The Prince of Peace

I can't believe it's already that time of year again! Merry Christmas! This past year has honestly been the fastest year of my life. Well I'm in my 5th area right now in Lubao, Pampanga, and I've got to say this area is just fantastic. I was pretty sad when I saw that I was getting transferred and wasn't going to be in Zambales anymore. I spent 10 1/2 months there so it was pretty hard to leave. This area seems pretty promising though.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, as I'm sure it is for everyone else. Christmas as a missionary is extra special though. One thing I love about the Philippines is that almost everyone believes in Jesus Christ. It's so easy to break the ice with people and get to know them here because you can just start talking to them about Jesus Christ, and they know who He is and what He did for us all.

I just want to share one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon about Christmas:

2 Nephi 19:6
 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

One of the things that I have grown a testimony of and am so grateful for is how much my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. I have felt His love so strongly this past year as I have been out here. I have felt His comfort through hard times. Through these experiences I have truthfully come to know Him as the Prince of Peace.

I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for the time that I have been given to share about what He did. I have learned from experience that true joy is found by following in His footsteps. I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father that loves us enough to send His only begotten Son. I am thankful for the relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father, I know that He personally knows me. There's a scripture in 1 Thes. 5:5 that I really like. It talks about us being the children of light. God has trusted us to share His Gospel and the light that it brings. Serving a mission has given me such a special opportunity to do so that I couldn't experience anywhere else. I have seen lives change as I act as a "light" by sharing the Gospel. You don't have to be a full-time missionary though to be able to spread joy. There are so many ways!! I hope that we will all be able to continue to spread the joy of the Gospel always. Remember, there is Peace in Christ if we look to Him. I know that this church is true and that our Heavenly Father loves each one of us. I hope that you all have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!!

-Elder Furniss

Pasko na

Happy Monday!

"Look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else."
C.S Lewis

Hoy Christmas is coming! Well this week was pretty great, we FINALLY got our part member family baptized!! It was a pretty crazy Saturday though. We woke up sweating because our power had gone out during the middle of the night. We went to the church to try and fill up the font but FYI you can't fill up a font when you have no electricity (at least out here ya can't). So we were kind of at a dead end. We also didn't have phones to use because well, we didn't have any power to charge them and we couldn't get a hold of anyone. It was pretty hectic but long story short It's a good thing that every area in Zambales has a beach or else we would have had to push their baptism back again.

I feel like the members here are really feeling the Christmas Spirit this season. We have had quite a few referrals just in these past couple of weeks. I'm excited to go out and teach them this week. I taught gospel principles yesterday and it was super fun. Everyone was participating and helping answer investigator's questions, yesterday was a great Sunday. We also watched the Christmas devotional yesterday evening, I loved President Uchtdorf's talk.

So I had an interesting experience last week. Our neighbors daughter had her 18th birthday party on Saturday and for some reason the parents asked me to give a little speech. (i'm guessing it's cause I'm white and speak Tagalog?) It was pretty awkward not gonna lie. It was basically like a Filipino Bat Mitzvah except she was 18...and we ate a lot of pork.

Next week is transfer week! I really have no idea if I'm staying or not. We'll just have to see!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week and are loving this time of year. Take care! I'm thankful for all your prayers and support.

Elder Furniss

And be ye thankful

Hello my friends! Just want you all to know na nagpapasalamat ako para sa inyong lahat! (I am thankful for you all!)

I hope you had a good thanksgiving, cause I sure did! Thanksgiving isn't a thing in the Philippines, but I'm guessing it's probably because they are too busy doing it EVERY SINGLE DAY!! Seriously these people are so humble. I can see how much Heavenly Father loves his children in the Philippines.

This week was pretty good. We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday and turn a part member family into an all member family but the mom was sick and wouldn't have been able to attend, so we pushed it back until next week.

This scripture has been the theme to my week.
Col. 3:15 "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."

I like how it says the word rule. This word means "to be a dominant or powerful factor." If we let the peace of God rule in our hearts, it will leave no room or place for negativity. If we let the peace and love of God rule in our hearts, the unnecessary things of the world will have no way to affect us. We will look at our brothers and sisters as who they truly are; as children of God. Let us focus on what we have and be grateful. We are honestly so blessed!

