Ang lingo ng Matinding paglalakad

Hello every one. 
This week was a crazy weird week. I have nicknamed it the week of extreme walking (the title in Tagalog). Because that its what we did most days . 
Monday was a good p-day got lots of cleaning done, we went out in the evening as usual and we went out and visited a part member family who's father we are teaching but they were to tiered to meet with us. We tried to visit with others who lived in the area who we had already taught in the past but they were all not there or to busy so we went to Butubut sur and tried visiting people there. One of our investigators brother Randy was too drunk to meet with us again and the rest weren't home so by that time it was 9 and we walked back home.
Tuesday We had district meeting, then returned from district meetings and went down to puntar sur and walked for hours trying to visit with anyone who would meet with us. We had one person who met with us. We then went down to San Pablo and had a really good lesson. The brother was really receptive and the lesson just made sense to him. 
Wednesday was my companions birthday  we went out out and helped brother Hontitilano in the field this time we were helping him pollinate the flowers so we had fun with that. We then went and picked up a cake and a few other things for my companions birthday. We had a special lunch then went out. We went out and worked in Butubut Norte. We visited sister Marilina and had a good lesson with her she was supper receptive but she hadn't been reading the BOM since the new year so that was sad to find out. We encouraged her to read it again. We walked down to Talinpugo and had a sister we had taught say "I know the word of God and your not it" that kinda crushed that lesson. We then visited the Valdez family but only the lolo and lola were there so we just did a review lesson.
Thursday we went to Santol and visited brother Orpiano and shared a lesson. His adult daughter joined the lesson and just dug in she was supper receptive she accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and to pray she was really interested. We are supper hopeful about her. We then went down to the Davis's house down this 2 hour back road trail we saw some beautiful veiws and met some amazing people to return to
Friday. We went back to Banget and visited the part member family that lives down there. We went down and visited some of our part members all of which were supper good lessons and supper receptive.
Saturday we went out to Caliat and walked for hours because people weren't there again went and found a new family that had a father who was inactive and a mother who was supper receptive they accepted a lesson with joy and gathered the family we are planing on returning in the next few days. 
Sunday we literally had no lessons we set return appointments later in the day with people and tried to visit when we had set but they weren't there.

So ya that sums up the week. We have had a decent week of walking and meeting people but unfortunately all of our current IBDs have expired (invitations to be baptized) We have several possible new ones and a possible renewed one I have faith the Lord has a reason for the hard times even though I may not know why.
My thought this week comes from 2 Nephi vs 13 and 14

13 O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.

14 Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth.

I would challenge each of you to awake from what ever is keeping you from serving the Lord do all you can to serve him give up whatever it takes some times it may be hard and It will feel like you are shaking of the chains of hell but it will be worth it when you see your Heavenly Father again .

thank you all

Hindi ko alam ano tinawag ang email ito

I don't know what to call this email so I just called it that. This week has been great I love the work of the Lord and so much is getting done every week and I can only tell you so much. I've almost filled my first journal already so ya this is kinda crazy.
Monday we visited some people and they rejected a visit which is always so sad. We met a brother Brazil He is the husband of one of the contacts we had made previously. He said he is a bus driver and so almost never home, but that when he was we could visit him so that was really good. We then visited brother Randy (different than our Land owner Randy Castenero) But he was to drunk to meet with us.
Tuesday We went into a new barangay in Balaon that was exiting its name is Ttalinpugo. We did findings down there almost every one we visited was Inglesia ni Cristo, A church started here in the Philippines that is supper into debating or will not talk to you at all its one or the other nothing in between. So that was a little hard. We then went down and visited brother Ordinario . We had a very good lesson with him he said he believed the Book of Mormon was true but wouldn't  except the church so we shared with him in the introduction to the Book of Mormon where it says "Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah." He seemed to think on that a bit then excepted the challenge to pray to know again. We then continued finding and towards the end of the day met a family who's tatay was half paralyzed from a stroke. They had 3 grand kids living with them they were supper receptive to the message and understood it and excepted the challenge to pray to know the truth of it.
Wednesday our first lesson was with a finding he excepted a lesson then about 3 minutes into the lesson 2 of his friends show up and he just gets up and walks away leaving us alone in his little hut on the side of his field so ya that's a great way to start the day. We then did finding, tried visiting some people who we had taught in the past in that area but they were all to busy or not home so we kept on working on finding till we visited the Raqudans. The Raqudans, their daughter, just recently got converted and baptized (one of our recent baptisms) and her parents both have been baptized in the past year. So we had a good lesson with them and asked for referrals.  We then returned to doing findings. We had a lesson with there cousins which we found in a different barangay then we found a woman named Gerly (pronounced Girl-ley) She was supper receptive and took us to her house to meet her family. Her family was just as receptive they excepted a return appointment and her dad (a supper nice man) excepted help in his field.

