We talked with Josiah tonight

It was great to see Josiah tonight!

This is what the people do when they can't hear what you say...they open their mouth. 😊

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the peace and happiness that radiates throughout every man, woman, and child. Why is it that everyone seems to be so happy during the Christmas season? Of course there is the excitement of seeing all the presents under the tree, drinking as much hot chocolate as you want, and of course families coming together.
And why is it that we feel so inclined to help others during this time of year? Yes it makes us feel good but what is the driving force that motivates us to give others a helping hand?

It is "The light of Christ."
The light of Christ is "an influence for good in the lives of all people"
It is "the light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things."

Ether 4:12 states:  And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me—that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the Father, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world.

Why is it that we cling to this feeling and long to have it with us all year round? Because "men are that they might have joy!"
In the last general conference President Russell M. Nelson said "of all the words he (Lehi) could have used to describe the nature and purpose of our lives here in mortality he chose the word joy!"
He goes on to ask "What must we do to claim the joy that Heavenly Father has in store for us?"
We can start by looking unto Christ in every thought. We can recognize and be thankful for the blessings that He has given us.

We must also seek His joy. "As our Savior becomes more and more real to us and as we plead for His joy to be given to us, our joy will increase."
President Russell M. Nelson also taught "When the focus of our lives is on God's plan of salvation, and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless what is happening in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him, He is the source of all joy."

"Joy is powerful, and focusing on joy brings God's power into our lives. As in all things, Jesus Christ is our ultimate exemplar. "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross." Think of that! In order for Him to endure the most excruciating experience ever endured on earth, our Savior focused on joy!
And what was the joy that was set before Him? Surely it involved the joy of cleansing, healing & strengthening us; the joy of paying for the sins of all who would repent. The joy of making it possible for you and me to return home...to live with our Heavenly parents & families."

I hope you can all have a merry Christmas this next week. I hope we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas. Also be of good cheer! The Lord invites us all to come to Him and find joy. May we all take the advice in 2 Nephi 5:27 and "live after the manner of happiness." The Lord loves you! He loves each and every one of us. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." May we all find His peace this Christmas season, and always.

Merry Christmas!!!

Elder Furniss

BALANGA!!!!

So I got transferred this week to Balanga City and it is awesome here! My companion is Elder Papalii he's an Aussie. I have this weird thing happen when he starts talking to me. He'll say something and I'll automatically reply in an Australian accent it's annoying sometimes haha. I think if I don't come back home with a Filipino accent, I'll come back sounding like Steve Irwin.

 Anyways Balanga is great, mainly because there is a Mcdo, and the church has aircon but also because the members here are awesome! We have this one friend named Jeremy and he speaks perfect English so he's fun to talk to. I think Jeremy is going to work with us this week which will be fun.

 I enjoyed the Christmas devotional this last week. I especially liked President Eyring's talk. I like this part where he said: "Like the shepherds who saw the Christ child and “made known abroad”  the glad tidings of His birth, we can teach peace to our families and others whom we love. We do so best when we open the scriptures to their minds and hearts." I invite you all to read the scriptures as a family this Christmas season. Feel the peace that comes every time you open the scriptures. I honestly think reading the scriptures as a family is one of the best ways for a family to bond. And when we do this, we are allowing ourselves to come closer to Christ.

Also, I'm sure you've heard of it. It's called #LightTheWorld. This is an awesome thing that the church is doing this year. It's 25 ways to serve others the way Christ did. We can make this known abroad! Because you can also share stuff on social media (facebook, Instagram, Twitter). I hope you all are having a great Christmas season! Feel free to email me and share your experiences of service and Christlike love as you #LightTheWorld!

Add caption

SAAN ANG SAPATOS KO??

Well this week was absolutely crazy! I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and are having fun in the cold weather! It's still an infernal pit here in the Philippines!

So this week was good, we visited less actives, did a lot of finding, and were just having a great week. Then we went to visit Sister Pepper. Sister Pepper is probably one of the nicest old ladies I've ever met. She lives out in our far area called Biaan (close to Abel). Anyways, we are only in Nanay Pepper's house for like 5 minutes to see if she knows any less actives in the area. It was around 7:00 so it was pretty dark out, and we needed to get to our next appointment. I walk out the door onto the steps and start picking around with my toes, trying to find my shoes. But guess who got they're shoes stolen last Friday? That's right, Elder Furniss.

