Elder Head in the Philippines - Great week in Lapu Lapu :)

Yeah Mom, I'm back in the city. It's so sweet. There's so many more, different people. It's super great. Haha. I learned SO MUCH from my last area. I know I'll learn a lot more from this area as well. Haha. Elder Mapel is from southern Oregon next to Crater Lake.  We get along really well. He has a desire to be obedient which is good. We've been working a lot with the language and our teaching. I'm showing him that you can still have fun while being obedient at the same time. It's super weird being senior companion. I'm also his first American companion which is cool as well. It's not much different being senior companion. Missionary work gihapon. Haha. The ward is SO BIG. They have a small ward boundary but there's a lot of members here. They're very involved with the missionary work as well. Every day that I've been here in Pajo, we've been fed at least one meal a day from the members. I say at least because on Sunday we got fed lunch and dinner.. Haha. Mom feed the missionaries sometime. It's so awesome to have them in the house. There's so much progress in this area. We have 11 investigators right now who have baptismal dates who are referrals from other recent converts in the ward. It's so awesome. Our area is about the same size as Mandaue 1. I'm in the Mandaue Stake again and I'll see all of Mandaue 1 on June 14th for a multi-stake broadcast. I'm pretty excited about that cause I can actually speak the language now. Haha.

Sweet, the "family tie competition" is on!  Sounds great! Thanks! Tell them to make it as unique and cool and cheap as possible, I don't want to be a burden. The house looks so good! It's so weird!! I can't wait to see it when it's done! I hear dad dropped $$$ on fireworks this year. Y'all are binuang. Haha. I hope I have an American companion for 4th of July! All of my companions up until this point have been American. So I hope the streak goes on for one more transfer!!

The ward here is super bomb though. They're so supportive to the missionaries. I love it so much. I'm super excited to serve here and I hope I get to serve here for a long bit. Haha. I've been helping Elder Mapel with his language a lot and we're working on our teaching to become the best we can. We're hoping to keep improving and keep helping with the area to grow and improve. Thanks to my last area, I feel my language has improved enough to more be prompted by the Spirit more in the lessons. It's super great. Also, I've noticed how different the language is here in the city. In Duero, it is 100% Visayan all the time. Here in Lapu Lapu, everyone mixes in so much English with their Visayan it just sounds like they're just speaking English to me. Haha. It's super weird.

So the investigators and members here are super awesome. One of our Recent Converts is named Daryl. She's super smart and excited about the Gospel. She was baptized on Wednesday and was just confirmed yesterday. She's already read the Book of Mormon once now and is restarting. Also, she's deaf and can only read English and speak American Sign Language. She's already started to teach me American Sign Language and I hope to be able to speak that one too by the time I get home.. Just joking. But she's super awesome. All of the investigators here have cool stories like that as well.

I'm super glad to be here. I feel that it'll be a great few transfers. I'll hit my 9 month mark next week. It's going by so fast. My goal is to use this time wisely and to not pass me by.

Love,
Elder Mitchell Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Transferred to Lapu Lapu :)

So this week was transfer calls! I'm getting transferred to the Pajo ward in Lapu Lapu where I'll be following up the training of a newer missionary from Oregon named Elder Mapel. I'll meet him tomorrow when I get to my new area. Our area here in Duero got merged with Duero Blue so Elder Larson and I both got transferred out. The last six weeks here have been really good. We've found some solid investigators for Elder Albar and Elder Acosta. So I'm sad to be leaving Duero but excited for my new assignment as Senior Comp and seeing my new area! It'll be fun :) Lately in my studies I've been diving deeper into Preach My Gospel and the scriptures.

So for my package just please send me some cheez-its and some of my american ties. The ties need to be thick enough that they won't blow all over the place in the wind. :)

Sorry for the not so awesome letter this week. I can't think of anything else to write. I'll let you know more next week from my new area.

That's it!

Elder Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Happy Mother's Day!

It was great to skype with Mitch last night! Even though the internet connection was really slow on his end, we loved hearing his voice and seeing his face. He looks so happy, loves being a missionary and learning so many things about life through his service. It was also fun for him to see and hear his grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins. We love you Elder Head!!

Happy Mother's day!

So this week was a lot better than my other weeks have been in the past here. We were kind of in a rut and it got us down a little bit. Then in Weekly Planning we just sat and talked it out. Then we made plans to help improve the area and our work here. Then we saw results.

So this week we taught Fernando and in Weekly Planning one of our goals was to teach more clearly and help them to really understand before we move on to another topic, so we taught that through Jesus Christ, we can be cleansed from sin. So the first thing we did with him was to define sin, which is anything that is against the will or commandments of God. Then we went a little deeper with him and taught about how it's also a sin if we know we need to do something, then just don't do it (Sorry Mom and Dad for all those times you said to me to do something and I just said "Okay", then still sat on the couch eating cheez-itz...). That was something that was kind of a new idea for us to teach, we normally just say "Through Christ, we can be cleansed from sin", and move on, but we really taught the doctrine and the Spirit was there much more strongly than some of the other times we've taught and he truly understood it much quicker and more fully.

We also put a bigger focus on finding and using our time wisely. Both of those came into effect with the people we taught. We respected their time when they said they have something to do and kept our messages short and gave them an assignment to do then left. Then the next visit they actually read, had questions, and listened and learned. We got 5 new investigators this week which was such an improvement from the weeks in the past.

An important truth I've learned is the importance of being exactly obedient. In Doctrine and Covenants section 130: verses 20 and 21, it clearly states that every blessing we receive, is dependent upon our obedience to His laws. I've truly felt that I've received more blessings in my life in the times that I've been obedient and sacrificed my will to meet the will of the Lord much more than the times I just did what I wanted myself. I'm so very grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father that wants to bless us and WILL bless us according to how we show our love to him, through our obedience.

Happy Mother's day to all those mother's out there. We are so grateful for your examples to us of true love and charity. I hope someday I can attain those attributes in the same abundance I've seen in you all. I'm going to go talk with my family now.

-Elder Mitchell Jeffrey Head

Elder Head in the Philippines - Kind of a slow week.

Hey guys!

So this week we had a mission conference with Elder Ardern of the Quorum of the Seventy and is also serving as the Philippines Area President at this time. It was super good! he's from Nee Zealand and is just a super awesome guy. So that was really good/spiritual nahitabo this week! Other than that the work was slow and kind of hurt cause of my leg, but it was good! I have writer's block. But one thing I got out of Elder Ardern's talk was that we will be the most effective missionaries through our obedience. Also he stressed the importance of Preach my Gospel. I'm sorry this letter is kind of looy. Haha. I love you guys!

Elder Head