I was struck by a J.W. pamphlet

It's been another week full of surprises. I went to Tondo 2nd ward and there is always something crazy waiting for us there.

This week has been full of blessing as well, that family that was a member referral ended up being a really nice family! We taught a lesson that went really crazy, it was one of those lessons were you ask about the Holy Ghost and they start telling you about all the ghosts that they have seen and demons and things, one of those lessons that you feel like you lost control of the lesson and it's hard to bring back. We did not expect them to come to church but they did!! They seemed to really enjoy it! We will follow up with them tomorrow. 

We were teaching a nice lesson this week to a family we had met tracting, we were explaining the importance of the restoration, when we got hit with a pamphlet. We looked to were it come from and saw that somebody had thrown a Jehovah's witness pamphlet at us from the other side of the window haha. We were so surprised but just kept rolling through the lesson. The investigators were trying not to laugh. 

Our investigator who has the member girlfriend is doing soooo well. He read our assignment and filled a couple pages of his notebook with insights and questions. He has also accepted a baptismal date! 

Love,

Elder Roberts 

Elevator Time

It's been a great week... A little bit slow here because of Holy week. Here Easter is only a small part of the celebrations. Everyday for a week there is lots of celebrating. Mostly people are setting up stands and putting idols on there and singing prayer to them on the streets. It's actually really cool but lots of people go back to the province so it was hard to get too many lessons. 

Had a great p-day today, went to some cool historical places today. But emailing time is crammed now but it was worth it. 

The Primary President has asked us to speak in Primary for a little bit on the role of prophets. It was really fun and the kids got really quiet when the Elders came in haha. But to say thanks for that the Primary made us a mango gram cake during a primary activity and presented it to us. It was really good! 

We are teaching the coolest part member family, the Navarro family. They were kind of a random find, and Bishop recommend that we go and stop by there. The parents have been less active for 12 years due to being offended from gossip, but have attended for many weeks in a row now. We have been teaching their children who are super cool! 

We got stuck in the elevator with a Chinese girl this morning. She was freaking out. 

I know that Jesus Christ is alive, he conquered death, we will all live again. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and all that he did for me personally. It's been a great time to share the gospel this Easter time. 

I hope you enjoy these pics.

That's me in front of a 50 foot statue. He's a hero for rebelling against the Spanish, he gathered the natives to fight the spanish!

Love,

Elder Roberts 

The Second Coming

 This week has been so amazing. Besides having a great general conference, we had a false alarm for the second coming. There was a huge fire in a squatters area here and it spread really fast affecting LOTS of people. We were watching the fire when we noticed the moon also looked really red. Then a few days later we had an earthquake here during our General Conference, it was just a little over a 5 on the scale of quakes, just enough to make everyone in the room sway a little as if dancing. It was small and quick but thought the Second Coming was upon us after all these things that have been happening to us! 

But in all seriousness conference was amazing... We were eternally grateful for the Elder from the 70 (I'm drawing a blank on his name) who spoke to the investigators. We've had a referral that we have not been able to contact, so we stopped looking for him. While on exchanges I felt the idea to deviate from our plans and look for him again. This time we found a man we thought was him. It turned out to be his father, he was a little rude and was about to send us off when his son came down and said he had been waiting for us. If you can believe it, he has been dating an LDS member and wants to marry her. So he decided to investigate the church. He also has been to 4 different churches looking for what felt right to him. We taught him about Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, and other prophets. We told him to come to conference to hear from a living one. He came and he was with his girlfriend who found out we had started teaching him. Then the talk came on from the Elder who had lived in Argentina. It was insane how perfectly it matched to them. Like that Elder, our investigator Kiel is also a good catch, being 23 with a great education. We taught Kiel again and he said he loved that talk and it was just for him. He doesn't really remember the other ones too well, it was in English and he said it was a lot of new terms that made it hard to follow a little, but he remember that talk dedicated to investigators! He told us he wants that same experience and is willing to read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon. It was an incredible blessing to us! 

Last week we also got a text from a member in a different ward saying that they were in a hospital and needed a blessing from us. We got there and we were startled to see an old woman in a coma. The room was filled with non-members waiting to see what the "Elders" were going to do to their grandma. The member thanked us for coming to give her grandma a blessing. Then we proceeded to give this sweet woman a blessing in front of her 30 catholic relatives. It was a powerful experience and the spirit filled the room. I love being a Priesthood holder.

Here are some pics from the fire of the apartment building, a spider that escaped, but they found again, and a pic of the manila west zone.   There is only one set of sisters because it is not a sister safe zone haha.  But they work with the Single Adult Ward and do a great job.

 

I know that this is a sacred work that we are all involved in. We are not alone. 

Love,

Elder Roberts 

New Temple in Metro Manila!

I'm so excited for conference, I get to watch it this weekend. When I woke up this morning we had gotten the text from our mission President!! That we will be receiving another temple here in Manila!!! That's soooo exciting!!!!! The temple here is always very very busy and it's a small temple. So that will be amazing to get another temple!! But I have no idea where they will put it... This City is soooo crowded and packed already... Yeah Elder Jones is really funny, he's brought in some great ideas from his last area's that we area trying. 

I got really sick yesterday. Some kids gave me some water from a pump faucet but I didn't know that's where it was from.  But I'm doing much better now, just super tired... 

Love you everyone!

Here are some pics for you.  one of them is Elder Jones getting his ingrown toenail fixed.  Ouch!