Well, thank you for all you do for me! I hope you have a great week! Stay warm out there.

-Elder Furniss

Chicken

We ate at a delicious restaurant called "robertos." it has Australian beef. It was nice!

I can't believe I found this in this country. So crazy.

Behold, the most useless thing ever to be found in the Philippines.

Such a Great Week!

Well last week was great, we baptized tatay Julius and you should hear this man's testimony! He is such a good guy. I'll tell you a little background story about him.

So the missionaries found tatay Julius about 2 years ago and tried to teach him, but whenever they tried to teach him he would always stumble out of his house drunk. He was known as "ang lasinguero ng bayan" or the town drunk. Well, I found tatay Julius again about 2 months ago while I was on exchanges with another elder in the zone. I just had a feeling that we needed to go down the alley a little further and knock on some more houses. I'm glad I followed that prompting because what I found was a man that had been prepared to receive the gospel. We asked Julius why he wanted so badly to be baptized. He told us that he wanted to show his family and Heavenly Father that he was still able to change. He is evidence of how living the gospel can turn your life 180 degrees, and get you headed in the right direction. Last week as we had our last lesson with Julius, we were asking him some of the baptismal interview questions. After that we asked if we could hear his testimony. He said how thankful he was for Heavenly Father sending us to his house, and how thankful he was to be numbered among the brothers and sisters of this church. The Spirit was so strong, it was incredible. I love tatay Julius and am so proud of him!

We went to the Edrada family last week and the mom came to the door and asked if they could stop taking the missionary lessons. I was pretty sad, but then my companion asked her "have you prayed to know if these things are true?" She admitted that she hadn't, we invited her to continue to pray about it. She had a change of heart and said we could come back and continue the lessons. The rest of their family is so prepared, we just have to get her up to their level. I know that our Heavenly Father will prepare a way for them.

Well I'm so thankful for my community and family and friends back home. You guys are great! I hope you continue to cherish the words in the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. You will find the strength to overcome life's trials if you do. I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Furniss

ps. yes that is a rice combine ;) #godblessamericanengineering

Spirit of Power

2 Tim 1: 7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

We went hiking as a zone today. Woke up at 3:00 AM and went hiking in San Juan, one of the areas in the zone. At first the climb looked really simple. So I started out thinking I wouldn't have any problems. Then I realized I was not made to climb mountains. The higher I climbed and the steeper the trail got, the harder it was to push on. My hip started cramping. I realized how out of shape I was haha. Anyways, I kept pushing forward until I reached the top and, and when I did, I was able to see an incredibly gorgeous view.
I thought of hiking as life's trials sometimes; though the journey can be painful at times, we must endure in order to reach our life's peaks.

What are some of your life's peaks? When I think of my life and the most amazing moments of it, I don't have to look very far to see that Christ is at the center, making these things happen.

We had a good week this week. We have been teaching the Edrada family for about a month now, and they are doing great! They have truly been prepared to receive the gospel. Teaching them brings me so much joy, as I watch the Spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of the doctrine of Christ, my own testimony is strengthened.

Tatay Julius is also coming along well. He has such a happy personality. He has such a strong desire to be baptized, at the end of our last lesson he thanked Heavenly Father for guiding us to him and for the kindness of the members in the branch here that are fellow shipping him.

I just want to leave my testimony that I know this church is true. The gospel of Jesus Christ is once more on the earth, and we are instruments in bringing it forth. I encourage you to heed the plea to serve in your own community; I know that as you do this, our brothers and sisters will see the light that is in you. I am thankful for my community back home and for the strength they give me. I am also thankful for my amazing family. But I am most thankful to a Heavenly Father that has showered these blessings on me. I hope you all have a fantastic week.

