Birthday Week!!!

Well I'm half way to 40! Yeah! anyways it is pretty weird to be out of my teens! I got Birthday texts from the DL and a few members! But the best thing I got was from my companion. He made me a birthday card, I almost cried from what he said! He is the best!!! 

So dad you're in the stake YM presidency! In all seriousness I'm sure you will do good things no doubt!

This week was a pretty good one! I missed you guys a lot! I guess my hardest challenge for me this week would be when things don't go the way you want them to go. On the Thursday I was expecting it to be a good day of work and stuff because we had a lot of lessons planned out and a lot of good things to do. Well slowly all those plans started falling apart and then the day just broke entirely! I was pretty disappointed. I wanted to go home and just sleep and wait for P-Day. But I said “one more" So we went off to our appointment. We got there I hid my bad feelings and changed my attitude to have the spirit with us. We were teaching an LA member and his girlfriend, they just had a baby too. As we were teaching she was really receptive and has a extreme desire to be baptized so they can be together forever. That was our topic Families can be together forever. We told her in order to get baptized they need to get married. So they are going to city hall this week to get everything in order! Blessing gid NA!!!!

I miss you guys a lot! I will be sure to send you pictures this week!!!!

I love you guys can't wait to see you on Mother’s day!

Love Elder Rivera

No Transfers! Yes!

Well today is transfer day and neither me or my companion got transferred! It's good because we have a pretty good companionship right now! I think for mothers day I will be skyping! We haven't received anything to talk about it or anything but I will probably Skype. The Antibiotics are OK They haven't done super crazy but they have made a difference. 

I think they will give the package to the new missionaries in our district so I should get it tomorrow at district meeting! I'm very excited to open it! I've actually thought that a few times that it looks like Bancroft especially when I have to go to Andoy for Church! 

This week I've struggled with certain members in the area. I can't say too much about it because I mean it is not exactly right to say what is going on but I can say that recent converts and even long time members don't want to come back. It makes me mad so when I spoke in Sunday I addressed the issue and I wasn't nice about it I let them know what they were doing was not right. But it doesn't matter because they weren't listening they talked the whole time. When I get home I will tell you everything that happened in this area.

But one thing that has been made evident to me is that I have the spirit. And that I do this work as long as the spirit is with me! 

I love you guys and I know that you guys love me. I miss you all so much!

Elder Rivera

This Week

My week was pretty good! We taught a lot of lessons. Our goal is to have 30 member present lessons in one week. Instead we had 2 member presents and 26 other lessons. So the work is going. Our one investigator that is coming along well just entered the hospital so we don't know what is going to happen. But that seems to be the same story in the whole zone apparently they have investigators that are going well, then they just disappear. 

I actually really enjoyed conference. Especially the negative vote. Not for the fact that there was  a negative vote but for the fact that the negative vote made me think on weather I actually sustain the Prophet and Apostles. After some consideration on the matter I had a overwhelming feeling that they truly are the Prophets of God, or as we say here the ba-ba sang Dios (mouth of God). 

After conference the spirit was pretty strong with us and with our work, we broke the concern of one of our Less-active members. It is a tricky one to deal with but one I'm sure we will handle it well when she comes back to church! 

We also had this other Lady who asked us to stop visiting her. She is a baptist member and is difficult to teach. We taught about the gift of the holy ghost and asked if she wanted that gift. She said she already had it, we then ended up debating a little, which was actually my first time, and we asked her to do at lest one of the 3 things to receive a spiritual witness of the truthfulness of the gospel.

1. We asked her to come to church. We asked to try it for one Sunday only, and related it to tasting ice cream, you don't know it's good until you try it. She said "if we would try going to her church" , we said "OK sounds fair". She then made another excuse to not come.

2. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon. She said she was too busy with the bible.

3. We asked her to honestly ask heavenly father if our message was true. She said she didn't want to anger God. We then shared 3 Nephi 14: 7-11. knock and it will be answered and how the Father gives good gift unto his children. She still refused and said that she fears God, Like literally fears God not the respect version of the word fear.

At the end she said that we should find some one younger because she was too old. it is sad because we know that she knows it's the truth she just is not yet sure. But if she won't do the things to know it's true then there is nothing we can do. Hopefully, and this is my prayer, she will one day ask to know if what we left with her was true.

That was my week basically.

I love you guys and miss you guys!!!!

Love,

Elder Rivera

Good Week

Well the dermatologist wasn't there actually. So we went back to the office and told Sister Mower. She then called the doctor in Manila. He then gave me a prescription for some antibiotics. So I take them twice a day and stuff. The church is actually paying for it all so that is good because they are expensive! I have money left over but it will definitely be a challenge to get through this week for sure. The reason the doctor wasn't there was because of Holy Week. In our area there wasn't anything to crazy that happened. We did have one woman wake up at midnight to have a shower so that a miracle would happen. 

So this week we went into Kabankalan to go shopping. I took this picture in front of a sign that says Rivera. notice anything missing? It's my name tag! I didn't realize it was gone until we were at Mang Inisal. I basically spent the whole morning as brother Rivera instead of Elder.

We had the travelling AP's work with us on Saturday, they told us that he received revelation that they needed to work with us. I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Basta, I'm thankful for the help I got because I am still pretty new at senior companion stuff, so I'm going to try and apply what I learned to the area and our companionship.

Well When you guys got snow we got rain! It has been so dry and hot these past 4 weeks. It rained for a solid hour everything cooled off so nice, and this morning we had a thick fog! It was like from the movie the mist.... SO kinda creepy! 

We have a few baptisms planned so pray that it all goes well!

I miss you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Rivera