Elder Austin Russell Cook Philippines, Legazpi Mission 8-2016 thru 8-2018: We are calling down the powers of heaven daily through our obedience, hard work, and love for the people. I know that the Lord is on our side and I have never felt his presence stronger in my life.

This past week has been full of plenty of work and amazing missionary experiences.

So overall this last week, we found 6 new investigators. Honestly, it's not much, but three of those investigators came to church yesterday, and three of them have told us that they want to be baptized as soon as possible and they really mean it.

One of the new investigators, Stanley Araw, kind of has an interesting story. He ran into us in the

A few of my favorite people

street one day while he was selling ice cream a while back and told us that he wants us to meet him at his home. We were pretty excited because not many people just waltz up to you and ask to be taught, so we knew we needed to make the best of it. Last Saturday, Elder Caballes and I traveled to his home out in a place called Libtong, which was a lot farther than we expected it would be. The rain was absolutely HORRENDOUS when we went to his house and it was about a 30 minute walk in the mountain to find where he lived. But as soon as we got to his house the rain stopped, so that was a nice little blessing. He was so kind and inviting right when we got there; he had already had a little snack and juice prepared for us. He told us to eat some snacks while he went and got changed into the nicest polo shirt he had so that we could share with him.

Then he told us a story that was kind of interesting about how he was living in a far city called Davao, and there he had a type of vision. In this vision he said that he met an angel, and the angel told him to get out of Davao and look for the true church of Jesus Christ, and that this said church should bear the name of Jesus Christ himself. Long story short, Stanley Araw ended up here in our area. When he saw the sign of our church, he knew it was the one that he saw in vision because is had the name JESUS CHRIST right on the front. We proceeded to teach him about our beliefs and the next day, we saw him at church all dressed up. He stayed the whole time, took notes even, and asked us when he can be baptized. We are very excited to see how he progresses.

One of our other investigators is a man named Jason Docot. His wife, Mary-Jane Docot, is actually a member, but has been inactive since she was about 15 years old. However, her husband has never heard of the church, but he is very interested. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and understands it all and really likes it! He is just having a hard time believing that there is a living prophet on the earth right now who has the same power that Moses had. But we are assured that he will gain that testimony if he continues his honest search.

Me and my trainer, Elder Perkins. My love for this kid

has grown so much throughout my time here. He's actually

going home in a couple of weeks, so best of luck to him.

So that's all I'm going to say on the investigator part, but we are so ready to see this area finally progress! Elder Caballes is so obedient, humble, willing, and hardworking. I read all the time in the Doctrine and Covenants that it is through our obedience that we call down the powers of heaven. When I was with Elder Nonu, I was having a really hard time believing that because I was trying my best, but the work was just going nowhere; I didn't feel any sort of power coming from heaven. But with Elder Caballes I finally get it. We are calling down the powers of heaven daily through our obedience, hard work, and love for the people. I know that the Lord is on our side and I have never felt his presence stronger in my life.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Austin Cook ☺

So we were all taken to a huge conference in which all of the missionaries went to Legazpi to hear President Kotter and Sister Kotter speak to all of us. We also got our flu shots there