Thursday. We started out by going and help Gerlys dad in the field. Due to the fact he was doing a special project for a business that was preserving the pureness of the hybrid he needed to pollinate each of the fruit himself so we walked through and found all the squash ready for pollination and marked it so latter he could just walk through and pollinate. We then went out after lunch and visited a new area in Santole called Paagan. We found several people some of whom had been taught by past missionaries, so yes that was fun. We then visited tatay Orene and shared a lesson this was our first time visiting him there so he was surprised to see us so far out but happy and excepted a message.

I know this church is true and every thing that is taught is true and I am a living modern witness of that

Sorry That's all for this week love you all

Love elder Davis

Merry Christmas

Hello every one and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Sorry for not emailing last week but My pday was on Christmas and the only computer shop open was one that the internet was so slow we could hardly get one email to our family to make sure they'd answer if we called and  a regular report to the mission president. I am just going to kinda breeze by some of the days that not much happened and focus on the days where the most happened and I saw the Lord's hand the most.

Last week was the average week but so much harder because everyone was on vacation for Christmas so no one was home and none of our investigators were able to really have a lesson most of the time. Friday however we had the branch Christmas party so we helped set up and prepare for that we then had an awesome Christmas party.  We then spent the rest of the week being denied so ya that was fun low stats week but still amazing to see the Lords hand in my life every day no mater what I did. 

This week was great. Monday we had our regular District meeting then in the evening we went caroling that was so much fun. President Bangal had suggested a district activity on Christmas eve so we went caroling as a zone and had fun and lots of people loved it we had lots of good reception and we had fun going house to house singing the hymns about the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Then Tuesday was Christmas. I loved this holiday before my mission now I love It even more. I got to Talk with my family on face chat that was so nice and actually didn't make me home sick at all. We got to spend the day having fun and being together with the other missionaries.

The other days we tried visiting people but once again had people were to busy to be able to visit so we didn't get very many lessons  but then on Thursday we had probably one of the best findings in the world for me. We started into Santol and went off the main road a little bit we were visiting with some people and we look up a hill a little bit to see a house with people waving and shouting when they see us at one point we visit the house just before the hill. It being a little later so we were discussing weather to start walking back because it was a long walk. I suggested lets go just up to this next house and talk with them. We walk up the hill to be greeted at the gait with a wall of people all supper exited to see us then they read my name tag and they got even more exited one ran up to me. Mister Davis? I said yes that's my name Elder Davis. That's your last name? Yes that's my last name. They got so exited she had met and married a American named George Lorence Davis. I started getting exited we kept on talking. They were supper exited to meet us and accepted a message and wanted to feed us dinner we politely declined saying that we had people we needed to visit. They said that we should come back for New Years and then after our message arranged to have their brother drive us down to our next appointment on there family trike. It was so nice they are supper exited for us to return and want to hear our message So yes I am supper exited for them they will be a great investigators hopefully. 

But other than the one really good finding It was just the average week just a lot harder because no one would listen.

37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.  I know that often It Is hard to act because your not 100 percent sure about something but I know that If you Act in faith and do those things commanded of the lord and take the next step such as meeting with the missionaries or being baptized and all the other things that we need to do that are hard you will be blessed and see miracles in your own life

Thank you every one 

Elder Davis

 All the Christmas loot! (We mostly sent American food and I made him and his companion pillow cases that said Elder on them.)

 Opening gifts

 His nativity display

 boxes from the moms...

 Decorations sent by the mom's (I made the tree and the star advent.)

 Missionary stockings

 More Christmas gifts!

 He attempted to make our family traditional Christmas breakfast of cinnamon toast and scrambled eggs (looks to me like he burned the toast, but great attempt! Especially only having a toaster oven)

 All the gifts under the tree

 Advent calendars