Cebu Philippines Temple Dedication

I get to go to the Cebu temple dedication and I'm so very excited.

Melanie's comment: We knew this temple was going to be dedicated while Megan was on her mission, but since it is not in her mission boundaries we all decided there was no chance she would get to attend, but the very last line in her 5-17-10 e-mail was this one!

Megan's Golden Investigator

I'll tell you about a lesson we had on saturday. We taught the restoration, and it was as if our investigator was teaching me. She recited with me a scripture from the Bible-we were a bit shocked...and then we talked about the Book of Mormon and told her that we had one with us to give her...so we pulled it out and told her that it was hers, she said, "this is mine??" and I said yes-and then she kissed the Book of Mormon. It was so cool.

Megan's food cravings

Things that you need to eat for me: Spice drops. A huge glass of cold 2 percent milk (or skim, i'll give you the dice). A vanilla yoplait yogurt. Cheese...And another request..will all of you order a pizza and have it delivered to your house this weekend...and while your eating it just soak it all in...

Melanie's comment: I just got done asking her what she wanted for her birthday in August and she didn't mention any of these things... Sadly, the only one I can send her is spice drops!

Josh's investigators

Norma and Rode(photo)are planning to be baptized this Saturday. I know they have planned alot, but we let them put the date for baptism. I hope they will be baptized!!! Norma´s birthday was this past Saturday and we gave her chololate and a watch. Pretty nice, huh? hahaha. I guess it´s the best a missionary can do.

Josh's upcoming baptisms

We have found three new kids to teach! They are children of less-active family´s and haven´t been baptized. Being from less-active families is kind of a gift. They already know about the gospel and have been to church a couple times. Their names are Enzo, Mimi, and Nieve. They are all great and fully of energy! and the best part they want to be baptized! We are planning for their baptism in 2 weeks, but as you know baptism´s don´t always go through. But we are hoping for the better!

Melanie's comments: Josh told us during the Mother's Day phone call that he and his companion rent a taxi on Sunday morning and drive to some of the members' homes and pick up whoever will come to church-usually it is just the children, but hopefully they will become strong members of the church and future missionaries!

Josh's 5-10 e-mail

First of all, Mom, I´m sorry I made you cry yesterday....I honestly asked for forgiveness from Heavenly Father because I felt guilty...Second of all, it was great to talk and hear your voices Mom, Dad and Bridget! Hopefully I can talk to all of you again in 6-7 months! This week has been great! We told everyone that we had the chance to talk to our family, one of the two times every year! They asked me if I missed them and I said yes, but...not in a bad way. I knew that they are safe while I´m here in the mission and I knew they would want me here not with them in Utah. Crazy, but true!

Melanie's comment: I was in much better control of my emotions on the Mother's Day call than at Christmas time. Part of it was being able to talk to him for 1 1/2 hours instead of 30 minutes, but the other part was knowing that he feels more confident in the language and that he has an uplifting companion.

Megan's 5-3-10 e-mail

I've said it before and now I'm saying it again: Time is slipping away from me but I'm grateful for the fact that I belong to eternity. A mission is something very hard to do, but I know that it will benefit me for the rest of my life if I learn from the things that I'm going through. We have 2 baptisms this Saturday and I'm so happy-two future priesthood holders that just kind of popped out of nowhere, ready for us. One came to general conference with the branch one sunday, us never having met him before that. He has taught me so much about how to be more like Christ. Yesterday we were at the church early before church started for a meeting and he had been there for an hour already, sweeping the floor. Who is this guy?

Dia de Trabajador (Day of the laborer)

This week Argentina had a holiday! I think the United States has it also, but is not really a holiday. The dia de trabajador. We had a flag raising, sang the nation anthem of argentina, and eat locro! Locro is a type of food with mush corn and some meat. It was actually pretty good. We also played games and it was a great time! It brought many people back to church.

Mud of Argentina

This week I fell in the mud! It was pouring rain and everywhere there was mud. I was climbing up a hill and....whoop! Fell in the mud!!! I bursted out laughing and could not stop for about 30 minutes, luckly we were walking home so I could change!

Melanie's comments:
I asked Josh how he cleaned his dry cleanable suit pants after this and this is what he replied:
I just wash my pants! And yes, they will be ugly when I get home from all my work! We will have to put them in radioactive material and probably have to burn them in the backyard!

