All that matters is that you find the truth of the Lords gospel out for yourself and come to the only true and living God and follow His commandments.

All I really want to talk about this week is Twinkle's baptism and the events relating to it, because that's really the only special thing that happened!

Twinkle..Yes she's like half my size but still the same age

So we all arrived at this really nice pool made from a natural hot spring inside of this really nice resort. The water is beautiful, there was no people there so it was absolutely dead silent, and I swear you could hear the angels singing. There weren't many of us there for the baptismal service, but that allowed for an even quieter atmosphere.But after she was baptized, she was so eager to bear her testimony of how she knows that this church is true. You could just see in her countenance how purely joyful she was knowing that she was a daughter of God trying to follow Christ's example.

The next day in Sunday (Since it was fast Sunday) Twinkle got up and bore her testimony, which was absolutely beautiful. Later that same day, we went to her house to teach her and issued her a challenge to read the whole Book of Mormon (which is like 750 pages in Tagalog) in a month, which she readily accepted. Within the first hour of giving her the challenge, she had already read the first 7 chapters of Nephi. There is such a stark contrast in the lives of the members who read the Book of Mormon on a consistent basis versus those who do not. Those who read the Book of Mormon become anchored in their testimonies of the

 Elder Semaning was the only one who thought it was a good idea to jump

gospel, and the love God has for His children.

         Me and Elder Semaning at the baptism

This past week I was impressed to read some words that the Prophet Joseph Smith delivered to a congregation of people a few days before his murder. One of the phrases that he said to the people there (Who were of all religions) was, "Come unto God, for your religion will not save you." I thought it was an interesting phrase, but it's very true. It doesn't matter what the heck you're called: Catholic, Methodist, Iglesia, etc. All that matters is that you find the truth of the Lords gospel out for yourself and come to the only true and living God and follow His commandments. That seems really hard for a lot of people to do. Many here say, "I was born a Catholic, and I will die a Catholic." Well that's nice, we don't really care what they are. We are just here to help them come closer to God, but they are so caught up in their "title" of religion, that they close their hearts to the truth.

A lot of great things are happening out here, and, of course, I wouldn't have it any other way! I love you all and will email again in another short week!
Elder Austin Cook

Exchanges w/ Elder Downing & Elder Robinson. Some of the BEST

Just some members in the branch who are so very nice to us