November 17, 2014

Family,

Things are going pretty well here in Basud. We had one of our less- active members, get really excited about missionary work. He realized that he could be using his time to work with the missionaries. He has given us three referrals now and wants to work with us all the time. We are really excited to have him helping with the work in Basud, but he still hasn't come to church since I've been here. That part is kind of tricky. We were really sure that he was going to come this week, but he just didn't show up. I think that he will become more active as we get our meeting place changed to somewhere closer to centro.

We are currently in the process of finding a place for the Basud saints to meet that is closer to the centro of Basud. We have found one place that looks pretty good. (also in a Barangay Hall. ) We still need to make a trip over there with Bishop one of these days so he can approve it. I am super excited for the new meeting place though, because the current one is pretty far from a lot of our members and investigators. I think a lot more people will want to come to church when the meeting house is closer to them. 

We got a lot of referrals this week, and one of them was the family that includes two of our new investigators. One of the members in our area introduced us to a member that she knows. She is probably almost 70 years old and listens to just about any missionaries who come to her house. She doesn't really remember much about the church actually, but we are really excited to teach her grandchildren. They both know a lot about the bible, but are really polite and really open to what we have to share. They are really good kids. I am really impressed with them and excited to see what comes of us teaching them. I have high hopes there. 

We are also teaching a 10- year- old  who is from a part member family.  He is set to get baptized on November 29 :) He is doing great and always goes to church with his younger sister who is 5 or 6, and his grandmother. (His father is not a member and his mother is less active and lives in a different house than him). We are really excited for him.

I think that's all for this week, thank you for all your support and all your prayers.

I know that Heavenly Father loves us and sometimes he gives us trials in order to make us stronger.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/mormon-channel-daily/213?v=1839005837001

Love you guys tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Ben staying dry under a banana leaf

 Elder Bolambao in front of the building they have church in

 Elder Bolambao under a banana leaf to stay dry

Guava

Basud Week 2, November 2, 2014

Family,

This week was another good week in Basud. The sacrament meeting situation here is definitely different from anything else I've ever experienced. This week, we had a church attendance of 21 Including Elder Bolambao and me, but not including Bishop (from Daet 2nd Ward), who comes to preside at the Basud sacrament service. We had one recent convert family, one active family and then like 2 other half active families come to church. It was a nice meeting, but Bishop, the ward mission leader, and me and my comp were the only people who bore testimony. I am interested to see how things go when we have assigned talks. 

The finding is going pretty well. We actually just recently had a fiesta here in Basud and I just attract all of the drunk guys who know a little bit of English. Fortunately we were able to use this fact to find some new investigators. We found one guy (nicknamed power ranger) and his family this way.We had a really hard time finding his house using his real name. We had to go back to the place where we found him and ask for him again. We ended up going around asking people if they knew power ranger. It was super funny. 

We were able to find another interesting investigator through a less-active member here as well. He is recovering from a motorcycle accident or something of that sort and is in a wheel chair. His wife also passed away. He is a super nice guy who is really catholic, but he is also super willing to hear what we have to say and open to listen to new ideas. 

I really believe that the Lord is placing people to teach in our path. 

I love you guys tons!


Here are a few pictures from Goa.

Basud October 27, 2014

Family,

As you know, I was transferred this week. I've finally made it up to Camarines Norte! I am in the Basud area with my new companion, Elder Bolambao. We cover just about all of the area from the Cam Sur border to Daet, if you know where any of those places are. The area is really different from any of my other areas because there are only about 20 people or so who go to church every week. We are just a group operating under the Daet 2nd Ward. I've just been meeting tons of new people here, and they all seem really nice. I think this letter might have to be short though because I am a little under the weather.

I think I will tell what happened last night, it is probably the best story. We went to the house of one of our investigator families, taught them a nice lesson about 1 Nephi 18 which was really good. Unfortunately, by the end of the lesson, it started pouring... We walked all over in the rain trying to find the people we were going to teach because they have a few houses. They ended up being in the last house we checked, and we almost decided to go home, because it was almost 8 and we were getting hungry, but we decided to go check if they were home, and were rewarded handsomely for it. Nanay brought out huge plates of pansit for us and hot chocolate and crackers. It was really nice, and we had a good lesson with their family. 

I know that the church is true and that God loves each and every one of us.

Elder Benjamin Merrill 

Ben's new companion is on right end

October 12, 2014

Family,

We had a great week here in Goa. There were definitely a lot of ups and downs. I think I will start with one of the downs. We actually had some of our new investigators seriously hide from us. They are in a pretty bad situation where they have trouble paying the rent on the house that they are living in. The person who owns their house is having the mother of the family work at his little eatery, which is right by their house. One day this week, when we went by their house (before we knew about the mother's new job at the eatery), and some guy out front told us that the family we were looking for was not home... It seemed kind of suspicious, so we decided to investigate further. The 14 year old daughter of the sister we were looking for was there and told us that she was at the eatery. We walk into the eatery and find our investigator sister hiding behind the door. We just got a bunch of excuses from her about being busy and stuff like that. We hope that she will at least find time for us to teach her one more time. 

The good news is that some of our other newer investigators are really doing well. They have started reading the Book of Mormon and just told us in their last visit that "habang binabasa nila yung Aklat ni Mormon, parang gumaan yung pakiramdam nila" Or that they felt a light, peaceful feeling while they read the Book of Mormon. It is really a wonderful thing to see a change in the people we teach. I know that we can gain a testimony if we do not have one or strengthen ours if we have one now by reading the Book of Mormon. 

