The Book of Mormon

If your faith is wavering, immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon. -David A. Bednar

This last week was awesome! We had Zone conference and then on Sunday we had San Antonio's district conference. During zone conference, President Dahle talked to us about setting goals and the importance of setting realistic achievable goals. yes, his lesson was directed towards missionary work, but it can be applied to almost anything we are trying to achieve. Here are some things President Dahle taught us about setting goals.

-Have a vision for the future
-Have a goal in mind
-Have a plan of how you are going to achieve that goal

After this advice, Sister Dahle each gave us a goal to read the Book of Mormon along with them in 100 days (they only have 100 days left before they go home!) then she gave us each a fresh hardbound copy of the Book of Mormon with the theme "Feeling Heavenly Father's love through the Book of Mormon." (1 Nephi 11:25)

I invite you all to do the challenge with me as well. Let's not only meryenda (snack) on the Book of Mormon but let's FEAST on it, together!

I know that as we do this we will be able to feel our Heavenly Father's love more abundantly. You will find answers to your questions, trials will become easier to bear, and above all, you will come closer to the Savior.

Thank you all for the love and prayers you are sending my way. I can truly feel and see the blessings that are coming from your prayers. You are great! Keep living the Gospel and enduring to the end!

Elder Furniss​

Josiah's holding a cute little duckling.

Water Buffalo

I think Josiah wants to go on the pioneer trek.

A Bad Family

Hello my friends!

This week was pretty awesome as usual. I saw a lady give her goat a bath, ate some cheese ice cream (seriously it's the best), went to a primary pajama party (banana danced like it was 1989) ya know, nothing extremely wild.

So I have a story from my first day here that I totally forgot to mention in my last email. I arrive in San Narciso, and me and later that night my companion and I go to a recent convert's house. As we are walking up to the house he says "This is Abad family." I am so confused throughout the entire lesson. "what did they do that was so bad?" I thought to myself. "They seem like nice people." After the lesson I asked Elder Lomibao: "Elder why did you say they were bad people? They seem just fine to me." He then turns to me and says "Their last name is Abad! You are loco Elder Furniss." Man that was a confusing lesson.

Well Nanay Lolita is still having problems with the word of wisdom. She just can't seem to give up her coffee. She is awesome as always though and we love her. We're going to make a chart for her to track her progress as she abstains from coffee. I hope that we'll finally be able to help her overcome it once and for all.

One of our investigators, Hendrix is AWESOME! He's going to be getting baptized here in a few weeks. He's come to church like 7 times. I'm excited for him.

well I hope you all have a good week. Thank you for all the prayers you are sending my way! Love ya!

San Narciso

Good morning friends and family!!

Well I got transferred up north to San Narciso, this place is pretty much just a giant rice field. I enjoy it here though, the branch here is awesome!

On Thursday we did a service project for one of the members here. We helped him build a fence out of bamboo. It was a fun activity and I enjoyed meeting a lot of the members here. This is a humble community.

I finally got a Filipino companion, his name is Elder Lomibao. He's a really good cook which is good for my budget ;) He REALLY likes sardines so I have a feeling I'm going to have to develop some acquired tastes this transfer.

We are teaching an old lady here and she is wild! I love Nanay Lolita, she is probably the happiest old lady in the entire world. Last week we were teaching her and as I was shaking her hand goodbye she pulled me in and gave me a hug and kissed my cheek. I didn't know what to do!! She treats Elder Lomibao and I like her own grandchildren. She was supposed to be baptized in a couple of weeks but she ended up drinking coffee, which means we had to push back her baptism. She went to church yesterday which made me so happy. I sat next to her during sacrament meeting and let me tell you one thing. Listening to old ladies sing English hymns is one of the things I will miss most about the Philippines. There is no need for a hearing aid during sacrament meeting here.

Well I hope you all have a good week! Have fun and be safe! Good luck in all you do. I know our Father in Heaven loves you!!!

Elder Furniss