July 24th, 2012

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

July 16th, 2012

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

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

July 9th, 2012

Elder Kunzler and Elder Gagnon with the "McDo guy"

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

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

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

New companion Elder Kunzler

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

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

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

With MTC missionaries they worked with for a day

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

Farewell Elder Berse and Welcome Elder Kunzler!

Carlos Baptism Elder Berse's last Sunday Missionaries from old Puerto district Palawan Makati missionaries Elder Berse, Sister Lilly, Carlos, Justin, Reyna and Elder Gagnon Little boy who wanted his picture taken :) Saying farewell to Elder Berse Hello Family! Last week was super great! It ended perfectly with Carlo being baptized! It was a great experience for everyone who attended. :) We also had a ton of other things to attend and stuff but the week was really great! Elder Berse and I worked really hard for our last week together and we went 91% green on the standards of excellence! That was the highest I've ever gotten since being here in Makati. We also taught a ton of lessons last week. Which was great. We had a really great, busy and hard working week! Last week on Wednesday, we got to go to the temple and we get to go again next week. It was great. Then after that, we had MTC exchanges. I worked with Elder Oquaman. We taught a lot of lessons that day and it was really good. Elder Oquaman will be a great missionary. He started off really shy but once he got going it was really good and we had a really great exchange. Last Thursday we had a training meeting with President Stucki. It was super amazing! We got to hear great instruction from him and from our APs. I learned a lot. I think the biggest thing I got out of it was that I need to really do my best at being more obedient. I'm not really bad or anything but sometimes with the morning schedule I don't do my best. I don't sleep in or anything but it's just with the morning studies sometimes, and exercise. I've made it a goal to really do my best this transfer at being 100% obedient to the morning schedule. It was a really good training meeting. Last Friday was the only day where we actually got a full day of work. We taught a lot of lessons to less actives and to new investigators. We have a pretty good teaching pool as of now. We also contacted three referrals that day, who were not very interested. But other than that it was a good day! :D Last Saturday we had the temple tour, which was really cool. It was my first time. We took Sister Lilly, who is a member, Carlo, his younger brother Justin and Reyna, who is a new investigator, who is also awesome! We went and toured the temple and saw other missionaries and it was just a great day! The spirit was really strong. Later that night, Carlo was baptized! We made the program for the baptism and sang I am a Child of God. Elder Berse did the baptism because it would be his last baptism of his mission. It was a good service because Carlos dad came. He was going to come to church too the next day but something came up so he couldn't come. After that we had a dinner appointment at the Nellas family and had fish and fried chicken. Last Sunday we had 8 investigators at church! It was really awesome! We have had good sacrament attendence for the last few weeks too. The rescue mission has been really good too. We rescued 3 people last month, which was great! Tatay Moises, who went inactive for about a month and a half came back to activity this week. We're just trying to get him the priesthood now. That night Elder Anderson slept at our house, he came from Coron and we had a dinner appointment at the Mutuc family. It was a good night. Then today I said good bye to Elder Berse. It was funny as we were in the mission office, Elder Berse saw the transfer board and saw that Elder Kunzler was going to be my new companion, which is kool! :D Last week was crazy too. We were asked if we had to close an area in the zone which one would we close, so I told President to close Manda 1b(Elder Bueno and Elder Fisher) because they were doing ok and their area was really small. So he replied the next day and told me that he would close Manda 1A(Sister Mohrmon and Sister Roofi), which doing really well, and the Manda 1B elders would just take over their area. I told sister Mohrmon that night and she pleaded that it wouldn't close, so I text back President asking if there was anything else he could do. Then the next morning he texted me and told me that he pondered and prayed about what I asked him and decided to close Manda 1B and the Manda 1A Sisters would take over their area. It was really cool. Anyways, so Makati zone is getting smaller. Hehe. There will now only been 7 companionships, 1 being the APs and 1 being the office elders. Then there's us, the Manda 2A elders, Manda 1 sisters, Makati 3 sisters and Manda 3 sisters. One of the office elders this transfer will be a district leader as well. And that's about it! I don't know who is coming into the zone yet but we will know on Thursday which is transfer day. Until then, I don't get to work in my area. I will work in Manda 1B with Elder Fisher. And that is it! :D Well, things are pretty crazy. It's transfer week again... I'm happy Elder Kunzler will be my new companion. I saw him last temple tour and joked with him saying he is going to be my companion. Well, I guess it wasn't a joke! :) Our investigators are doing amazing. We're going to go for 5 baptisms this transfer, hopefully 3 in July and 2 in August. Right now we have sister Elaine, who was a referral from my batch, Elder Antonio, she came to church last week and loved it. We haven't taught her a full lesson yet but we have visited with her 2ce. She is super awesome and loved coming to church last week. We also have sister Reyna, who is Carlos aunt, She is doing great, she has a baptismal date for the 21st of July. She came to church last week and to the temple tour and to the baptism. She is doing awesome! Her Brother, Tata, is also doing great. He wasn't able to come to church, but he is interested and also doing really well. Then we also have Elonia, who is a referral from the Mutuc family. She also loved church and we will be teaching her a lesson on Friday. We have a plan to baptize her on July 21st. Then we also have Albert, who came to church and is slowly quitting smoking, he has a goal date for the 21st as well. We are praying that he can quit smoking though. He is doing great though. And that is about it for everyone! Thank you so much for your email, even though I haven't received it yet. I love you guys so much and pray for all of you everyday. I love my mission so much! :D Have a great week! Mahal ko po kayo! :D Elder Chris Gagnon

