Caving

So let me start off by saying that we had the funnest P-day activity of my mission so far! We went caving! There's a sweet place here that has awesome caves! We went exploring in the inside (super big and deep) with a guide of course! Literally felt like Lord of the Rings.

But anyways! The baptism we had this last week was the spiritual highlight of the week! Her name is Florimay, she's 20 years old with a child and her family was baptized last November and she joined them this last saturday! The baptismal service was super amazing! I was praying super hard that it would be a spiritual highlight for her and her family, and that prayer was answered! My favorite part was her testimony at the end! She talked about how when the missionaries first started coming, she wanted nothing to do with them. But after her family was converted and she immediately started seeing the change for the better in her family (both spiritually and temporally), she knew that there had to be something! She then described feeling like Enos in the Book of Mormon! Her "soul hungered" and she "knelt down before her Maker" She then described her feelings and experience of coming to know that the church was true! And then the trial of her friends questioning why she was doing what she was doing. And she answered that she knew it was true and had already felt the fruits of the gospel.... she was "hearing the music" as we learned in General Conference! (we dont get to watch it all till next week, but we got a glimpse of it yesterday) Needless to say it was one of the most spiritual moments of my mission so far.

After thinking about that experience I cant think of too much else from our week! haha. But update on the storm over here, we were prepared if something bad happened, but it weakened before it hit over here so we just got a lot of rain and winds. All is well in zion of the philippines! :)

I've been thinking a lot this week about "no regrets" and the concept of the time we have. The time I have on a mission, the time we have on this stage of our eternal progression. My time on the mission and our time in this earth is sooo incredibly short! And honestly goes by sooooo fast! One of my biggest fears is looking back and thinking "I wish I would have done this" or "I should have done that" But I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. We have been given a chance to change.. and opportunity to leave past mistakes behind us and start anew... So maybe we do have a few mistakes, as for me I have a ton! But the invitation is there to ALL, "come unto Christ and be PERFECTED in Him"... I know that this is the "time to prepare to meet God." I want to use the time I have in this life to do the very best I can!

Love you all!

Elder Navarro

Alright

Haha WOW this week has been crazy! From finding a seemingly perfectly prepared family to finally seeing a monkey in the Philippines!

So first things first. We were walking away feeling just a little discouraged after another appointment fell through and we see a lady walking down the street. So we talk to her and she told us about how missionaries had taught her and her family a long time ago but they never really got anywhere with it. So then we shared a little message and set up a return appointment. When we came back they were having a graduation party offered to feed us before we taught (we called this a blessing of working hard) Then she did something that doesnt happen very often in a situation like this... She came up to us and told us they were ready to hear our message. So her and her whole family left the party to their house to sit down and talk about the Gospel of Christ. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I've been a part of up to that point! And I know without a doubt that we werent the ones speaking in that lesson but rather the Holy Ghost. Long story short, they asked us when and where our church service was and committed to coming! That Sunday we dropped by their house and she gave us a referral and was pretty much a fellowshipper testifying about prayer! Then they came to church! And after church texted us of how grateful that we came and showed them the gospel and even said they wanted to join the church because they can already see the blessings and change in their lives! WAHOO! This may be the family I've been praying for!

President and Sister Rahlf stopped by our District meeting this last Tuesday! They're so awesome! Testified about the importance of time management.

We have a baptism on April 4th! Sister Florimay! She is joining her family who were baptized last November and are so amazing! They have such great faith and you can see it in their eyes! Her baptismal interview was last saturday and she's totally ready!

I FINALLY SAW A MONKEY! It was raining HARD one day and we saw this poor little monkey chained up under the rain! So we decided to offer him the gospel. We gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet.. and he ate it. Good times.

Oh and found out that my companion, Elder De Guzman's release date just got pushed backed 9 days! So he'll be out of here on April 14th.. Which means that I'll probably be in a trisome companionship for the last week and a half of the cycle! Holy cow its going by so fast!

But this is an awesome time of easter where we remember the last week of the Savior's Earthly ministry and rejoice that He overcame all and rose again the third day! I add my voice to billions both now and in history that He lives! And because he lives I can overcome trials and weaknesses and work to improve every day! Having a hope through the Atonement! I know that the Book of Mormon testifies that He is Christ! And that God loves us and gave us that book to help us not be so confused in the world today!

"there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ." -Mosiah 16:8

I love this work and this experience! Thank you for all the support and love! I always pray for you!

Elder Navarro

Lemon yellow living room.

