Oh what a fun week.  We had Elder Nielson speak with to us and we traveled to ROXAS. you pronounce it RoHas. We have a joke that everything is in Roxas. You ask anyone, where did you get that?  "oh in Roxas"  Everytime.  So it was cool to go to Roxas because it Rox!

Some few points that I loved from Zone Conference. D&C 1:19 How does the Lord do his work? it is by the weak and small things does the Lord break down the strong ones. He made a good point with how the Lord uses the people the world doesn't want.  For instance, young 20 year olds that are too young to really hire for career jobs and he uses the 60+ year olds that are too old to work, like senior couples, Apostles, Prophets. The Lord uses the people the world doesn't want.

He told us also that they not only assign missionaries to missions, they assign them to mission Presidents. I believe that is so true. I love President Pagaduan. He is the BEST.  We found out that this November President Pagaduan's Father is going to be the future temple president of the CEBU TEMPLE!  You can tell that he comes from an amazing family. 

I learned a lot about looking at the big picture. Some days you feel like you are not making a difference. But when you think that way, you are only seeing the small view instead of looking at the big picture that Heavenly Father sees.  He said that in 1961, four missionaries came to the Philippines from Hong Kong and now their are 853 chapels, 85 district, and 83 Stakes and there are like 659,000 members in 50 years!! He said, how this happens is by missionaries. So in the big picture the work is really moving forward.  that is amazing.  

But out of 659,000 members there are 115,000 attending church.  So our mission is to rescue. We can baptized many but we want them to really be converted and establish the church. We are sent here to rescue the lost sheep. I loved this story they told about this Runner from Africa who ran this famous race, it was like a huge marathon or olympics or something. He was injured badly and he was in last place. They showed the video of him limping into the stadium towards the finish line and the crowd started cheering for him and he tried his best to limp and jog until he crossed the finish line. they asked him later why he didn't stop running and he said "my country didn't send 5,000 miles to start the race, they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race." those words are so inspiring to me.  I didn't come all this way to let something get me down, or to feel homesick, or to be discouraged. I came here to finish the race and to do my very best. To see the big picture in our purpose. We are here to bring people closer to Christ by helping them have Faith in him and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End!! How great is our work.

I loved what sister Neilson said. ""Some of the best blessings in life don't come with everything you want.""

Pres. Pagaduan shared with us Alma 26:27 and said that we are never alone, and when we are about to turn our backs, he will be there and he will soften the hardest of hearts.  I love him and Sister Pagaduan! they are the best!

So it has been raining the past 3 days. and we had to walk through yucky puddles. And we had our Zone Activity that was supposed to be on the beach but of course it had to rain and ruin our plans. so we just played games and the church and went to this sampicita gardens resort. It is like the creator of the precious moments dolls and at this resort they have these giant statues of these precious moment dolls. Kind of cool, kind of creepy, I wouldn't want to be there at night. haha

But it was very fun. I love you all. I tell you some more funny stories later.  Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!