They Preached the word of God in the (Sari-Saris) of the (Filipinos)

Hello, How are you all doing? This week was pretty good; we tried to meet a lot of people, had some meetings, and we’re continually trying to put in more effort to find more people to teach, and although we need a lot more work to get to where we want to be with our area, this week was overall pretty successful in our eyes because of the increased effort we’re both trying to put in and the progress we’re making. Tuesday was pretty good. In the morning, we traveled to zone conference, which was at Bambang for the first time since I arrived, which was pretty nice. The conference was good; President Cobing talked a bit about the law of obedience and some housekeeping items, Sister Cobing talked about some health/safety related issues, the APs/ZLs gave some trainings, and we got some food, which is always great haha. Afterwards, we visited Christine's/Queenie's family, and we had a pretty good discussion that was pretty Spirit-led all around, which is great. We then had a dinner appointment with a member family and shared a message with them, which also went well. Wednesday also went pretty well, it was also pretty Spirit-led. We first visited John Raven and Joy and their cousin, Rainer (also a recent convert), to continue teaching and reviewing the lessons with them, and we then headed over to the western hills for the rest of the day. For the first while, we tried looking for a referral who had signed up online for a visit from the missionaries; she wasn't home, but we were able to meet a guy named Carlo, who was at a little side store (“sari-sari”) that we visited, and we were able to share a message with him and schedule a time to meet with him and his family, which is pretty neat. Afterwards, we tried visiting Rosalinda; since she doesn't want to be baptized, we were just going to meet with her and tell her that we won't be visiting her as much, but she wasn't there, so we talked with her daughter and her friend (both members) there instead. Hermie then joined us to visit a less active young woman, Query, with her friend, Deshley; along the way, they were telling us about her boyfriend and how he doesn't want her to go to church/the youth activities or meet with the missionaries, and when we arrived at her house, boom, there was her boyfriend 😂 haha. It actually went pretty well; I think we were able to ease some tension as we talked with him, and we were even able to share a message with them. Overall, it went well, better than we were expecting after being told about her boyfriend on the way there haha. We then tried to meet Sunshine/Kathline again, but we just talked to their grandma on the front porch instead since Kathline wasn't there and Sunshine wouldn't come out of the house to meet us for some reason lol. Anyways, we then headed to a less active family that has started to come back to church more in order to meet/teach the husband, Warren, of one of the daughters, to end the evening, which went alright. Thursday was ok. We tried meeting with several people after lunch, but almost no one was home/available, so we tried visiting a couple areas to look for some inactive members to visit. While we were walking around, Query and her boyfriend passed us on a motorcycle and honked/waved to get our attention, which was pretty neat, hopefully that means he's softening up more towards us haha. We then had a lesson with Danica and Annalyn, which went pretty well. We then tried to visit Emma, Rizalyn's grandma, and we then taught Edward for a bit as a giant storm gradually darkened the sky above us. Luckily, we were able to make it to our appointment with Sister Mila and Cono (her son) right when it started to rain, so we didn't get soaked this time haha. Our lesson with him went pretty well, I think it was one of the better lessons we've had with him. And we had some good dinner (including bamboo again haha), so double win haha. Friday was pretty good. In the morning, we had a workshop as part of the new Canvas course that my mission is testing out, which went pretty well; there were two companionships from the California Fresno Mission participating as well, which was pretty cool since I actually have two cousins serving there right now haha. Right after that, we had a training with my whole social media team and our Online Training Center (OTC) trainer to introduce us to the new content the Church has created for the Philippines Area, which we're excited to work with. We also had weekly planning later, which also went well, and afterwards, we visited Rosalinda. Our initial plan was to tell her that we'll maybe visit about once a week to check up on her, but that we won't be teaching as much anymore since she doesn't want to progress towards baptism. Instead, we ended up meeting her son since she was at his house nearby, who is of a different faith and who was trying to dissuade Rosalinda from joining the Church, according to the words of Rosalinda's daughter to us, as well his wife and Rosalinda. We were expecting to just get to know them, offer some quick testimonies, and leave because of the antagonism against the Church that we were expecting, but somehow, just like with Query's boyfriend on Wednesday, it went a lot better than we expected haha. We got to know them better and shared a message with them, which seemed to be something they needed at the moment