Another week in the work of the ministry

Hello everyone! It was so good to get emails from you last week, it was nice to hear how things are going in your lives!

This week was pretty dang great. We exceeded our goals for lessons taught and we have a couple investigators who are progressing along nicely! We had TWO INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!! this is a new record for me on my mission! Our investigator Christian came to the YSA ward and our investigator Sister Nene came to our home base ward in Meadows. It was a crazy Sunday, driving between meetings to be with our investigators, but it was very satisfying.

Most of the people we were working with when I got here were crazy and not progressing by any stretch of the imagination, or they were to busy to keep commitments. But we are separating the wheat from the tares and we have now got some more solid people to work with. We have taught Brother Christian two lessons so far and he has attended church twice. He has also read about half of the first book of Nephi, which is pretty sweet. He's in his early twenties and lives here in Edmonton with his aunt. He called us Saturday night and asked (roughly translated) "is it ok if I wear a white shirt and tie (to church) even though I am not yet a member?" I don't think I've ever been so touched by a single text message! I think he is planning on getting baptized and he's progressing really well. Normally with Filipinos we are only able to teach the first half of lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) to investigators because most of them have crazy questions or have had the sectarian notion of Heaven - Hell dualism pounded so deeply into their minds that it is not possible to get all of the lesson taught in one visit. But with Christian, we were able to overcome those concerns without tremendous difficulty and help him understand God's purpose and plan for his children. We were able to complete the whole lesson and it was awesome! He had a question about what happen to his mom when she died 10 years ago. We taught him about the spirit world, which is a place of happiness and rest from the cares of the world. Elder Prings mother also passed away 10 years ago and he was able to tell of his conversion and how this principle was what really led him to joining the church. Both of the lessons we have had with Brother Christian have been awesome and we are all so blessed!!

The bottom of my front, right tooth got chipped off yesterday, which was unfortunate. Not too painful though thankfully. To temporarily remedy this, I have put the chipped off part back in its place and then put in my retainer, so it looks normal for now. Things could be worse. I hope you all have a wonderful 24th of July and Happy birthday to my wonderful sister Michaela! And congratulations to Mckay on his mission call; he will be a blessing to the missionary force.

Panatilihin ang pananampalatya! Have a great week everyone!

love,

Elder Higginson

The day has come that burns as an oven.

Hello everyone!

I don't have a lot of time to write this week, but I want you all to know that I'm doing fine. I'm working hard and we are starting to see progress. I am learning the language a little better, though I still can't really speak it. I'll be patient.

I've been in this assignment for a whole transfer can you believe it?? The last month and a half has just flown by! And I'm not even sure what we really accomplished! That's horrible! Thank goodness last week we got a new investigator who wasn't totally crazy or too busy to keep commitments. His name is Christian and he has some great member friends. We were able to teach him the first lesson in a members home this week, with two members present, both of whom speak Tagalog fluently. The spirit was there as well and it was great! he was also able to make it to church this week so things are moving along swimmingly.

Elder Jennings is going home in a couple of days which makes me sad. He and his new comp. have found a solid family to teach through tracting and he says that they are progressing really well! AHHH I wish that I could teach a family!! Good for him though, he has earned the success.

I've been making some slow progress in the language and I am starting to comprehend more when people speak. Reading from the Anklat Ni Mormon is helping as well. I will keep working in this capacity and try to be as obedient and diligent as I can. I am confident that he will bless me as I strive to perfect myself.

as I was reflecting today I got some satisfaction out of realizing how much I've improved myself over the last 3 months. I've experienced perhaps what could be described as a change of heart. What happened to me that is causing me to spend nearly every spare minute of my time in learning the language or cleaning or doing something productive!?!? I don't know how it happened but I have no more desire to do video games or to dabble away my time in idle thoughts or sleep. This gives me confidence that perhaps I will be able to succeed in College and latter on after all haha! But it's gonna take work! I love you all and I hope you are coping with the challenges of life and having a good time. Don't just survive - Thrive!

love,

Elder Higginson

Sa Canada, ang mga Filipino, ay mga alipin

Kamusta Po! Kamusta ang buhay mo?