Week of June 18th, 2012

Hello Family! This week was really good. We found a bunch of new people and we're really increasing our investigator pool which is really what we wanted to do. It's going really well. Last week though Elder Berse got sick so there was one day where we were not able to get as much work done as we wanted to, which was too bad. :( Last week, we had Elder Querubin sleep at our house. He is the zone leader in Puerto and he had to go back home to Ireland because he had a problem with his Visa. So we met him at the mission office last Monday and then he slept at our house that night, came to district meeting the next day, then went home. Haha. He came back last Saturday though. Last Saturday night after stake conference, we went to a place called Burger avenue and they have this challenge where if you can eat this burger in under 5 minutes, you get the burger for free. The burger was HUGE though. I almost finished it, Elder Berse didn't come close, and Elder Querubin ate the whole thing in like 3 minutes. So he got the burger for free, and he got his picture taken, which they will post on a wall. Haha. Anyways, Elder Querubin is a really cool missionary, he was born and grew up here, but moved to Ireland when he was like 10 then came back to serve a mission. When he speaks english though he has an Irish accent, but in Tagalog it's like Filipino, so it's funny. haha. Last week we had stake conference. Last Saturday we had the Adult and Priesthood session and then on Sunday we had a broadcast from Salt Lake which was really good. It was to everyone who lives in Luzon Philippines. Elder Tom Perry spoke about the role of fathers and how important it is and stuff. It was a really good conference. Last week we were able to teach Albert and he is doing really well and will be baptized in July if he can work out his problems with the word of wisdom. :) We also have Carlo getting baptized this Saturday! It will be a good baptism. We are also teaching people who live near to Carlo who are also doing really well. We were not able to teach Sheila last week though which was too bad. Hopefully this week we will be able to teach her. She has been really busy though. Also, last week, we had a new Elder come into the zone. He is in a threesome with Elder Fisher and Elder Bueno in Mandaluyong 1B. He has been really sick though. So they have to keep him near a hospital. His name is Elder Swainson and he is from CANADA! :D Hehe. I got to go on exchanges with him and Elder Fisher last week in their area. He was really sick though, which is too bad. Last week the work in that area was really low and it was because they weren't able to work because Elder Swainson was always sick... This is Elder Berse's last week this week. So next week, him and 3 others from the Makati zone will go home. Since Elder Fisher's companion, Elder Bueno and my companion are going home, I will probably be with him for a few days. Also, since Elder Bueno was the district leader and won't be there to teach District meeting, I will get to teach the district meeting in Mandaluyong on the Tuesday which I'm actually pretty excited for. I haven't taught a district meeting since I've been on Palawan. I've taught zone meetings, but district meeting is different because it's smaller and there are less people and no announcements from President or anything. It will be fun! :D Well that's about it for this week. I don't have a lot of time left to email. Happy Fathers Day Dad! I have a Fathers Day pic that I will need to pick up. I don't have it with me now but I will email it next week. I love you Dad! I love all of you and hope you have an amazing week! :D Elder Chris Gagnon!

