Fruit of Your Labors

So alright, even though I may have thrown up after an awful bus ride and found a lizard fleeing from a bag of snacks that it chewed through, I still experienced a lot of great spiritual experiences and continue to love being here.

So now to better explain part of the first section, i'll tell you this: I guess I wasn't careful enough and I had all my snacks in my drawer. In this apartment we don't have ants everywhere so I wasn't really worried about it. Then one day I opened my snack drawer (which was on the left side of my desk) and noticed holes all over a bag of pretzels. Then I opened the right drawer (which shouldn't have had food) and found a bag of little chocolate covered peanuts (which should've been been in the left drawer) with holes all over it too. That's when I remembered we had a rat problem, but I never thought it was capable of getting in. Yes it may be 6 or 7 inches, but I didn't think it would be able to get inside a drawer. So I took the affected items out, and layed them on top of the desk and started checking to see what else was affected. I was a little surprised that while I was checking a lizard ran out of the bag of pretzels I just pulled out. I never thought I could say that that has happened to me before.

Well now on to the more spiritual side of things. First I'd like to talk about 2 really awesome sisters. One is a member Sister Delos Santos and the other is Sister Florida. They're best friends and next door neighbors. We have been teaching Sister Florida and it has been going really well. She committed to baptism on the 29th! One day while we were teaching her she was just felt like she wasn't ready yet and just had a lot of questions. But she understands all of the lessons we teach her. While we were teaching her we asked her 3 questions to see where she was at. First we asked "do you believe that what we are teaching you is true?" She said yes. Then we asked "do you believe the Book of Mormon is True?" Another yes. Last we asked "Do you believe that this church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith?" Yes! We knew she was ready for baptism, if she just keeps continuing to come to church, she will be baptized soon! 

A little thing that assured us she would be baptized is Elder Bulado said he's going home on the 3rd of Mayand she told him not to worry and he will be there when she is baptized. That's not exactly what she said, but we knew that's what it meant!

A day later after we came home from work, we got a text from Sister Delos Santos. The text first read (with my rough translation) What did you do to Sister Florida yesterday? Now she seems happier than ever and she told me what you taught her! It made us super happy to know she was happy. After a little conversation sister Delos Santos asked us a couple doctrine questions and we assisted her in finding them. Sister Delos Santos then told us how she has regained the desire to have scripture study because of us. I am grateful to be able to help her, and I love these 2 sisters.

Now on to another cool experience, on Thursday we got to have a Zone meeting in the are of Pagudpud, which is about a little over an hour away. Side note our area is known as the worst part if you're driving, because it is just windy mountains for about an hour. (luckily I made it there without throwing up, the way back I wasn't so lucky). So we got to meet our zone, (which I like) and even cooler we got to meet the new missionary couple Elder and Sister Nelson from Alpine Utah. Elder Nelson actually served here in the Philippines back in 1980, and told us how different it was. 

What I really want to share is his story. He told us in 1980 he was put in the area of Laoag, with 2 other elders. Back then there were only 40 members. A promise was made to them that if they could have 100 members for 4 weeks they would have a church built. They ended up getting 100 members and he was able to speak at the ground breaking of the new chapel then had to leave. That chapel that he spoke of is now known as the Bantay chapel for Laoag 4th and 5th ward. That is the chapel of the last area I just served in (for those of you who remember it was the picture where I was copying my mom's picture when she served!) 

Elder Nelson was never able to see the church built during his time as a missionary, until now 36 years later returning here with his wife. The first Sunday he was here he went to the Laoag 4th and 5th ward for their sacrament meeting. While he was at the meeting for the 5th ward, 2 of the older women came up to him and asked if he was the same Elder Nelson 36 years ago. Turns out he baptized these 2 sisters when he was still a missionary in 1980 and finally he got to see the fruit of his labors. They stayed strong in the church all these years and now both have big families and sons that have served missions. 

These 2 sisters were actually part of my 2 favorite families when I was still in Laoag 5, the Bituen family and the Gaspar. 2 of my good friends Kevin Bituen and RJ Gaspar have both served full time missions. My last week I had a family home evening at both of their houses and I thought it was really cool to see at the Gaspar family a wall with several missionary nametags in the family.I once again love seeing the influence of one persons lives to several and Elder Nelsons testimony was very strong and motivating. 

A small little fruit that I have been able to seen while I was still on the mission was that a while ago I was talking to a former companion in my first area. I asked how my friend and Recent Convert Kat Kat is and her family. He told  me that they were doing great, and one lesson Kat Kat bore her testimony to her mother which opened her heart up. A few weeks later while I was still in Laoag, I heard from Elder Andon that Kat Kat's mother was to be baptized that coming Saturday. I am so happy to see the spread of the gospel here in the Philippines and I am glad to be here.

