Fishing in the Philippines (Matthew 4:19): Week 27 (Jan. 11, 2015 San Leonardo, Philippines)

Hello Dear Mother!

Yes! Mary Grace Coralde Dela Cruz (Coralde, not Caralde)! was baptized! :D I'll tell more about that later. Also, yes it's the District Leader that interviews unless it's the DL's investigator, in which case, the Zone Leaders Interview. If it's the ZL's investigator, their DL interviews.
I don't know anything about msg, and haven't heard anything either. My stomach is usually fine so, no need to worry about that.
The desserts expire in February, and I can use a fork or a buy a whisk here- I just wasn't sure if that would work. We'll try it out though. I can also just use a different pan for them probably. We'll see.
I prepared my mac and cheese cups. The first, I just poured in boiling water and let it sit for 3.5 minutes, but that doesn't work. Apparently it needs to be at a constant heat. So the next one, I double boiled :) Do you think I could put the popcorn bag on a metal tray over boiling water? Prolly not. I might just buy a microwave and put it in my suit case between transfers. That could work :P
Elder Nalumen likes taking naps. So did Elder Maestrado. I just sing little primary songs to my self and study the language usually.
I have no idea why they wouldn't be allowed to read conference talks. That's probably the dumbest rule I've ever heard. We're ENCOURAGED to study the words of Living Prophets. Even in the Missionary Handbook, it says limit your study to the Standard Works and Church Magazines. So ya, we read those. I'm also in the process of laminating the temple pictures I'm pulling out of Conference magazines. It's probably the most expensive thing I've done here, besides eating at McDonald's. It's almost $2 a page. What's the price in the states for A4 lamination?

Anyway, this week has been pretty good. I'll start off by finishing Grace's story.

We scheduled her Baptism for 10 AM on Saturday morning. Actually, I scheduled her Baptism for 10 AM on Saturday Morning. Early Saturday Morning Baptisms are what I've always known, but apparently, it's supposed to be different. In the Philippines, they usually have their baptisms between 4-7 in the evening. We still had hers Saturday morning, but everyone was busy, so only about 10 people showed up. She was fine with it though. She's shy :)
Anyway, I got to baptize her, and one of her fellowshippers is Juliana, the little girl I baptized in September who constantly accuses me of trying to drown her :P Grace trusted me though :) Her baptism went flawlessly, and after she finished getting dressed and came back into the room, she bore a Beautiful testimony. She said she felt that day was the most important in her life, and how thankful she was to us as missionaries for helping her learn the Gospel. She was confirmed in Sacrament the following day, and then moved to Saudi Arabia later that afternoon..... Ya. We found out about 3 hours before the move. She explained that she wanted to be baptized before she left, but was too shy to tell us. She said she's going to try and find a church that she can attend out there, though, and that she'll get us her new address. Anyway, she's still awesome :P

Our other Progressing investigators are Mary Rose (14), her niece Shiela (13), and her nephew John Carl or Totoy (11). Totoy reminds me so much of Chandler. It's awesome :P They've all attended church 3 times now and should be ready for baptism by the end of February if they continue :) I'll probably be transferred, though, at the end of January, but ah well; that's mission life :)
Victor Riego also attended church yesterday! This was pretty big, for me anyway. All of our other investigators, baptized or not, either have a 20 second walk the church, or have been brought by a member. Victor lives quite a ways away, and has to pay for his own commute, but he attended church anyway :) He's progressing really well, but is still having a little trouble with the Word of Wisdom. We're still working with him :)

Things aren't all perfect though, of course. Saturday night, President Anselmo, 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency, and his 16 year old son were shot and killed. Another son was shot in the leg, but the shooter's magazine was empty, so they fled the scene. They still haven't been caught. Please keep the Anselmo family in your prayers. They've got another son on a mission right now.

Anyway, love you all! Here are the pictures!