Landed in the Philippines Cauayan Mission Home

 From Sister Rahlf's Philippines Cauayan Mission Blog......

"Do you want to be happy?" Arriving Missionaries November 5, 2014 Posted: 10 Nov 2014 02:26 AM PST Morning, November 5 10:30 AM And they're here! After weeks and months of planning, preparing, studying, thinking, praying and waiting, our newest missionaries arrive and are welcomed at the airport. They notice right away that it's pretty warm here…but the excitement of finally being in the mission field overrides the heat.   After coming to the mission home and office from the airport, we stay very busy.  Luggage is unloaded and then orientation begins.  We introduce ourselves, along with the senior couples.  Then we take a lot of pictures:  a group photo, one with each missionary and President and Sister Rahlf, and one individual picture that will go on the Mission Directory Board in President's office.  Lunch is served (and devoured) and then we break into groups for more detailed instruction from the assistants and individual interviews with President Rahlf. Each missionary also meets with Sister Rahlf for health guidelines; Elder and Sister Honeycutt for office and finance; Elder and Sister Shorter for housing and CLS; and Elder and Sister Campbell for commissary items.  The minutes go by fast, and all of a sudden, it's the  for the Transfer Meeting, where our new missionaries will meet their trainer and first companion.   Thank you Sister Rahlf for posting these pictures. We also received these in an email from President and Sister Rahlf Elder Saguire (Tatay) and (Anak) Elder Navarro Sister Rahlf-Elder Navarro-President Rahlf

"Kita kits" MTC

So.... this is my last p-day at the MTC.. its weird to think my next time on email will be halfway around the world!!! haha 

But this week has been great!!! Yesterday was in-field orientation and we learned sooooo much! it was super fun!!! its crazy how big a part members have in the work of salvation!!! The absolute best way we can help people come to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is through the combined effort of both members and missionaries... every new member of the church needs a friend! and really anyone can fill that role for anyone! 

Another really great and amazing thing we learned is this... the central part of our purpose (as member and full time missionaries) is helping people come closer to Christ.. and for people not of the church it is baptism... but the important part is once they've accepted baptism then the work is not finished! Part of our purpose is helping them endure to the end! and that means walking together on the path of righteousness!! it brings soo much happiness!!!!

I cant wait to actually go out into the field and be around people again!!

I think im gonna miss the mtc to an extent!! the experience has beenn soooo uplifting!! so spiritual!! but i love you all!!! 

-Elder Navarro

Its a great day to be a missionary!

p.s. (we have some fun too)

1 month

Kumusta!

Its really insane that it has already been a month into the mission! still feels like yesterday i just got here... but its also weird that this feels like the only life ive known! So its really a weird feeling!

This week has been awesome! As expected there were moments of feeling super awesome as well as moments of discouragement... I believe that the Lord is preparing me and i'm getting just a little taste of the joy as well as the hardships that will come up in the mission. One of the sweet joys of the week was this: We have an investigator (our teacher) who has been really the hardest to teach just because he doesnt believe in God all that much and he asks "why" or "how" for every thing we say.. and because of our limited vocab.. it was pretty difficult to be able to teach him anything that would matter... so my companion and I gave planned to teach him about faith because the only way he could know God was to exercise faith and ask him what was truth.. so we did the lesson and i dont remember too much about the lesson besides that we shared a scripture about faith in 2 Nephi 31 (which explains soooooooo greatly what faith is) we were able to help him find out for himself what faith was.. what i really remember tho was how good i felt during the lesson... he would ask a question and i would be able to understand super well what he was saying and i prayed the whole time that i would know what he needs and what to say... and it was as if the words were just flowing from my mouth!! it was such an amazing feeling!! a few days later we taught him again and this time the feeling was the same!! in our evaluation afterwards he was telling us how good he felt as an investigator and that it was the best lesson thus far in the MTC!!

But as a result of this i also learned how sensitive the spirit is! because i guess i was probably feelin a little too good about my tagalog skills.. that in a lesson following we went in and really had like no idea what to say or what she really needed or what she was saying or how to speak tagalog really!! that feeling really was terrible! ha.... but a valuable lesson and humbling experience for sure!!!

Well things are awesome here! just got our flights plans so im supperrr excited!!! we go from SLC to Seattle to Tokyo to Manila!! soooo pumped!!!! 

But yeah have a great week and mahal kita!

Elder Navarro

Final Email from the MTC

HEY!!! 

yeah im soooooooo excited to go!!! i feel like in a way im gonna kinda miss the mtc! we just had in field orientation yesterday!!!  it was such an awesome experience!! learned so much about HOW missionary work really happens... its crazy because as missionaries we are kinda like the head in command of the area we are assigned to! the work depends pretty heavily on our efforts and us relying on the Lord. it was awesome!! those senior pictures look great!!! except for the ball with my name! haha jkjk where were those taken?? they look awesome!! i  got jordan a cool shirt..... how do i send it haha??? but yeah! hows school for him?? ill get a call card.. but ill most likely be calling you at around 8 or 9... somewhere around there... ill try to call from seattle and tokyo.. maybe.. but we dont have much layover time after we leave salt lake.. and im not too worried about the language... i work hard to learn it and ill just have to be patient with myself... and byu lost right? 

