Holy Week

This week was Holy Week. It was unlike anything I've ever experienced. People crowded the streets with the these kinda of like floats in a Parade, on the floats were Saints, and also statues of Jesus. Also in the streets in our area lots of areas were set up with Saints and the Cross where people would gather and read scriptures I think I'm not sure. Also everything shut down... All the malls, stores, even all the banks, everything shut down for the Holy Weekend. People have really strong faith. 

     Surprisingly, it wasn't harder to proselyte than any other time. We still just went around trying to share the restoration of the gospel and Priesthood. When we walk around people will pull us over and challenge "how are you saved??". That's kind of everyone's question here. How do we make it back home... With all the different religions here... People are often really curious to see how we are saved in our church. Elder Monson and I have decided to start using the Articles of Faith a lot more. It's simple and really great! Lots of people are just lost to what they should do, and how they should know. Everyone is always contending with each other too. 

   Things are going well! We got a referral this week for this man. We went to go look for him and our member said it was his neighbor, and he told us not to go there haha. He said that he is really contentious with religion and doesn't let the missionaries talk (I guess they had tried a couple years ago). We told the member we should still try because we need to go, you never know.   We got there and the man wasn't really excited to see us... But when he let us in, he was actually pretty nice to us. We talked and he ended up telling us his Daughter had died since the last visit of the missionaries to his house. He is a Bible Baptist and really knows the Bible. He is actually quite wealthy and has 6 daughters. He was respectful to us even though we are a lot younger than him. Where the story gets interesting is when he tried to belittle or speak condescendingly to our religion. He started off saying kinda rudely,  oh I know your church... You believe that Joseph Smith found some kinda gold plates in a hill or something and talked with God. We smiled and Yes we do. Then he said oh and in your church you believe that no just any random person can baptize you, like a pastor or a leader of church, they need the right authority. We smiled and said yes. Then he quickly looked to the side as if, after years of knowing that we believed that, finally realizing how logical our church was. He kept going trying to get us but every time he would say something he would realize how silly it was that it would be any other way. Then when he was finally done with his questioning... He told us he wanted us to come back. Elder Monson and I know that we don't know everything, but we do know that our message is true. Next time Elder Monson and I decided to start with the Plan of Salvation this week when we go to teach him.

This week was super busy, we had to help with Zone conference and stuff like that. We do a lot of errands so sometimes we don't always get to work in our area as much as we would like. But we work hard to get everything done fast so we can go and work. Yeah the weather is always the same here... Always the same here...... Even the days and the nights are always the same length... No seasons... Weird huh? 

 Yeah the U.S. presidential election sounds really dumb. They really follow US politics here in the Philippines. I never realized how much it affects them as well who we vote in haha. I do feel all your support and love... Thanks so much! My testimony grows everyday and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.
Elder Roberts