week 68

Hello,

This week was a really good week. We had our ward Christmas party on saturday night which was tons of fun. For the party they wanted to cook up a pig but needed help killing it so of course i volunteered us four elders to help. It was so funny. Videos and pics will be sent. 

This past saturday  Joyce and Jessica were baptized. I dont know if you remember them.. We found them back when I was in Dasma 2. They are sisters and their older sister is an investigator as well but hasnt been baptized quite yet. Well... They have been coming to church all this time and were finally baptized this past Saturday. It was a really cool baptism and lots of people came and supported them. It was such a happy day to see someone who has been investigating so long and changing aspects of their life to be more Christ Like and finally enter the waters of baptism. 

Yesterday we had our christmas zone conference! It was tons of fun. In the morning we just had a normal zone conference with the training and all. However near the end President told us he had a surprise for all of us and so i got excited and then he dropped the bomb.... WE ARE GETTING MICROWAVES LETS GOOOOOO!!!!!! After that we all had district presentations and my district we went a little off and thought of doing something different. So we were the final presentation and every single district just sang a hymn out of the hymnbook. Like a Christmas song. So right before we got up President came up to me and said "Elder Sackley I hope your presentation is in line with the spirit in the room right now" well i got super nervous and started doubting what we had chosen to do but it turned out to be dope. We played the cup song from pitch perfect and sang a tagalog song called star ng pasko and it was amazing. We definitely took the cake. I will send a video of it later. 

Love you all lots!

Elder gsack

week 67

Hello,

This week lots has been going on. We have plenty going on with stake conference, trips to the hospital and exchanges but overall its been a fun good week,

One thing that really sticks out to me this week is we are working on effective finding. Here in the philippines i could easily get 10 plus new investigators in one day but odds are they arent very interested or are little kids hahaha so we are really working on finding quality and not so much on random people off the street. So the other day we went to the Educado family. The mother has been a member all her life but has been mostly less active. She was just reactivated last july and all her kids were baptized so right now they are a very active family. Except Tatay. Brother Educado is not a member. He was given a book of mormon back in 1997 and since then nothing. So we were able to talk to him the other day which was interesting. He seemed to just be joking around and almost rude but i felt something that he really actually wanted to listen so we set a return date for tuesday. When we went back on tuesday he was very welcoming and let us in right away. we made sure to get his wife and all his kids and have them sit in on the lesson. We went through and taught a very powerful lesson one to brother. He asked questions through out the lesson and you could tell he was legit interested. At the end of the lesson all the kids chipped in their own pieces and it was really good. You could see how he knew this gospel helped his family and wanted a part of it too. However before we closed he opened up to us how there were things in his life he wanted to change. he shared with us some stuff he had done and wanted to change to be better for himself and his family. We were able to bear our testimony to him and promise him if followed the gospel of Jesus Christ he could change for the better. he nodded and said I will do anything and everything to become better. It was a sweet lesson and we are really excited to go back and teach him. 

other random things we are killing the pig tomorrow night so i am hyped for that. We have our ward christmas party on saturday and our zone christmas party on wednesday so it should be a pretty fun week! Love you all lots!

Elder gsack

week 66

Hello!

This week has been tons of fun! Lots has been going on and lots of sweet experiences. I have tons on funny videos and pictures and of course the computer isnt working so they will be coming in the coming weeks. 

However this past weekend was Myka and Monicas baptism! It was a sweet service and all went just as planned! Elder Evenhuis was able to baptize both of them and then they were both confirmed on Sunday as well! The best part of the whole thing was Mykas dad is a recent convert but lives somewhere else in the mission. So he was the one who reffered her to us. He attended her baptism on saturday and he was so grateful! it was such a happy thing to see how happy her father was and how appreciative he was of us. He told us all these things about how much he wants to get his family sealed now and has all these plans. Its amazing the happiness the gospel can bring us. 

After our baptism we took off pretty fast and took off for the other side of our district. The sisters had a baptism as well and their investigator requested me to baptize them! It was a really cool experience. It was also a part member girl who was being baptized and for the second time that day I had a family who was all so appreciative of me. I did not do any of the teaching or anything but It was just another testimony to me of how sweet the gospel is and the blessings it can bring. 

Last night we had ward coordination meeting and I volunteered the four elders in the ward to kill the PIG for the ward Christmas party. Its going to be so legit so stay tuned in the coming weeks for the video. 

Sorry not to exciting of an email. Ill try to get more good stuff this week. Love you all lots!

Elder gsack

week 65

Hello To you all,

this week was a pretty good week. Lots going on and lots happening with transfer day today. I am staying in dasma with elder evenhuis which i am happy about and it should be a good transfer. This transfer goes till January as well so I will be here for Christmas and new year which I am really looking forward to. 

This past week we had a CSP (community service project) and man oh man this one was for the books. We went over to a less actives house and helped cleaned out their front yard. Woohoo! People here dont really have front yards its just kinda a small area of dirt if they do. so this family had an area of dirt but what the problem was they had a bunch of old bags filled with dirt all piled up and they asked if we could help them move them. In the course of 15 minutes and moving all these bags i saw overall 200 cockroaches, 50 spiders all the size of my hands and 3 rats. every single bag you picked up out of the pile things just crawled all over your arms and out from underneath the bag. It was absolutely nasty. It came to a point where we would grab the bag super fast and then throw it and all the things hanging on to the bag were smashed when the bag landed. But seriously so creepy. The craziest part though was when the rats came out. We didnt think of rats being inside we were just afraid of the cockroaches and spiders but I shouldve known. Elder Uasike picked up a big and out ran 3 of the biggest rats I have ever seen. I swear they were little cats they were so big. So everyone screamed and jumped and it was really funny looking back but in the moment it was disgusting. 