I may have talked about this before, but I want to again restate how much of a difference we can make in the lives of several. You may not be able to notice or see it at first like Elder Nelson, but our good decisions do make a difference. I hope as we all follow the right path and help others we can affect others in our lives for good. Love you all, and know that many of you have made a difference in my life! Keep being a shining influence to others!

Elder Espiritu

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

A little resort in Taggat 

Sister Morton (we're in the same batch)

Elder Lewis (First met him my first cycle in the field when there were only 4 Americans)

Early morning Taggat

Early morning Lagoon 

Rain and Baptisms in Brown Water

So let's just say this week was full of rain, brown water, and nervousness. But it was all fun and enjoyable! 

For those of you who don't know, my last area Laoag is apparently one of the hottest places in the Philippines, so it's always sunny. Now coming to Claveria, I assumed it was going to be the same but I guessed wrong. It rained almost every day this week, aside from one hot day, and I left my umbrella in Laoag. It's alright though, rain can't get me down! It can affect other people coming to church which can be a bummer. 

Now a fun little story about teaching, we decided to teach our investigator Dennis and her cousin Joshua about the 10 commandments. I didn't realize how deep the words of the 10 commandments were in Tagalog, so it was a little bit of a struggle. It was fun though, I just ended up using the hand signs I use to remember them. It was challenging but fun to try to explain "though shall not commit adultery" or "thou shall not covet". Fun times though, and I think they figured out what I was saying and Elder Bulado explained it better in the end, (but I am pretty sure the hand signs helped)

This Saturday was a pretty interesting baptism, and didn't go the way I thought it would. It was supposed to start at 2, but Princess (our investigator getting baptized) didn't show up until 2:20 and Dennis didn't show up until 3:00. So the branch president was a little stressed out. 

It felt a little rushed during the talks before the baptism but it was alright. The talks were great. Once the talks ended we headed to the baptismal font. To my surprise, (not sure to everyone else’s) the water in the font was brown. I was not used to seeing that but it didn't seem to bother Dennis and Princess, (aside from it being cold) so it was fine, just slightly different.

Princess went first, Alex (her nephew, I know it's weird because he's 19 and she's 16) baptizing her and all went well, (or so I thought) I was in the front as a witness or making sure her whole body was immersed, and I'm sure (and the other witness was) she went in all the way the first time but some of the older sister members said her hand popped out so we did it again. Guess we have to make sure, so we did it again and it was all good.

Then with Joshua and Dennis, it was a slightly bigger struggle. Joshua was slightly nervous during the baptism, so he couldn't figure out the words so we had to do it over a little more than a couple times. He did well, and I understand why he was nervous. 

The baptism was still a success, and Dennis and Princess were both happy. The whole experience just reminded me that not everything goes perfect, because we aren't perfect. It's okay to make mistakes, and we have chances to fix our mistakes that we made! All is well and everyone was still happy.

So that about wraps up the highlights of my week, and I hope you all enjoyed this email. I am having quite an experience here in Claveria, but I am enjoying it. I am still adjusting, but I have only been here for 2 weeks, so for 2 weeks I think everything is fine. 

Next week I feel will be an adventure and let's see how it all goes! Once again love you all, and miss you all very much! 

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

Some pictures from the local market (the meat section always smells the best just to let you all know)

Taggat and I

Pictures from the baptism of Dennis Nebab and Princess Corpuz 

The Claveria Life

My first week in Claveria is now over, and I already had a lot of quite different experiences here.

First off, I have heard that this area is one if not the prettiest areas in the mission. I can agree that it is definitely great. But the ride to it wasn't. In order to get to the area, you go through windy mountains for about an hour. I am glad another missionary had medicine and was nice enough to get it for me. Then we finally got to the area! Kind of just like any other area in this mission, but it has a lot of places to eat shop and things like that.


It is basically a little small village in the mountains, but pretty well off.At the bus station in Claveria, I met my new companion Elder Bulado. Elder Bulado is a 23 year old Filipino from Tacloban (the same place as my trainer). He is very "chill" and loves to talk to people. This is his last cycle before he goes home, but luckily, I don't think he's too trunky. He does love to talk so there have been many times where we have had long conversations. 

We have already talked about a lot of our lives to each other, what we want to do in the future, marriage and things. I also learned that he has a scholarship to a college for dance! He is really talented in the style of "isolation" or "popping". I've watched him and asked him to teach me. It's pretty hard to do but he is really good at it. Hopefully by the end of the cycle I'll be able to do a little bit of what he does.

So a short report on the other 2 in my apartment, we have Elder Nuada and Elder Langeveld. Elder Nuada is a Filipino and Elder Langeveld is actually from Utah. They are all pretty nice and hard working. They area also all really close to going home, and then there's me who still has a while though. I'm not complaining though, it is all good to me, I enjoy it. 