June 11th, 2012

Hello Everyone! This email is going to be a little short, I don't have a lot of time to email today. Actually, right now I'm in the Manila zone. Elder Berse wanted to go to a mall where everything is really cheap because he is going home soon. This place is called Di Hello Everyone, this email is going to be a little short, I don't have a lot of time to email today. Actually, right now I'm in the Manila zone. Elder Berse wanted to go to a mall where everything is really cheap because he is going home soon. This place is called Di Visoria and everything here is really really cheap. I bought a few things today. It's a really cool mall. It's super different and there are a lot of things you can buy for really cheap. It's a cool place though. Kinda hard to describe though. I bought a 16G USB for 700P. So now I finally have something to save all my pictures on which is great. I also bought a nice neck tie for 125P. A pair of shorts for 200P and a nice new belt for 250P. Everything looks really new but it's all fake stuff. It's cool though. Anyways, so I spent a bit of money. I will probably come back here when I'm going home to buy some stuff because its really cheap here. Last week was a really good week, we taught a lot of lessons and found a lot of new people to teach. The focus of the mission right now is finding and we're doing a pretty good job at that right now. Last week we found 14 new investigators and had 7 investigators at church. Carlo is doing really good. He will be our only baptism for the month of June. We have a few other potentials in July though, which is good. I can't believe how fast this transfer went by. Elder Berse goes home in 16 days. Hehe. He's pretty excited. It's really weird for me. He has a pretty good idea for what he's going to do when he goes home and I still have no idea what I'm going to do... I'm not too nervous about it though. I know things will work out. Oh yea, last week 2 of our really progressing investigators left and are not coming back. So we referred them to the other mission and hopefully they will get taught where they live. It was too bad though. We're working really hard in our area though. Things are going really well. We didn't get 73% of the standards of excellence last week but we got 62% I think. The zone improved a lot last week too. Things are going really well for the zone. We have only had 1 baptism so far for June and this Saturday and Sunday there will not be any at all because there is stake conference. But for the last week we are looking to have 8 baptisms for the whole zone so that is good. Things went really well with our zone meeting last Tuesday too. We still have our goal to get 100% percent priesthood ordination. And since we made the goal when Elder Duero and I were companions the percentage has gone from 68% to 82%, so we're getting there. :) This week we have plans to give out a lot of baptismal dates for July so hopefully everything goes perfect this week. Last week we also got to go on 2 exchanges. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Young in my area. He was Elder Christie's companion in the MTC. He is a good elder. And we had a good day. We were able to teach Zaldy, who is finally feeling better and is able to get taught again. We taught a good lesson on scripture study because that is the focus of the whole Philippines. It was a good lesson and it was also really good to teach Zaldy again. Later that week I got to go on exchanges with Elder Gadberry, he is also a really good elder. He works in the office so him and his companion don't have a lot of time to go to their area. But we were able to go for a little bit and work. It was also a really good day. Last Sunday we had a really good talk by Sister Corry, she teaches institute and she was asked to speak about the seminary program. It was such an amazing talk. She even had some of her old Sunday school students come up(during the talk) and talk and bear testimony of the seminary program. It was really amazing! One of her students was from Makati east, one now lives in Cavite and one other one lives in Florida and she came here to speak and talk about the seminary program. It was really cool and something that I've never seen anyone do. It definitely made me want to take seminary though. It's a really important program of the church. Anyways I really liked her talk. That was about it for last week. Sorry if this email is short. I gotta go. I'm going to try and send some pictures though. I hope you have a great week! Mahal ko kayo! Elder Chris Gagnon

