Elder Joseph Espiritu: Exchanging, Power Outs, Baptisms and Trips

Wow, I'll tell you this week was really really busy, and now it's all a memory. It was such a fun/busy week and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a little more late in the week now but hey, it was fun! Almost every day we had something going on.

We visited another district meeting, an overnight blackout, had 3 different exchanges, witnessed another soul being saved, then traveled to Laoag and Vigan for our Missionary Leadership Council.

Tuesday we went to Lasam to visit their district meeting, and received an excellent training by Elder Holmes, a former AP. He taught about a mighty change of heart, and how most of the time, however mighty it may be, it's not just all of a sudden. A change of heart can happen gradually, but has a great impact. It was a good lesson. After it we had some fun doing practice teaching with the 2 new trainees. They were super nervous trying to speak Tagalog, but they did well.

Later that day we had a blackout from 4pm to 5:40am the next day. We had no water and electricity that whole night. It was a little rough and hot but we survived.

The next day I got to have an adventure with my batch mate Elder Seegmiller. Elder Seegmiller was a former zone leader and is now a district leader in my zone. It's always fun to have exchanges with someone who went in the field the same time as you. He was very athletic so biking for him was a breeze. Taught a lot of people and many people stared at us for being white. haha Elder Seegmiller is a great guy!

The next day the Elders from Ballesteros headed down and I went with Elder Madsen. He's a fairly new Elder from Riverton, Utah. He's also really awesome and still learning the language. He hadn't biked for 10 years. We taught more lessons and people still stared at us for being white ;)

On Friday we had more exchanges with our district leader and his companion. I went with Elder Dollano. He is the same batch as the Elder I trained and is fun to teach with. We had a couple of interesting experiences like getting yelled at by a drunk guy and trying to ask permission to teach a woman's kids. We also traveled 30 minutes through steep dusty roads but it was also fun.

Highlight of the week: Kathlyn was baptized! She passed her interview, got ready for the baptism, and I had the wonderful opportunity to be the one to baptize her. She is already such a strong convert even though she's only 14 years old. She is going to be a great member!

The night finished off with a delicious dinner at the Rosario family. The members here are awesome!

That Sunday right after church we headed to Laoag, ate, slept, then Monday morning we got to visit a couple of really cool places like Paoay chapel, a mansion which was owned by a former President of the Philippines, sand dunes and Vigan (one of the biggest tourist locations in our mission).

I can now finally say that I have been from one end of the mission (Vigan) to the other (Sta. Ana).

The following day we had our council. I learned a lot and found out more ways to help our zone. We're doing well, but we can keep stretching. After the meeting we headed out, got some stuff and arrived back in our own area around 2am.

It was such a busy week and I enjoyed it. I felt the Spirit in several of our lessons on our exchanges. I love seeing the "mighty change of heart" which sometimes comes little by little in the people I teach.

This church is true. I know it. I have felt it in my own heart and seen it in others.

For the rest of this week we have one more exchange and some interviews. I love the mission and seeing the impact it's had on me. That's all for this week! Love you all!

Elder Espiritu

**you can email Elder Espiritu at joseph.espiritu@myldsmail.net