or at least really liked, and while they got us snacks, they asked about the Word of Wisdom, so we were able to explain that and the role of prophets. Their questions seemed sincere and genuine instead of antagonistic, and they said that they were alright with us sharing a message with them again if they were available when we came by, so....that's a neat win lol. Second time that has happened this week, and I can only attribute that to God haha. We then visited Kathline; her sister, Sunshine, wasn't there, but we were able to share a message with Kathline and teach her about prayer, which went well. Saturday was pretty interesting; almost nothing went according to our plan haha, but it was still a pretty great day. After lunch, we tried visiting Freddie, Joven, and John Mike and their parents (part-member family), but only Freddie and his grandfather were there for just a few minutes, so after they left, we tried to meet with John Paul and Jeff at the nearby plaza, but John Paul was the only one available, and he had a stomach ache halfway through, so he just....left lol, alrighty then. We then went to visit Sister Mila on our way to Danica/Annalyn, but she had a nasty gash in her arm and was waiting for her son to return with medical supplies, so we just gave her a blessing and some alcohol to clean the wound that I've carried around in my bag ever since I fell off my bike haha. Danica/Annalyn weren't available either, but before we could decide on who to visit next, a giant storm came and forced us to find shelter, which led us to meet Jeff. He was a little drunk and wasn't really interested in our message haha, but at least it was good practice for us in sharing brief messages with people on the streets in order to find new people haha. The rain let up, so we started to walk to our bikes nearby, but then it immediately started pouring again, so we had to run for shelter again haha. This time, we met Clifford, who was a bit more receptive, and we had a good chat with him. Unfortunately, he lives somewhere else, and he didn't have a phone number to give us, but it was again good practice for us and helped us to try to make the most of our time. Once the rain actually stopped this time haha, we were going to visit Christine/Queenie/Jennie with President and Sister Sadueste, but their family wasn't available, so the Saduestes took us to an inactive member family nearby instead to briefly meet them, which went well. We then biked over to Carlo's house to meet his family, and right when we got there, his parents immediately told us that they were strong in another faith and weren't interested in our message lol. Definitely rejected there haha, but it went alright; we were able to end on a pretty good note, and we left on good terms despite their wariness at the beginning. We then tried to visit another part-member family, but they weren't available either, so we went to our branch president's house for dinner with them for his son's one-year birthday this upcoming week (and mine too 😂). We then just headed home for the evening to do some DFTC work. A pretty interesting and unusual day, but we tried to make the most of it haha Sunday was alright. At first, only Christine and Queenie came to church, but they brought Queenie's younger sister, which looked like progress, but then, just a little bit later, the rest of the family came too, which was awesome haha, we were so excited to see them, and the ward did a great job at welcoming them. A couple inactive members came too, as well as the younger brother of John Lloyd and Jorlie (but they didn't come 😕), which was also pretty good. After some lunch with some members, we tried having a mission coordination meeting and doing some planning. After our planning, we tried visiting a media referral we received; she wasn't there, but we met Nicole (again at a nearby sari-sari haha), someone who was taught by missionaries before the pandemic, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. Afterwards, we visited an inactive family that was referred to us a couple days ago, right when it started to pour rain on us haha. We realized later that we don't have one of them in our records, so we'll be visiting them again to see if he's actually baptized or not (and to help them all come back to church). Since the rainstorm took a little while, we only had time to visit another member family for dinner, which went alright. After our weekly reporting, I then had a monthly check-up/evaluation meeting with the content team a couple hours later, which went well, but they’re trying to convince me to sing for one of our posts haha, we’ll see. I hope you all are doing fantastic and have a wonderful week! Continue to pray, read your scriptures, and discover the joy of sincere, daily repentance as President Russell M. Nelson has exhorted us to do many times in the past. Although repentance/change/growth is often difficult and takes a lot of work, I know that true and sincere change brings us closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I know that They will help us to reach our full potential as we put our trust in Them and rely on Their grace. See you all next week, Elder Enger 1 - "Food Hauz Special" (fried chicken, roasted pork, vegetables cooked in butter, and garlic rice) with some blue lemonade 2 - The Bambang District with President and Sister Cobing and the APs 3 - Another hiking picture