June 4th, 2012

Dinner Appointment we had at the Dimacali home! :D This is the Makati zone, without the office elders...(I was the only one who didn't know we weren't doing wacky faces or poses. Hehe.) This pic is of the elders on Coron, Elder Anderson and Elder Partridge who slept at our apartment one night. This is Elder Munk and I (with the office elders, Elder Gadberry and Elder Pugmire) at zone conference. We have the same birthday and we got called to celebrate our birthday during the zone conference. Hello Family! This week was really great, we had 2 big meetings, a zone conference and Zone leaders council. Both were really great. We also got a ton of rain last week. There was a day where it was kind of a flood. It was a small flood but still a flood. We ended up going home because it was close and we took our flip flops, rolled up our pants and got to work. There was a lot of rain. It went down after a while though. :) We weren't able to teach a whole lot of lessons last week because of all the meetings and stuff. We still had 8 investigators at church though. Which was awesome! :D Sheilla is still doing really great, we weren't able to teach her but we were able to talk with her over the phone and she is doing awesome! We were also able to speak with Albert and he really wants to get baptized, but he has to stop smoking, so that is where we are with him. We actually have an appointment with him later and hopefully it will go really well. Oh yea, about Steve Martin. We aren't sure what happened. He was really on fire when we first met him and was doing amazing. He actually just disappeared and we don't know where he is. His store is no longer around and we never see him on the corner of our street.... :( Last Tuesday we had our zone meeting. It went really well. We discussed one of my favorite lines in PMG "You cannot convert someone beyond your own conversion" P.182 I think of PMG the last sentence of the 1st paragraph. One of the thoughts I had about that when I was in my first transfer that I wrote down was that "the first convert of your mission should be yourself". So we kind of dicussed that for a while and then we taught about how we can better understand things so that we could teach about things more clearly. Then we had the zone split into 2 groups and identify the "What" and "Why" of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and The Principle of Repentence. Then they shared what they wrote down and I will make a typed copy of what they wrote and give it to the zone. I had a drawing for how we can understand things more clearly, I will show it when I get home. It was a good lesson though. We also discussed the Priesthood for the zone that hasn't yet been ordained. We set a goal that all 1 year converts that can have the priesthood will be ordained by the end of this month. When we made the goal there were a few who said that there are some 1 year converts, that can be priesthood holders, who don't want to be taught or come back to church. So we decided as a zone to fast for them. I really want to make this goal and I know that Makati is definitely able to do it! Well, the other meetings we had were really great. At zone conference, President Stucki spoke about how we need to be always finding new people to teach and we need to be more balanced with finding and teaching. Finding is actually going to be the focus for this whole month of June. So for the practices we did, we practiced a few different finding situations, but we had to do it in English! It was really weird, because I'm not used to teaching or talking or doing any missionary work in English. It was super weird. For the first practice we just had to talk with someone we met on the street, find common ground and get a return appointment. There were 3 other zones at this conference and this practice was a one on one thing. So the cool thing was I ended up getting paired with.....Elder Glodo! Hehe. He's such an awesome missionary. He also goes home really soon, not this transfer, but the next transfer. He is doing great though. I love Elder Glodo. Then for the other practices, it was done in companionships. I got paired with Elder Meyer, he is pretty new in the mission and he is from Indonesia! He's a great missionary. We just practiced talking with less actives and trying to share a message with them for the first time. :D At the end of the conference, the missionaries going home either this transfer or next transfer bore their testimony. There were so many! Elder Berse, Sister Gupta, and Elder Glodo and a lot of others who I know bore their testimony. I was surprised. There's a lot of missionaries going home this transfer... Makati will actually be losing an area because of all the missionaries going home. :( Then last Friday was ZLC. It was really good. President showed a video about football. It's in the movie Facing the Giants and it's when the coach makes the captain do a death crawl. Anyways, he showed that, which was awesome, then at the end President said, "Elders you are the most influential missionaries on the team." It was really epic and the spirit was so strong. Anyways it was a great zone conference and President now expects the zone leaders to baptize every month and hit 73% of the standards of excellence. We're doing pretty good. The last week of the month we were one of the only zone leaders to hit 73% of the standards of excellence. President asked us to stand and then he shook our hands and congratulated us. There were only 4 that got 73%, Cavite(Elder Comish and Duero), Dasmarinas, Makati(Us), and Puerto. I felt so motivated to work really hard and really do my best. It was a great ZLC. Something new though that Elder Comish and I suggested during the ZLC was that the zone meetings should be the week after ZLC instead of the week before so we can share what we learned with the zone right away. Anyways, we now have another zone meeting which we have to prepare for tomorrow so that will be awesome! It's going to be more focused on finding people to teach. Anyways I love my mission! I love everything about it. It's really amazing! I'm really excited for Justin to send in his papers. Just make sure he reads a chapter from the Book Of Mormon, A Chapter from the New testament and a little bit of Preach My Gospel everyday and he will be great! I'm actually going to try and send him an email today. President said it was actually ok for us to email all of our family. So I'm going to try and get an email out to Justin. Anyways, that is about it for this week. I hope you're all doing amazing and I hope you have an amazing week. Take care! Love you! Elder Chris Gagnon