 But the next day we got to go to Balanga to buy me some new shoes, and we got to eat at Mcdonald's which is always a blessing. We stopped at an ice cream place cause Elder Wilcox was being good and I decided he deserved a treat. No not really, he just really wanted some bubblegum ice cream haha. So we stopped there and got him some. I got cheesecake. That was a terrible mistake. It tasted like they just pulled a block of cheese out of the freezer, put it in a blender and added the word "cake" to the end of it.

Elder Wilcox and I had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving! We just decided to get a good ol' Angel's footlong, and some street food. We also had a zone thanksgiving this morning and it was DELICIOUS! I made an awesome hand turkey hehe. Holidays are kind of hard away from home, but they're still great! I'm thankful for the gospel and how it unites all of us. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be out here on a mission in the Philippines. Even when days are hard, they are always worth it. Not every day is good, but there's always something good in every day! I hope you all had a good week! I'm so excited for the Christmas season to begin. It's the best time of the year! I'm thankful for you all! Love ya.

Elder Furniss​

Go With Him Twain

This week was pretty good! JV was baptized (We actually found out his name is JV not JB whoops.) That was a really awesome experience. I couldn't stop thinking about my own baptism and how I felt that day. JV was also ordained a priest so we're planning for him to baptize his siblings in a couple of weeks.

 I was reading in 3rd Nephi during personal study last week and I found a scripture that I really liked. "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." I don't know why that verse stuck out to me so much. Maybe because we're close to thanksgiving, and it's the season of giving, and we all know that serving others serves God. Generosity is one thing we can do that will bring us closer to Christ, and increase the happiness of our own lives in the process. (dang that sounds like I copy and pasted that one). We should always be looking for ways to serve our fellow men.

We taught the Bumanglag family the plan of salvation and that was awesome! The dad, Brother Gary was spot on when we explained the three kingdoms. He pretty much said "Yeah that makes sense that people should have a place to go based on their works. It wouldn't be fair if we all just ended up in heaven or hell." Well sadly Abel didn't come to church, but we were able to teach him again. We actually went to a few of our investigator's houses to pick them up for church, and they all hid. Next week na lang I guess. We went hiking this morning and took some pretty sweet pictures. It was a fun time! Well I hope you all have a good week. Thanks for all your support!

Elder Furniss

Elder Wilcox, JV, Elder Furniss

We become what we want to be, by constantly being what we want to become." - Richard G. Scott

This week was pretty great! We found 20 new investigators and it looks like quite a few of them have great potential! We were able to visit Abel and his family, and they are great! They were truly prepared to hear the gospel. Abel has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he hasn't had coffee for quite some time now. The only problem, is that he has only come to church once, and it's required that our investigators come to church at least 4 times before being baptized. It's hard for Abel and his family to come to church  because they live kind of far away and it's expensive to take a trike that far. I know that the Lord will prepare a way for them though.

We have a baptism next Saturday for a kid named JB. He's really nice and he's a great big brother. Our goal is to have him be ordained a priest after he is baptized so he can baptize his siblings. We have 2 more investigators that were supposed to be baptized next Saturday as well but their parents won't give them permission yet. We found one awesome kid last week named Joshua. He's from Manila and is staying here with his uncle. He was just sitting out on his porch playing his guitar and we decided to talk to him. It turns out that he had taken the missionary discussions before, but was never baptized. This was awesome for us because he already knew everything! He's going to start coming to church again this next Sunday and will be baptized in December! December should be a good month!

 We are teaching a lady named Nanay Delacruz. She is a die hard Catholic, but she has a testimony. She knows the church is true but is afraid to leave the catholic church, partly because she has a calling, and she's scared of what her family will think of her. We aren't quite sure what to do with her. We have been teaching her this whole transfer, and we are the third set of missionaries that have taught her. I hope we can know what to say to help her, but I feel like we're running out of stuff to say!

We found the Bamanglag family last week and they are straight crazy sauce! The mom is Roman Catholic, The dad has joined the Methodist, Born again, and Iglesia ni cristo churches, but doesn't believe they are true. Their daughter is Iglesia ni Cristo. Their son however (he's 13) has quite a few LDS friends and wants to learn more about the church. Their family is seriously so fun to teach. Everyone starts sharing different beliefs and then we get to share ours. They thought the first vision was awesome so I can't wait to blow their minds with the Plan of Salvation.