-Elder Furniss

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A Free Trip to the Moon

Well transfers were this last week and Elder Saguire and I are staying together for one more transfer! It's a good thing too because we have some AWESOME families we are teaching. I feel bad about not keeping y'all updated about them. Anyways, we had an awesome Sunday yesterday! We had 9 investigators at church including the Enriquez family! They have been investigators even before I got here and they came to church for the first time yesterday. We also had Tatay Julius come to church again yesterday. He is getting baptized on October 28th! He doesn't have any problems with the word of wisdom now which is a miracle! Some of the families that we are teaching are the Balangon family and the Edrada family. Neither of them have come to church yet, but I have hope that they will show their faith and come to church in the following weeks.

We had an AMAZING lesson with the Edrada family this last Friday. We taught them the plan of salvation, which went well. It was pretty funny though as we were teaching about the 3 kingdoms of glory the mom got a little confused and thought if you didn't really want to repent and accept the gospel you would end up living on the moon. Good thing we cleared that up for her. As we were walking out the door we said "see you at church this Sunday right?" in which the mom replied "no promises. And even if we do, it doesn't mean we're going to become Mormons." The dad in the background said "Well do you want to end up in the terrestrial kingdom?" It was pretty funny. They didn't actually end up going to church. There's always this week though!

I had a crazy thing happen to me yesterday, so we went to a return appointment with an investigator that we had taught, and when we got to his house he was wayyy drunk. He kept saying in Tagalog "God is dead! He's dead! don't try and tell me that he is alive because I know him and I know he is dead!!" And he was just going crazy so me and my companion ran a ways down the road and this guy hops on his motorcycle and starts chasing us! So I picked up a piece of bamboo and me and Elder Saguire jumped into the bushes on the side of the road. Luckily he didn't see us and zoomed past us. So we got out of the bushes and started walking down the road again and as we were walking, we heard a motor getting louder so we realized that he had turned back around and was still looking for us! So we hid in the bushes again and had to find a new path out of that area. Holy cow I was so scared. Awa ng Diyos we made it out of there no problems.

Well, other than that crazy experience I had an amazing week! Thank you for all your prayers! You are truly amazing!

Elder Furniss

Hello friends and family!

Well another week has come to pass in the Gapo. Our exchanges with the AP's got moved to this week, so I am going to get to learn some tips from our awesome assistants! I'm actually pretty excited for this opportunity.

Well the Lord taught me a lesson this week. We got punted from all of our appointments that we had scheduled, so we ended up going finding. I usually have a pretty bad attitude about finding after 7:30 PM because everyone is usually drunk, or eating dinner and are easily annoyed. So I wasn't really in the mood to find. We were walking down the street looking for a new part of the area to find in and we stumbled upon the "Gloria" family. So we talked to them and asked if we could share and they were super excited to listen to us! They even asked what time our church was because they really wanted to come. The dad usually has work on Sundays though so he said it's pretty hard for him to come, but we'll see if they come next Sunday!

We've been teaching a really nice family, the "Abadam" family for the past week and a half. After we taught them the dad said "Make sure you don't forget about us! We want to see you again!" I'm excited to see these families progress.

Well I hope you all have a good week! Thank you for being awesome!

Elder Furniss

​crazy spider we had in our kitchen

snatched a pic of a tatay with an awesome Idaho shirt #represent

The squad

the other squad

IBAAAAAA!

So this week was pretty wild, President Lacanienta called me to be a Zone Leader up in Iba! I got here on Wednesday and it has been a great area so far! My companion is Elder Saguire from Bacolod, he is awesome!

We taught some awesome people this last week. There is a family we are teaching named the Enriquez family. They have such a strong testimony of the gospel and the Book of Mormon. We taught them about Temples and eternal marriage, after the lesson Brother Enriquez told us how excited he was to be able to be sealed to his family someday. I told him how amazing it feels to go to the temple and just sit in silence secluded from the outside world. I told him that we get a little glimpse of heaven when we go through the temple. They are a great family, and progressing speedily.

We had a dinner appointment last night at the Eauchare's house. They are such a sweet family. They have the cutest kids as well! They have a son on a mission, so there's a lot to talk about. We had a good time at their house.

