This is the testimony which I give of Him: That He Lives!

  Hello,

How are you all doing this week? This week has been a bit interesting, especially the food I've tried haha, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and God's children all around me.

On Tuesday, we had a training for the referral secretaries in the morning, which went well, followed by district council. We then tried visiting Edward, but he was being a stubborn teenager and didn't want to be taught at the moment lol, so we then tried to visit a couple others nearby, but they weren't home. Then, we visited Christine's/Queenie's family to teach them the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity, which went pretty well. Queenie's mom, Jennie (not a member), always seems super interested in our lessons/the Book of Mormon, so once we get her to start coming to church and get the other adults (who are members) to go along with it, we should see them progressing towards baptism pretty soon, which we hope so haha, they're great. To end the evening, we biked over to visit Rizalyn's grandma, Emma; we were biking towards a huge storm with a bunch of lightning, so that was pretty cool, minus the fact that I forgot a raincoat luckily, it only really rained during the lesson itself, so I didn't get too wet. We then got home, made some dinner, and worked with the social media teams.

On Wednesday, we visited John Raven and his cousin, Joy, which went well, and then we headed over to the west. Unfortunately, most of the people we teach over there were out-of-town or otherwise unavailable lol, but we were able to have a good lesson with Princess (someone previous Elders had taught and almost baptized), and we were able to meet the daughter of an less active family and schedule a time for us to come by again to visit them. We then were able to visit a member family right when it started to pour some rain, but the rain luckily died down by the time we were leaving, so it all worked out, and we just did some social media work to end the night.

Thursday was a bit interesting. To keep a long story short, we realized that the baptism prayer for John Raven missed a couple words, so we spent some time coordinating with the leaders of the branch so that they knew that John Raven had to be baptized again. Just another reminder that Christ truly does lead this Church; if He didn't, we wouldn't have figured out the mistake, and there would be no point to redo his baptism haha. We tried visiting a couple part-member families, but they were gone or busy, so we visited a couple more member families, taught Andrei and John Paul, and ended the night by teaching Emma, Rizalyn's grandma, again. We also had a training with some of the social media team and did some more social media work.

Friday was pretty good; we had a good weekly planning and some miracles later today. We first met with John Raven and his mom to tell them that he needs to be baptized again, which went a lot better than I expected, they were both pretty fine and ok with it. We then visited Rosalinda to teach her about prophets/the Ten Commandments, and she opened up a bit more to us, which is good progress, it's just a little bit at a time with her (we've essentially taught her everything, now she just needs a desire to be baptized lol). We then went further in the western hills to visit Princess; our lesson with her was also good, but just cut short by her young son, who is afraid of us for some reason and is always crying when we're there unless he's asleep haha. We then traveled back closer to Rosalinda to meet the daughter of the less family we met on Wednesday, Sunshine; her sister, Kathline; and their friend, Rhosline. We just had a brief visit, but they said we could come over again, and hopefully their father will be there next time too (he's not an active member). That was quite the miracle since we haven't been finding new people to teach lately haha, and they might even be unbaptized members (i.e. there is a record of them in the Church from when they were young, but they were never baptized), which would be great if we could keep teaching them. Afterwards, we then met with a member and made plans to visit a couple of her friends together, and then we just bought some food, including some barbecued chicken small intestines (I didn't really like it lol).

Saturday went alright. We first met with John Raven and his cousin, Joy, which went well, and we then started to review the missionary lessons with his other cousin, Rainer, who was baptized a week before Elder Sabala and I arrived in Almaguer. We then tried meeting a few other people, but they weren't home, so we just talked to their family members that were there, and we later taught John Paul (friend of Andrei) at the plaza (i.e. the place were he and his friends all live, and there's tons of kids there, which make our lessons distracting and a bit exhausting haha). We then tried visiting John Lloyd, but he still isn't home, and we tried visiting Edward, but he wasn't home either, and we met with Christine/Queenie, which went pretty well. It started to rain again, so we just tried visiting a couple more people before heading back home. We got some barbecue again on the way back, and this time, I tried fried chicken blood....I didn't like it either but at least I've tried it.

Sunday was a bit interesting. Church went well; Andrei, John Paul, and Edward came, but no Queenie/Christine, sad. Thankfully, John Paul and Andrei were a bit more behaved today, no need to provide them with stickers in order to behave haha. After church, the Elders Quorum President asked Elder Gernale to speak at a funeral later that day for the father of a couple YSA members that have worked with us before, so lucky Elder Gernale haha. The funeral was good (well, at least as good as funerals can be haha), and we were able to talk to some members there. And apparently, the governor of Nueva Vizcaya (the province we are in) was there too, which is pretty neat. We then met a part-member family before heading to some dinner with a member family and heading home to do our reporting.

I hope you all are doing fantastic, and I want you all to know that I know that God lives. He really is our Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ is His Son, who came to Earth to suffer, die, and live again so that we can return to our Father and become free from our mistakes, weaknesses, and imperfections. I know that Christ leads His Church today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, through a living prophet and that as we follow Christ's teachings and exercise true, sincere faith in Him, we will receive peace in this life and eternal joy with Him and our families in the world to come. This is the message I share, and I know that it is true with all my heart. I know that if you pray to God, your Heavenly Father, and ask if these things are true with a sincere desire to act and choose to follow Him, that you will receive the same testimony I have and the joy that comes from knowing that Christ lives, that God is our Heavenly Father, and that they both love you more than you can ever imagine.

See you next week,

Elder Enger