They do tease me a lot though but it's about being picky. The 2nd day we were here a member bought us squid which we used for food for the next couple days. I learned that I am not a fan of squid of any form such as adobo or fried.

As soon as I got here I learned that we actually have 2 baptisms coming up next week, and 3 more potential. So we put a lot of our focus this week to teaching them, preparing them for baptism. I ended up becoming friends with them really fast, and can already tease them if I wanted to. It's like we've been friends for a while.So a weird thing that happened this week, we have an investigator who is really awesome, and when we teach her it is great, but she has a problem that is going on right now. 

Turns out she has been accused by all of her neighbors of witchcraft, and I think might actually have to go to court for it. We were pretty surprised when we heard this, but I am sure nothing bad will happen. We don't think the judge will do anything, and they don't have any proof of her "witchcraft". She did come to church so we were happy to see her, that's just not something I was expecting to hear at all that is actually happening anywhere in the world. But it is, and I am sure it will all be fine.

On Sunday I finally got to see what our branch is like. I was pretty surprised to see the size of it. For the Philippines, their branch is quite large. Their goal is to soon become a ward, and I can see that being possible. All the members are all very nice, and I already became friends with them pretty quickly, so I am happy with that. 

There are 3 new missionaries in their branch now: Elder Langeveld (20 months in the mission), Sister Latu (a Tongan who just entered the mission) and then I (a little over 7 months now total in my mission), and I think they like us all. 

The first week was great. I am really happy to be where I am right now. I still have a lot to learn such as the area, and keep working on my Tagalog. Side note I realized I can still work on a lot when I couldn't really teach the story of Adam and Eve to a 10 year old very well. I still have a lot to learn, but this is a good place for me to be. 

I am happy here and happy to be on the mission. I say this a lot but I love this mission, I love the place so far, and I love the people. I can't wait to see how life goes here! So for now, this is what my life is like, let's see if anything happens next week! Love you all and miss you!  

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

Taggat, one of my favorite areas so far in Claveria

Another area we go to often in Centro

The apartment in Claveria

Elder Bulado and I (sorry it's very blurry)

The Short but Sweet Time In Laoag

Quite a different week this week, but it was all for good! These couple weeks here have been a little challenge, but in the end I am very grateful for them. I know I am continuing to learn a lot.

We got to end this cycle with a blast, because we had an Family Home Evening every day with a different set of family. All were very fun and we got to teach many different things. We also celebrated a members birthday on Tuesday, Sister Andrada's during zone conference this week, my companion Elder Salazar on Friday along with another member who had a birthday on the same day. All were very fun and I enjoy having family home evenings with all these people. I have grown pretty fond of the members of Laoag 5.

When Sunday rolled around, it was disappointing to see that only 1 of our investigators were able to make it to church, even though we thought we had a lot of people who were going to come. I understand it's hard to keep commitments and sometimes it's hard to follow through and go to a strange building at 8:30 in the morning, but that's just what we got to do.

That's exactly what our zone conference was about actually, was helping people understand commitments. Sometimes we feel like commitments are just a little side thing we do, but they’re actually very important. If they understand the importance of the commitment, they'll want to do it. Especially if they understand the promised blessing with it. It may take some time, but one day they will understand. For now, we just keep sifting for the ones who are ready!

So I have a surprise for you all: I am being transferred again! While teaching our investigator who came to church we received a text from one of the Assistants to the President that we will both be transferring! It's a little weird and very fast since we were only here for 1 cycle, but I know this is the will of God for me to serve somewhere else. 

Looking back at everything that has happened this cycle, I am glad that it all happened. I am a little sad that we didn't get to see a ton of progress, for what we started with, I would say there actually was progress. I know that we have a lot of good information that we can leave behind for the next Elders and even though we didn't get much, we at least tilled the ground for the soil to grow. It may be a very slow process, but I know something is happening. 

It says in Preach My Gospel in Ch.9, no effort is wasted. Even though it may feel like that, you have affected those you've come in contact with. Right now we just can't see it.

So I am happy and grateful for this short time to serve in Laoag, and I am ready for the new challenges of my next area! I am ready to learn and to gain relationships with more people in this mission. 

I do love the people a lot and I got pretty close to some families and members in the short 6 weeks I was here. It's sad to leave them, but this is part of mission life. 

For now I must focus on the work, and I am excited to go now to Claveria, which means I am going back to the border of Cagayan! I'm excited to be able to serve there and we'll see what the future has in store!

Elder Espiritu

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

Kevin's birthday 

FHE at the Dela Rosa Family

Zone Conference lunch with some of the Sisters

Sister Andrada's birthday

FHE at the Gaspar Family

Birthday of Elder Salazar and a member Sariah

Another celebration for Elder Salazar's birthday

Last Sunday with the Laoag 5 ward

Dinner at the Ragasa family 

Continuing The Laoag Missionary Life

Well I would definitely say that I had a great experience this week, and life is still going well here in Laoag!

