This week has been another outstanding 7 days in Baguio Mission. Here in Bacnotan ward the work is...kind of progressing. Actually, in order for an investigator to be termed "progressing" they need to be coming to church. The two other companionships had investigators come to church but we didn’t, it’s ok though, there’s always next week. And as long as we are out working and testifying that is all we can do.

One Investigator we went to this week was Brother Jerry E. We went to him, he’s pretty rich, at least he has a nice house and is very well off. His first question right at the start of the lesson was about Joseph Smith, and what he did for work before he was prophet and what qualified him to be a Prophet of God. We like to try and teach the lessons in order and usually don’t get to Joseph Smith until the 3rd lesson. But we taught him about Prophets of the Old Testament, and how Christ always gives the world prophets to lead the people, and the Organization of the church... ANYways the best part came at the end, when we asked him to pray about it. He told us he feels like the prayers he has been taught (the Catholic Prayers) are not sufficient, or they don’t feel personal enough. We taught him to pray the way Jesus Christ taught, 3 simple steps:

1. Address your Father in Heaven. When we pray we pray to God, Our Eternal Father.

2. Express the feelings of your heart to him, your Father. This is the meat of the prayer, where you say you’re thankful for ___ and the things that you need "please bless me with -___/ please protect my family etc. But we can also ask questions. We are His children, we can ask and receive anything and everything that he sees fit for us. Generally I tell people to start simple, with yes or no questions. Example: Are the things taught to me by the missionaries true? Is this the right thing for me to be doing? Are you really there? Do you love me? 

3. Close your prayer: "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen".

Of course this is just a halimbawa/example, but if we read in Matthew 6 we will see that this is the way he wanted us to pray. But we are not yet done, if we really want an answer we need to listen for a response, our answer will come through the Holy Ghost, Galatians 5:22, the fruits of the spirit. It is always possible to know if something is true or not, by asking the Creator of all things, with sincere intention TO FOLLOW THE ANSWERS WE RECIEVE, in the name of Jesus Christ. If we are not ready and willing to follow, why would he give us an answer?

Answers may not come like a lightning bolt, but if we are willing to wait, and to persevere, and are ready to believe and act on the promptings we receive, we will be blessed to grow closer to God the Father.

So that was pretty long but that’s what I do all day. Invite people to pray and to testify of what we have taught them. There is no wrong time or place or reason to pray, as long as you are sincere. Hopefully you all will try this way of prayer, and if you are already actively using this, that you will remember the ability that you have to ask and receive, to knock and be given. 

;) Have a Great week everyone!

Elder Hennessey

Questions and Answers with Tiegue:

Question:  You've been out 7 months now! Are you basically fluent?

Tiegue:  I’m not bragging, I’m actually tryna be humble, but I’m really close to being fluent. Hahaha basically because I’ve only had pinoy companions so far, so I speak a lot of tagalog in the house, but I’m not doing a lot of language study, I usually just read stories in the tagalog Ensign with the English next to it to look at words I don’t know. The second language, ilocano, is hard to learn because everything I learn has to be from the members, there are no books to help with learning. I can almost pray in the 2nd language though. I’m gonna be TRI LiNGUAL!!

Question:  What about Spanish...quad lingual!

Tiegue: I forgot everything about Spanish, and it’s not helpful that Tagalog and Spanish are really similar because it just makes me unsure of my Spanish. I basically don’t know anything hopefully it'd be easy to pick up if I wanted to start again. Like a refresher course.

Question:  So do you have a new lady for your laundry or are you gonna be doing it?

Tiegue:  I’ve got a new lady, its only 200 pesos.  I’ll probably just do it every week

Question:  Yeah, that's almost $4, good deal!  Do you tip in the Philippines?

Tiegue:  I don’t think u do, but I try to be as generous as possible to members and poor people.

Question: How's your health?

Tiegue:  Good basically, I started to jump rope and do a little bit of weightlifting in the morning for probably 20-30 minutes a day.

Question: Are you still DL (District Leader)?

Tiegue:  Opo, yes.  That’s how u say yes in tagalog, or oo only but opo is respectful.

Question:  Is that harder being in a new area and being with new missionaries?

Tiegue:  Not really, my district is really small, it’s me and my comp, another companionship who lives in the same house, then Sis Dennis and Walters who are in my same ward.

Question:  How do keep leftover rice?

Tiegue:  We never have leftover rice lol!  Na we just leave it on the table, but after you cook it, if it’s still warm, you don’t put the lid on because it would get moldy. Usually after it’s cooled, we just cover it and maybe make fried rice or just toss it. But there is a breakfast thing - it’s rice with 2 times as much water so basically rice soup and u just add sugar and its breakfast. If there’s rice from the night before I’ll do that sometimes.