Smart Phones

Yoooo what's up:)

This was an eventful week! First of all we had my first zone conference as a ZL. We talked about the smart phones for almost the entire conference. President Hughes is putting a lot of new responsibilities on the zone leaders to make sure that the missionaries aren't going to misuse the smart phones. We had to lead 2 and a half hours of discussions and workshops about our plans to make our progression shoot up with this new technology. It was super fun haha that was the biggest discussion I have had to lead! There were 38 missionaries, 4 APs, 3 senior couples, and of course President and Sister Hughes:) I was a little nervous before, but once we started that all went away. We did a good job, and I yet again realized that God will make up for our weaknesses. He will give us strength when we need it, and guidance if we are confused.

Two days after zone conference we bad our MLC. We got our smart phones and said bye to the 3 zones that will be leaving our mission on July 1st. I was super lucky with the timing of this because the very next morning I got to call my fam for Parker and Jenni's wedding! It was awesome to feel like I was a part of it:) haha because although the George Bush cardboard looked like me, He couldn't hear haha. So yeah shout out to Big Dwain and Jenni for making a big step in their lives. I hope Park remembers a few things he learned over here in the promised land about finding true happiness.

We finished up the lessons this week with a kid named Gillian! He is the craziest kid I have ever met haha! He kind of reminds me of me when I was little...FAT!😂 We had some super funny lessons with him about the word of wisdom and law of chastity. We asked him if he liked any of the girls at school and he quickly answered no. Then we told him that if he has any crushes named Jeff or Dave then he wasn't going to pass his interview haha. Thats when he opened up and said that he has a crush named Chelsey hahaha. He was so funny about it. Anyway you'll see pictures of this little legend next week when he is dressed in white:)

I learned a lot about the adversary this week. I read a lot about agency, temptations, accountability, judgement, and the atonement. Then this morning I got to listen to my Dad's talk he gave this Sunday. I came to a lot of realizations of how slowly Satan works. We always mention how he leads people astray little by little, but I think we all try to forget that it isn't others being led astray... it is us. I read a little bit about the 100 sheep and how 1 gets lost. Jesus goes back and finds the one lost sheep. I think we all read that and think we are part of the 99 trying to find the one, but in reality, we are ALL the lost sheep. All of us need the guidance of a shepard (Christ) to get back to our Heavenly Father. Idk I just pondered about what points in my life I am still lost in. Once we ponder and accept that we aren't perfect in life, that is when we will come closer to God. We will become less lost in life as we gain some of God's perfect knowledge in our lives.

Anyway it was a baller week her in Malolos! I love my mission and hope you guys are still doing great:) Ingat kayo palagi

Ps: We had a drunk guy climb over our 8 foot gate and come in our house while we were chillin talking haha. Also Chambers tried to rap like Elder Aiono. I told his rap had a "C" in front of it haha.

-Elder Reber

HAPPY FATHERS DAY RICKYYYYYYY!

Hey Fam,

First of all, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY RICKYYYYYYYY:):) I gave father's day a nice ponder yesterday before I went to sleep. Freak, you were the best Dad I could've asked for growing up. Taught me all the Dale Carnagie principles before I even got here! Haha although you taught us a ton of pearls growing up, I think I learned more just by watching your example. Love you tons, hope you have a great father's day!

This week was the best!:) We had 3 baptisms on Friday and they all gave the best testimonies ever. I'll give you a quick rundown on each of them though. So 2 of them are a couple, Jomar and Clarisa Devera. They have been investigators for over a year now because they can't get married. But, Elder Pajarin and I talked to President Hughes about it and then President talked to the area presidency about their case haha. They got approved so we got to baptize them:) They mentioned how grateful they are for the missionaries because their house gets flooded all the time, but the elders still come. They just would wear their big rubber boots haha, we usually go when it isn't high tide so their house isn't flooded. Yeah I guess I haven't mentioned that yet haha, in this area we have parts that are flooded with like a foot of water all over so we can't really work there until night time.

Anyway the other one is the guy I want to talk more about:):) Bro Jason. Freak brother Jason is probably the most golden investigator ever. He smiles legit 24/7 and just testifies to us all the time. He brought his sister Jessa, and his girl friend Jenny to his baptism. He mentioned that he wants to help them get baptized too haha. He said that he realizes this is just the beginning of it all. All the members after his testimony were like "Ayyy he is the speaker for Sunday!!" haha it was awesome.

We got to make a few more trips to the hospital this week! Haha freak almost every sister in our zone has gotten sick lately! It has been fun staying on top of it all haha.

I heared Golden State sucks haha:)

Our zone conference got switched to next week so I haven't had interviews yet. I think the Zone Leaders might get our smart phones this Friday though at MLC! Haha we're not 100% sure, but that could be dope:)

Splat hahaha

Hope you guys had fun at Lake Powell:) 

-Elder Reber

Graden didn't have a chance to get these penny necklaces to this family before he left his last area. Looks like they were pretty pleased to receive them from the Elders that are following up with them. 