Oh funny story.. yesterday at the orientation.. this girl came up to me cuz we had to pick someone and share a scripture with them... long story short.. she asked for my email... i was thinking "seriously??? you're on a mission!!!!!" haha but i got a good laugh out of it.

i hope you got my letter! ummmmm yeah.... these last few days are gonna be cool! tomorrow the branch president is pretty much gonna hang out with the two districts that leave on thursday.. he's gonna show us pictures and stuff which will be cool! but yeah! they said that we will be able to watch meet the mormons on sunday!!!!!! YESSSSSS!!!!! I think ive listened to glorious by david archuleta a thousand times haha.... while i study tagalog of course. and ive watched the trailer more than enough times! ha but yeah! did you see it?? was it good?

well i hope you can email back!! i have like 45 more minutes on email so yeah! 

oh ps.. i have almost the whole first vision memorized sa tagalog! whooooo!!!!

What a GREAT week!

Kumusta mga kaibigan at pamilya!!!!

How's life going?? What's new??

This week has again FLOWN by!!!! (I'm starting to think i should just expect it to do that!) But I think I'll start with General Conference! The messages were AMAZING! Its incredible and a miracle that every one has personal relevance to all of us! And the people of the church come from so many backgrounds and situations, yet each message can be directly applied to a persons life! I have many favorites from this last weekend but the two that stick out are Elder Hollands from Saturday Afternoon and President Uchtdorf's from Priesthood Session... I've really been trying to focus on "turning outward" to others and Elder Hollands hit home for me and just put into perspective the purpose of why Christ was so charitable! We watched a MTC talk a few sundays ago by elder Bednar about the Character of Christ. And how the natural man has a tendency to turn inward  or to focus on the self... But to be like Christ we have to "put off the natural man" and "turn outward' And really we find ourselves when we're not focusing on the self... We find purpose in life only when we focus on others! And then Elder Uchtdorf's in Priesthood session about asking the question "Lord, is it I?" when people have a tendency to put the blame on others "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" I loved that message!

Singing in General Conference was a truly once in a lifetime experience and i was really blown away with how much divine assistance we received in the choir.... Before we performed I personally and the director was pretty nervous about the pitch of the choir.... but i know that we had a lot of help when we sang that day....

So this week has been really great! We struggled a little with teaching our "progressing investigators" early this week but really turned it around these last couple days! In fact yesterday i think was the best lesson my companion and i have ever given thus far.... I'm know it is because we figured out just a little bit how much we have to rely on God for guidance in a lesson! As we taught i was constantly in prayer asking what Heavenly Father would have me say and then i felt as though my "tongue was loosed"!!! I was understanding EVERYTHING he was saying and the best part was I could reply! Not in perfect Tagalog by any means.... but I felt as though the words coming out of my mouth were not my own... which really was an answer to my prayer!!

Also!! met some filipino missionaries that are here from several parts of the phils! Super exciting to talk to them about the Philippines!!!

Anyways.... Mahal ko ang ebanghelyo ni Jesucristo!!! Mahal ko and Espiritu Santo!!  

Mahal Kita! Ingat!

Elder Navarro

MTC Priesthood Choir

Dang there seems to be a lot of really exciting and really devestating news going on back home. its crazy you dont realize while you are here how disconnected you are from the world! but it couldnt be truer! I know absolutely nothing from the real world! besides the occasional football update from the branch president who is OBSESSED with football! haha he's super fun though!!! and there are no sisters going to cauayan here right now... however two of the teachers in the tagalog hall are RM's from cauayan so thats pretty cool to talk to them! one of them had president rahlf! she was talking about him the other day and she absolutely loved them! mom i am sooooooo sorry! but i literally do not have time to figure out pictures today... i only have 20 mins of comp time left and i left the camera back at residence! but i promise i willl get it to work next saturday! sorry! i would but we leave at nooon today for SLC... which i am ssuuuuuupppppppeeeeerrrrr excited for !! the director is amazing and the biggest thing he told us is that we are not singing for our own good... we're singing for Heavenly Father! the MTC president was at rehearsal yesterday and he taliked to us about humility! another thing that is cool is that many prayers have been said asking that angels will attend us while we sing! and i have no doubt that Heavenly Father will send down angels to help us! AMAZING!!!! but you have to listen to our songs!!!! were doing things that have never been done at a General Conference before!! its going to be special!!!!!!! :) Love ya!!! and pdays: we go to the temple.. relax a little.. write letters... eat.. play ball if the gym is open... so yeah! MTC basketball and volleyball are SSSUUUPPPPEEERRRR fun bytheway hahaha

Love

Elder Navarro

ohhhhhhh p.s.... its getting kinda chilly here....... sooooooo could you maybe send a nice sweater... like that dark blue and gray one.... maybe... ha thanks!!