And I am a God of miracles

Hello, How are you all doing? I have another scripture phrase in the title for you to find (maybe I'll do this more often so that you all will study your scriptures each week in an attempt to find my scripture quote haha), ans you once again get bonus points for finding it. I read this verse in one of my personal studies as I began to train a new missionary, and shortly thereafter, I was able to witness a few miracles of my own, so I can testify that God truly is a God of miracles. Tuesday was alright. Elder Sabala and I had a Train the Trainers zoom meeting in the morning, while the ZLs bought some pizza and donuts for us all to eat for some breakfast haha. After a mission devotional and district council, we visited Seth's house to meet with Ren in order to teach Rizalyn over video chat/text. After that, we visited Hermenigildo in the western part of our area, which went pretty well. After some dessert with their family, we went to the Martinez family for some dinner, and then we returned home for a FHE/farewell party for Elder Dagdag as he is transferred further up north (he has been here for several months, I think). The party was with the landlord (they live below us) since they are members and good friends with us, and we had a good time. At the farewell party, Elders Bito-on and Capili (the Elders who also stayed in this apartment with us for the first couple of weeks) arrived to stay in our apartment again since Elder Capili will be the new ZL here in Bambang and Elder Bito-on will be waiting for his trainee alongside Elder Sabala and I, which is fun. Wednesday was also good. The ZLs left in the morning to meet with several others who were transferring (Elder Dagdag is heading to one of the northern zones to be both a ZL again and a trainer; Elder Realubit will stay as a ZL here), and the rest of us cleaned up the apartment since the renovators are finished with it. After some lunch, we had some mini exchanges; Elder Bito-on went with me to the eastern part of our area, while Elder Capili went with Elder Sabala to the central part of our area since they're both in Bambang waiting for their companions until tomorrow (so are Elder Sabala and I; the trainees won't arrive until tomorrow). We first visited Edward, which went alright, and we then tried visiting Kim Jordan, but Ruzzel and Angeline (his cousin and sister; both are new members) both told us that he didn't want us to teach him at the moment, so we went to a nearby part-member family instead, during which we met the friend, Conrado, of the grandpa that we've started to teach, and he seems pretty interested from what I was able to understand, which is nice. We then visited some other families before heading over to Sister Ana's for dinner and to meet up with the other two. She made this dessert that's either called "graham cake" or "graham cracker cake" (by the way, they pronounce it as "gray-ham" either, which always throws me off for a little bit lol), which was very tasty haha. It's essentially graham crackers layered with what I think is mango slices and this frosting/sauce, which makes the crackers moist and sweet; I honestly think I might ask for a recipe for it before I leave haha, I really enjoyed it. Thursday was the big day. In the morning, we cleaned the apartment a bit more and prepared for the three new trainees that would join us that evening, which took up quite a bit of time, and since we were told that they would arrive around 5:30, we were only left with a few hours after lunch to go to work, but it was alright. We didn't do mini exchanges like yesterday, Elder Sabala and I just went out one last time. We met with John Raven to teach the Ten Commandments, and we then taught Louise, who Elder Sabala met yesterday and is friends with Andrei and lives in his same area, which also went well; she was asking for a pamphlet that we had before we had even begun teaching lol. By this point, it was time for us to head home, and even though they didn't arrive until 7 anyways, a big storm came right when we got home, so it all worked out haha. My companion is Elder Gernale (pronounced "her-nah-lei", like HER hawaiian LEI), and he's 20 years old. After we all met, we went to a nearby restaurant, Mang Inasal, to have dinner with a member of our branch that lives in Bambang, which went well. We then got some supplies at 7-11 haha and headed home to get everyone settled for the night (there are 8 of us lol; the ZLs, the trainees, and the trainers). Friday was pretty fantastic haha. After some studies and farewells at lunch, we fixed the bikes at a bike shop and went to meet Rizalyn. Earlier, we had planned to teach her about temples, but as we were biking there, I realized that I have never taught about temples before in Tagalog, and we didn't have the time earlier for me to practice it, so I was a little worried but determined to go through with it anyways instead of throwing a last minute change at Elder Gernale for his first