Our bedroom right before cleanup haha

Package from home which only took 3 months to get here

New Adventures

Yeah things are going awesome! My new area is pretty cool! Like I said before its a city so that means a lot different than Lamut, but it also means a LOT of people to talk to! We've been talking to a TON of people this last week! That's been one of the new changes to our mission: reaching for a lot higher number of "contacts" or new people we talk and testify to. We're trying to become "finding missionaries" which pretty much means every person we meet, we invite them to learn more. Its really been a huge blessing. I feel even more like a missionary and I feel for sure that this is the way Heavenly Father wants us to go.

We have a baptism coming up at the beginning of April! Her family was baptized a few months ago and at first she didnt want to join with them... she's only 20 years old and has a 3 and a half year old son.. so she has had some problems, but now she's ready to join! Its been fun teaching her and Its super exciting to see them grow strong together! They are an amazing family! DelaCruz family just so ya know.

Another family here is the Baticulo family! They were also baptized a few months ago and are working hard to prepare to go to the temple to be sealed! We were over there a few days ago and they have a scripture reading chart in their house! And we got to be a part of their family scripture study! Its was so cool because even the kids are into it! They are a truly converted family and its so amazing to see that!~

this week was honestly the hardest week of my mission for sure. there were 3 days this last week where I was just soooo frustrated. It was either my companion, the language, or just people rejecting us. But I really didnt feel good at all, and it was hard to keep going some days. These last 2 days have gone really well though and I worked my way out of it. I decided to fast one day to just try and find an answer to how I could feel better. The answer came that afternoon so strongly to me! It came when I had a prompting to look through my pictures from my mission and when I saw pictures of Elder Volpe and Elder Larona, Saguire, Baclea-an, the members, I started to remember why I was out here. Especially when I saw pictures of myself. It was like looking at a different missionary,and one I wanted to be like! So that helped me a ton.

Love you and Keep the faith!

Elder Navarro

Met a local RM same batch my dad was(1985). Showed us couple of pictures.

Philippines Davao Mission 1985. Dad looked like a 12 year old missionary then haha

New Area...Hot!

Well here I am in my new area! And its none other than Tuguegarao! Haha interesting, Solano zone (my last one) is one of the "coldest" parts of the mission and my new area that I'll be in for the summer is the hottest part of the whole Philippines... wahoo. And Tug is a lot more of a city than Lamut/Bagabag, so thats been a little adjustment.

No but I can already tell its a great area to be in! My new companion is Elder De Guzman and this is his last 6 weeks in the mission so I'm his last companion! Something new here is that we live with 2 other Elders, Elder Gerardo and Elder Gumayo. So now the apartment has 3 and a half filipinos! :) Haha

Yesterday at church obviously I met a lot of new people and I met 3 people who served a mission with my dad!! Small world! They brought some pictures of my dad and we were joking a ton about it, but it was so crazy to see pictures of my dad as a young missionary! He was one gwapo missionary! But it was also super cool to hear their stories about my dad from being a total jokester and trying to be karate kid (no surprise there) to how hardworking he was. it was amazing.

Honestly, leaving Lamut was really, really, really hard. It felt like saying goodbye to my family again just because I had grown up so much there. When I got there things were still going a thousand miles an hour and I had no idea what was going on, so those people there really became family to me. Needless to say it was hard to say goodbye. But I am super excited to be here in Tuguegarao, even though I still feel a little homesick for Lamut.

The work has been going well! We are teaching and finding a lot of new people! These past few days I feel like my studies, teaching, and lessons in church have really been focused on the Atonement and the effect it has on our lives. And theres no way we can fully understand how it was accomplished, but the why is much more important to me. Jesus Christ loves us! He knows us and I know that we can trust Him when we are having a hard time.

Elder Navarro

Crazy Week!!!

Man this week felt like somethin else!

So many things happened within this one week that the things I want to share it all, but cant... good thing I have a journal.

So first with some of the work. We met a lady last week who is the child of one of our investigators and she was way more receptive and interested than the investigator. So a few days later we went back there to her house and we were sharing about the restored gospel and as we were talking about the most important things with her, her phone started ringing like every 10 seconds! haha I was thinking in my head "oh c'mon! this is going so well!" and during one of her phone interruptions, we had the impression that we needed to invite her to be baptized right then! So when she was back, we did! And she accepted right away! Just shows the power of the spirit... then we went back and now her boss called her away so she might have to go abroad to work this week.... sometimes things like that are frustrating, but I'm not getting down about it.

Just for information, my birthday was absolutely fantastic! The members here are incredibly caring and nice so it was an awesome few days!

