January 18, 2011

Family,
I hope you are all doing well. I think Katie has already had her baby, but I'm not sure, so CONGRATULATIONS KATIE AND JOSH! I am happy for you! You have a lucky child to have you as parents.

I sent my companion home yesterday and am staying with elder Ashdown who also had his companion go home. He has only been here for 2 transfers so I know more Visaya than he does. I am learning well, and I can pretty much talk to people about anything and understand a lot. It is really a great blessing from the Lord.

My new companion will be Elder Mera. He was in my zone back in Lilo-an when I was in Carmen. I am excited. He is a really good missionary and is fun and Filipino. Our baptism is finally going to happen this weekend, it fell through the last two weekends because he has had other obligations in Cebu. He decided to skip last weekend and be baptized, but his leaders told him he had to be there. So this weekend it is! If all goes well we could have 7 baptisms this transfer, but most likely some of them will not pull though. They are:
Resly - being baptized on Saturday
Kesha, Filip, and Melissa - all siblings of an inactive family who were never baptized. they come with their aunt to church.
Johnly - 12 years old and has had almost all the lessons, but struggles to get to church because his parents are not members, but his cousin who he lives with is inactive. Also the ward mission leader lives across the street.
Serjio, Macmac and Isa - Serjio is the father and the others are his children. Serjio is really promising. He has almost no money but drives tricycle sometimes. He gave us a ride worth 42 pesos and wanted to give it to us for free. That is a lot of money! I am excited to continue to teach him.
Terry and her daughter Mariss - still investigating, I don't think they will be baptized, but they are still progressing, so we will keep trying.

It turns out our mission has the lowest investigator to baptisms ratio for all of the Philippines! That means we should baptize the most! Last year the average was 1:30. one baptism for 30 investigators. Ours was 1:24 last year and this year is 1:16! That is almost twice as many baptisms as the average last year! I feel so blessed to be in such a great place where the work is moving forward. It is great to work for the Lord. I think that Elder Mera is a hard worker, so I am Excited for this next transfer!

Elder Ashdown got some brownie and muffin mix from home so we are going to go bake it at a members house here in Naga, his area, since we don't have an oven. I am excited!

I love you all! Take care!
Elder Schenk


Mom,

Thank you for the care package. I appreciate it! Thank you also for your prayers. I have found an increased sensitivity to the spirit in lessons lately. There are a lot of times where I end up sharing different scriptures than I would have thought were appropriate. Last night I shared a scripture in Ether about faith in order to get members back to church. It ended up being what they needed to hear. I know I shared the two scriptures the Lord wanted me to. I have found that I have been doing that more and more. It feels so great to be doing the work of the Lord!
Thanks for everything!
Love always,
Elder Schenk