Well things are doing just fine here. And by that, I mean that I'm fairly happy and I'm getting the spirit back, though the work is pretty fruitless right now.

We worked pretty diligently all week, but most everyone is gone. Lots of these people are going back to the Philippines, or just aren't around. We were able to meet with a couple, but no one is progressing as of this point. We have two investigators with baptismal dates, but they probably don't grasp the significance of what that means and we haven't been able to meet with them for a couple weeks. It's a royal headache, and I feel like I can't help these people because I can barely converse with them. I've just been feeling like I have not been fulfilling my purpose so we have spent a few hours knocking doors in other people's area's so we can refer people to them. Not any success yet, but it make's me feel better. It's kind of funny tracting with Elder Pring, he ask's a lot of irrelevant question on the door step hahahah. It probably make's him feel similar to how I do working with Filipinos.

So here's a funny story. For those who didn't have to experience it anyway. We had exchanges with the Mandarin Elders in our district starting the night before Canada Day. I was with an Elder who is from China and was converted here. He has been a little depressed since I got here because his trainer left and he didn't know how to take over the area. So I thought I'd try to make him comfortable and get him to loosen up a bit during the exchange. It was going fine until we retired to bed. It was then that I discovered that he snores like a freight train :(. Despite my efforts to get some sleep - I didn't. I tried sticking cotton balls in my ears at 12:00, Melatonin at 2:00, sleeping out in the living room at 3:00, (but I could still hear him and it was super uncomfortable). I was awake until it was time to get up, so at that point I called President Manion and asked for permission to sleep in. I ended up getting a couple hours. My sleeping schedule is just about back to normal.

The language is coming along, slowly. I am planning to revamp my studies this week to try to get the most out of it, because I am forgetting a lot of the vocab words that I've been trying to memorize. I'm spending most of my spare time studying the language.

It seems like there is some interesting things going on in the States. I haven't become to preoccupied with it, seeing as that I have no time to be haha. On the Fourth of July, we listened to some patriotic Themed Nashville Tribute, and other patriotic stuff. I don't even have an American Flag here, shame on me haha. I celebrated by treating myself to a milk shake and some language study. Fun stuff. I hope you are having a dandy old time in the land of the free and home of the brave!

Love,

Elder Higginson

Stranger in a Strange Land

Well hello everyone! Kamusta ang buhay mo?

Things are improving in Millwoods. The people are still busy, and crazy and distracted for the most part and I can only understand a little bit and explain even less, but I'm starting to get used to it. The weather here is crazy. It was super hot last week, and then it rained and was overcast yesterday and today.

We had a cool experience a week ago when we went to get groceries. We said hello to a lady coming out of the store and she recognized us as the missionaries. She said that she was not a member but she really liked the church and had been working to get her less-active boy friend back to church. She had not been able to get in contact with any missionaries yet, so we took down her address and number and referred her to the sisters who covered the area she was in. They reported that she was very interested and came to church last Sunday, and they met with her again yesterday. Cool stuff!

We have been meeting with a returning member since I got here who has had trouble with the word of wisdom and because of this, she felt unworthy of approaching the bishop about getting a temple recommend. I felt prompted during our last lesson to bear my testimony of the atonement and of the temple - that bishop stands as a gatekeeper of the atonement and would help her repent and feel clean and that she could not go on without the blessings of the temple. We met with her again last week and to our great joy and astonishment she reported that she had met with her bishop! I'm so happy with her progress.

Things are ok here. I have been working really hard on this language and I hope someday I will be able to speak it. It's giving me quite the headache right now. I have faith that the Lord will bless me at length after a period of abasement. He has been kind of silent lately, and I'm not totally sure why. The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished the saints to "weary the Lord, until he blesses you." So that is what I'll do. I thank you all for praying on my behalf.

love,

Elder Higginson