Week 91

                                                    

   Where to begin, so many things happened in this past week it's been awesome! Well to start off the week we had exchanges with the AP's.  Luckily they both stayed in our area, so it was more effective.  I went with Elder Cunningham and we were able to visit a lot of people.  We went to see Amber who we have now taught serveral times.  On the way to the lesson I knew we needed to set a baptism date so I pulled up the calendar and felt like we should ask her to be baptized May 21st.  The lesson went super well and when I came time I asked her if she would be baptized on that date.   She then stopped and dropped what was in her hand and looked at us.  We weren't sure what was going on and then she said "On my Birthday???"  She said that would be awesome, and she excited to prepare herself to be baptized that day.  It's great how the smallest promptings of the spirit can make such big differences.  

  For the rest of Tuesday Elder Pearson and I went and said goodbye to everyone that her knew here.  It was sad to see him have to go, but he left such a good impression on so many people.  After saying goodbye to Cori's kids she texted us saying she came home to a 9 year old balling and was so grateful for the impression that we have had on their family.  They are going to love my new companion Elder Plaira as well.

                       

  On Wednesday we headed to NLR fro Mission Leadership council and following that we did our transfers.  As I said last week my new companion is Elder Plaira and he is from the Philippines!!  He's super awesome and we already get a long really well.  He was a pretty famous rockstar over in his country and has an incredible voice.  He is super humble about it and won't really admit to it though.   My first few days with him have been great! During the weekend we actually went up to a town called Heber Springs for a fair where we had a booth set up.  It was all the Elders in the district and for two days we passed out tons of cards, pamphlets, and Book of Mormons.  It was a cool experience and we got a lot of return appointments for the Elders up there as well.  It is a super pretty town up there, and it's even got a lake and beach that we took some pictures by.  

   Here in Searcy we have a recent convert named Judith and she is from the Philippines.  She was super solid, but recently got offended and hasn't been able to express herself super well because of the language barrier.  So we told her that my new companion was going to be from the Philippines and she was excited.  When Elder Plaira got here we went over to see her.  The language in the Philippines that everyone knows is Tagalog, and then everyone has their own personal dialects.  He started talking to her in Tagolog and then came to find out that they speak the same dialect "ilonggo", and they were able to speak to each other in that.  Judith lit up and was so excited about that and really opened up to him.  Now we know her real concerns and are going to be able to help her better.  It's another testimony to me of the inspiration that President Wakolo receives for the mission.  And it looks like Judith will start coming back to church again!

   As well we had a dinner appointment with a less active family who are way cool.  We walk up the driveway and the son Devin said he had a friend inside and she may or may not be interested in the gospel and this was our chance to teach her.  We were able to teach her the restoration and she really enjoyed it.  Devin also bare his testimony which was the most powerful part of the whole lesson.  It was strengthening for everybody there in that room, and even though they are not active, he knows how much the BOM has helped him. Now we are going to start teaching his friend, and they invited us over to dinner this next week as well.

   Sunday was great as well as we were able to visit several of the members and talk about the missionary work.  Our bishopric member invited us to the baptism of his son in his backyard pool.  His house is crazy nice, and it was a good opportunity to get to know him better.  I met his wife and she is Hispanic, she said we could go to her mom's house and she will make us food from Salvador!  Also that night our Stake President called us and asked if we could go on splits with us and his son!  We were able to see several less actives and it was awesome to go teaching with the stake president.  He is the only stake president I have gone out teaching with, and he has done it several times. The work is great here in Searcy and we are excited for this upcoming transfer! 

Hope y'all had a great week, I love y'all!!