"It's been 6 months already since I entered the MTC!!"

Hello again from the Philippines.  Well it's been plenty hot here for the last 3 weeks or so.  We'd say high 80s to 90s.  Good job Kolsen, keep up the good work in soccer and keep taking those piano lessons.  Well, congratulations to Cassie Howard whatever new last name she has.  Emma, you don't have to worry about dating because it's bawal until I get back.

Well what can I say about this week...we haven't moved into a new apartment yet.  March na lang! (In March now!).  We're busy every hour of every day still, but we had some good insights about planning and evaluating that will hopefully help us get the most out of our time.  So when Kolsen asked about doing service to help people I decided to look for opportunities.  Well on Wednesday we were talking with some guy who was weeding and I just started pulling along side him.  We were able to finish the little section he was doing and he let us speak to him.  He didn't seem too interested at first, but then he asked us why there were so many churches on earth.  The Apostasy pretty much sums that up.  We started talking a little about Jesus Christ establishing His church though, and then the guy told us he had to go somewhere.  So the lesson there is to teach to the people's needs especially when you get an opportunity like that to teach someone (pretty sure the Spirit put that question in his mind).  Hopefully we can meet him again to answer that question.  Sheilla came back from Manila!!!!! We're really excited about that and got to teach her on Thursday.  She's still as ready for the gospel. We taught a family with our fellowshipper and extended a baptismal invitation.  They accepted, but they want to study the Book of Mormon a little more first before we set a date.  

We had ZTM and we got pumped about our purpose and how we can touch the hearts of our investigators to help them come closer to Christ.  Valentines was an interesting day because I realized something on that day...It's been 6 months already since I entered the MTC!!  Time is flying way too fast.  I don't feel like I've learned enough for it to have been 6 months already.  And to top it all off, I must've eaten a bad mango or something because I got lbm.  Happy 6 months!!!  We taught the Ramirez family and were able to teach tatay the Word of Wisdom.  He committed to quit smoking, but said he needed to do it gradually because it's hard to stop cold turkey.  So we said 1 a day this week and next week none.  He was a little surprised at that, but we know he can do it.  Great Sabbath day.  All our Recent converts came (they always do) and Sister Ramirez came with her daughter Jellamaica (that's a first for her).  It was only them, but it was great to see investigators that truly have a desire to be a part of the Church.  Sunday we were able to work with a recent convert named Bro. Calibuyot.  His daughter in law is the daughter of one of our investigators named tatay Norberte and he insists that we have an Ilokano fellowshipper.  It was pretty stinking awesome all of the things Bro. Calibuyot said (like savoring the experience of the true Church of Jesus Christ and if he came one time he would get to feel what that's like.)  Afterward he said he felt really invigorated and filled with the Spirit so he's going to come with us every Sunday now!  Rani and Janette Ramos are doing a lot better with the Word of Wisdom, but Rani complains a lot about his body feeling different  and it being hard to sleep now and he wants the alcohol because it's like his medicine now.  We told him he's got to overcome the addiction if he ever wants to feel good physically and spiritually.

So it's still really hard out here, but we're trucking along everyday.  There's progression going on here, just more slowly than I want.  Well that's all I've got for this week.  Oh quick little insert.  We just had an earthquake here that shook the computer shop.  It was pretty cool to feel one actually, I wonder where it originated and how strong it was.  Well have a good week everyone.

Mahal ko kayo lahat!

-Elder Egan

Here's a family (yep they're all family and they live in this little complex of houses) that we teach.  We don't teach them all, but there's quite a few that sit in and listen to us talk about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation.  We have a lot of people here asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon, especially in Ilokano.  They love hearing our message and they all had a picnic lunch and fed us just before this picture.  The only problem is that they don't understand that there's only one true church on the earth so they don't see a need to come to our church.  We're still working on how to handle that one.