Monday, January 23, 2017

Week 80....Laoag Philippines

The Law is Light

"For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light..."  (Proverbs 6:23)
Obedience=Confidence, Confidence=Unwavering faith, Unwavering faith=Blessings/answers to prayers. Obedience=Happiness. Obedience=Peace of Mind. Obedience=Safety. Obedience=Freedom. Obedience the the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ=Eternal life.
My zone had a tough week. A lot of not so fun stuff happened this week in my zone because of disobedience.  It wasn't fun for them and not fun for me either cause I had to reprove them and chasten them which really isn't fun. But I did the Lord expects me to do and I hope it will help the missionaries in the zone. People DISOBEDIENCE IS NOT FUN. IT SUCKS. WICKEDNESS NEVER WAS HAPPINESS! 
I know talking about Obedience is the most annoying topic for members and missionaries alike across the globe, but it's all true. The wicked take the truth to be hard. So whenever a prophet speaks, a scripture is read, or truth is taught, and you feel yourself shrink, and you feel ashamed, you know you've got an obedience problem. Fix it. It's happier in the end. Use the Atonement. Repent. People are always scared to repent because it hurts. I know from personal experience that repentance is hard. But we need to remember that it's not the repenting that's ugly. Repentance is a miracle; sinning is what's ugly. We must train ourselves to despise sin and to delight in righteousness. That's why God has decreed that we feel guilt when we sin, because He is teaching us that sin is bad.
Anyways enough on that subject.
This week we went SUPER SAYAN. It was flippin great. We had 7 investigators at church! But we were hoping on something like 18 uhhhggg. Haha that's how many people promised they would come to church.  We found 57 new investigators this week and we found SO MUCH scattered Israel everyday. We found like 3 or 4 families and a handful of individuals that seem very promising. President has been pushing us as a mission to get to the point where we baptize weekly, so we are trying to lead the way in the zone and we are really optimistic and hopeful that we will have at least one baptism and possibly many for every week for the month of February! We have a baptism coming up this Saturday, ad we plan on stringing together baptisms every week. We have a 4 month calendar with almost 50 names on it from the months of February to April, and we add names to it every day so it's super exciting!
We have this one area that is a beach town called Lapas and I love it out there! It is like party central and it reminds me of like a Filipino version of Santa Cruz California.  We found this guy named Arnel who lived in Virginia for 12 years. He was fluent in English and I got to teach the Restoration in English! The guy know a ton about history and tons of stuff so it was one of the most deep and detailed lessons I ever taught and t took like 2 hours haha (oops). But he really enjoyed the message and he said he is gonna dissect the Book of Mormon and learn everything he can from it. He plans on moving back to America and he asked for my address cause he wants to visit one day haha. Nice guy talaga.
The work is still exploding! Week by week we find more and more families and individuals! I'm sorry I have no pictures. My camera broke a while back! Sorry bout it!
Keep the commandments! Choose Obedience!
-Elder Andersen

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