New Years:)

Happy New Years:)

Well first off, it was so fun to get to call you guys on Christmas! It was great hearing your voices again for sure:) Glad you guys are all doing great, and I hope you all had an amazing Christmas too!

This week was super fun! We met a kid named Christian Ramos one night on the way home from working. He is 16 years old and seemed pretty interested. So we set an appointment for the next day and went back and taught him. He had a ton of questions which was super fun. It is always good when they ask a lot of questions here because a lot of the times they just say they understand stuff even if they don't lol. But not Christian haha. If there was something he didn't get he asked multiple questions until we had explained it well. I guess we answered them pretty well because he came to church yesterday!

At church we also had Artenian's grandparents there. He is the one we baptized last week. His grandpa is a legend haha! He has come 2 weeks in a row now and just has the biggest smile while he as church. He is like 80+ years old though and hobbles around with his cane. It's so awesome haha:)

On Saturday we went to President Mata's house. He is the 2nd counselor in our stake presidency here. He is such a cool guy! You could say it was basically like another night of pearls with Ricky haha. He just told us a bunch of advice for missionaries and then gave us trivia questions that are hard to answer to investigators. It was fun haha we talked about Ezekiel 37: 15-20 and how there is the Stick of Judah (Bible) and the Stick of Ephraim (BoM). I hadn't read that part of the bible before so it was good to find a spot to talk with them about the prophecy of the Book of Mormon in the Bible.

Anyway not much else happened this week, it has been super fun over here in the Philippines. There were a lot of people that went back to their provinces for Christmas, so it was kind of hard to teach our investigators this week haha. We did a lot of fun stuff with members though because it is the Holiday season and they all wanted us to come to their houses lol.

Hope you guys have a good rest of the Christmas break! Set some new goals for 2019 to come closer to Christ:) Love you guys! 

 -Elder Reber

Christmas Coming in Hot... Literally:)

Minimal na Pamilya ko,

This week was great haha! I am officially a Dad in the mission now:)
Haha I am training Elder Bongalon from Bekal Philippines. He is super
humble and nice. We have been having a fun time trying to keep the
work rolling here in Caloocan 2nd! I have been lucky to speak Tagalog
all the time with him which I think will really help me improve. It
has been hard though not going to lie, I know a lot more Tagalog than
he knows English. We have been trying to make flashcards each morning
and quizzing each other. He still needs to learn English words, and I
need the Tagalog so it has been great! We are both going to grow a
lot:)

So on Saturday we got to go to the Ward Christmas party! It was super
fun! They had a ton of food and desserts, music, and games. The
primary did a little dance which was fun haha, then the older youth
did a Greatest Showman dance that was actually super good! I'm sad I
didn't get that one on video though. I think we had 10 investigators
there which was awesome!

Then on Sunday we had 6 of them at church, I guess some were tired
from the party lol. But it was still great to see 6 of them there. I
think we should have a baptism this week which will be great:)

Last night we went to our Stake Christmas devotional. All the ward
choirs sang Christmas songs which was super fun! All of my zone was
there sitting by each other because we got to sing the first song. We
sang Away in a Manger:) Then it was funny because all of us sang for
our own wards too. Our ward choir is the best bc we sang God Rest Ye
Merry Gentlemen. It was fun, they all think I'm really good at singing
just because I can hit the bass notes haha.

So when Elder Lungren's ward went up, they sang a song I will never
forget. They just sang Angels we have heard on high, but they sang
every word staccato. They started singing it for the first verse and
we were all trying not to laugh, but we did haha. Then I got myself
under control while they were singing the "Gloria chorus." But then
they hit us with round too of staccatos haha. I was just thinking of
how hard Dad and Marko would have been laughing. It would've been an
ongoing joke for you two haha. Idk I probs didn't explain it too well,
but it was super funny!

I also ran into a member that was in Parker's first ward in Tondo! He
apparently bought you a bunch of Pizza when you trasfered! Haha it was
such a small world, he just walked up to me with Parks facebook
profile and asked how we were related! Good times haha.

We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators named Joneline
this week. I was a little nervous because it was our first real lesson
together. We didn't have Dexter with us that day. He is a recent
convert that works with us a lot (Super helpful because he speaks
Tagalog and English lol). But we were alone for this lesson. It was
probably the best lesson I have had on my mission though. There in a
nanay there that is super strong in her religion and is super good at
using the bible. As we teach Nanay Merly and Joneline, Nanay always
says everything we say is correct. It's hilarious because she like
testifies to Joneline and says she needs to go to are church and get
baptized. She says stuff like "God bless you two, Praise the Lord up
above for sending you, Amen to that." It's great haha. Joneline
accepted a baptism date, but we need to help her get to church. We'll
see how it goes:)

Well I hope you are all keeping the true meaning of Christmas in mind!
The greatest gift we will receive this year has already been given to
us, the atonement. Strive to follow Christ's example and become more
like him this Christmas season! I like sharing 3 Nephi 12:16 with
people here lately. It talks about letting our light shine so others
can see your good works as you glorify in God. We all can have the
light of Christ in our lives, go share that light with others:) I am
so grateful to be serving a mission right now! Love and miss you all!
Get some extra ski runs in for me;)

-Elder Reber

Becoming a Dad:)

Hey Fam:)
Well this was one of my more eventful weeks of the mission! We had
mission tour with Elder Wakalo from the Quorum of the 70 and our
Mission Area presidency. It was so good! He literally has the Book of
Mormon and the bible memorized! He shared like 40 scripture references
and he didn't have any notes. It was super impressive! He basically
just talked about how our missions are super special times in our
lives and we need to be urgent and use all our time wisely. One thing
I liked is when he said that if we go to school on our failure, you
never actually fail.

