week 77

Hello!

We got transferred earlier this morning. my new companion is elder sherwood! he is from new mexico and has been out 3 transfers so he is on the newer side. our district also absorb the neighboring district so we are absolutely huge now! it should be a really fun transfer. i am excited!

This week has been pretty good. We have been having lots of progress with our investigators. This past week at church we had another 11 investigators attend both hours of church which was super good. A lot of the time they only come for sacrament meeting but last week they all came for both hours... it was great! 

This past sunday Sis Rhea was interview for baptism and passed! we are super excited for her. The other week she was really early for church and even though she can be really shy she stood at the door with us and shook all the members hands as they came in. it was awesome! however last night she called us saying that she has work on saturday all day so we may have to postpone her baptism another week but we will see.

English class last night was another success. it was tons of fun. we did practice interviews with each student and its almost funny how much i understand their frustration. you can tell they know what they want to say but they dont know how to say it in english. 

also for my siblings i got a hair cut this past week so dont worry. I guess i didnt realize how long my hair was. as the barber cut my hair i was laughing about how much was falling off. 

love you all lots! talk to you next week.. momma cho cho :)

elder gsack

week 76

Hello,

Well here we are. I have accomplished a sister missionaries mission. The past 18 months I have been so happy serving and am so grateful for the experiences I have had. Now we kick it into the fourth quarter...

This week was lots of fun. Last friday night we went to clean the chapel and set up for the baptism and boom dirty water for the font again. SO this time around we had the baptism in a swimming pool! It was a really good service and lots of people came. Nanay Elizabeth was very happy all her kids were baptized and bore a very strong testimony on Sunday of her testimony of the Church. It was awesome! Sunday we had 11 people at church which was super good and exciting. 

Requests have been made for more stories and more specific about my life here so I will do my best. Tanza Ward (the ward I am in right now) has a ton of single adults. A large chunk of them are returned missionaries so we get tons of help and they all understand really well. It helps tons. 

Fun things that happened this week was... 

1. The other day a bunch of ward missionaries got on a trike and took off but the trikes dont go that fast here and elder sackley still has got some wheels in him so i took off after the trike and followed right behind it for a decent distance and then i finally picked up my speed to get right next to the side cart and I screamed! Oh my i scared them all so bad it was one of the funniest things i have seen. Love my life. 

2. OH!! Last night we started our ENGLISH CLASS!!! it is the funniest greatest thing ever. Anyone and everyone is invited and Elder Brown and I teach it. Its tons of fun. However I have forgotten quite a bit of english and having to teach things so proper and all was harder than I thought it was gonna be. But overall it was good!

If you want to know anything or want me to include things in my emails please just ask! Love you all lots!

elder gsack

week 75

Hello,

This week was a pretty good week. We have had lots going on and the work continues on every day. We are putting a large focus as a companionship on our investigators that we have right now.. we seemed to have struggled in the month of January with keeping up with all of them so hopefully this coming month we do better..

This past Sunday was a super good day for us. Church went really well and we had 10 investigators at church. The best part of it as well was that those 10 were all people we needed at church for their baptisms to continue. So that was awesome. but the fun started after church. We had a couple meetings that went well and then we were out. First we went to the Babon family. Sister is a member and probably one of the strongest recent converts in the church I have seen in my mission. But her kids arent members yet so we got all 3 of them interviewed and they all passed! So their baptism is this coming saturday morning and we are super excited for them. 

Then we went with 10 other members to sister Rheas house! (Her husband is a member but she is not yet and neither are her kids but she is really progressing.) It was a lot of people and kinda crazy but we were able to teach a really good lesson with plenty of testimonies to testify of what we taught hahaha.

I have lots of pictures to send so those will fill the rest of the stories...Love you all lots!

Elder gsack

Tread Lightly 

week 73

This rice has been sitting in that pot for 11 days now and neither one of us want to clean it so it just sits outside and we pray some animal will come and eat it hahahhaha.. the pic of my feet and the landscape is in our area

Hello,

This week was lots of fun. We had lots going on including the baptism of brother John David and his dad Tatay Dun. It was quite the experience to remember. On Friday night we thought it would be a good idea to go and visit them and make sure all was ready for the baptism. Well when we showed up to their home all their clothes were already laid out and tatay told us he had made sure to save enough money this week so they would have no issues getting to the church for their baptism. We sat down and shared a quick thought with them and they shared with us how excited he and his son were to be baptized. Tatay has been an investigator for a long time but has had some troubles with family and other things. He expressed to us how he finally felt ready to be baptized and was so excited to wash away all his past sins. 