As for the work though, it is going really well. We are finding more and more everyday. This coming weekend we have the baptism of Sister Myka and Sister Monica. We are super excited for both of them .They are both part member families and its almost a joke when we go to teach them .They already have been taught everything from their parents of from siblings. So its been a breeze. Its just such a testimony to me how important parents are to their children. I am happy the church is changing to a 2 hour sunday service schedule and it gives families more time to leaern together and come closer together, 

Also happy thanksgiving to you all. Im sorry this letter isnt about thanksgiving but to be completely honest i forgot that it was today. Its not a thing here in the philippines so its not a thing to gsack ;) But dont worry next thanksgiving Ill be back 

Love you all lots,

elder gsack

week 64

Well this week wasnt really exciting but lots happened so i guess it was good. On Friday night we went to a wedding of a boy in our ward and there was a white couple at the wedding! So that was super funny to see people from Utah and to talk to them! They made jokes about how hot it is here and it just made me laugh. 

However Saturday elder evenhuis came down with a something and wasn't feeling good at all so we spent all morning inside, however in the afternoon I went out with elder mendioro and we went to a baptism in the zone which just happened to be in IMUS!!!! it was so weird going back to my first area and when we walked into the building there was tons of people from imus 3rd ward so it was tons of fun to see all of them and be able to talk to them. It was almost a joke how shocked they all were that i could speak tagalog now. 

In terms of investigators our new most progressing investigator is sister Myka! Her dad and siblings are members but she isnt yet. Its so enjoyable teaching her and almost a joke how much she already knows. As soon as we say what the lesson is about she just goes off and basically teaches us the lesson. Shes awesome! Her baptism is this coming 24th of november. 

Sister Jonalyn is still doing really well. A little more work needs to be done with her husband but she is still progressing great. This past week we re extended a baptismal date to her for December 15th which she was really happy about because she wants her mom to come and see her be baptized. Shes Awesome!

Fun little things: Last night we had a dinner appointment at a members house. We wanted to prove to her how important and incredible the Book of Mormon was so we told her to ask us any question she wanted and we would answer it with the book of Mormon. It was quite fun finding all the answers but without a fail we answered everything with the book of Mormon. The book is amazing.

Love you all lots! Totally forgot this coming week was thanksgiving... man I've been here a long time

Elder gsack

week 63

Hello!

This week was pretty good! Lots going on and we had lots to do. last friday we had Mission leadership council which was super cool with Elder Wakolo! He told us really cool stories about his past. He was an investigator for 8 years before he was baptized and served missions for other churches so he is beyond good at the scriptures and just taught really cool principles to us all from the scriptures. Really cool experience to work so up close with a general authority. 

As for other experiences this week we got to go on exchanges yesterday. I got to work with Elder Rasband (A boy who went into the MTC with me) inhis area. IT was a realy fun experience to work with him as we have known each other the entire time on the mission but we have never worked together. We were able to teach lots of people yesterday. One lesson that really stood out to me was with a part member family. Only the husband is a member but he has a wife and 3 kids who arent. So they are being taught right now but we went to them yesterday and I just started to ask them about their life and how they met and if they had ever been to church and all the good stuff but the wife opened up to us and told us how she had always felt something different with her husband. She had always felt he had something that she didnt and that was the gospel.  It was so cool to see this sister so thankful for not the missionaries but the gospel that has come into her life. She has felt the change in her life and you can see how much happier she is now. 

Love you all lots!

elder gsack

week 62

Hello,

THis week was pretty good. Lots going on and lots to look forward to. Yesterday we had our zone conference, However Elder Wakolo from the 70 was presiding over the meeting. It was probably the best zone conference so far since ive been here. It was really well organized and it just felt like he had been preparing for so long for this conference. It was really good. But in his opening remarks he asked us all a question. He said "I know you are here in the mission by yourself but who are the people back home supporting you? Who are the people back home that are holding you up on their shoulders?" It was just a good thinking question. Yes i am out here by myself but i know i have all the support of Family, friends and countless others. I know I definitely could not do this with out all your help so I am eternally grateful for you. I may not share that well or express it well but know I am truly grateful for all the love and support you give to me. Thank you. 

Tomorrow we also have MLC and Elder Wakolo is presiding over the meeting as well so I am really excited for that as well. It should be a lot more close up and one on one. So we well see how that goes. 

As for the people we are teaching. We have been working hard to get some ground with Jonalyns husband. Lots of praying and fasting have taken place in the last couple days. And last night prayers and fasting were answered. We went over to teach Jonalyn and her husband just happened to be home as well and didnt seem to be busy. So before we started I went up and asked if he could join our lesson and he agreed. I knew this was our shot. It almost felt like going into a state championship game again. I knew this was our one shot and couldn't mess it up. So we sat down and started to teach him lesson one. And i first i thought we lost and it was game over but thank the heavens for the Holy Ghost. When we got to Joseph Smith and especially to the first vision it was game over, missionaries win. It was the biggest wave of the holy ghost and it hit brother hard. His mood changed and he was so interested wanting to know more. Well we left him with a book of Mormon and invited him to read and pray. Jonalyn bore a really strong testimony and the lesson ended super well. We are really excited for the return appointment. 

Besides that life is going good. We are going bowling later today so i am excited to go and do that hahaha love you all lots!

Elder gsack

Teaching Jonalyn with members!