Anyways, my companion is way awesome. His name is Elder Wilcox from Salt Lake City. He's been here for 18 months and he's a straight baller! We have a pretty fun companionship. He laughs at everything and his laugh makes me laugh so it gets pretty wild sometimes. He's 21 so whenever people ask our age, it blows their mind that I'm only 18. For some reason everyone thinks i'm like 30. Anyways Elder Wilcox got dear Johned in January (poor guy) and his "girlfriend" is serving in Korea. The EXACT same thing happened to his friend that served in the Philippines as well! So I guess the moral of the story is, if you get called to the Philippines, you better pray that ya girl don't get called to Korea.

Well I hope you all have a good week! Thanks for all the support you give me!
Elder Furniss

P.s Ampalaya does not taste like pickles.

God Loveth a Cheerful Giver

This week was pretty wild! My trainer is now our zone leader so I have a new companion, his name is Elder Wilcox. And let me just tell you right now, we are about to turn this area into the city of Enoch. He's really awesome and just super chill. I think we're going to have a good transfer!

So on our first day together as new companions, I took Elder Wilcox out to our far area Biaan. We stopped on our way there at a tindahan to get meryenda and there was an old American sitting there. We bought our drinks and I started talking to him. It turns out his name is Graham and he's from New Zealand. Graham was pretty cool. I started asking him if he had ever met the missionaries before. He was like "no, but I know you guys are Mormons! Why did you leave America?" "So we can preach the Gospel!" I said. Then he said "Wow, well I'm gonna go back to New Zealand, but next time I come back I'm gonna do a gospel one!" This is when I realized Graham had had one too many Red Horses. So we didn't end up sharing a lesson or anything with him but I got this cool picture with him.

I've been thinking a lot lately of how I can change more on my mission. I don't want to come home feeling like I didn't do my best, or give my all. There is a talk that I read recently that says "You cannot be spiritually changed against your will." "Everything God gives us is His. For example when we pay our tithing, we are just giving back to the Lord 10% of what He has given us. The only thing God doesn't have is our will." We cannot be forced to be changed. You can go about doing good, serving the Lord and doing acts of kindness, and your heart can still be in the wrong place. That's why when we give everything to the Lord, we have to do it for the right reason. You can't just serve with your might, mind, and strength and expect to be changed. Yeah you might be successful but you won't change until you serve with your HEART as well. Let us all give ourselves to the Lord and not do it grudgingly, for God loveth a cheerful giver. I hope you all have a good week. Happy Halloween! Thank you for all you do for me, especially for the prayers. Take care!

Elder Furniss

Curious George

Well this week was pretty crazy. I survived a typhoon (it didn't even come close to me), Elder Pierson got bit by a monkey, and I'm probably going to have to lead the area. Elder Pierson is probably getting transferred.

We have been visiting the Maglasang family for quite some time now, trying to get them to come back to church. Nanay Maglasang finally came back and the story is pretty impressive! She was having pains in her neck, and so she prayed. She said in her prayer, if there was a way the pain could go away, she would go to church that week. There just happened to be a storm on Sunday, but to our amazement Nanay walked in to sacrament meeting. She was even 20 minutes early! We were so amazed (she didn't tell us the story of what got her to come until we visited her house the next day).

Also, yesterday we got Tatay and her to both come to church! I love seeing less actives come back. We also have so many amazing investigators. One is named Abel and he is so smart! He knows the bible like the back of his hand, and he recognizes the Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ. It is awesome seeing who the Lord has prepared here.

I'm thankful for my Savior. Without Him I wouldn't be able to do this. Thank you everyone back home who is praying for me, I can feel my Father's love. I hope everyone has a good week! Stay safe.

Elder Furniss

The Man With 4,026 Children

So this week was an adventure. We went on exchanges with our kabahays and I got to hang out with Elder Aspiras. We were walking to our next appointment and I saw an old wrinkly American guy riding on an electric scooter so I thought "yay a foreigner, might as well go try to CTI him." So I go up and start talking to him and I say "hey where ya from?" "Oh i'm from Colorado, but I've lived here in the Philippines for the last 44 years" okay that's weird I thought. "So were you in the navy or something and you just decided to stay here?" I said. "Yeah I was in the coast guard and I just didn't feel like going back home." Anyways I proceeded to tell him who we were and invited him to listen to our message. He was like "yeah yeah I know who you guys are. My wife is a Mormon. I'll give her this pamphlet." Then I said "Oh you're married here huh?" "Yeah, I have 155 wives all over the world. See I used to live in Russia and I worked for the CIA I was a Muslim over there. I married a whole bunch of women and I have 4,026 kids." "I also bought my own country so I can pretty much do what I want." "Haha that's pretty awesome!" I said. (wow this guy was crazy). You never know who you're going to stumble upon when you go outside here. It was nice talking to him though even if he was a little kooked out.