I really enjoyed general conference this week. The one talk that really sticks out in my mind right now is by Elder Richard G. Scott from the Sunday afternoon session. I really liked the four things he mentioned that we can do to have peace in our lives. I know that as we pray, read our scriptures, have weekly family home evening, and go to the temple regularly, we truly will be able to have a peace in our lives through the Spirit of the Lord. 

I love you guys tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

The beach by Goa

10/5/2014

Family,

It's been another crazy week. This week, I got bit by a dog. We were walking up to the the house of the referral we were trying to contact. I thought the dog was nice... It didn't bite me until I was by the door for a few seconds. I think he was just trying to protect his owner.I got bitten on the leg and on my finger. I jumped when he bit me in the leg so I could get my leg out of his way, and then he bit my finger... It broke the skin on my leg and on my finger. I said 'Ouch!' really loud like 5 times. Super scary. The good news is that the dog might not have rabies. The plan is to watch it for  10 days. If the dog is still alive at that time, there's no rabies. I guess the dog was just as uninterested in us as his owner. 

Fortunately, we had some success in our finding as well. We were referred yesterday to some 17 year old girls who are going to school here in Goa. The whole 17 year old girl thing made us think that that they might be interested in a little bit more than the restored Gospel, but they actually turned out to be really looking for the truth. They had no trouble accepting a return appointment and a reading assignment. It was really neat. I feel like Heavenly Father is really putting a lot of people in our path. 

In other exciting news, we got some of our investigators to finally go to church. There is kind of a funny story that goes along with this one. We told them that we were going to go pick them up before church so we could all go together, so we thought they would be ready when we got there at about 12 pm. When we got there, they were all still asleep. They hadn't even woken up yet. We ended up waking them up. This story has a happy ending though because they ended up coming to church with us and we were only 2 minutes late for church. They seem like they really enjoyed church, so we are really excited for them. They have a baptismal date for November 1st. 

That's about all for this week. I love you guys tons, and I am super excited for general conference. Only one week left for us in the Philippines. We are lucky and get to wait an extra week for general conference. I know that the church is true and is led by real, living prophets and apostles. 

Love you guys tons!

Padangat ko kamung maray!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Baptisms and More 9/28/2014

Family,

We had an awesome week in here in Goa. We were able to find a good amount of new people to teach this week as well as baptize three investigators. The baptism was a really spiritual experience. There was a really neat part where we invited the baptismal candidates to share their testimonies right after they were baptized. All three of the people we baptized shared amazing testimonies, even 10-year-old Jay Frank. I really felt like it wasn't just because of us that they have such amazing testimonies, but because they have felt the spirit. I really have a testimony that the Spirit is really the only way that people can come the know the truth.

Other than the baptisms, I think I'd like to share about one of our investigators named Alvin. He is about 20 years old, has really cool hair, drives a padyak for a living and is studying to become a member. His girlfriend is also a member, which is super awesome. Unfortunately, she lives in Lagonoy, (a few towns over) so we don't know her. He is really smart and loves the Percy Jackson novels. This week we were able to share with him while we had a member present who just got back from her mission like a week ago. It was a really neat lesson. He said that he prayed about Joseph Smith and he felt really good about it. By the end of the lesson about the Book of Mormon, our member present set him up for the baptismal invitation. It was really awesome. He accepted. He has school on Sundays right now, but we are hoping that he will be able to fix up his schedule so he can come to church soon. 

That's about all for this week, but I love you tons and I know that the church is true!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Sept 20, 2014

Family,

This week was a really good week for finding in Goa. I feel like we just had people placed in our path almost who were ready to listen almost every day. One was a referral from the sisters. He drives a padyak, which is how the sisters got to know him. He let us right in when we went to visit him and was super interested. When we came back the other day he was really excited for us to share with him. We found out that his girlfriend is a member in a different ward, so that is really exciting. We also found couple. They seemed somewhat interested too, so that was good. We also found someone else while we were trying to contact a referral. She had the same last name, so we thought that the people we were looking for lived in the same house too. They weren't home the first time we went by, but we came back a few days later, and said hello. We were let right into the house without even having to say anything. It turns out that she has been taught by the missionaries before and that the girls that we're looking for are her nieces. (She is about 40 years old.). I think I will share the story of one more person that we found. We were just walking along from one appointment to another and a little kid shouts out, "Elders!" and so we turned around and asked him if he knows us. It turns out that they have been taught by the missionaries before in Iriga, but haven't been taught since they moved here. 

The other exciting news is that we have 3 baptisms coming up on Saturday. We should finally be baptizing a girl who is 16, as well as the two siblings from that far area. They are super ready, and I think they will make awesome additions to the ward. 

I really love the members here in Goa. They are going to make it really hard to leave when the time comes. They are really good at fellowshipping our investigators and less actives. We actually had a day this week when none of our less actives were home and we got kind of frustrated. We ended up going by the church, and guess what... All of the less actives that we couldn't teach because they were gone were all at the church for a birthday party activity! The youth went out and picked up the less active youth and took them to the church. I was really impressed because of how far some of our less actives live from the church.

Alam ko na totoo yung simbahan at na tayo ang mga anak ng Diyos. Alam ko na mahal nya tayo at ibinibigay nya ang mga pagsubok natin sa atin para subukan at umunlad tayo dito sa mundo. 

Love you guys tons,

Elder Benjamin Merrill