We also got to watch the Christmas Devotional. It was weird seeing all
the pictures of Temple Square haha. I loved how they focused the whole
thing on Christ. I also liked when they said Christmas is the same
everywhere, snow or heat haha. Christ's birth encourages people to
serve others and spend time with their families. I have definitely
seen that here:) I encourage you all to think of how you can really
remember the true meaning of Christmas. Try to give more than you
receive and you will be happier:)

So yesterday was my bday:) It was a pretty solid day! Thanks for the
package Mom! Or should I say packages haha I got 4 of them at the
mission tour, but my Kabahay loves you now! Haha for my bday I got to
give my first workshop at district meeting. It was actually for the
entire zone though haha. It went really well, I talked about how we
need to rely on the spirit as we teach. If we want to truly rely on
the spirit as we teach we need to be humble and diligent. As we gain
these two Christlike attributes, we will feel the spirit more and
teach with more power. I used a bunch of scriptures that say how we
need to "Lose our lives to God in order to find them." As we humble
ourselves and put our trust in God for everything we do, we will truly
become the people God wants us to become here on earth. So I encourage
you all to think how you can truly lose your lives to God this
Christmas season too! As we try to do this, I know we will be so much
happier with ourselves. For us missionaries it will help us teach
better with the spirit and our investigators will see the true light
of Christ in us and want that in their lives too. Haha so that was the
gist of my workshop.

So yesterday I got some news. I will be training this next transfer!!
I am just finishing my training so it is kind of weird that I am
already training, but I am excited for the challenge! I know it will
be a great opportunity for me to grow. I don't know who my new
companion will be yet, but I will find out tomorrow! So yeah you guys
will have a good email next week haha.

PS: I read a scripture this week that made me think of you Dad. It is
Alma 11:44. It talks about how our resurrected bodies will be perfect.
Everyone will be resurrected "and even there shall not so much as a
hair of their heads be lost, but every thing shall be restored to its
perfect frame." Cool you'll get your hair back Ricky! Haha love and
miss you guys!

-Elder Reber

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAY!!!!

Yikes!  A little embarrassing for this momma. I will have to explain that with the typhoon, all of the packages that we have sent since august all got there at the same time. A bit much for all at once but the intention was a little love from home along the way :)

Treats for Weeks

Sleep Teaching

Wazzup:)
This was a super good week! So yesterday we had 11 investigators at
church! It was the most I have ever had at church. We woke up early in
the morning and went and invited some of our main investigators to
church and then they actually came haha. They always sleep in so we
had to wake a few up. The funny part was that when we were teaching
the Cresente family on Thursday night, a lot of JayL's friends were
there. We taught them all and invited them to come to church. Then we
went and picked them all up Sunday. We walked into church with no joke
14 kids haha not all of them are over 8 though. But it was hilarious,
Elder DeGuzman was like "Elder Reber you have a bunch of kids. You are
a dad now." I felt like we were leading all our little ducks in a line
lol. It was fun to see them all at church, it will be hard to organize
it all so we can hopefully teach them all the lessons as a friend
group, we will see how it goes!

So a couple funny things happened this week. First off, apparently 2
nights ago I was sleep talking haha. I have been sleeping so well
these last couple days so it didn't surprise me too much when Elder
DeGuzman said I was talking in my sleep. He said I was like practice
teaching to someone hahaha. I said "No brother but we really know this
is true, it is true we promise." Then I was out again haha. Elder
DeGuzman said if that happens again he is going to steal my camera and
record me haha.

Last night we saw two crazy guys fighting on the street. We only saw
for a second, but they were getting into it like punching and spitting
on each other. Part of me wanted to just go break it up, but I didn't
want to get spit on haha. Then the other part of me felt like I was
back in High School with all the kids surrounding a fight lol. We just
kept walking to our appointment, but when we turned the corner a bunch
of kids started cheering so Idk what happend haha. It was my first
street fight I have seen out in this crazy city though!

I tried to teach the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Tithing this
week to some of our little investigators. I learned that I can get the
point across on most things now in Tagalog, but I need to learn a LOT
more vocab and phrases for the commandments. It was fun to try though.
I haven't taught those by myself before in a lesson.

So I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately. I am finishing
it before the end of the year and I just started it two weeks ago. I
have found a bunch of cool stories and small miracles in it. I would
love it if you guys would all think of your favorite scripture verses
and send them to me! I need a few new spiritual thoughts to share with
families, investigators, and members. They don't have to be long, but
that would be good for you all to ponder what your favorite verses are
and could help me out:)

So that is basically my week, hope everything is going great back home!