There is an awesome scripture that I read this week that kind of gave me an extra boost to find more investigators. 2 Nephi 26:23-24

For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.
 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

These verses are beautiful to me! Our Savior invites all of us to partake of his salvation. This is what I love about missionary work, helping people figure out how to partake of His salvation. I love being an instrument in my Heavenly Father's hand.

I love being a missionary! Thank you for all the support that you have given me while I've been out here! I hope you all have a good week!

Brother Obaldo came to church!

Well another great week has come and gone in San Narciso. It was especially great because Hendrix got baptized! He is so awesome, and has such a strong testimony. He was so excited to be baptized! He is going to make a huge impact on his family because of his great example. We confirmed him a member of the church yesterday, and he will receive the Aaronic Priesthood next week! Also the branch is having a temple trip on August 31, and we can't wait for Hendrix to experience the blessings of the temple.

We had an interesting visit with Nanay Lolita last week. We went to her house and she was sleeping on the floor, with about 3 backpacks full of clothes around her. She was listening to her radio next to her, blasting her loud old Filipino love songs so I walked in and turned off her radio, and apparently I surprised her a little too much and she flinched and hit me in the face. Well, she had some news for us. She said she was going back home to her province in Laguna, so we were pretty sad. She said "If you see me on Sunday, it means I'm still here. But I am going home." I was pretty sure there was no possible way Nanay could afford to pay to go to Laguna, so I wasn't too worried, I almost offered to help her pack! :) Anyways, she got kind of distracted and taught me how to sew. I'm not sure if she is colorblind or what but she sewed a red stitch into my white shirt sleeve. (I'll send pics next week). It was pretty funny. I saw a box of matches on her table and asked her what she had been using her matches for (just making sure she isn't having any Word of Wisdom problems still). Anyways, after I asked her what she had been using her matches for, she picked one up out of the box and started using it like a Q-tip in my ear! I don't know if she's trying to make like homemade candles or what. It was a pretty interesting visit, well we got to church Sunday morning and we didn't see Nanay Lolita waiting for us. I was pretty sad, but then 15 minutes into sacrament meeting I saw her make her way over to us in the chapel. It doesn't look like she's going anywhere for a while which is alright with me!

Do you remember me telling you about the Obaldo family? We found them a few weeks ago. We had an awesome lesson with brother Obaldo on Saturday, unfortunately his wife works pretty far away and has an interesting work schedule so it's hard to teach her and brother Obaldo at the same time. But we taught Brother Obaldo, and then invited him to church again at the end of the lesson. He said "Don't worry Elders, I'll be at church." He came the next day with his two daughters! He had a great time at sacrament meeting, he kept commenting on how beautiful the hymns were and how pretty the church is. He felt the Spirit, and I hope he will continue to go so that he can feel that same joy every week.

I hope you all have a great week! I am thankful for all your love and support.
Elder Furniss

Me and our Assistant to the President who is going home on Wednesday

Our newest convert Winnie the Pooh

FHE at our friend Sheila's house

Zone sports fest

Hendrix is getting baptized!!!

Hello mga kaibigan!

We had another great week here in "The 'ciso" as we like to call it. We had Zone Conference this week, which our Zone Leaders gave an excellent workshop on. We learned about the 12 tribes of Israel and the importance on gathering scattered Israel. It was a good day, with many great things learned!

We taught the Obaldo family about the Book of Mormon, we also invited their two relatives who live with them to listen as well. It was great! They had a lot of questions, which was nice! The Obaldo family have a great spirit about them, it feels different walking into their home.

We shared with Wilfredo and were able to resolve a concern that he had about if he would still be able to go to funerals at the Catholic church once he is baptized. He wasn't able to go to church again yesterday so that was too bad. He's been getting sick a lot lately so I hope he will get better and be able to come to church again. He's still reading the Book of Mormon everyday!

We visited with Carolina again and taught her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He could help her overcome her addiction to cigarettes. We shared Jacob 4:7 with her, and I think it made an impact. She wasn't able to come to church either yesterday. Hopefully next week.