Josh's 5-3-10 e-mail

This week flew by! On Tuesday we had 18 missionaries come and help us find new people to teach. The result was we found 32 new people to teach, in one day. We were extremly greateful and have had plenty of work to do! Let me share some of our new investagadors.
Romana and Maria Jose are great! Everything we teach to them, just seems to make sense for them. They promised that this next Sunday they will come to church! Alva and Rosa are wonderful also! Two days before Alva was praying for the true church and two days afterwards we showed up! She has already read 3 Nephi 11 three different times! Her mom, Rosa, has heard the missionaires before and has a Book of Mormon. They also promised to come to church this upcoming Sunday. Karla and Miguel plan to finish everything to get married this week and have a baptismal date for the 22nd of May. For Norma and Rode we asked once again if they wanted to be baptized, but this time we let them put the date. They said the 14th of May! Please pray for them! They need the joy of church so much in their lives.
This week we found Susanna. Susanna is a less-active member, but has known the church for 40 years! Her testimony is amazing. I felt like a little boy when she shared her testimony and I know I can learn many things from her. Hopefully we can help go back to church also!

Story from Elder Rivera

Elder Rivera is from Peru and he told a story to Josh about when he was a little boy. His mom wanted him to bear his testimony, but he didn´t want to because that would be crazy! But, his mom told him that beneath the pulpit the little kids read a little piece of paper, that´s why they always say the same thing and always look down. Well, with confidence he went to go bear his testimony and to read the little piece of paper! Surprise! Obviously, there was no paper and ...he ended up bearing his testimony anyways! Pretty clever mom!

Branch of Lules

We received permission from President Northcutt to go to a town called Lules. It is about 40 minutes away from here. They used to have missionaries, but the missionaries didn’t do the greatest things and they haven’t had elders for about a year or two. We are the next closest town so we are going to be able to work there. We have lunch with the proxy-branch president, Hermano Anchava. He goes to Lules every Sunday, but lives here in Manantial. I am really excited! Lules has about 15 people every Sunday in their branch. They are also really young! The first counselor of the branch is 20 years old! Imagine me being the first counselor! Crazy! We probably will go one or two days every week.

Melanie's comment: Yes, I can imagine him being the first counselor or a branch president. He has great leadership potential!

Typical Argentina Street Scene

Josh's 4-26 e-mail

So this week was hunt for the menos-activos, less-actives,! Elder Rivera has a specialty with the menos-activos, so we have been finding some that have been hiding from us. For example, we were knocking doors in a neighborhood and the next day we came back for an appointment. We knocked on a house that we didn’t knock the day before. They door opened and we heard the beautiful words, Elders! Come in! I thought they were a golden investigator who had had a dream and was waiting for us to take them to the baptismal font and be baptized!, but instead they were golden members who had not gone to church for around six months. It’s a whole family! I really hope they come. Church is so great!

Megan's 4-26 e-mail

Yesterday our attendance at church was 107, and investigators attendance was 6. A little on the low side but we did our best. Tuesday were going to Tacloban to renew my visa so that I can stay here longer. I can't explain to you how fast time is slipping out of my fingers. It makes me realize how expensive every day is. If I don't talk to that person or I don't take the chances that are right in front of my nose to share the gospel, they are gone-and I'll never get today back. People move away, they go on vacations, and even if they don't leave, we will. We are in and out of their lives, and theirs in ours. I love these people so much. All that I want for them is to stay in the church. All I want them to do is to give their lives over to the Savior. The stress sometimes is so heavy, I feel the responsibilities that I have,but then I fall to my knees and plead with our Father in Heaven that my tongue will be guided and that somehow I will be able to be the instrument that he needs me to be. I've never realized before how precious one hour is. How many hours in my life I've wasted! And how hungry I now am do soo many things with the precious time that will be given to me for the rest of my life. God has given us soo much.

Josh' s 4-19 e-mail

Well, today I am receiving a new companion! His name is Elder Rivera and I lived in the same pension as he did in San Pedro. Elder Heddinger left this morning. Yesterday three families had a lunch for him....and covered him in eggs, wheat, and herbs! The video was funny because it shows him getting covered in all this stuff and me running away. Being with a companion who now finished his mission, was a great experience for me! It showed me no matter how much time we think we have, the time will come to an end. Please cherish your time. Time is for us, not for our Father in Heaven.

Megan's 4-17 e-mail

One thing that I feel sometimes: That I just dont want to be stared at anymore! Sometimes Ii just want to be able to go somewhere and not feel like I'm in a parade!Sometimes I don't like p-days because we go out and buy all our food-and Mondays are market days so they're extremely busy and sometimes I really don't like to go! I know that I need to just change my attitude and use it as a tool to bring more people to the knowledge of the truth but sometimes I'd like to step off the display shelf and take a break. One day i read the scripture in 3 Ne 12:14 "Verily, Verily I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid...Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Then I realized that I needed to change. We are given to be a light-and it is to our advantage to be soo...eyecatching if I can say-so that more people will listen to our message. I will never have the power that I have now to share what Ii know will bless anyone who applies its teachings.