My grace is sufficient for you

Hello, Happy 4th of July! Even though I’m probably the only one celebrating this holiday in a how-many-mile-radius haha, I’m grateful for this annual reminder of our nation’s independence and the principles of freedom and liberty it was established on. I’m also grateful for this opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others come unto Him to receive the freedom and liberty that they are seeking—freedom from sin, guilt, confusion, and anything else that is present as a result of our mortal lives. I know that He truly can and will deliver us from all things as we exercise faith in Him, and I’m grateful for another great week to proclaim His gospel. Tuesday was pretty good. In the morning, we first met with a member to go meet someone they wanted us to meet (Lenlen) before our district council, which went well. For the first bit of district council, we hopped on a zoom call with the rest of our zone and President and Sister Craig. They haven't been able to see us before they leave this Friday like they have the other zones, so they wanted to at least say goodbye over zoom, which was nice, they're great haha. After district council, it was raining a ton, so we walked to the various people we wanted to visit in order to avoid getting soaked on our bikes, but almost everyone we tried to visit was napping (no joke lol). We then visited Christine/Queenie's family, which went really well, we really think they’ll progress towards baptism soon and that their family members, who are members, will start coming to church again. We then briefly met with Edward, who was doing better and was much more interested in talking with us, even reminding us that we needed to say a prayer before we left haha. All around, it was a pretty good day, and to the end the evening, I drafted up some of my plans that I will bring to the MLC for social media trainings to the rest of the mission so that they can use/participate in social media efforts as well to help their various areas. Wednesday was also pretty good. We had a social media council for the whole Philippines Area, and after lunch, we visited a part-member family and then John Raven and Joy to confirm his baptism/confirmation for tomorrow evening. We then met with Rosalinda, which went pretty well, and I think we/she/her family will be making the right steps soon to solve certain family issues that are keeping her from being baptized, so we'll be praying/fasting that it all goes well. We then traveled through the hills to visit Princess, but her son started crying as usual shortly after we got there, so we unfortunately couldn't share anything or stay there long haha. We then traveled back to visit Sunshine/Kathline from last week to share a quick message with them before heading over to Hermie's house to have dinner with his family for his step-mom's birthday, which was nice and a fun way to end the evening. Thursday was, again, pretty good haha. We tried visiting Lenlen (our referral on Tuesday) that morning, but she was sleeping lol, tough times. After lunch, we first visited a less active older man that was referred to us by some of the branch members, which went well, and we then visited another member family nearby to meet the husband of one of their daughters. He was working, unfortunately, but we were able to share a message with the family, which was nice. We then met a couple more referrals, Annalyn and Danica, and shared a brief message with them, and we later tried meeting some of the kids we teach at the nearby plaza (like Andrei and John Paul), but they weren't there. John Lloyd/Jorlie are also still out-of-town, which is a bit rough. After we tried visiting them, we visited Emma to teach her about the Book of Mormon, and it started dumping rain again haha. Thankfully, it had died down by the time we and John Raven had to travel to the church for his baptism. His baptism went well, and I had the opportunity to confirm him, which was a great experience. We then biked back to the plaza to try meeting with Andrei, John Paul, and Jeff (their other friend) again, and our lesson with them went alright, just distracting like always with all the nearby kids haha. We ended the night with some dinner with our Elders Quorum President, and when we returned home, I just did a little bit of social media work and welcomed Sister Cobing, the new mission president’s wife, to our group chats. Friday also went well. In the morning, we and the rest of our zone traveled to Santiago for a Meet and Greet with President and Sister Cobing, which was nice. We got there a bit early, so we were able to hang out with the other missionaries, and I was able to talk to Elder Goldstein (the new American Elder) for a little bit and to Elder Harrison, my Manila MTC companion. The Meet and Greet went well, I’m excited to work with them for the next year. Also, since Sister Cobing was added to our social media chats yesterday, when we met today, she said, "Ah, so you're the boss here." Yep, I guess so šŸ˜‚ We then just traveled home and got some dinner to end the night. On Saturday, Elder Gernale was doing awesome haha. We visited Joven, John Mike, and Freddie, the sons/nephew of a less active member, which went well. We then visited John Raven and Joy, which also went well, before trying to visit Annalyn/Danica, but they weren't there, so we then visited Edward, which went alright; Elder Gernale invited him to be baptized on July 30 (yay), which we didn't plan for haha, but his mom said no when we asked her after meeting with him (darn). We invited her to join us in our next few lessons with him, and hopefully she'll be ok with him being baptized later down the road. We then visited Christine/Queenie/Jennie with President and Sister Sadueste, which went really well; about half-way through, Elder Gernale essentially took control again like a boss and invited them to prepare to be baptized on August 13, and they said yes! Hopefully they come to church tomorrow! We then tried visiting a couple more people for the evening before picking up some food along the way. All around, it was a pretty good day. I also banged my head twice on various objects today, but I was luckily wearing my helmet during those times lol. I'm just too tall here šŸ˜‚ Sunday went alright. Queenie and Christine came to church, which was great, but their parents still didn't come, darn. Andrei and his friends didn't come either because he has been saying he doesn't want to go to church or be taught anymore :/, but his younger brother came, so I guess that's something lol. Danica (a referral we met on Thursday) also came, which was surprising to see because we only met her and Annalyn for like 5-10 minutes and didn't even mention church šŸ˜‚. Some less active families/members that we have been visiting, such as the older man we visited on Thursday, came to church as well, which was awesome to see. After church, we did some quick weekly planning since we weren’t able to on Friday and tried to meet Cono, but he wasn't there, so we met with one of the branch president’s counselors and his family who lived nearby before going to a birthday party for the clerk’s baby for a few minutes. We also tried stopping by Jorlie/John Lloyd, but they still weren’t home; their grandfather said that they’ll be back next week, so John Lloyd might not be baptized until August since he still needs to attend a certain amount of sacrament meetings. We then visited another member family to end the evening before sending our reports for the week. We also had a meeting tonight for the social media content team to create a calendar for our July posts, which went alright, hopefully they’re becoming more comfortable with their roles on the social media team haha. I’ve been learning a lot recently about grace. Concerning grace, the Church’s Bible Dictionary says, “The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.” I know that this divine help and strength is there for all of us, and it is through Jesus Christ that we receive this strength. I know that we must always rely on God and depend on Him for all that we need; whether we’re doing something easy or doing something hard, we always need to rely on and ask our Heavenly Father for grace—for divine help and strength—in the name of Jesus Christ. They want to help us and strengthen us and guide us in our day-to-day lives; we just need to take the first step to ask in prayer for that grace and then do our best, trusting that God will strengthen us and give us the divine help He knows we need. I know that grace is real and powerful, and it is through our faith in Christ and His Atonement that we have access to this grace. The Savior commands us to pray always—vocally and in our hearts, as individuals and as families—and I know that as you do so with real intent and a faith rooted in Christ that you will receive the grace that you need for your life right now, whether you’re experiencing a trial or even if you are just having a normal day. Keep seeking and asking for that grace and you will receive greater guidance and see the Lord’s hand more present in your lives. I hope you all have a fantastic week, and I’ll see you next week. Happy 4th of July! Elder Enger I don't have very many pictures this week haha, but here are a few from some member dinners, including some cake and a bunch of seafood we had at Hermie's step-mom's birthday party

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