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