We shared with Nick, one of our long-time investigators. We've been sharing with him for probably the last 5 months. He always has a lot of great questions. We talked a little bit about baptisms for the dead, which was interesting. The thing with Nick is that he refuses to do the things we ask him to do in order for him to progress. We'll invite him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and he'll just say "yeah you say that every time you come here." I just told him "Well, we'll stop asking if you'll just do it." It's just kind of awkward and hard to break the ice with him. He wants to know and learn more but, he won't do the things we ask him in order for him to learn and know more. I'm not going to give up on him though. I'm just trying to listen to the Spirit so I can know what to share with him to get him going.

HENDRIX IS FINALLY GETTING BAPTIZED!!! After being in the 'Ciso for 6 months, we have finally prepared my boy Hendrix for baptism. I was stressing hard core about 5 minutes before Sacrament meeting started, but lo and behold he showed up. We had Gospel Principles class with him and he was just firing off answers to the questions he was asked. His girlfriend's grandpa is in our branch so he has a fellow shipper.

So unexpectedly, President and Sister Lacanienta walked into our sacrament meeting yesterday. I bore my testimony and said "well it's been good here in San Narciso, this could be my last fast Sunday here though, cause I have a feeling I'm getting transferred." I talked a little about branch missionary work as well. Anyways, after sacrament President Lacanienta came up to me and said "So, Elder Furniss, where are you getting transferred??" hahaha

Well I hope y'all have a good week! Have fun and be safe during grain harvest! Also, have a great last couple weeks of summer vacation! Love ya!

-Elder Furniss


We went to a funeral this week for one of the sister's mom who died this week. (I can't English anymore)

Gapo

3 Nephi 18:21

 Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.

This week was great! We were able to extend a baptismal invitation for September 16 to the Obaldo family, and they accepted! They are an amazing family.

We should have had a baptism this next Saturday, July 29, but our Investigator Hendrix hasn't come to church for the past 2 weeks. We went by his house yesterday to see if he was coming but he said he had an obligation at the Catholic church. He had to go because he goes to a Catholic school here, and apparently would get a bad grade if he didn't go. He said that he would show up late to sacrament meeting at around 9:30. He didn't show up though, which was pretty disappointing. His baptism is scheduled for August 12 now.

Wilfredo was out of town this week, so we weren't able to teach him. We should be able to teach him this week though. Him and Hendrix should get baptized on August 12 if everything works out.

Our investigator Carolina surprised us and showed up to church after telling us that she probably wouldn't be able to go the night before. She was our only investigator at church yesterday. We only had 58 people at church! I'm not sure what was going on yesterday.

Last night as Elder Hall and I were going out to work, we made a goal that we wouldn't come home until we found a family. Our curfew is at 8:30 PM so we started to get a little worried at around 7:30. I didn't think we were going to get it, but 30 minutes before curfew we stumbled upon the Javier family. We were able to teach them a quick lesson. The mother was shocked to see us she said "hey you were the ones that gave my kid that articles of faith card a few months ago" She said that her son (who is 8) gave her the card and said "The white Amerikanos told me to give this to you!" They are great. It just goes to show that goals really do reflect the desires of our hearts.

Anyways, apparently I haven't mentioned nanay Lolita in a while but yes she is still a crazy little monkey. We were sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday and I looked at Nanay and I just said: "Nay, salamat po sa kagandahan ninyo." (thank you for your beauty) She fired back with "Salamat po sa kapangitan mo." (thanks for being so ugly) then she laughed and slapped me with her hankie. She's wild. I'm going to miss her so much.

Transfers are on August 16, and I am pretty sure I am getting transferred cause I'm coming up on 6 months in this area, but I'm going to request to President Lacanienta if I can stay here for one more transfer.

Thank you for all the support that you all give me. Thank you so much for caring. I invite you to follow the council given in 3 Nephi 18:21 and continue (or start) to have family prayer. It will bless your lives, and you will become a firm family. I hope you all have a good week!

-Elder Furniss

Here are some pictures:
The Obaldo family

Our friend Maryjoy

We made some amazing fried chicken (pretty jealous of Jared Polatis who probably gets fed fried chicken on the daily)

We met this drunk guy who asked us for some advice. So we tried to give him some, and he was kind of crying off and on I think cause he was super hammered. He told me to come over to him and he gave me a hug. Through his tears he managed to whisper "Love ko kayo" in my ear. It was a tender moment. We left a Restoration pamphlet on his table and told him we'd come back when he wasn't so drunk.

