The Promise Land of Caloocan

Hey Fam,
Well we had another fun week here in the Promise Land of Caloocan! I honestly have grown to love this place so much! Most missionaries say Caloocan is the hardest zone, and kind of the "armpit" of the mission haha. But I freaking love it so much! This has been my home for such a long time now that the stuff that bothers other missionaries doesn't even faze me anymore. There is just a ton of people everywhere, and it has been good for me to try and push myself out of my comfort zone to meet tons of people daily!

My comp and I have gotten along super well this week! The first week he was a little uncomfortable and judgmental of Caloocan, but my love for our area has effected him a lot and now he is doing a lot better! We have been joking around with each other a ton, and are starting to get a lot of random inside jokes which has been fun. One lesson last week, the member was selling water bc it is in a squatter area and they don't all have running water. Anyway, there were some baklas outside showering (in clothes don't worry) but our old member lady just yelled outside at them. Ayy bayad ka muna BAKLA!! which means "Pay first you Gay!" It is just funny how straight forward they are here. Idk it was funny when we were there haha.

This week we had 3 investigators at church, which was a lot lower than I was hoping. We have been finding a lot of pretty good potential investigators lately. I think we could have some big growth in the ward soon if we keep it up. However, I am to the point now that anyone we find I will probably not be here to see their baptism. But that isn't stopping me from working hard!

We met a guy named Neftili Valiente this week. He was actually a referral from the Malabon ward, but he was super cool! He gave us some pineapple juice when we got there and then started asking us questions about the BOM:) He had already read the introduction all the way up til 1 Nephi 3. We were able to help him understand more about our church, and he seems like he will come to church next week! Brother Isias and his wife Haydee came to church last week. The ward actually did a good job at fellow-shipping them even though there were only 47 people at our sacrament meeting! Haha our ward is so small. It is the best though!

We had Zone Conference yesterday. It was once again super good! We are supposed to get smart phones here in like a week or two now! That will be super helpful to have all the ward information and area book with us at all times. We are excited to get those and ready to be obedient. I think it will be super cool to have a smartphone on my mission to help me learn all of the good ways we should be using our devices. We obviously all need to learn how to control our technology and not let it control us. I encourage all of you to think about how effective your time on technology has been lately:)

We had a bunch of good workshops about missionary work that aren't too interesting for you guys haha. But the last one President gave us was dope! He actually based it off of the Dale Carnagie book haha! He explained that we need to all learn to apply those principles in our lives. He went off for like 30 mins about memorization, and how anyone that says they have a bad memory is just dumb haha. Our brains are just like any other muscle, the more we exercise them, the stronger they get. You just have to constantly be trying to grow. He gave us a bunch of different techniques that work for memorization. Then at the end he gave us a challenge to memorize the 30 Human Relation points in How to Win Friends & Influence People:) It was cool bc I have already started doing that haha.

That's about a wrap for this week though! Hope you guys had a good one too! Life is Good:)

-Elder Reber

Tuesdays are buy a pizza get one free. They love to take advantage of this on Zone Conference weeks when their Pdays are on Tuesdays! 

Elder Reber and Elder Smith

Philippines Manila Temple

Still amazed both of our missionaries get to experience the same temple. 

Caloocan Zone conference

This is plant Graden bought and named Reggie. He is thinking he is dying so wanted to get a pic with him before the inevitable. Must be his mothers son. :)

Easter Sunday!

Whazzzup fam!
This week was super eventful! First of off, we had transfer day and my new comps name is Elder Smith. He is from Georgia and is actually half Chinese! Everyone here thinks he is a Filipino though which has been super funny! We have been getting along super well, he played Ultimate Frisbee in college which is pretty cool!

So one thing that I learned this week is that Filipinos celebrate Holy Week like crazy!! There were some people that would be whipping their own backs with a long cattail whip until their backs would be bleeding like crazy. They basically crucify themselves, it is kinda messed up tbh! Haha I think they are a little bit confused on what the Atonement is! Christ went through all of that so that we don't have to! I'm just grateful to be in the true church haha!

This Sunday at church, we had a super cool new investigator come! His name is Isias Sante. He came with his wife and little son. I am pretty sure he had a really positive experience! We went back and taught him yesterday morning and he was like tearing up the whole time as we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He accepted a baptism date, and we will be working towards that over the next few weeks!

