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