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The power of the Book of Mormon

Hello mga tropa,

This week was unforgettable. We found 33 new investigators including 2 families. The Obaldo family and the Dela Cruz family. Both of these families are great but the Obaldo family is just awesome! They recently moved here from Visayas and don't have any friends, so we were like "Hey we'll be your friends." They have one of the cutest families I've ever seen. Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of them this week for y'all."

Tatay Wilfredo is progressing at a rapid pace. And we really have nothing to do with it. It is all through the power of the Book of Mormon. We invited him to read it, and he took the invitation seriously. We visited him on Tuesday and he was in Jacob 5. He was pretty confused about the parable of the olive tree. He thought that it meant that the poor and the rich will be separated and that the poor people would be burned. He then asked, "Are only rich people allowed to come to your church?" We then resolved his concern. We went back on Saturday evening to teach him and he had already read to Alma chapter 8. Tatay has been very confused these last 3 months that we've been teaching him about having to be baptized again after being baptized as an infant, and it felt like nothing we shared would make sense to him, even when we explained it as simply as we could. It wasn't until he read the Book of Mormon for himself that he finally understood it. Tatay Wilfredo, without realizing it or without us telling him to, likens the scriptures unto himself. He'll always share experiences with us of how his life relates to those in the Book of Mormon. For example he said, "Wow I kind of feel like Nephi here. My brothers and I never really got along. I hope that we will someday be able to get along." Anyways, Saturday night Tatay wasn't sure if he would be able to go to church because his right arm had swollen up and it hurt to move it. Elder Hall and I gave him a blessing, and during the blessing the Spirit said through me, "The Lord will give you strength to go to church tomorrow." The next day, Wilfredo was the first one there. He walked there himself (he's the one that had a stroke). We sat down in the chapel before church and he just couldn't stop smiling. He threw his arms up in the air and said, "Look! Your blessing worked! I can move my arms!" I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have to witness Our Heavenly Father bless His children in the Philippines. I would have never been able to experience these amazing things if I were not here right now in this beautiful little town of San Narciso.

Alma 26:37
Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

I hope you all have a great week. Enjoy your summer! Don't forget to read your scriptures tonight! Our Heavenly Father loves you and he has a plan for you.

Spending the 4th of July with a Canadian

July 9, 2017

Alma 37:44
For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

We had a good week this week. Elder Hall's birthday was on the fourth of July (how ironic) That's how bad he wants to be an American, but we all know he has maple syrup running through his veins. Poor guy. He says he's a 1/4 American though. He's gonna have to stop repping Tim Horton's and maybe I'll believe it. Anyways President Lacanienta let us go to SM (a big mall here) to buy some stuff. We bought some ground beef and potato chips. We also got some timtams. If you're American, you've probably never had timtams, eating them is probably what heaven feels like. Anyways we went home, borrowed our neighbors (neighbours, for you Canadians) barbecue and grilled up some "Dirty Burgs" and yeah they were probably the dirtiest burgers I have ever eaten. We had to put this fake cheese stuff called "Eden" on it cause this country doesn't have cheese. Or milk. Those burgers were really good though.

We taught the Iguico family last night, and let me tell ya, they are awesome! Elder Hall extended a baptismal invitation to them, but they said they had already been baptized when they were babies. We whipped out Moroni 8 and explained to them that children are alive in Christ and don't need baptism. We're going to have to go over that again with them because they are having a hard time with it, but they'll get it. I'm not too worried.
Sister Iguico asked how it must be to grow up in America with no problems. We assured her that even though we were from a country outside of the Philippines, we still had problems. I asked "If you have two kids, do you love one more than the other?" "of course not" she replied. "That's how our Heavenly Father feels about us. We are all equal in His eyes." I said. The Spirit was palpable during that lesson. We helped the Iguico family feel the love of the Lord, and our Heavenly Father.

