Elder Graden Reber: Best Week of my Mission

Heyyyy Fam!

This week was absolutely amazing! Here are some of the reasons why...

1) We had 7 baptisms in our ward! Charlie Galvez, Angieleen Canella, Trisna Juan, Tristell Juan, Trisha Juan, Maria Juan, and then one ward baptism. Charlie and Angieleen both got baptized by our Recent Convert Prince which was awesome to watch him used his newly received Priesthood! It was super awesome to see the harvest of our super hard work!

2) We had 13 other investigators come to church! We have been really bold AND loving with our invitations lately which seems to be working. If they don't keep commitments we are just moving on to find people that will.

3) I got to watch one of our investigators named Bernardita finally get married! Her husband Gramvelle is a less active member that we have helped come back to church, and now we will hopefully work towards Bernardita's baptism! I learned at that wedding that 1+1=1😂 Because the husband and wife have one purpose daw:)

4) On Wednesday, we got a message from our mission president that we were banned to wear neckties until February 1st! The area presidency wanted us to see if we were more "approachable," especially to the ages of 15-30😂 However, on Friday he texted us again and said they were going to talk about it more with the Stake Presidents to see if it's something worth trying haha. It was super weird walking around with the top button of my white shirt down... but it was a lot less hot tbh😂

5) We had the primary program this Sunday! If you think the kids are funny back home, you should come watch the Filipino kids up on the stand!

6) We met an investigator named Darin Dave. For those of you that don't know why that is funny, my dad's brothers are named Darin and Dave... And they are twins😂 He kind of has two sides to him, I'll let my uncles fight over which one is their half ;) #1- He is changing. Came to church. Likes the lessons. Asks lots of questions.

#2- He used to be in prison for selling drugs. Smokes 20 cigarettes per day. Lives alone currently... but is dating a returning less active member (which also used to be in prison😂) Which one is Darin and which one is Dave? 🤔

7) DEXTER ANTOLIN came and visited us on Sunday! He was a recent convert in my second area that worked with us like 5 times a week:) It was awesome to hear how my ward was doing over there! Crazy to think I was in that ward last Christmas! Time is flying by!

8) Elder Chambers and I say "GOOD MORNING" to everyone we see... No matter what time of day it is! It is funny to see how many people say good morning back and then like 5 seconds later after we have walked past them they say "oops good afternoon" or "ayyy good evening."

9) We had a storm day on Tuesday. So basically we weren't allowed to go outside because of the typhoon warnings. It made for a chill day of studies, lots and lots of stories, and making tacos:)

10) Last but certainly not least, we had a ward FHE for my birthday! They had tons of food, cake and saging. We ended up being in charge of games and the lesson... So we just picked a game we knew would be fun, then figured we would connect it somehow to the gospel. It ended up having a dope message behind it about member missionaries and not going with the flow. Bishop told us after that it was one of the best FHE lessons he has ever heard! Then he asked us if missionaries do that one a lot nowadays Bc he hadn't heard it yet😂 We just started laughing and we like "yeahhh we just came up with it on the spot so that makes sense you haven't seen it yet." He was super impressed which was fun to see us gain more of his trust!

Overall things were just rolling great this week! Loving life here in the Philippines!

-Elder Reber

We are still a week off on pictures--