Put your hands together and Praise the Lord :)

This week was quite the success. We had 7 investigators at church, a successful Zone Training Meeting to get the zone excited for the transfer, and got to go on 2 exchanges:) One investigator in particular named Charlie Galvez is particularly special to me right now. He is 17 years old, and is the cousin of one of our recent converts named Prince. Charlie's family is yet to come to church yet, even though he has come 3 times now. We brought him with us to a ward activity on Friday night and I got to talk to him about what life is like as a missionary. I saw his little mind spinning as I explained some of our daily routine of studies, teaching, and watching families change their lives. He sat there for a minute after I finished explaining why I love my mission. Then just said "Elder Galvez... I'm going to be a missionary someday." Nothing that night could have made me happier than that sentence. I remember my Dad told me before my mission that there are some things you can only learn on a mission. I know that special experiences that I have had here in the Philippines will always be close to my heart.

Another fun part of that party was running into a kid named Zach Johnson. He was there with his brother that served in my mission in 2015. Well come to find out, Zach served in the Philippines as well! He pulled up a picture and showed me a pic of one of his favorite Zone Leaders! Believe it or not, the scrub standing next to him was none other than Dwain!! Haha small world!

I got to see two more RMs this week. Elder Moralita (My first DL), and Elder Montamayor (Served with him in Caloocan). They were coming back to visit their areas. It was fun to have an FHE with a bunch of members there. We gave a lesson and of course tied it back to missionary work to try and snag a few referrals😂

We had an awesome trike driver this week that told us he was a pretty religious guy himself. We asked him where he goes to church and stuff and then he just broke out into song... "PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER AND PRAISE THE LORD"🎶 He was clappin and singin to his heart's content! We had no choice but to go a little baptist with him for a min;) It was a fun ride and we ended up getting it like 3/4th of the price because he said we were pogi (Handsome) and fun! People here just crack me up every day:)

We figured out how to measure distances on Google maps last week. So Elder Chambers and I have been timing our mile runs in the morning now😂 We just run on a long 0.2 mile street by our house back and forth 5 times so we still have sight and sound of each other hahaha. I used to have to slow down a lot for my comps so I didn't know how fast I could still go now. Well this week my first time was about 6 mins. Then I pushed harder on Saturday morning and got 5:43:) I was pretty happy about that one seeing that I can still go pretty fast! Then this morning I woke up on PDay determined to beat that time again😂 I did the math and realized what my pace should be to try and get 5:30, that way I knew how fast each lap had to be. I beat that pace though and ended running a 5:15 mile this morning!! Haha it was fun, good to finally run again:)

One last funny story... We had to run home one night because there were no more trikes. We were just bookin it in our church clothes with our bags and stuff. We thought it was pretty funny. Well come to find out, one of the members drove past us that night and were just laughing at us because they knew we had curfew! Haha we're like "woah woah woah you drove past us and didn't give us a ride?" She said they were full and didn't have room. I was like dang talk about the great and spacious building. Driving past us in your car and just laughing at us😂 It was pretty funny:)

Hope you all had an amazing week too!
-Elder Reber

Master Teachers Study Challenges

One mile time

Looks like they finally got the jackets they have been talking about. Looking like they are heading to the olympics!

I met Dwains mission buddy at our ward party.

Charlie came to the ward party with us. He wants to be a missionary one day.

Moralita, Montamayor came to visit!

FHE at Maritess Bunda's house

Mikaela Abo's 18th Debut party

May promised she wouldn't smoke on my birthday :)

Ton Ton is Prince's brother in law

I can't get the singing with the Jeepney driver video to work. Send technology wishes my way. 

