Smooth Sailing in Laoag

Hello my wonderfully amazing family and friends and other people who may end up reading this. No problems at all in the Laoag mission with the typhoon that just hit the Philippines.  I'm about the farthest down south in the whole mission and all we got here were some clouds.  We got the news from our President about the devastation caused by the bagyo.  We pray for them as well.  It's incredible to hear that the missionaries are safe (I guess we aren't quite sure about Tacloban, but President made it sound like everyone was ok).  So there isn't any emergency demand for humanitarian assistance in our mission. 

So it's nice to hear about some of the things going on with the family.  It's awesome that Kol made it to the semis and I guess Emma already has a better high school career than I did.  And now Mia's gonna be a snowboarding pro!  I hope that's fun.

 

I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that I'm half way around the world in the Philippines. It's been pretty quiet round here, aside from  the fact that there's 6 Elders in our apartment now.  It's a little tight, but we have a ton of fun with each other.  

There isn't a whole lot thought that I'm thinking of right now to write about.  I've been reading Jesus the Christ and that's made me stand in even more amazement of the things that he did in his life.  The world was changed from just 3 years of writings about his life and teachings, that much almost everyone can agree on.  The more amazing part to me is the fact that so many people don't truly understand the eternal value of the Atonement.  I don't even understand as much as I wish I did, but I know it's real.  If everyone in the world knew it was real, I doubt that there would be as much misery and confusion in the world.  So that's something I'll try and help people in the Philippines understand at least a little bit more personally.

 

I think I'll give an update on one of the families we teach now.  It's a family that I haven't taught since the first week I was here.  They're names are Jimmy and Lilibeth and they have two kids, Jimpau (Jimpo) and Jelhina May.  They live really far out in a Brngy. called Namruangan.  Lilibeth and her kids came to church this last Sunday and they brought some friends with them too!  We're going to start teaching them a lot more.

 

I guess one of the things I wanted to share was that we've been able to give a few blessings just this last week.  One was to a little baby named JJ who had some kind of fever and and a rash around his ears.  He was looking a lot better on Sunday.  We gave one to Jimpau because he was really sick when we taught him on Saturday.  God still works miracles today.  He made it possible for Jimpau to come to church on Sunday and as far as any of us could tell, he wasn't sick anymore.  

Well that's about all I have for this week.  I love hearing from everybody.

 

Mahal ko po kayo lahat!

-Elder Egan

 

Here's a picture of a great sunset in the Pinas and a Filipino Christmas tree

Here's a beach out in Namruangan where a couple of our new investigators live

Here's a little friend that likes slurpees apparently