We had 3 investigators at church yesterday, one of them being Tatay Wilfredo. We have been teaching Wilfredo for a while now. Saturday night, we told him we were going to pick him up for church at 8:00 Sunday morning. We got there and he was sitting in his chair all ready and waiting for us. Wilfredo had a stroke a few years back and it is hard for him to move the right side of his body. It's especially hard for him to walk. We walked to church and as we were walking he said "Awa ng Diyos, parang lumakas na ako" (God is merciful to me, It's like I've gotten stronger). We were able to get him to church and he enjoyed it. It turns out our friend Sheila is his niece, so he has a great fellowshipper.

I gave a talk yesterday in church about prophets. It turned out well! How blessed we are to have a living Prophet on the earth!

Well I hope you all had a happy fourth of July! Have a great week!

Elder Furniss

here's a pic of us grilling some dirty burgs

ps. I also rode shotgun on a Jeepney in Olongapo, which was probably the best fourth of July gift ever. I'll send a vid soon.

Paalam Goodbye

President and Sister Dahle

Happy Monday po,

This week was nice, we had our last zone conference with President and Sister Dahle, they go home in 7 days! It was a great zone conference. We sang "God be with you til we meet again" for the closing hymn and everyone stood up. Everyone was crying!! I'm going to miss them so much.

President Dahle came to our branch in San Narciso for his last Sunday in the mission and gave a great talk. He used the word "conviviality" which I actually just looked up and it pretty much means "friendliness". President has the biggest vocabulary, I almost have to take a dictionary to our interviews. Anyways he talked about one of the Elders that gave him so much grief in the mission, and how he had to pray for charity to not send him home. He said "There were times when I just wanted to punch that Elder! And I hope to meet up with him again, share stories and deliver one good last blow." It was hard to hold in the laughter after he said that.The Elder he was talking about served here in San Narciso and all the members loved him. He wasn't the most obedient Elder though. President Dahle said right when he was about to send him home, he had the revelation to send him to San Narciso. President said "Elder, San Narciso needs a party. Go throw them a party." So the Elder came here and organized a fiesta in the town square, there were over 500 people there and 3 mayors in attendance from surrounding towns. President Dahle said "even though that Elder was disobedient and a headache to me, he put his talents to work. And look at the outcome!" President then talked about us needing to use our talents if we want to make this branch grow.

Update on our investigator Carolina (the one that had the awesome story about knowing the book of Mormon is true): We went by her house on Friday and we saw her smoking a cigarette, so that was pretty disappointing. She said she didn't have any more problems with the Word of Wisdom, and I didn't think she had or ever would smoke in her life. So we're going to have to help her overcome this. It's sad when you have to push baptismal dates back when you thought they were so ready to be baptized.

We visited families all day on Saturday inviting them to church, but no one showed up. We didn't have a single investigator at church, not even our awesome investigator Hendrix that comes every week! At least Nanay Lolita was there :)

We sang the EFY medley of "sisters in Zion" and "Army of Helamen" yesterday in sacrament meeting and it was awesome! Not gonna lie I almost passed out trying to hit the high notes. (we didn't really have enough sisters).

One of the recent converts that we had never met here called us yesterday asking if we could come visit him. So we went to his house to see how he was doing. He said his dad died a week ago, he lost his job and his girlfriend left him. I felt pretty bad for him. We talked about the "iron rod" and how the "mists of darkness" are like the trials in his life right now. We taught him that God gives us trials so that we can grow, and come closer to him. We invited him to start reading the book of Mormon again, come back to church, and pray.

Well I hope you all have a great week! I can't believe I hit 11 months in the mission tomorrow! Time flies like lightning when you're serving the Lord!

Ingat po kayo palagi!

Elder Furniss
Ps. we had a boodle fight at our branch President's house.​

Another successful revolution around that glorious ball of hydrogen

D&C 6:33
Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

I had a good week this week. Today is my birthday and it is also "ang araw ng kalayaan" (independence day). I guess I really am a true Filipino!

We cleaned up a good chunk of Nanay Lolita's yard, but it started down pouring so we had to go home. Her yard looks a lot better though. It's going to be really hard to leave her!

