before church. Then we went to church at nine! Tatay Guillermo came, Sister Marilou came and Sister Lee! It was great to see them all there! Branch conference went really well. I got to meet the district president here and yea. Then after that we went out to work. I worked with a new convert and now ward mission leader, Chris. He's really kool, he also knows the area very well because he actually worked as a missionary the week before I got here. The missionary I replaced here is actually home right now in Bacolad.... He got really sick. Which is really too bad. He was in my going home batch, meaning he was supposed to go home the same time as I am..... So it was me and Chris working, and Elder Glodo worked with another Ward missionary and Anne and President Bayaras' daughter. So work with Chris and I went really well. We dropped by Sister Marilou and taught her the plan of salvation. Which she understood perfectly. Then we taught Brother and Sister Ibanez. This was the first time I met Brother. He is really nice and funny. He talks unbelievably fast though. Haha. We taught them the Apostasy and he understands everything. He says he really likes reading the Book of Mormon, which of course, is great! I really like those 2 a lot. After that, Chris and I went finding. We visited a few inactive members and that was about it!


Then Monday was our Pday, but we ended up going to a branch activity. We cooked some fish, some rice, some other stuff. Played sports and that was about it. Then we had a dinner appointment at a members house. We had adobo there. Of course. It was great!


So everything here is really good. I don't know why the pictures don't send. I'll try and get them on a C.D and send them over to you as soon as I can. That's if there is a place that does that here. I don't know. The area I am in doesn't even have an ATM....The closest one to us is in Puerto Princesa which is 2 hours away. So yea...


I actually do not have Sister Canada's address. She doesn't really have one either. It's Maligaya 7 in San Pedro. But Maligaya 7 is huge and they don't have adresses there. But, if you want to send mail to her, send it to the mission office to San Pedro 2nd Ward with her name on it, then Elder Nye will take care of it!


Everything here is great! I had to leave a lot of books behind. I only really brought PMG, my quad, journals, BR, and my mission Book of Mormon. That's about it. I will get everything back when and if I get transfered back to the mainland. Elder Glodo is great! We're working pretty effectively so far. He doesn't really know english but he is learning. He has been a member since birth and is from Tacloban, which is where Elder Guarino is right now. It's going great! Everything is moved in. We're both happy. The apartment is great, unlike my last one! haha! The members here are all really supportive and very involved with the missionaries. I love it here!


Anyways that's about it for this week! Please tell Justin congrats on graduating! I love you guys soooo much and I hope you all have a great week!


Love,


Elder Chris Gagnon

The heaven of the Philippines!

Hey guys!

So last week was pretty hectic, I'm only emailing today because it is transfer week so our p-day is on transfer day, which is Wednesday(today!) So before I say about whether I got transfered or not I will talk about what I did last week starting with Tuesday!

Tuesday was terrible! It started to rain a lot at about 11:30. We only left the house at about 2, because Elder Nye was sick. So we got out taught a few people, knocked on doors at a richer part in our area. I pretended to be cold at one point and one family actually let us in and we shared a good message with them! They wanted us to go back, and we did later on that week, but they were never there. We ended up going back home at 6 because it did not stop pouring rain and Elder Nye was still really sick. So that was about it for that day. We taught one new person in her house and we found a new couple who seemed pretty interested but were gone for the rest of the week.

Wednesday. It still had not stopped raining and that day we were both sick. We left the house at about 11:30 and it stopped raining at about 12. We spoke to sooooo many people that day and no one was interested. We visited an inactive family and we taught them a small lesson about obedience. It went well but none of them seemed to listen.... Then later we taught Charmaine, who lives in the same house as Theresa. We taught a good lesson. She just has a few odd questions..... Like about dreams and stuff. yea. We also went back to a guy that we were supposed to go back to on Tuesday. So on our way he actually found us...and he was drunk..... He started yelling at us and swearing at us for not being there the last night. He used very bastos (rude,obscene) filippino words that I didn't appreciate.... He also gave a rod to his son that was laying beside him, and said "take this because I don't know what I'm going to do with it." So yea. Elder Nye and I told him we would come back another day when he wasn't drunk and got the heck out of there.

Thursday. I was still sick, runny nose, LBM non-stop, I threw up once. Not good. No work. The zone leaders did come back though. They were at the hospital because Elder Jimenez needed an operation for an injury he got a while ago on his leg. Poor guy.... Anyways he said that he was talking to Elder Afaga, one of the assistants to the president, and he was saying that Elder Nye would probably train this transfer, BUT! He said it wasn't for sure. So we were all still wondering.