lesson in the field. It actually went a lot better than I was expecting 😂 seriously the best lesson I've ever taught in Tagalog, in my opinion. God truly is a God or miracles (which is what I actually read in my personal study today haha). We then travelled to the west (i.e. the mountainous area; my poor trainee and all the hills he had to endure today lol) to meet with Hermenigildo, which also went well, he could be progressing towards baptism pretty quickly. We then met with Rosalinda, an older woman who wanted to be baptized but not anymore. She speaks, in this order, Illokano, Tagalog, and English, whereas my knowledge of those languages is reversed haha, so we try to meet in the middle with Tagalog, but it still doesn't work out to well, and I can barely understand what she's saying a lot of the time. We tried our best, and she wants to attend church with us, but she still doesn't want to be baptized. Later that evening, we taught John Lloyd (Jorlie was gone somewhere else) about temples, similar to Rizalyn, which went alright. We decided to have the lesson outside, which was a bit of a mistake because when we turned on our flashlights, we got swarmed by these big flying insects. I don't know what they're called haha, but they were pretty distracting and gross lol. After that, we headed home to have some dinner and finish up for the night. All in all, it was a pretty good day; Elder Gernale is excited and willing to share the gospel, and he did a great job in covering for me and adapting to changes when my Tagalog failed me in the lessons following Rizalyn. I would sometimes stop and ask him to teach a principle on the spot, and he did a pretty good job at following along and teaching well, though I do feel bad for occasionally throwing those suprises at him haha. Saturday was also pretty good. We had a zone zoom meeting in the morning to introduce all the new missionaries (our mission, by the way, received over 30 new missionaries this transfer, increasing the size of our mission by nearly 50%, which is crazy haha). After some lunch, we went to a computer shop to print the lease for the landlady to sign for our new apartment (yep, still haven't moved in haha), and then we taught John Raven, which went well. We then stopped by Janssen, but he didn't answer the door nor our phones, but as we were turning back the way we came, a member called out to us to stop by his house later for a birthday party for his aging/sick mom, so we agreed to stop by for a short time later. We then taught Andrei and tried meeting with a few others that turned out to be busy, and we kept trying to contact our landlady to sign the lease, but she wouldn't respond either. Eventually, we headed over to the party, and we learned that several of the members at the party knew the landlady and offered to give it to her later that evening to sign it, and then they'd return it to us at church tomorrow, so that was another pretty sweet miracle haha. And the food was good too, so double win lol. Anyways, after we said a prayer for the older mother, we taught Joh Lloyd real quick (inside this time haha) before heading home for our 6pm curfew (today, Sunday, and Monday we have a 6 curfew for the election coming up on Monday May 9). Sunday was alright. John Raven and John Lloyd didn't go to church, however, which means we have to move their baptism dates to May 28, and we'll also be moving Jorlie's baptism to that date as well because he is John Lloyd's brother and they want to be baptized at the same time (otherwise, there would be no problem with baptizing Jorlie this Saturday). Anyways, after church, there was lunch held with many of the church leaders, and we got to join in, which was great lol, and we tried visiting Aldrin/Aldred (unfortunately, they were sick) before our branch mission coordination meeting, which I went well. Since Elder Gernale is still new, I got up to essentially lead the whole thing, and asides from our lessons, it's been the most I've talked in a while since coming to the Philippines haha. The new branch mission leader, LG, and a few others joined us afterwards as we tried visiting some more people. Many were not home (including Janssen, unfortunately), but we were able to teach John Raven and then later Andrei and his friends, which went alright. There was a lot of walking since we didn't bring our bikes today (we just rode a tricycle to church) and we had to walk some far distances, so I felt a bit bad for everyone who joined us since few people were home, but I guess it's alright haha, I'm glad they were willing to join us. We then got home for our curfew, cooked some pancit canton (what I now call "Filipino ramen noodles" lol), and did some mini weekly planning to end the evening. Have a fantastic week! Remember that God is a God of miracles and that there are always miracles present in every moment, even if they seem like small things. See you all next week, Elder Enger

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