Levels of Motivation

Kumusta Fam,
This week was good week of hard work! Freak I have never been so tired laying down at bed each night in my life. We have been super busy with people in our zone haha I'll explain later. Anyway, this week I got to give my first zone training meeting. We focused it mostly on just what the expectations are for our zone and what they expect out of us as their ZL's. We set goals for Baptisms in June, and then had discussions about how we are going to achieve our high goals. As a zone we want to get 57 baptisms in July, it will be a party to see how well we do!

Elder Pajarin and I taught them all about the levels of motivation that President Hughes mentioned to us at MLC. It is in a pyramid of 3 groups. The first method is Fear. Basically people do things because they are scared of getting fired, they are scared President will find out, they are scared that they will get in trouble, etc.

They second part is Gain. This is the area we think most of the missionaries are in right now. We do things because we want to receive something for our work, like baptisms, or praise from our leaders. Everyone can be motivated if they know they might win something. It is an effective way of motivation, but that isn't what President Hughes wants us to focus on. Because down the road there might not always be the "Gain."

What we want is called the PCH. It is the most powerful, and difficult level of motivation to reach. It stands for Personal Code of Honor. If you have the PCH, no outside factor can effect the fact that you are going to do what you want to say. You aren't just doing things because you have to, or to get a reward. Instead, you do hard things because that is just who you are. You respect yourself enough to honor your word. That is what we tried to pound into the missionaries heads at Zone Council meeting. That we set high goals, and we achieve them because we don't want to lie to ourselves or others.

Haha yeah it was fun, they got excited about the goals and we got a visit from President towards the end of it:) He needed to talk to Sis Ioane, one of the trainees that has been having a really rough transition. They ended up transferring to a different area, and then the problems started continuing haha. Sis Khaavlet, one of the other trainees started fainting bc she was stressing out. Sis Saballegue got Dengue and Pneumonia this week and has been in the hospital. Sis Bulahan got kidney stones. Then today we just found out one of the STL's is transferring to Fairview (we kind of saw that coming though because of the mission change) Anyway, it has been a party over here! They are all doing better now though, but Elder Pajarin are pagod as freak:)

To add on to our crazy party of a week, yesterday Bishop called us over before sacrament and asked if we would be the speakers! Haha I  talked shared my Pfeifferhorn story with  the ward, and talked a lot about missionary work. It was dope haha!

However, even with all the chaos, our zone still got the most SMA's we have gotten in weeks, and we have 14 upcoming baptisms! 3 of which are from Elder Pajarin and I:) It will be another busy week, but I am excited! We have Zone Conference about the Smart phones, and Elder Pajarin and I get to lead it for 2 and a half hours! Haha a lot of it is just videos though, and then discussions. So it will be good:)

Anyway love you guys! Hope you are having a good SUMMER:)

-Elder Reber

New Life in Malolos

Heyyyyyooooo,
This week was a huge change for Elder Reber:) Haha I transferred to Malolos first ward on Wednesday... and it has been absolutely amazing!! My ward here has a ton of RM's and the Bishop is awesome too! Not to mention it is GREEN:)

This paragraph is about to make you all super happy for me. So last pday after email, we went to Dominos because it is buy one take one here on Tuesday and Thursday:) Then on Wednesday Elder Pajarin and I went to meet Bishop and he bought us pizza again:) Then Thursday we bought Dominos again bc there is one right by are house here. Then Friday we had MLC and had S&R Pizza haha! So yeah that is the first reason why this week has been awesome:)

Cge #2, My new companion Elder Pajarin is such a baller! I have already learned a ton of random little teaching skills that I like from him. It has been a little weird being a zone leader, but he is the perfect companion to help me learn how to be a good one.

#3 why this week was dope:) We had 9 investigators show up to church. 5 of which were from a new family we found this week:) We are also looking like we could have a few baptisms coming up!

#4 MLC:) We basically talked about the same thing for our entire MLC this time. SMART PHONES:) Haha they have been a rumor now in our mission for a couple months now, but we are going to get them at the end of this transfer now. We had some really good discussions about the pros and cons that will come with the phones. We are all super excited because they will be super helpful for lessons and planning. Filipinos are visual learners, so we can show pictures or videos super easily.

Anyway, this week was great! I miss Navotas a little bit, but this ward is so proactive and on top of things! In Navotas we had a baby blessing 2 weeks ago... then after the baby was blessed it walked down the stand and sat back down by her mom... hahaha yeah she was like 2 years old and they were just blessing her! Good times:):) I learned a ton in that ward and know it is just preparing me for other things down the road. Life is a rollercoaster, you just got to enjoy the drops:) Mahal ko kayo!

-Elder Reber

Never knew someone could appreciate his surroundings so much :)