Friday. We went finding again. Spoke to a lot of people taught a few good lessons. It went really well. We taught one new guy who seemed really interested. His name is Alex. I really liked him. We taught him the restoration. We also taught Charmaine that night again. She hasn't been reading anything we give her. So of course, that's too bad. :( We taught a good lesson and she always offers to pray. So it's going alright with her.

Saturday. We went finding in the morning, found 2 really good families to teach. Then in the afternoon Elder Nye had a baptismal interview. He said it wouldn't be too long because it was just 2 kids. But it ended up taking like 3 and a half hours to get there, do the interviews and come back. The kids apparently had a lot of questions. While I was at the house I met sister Canada's (Mac) girlfriend. They both met at a temple tour which is something our mission does with our investigators, basically we take them to the temple and talk about it, we haven't been able to do it yet. Anyways she was saying that Mac really wants to be baptized. So that was really cool. We planned to teach him but he is always out.

Sunday. We had church, no one came again.... That morning we taught a lesson to Ronnie. He says he doesn't have time to read. Which it too bad... We taught him a small lesson. Nothing big. Then we went to church. Taught a few lessons to one of the families we found on Saturday. I also felt that we should try going back to Jomar, so we did. We taught him a lesson and he says he wants to be taught more but the only day he has off is Sunday... I like him though. I also got pictures with Ronnie and Jomar and his family because I had a feeling I might be getting transfered. I also dropped by Juliet's and got a picture with her family. They were too busy to listen to us though. That night the Zone leaders got home a bit later at about 9:45. They knew everything about the transfers. They said they were excited for Elder Nye because he is going to be training. So that means I was going to get transfered. The way they were talking I thought I was going to get transfered to Pasig zone which becomes a part of the new Quezon city mission first week of July. So of course I do not want to go out there because I won't really know anyone.....

Monday! Transfer announcements! So how they do this is by companionship and they make us say nice things about each other. I had a lot to say about Elder Nye. He was an amazing companion! We had a lot of good times together and I learned a ton from him. So they started with him, said he would stay as a district leader and train next transfer. Then they got to me and said I would transfer to................................................PALAWAN!!!!!! YAY!! So, that is where I am now, the heaven of the Philippines! It is great here. The rest of that day I started washing clothes and packing.

Tuesday I said goodbye to some members and finished packing. It was too bad, I'm going to miss Elder Nye! That night I only fell asleep at 12.

Wednesday. And that was really bad because I had to wake up at 2 to go to the Buendia chapel for 5 to catch a plane to Palawan at 8. So that's what I did. Went there and said goodbye to Elder Nye. I also had to leave one of my 2 suitcases at the mission office because were only allowed 50 pounds of luggage going to Palawan. I also had to leave my guitar there too... :( But I got on the plane, slept a bit, Got off the plane and WOW!! That is really all I could say. It is amazing here! So many trees. There's apparently a lot of monkeys too, I didn't see any yet though. I fell asleep on the 2 hour shuttle ride to my area. My zone is Puerto Princesa and my area is Roxas(pronounced Roahas). My companion is Elder Glodo he is a Filippino and he's awesome. I am sooo excited to be here! Elder Jimenez and Elder Eduria said they both loved it here and it was just beautiful. I'm really happy to be here! It is very provincy. I can't really explain that by email. Haha. It's super kool though. Oh, actually, I did see a boar on the shuttle ride actually. And that was kool I guess. haha!

Anyways so I'm really excited to be here. It is hotter than my last area, but also 10X cleaner and the air is fresh!

Anyways that's about it for this week. I'm pretty much out of time for emailing. Sorry if it was kind of scattered and short. I'm going to try sending pictures from this computer. I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything. Oh and one more thing. I have a few letters that I'm sending to some people. Just to let everyone know! It's probably going to take a really really long time. I also might not get your package for a while. At least another month maybe.

Please tell Justin congrats on graduating seminary! That's great! And please tell Nick Gould Congrats! I love you all! And thanks for all your support!

Love,
Elder Chris Gagnon

P.S. Since Chris hasn't been able to send us any pictures yet, here's a few pictures of Roxas I found on the internet :) Nancy


Here's a map of where Roxas is...it's on Palawan, an island south west of the mainland of the Philippines.