Other than that I don't have too many crazy stories. We were able to find 14 new investigators in the last 3 days and we are extending BGD's like crazy. This month is just flying by! Time in general is just going so fast. Well I'm thankful for all the prayers that you guys are saying for me. I hope you all have a good week and stay safe!

A Day ahead, a Week Behind

Well I finally got to watch general conference on Sunday. Wow that was loaded with some goods. I absolutely loved President Uchtdorf's talk about the plan of salvation. Wow that was amazing. I also loved Elder Bednar's talk. I loved when he said "We come to know the Lord not when we believe IN Him, but when we believe Him. General conference was so good. President Uchtdorf always cracks me up. He drank a "Diet soda that will remain nameless" Maybe that's why President Monson decided to give a talk on the promised blessings of following the word of wisdom?...kidding.

 We have about four of our investigators that are expected to get baptized here pretty soon so I'm getting excited! It's so crazy how many people are ready for the Gospel here. Missionary work really is awesome and, I don't know if it's just cause I'm a missionary, but there seemed to be a lot of focus on missionaries and missionary work during conference. We really do need to teach the youth to loose their thumbs. We shouldn't be afraid to share the gospel! We need to do our part! You never know who you can influence by sharing a simple message of joy.

So today we had a budol fight which is when you cook a ton of rice and ulam and put it on a banana leaf and then just give yourself diabetes. It was so fun. I honestly don't know how Filipinos can eat rice everyday. It blows my mind. Well I hope you are all having fun. Have a good week and be happy!!!

FACT: Eating balut does not improve your ability to speak Tagalog.

Yeah I tried balut this week. It was pretty gnarly. Yeah so they have these little fruits that look like potatoes, and I tried one. Anyways on our way back to the apartment I was like "Elder Pierson dude I think I'm gonna puke sometime tonight. I do not feel good." Then at around midnight I run down stairs and sweet heavens to Murgatroid everything I had eaten since I'd been home was gone. Remind me to never eat potato fruit again.

 So we don't get to watch conference until this next Sunday. I'm super excited to watch it. The power of fasting is so awesome. We had 8 of our investigators come to church. We even had a couple investigator families! We have one investigator named Abel and he is so smart. I could see him being a branch president.

So it rained like everyday ALL day this last week. Sometime it gets pretty discouraging when you are just walking around all day and it's pouring and you just want someone to let you into their house so you can teach (and get out of the rain).

I love it here in Mariveles. I love the members and how kind they are. We honestly get fed all the time. Well I hope you all have a good week! I'm so excited for conference! Like always stay safe, and I'm thankful for all you are doing for me!

Love Elder Furniss

That Moment When...

That moment when you forget to carry toilet paper with you and you are forced to become a true Filipino. Wow it's been a crazy week here in Mariveles! We had a branch party for family week and it was AN ABSOLUTE RIOT! If I've learned one thing about Filipinos it's that they know how to have fun.

I had to give a surprise family home evening lesson last Monday. We got to the house and they kinda have like a branch family home evening so there were quite a few people there, and guess who they wanted to give a lesson? Your's truly! So I just talked about Alma 34:32 and how now is the time that we need to prepare to meet God. He gave us this opportunity to learn and grow here on this earth and we are able to do that together as families. We can't procrastinate when we will try to do better because there is only so much time we have before we are called home! There is always something we can do better in our lives. As we continue to develop Christlike attributes, our faith in Him grows stronger. We are able to become more perfected through the atonement of our Savior.

I was talking to my companion the other day during companionship study about how I felt like I knew so little about the Book of Mormon. He shared with me a quote from President Ian Ardern that says "Don't worry about how many times you go through the Book of Mormon. Worry about it going through you." That is so true! We need to let ourselves be changed. We need to open our hearts to the whispering of the Holy Ghost. I know that as we try to live the teachings of the Gospel more fully, our lives will be blessed.

