So I'll be honest, being transferred here to this new area is a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be

MY FAMILY I have grown to love ♥

Dang there's just so much to say here. So I'll be honest, being transferred here to this new area is a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Monday morning I was super excited for it, but when it came time to actually leave, wow that was a sad day. Last Monday night we had a huge family home evening with all of the members in the branch. It was kind of their last time to say goodbye to us. They all had a dance and a song that they had prepared for us (which I'm pretty dang sure Twinkle set up) and they they all gave us letters that they had written for us. Some of them were crying and gosh, it was just so hard to say goodbye. I wanted to hug them so bad. On Tuesday when I left, the bus that I rode passed by their house and I seriously wanted to just smash through the windrow and go see them one last time.  I defiantly want to come back and visit after my mission down the road  I'll be honest, saying goodbye to them brought up a lot of old feelings that were closely related to saying goodbye to friends and family back in Vegas.

But now here I am in Libon! It took a day or two to get used to the fact that I am in a new area, but it isn't too bad now! Get this.. I am serving in one of Fraser Lefevre's old areas. (Fraser is a young man that served in this area from our Las Vegas ward just about a year ago)  I even met some of the people he baptized!  My new companion, Elder Nonu, is a great guy and loves to laugh, which makes it pretty easy to get along with him! The apartment is actually super nice too (especially the outside of it) and the area overall is just a beautiful place. It's not too big or too small of a city; it's actually probably a size that's close to the size of Irosin, so I can get used to it easily. The members here are really welcoming to me, and I'm really getting along with them well. There are a TON of potential people here to teach, and I can't wait until Elder Nonu and I get out there and find them!

 My flippin Sisters right here! Angelica is on the left 

(reminds me of Brooklyn my sister) and Shaira is on the right

That's really all I have to say for now because I haven't been in the area long enough to give a nice update about what's going on. But I hope to have a great update for you all next week! I love you tons, and remember to keep me in your prayers!!

 Elder Austin Cook

 

P.S.  This is just a side note from me, Austins mom.  I have befriended a few of these sweet people from Austins first area.  I wanted to share some conversations that I have had with Twinkle about Austin on Facebook messenger ♥  Just warms my heart  

 Elder fatty or white giant 

is a term of endearment

 John Paul (my legitimate brother) He and I went on splits

 almost every day. I think he cried a little bit when I left. 

Gosh it was hard to leave him

 Our last goodbye while waiting for the bus to leave Irosin

My view from the top of my apartment.  I thought it was cool

Yep. They found a snake. Killed it. We Ate it. #JungleLife

All of the free space around our apartment. 

We have a balcony and a place on the roof to 

do whatever we want. It's really sweet

We need to build our foundation in Christ, we need to trust Him, lean on Him and follow Him. If we do those things we cannot fall. I know for a fact that this is true. If we center our foundation on Christ, we will never fall. We will experience sadness, trials, sickness and whatever else, but we will NEVER fall because He is there to carry us.

Gotta add the GQ pose

So it has been confirmed that I AM leaving this transfer! All of my bags are already packed, and I'll be leaving Irosin on Tuesday, and I will be making my way over to Libon in the Ligao Zone!

The amazing Glorybie's baptism day

I've spent basically my whole mission so far in this area, so I figured that when I finally did leave, I would be absolutely heartbroken. But when the announcement came that I would be leaving, for some reason I got super excited. Don't get me wrong: this place is my home. These people are my family. These places and these streets are second nature to me now. But I am so excited to be able to do this all over again in another area!  We have two other missionaries in our district who are also leaving, and they are super sad about it, and they are kinda confused/mad at me because I'm not sad about leaving. But honestly, I can't help it, I'm really excited!

I told basically all of the members here that I was leaving as soon as I could. Back in the states

District activity from last week .

missionaries come and go and it seems like not many people notice, but here it's absolutely different. You aren't just a missionary here. You are these people's best friend, you are their counselor, and you are their life. So it's really sad to be leaving all of them, but I know that they are in the hands of the Lord. We have a huge Family home evening tonight with basically all of the members of the branch as kind of a way to say goodbye to everyone. But yesterday we went to Twinkle and her siblings to teach them, and they had this awesome surprise for me! They really are the best. After we finished teaching them and bearing our last testimonies to them, they started doing this song and dance that all of the little kids had practiced. And then they gave me a bunch of letters and this really cool thing that they made for me (I'll attach a picture).

