Hello Everyone!

Well hello Everyone! It's super crazy to hear that Rylee is actually about to be home in Utah! Feels like the end of an era. :'( Well, I'm sure there exciting things to come. And McKay leaving shortly as well! You will have to send pictures and video if at all possible.

Another super hard week in the work of the ministry. We have two new investigators, and maybe one of those might be something we can work with. His name is Ariel and he doesn't have time for much, just like most Filipino's here. But the first lesson went well and he has been to our church before. He also knows one of the Filipino Members. We'll try to set up an appointment for next week.  Cristhian passed the sacrament for the first time this Sunday, which was really cool. He's read most of the Book of Mormon, Half of True to the Faith and he is beginning the Doctrine & Covenants.

In other news, everyone cancelled their appointments this week. Like eight people. I'm just about at the end of my rope here with just about everything. However on Sunday President said he is not sure if he's going to transfer me. I'm not sure if I could handle that, but I suppose I'm not the first one whose had to learn a foreign language while dealing with a lot of stress and exhaustion, not to mention a companion who has been just trying to make it harder. Just part of the territory I suppose. If I am to remain here though, I have prayed and asked God that if I am faithful in treading this wine press alone, that he will bless you all back home with the strength and power to overcome your trials.

I hope you all have a great time down at conference! Say hi to Rylee for me!

Love, 

Elder Higginson

Philippians 3:13

Greetings from Canada. 

It's been a difficult week in the work of the ministry but I believe I am out of the woods. I'm so glad to hear that I have a new cousin, David! I look forward to meeting him. How is Riley already almost done with her mission!?!? And I'll be praying for you dad, and fasting for your surgery on the 23 of October.

Sa Canada, ang mga Filipino ay mga alipin. Basically no one kept their appointments this week. The work schedule of most Filipino's different from day to day, and many of them are on call. So they are not home when they tell us to come back and they are terrible at answering texts. I feel like I'm wasting a lot of my time, so we've decided to do more finding on foot this week. We've found another dozen people who said we could come back...and they will probably do the same thing to us haha, lame!

However, we do have one progressing Investigator! Jethro is a stud from Bataan (I can't remember if I reported this earlier) and he is keeping commitments. He's read a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon and is very interested in all this. We are bringing a member with us to a lesson tomorrow. We also want to do a church tour with him asap. He works from 8:00-4:00 on Sundays., which is super lame. I'll keep you updated.

We have been teaching Brother Cristhian the new member lessons and he's the greatest. He went on a date with the sister of the guy who baptized him last week haha! Such wonderful fellowship. She gave him a copy of "True to the Faith" And he has been highlighting a bunch of stuff in it for like 2 weeks now along with the Book of Mormon. He also signed up to clean the church, which he did on Saturday, and he was able to attend a priesthood meeting on Sunday night right after work. He is doing so well and is super active!

I was able to meet with Mercedes this week on Saturday!!! It was so good to see her and her fellowshiping friends :) So she and her friend Brena and another guy cooked us a fancy supper and it was a grand time! Mercedes reported that she has finished the Book of Mormon and began reading it again! and she did baptisms for the dead last week as well for the first time! She's precious. I got her a pocket sized hymn book.

Anyway, I'm short on time. If you wish to know how things are in the companionship I would cite you to a separate Email, but I believe the situation is summarized in Philippians 3:13

"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for t prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jeus."

Have a wonderful week Everyone!

as always, love

Elder Higginson

Greetings from Canada

Greetings from Canada.

Well, this week was super hard for me, just like the last three. However we did see miracles. I'll just list a few below.

1) A set of Elders in our Area found a Filipino and organized a pass-over lesson this week. His name is Jethro and he's a very nice guy, probably 18 or 19. We had a solid lesson with him and he was impressed with my Taglog, which is always encouraging. He is planning on coming to church this week and we have another appointment with him today! We'll get some fellowshippers for the next lesson.

2) We were knocking a few doors in a different area on Saturday and with one in particular, a shirtless Black guy opened the door. He had a crazy bunch of tatoos on his chest. So we invited him to hear a message that could bless his life and help him deal with personal challenges and concerns of course! He said that he had received a copy of the Book of Mormon before and he would be available to listen on any other day, but he was busy right then. So we referred him to the other elders. They reported back to us that they had a great lesson Sunday and he accepted the soft commitment to baptism! His name is Dess by the way.

3) I was reading the Aklat ni Mormon the other day and most everything I was reading was actually making sense! For some reason the story seems more new and exiting when you try to comprehend it in a foreign language. You go through it a little slower and compare the English and really examine the words and verses, it's amazing.

4) This isn't really a miracle, but we'll see. I got a spiritual impression to knock on a door last night while in the city. I just felt the need to bear my testimony to whoever was on the other side of the door. Well it opened and a tall guy answered. He told us he was an Anglican preacher. well I testified with all the sincerity of my heart that what we share would bless his life. He said he'd be willing to meet and discuss about our faiths. Who knows what that means. So we referred him to the Assistants to the President, who have stewardship over that area. They said they will baptize him and his congregation, Sidney Rigdon Style haha. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, I'm working my guts out right now and I hope that you all have the strength to accomplish what is required of you and the spirit to follow the will of the Lord. I pray for you individually  and for your success.

Love, 

Elder Higginson

Binyag!

Well it was a super hard, super fulfilling week. I don't really remember much except for the good stuff, and that the rest was a bit of a drag but oh well, here goes.

