You never know who's ready

We have been seeing some awesome miracles in our area these past few weeks! Brother Francis Gonzales has been coming to church every week and he even has a white shirt and tie and looks like a missionary! We've been talking with the Branch President, whom he knows, and we decided that we want to start taking him along to some of our appointments so he can also share his testimony as well as hear the lessons again by coming with us! He's that good of an investigator! Super faithful! Even reads the Book of Mormon in his spare time at work! That's been a miracle!

Another miracle! Sister Lisa Edoloverio came to General Conference last week and came again yesterday! Yesterday in our lesson with her, she kept thanking Heavenly Father in her prayers that He had shown her the "true church" is what she said! She said this as well, "My life is pretty good and we've been blessed by the Lord greatly! (they're pretty well off in terms of financial situation) but even though we've had so many blessings come from God, I've always felt like there has been something missing in my life. And I want my daughter to grow up knowing and believing in Jesus. I've gone to so many churches but have still felt that emptiness. But here, its different. I feel like this is the thing that's been missing in my life. I prayed to God to know what to do and then a few days later... you two showed up at my door! I believe that was a sign from Him that this is what I should do." I WAS SHOCKED! And of course ecstatic! I know that Heavenly Father loves His children and answers their prayers! This is especially amazing because I honestly didn't think, after we had met her, that she was going to progress... That's something I've learned... never give up on anyone. Sometimes its not their time, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Anyways, that's probably the only story I'll tell now... I'm a little short on time but thank you for everything!

Ingat!

Elder Navarro

I LOVED General Conference!

I LOVED General Conference! Every general conference that I've been a part of on the mission, I've felt like stakes get higher and higher as we come closer to the coming of the Savior. It almost feels like things get more and more serious. But maybe I'm just older and understand things differently. Its amazing on the mission how clear things seem to be. Its like looking through different eyes! Remembering things before the mission and thinking "Why the heck did I do that?"... Its kind of cool. I'm sure, though, that there will be quite the adjustment when that time comes that I have to go home.

But it was awesome! I don't know why, but I guess this was the week where we had so many people commit to come to church! We had 5 investigators come to General Conference this last weekend! One of them, Brother Francis was there for all 5 sessions!!!!! He is such an awesome awesome awesome guy! He loved the conference and afterwards, while we were teaching him last night, he asked again "What did Thomas S. Monson say again in conference?" He asked that because he understood that he was the prophet of the Lord and wanted to review again what he said! Gosh that was sooooo awesome!

Please also keep Emelyne Andres in your prayers as well. Her father just passed away yesterday and now she is pretty much in charge of her 4 younger siblings. She has been very very strong however.

Anyways... Here's some of the words of Thomas S. Monson from this last conference:

"May we choose to build up within ourselves a great and powerful faith which will be our most effective defense against the designs of the adversary—a real faith, the kind of faith which will sustain us and will bolster our desire to choose the right. Without such faith, we go nowhere. With it, we can accomplish our goals.
Although it is imperative that we choose wisely, there are times when we will make foolish choices. The gift of repentance, provided by our Savior, enables us to correct our course settings, that we might return to the path which will lead us to that celestial glory we seek.
May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong."
Thank you for everything! I know this is the only true way to happiness! I've seen it undeniably in the mission!
Elder Navarro

04.04.16

Dear Family and Friends,

Our transfer day was this last week and I'm pretty sure I mentioned it in last weeks letter, but I and NOT being transferred this cycle! Wahoo! I have another cycle with Elder Pandaog in Cauayan, so I'll be going on 6 months in this area. But we had a really busy transfer day, however, the best part of all of it, was being able to stay and watch the transfer meeting with the trainers and their new "Anak's" or trainees. Its really a humbling and an excited thing to be able to see new faces and their energy and enthusiasm for the work, its CONTAGIOUS! But along with this time, we had to say goodbye to some friends. One of my best friends in the mission, Elder Monilla finished his mission and is home now... Crazy to think how fast time goes! When I met him, he wasn't even a year in the mission yet!

But Brother Francis Gonzales is on FIRE!!! He is such an awesome guy! We met him probably about a month and a half ago, just contacting house to house one night and he was super excited to meet us that night. I had a feeling that we should go back to him afterwards, but we got busy and things happened, that we weren't able to return for about a month. Then one day as we were walking down that street again, we had a feeling again to follow up with Brother Francis. Again, he was very excited to see us! Since that day, he's come to church twice (once for District Conference with the District Presidency and President and Sister Rahlf speaking) and has been keeping all his commitments! One of the most important, however, is that he is consistently reading the Book of Mormon. That really makes it or breaks it for people! THAT IS THE TOOL the Lord has given us for conversion in these Latter-Days!

Something that Elder Higgins taught from one of our MLC's has really stuck in my mind. There was a story of kids playing football in the field every day. They loved football so they would play as much as they could. One of the kids liked football as well, but HATED playing in the dark. There were trees and rocks and creeks in the field that when he would go out for a pass, because it was so dark, he would run straight into the tree. Even though his head hurt pretty bad, he didn't want his friend to think of him as a wimp, so he just brushed it off and kept playing. He would suggest to his friends that they should go inside and do something else when it got dark, so he wouldn't get hurt, but they just said, "its not that dark out yet." He needed to find a way to get them out of playing in the dark. No matter what he said or suggested, they still did not want to go inside and stop playing football.

One day he found the solution. Instead of suggesting anything else to do, one day when it was getting dark he said this, "Hey, we've been playing hard! I'm a little tired and thirsty. Lets just take a break and grab some juice from inside. Then we can go back out and play." Of course the boys were all for that. They were thirsty as well and juice sounded really good! So they all went inside for juice. After that as they went back outside. All the boys started saying, "Wow! Its pretty dark already! It'd be hard to play in this." That little boy was happy that he wouldn't get anymore bruises on his head. What was the difference? As the boys went inside into the lighted house of their friend, they were exposed to the light. As they were playing outside, the light gradually got darker and darker and darker. Because of the gradual decrease, the boys hardly even noticed it was dark. But when the boy took them into the light and showed them brightness again, they then realized the dark surroundings they were playing in.

I've noticed this pattern in my own life. There are times when we can get complacent or give into just little things or bad habits until we become numb to it and don't even notice it, like the gradual decrease of light on the field. We can take others into the light. Show them that it is so good live as a disciple of Christ in His restored church! That light is discernible  

"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day." (Doctrine and Covenants 50:24)

I love this work and I know it is true! I see miracles so much in the lives of the people around me! A recently returned member of the church talked to me about his family who is starting to come back to that church, "I don't really understand what's so different, but we are so much happier at home..."

Have a great week!

Elder Navarro