On Monday, I had a new experience that I haven't had yet here in Caloocan! Which isn't saying too much, because I see random stuff on the daily here haha. Anyway, I WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE:) It was soooo cool! We were walking to one of our appointments and then all the sudden everything started shaking. I was confused at first, but then all the power lines and cars started wobbling all over the place! I was like "Yoooo Elder Smith we're in an Earthquake!!" Haha I didn't feel in danger at all, and it stopped after about a min. I think it was like a 6.1 at the epicenter, but a 5.4 where we were at. There wasn't any damage and I only saw 3 people die that day... spiritually. Haha they just weren't progressing so we had to drop them.

Today we got to have a temple p-day! It was my first time going back to the temple since I have been in the field. It was fun to see the MTC again and remember some of the good times we had there! I had a super cool experience in the Temple, but I'll just say it simple. GO TO THE TEMPLE:) I was bobo to not go very often when it was so close to us back home. You can feel so close to Christ while inside, or outside the temple. It really is the House of God and I am grateful we got to do that today!

Anyway love you all! Manatiling masaya!

-Elder Reber

Graden's pics wouldn't send so I pulled out one from last year in honor of the Jazz. :) 

Love when missionary moms share pics! Thank you Tina!! Elder Holman and Reber had a great walk down memory lane as they got to go to the temple and see the MTC where it all began.

Nature :)

Hey Fam:)
 First of all, HAPPY BDAY RICKYYYYYY! Everyone already knows this, but I have the best Dad in the world. You are such a good example for our family and I always am striving to become like you. My mission has helped me accomplish that, because I am coming closer to Christ. But your j-chillin in the seat right next to him. I'm like 5th row or something. haha idk what I am saying but love ya Dad!

 This week was a super awesome week of learning! We got to watch conference this week because it is broadcasted a week later here. I know it sounds weird, but as a missionary conference really is like 2 days of Christmas in a row! Haha I was able to receive a lot of guidance for our investigators, and for myself. I don't want to write too long, but one of my favorite talks was probably Elder Oaks during Priesthood session (and not just because he has the dopest voice ever haha). He talked about opportunity cost a little bit. How everything we do has potential to give us a lot of learning, or not a lot at all. Using our time each day costs opportunity. He referred back to one of his talks we often refer to, Good, Better, and Best. We should always choose the Best decisions to use our time in order to grow as much as we can. He also talked about how sacrifice changes our perspective. I think this is enough convince me to do hard work. Halimbawa, when we work hard to earn our money, it is so rewarding and you will probably spend it differently than if you were just given the money. The food we cook tastes better than if we just bought it bc we are proud of it (unless you suck at cooking lol). If we hike a mountain the view at the top is rewarding than if we just took a tram.  Basically if we are willing to work hard for something we really want, it will be super rewarding when we achieve it.

 Crap, I am looking at all my conference notes and there is way too many haha. Basically some overall themes I got out of it is that it is so important for us to love others, simply love thy God and love thy neighbor, build a wall against the adversary, be eager to repent daily, Christ is Light, covenants bring his light into our lives, Incomprehensible joy comes IMMEDIATELY to those that repent, Repentance is not an experience it is a process, the temple is where we can feel a piece of Celestial happiness and we need to go as families, and last but not least, if the ox is stuck in the mire every week I would recommend selling the ox or filling the mire;) haha there was a lot of awesome stuff this conference!

 I also got to have zone interviews this week! President and I had a super good talk this time. He gave me two books that are dope. The first one I'm pretty sure you stole all of your pearls from dad;) It is How to Win Friends And Influence People. The other one is How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. They are both super interesting to read! I know I can apply a lot of it into my missionary work and life. One thing I liked that it said is that our thoughts are who we become. "We aren't who we think we are, but our thoughts are who we are." As we learn to master our thoughts, we can be who we want to be.

 Haha sorry this is too long. I learned a ton though this week. Elder Findlay has been an awesome companion! He taught me a lot of different ways to look at things. I am grateful to have served with him for this short 6 weeks, Elder Smith will be my new companion. He is from Georgia I think and is one batch behind me. It should be good!

 Love you guys! I got the packages you sent me mom:) The Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce has been the best haha! Oh and my room smells like Black Ice which is dope:) Haha thanks mom your the best!

 -Elder Reber
** from Mom...Sure wish I knew how to caption these better. Graden loves his pics and so I try to choose the best and add them here. Hopefully he will go back one day and explain more about them. All I know is I really appreciated seeing the pics in the countryside with all of the green  because I have never heard anyone so happy to see "nature" :)

$2.00 nike sock treasure

Treat from home :)