There were in the same country (missionaries) abiding in the field

Hello, It's been a few weeks since I last wrote again haha, but it's been a good past few weeks, we're continuing to find people and try to help them progress towards baptism while also helping to strengthen the branch and its members. On Tuesday, we tried visiting Gloria and a couple others before getting some lunch and then heading out to meet with Eduardo and a bunch of others we had set appointments for...but none of them were there unfortunately haha. It's alright though, we were able to meet Rosalinda, the neighbor of Maria (someone we've been trying to teach), when we visited by Maria's house, and we were able to stop by the relief society president and a couple less active members. We then met with Dailey (a referral from our branch president who lives in his neighborhood) and her family that evening, which was good, she's a bit interested. We then biked up closer to our apartment to visit Jake, who's mom and siblings have been baptized, but he isn't yet, before we got some dinner and headed home to work on some social media work. On Wednesday, we headed out in the morning to meet Gloria again and talked about the Book of Mormon, which seemed to go pretty well. After some lunch, we then headed up north to try to meet with Aida, but she was busy, so we stopped by a referral from a recent convert that lives by her instead. His name is Ernesto, and we've been trying to visit him for a couple weeks now, but this is the first time that he was available, and it seemed to go well. His sister is a member of the Church, and his daughter sometimes goes with her to church, (but I haven't met his daughter yet, just his sister), and he was referred to us by the same recent convert who referred us to Aida. We then stopped by the first counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency, and it suddenly started to pour rain, trapping us there for a while haha, but it was good, we were able to learn a little bit more about how to help the branch and how to help it become stronger. Once the rain died down, we headed over to the families of the recently baptized youth, Ryan and his family and then Eliseo and Joana. Before we headed home for the evening, we also stopped by the Elders Quorum president, where a similar meeting happened as with his counselor earlier, which I was very grateful for. They also fed us some chicken feet, and they were laughing a bit because I don't really know how to eat chicken feet XD I've only tried it twice or thrice I think lol. You apparently have to put almost the whole foot in your mouth, bite down on it, and pull the meat/skin off, which takes the toes with it too. Once the bones are cleaned off in your mouth, you then just take the bones out back onto your plate or give it to the dogs, it's quite interesting haha. When we got home, I called my padre to wish him happy birthday before working on a little bit of social media work to end the evening. On Thursday, Elder Secillano had a meeting with the ZLs while I just worked on some tasks that I haven't been able to work on in a while, and we then headed down to Roxas for lunch and our district council, which went alright. After practicing our song that we're performing at our Christmas zone conference, we headed home for the evening, and we tried visiting a few people that weren't available before heading to our dinner appointment at the Asuncion family, it was a good way to end the evening. On Friday morning, we tried visiting some inactive members, and we stumbled upon an inactive family, where the grandmother was the first member baptized from Mallig (i.e. there was a ward/branch in either Roxas or San Pedro, which are different municipalities, and she was the first one actually from Mallig who was baptized into that unit before the Mallig Branch was a thing). She said we could come over again (saying that maybe we will be the ones to help her come back to church lol), and we headed to Nanay Besa, another less active member, for lunch. We then headed back to our apartment for some weekly planning, which went alright. We then tried visiting a few people near the church before heading over to meet with Dailey again to teach about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (which she's already reading, which is great). We then headed back to the area near the church to meet with Daisy and Haji (a couple baptized at the beginning of this year) and then later visit another recently baptized member who was recently in a motorcycle accident. We then just got some dinner and headed home for the evening. On Saturday, we had our branch Christmas party, which went alright, Jerome and the rest of the youth and a few other recent converts were able to come, which was good, and it was also simultaneously a mini-welcome home party for a returned missionary who came home a couple days ago haha. after the party, we headed over to the neighborhood of Jerome and the rest of the youth, and we visited/shared a message with Angelica, who we've taught a couple times in the past with her cousins Lorenzo and Angel (they're all college-aged and were referred to us by Trinidad and Jerome and their families). We also shared a message with her uncle, Lorenzo's dad, right next door. After that, we headed to Ryan's family to meet with them as well before heading to Trinidad. She and her family were busy, so we went to Eliseo's/Joana's house instead to teach them and the rest of the youth (Ryan, Jerome, Rubina). We then headed home for the evening and got some dinner, and right after we got home, there was a blackout that lasted for the rest of the night, so very fun times lol. On Sunday morning, we woke up to a very chilly day haha. I was washing my sheets, so I slept without a sheet for a blanket since it was still drying, which I thought would be fine since it's the Philippines and I've done it before haha, but it got pretty chilly during the night lol. It's just been between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius (71 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit), but I've worn a jacket all day, and I've been chuckling at seeing other people wear sweaters and beanies haha, can't wait for Utah weather again lol. Anyways, church went well, we had the most investigators come to church for several weeks I think, which was great. Two of them were Joana and Aida, who we're both trying to get closer to baptism, and the other two were the spouses of some of the Tubay family members, including Junrey, who we miraculously met last Sunday since he usually boards in other city outside the mission and we've never met him until he came back to his wife/her family last week, which was awesome to see (especially since we weren't able to visit them this week haha). I also didn't need to teach the youth in Sunday School this time lol, but a few of the less active youth that we've been trying to work with came as well. After church, we went with Brother Wendell (the returned missionary from yesterday) and a few others to visit some less active members in front of the church. After some lunch, we headed up north to try to visit Aida, but she wasn't there, so we briefly visited a couple members nearby before heading over to Sister Maureen to visit Michael (part-member family) and the Tubay family...but none of them were home either lol. Instead, we crossed the street to meet some inactive/less active members (some of whom were recently baptized), before heading home for the evening to do our accounting/reporting for our week. Anyways, sorry again for the lack of emails sometimes haha, I've been pretty busy on my P-Days lately, so it's not because I've forgotten about you all, don't worry lol. I hope you all are doing well, feel free to reach out to me at this email address if you want, and I'll be able to respond in the next few Mondays (Filipino time haha). Always remember how much God---your Heavenly Father---loves you, and always look for the miracles present in each day in order to find how much He loves you and is aware of you and your own personal situation. Have a fantastic week and a very merry Christmas! Elder Enger I've been about as terrible at taking pictures as I have been at writing these emails lately haha, but here are a few: 1 - A wedding we got invited to (the bride is a member of our branch) and that I almost ended up playing the piano for haha 2 - The branch Christmas party 3-6 - Some neat Christmas lights at the center of town

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