Dine and Dash🏃🏻‍♂️

Hey Fam,

We had a baptism this week... PRINCE BIGONIA! He is the coolest kid ever! Prince is 17 years old and is the first member of his family. I have seen the transformative power of the gospel work its magic in his life. You can see in our pictures that he truly has found joy in his life:) We took his entire family to the baptism on Saturday! It was their first time at church because they have a family bedsheets business that they can only do delivery to the market on Sundays. It was super fun racing with all of them to the baptism! We had one trike filled with people, and then 2 motorcycles behind us. Prince was behind us trying to race passed us but we kept blocking him with our legs. I pulled out my umbrella and yelled at Chambers "Turtleshell!" Basta it was funny in the moment haha

The other funny moment we had was on Saturday afternoon. We went to visit our investigators Gramvelle and Benardita. We knocked and nobody answered, so we looked around and saw a 62 year old tatay. He said they went to a funeral but should be back home soon. So we went and sat down by him for a min. He ended up standing up very suddenly and just told us to wait a second. Then he just went and walked into Gramvelle's house and grabbed a table, table cloth, noodles and drinks😂 He was like "Alright, you guys eat snack." So we went and blessed it and when we opened our eyes this dude was nowhere to be found! Chambers just started eating and I was like Bro what happens when they get home and we're just sitting outside eating their food alone?😂 We ended up cleaning their dishes and folding the table and cloth back up so it looked like nobody ever went:) :) Maybe we will  tell them that story in a couple weeks.

Elder Chambers and I are having fun together making plans for the Zone this transfer. We have come up with a few solid ideas to keep the Baliwag Family's unity on point👌🏼 We also bought some companionship jackets so we are unified! We'll send you pics! 

One last thing I liked this week:

"Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out."

John Wooden

Anyway, hope you all had a great week!

-Elder Reber

Graden said this rainbow was incredible. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice but they wanted to try to capture it on their way to Princess' house.  

Levy

Caloocan Boyzzzzzzz

An elder got a package with some mexican food items- it seems to be one of the things they miss the most 

Prince

Christine's last day at church- she is moving home.

Prince's family all came to his baptism.

Rowell ( otherwise known as Bessy) a great member of the ward.

Drivers License, Missing Visa and Subway

Hey Fam,

This week was filled with wonderful experiences. I guess I will start out with my exchanges with Elder Klomp. He is one of the trainees in my zone right now:) He started the day off saying that he has been struggling a little bit knowing that he needs to lead the area, and he felt like he wasn't ready to do it yet. However, by the end of the day he was extremely excited for what lies ahead of him. It was probably the most successful exchange I have ever been able to have with someone. I had thought about what the main take aways have been of my mission so far while we had personal study, and then made a plan throughout the day to emphasize those topics. That way, when the time came to evaluate, we had a lot to talk about. I had him write down all he learned as well as some tips and processes I wrote down for him. It felt awesome to help Elder Klomp realize how blessed we really are even if it seems hard. I learned a lot about the power of a leader if I give it the time and effort it takes to be a better one!

On Wednesday morning we went down to Quezon City and I got my driver's license:) I was supposed to get it a while ago, but I didn't have a Visa. My entire batch actually got their visas lost in customs when we got here😂 It was the Governments fault, but basically we wouldn't have been able to come home until we got it last week! Highlight of that was definitely when we found a Subway on the way home. (Personal thought: Dennis thought the Joe's wife was suuuper cute) 😂

It has been an awesome experience serving with Elder Stuart. He is a great example of showing Christ like love and service to others. My new comp is going to be........ Elder Chambers!!! I have been in the the same house with him in 3 separate zones! Basically we have been part of each other's missions for over 9 months😂 We laughed at the beginning of this last transfer and said that God would eventually get it right and just let us be Companions! We're excited for the opportunity to be ZLs together now because we were also trainees together in Caloocan haha! 

One more thing this week that was kind of random... I'm pretty sure every single night this week I had a dream that I was teaching lessons! I guess I'm thinking about teaching naturally now haha:) Life has been great up here in Baliwag. Sure, there are still disappointments, but I have been focused on the positive for so long now that it's easier to just keep it rolling! 

-Elder Reber

Graden's bed?

A missing Visa and a beloved Subway sandwich