The Records were desirable; yea, even of great worth

Hello, How are you all doing? This week has been pretty good; even though we didn't have as many miracle finding opportunities as we did last week, we still had some pretty good days and got some good work done, so I'm satisfied with it all. Also, fun fact, they apparently start celebrating Christmas here in the Philippines at the beginning of September since we've entered the "-ber" months haha, so I saw some Christmas decorations set up earlier today when I got some lunch at McDonald's lol. Tuesday was pretty good. We headed to Cauayan for zone conference (first ones there haha), which was pretty good; it was all about Christlike attributes, and I enjoyed it a lot, and Elder Anor and I won a game and got some cookies and cream kisses as our prize (even if they quickly melted lol). We then headed back to Echague for the evening since we will have exchanges the next day, and I did some DFTC work creating some ads before we went to a dinner appointment with the other Elders. Wednesday was alright, today was our exchange day with the district leader, Elder Angkiangco, so I went with him to one part of Echague while Elder Anor went with his companion to another part of Echague. After some lunch, Elder Angkiangco and I met up with a couple members who had a tricycle to drive us to the area we were visiting (since it was pretty far). The roads there are pretty awful haha, and because I'm so tall, at one point one of the bumps/cracks in the road threw me up and made me hit my head on the top of the tricycle haha. Let's just say I kept myself bent down and my head way lower than it was for the rest of the drive haha. In that area, we visited a less active member and her daughter (or daughter-in-law?) who isn't a member, which went alright; at one point, the daughter was telling us about these problems in their family, but she was mostly speaking Ilocano, so I would look at my companion to interpret, who would then look at the member with us to interpret (since Elder Angkiangco doesn't speak Ilocano haha), and then it would be translated in a chain back to me lol, it was interesting, but it all worked out. We then tried visiting a couple others before heading back to the center of Echague to visit the son of a part-member family, which also went pretty well, Elder Angkiangco said that they'll try to invite him to be baptized the next time they visit him. We then went to the church to meet the other Elders, and we eventually headed out and went to our dinner appointment at the house directly behind us, which went well, and we celebrated our last night together as a district before the upcoming transfers haha. Thursday was September 1, making it one year since I first entered the mission field in San Jose, crazy haha. We were planning on having district council later that day, but we got a text from the ZLs saying that there wasn't any because of our zone conference, bummer. We got lunch with them and a member later, and while we were there, I got a call from the APs saying that President said that Elder Anor and I won't be coming to MLC the next day, even bigger bummer haha. I still don't know why, but it is what it is haha, they said I'll be there next time. Anyways, we headed home to Jones after that, and the grandma of Ashane (the boy I've met recently and that we're trying to teach) and her friends got on the same van with us to Jones, so that was neat haha. Later, we tried visiting a few others around their neighborhood before we went to an FHE, but as we did so, a huge rain storm came rolling in haha. We tried to bike as far as we could to the FHE, but the rain caught up to us, and it was raining so hard that we had to take cover for a moment. Once the rain cleared up, we went to the FHE at the house of Sister Joyce and her family and others from the branch, which was good; it was her birthday, so it was a birthday FHE haha, it was a fun time. Friday was pretty good. After some lunch, we had some weekly planning, and I tried to let Elder Anor lead it just in case he trains and/or has a new companion next transfer who is new to the area haha, and it went alright. Afterwards, we met with Sister Elaine, which was pretty good, even if it lasted for a lot longer than we expected haha; she shared her testimony of how she knew the Church/our message (from past missionaries) were true and how it has impacted her life, which was great, and we also planned on how to help/teach Cassandra (her referral last week) and her friends (Abby and Blessed) in the next few days, which was good. After some snacks haha, we visited the Bulan family, which also went well. Since it was already late in the evening at that point haha, we headed home and made some calls before heading to bed. Saturday was pretty good. In my personal study, I read President Nelson's talk "The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?" (pretty great talk, you should all read it) in preparation for one lesson we had planned later that day, but I ended up using those principles in a different lesson instead, funny how the Spirit works like that haha. After some lunch, we headed through the cornfields to visit Cristel and Althea. Cristel wasn't there, but Althea's sister (Kate, I think)/niece (Audrey) and nephew were there with Althea (they are back from summer vacation for school), as well as Kate's friend, Allen. Althea, Kate, and Allen have all recently been baptized but they're teenagers and haven't been to church in a while, and Audrey is just 8 years old, not a member. We shared a lesson with them, which was pretty good, it was very Spirit-led, and afterwards, little Audrey came up to us and asked us, "Where's the Bible?" so we gave her her own Book of Mormon haha, it was pretty cute. We then briefly stopped by another family before heading over to our next appointment with a less active YSA member, which went alright, it was also pretty Spirit-led. Anyways, after that, we visited Romarilyn before heading over to our dinner appointment, which went well. It was with the recently called Relief Society president and her counselor, so after dinner, we made plans to visit some Sisters/families nearby with them and (hopefully) start teaching their family members that aren't members yet, which should be good. When we got home, we got some transfer news, aaaaaaaand, I'm staying here with Elder Anor haha, no changes for us. Elder Harrison is being transferred into our zone, and he'll be our new AP, so that should be exciting haha. Sunday was alright. Romarilyn and her husband, Noel (not a member either), came to church today, so that was great to see, and we received some different referrals after church concerning inactive families and their kids that haven't been baptized yet or that we don't have records of yet, so we'll try to work on that this week. After church, we biked to visit Jessa, but she wasn't home, unfortunately, so we visited an inactive older woman nearby, Thelma, who was someone that the one of the Relief Society members ministered/visited this past week, which went pretty well; she shared some of her testimony and the various miracles she has seen in her life, and we set up a family home evening for her family on Saturday. We then tried to visit Helen/Joan, but they were busy, so we headed back to the center of Jones. We went to Sister Elaine's to meet Cassandra again, but she was busy finishing some assignments for school, so we and Sister Elaine met with her parents instead. Afterwards, we tried to visit a couple others (who weren't home) before heading back to our apartment for the evening to make some texts and calls and send in our reports. I hope you all are doing fantastic this week. If not, or even if you are haha, let me know if there's anything I can pray for for you, I'd love to do so. I just want to share a quote I love in President Nelson's talk that I mentioned earlier. It says, "Whenever I hear anyone, including myself, say, 'I know the Book of Mormon is true,' I want to exclaim, 'That’s nice, but it is not enough!' We need to feel, deep in 'the inmost part' of our hearts, that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live even one day without it." I know that not only is the Book of Mormon true, like President Nelson says, but as we sincerely and prayerfully study it everyday, we will feel greater power and love and guidance in our life day after day, no matter what's happening around us. I know that daily scripture study and prayer are vital and that has we study God's word daily, especially the Book of Mormon, it will become a treasure in our lives that will help us to make better decisions and become more like Christ every day. If you don't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon yet, don't feel "in 'the inmost part' of our hearts" that it is the word of God, or haven't even read it yet, today is an amazing day to start haha, I promise it will bless your life so much. See you all next week, Elder Enger 1 - A beautiful landscape I saw 2, 4 - Elder Anor and I 3 - Some harvested cornfields 5-6 - Zone conference

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