One day this week I got to have an exchange with my Zone Leader Elder Anderson. Elder Anderson is an American from St. George Utah, and has a lot of knowledge of the gospel. He's really smart. He decided to take me to this one investigator over in Lapaz named Arnel. 

Arnel is a Filipino who lived in Virginia for a long time so he speaks English very well. His backstory is he moved to America when he was a teenager. He had a girl he loved before he left and managed to have a long distance relationship with her for 15 years. Finally he moved back and married her. 8 months after their marriage, she died. He was mad at God after that and we are worried that after these 9 years he still hasn't been able to move on. 

It was quite a great experience with him. It was really nice to be able to teach a full lesson in English to him. We ended up teaching him for a long time about multiple subjects. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation with him and many different things. Most of what we talked about was how we need to seek learning by faith, and talked to him a lot about what Elder Bednar talked about. 

We likened it unto the seed and working out. For working out, you can't just believe you can get bigger, you have to act. Not only do you have to act, you have to make sure you're lifting the weight right. When you do, you will have a feeling that what you did was right. This is how it can happen with knowing the church is true. You just have to act. 

After a long time of teaching him that, we hope he will be able to act in the faith that he already has. I am excited to see what happens to him. He has been investigating for quite a while. It was a great experience going with another American and learning about what he did on the mission, and I admire all the knowledge he has. 

Elder Anderson and I talked about gospel topics for quite a while that day, and there are now lots of books I want to study. For now, I am going to start with Jesus the Christ. It is a little bit of a struggle for me because it is over 700 pages and written in older context, but so far I enjoy it and plan to finish it eventually. Gaining a knowledge for myself is really going to help me out on the mission and in the long run. I have a lot to read, so I plan to keep reading these things after my mission.

So now to my area. We actually had lots of good experiences this week, even the hardships. We decided to try to find one morning door to door. At first, it was one of the most brutal and slightly discouraging moments. For an hour we went door to door, and every single house we went to was straight up rejection. I wasn't very happy at the time and almost wanted to just stop. But you can't have good without the bad. 

After quite some time we finally found a potential investigator. We happily taught and they accepted a return appointment. Soon after that, we found a lot of potential investigators and past investigators. The Lord does help us in our work, and the more failure you have, the more success you are capable of having. We extended a couple of baptismal dates to these people, and I am excited to see them progress! 

It also is hard for our area, because a lot of the investigators that we want to teach say they can't make it. A lot of them don't have time on Sunday morning because they have to work and support their family. We talked to the Bishop and he told us it was a very logical reason for a lot of people. So now we are trying to figure out a solution, but really it's just a leap of faith that people need to take in order to have a better life. Sometimes we can't see what's ahead, but if we trust in the Lord He can help us through everything.

We had quite a few dinners this week which were really fun. At one of them there were 2 little girls hanging out at the house. They started talking to me and getting me to play with them. Sometimes I didn't notice but I was able to understand everything they said and say everything I need to say with them. Throughout the whole week I was paying attention to my language skills and I realized that my language skills are a lot better than I give myself credit for. 

Sometimes I am a little harder on myself so sometimes it's a little more of a struggle. Of course I do struggle with lots and I still have so much to learn, but I realized I still have a pretty good knowledge. One thing that really amazed me was during a lesson with one investigator and the Bishop. 

Just as a reminder, the 1st language here is Ilocano, and not Tagalog. So of course the Bishop will talk to our investigator in Ilocano. As I was listening, I realized that I actually understand a lot of Ilocano, and was able to keep up for the most part when they were both talking. I couldn't understand everything and I definitely can't really speak the language of Ilocano, but there is more that I know than I thought. 

For Tagalog and Ilocano, I have gained a lot of understanding and just continuing to push myself to talk to people in order to speak better. Gotta keep getting back up even if I stumble a lot on some days. With these experiences I realized how much the Gift of Tongues has blessed me in my life, and how God really is watching over me. 

This area is starting to grow on me a lot, and I have enjoyed my time here so far. Every week I can find something new that I learned, and even though it can be difficult, that is just part of life. Life was never meant to be easy, and this time is to learn between right and wrong, and good and evil. 

If we make the right choices, we will be blessed. The mission life is definitely not easy, but I know it's helping me a lot. Once again, to those of you who are reading this, thank you for your support! I am not sure exactly who does read, but if you do, thank you. 

Until next week again, just keep pushing through! 

Elder Espiritu

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

Following in my Mom's footsteps

Snackin at a waiting shed with a less active member

Lots of fellowshippers from our ward: Kevin Bituen, Diane, Dela Rosa, Francis, Sister Persia, Sister Bagadiong, and RJ

Diane and her baby sister Riley (daughters of the Bishop)