I love it here in Mariveles. It is so awesome here! We teach a few people who live in shacks down by the ocean and it is such an amazing experience. I get to do things I never thought I would get to here. I'm slowly getting better at teaching. I know that the Lord has given me strength to fulfill my calling. As a missionary, I have been called of God to be a full time teacher. It is not always easy, but I have seen the miracles of the enabling power of the atonement in my life. Don't be afraid to let the Lord work miracles through you! He is a God of miracles! I hope you all have a good week! Thank you for all the prayers you've said for me. I'm praying for you guys! Have a good week and stay safe! Peace out na!

Elder Furniss

HOW DOES EVERYBODY KNOW MY NAME???

 I'm pretty famous here in the streets of Mariveles. I just walk around and everyone says "hey Joe!" I just say "Wow how do you know my name??" (They call every white guy Joe in the Philippines). My companion said he always wanted a companion named Joe. So here I am. This week has been pretty hard, the MTC is an absolute cake walk compared to the field. I love the members here though. We get fed all the time so that's really nice. Also how could I forget?? BUCKET SHOWERS! They are probably the best thing ever. I love waking up in the morning and pouring a nice cold scoop of water all over myself. So we happen to live in the most ghetto apartment known to man. But the crazy thing is, is that it's like REALLY nice compared to some of the other shacks around here. Oh back to the showers, so we have a room designated for showering and washing clothes. We also have a drain in our small toilet room, and for some reason, the filipinos that I live with LOVE to shower in the toilet room so that's always nice running into the bathroom and having 4 inches of water on the floor. Also our water doesn't work in the morning...technically our water never works, except for at night time. So when I say this place is ghetto I mean it. It's super fun though. Every time I wake up and take a shower I kind of pause and realize what I'm doing. It's pretty funny how quickly your life can change in two months. My trainer is pretty awesome, he's from Rexburg so that's nice to have someone that I can somewhat relate to. Tagalog is a pretty crazy language! I usually have no clue what's going on around me cause wow these people talk so fast. They're also really quiet. So we had a dinner appointment last night and I kind of choked on some food and this Nanay asked "Oh no are you getting a cold? It's really cold outside this time of year! I don't want you to get sick!" I just thought to myself, "are you kidding me? This is considered cold?!? it's like 10,000,000 degrees outside! it's 8:00 at night and I'm dripping sweat!" wow. I'm in for a treat next summer when it's actually hot. We had a baptism (technically just my trainer did, it was him and his companion's investigator) on Saturday. That was awesome! It's crazy where some of the houses are that we go to. Some of them are just shacks by the ocean, some are way up on a hill. We walk so much during the day! This is a crazy adventure! I can't wait to see how much crazier it gets! Oh yeah, I saw a goat get barbecued in the middle of the street on my first day here so that was pretty intense. Also everyone here sings karaoke and they are terrible haha. They sing SO LOUD! And they have the strongest filipino accents ever it's hilarious. Well I hope you all have a good week. Keep me in your prayers!

Love, Elder Furniss

Josiah is serving in the Marivales District, Orion Zone in the Olongapo Mission

17 September 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Furniss,

We were delighted with the safe arrival of your son, Elder Josiah Ray Furniss, here in the Olongapo Mission. He is excited about his mission and enthusiastic about entering the Lord's service in this area. 

Elder Furniss has been assigned to the Marivales 1 Area, Marivales District, Orion Zone. His companion is Elder Pierson. Theattached map will help you to locate his current area and help you to follow each future transfer.

With our love and training and your support and encouragement from home, he will mature and progress beyond your expectations. With these great experiences, he will develop a great love for his fellow missionaries as they strive to teach a better way of life and the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We urge you to write your son each week and include encouraging news of family events and achievements, spiritual experiences and other matters which will bring joy and deeper commitment to him. Please do not worry him about family problems over which he has no control. If you want him to know about a family emergency or special situation, please send a letter or email to me and I will inform him.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you or your son.  We love your missionary and want this mission to be a great experience for your entire family.

May the Lord's blessings be with you.

Sincerely,   

Dennis V. Dahle

Philippines Olongapo Mission                                    

Mission President

DVD/sde

Add caption

Elder Furniss has Arrived in Manila, Philippines!