We also found a really awesome family! The Pagunsan family. They were super kind and are very receptive. We taught them the restoration, when we asked if they had any questions, they asked if members in our church had to pay tithing. They didn't quite understand tithing, so we gave them a brief overview of it, and we are going back this week to clear things up. They are a great family!

I hope you all had a good week! Thank you for all your prayers. You are great!

Nanay Lolita

All Good in the Philippines

This week was good, our investigators Nick and Novi finally came to church for the first time, and we've been teaching them since March! It was honestly a miracle. We showed up to their door at 8:30 am to remind them to come to church, we were sure that it would be a failed attempt and that there was no possible way that they would come to church with us but when we knocked, they opened the door and were all dressed up in church clothes! I couldn't believe it! Their daughter looked so cute in her dress and shoes, I wish I could have taken a picture. After sacrament meeting I asked how they liked the meeting and the sister said "We'll be back next week." I was so happy for them!

There is an old man in our branch named Brother Bactad and he is great! He has lived in California for the past 16 years working at Walmart. He has had a ton of health issues throughout his life; such as having to get open heart surgery, eye surgery, and now he has prostate cancer. He originally came back to the Philippines just for a vacation and to visit and was only planning to be here for a month, but his health is so bad that his wife and son had to fly back to California without him while he resolves some more of his medical issues out here and gets healthy enough to fly back. So last week Elder Hall and I were walking out in La Paz where he lives. We both thought "ya know what, let's go see how Brother Bactad is doing." We can clearly see now that it was the Spirit guiding us to him. We went and visited him and just listened to him tell us about his life stories. I saw countless bottles of prescription medication on his table that had such high dosages, I couldn't believe how his body could take that kind of treatment. He told us that he was in a lot of pain. I could tell that it obviously hurt to walk. He said the blood can't really circulate throughout his body and especially his legs. His ankles were so swollen! He asked if we could give him a blessing, and we did. The Spirit was so strong as Elder Hall and I laid our hands on his head and gave him a blessing of healing and comfort. The next day at church, Brother Bactad was outside the gate. We went down and helped him walk up the stairs to the chapel. Then to our surprise, Brother Bactad got up and bore his testimony and said how thankful he was for all the blessings and help that he has received from the members. Yesterday and this week were just full of blessings.

We also helped Nanay Lolita clean up her yard that is full of weeds. We weren't able to get all of it done, but we did quite a bit. We're going back this Wednesday to finish and to build her a rail for her stairs down to her house. Her house is so steep and it is way dangerous that she doesn't have a hand rail there! I honestly don't know how she climbs up and down that. She's like a little monkey :) I also asked her what her favorite soft drinks are (that's what we call soda or pop in the pines) and she said it's RC cola, so I told her we would bring her some soft drinks. Man I love Nanay Lolita!

Well thank you all for your love and support. Keep following the commandments and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and everything else will work out.

Elder Furniss

TAG-ULAN (rainy season)

Well this week was ABSOLUTELY WILD. Not really, I just wanted to catch your attention. Anyways, I experienced a 5.4 magnitude earthquake which was pretty exciting. I was upstairs about to get ready for bed and BOOM. The house started shaking, I started losing my mind. It was a fight or flight situation... and I chose flight. I RAN FOR MY LIFE! It took my about .002 seconds to run downstairs and out the house. Turns out we were all good, and the house actually did not fall down like I thought. Our back door got skewed and won't shut though, so that's fun.

Also rainy season is here!! Elder Hall played a pick-up basketball game with some kids (absolutely destroyed them btw) Anyways, a ginormous cloud decides to open and we got soaked. We looked like we just got done swimming. Like my grandpa would always say: "Ya know, a chicken's head is this big. And it has enough sense to get in out of the rain." Anyways people thought we were crazy that we didn't have an umbrella, but hey we had a great time.

Well we got some baptisms on Saturday! These kids are awesome! Now their whole family is baptized and we are working on getting them to the Temple! I can't wait! I honestly never want to leave this area, it feels like home now. I love the people in this branch as well. 

Well I hope you all have a good week. You guys are great!!!

Elder Furniss