Well fast forward now to saturday. we went to the church in the morning to clean up the font and prepare the room. All went well until we went to fill up the font with water. As the water poured out it was in a nice brown/black color hahahaha. It was so gross. So phone calls were made and arrangements were made for a BEACH BAPTISM WOOHOO!!! it was so legit. Definitely something i will remember. But the service was super good and the spirit was really strong. Also because it was on the beach lots of kids and people gathered around to watch so it was really good. Probably a good 20 members were there and then a good 30 plus kids teenagers and adults gathered as well. It was awesome.

weird thoughts from the week.. yesterday we were in a grocery store and i went over to look at some display glass thing and i thought it was only like a little shelf thing but i didnt see the glass went all the way up to the roof so i leaned forward and smacked my head super hard on the glass the worker inside couldnt stop laughing... felt like an idiot

Love you all lots.. weeks are flying and idk where time is going

Elder gsack

week 72

Dear All,

The teenage years were ones for the books. I couldn't even start to explain all that i have done, experienced and learned. I am so thankful for all those who have helped me get this far and for the things you have taught me. Over the past couple of weeks especially i have felt the prayers love and support of so many that i thought forgot about me so truly from the bottom of my heart, Thank you. Thank you for all the cards, letters, candy, emails, pictures and much more. I surely could not have made it this far with out you. 

This week was lots of fun. lots of things going on. We had zone conference on monday and we had a big emphasis on our mission goal. for the last 19 months the goal has been "Shoot for the MOon" which means as a mission average 2 baptisms per companionship every month.... well just in december we hit a 2.4 average. So the new mission goal is "Shoot for Mars' hahaha which is 3 baptisms per companionship per month. So we have lots of work to do and have new things to try to try and accomplish that. 

For our area we are having lots of fun. WE are so busy all the time. Lots of people to teach and plenty of places to be running all the time. However this coming week Sister Viole and Kaye and then Brother Dun and John David are getting baptized. So we are super excited for their baptisms on saturday!

Thank you all for all the happy birthday wishes! I love you all lots

Elder gsack

week 71

hey people

Life here in tanza is absolutely nuts. A little more background on the area is that it used to be one companionship and then president made it 2 to get the work going more and just now he made it one companionship again and oh my goodness. We have 14 baptismal projections this month alone and its something i could do if they all lived in the same place but these people live all over the area so we are consistently on the go. We walk so much and i die every day. Its almost a joke its so funny. 

However this past week we had a super cool experience. We had a new referral. Her husband is a member but very much less active. She was referred to us through a member and we just went and taught her the first lesson last Sunday. But as we sat down and taught her the lesson it was incredible how much we could see she was touched by the message. The spirit was so strong and we were able to extend a baptismal date to her right there in her first lesson. She looked up at us and said Yes i will do anything to be baptized into the true church. That is sister Rhea and her date is for the 16th of February. We are so excited to keep teaching her. 

Lots is going on and i just pray i can walk to distances everyday hahaha, Love you all lots...

Elder gsack

Week 70

Happy New Year! 

its so weird that it is already 2019. Its amazing that i can look back and say i gave every single day of 2018 to the Lord. For one year I devoted all my time and attention to serving the Lord. I love the chance I had to serve and am super grateful for the chance I have to continue serving for the most of 2019. New years here in the Philippines is absolutely insane. The noise is second to none and it does not matter if you try sleeping... you will be awaken. Constant fire works, cars revving, and motorcycles from 11pm to 1am. Its nuts. 

Last Saturday I had the opportunity of baptizing a man by the name of Eric Ysla. After the baptism he stood up and told his conversion story and his testimony. It was such a wonderful experience and the spirit was oh so strong. He told us how much he had relied on the Lord and truly prayed and asked. He bore his witness of the truthfulness of the church and how much it has blessed his life. i know that as well how much this church can bless your life and bring you happiness. 

Today is also transfer day! I am very sad to be leaving Dasma! I have been there the last 6 months but with the new year, a new area was calling. I was transferred this morning to a new place called Tanza! Its a super big area and it should be lots of fun. If i am lucky this maybe could even be my last area ;) My new companions name is Elder Brown. He is farely new into the mission and is from Gilbert, AZ. 

I hope you all had the best of new years and take the opportunity to set goals. Set goals to make yourself stretch and become a better person. And dont you worry... Before the year is over ill be home

Love you all lots!

Elder gsack

 District pic

 Last pics with Rada! Also dont mind the shirtless guy and his wicked tan lines hahahaha

 Rainy days

Last nights dinner at LAs. This is where we called home for christmas!