HOLY COW THIS PLACE IS AN ABSOLUTE RIOT MOM! I've been up for like 30 hours. I'm going to bed here in about an hour, it's 5:45 PM here. Wow the people are so nice, I love them so much. I was more nervous in LAX than I am here. I am so calm, like this place honestly just feels like home. The houses here are nuts, I could not believe it as we flew into Manila. They are just cinder blocks with some tin on top. The bus we took to the MTC was insane. It had a chandelier, and we had about 5 police officers surrounding it with AR-15's as we all piled in. I'm pretty sure we passed a dead guy on the street here as well. People literally stand in the street and sell stuff to cars as they drive buy. I gave out a book of Mormon at the Hong Kong airport. Turns out we were on the same flight and he lives in southern Manila. His name was Joe. We weren't able to sit next to each other on the flight but, he was so excited when I gave him the Book of Mormon. I wrote my email address in it so he could contact me if he had any questions. I just love the people here. It started raining when we got to the MTC and it is like practically flooding. Wow I can't even describe how awesome this is. I heard a guy talking behind me in the airplane in Tagalog and I was surprised at how much I could understand. I just can't wait to get into a lesson and just have no clue what's going on. I know that the Spirit will guide me and that the Lord will help me though.

Airplane food is terrible! I ate some dumplings in Hong Kong and they were so good! And then we had adobo and rice here at the MTC and SWEET AUNT JEMIMA! Filipino food is the business! I just can't get over how nice the people are here. They have so much faith in Jesus Christ it is so cool. There is a wall along the road to the MTC that is painted with words like "kapayapaan" "pananampalataya kay Cristo" which is "peace" and "faith in Jesus Christ". I love it. Also we are right across the road from the Manila temple, unfortunately it's closed.
Well I hope you all have a good week. I LOVE THIS PLACE! This is my new life and I never want to go back. Stay safe and Ingat Po!

Love Elder Furniss

Josiah Goes to the Philippines Tomorrow!

Josiah didn't send me a group email today, so I'll just send a a couple excerpts from his personal email to me. 

Elder Rogers and I taught the priesthood lesson on Sunday and it was about obedience and I told them the last thing my mama told me was "Be the kind of missionary your mom thinks you are." Everyone thought that was awesome. So good job there mama.

Don't worry about me mama.  I know who I am and who I represent. Strict obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles. Love ya.

Love Elder Furniss

I'm Going Home in 6 Days

Where did August even go? 1 month down, 23 to go!

So it's kind of weird. I'm a celebrity in our residence hall. About 2 weeks ago we had these new elders come in. (State side elders, so you know they have WAY too much time on their hands). Anyways, I met with them and we had a nice little chat. One of the elders gave me a haircut and the bonding began. The next day I walk into the residence hall, and they all start following me yelling "FURN FURN FURN FURN FURN DADDY DAWG!" "What have I done" I thought to myself as they gathered around me with blankets over their heads. "I've created a cult and they've only been here for two days." I asked them what title I should give my "followers". They said "call us the Furnites." I then proceeded to give them a lesson on the ten commandments and how they shouldn't worship false idols. Then I went up to the second floor and let's just say I now have an African American Furnite. I'm also running for governor when I get home cause pretty much everyone in building 5M said they would move to Idaho for 6 months, get they're residency, and vote me in. Idaho is about to see the Furnite revolution take place. Enough about that. For "family home evening" (whenever our district gets together) we played "Bean boozled". Elder Poulsen threw up and that's really all I have to say about that. Elder Nate Gregerson is here in the MTC so we've had some good times. Elder Barnard left a few days ago. I got to see him come and go. Yep, that's how long I've been here. Tracy Watson, who is the head of missionary curriculum (like he helped write preach my gospel, and direct "the district") gave a devotional on Sunday. He's from Thomas, Idaho! He gave an awesome devotional about the missionary purpose. He said "relax, listen to the Spirit, and let the Lord do the heavy lifting." He also reiterated what Elder Bednar said; "If you lose yourself, you'll find out who you really are." I hope everyone is doing well back home. Don't worry about me, I'm doing just fine. You guys have fun with Hillary Clinton, I'll be hanging out with Manny Pacquiao. Everyone have a good safe week! Read your scriptures and say your prayers! Also try to serve someone this week. I know this gospel is true, and I'm so thankful for my Savior! Love ya, ingat!!!

Longest word in Tagalog: Pinakanakapagpapabagabag-damdamin, which means "the most emotionally disturbing/upsetting thing

Add caption

And my angels round about you to bear you up D&C 84:88

This week was just crazy. We're the big kids now that the previous zone left. I've been out here for 3 weeks! I honestly have no recollection of what life outside of the MTC was like. We walked to the temple today and I stood in bewilderment wondering to myself "What are all these horseless chariots?" I saw something called a "cellular phone" the other day and everyone gathered around to see what looked to be a man sending a wireless telegraph to his mother. I feel like when I get home everyone will just be teleporting everywhere and listening to alien space music. Also, for all you sisters out there: Don't even think about hugging me when I get home because you know a firm handshake will suffice. 

