Week 60 (Sept. 6, 2015 Talavera, Philippines)

Dear Mom,
The Elders from India serve for a year in India, then they are sent to a mission here in the Philippines, but it's not always the same one. This even happens to any Foreign Mission Presidents. However, what happens is that they'll wait for a while, typically no longer than 6 months, and then a new visa will arrive, and they'll return to their new mission without delay. Which means if it happens in the middle of a transfer, I'll be companionless for a while . Ya. Pretty scary stuff :P As to learning Hindi- I'm not sure how far I'll be able to get their, but I'm going to focus more on it from now on. I have an actual speaker of the language, so why not? Lately I've been jumping between learning Ilokano, Japanese, or Hindi, but I think I'll go for Hindi first, and then for Japanese when I get home. Ilokano will probably be the easiest just because it's a Tagalog dialect, plus has a romanized writing system. Cool beans :)

This week has been really fulfilling in terms of Progressing Investigator FAMILIES :D It's two different Valdez families, and they are SO awesome! Frank Valdez and his wife with their 2/4 children are a member referral from Frank's older sister, and they all attended church yesterday!! I say 2/4 kids because they each had a kid before they got together, and they've had two kids since then. Their names are Frank, Isay, and then Isay's daughter, Raven, Frank's son, Justin, and then the couples two daughters, Francine and Casey. They aren't married yet :/ so that's definitely a concern, but the bishop should be able to help us clear it up in no time :) They really are an awesome family, and have plenty of family support because of siblings that are members, so we've decided to set them on goal for October 3. So exciting! :D
The other family is the Anthony Valdez Family. Anthony is actually the oldest kid in the family, but he's our main connection. We are teaching him, as well as his mom and younger sister Elaine. The dad is waiting to see the changes in the family before he joins in, so he'll probably be joining soon, because they're changing a LOT :D It's incredible what the Spirit can and will do if you just give Him the opportunity. President Clark said something really cool in a DLC. He said that as long as we're worthy, the Spirit will be in our lessons. Getting him there isn't the hard part. It's giving him the time and environment to speak and be heard that we struggle with. Since then, I've been trying SO much harder to work consciously work with the spirit in working with the people. It's beautiful :) They're also on goal for October 3, but Anthony maybe in September, just because he's been investigating longer. Happy Days Ahead :)


Love you so much!!


Elder Syphus