-Elder Reber

 

Yes, I wish I knew as well....

Glad Graden passed on the burger challenge. 

The elder on the left actually did it!!

Graden in his element in the middle of a bunch of kids. Wonder where he gets that from? ;)

Watch out for falling cats!

Heyyooo:)
This was a great week! Elder DeGuzman and I had so much fun together
this week! We have been joking around a ton and it has made us get a
lot closer. Our lessons were a lot more in sync this week which was
super cool. We had 8 investigators come to church yesterday which was
awesome:) We have a lot of people interested in the church right now,
we gave out 7 baptism dates this week! They all still have to come to
church though so we'll see if they keep their commitments.

So this week was Thanksgiving, but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving
here... but of course we did:) We went to Zarks burgers with the zone
and Elder Wood, and Elder McAllister tried one of the food challenges
there. It is a 8 patty burger, with 450 grams of fries, and a drink.
They had to finish it in under 10 mins. Elder McAllister finished it
and got his meal for free and his picture on the wall! Haha it was so
funny Elder Wood looked like he was going to puke.

Ayyy so this week something super funny happened during one of our
lessons. We were teaching the Barcenas family about the sacrament. It
was going really well, Sister Barcenas has been investigating the
church for a long time now and seems to be getting closer to wanting
to be baptized. It was going super smooth and I was feeling the
spirit, then all of the sudden... a cat fell through the ceiling! Haha
it was so random. Their house is kind of just a little squatter house,
so it just fell right through the tin roof! It was "Meowin" super loud
haha it was so funny! Classic Philippines haha.

So a couple of nights ago Elder DeGuzman watched a talk that Elder
Holland gave to the mission presidents a couple years ago. It was
talking about Christ's atonement and how Christ suffering relates to
missions. I loved it so much. In short it just explains that we all
have to experience trials and struggles in our life in order to become
like Christ. If we want to become anything like him we have to suffer
even just a tiny bit like he did. He suffered 1000x times more than we
ever will. So when times are hard, when things aren't going our way,
when life seems too hard or unfair, just think of how it is helping
you come closer to the savior. I can't really explain it all right now
because of time, but look it up if you can find it:)

Well it was a great week here in the sweaty Philippines! It is so
weird to me that it is almost December now haha it feels like summer
still because it doesn't ever get cold here. Hope life is good back
home! Love you guys:)

-Elder Reber

No pics this week so I pulled one out of the archives. Graden is lucky to have a great group of awesome, supportive friends!

Baptism Numba 4:):)

Kumusta Fam:)

Well it kind of feels like I was just in here so that's a good sign
for my week! So on Tuesday we had zone interviews which are my
absolute favorite. President Hughes always gives the best advice ever!
Every time I talk with him he says exactly what I need to hear. The
last couple weeks has been different with Elder DeGuzman than it was
with Elder Barth. Elder Barth and I were really obedient and always on
time to things and with our studies. But with Elder DeGuzman he is a
little bit more go with the flow. It had been bothering me because we
were always late starting stuff. But president just told me to not
worry about it, it is just part of the culture. As long as I am trying
my best to be obedient, and try to help him be obedient then he is
fine with it. He said to focus more on your companionship this
transfer than the actual investigators themselves! He said that the
goal for him when he put us together was for me to learn how to become
a Filipino and for Elder DeGuzman to learn English well. He really
just wants us to learn as much from we can from each other. So that is
what we have been doing and it has made it really fun.

On Thursday I got to go on exchanges with Elder McAllister!! It was an
absolute blast:) He is brand new this transfer, and is from Lehi Utah.
He is such a cool guy and we worked really hard even though we both
aren't great at the language. I talked more that day than I ever have
and it made me realize that I have progressed a little bit in the last
couple of weeks. Sometimes it feels like I hit a wall and am not
learning fast enough, but that was a super super fun day. We got 8 new
investigators just because we would talk to everyone! Haha it was
funny walking around with another American again, it is honestly funny
how racist they are here! We played some basketball with some kids and
Elder McAllister dunked it and they all went nuts, it was freakin
hilarious!

BINYAG:) On Saturday we baptized a little girl named Wayne. She is
honestly my favorite! She is 9 years old, super outgoing and loves
talking to me:) When we asked her who she wanted to baptize her she
chose me which was pretty cool! It was great, the baptism went well...
and then she didn't make it to church for her confirmation! Haha the
family that always brings her to church couldn't come so she didn't
make it to church until after sacrament! It was kind of a bummer but
bishop said we can just do it next week and it will be fine. I think
bishop wants me to give her the holy ghost too in sacrament meeting so
that will be cool:)

Anyway this was a pretty fun week. Hopefully we can get some of these
new investigators progressing! We found the Cresente Family which
seems like they might come to church soon which would be awesome! I'll
send some pics we took with them:) Love you guys!

Special Bday shoutouts to SHRIMPAYYY, Marco, and also coming up,
Chipper, and Eric Benson:) You guys are the best!

-Elder Reber

The cutest little buddy:)

Cute Wayne looks so excited and happy!