We did the baptismal interview for brother Crithian (yea, we found out that's how it's spelled) on Wednesday. It all went smoothly and one of our Zone Leaders this transfer is actually a Filipino so the interview was done in Tagalog, which is neat. Then we had a lesson with him and got him all prepared for the baptism. We coordinated with the Ward Mission Leader on Friday to make sure everything was squared away and evidently it was, but he was not going to be able to attend the Baptism, which is sad, because he did a lot of the work putting it together. But he was able to go fill the font at 6:30 in the morning before going to school, bless his heart :)

When we got there at 8:25, all the doors were locked, which kind of wigged me out haha. I didn't get much sleep the night before being worried about it all going smoothly and also bearing a portion of my testimony in Tagalog. Probably similar to Elder Groeberg's experience. Elder Outhouse!! haha! yea, no need for that to happen. Anyway, after a few phone calls and just after Crithian arrived with Brother Hues, Someone came out of the building and let us in. We had to start a little late, but at least 30 or 40 people showed up which was perfect. The talks were given and I was able to bear half my testimony in Tagalog, which was great. And Brother Ben Hues was able to perform the baptism, And the relief society brought muffins and fruit salad for afterwards! There was a crazy English member who somehow caught wind of the baptism and she made a lot of noise afterwards. Good thing Cristhian didn't care, he's just happy to be baptized. He bore his testimony after the baptism and said that the thing that made him decide to get baptized was Alma 5:62:

 "I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life."

On Sunday I was privileged to confirm Crithian a member of the church. It hadn't struck me so much before, but I hadn't considered how special it is that authorized servants of the Lord can cause someone to have the Gift of the Holy Ghost. All I said was "receive the Holy Ghost," and to think that God would just honor that request and send the third member of the Godhead to be with this man is almost beyond me. After the meeting we conferred the Priesthood upon him and ordained him to the office of a priest. Things are just moving along! He's already signed up to help clean the church next month and as soon as possible, he'll be interviewed for a Temple recommend and go do some baptisms for the dead. He'll be doing a little research to do a proxy baptism for his mother, who died 10 years ago, which would be great.

Well, I've said enough, so I'll make an end of my sayings here. I have a testimony of the convincing power of the Book of Mormon. I've seen it work in my own life and in the lives of those I've taught, who really took the time to ponder the message it contains. I have a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith, whom God chose before the foundations of the world to restore the Gospel. Alam ko na, sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya kay paginoon Jesucristo, at pagsisisi, at sa pamamagitan ng pagbibinyag, tapos ulit ang process na ito, lahat tayo ay makakaranas ng kaligian, sa buhay na ito. 

At sinisabi ko po ang mga bagay na ito, sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen.
 

This is a tad bit difficult

Kamusta po kayo!

Well, I bit farewell to Elder Pring this week. He was a great companion with a sincere desire to be obedient. At ngayon I am with Elder Ronquillo. He's been out for 11 months and hasn't learned much yet. Anyway, we had a decent week in the way of missionary work.

I've probably worked harder this week than I ever have before on my mission. Mostly out of necessity, but Elder Ronquillo is not taking to the area. We are not on the same page. I'm organizing a complicated baptism, running an area and trying to learn a language all by myself. I think the Lord will bless me for my efforts though, if I endure this well.

We are having a baptism THIS SATURDAY!!!!! It's happening, no question about it :) The baptismal interview will occur tomorrow and everything should fall into place. The baptismal service will be at 9:00 a.m. and everything's ready. Then conformation the next day! The next steps include getting him home teachers and receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. I'll be sending some pictures of all this next week!

We got a referral on Friday from our Zone Leader's, concerning a guy named R.J. So we went by to pay him a visit and he let us in. He's probably in his late teens and he has been taught by missionaries in the past. We had a great first lesson and taught for understanding. Then we asked him to pray about ang aming mensahe, at tonkol sa aklat ni Mormon. So we knelt down and he offered a humble prayer, probably one of the few he has ever uttered, and there was a long pause. We shouldn't be afraid of pauses as missionaries, because that's when the spirit is usually working with people, but my comp interrupted and told him to say "in the name of Jesus Christ Amen." Not cool, but he said he felt a good feeling inside himself, and he said he'll come to church and read about the Book of Mormon. It ended up being a good experience and we'll probably go back this week.

As Tagalog missionaries, sometimes it's hard to find Filipino's when your out looking for them. Usually we look for Rosaries hanging from the rear-view-mirror in peoples cars, or for flip flops on the front porch. But yesterday when we were walking around we encountered about a dozen children of African decent who asked us if we were policemen haha! We could have just explained that we were not and went on our way, but I decided I'd have a little fun with them. I explained that we were missionaries and asked each of their names. I asked were they were from to which about half responded they were from Nigeria and the others from Ghana. So I asked them a few words in their langugages and taught them a couple in Tagalog haha. They were the most delightful kids. Anyway, I explained that we had a message for all the Filipino's in the neighborhood, and asked "could you guys tell us where any are at??" they all happily volunteered and led us to every house where there were Filipino's. One of them said we can come back and the others didn't answer, but now we know where they are! It was a great experience.

Anyway, I know that we are part of God's true church and that is something special. I  I know that through the Atonement we can be cleansed from sin, and by so doing - qualify ourselves to receive the Holy Ghost. "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." At sinisabi po kong, ang mga bahgay na ito, sa pangalan ni Jesukristo, Amen.

Love,

Elder Higginson