The beginning of this week was pretty hard. On Sunday night, after praying one of the most sincere prayers I've ever prayed, I lay in bed filled with self doubt. I just felt like there was no way forward and that I would never be able to learn the language or become fluent in the gospel. I had prayed that somehow I would be able to get through this. As I lay there, I felt the Spirit very strongly testify to me that Jesus Christ knew what I was going through. I felt the enabling power of the atonement as I heard the Spirit whisper to me "Stop doubting yourself, you know you can do it. You have faith in Christ don't you? Then why are you worried when you know he will help you through this?" After that, I distinctly felt as if there were angels in the room. I felt as if my Grandpa Gull and Furniss were there. No, I knew they were there. I realized I have had guardian angels around me this whole time, helping me through my struggles, always there with an outstretched hand to get me to where I need to be. I will never be able to express in words how grateful I am for the atonement of my Savior. Without him, I wouldn't be able to make it on my own out here. I am so thankful for Him.

Well I hope you all have a good week! I am so excited and happy for my sister to get married tomorrow! I wish I could be there but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I found out Elder Keith Barnard lives one floor above me, so we have had some good times! Elder Polatis flew out to St. Louis yesterday morning and he came to say goodbye the night before. He is such a crazy awesome missionary. It's so weird to think that I've been out for almost a month. My Tagalog is still pretty bad but its getting there! You guys stay safe!

Mahal kita

Love Elder Furniss

And He that Sent Me is With Me

August 11, 2016

Elder Rogers and Elder Furniss

Learning about Faith (Tagalog)

And he that sent me is with me: The Father hath not left me alone for I do always those things that please him (John 8:29)

I LOVE the MTC! My district is so awesome and I think I've learned more about the gospel in two weeks than I have in my entire life. 

Elder Holland's son came last week and gave a devotional about the life of Joseph Smith. What an incredible man he was. I am also in the MTC choir here and we had the privilege of singing "Praise to the man." It was so awesome and the spirit was so strong! A couple of days ago on Tuesday, we had a devotional and everyone said that instead of having a speaker come we were just going to watch a broadcast. To everyone's amazement, Elder Neil L. Anderson of the quorum of the twelve walked in. It was broadcast to every MTC in the world and I got to see him in person. And every missionary in training in the world got to see me sing in the choir so yeah, I'm kind of a big deal haha. One of my favorite quotes from Elder Anderson's talk was "Keep the flame in your heart throughout your whole mission, and you will see miracles." He gave a great devotional. Elder Holland is coming on the 16th and I am so pumped! I had the chance to go to the temple this morning and WOW! I love going to the temple. It was such a great way to start off my day. I'm thankful for the spiritual recharge I get for the rest of the week.

Tagalog is a pretty hard language for me and I really don't know why. But I know that the Lord gave me this trial to show me that as long as I have faith in him I can do all things. I always kind of complained that if I only could have gone Spanish speaking, I could be so much more effective, and be such a good teacher. But that isn't 100% true. Everyone on this earth has one language in common that we all can understand. That language is the spirit. I am not the one that is going to convert the people in the Philippines the Spirit is. I could speak the most beautiful perfect Tagalog, but if I don't have the spirit, nothing can happen for the investigator.

The gift of tongues is so real though! Kaloob ng mga wika! I had the opportunity to be our teacher's companion and teach an investigator in front of the class. Although I was really nervous, I felt fine as I put my faith in the Lord and remembered that I had the Spirit to help guide me. It was incredible! Even though I sounded like a four year-old cave man speaking Tagalog, we could all feel the Spirit! Words came to my remembrance that I had only glanced at a couple days earlier. Scriptures came to my remembrance. It was so amazing.

I know that this church is true. And that through this gospel, we can be truly happy. We can feel the love of our Savior through his incredible atonement and we can be forgiven and feel clean through repentance! I know that if we trust in Jesus Christ and have faith in him that we can do amazing things. I have seen miracles in just the two short weeks that I've been here. I love this gospel and can't wait to teach and love the people of the Philippines.

Straight mahal fam!