The last time me and John Paul will get to work on splits together. 

These pictures were at Twinkle's house ..

I really will miss this place though. These people have become my family. I'm gonna miss the Porcado's, Twinkle and her family, John Paul (seriously he's like my brother) the Gernali's, and everyone else in the branch. I'm not worried though, I expect to see them if I am able to return someday but definitely I will in the Celestial Kingdom.

That's pretty much it for this email. I can't wait to see where my next area sends me! It's gonna be great, it really is. One thing that always gives me hope, comfort, and peace is a scripture in Helaman. Helaman 5:12 is really a great scripture in the Book of Mormon. It says that we need to build our foundation in Christ, we need to trust Him, lean on Him and follow Him. If we do those things, Helaman says, we cannot fall. I know for a fact that this is true. If we center our foundation on Christ, we will never fall. We will experience sadness, trials, sickness and whatever else, but we will NEVER fall because He is there to carry us.

The wonderful thoughtful gift from twinkle and her family.

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!  Elder Austin Cook

Twinkles siblings she cares for

The incredible Porcado Family

Gotta have fun and be silly :)

More fun with some of my favorite people

Twinkles sisters

John Paul

Another photo from Glorybie's baptism

Some fun with our district

Gotta post like a real man

Prayer is real. Prayer helps. It's asking our Father in Heaven for his help, and he will ALWAYS help us in the best way possible, but only if we are willing to follow his direction and to follow his will.

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic week this week! I don't really know where to start this email, but I kinda realized that I have been companions with Elder Maga for the past 5 weeks, and I don't think I've given a decent description of who he is, so I guess I'll explain him a little bit. Elder Maga is SUPER awkward, super blunt, and just doesn't have the best of social skills. But I'll tell you what, he is one of the funniest people I've ever met. He doesn't make a lot of jokes or anything, but just the way he does things is just hilarious, so we actually get along really well! He doesn't speak hardly any English at all, so I only speak to him really in Tagalog, so it helps me learn a lot more, which is fantastic! Well that's pretty much who he is. It's really difficult to explain his type of personality through an email, but he's great, he really is.

So we have another baptism of a girl this week named Glorybie (Glory bee) (yeah, super weird name right?) We have been working with her for like the whole time I've been here, so it's really nice to see that she is taking steps towards her baptism. I have a feeling that she is going to be my last baptism before I leave this area right now. I've been here for 6 months now, and Transfer day is next Tuesday, so there's a good chance I'm going to be headed out of here. It's kinda sad really, the people here become like your family, especially when you're been with them for 6 months.

This week we've been basically been focusing on Glorybie and Twinkle. Twinkle is doing great. Even though she was only baptized a week ago, she is one of the strongest members in the branch. She is the oldest in her family of 8 kids. Her dad left her and moved to Manilla to provide for the children, and her mom decided that being a mom was too hard, so she just told Twinkle that she was going to take care of the kids from now on, and then her mom moved to a different city and barely talks to them anymore. This happened like two years ago, so Twinkle is probably one of the strongest 18 year olds I've ever met. She has all of the great strong qualities that a mother of 7 kids has. She has probably taught me more than I'll ever teach her about patience and faith. I have seen in her what I have seen in probably no one else in my life.

She has such a firm testimony in prayer. It's really amazing how she thinks and receives answers from God. So many people will pray for something in their life, and then when it finally happens, they don't realize that it correlates with their prayers. Prayers really is the most divine way of receiving the highest form of blessings. On my mission so far, I've really learned to rely on prayer, and to seek my own answers with divine assistance. Really, prayer is real. Prayer helps. It's asking our Father in Heaven for his help, and he will ALWAYS help us in the best way possible, but only if we are willing to follow his direction and to follow his will.

Sorry I don't have any pictures again, I kinda forgot my camera back at the apartment. But that's okay, because that means we get twice as many pictures next week! WOOHOO! But anyways, that's all for now folks! HAVE A GOOD WEEK!!

Elder Austin Cook

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