Special zone conference with Elder Nelson...

Mark's baptism

April's baptism

Elder Fisher and I after Friday night exchanges

Merlita Tort, Brother Art, Elder Berse and I at the restaurant in the hotel Brother Art works at.

Hello Family! We had a really amazing week in Makati. Before I get going on that though, Happy Birthday Justin! I hope you're doing great and have an amazing day! I was really sad to hear the news about the Alois. Please tell them I will be praying for them and thinking about them. I am really sorry about the news. To start off, last week we had a special zone conference with Elder Nelson. We were unfortunately, not allowed to take pictures though. Sorry! It was really great though! He invited people up to the stand and asked them questions and tested them on a few things. He asked someone how they would just start talking to someone on the streets, so they practiced and he mentioned that when we introduce ourselves, do not put our hand on the name time. That is something I do sometimes, I'm not sure why but he is right, so now I have stopped doing it! :) He was also able to explain things very clearly and some of the practices they did were really good and funny. I got a lot of notes from the conference. It was definitely a highlight of my mission! Last week we were also able to visit the temple which was great! I love going there. Last week Mark was also baptized. That was also a great experience. He is a really smart kid and really understood everything we taught him. His mom, who is a recent convert, spoke at the baptism and his grandfather was the one to baptize him. It was a great experience for everyone who attended. I will be sending pictures later. Last week we also found a new investigator, her name is Sheilla. She is super awesome! She has quite a few problems in her life right now, but after teaching her for the first time, she said that what we were teaching her was what she needed. The 2 lessons we had were really spiritual and she is really recognizing that she is feeling the spirit. She is doing really well and loves being taught. She also read more than what we left her to read and then had a bunch of questions so I love it when investigators are like that because it makes the lessons more interesting. She was also the second person I have met on my mission who asked what the Urim and Thummim! :D Kennedy wasn't able to be taught last week because he has a new job and has no time anymore. We're not sure what we're going to do. We need to find time to be able to teach him. Carlo is doing well. If everything goes perfect he will be baptized on June 16th. We have a few other new and good investigators too that could be potentials for July. That is about it for this week though. It was a good week. This week we have zone conference and zone meeting. So tomorrow we will meet as a zone and discuss how the Makati zone is doing. Then we will also have a lesson that we will teach about Repentence and the Atonement. For Zone conference we also have to sing a hymn about the Savior, so we will also talk about that during our zone meeting. And that is about it! I hope you guys are doing great! I love my mission so much. It's the greatest thing ever. I hope you guys have an awesome week! :D Love Ya! Elder Chris Gagnon

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