We had a total of 8 baptism interviews for a set of Elders in our zone. It was such an amazing experience

This week has been full of our favorite activity... Tracting!! So we have this problem in our area (well, in pretty much EVERY area) where we teach tons of people once or twice and then they start hiding from us or become really rude to us for no apparent reason. But this past week we just couldn't find ANYONE to teach! We tracted probably a total of 30 hours and didn't find a single lesson from it... Probably the first time on my mission that that has happened. But we still laugh and have a good time while sharing the Gospel with others. Elder David is a great companion and we bond really well through tracting haha.

Last Tuesday we had a total of 8 baptism interviews for a set of Elders in our zone, and all eight of them passed! It was such an amazing experience interviewing each of them and getting to know their conversion story and what it really was that showed them that this Gospel is true. Each of them are so established and firm in their testimonies, and I'm not sure that I've met more converted people out in the Philippines.

Sorry if my email is short, but that's all I really have to tell this week... Just tracting and baptismal interviews. But I still am working hard and always look forward with faith to find success in our area. If people didn't accept us last week, which just means we are sifting through those that don't care about our message, so our chances this week for finding will be higher! (Hopefully haha) Love you all, have a great week!

Francis Monilla got baptized! He was converted to the Lord, and it truly shows in his countenance.

Finally got a new companion, Elder David! He's Filipino, so I'm taking a little time to get back into the groove of having a Filipino companion, but we are doing great! He works really hard, and loves tracting, so it gives me a lot more drive to knock on doors all day... And that's pretty much all we've been doing for this past week. I think on average we knock on doors for more than three hours every day, so we get pretty exhausted by the end of the week. Thank goodness for Mondays! (It's funny because back home I hated Mondays, but the mission forces me to love them haha)

And Francis Monilla got baptized last Saturday!! It was great, because his older brother Jonathan did the ordinance for him. After the baptism he bore his testimony and the room was on fire. I didn't know that a 14-year-old boy was capable of bearing such pure testimony. In all honesty, he's probably the most solid convert that I've taught on my mission. He wasn't converted because of friends in the church - he has none of those, not even one. He wasn't converted because of activities or programs of the church - they don't have those in this ward. He was converted to the Lord, and it truly shows in his countenance.

That's pretty much for this week! We don't really have any other solid solid investigators, so we will be finding those this next week hopefully. Love you all and will email in another short week! Stay classy ;)

Mothers Day skype May 13, 2018

Our family was spread out this Mothers Day.  Landon was in Rexburg, Idaho attending school.  Danielle and Austin were in Kentucky Visiting Austins family and Dad, Mom and Brooklyn were home in Las Vegas and I, of course, was in the Phillippines 

 

 

Missionary work is like a huge orchestra, and you, as a missionary in the Philippines, have to be the conductor

I am learning a ton in this area! I think the thing that I am learning most is how to really coordinate with the members. Missionary work is like a huge orchestra, and you as a missionary in the Philippines have to be the conductor (I think that's what it's called). Everything must be orchestrated exactly in order for someone to feel true conversion, and it is not an easy thing to do!

But this last week was mostly focused on Lannie and getting her prepped for baptism and such. The baptism was great though! And her younger brother, Francis, is right behind her on May 19. He's already on like Alma 20 and is very ready for baptism this far. He loves reading and I don't think a day goes by that he doesn't read. He also keeps a notebook full of notes and questions that he has while he reads, so he learns a lot!

I remember that after Lannie's baptism, I told Elder Peterson that I wish the veil could be removed from our eyes during baptisms so we could see the angels in the room and the pillar of fire that lights in the hearts of the investigators when they get baptized. Well, the next day, after Lannie got confirmed and received the Holy Ghost, she came up to us afterwords and said, "No wonder you told me that it's the baptism of fire! It was so hot up there while I was being confirmed. I almost wanted them to hurry up and say 'amen' so the fire could stop." I told Elder Peterson afterwords that if the veil were removed from our eyes, we would have seen the pillar of fire in the room. The church is true ladies and gentlemen!

So this next week we've got a lot of work to do with our next set of investigators we are working on, the Magdaong family. There's four of them that are completely ready for baptism, but brother and sister Magdaong aren't married yet, so that's kind our hurdle here. We are really chasing down a lot of paper work to get them married, but it'll happen! That's it for now,

Elder Austin Cook


Picture1-2: Matching ties again

Picture 3: Hop in mah ride

Picture 4: Elder Peterson has a hard time chopping onions

Picture 5-11: Pictures of Lannie's baptism