I met Joseph on the bus coming down from Baguio to San Fernando to hear from Elder Rasband, one of the living 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. 

Before the meeting I visited some of my Old Miembro friends. 

 
I made a bunch of these Bookmark things so my friends in old areas can have a fun little remembrance. If yalls want one, (just pouch me and I’ll make one, then pouch it to you).

 

Some views of Baguio.

We had a lot of things happen yesterday on Sunday. At church, we asked to be invited to Ward Council to share a suggestion we had. Baguio Stake is known for being a partly English ward, meaning that the language used in the meetings is mostly English. One thing that we had experienced, while trying to find less active members to invite them to come to church again, was that people were sometimes not feeling "at home" in the church services because they couldn’t understand very well the English talks being given. We asked if it was possible that the members who are assigned to give talks could try to speak more of the native language, if not kankanay or illokano at least the widely used Tagalog. We had some differing responses/reactions but overall the Bishop was very welcoming. We just wanted to voice the concern of the members and some of our investigators who would hopefully be able to come and feel the spirit as they listen to a talk that they really can understand.

Also one of our investigator families wasn’t able to come to church partly because one of their uncles had fallen from his roof the past Wednesday and fallen 25 feet, got snagged on a metal clothes line, until he finally landed on another tin roof. He was remarkably doing well besides the fact that he landed on his face. We went and gave a lesson about the Priesthood and how it was restored to and through Joseph Smith and what we can do because of this. We blessed him as well as 4 others, including 1 small child who had a fever. It was really neat experience. Before each blessing we made sure to evaluate and strengthen the faith of those who had afflictions. It is important that those being blessed as well as those around them know that the blessing works through faith; Faith of the blesser, faith of the person being blessed, and the will of God are the 3 parts that are needed for Priesthood blessings to work. I was very inspired by one of the members in the home who asked how to be worthy enough to give a Priesthood blessing, we told him and he said he would work hard to be ready so that he might perform these sacred administrations for his own family.

We went to a devotional last week in San Fernando and Elder Rasband spoke.  He was really good. He has a way of filling up the room when he speaks. He had a question about who assigned us as missionaries. He pointed at me and I said President Thomas S. Monson. He said no, he "called" you to the mission but you were assigned to your area by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was a tricky question.  Anyways, it’s ok, at least he pointed at me! 

Happy Valentine’s Day

Ingat kayo lahat eh