Another thing, President told us at zone conference that we could go visit Banaue again today! So today we got to go to Banaue again! It was super super relaxing and just nice... that place is really just amazing! And I decided not to hike this time so I wasnt super tired from a long hike ha. Also met some people from Italy, Germany, and England! People come from around the world to see that so that was fun! :)

Aaaannnnndddd this week is transfer week! Crazy how fast its been going its ridiculous! But I guess the time has finally come! I'm being transferred this cycle. I dont know where yet, but I'll know on Wednesday (the day I leave). Every companionship in our zone has a transfer! So hopefully I'll be in the same zone with one of them again because made a lot of really good friends! I have mixed feelings for sure! I'm really really really gonna miss the people here in Lamut. I've grown to love them a ton! And since its my first area they feel like family here in the Philippines. But even though I'm really going to miss them, I'm kind of excited to see whats going to happen these next few days! We'll see!

But Thanks for the support and all the love you show!

Here's something I learned this last week... there is a difference between changing our mind and changing our heart. Changing our mind is like eating vegetables when you're a kid. You dont like vegetables, but you eat them anyway because they're healthy and your parents tell you to. Change of heart is when you eat vegetables because you like them and know that they will help your body grow! Same thing with the gospel! The best spiritual results come when we develop a love and desire to follow the teachings of the Savior! Following Him because we truly love and want to. Instead of doing it because we have to. I know this is true and we will grow closer to Christ through it! :)

love ya!

Elder Navarro

Zone pict at Banaue Rice Terraces

with Sis Konkurat (somehow we are related)

Awesome members surprise bday party

with best friends

 

Birthday wish granted (island style smores)

Me, Elders Baclea-an and Larona 

future missionary

March??

Yeah I cant believe for one second its March already!! Crazy!

This week went well! The progression of our branch is amazing!! Yesterday we pull up to the meetinghouse and I see a bunch of young men standing outside the entrance! Usually we're one of the very first ones there so that shocked me a little bit! And then we go to find out that they are ushering people in just like we did when I was in young mens! And that was just super super super exciting to see that! I was probably more excited than I should have been but it was cool! And then the meeting started EXACTLY at 9, which in the Philippines is really rare! And then to top it all off, the missionaries didn't participate in the sacrament program, which means the branch's own priesthood holders were doing it all! Holy cow it was an exciting thing to see!!!!

This last week I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Larson in Villaverde. We had a really good time and learned a lot! One thing I noticed was how prepared one of their investigators was! We taught the Law of Tithing and Law of Chastity and she was so willing to ask questions and learn by the spirit! She's getting baptized this week and I can tell that she was definitely prepared before the missionaries even started talking to her.

We also had some RM's from the branch come work with us and they were super talented! This work is the best when we have support from the branch!

We have some investigators here that are so close to accepting the gospel! One is Nanay Jesusa. She's so humble and willing to learn and knows that The Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, I think she might just struggling a little bit with the social aspect of a change like this!

But I love love love being a missionary! I always think I wouldnt want to be anywhere else right now! Even though there are some crazy people we talk to that just make us laugh, its a good life.

Take care and have a great week!

Elder Navarro

bought a pawnshop. joke!!!

my Idaho brother Elder Poulter

bought a house

this is a beautiful part of the world

Elders Kocherhans, Larona, me and comp Balea-an

with young women in the branch

Ang bilis ng oras! (Time flies!)

Hello.

Its crazy how fast time has gone by. Feel like yesterday that I just came into the MTC! Anyway

I'm hearing about people get their mission calls and going out its crazy! Super exciting tho!

We had zone conference this last week with President and Sister Rahlf and it was such a blast! They really focused on going beyond what you think you can do. He showed a clip from "Facing the Giants" when the guy crawls across the field in a bear crawl to represent that we can do more than we think we can. But they do it in such a loving way I love it! They are such amazing people! We got some new standards of excellence for this 2015 and when I first saw them, I was a little scared because they are really high and going to push us a lot! for example in one week the goal is to talk and testify to 70 new people in a week. But we tried literally talking to everyone we see almost and I know that this is the way God wants us to do the work in the Philippines! We're really lucky here, because here, people are a lot more open to listen and talk to missionaries than in other countries, so this is definitely the way that missionary work can be done here! But I still believe and know that the very very best way to find people is through members! Because immediately there is that support! I'm sure you've read that in PMG. So true. So true.

People are starting to progress. I think I've said this before, but we have a lot of new investigators! The one that comes to mind right now is Nicole, she wants to follow Jesus so bad and is really spiritually and religiously mature for her age! But I really want to teach their family so bad!! They're so nice and already comfortable with the missionaries! We have found some families, but they arent really progressing. There is one though that I really think could! The Garcia family. The three kids came to church with one of their friends and the kids so far have really shown a lot lot of interest! The mother however, not so much..... but I totally believe her heart can change! Also another tatay. He's an older guy, but he reminds me sooooooo so so much of Joseph Smiths experience! He's so confused why there are so many churches and he's attended many of them trying to find the truth. He's been praying so hard that specifically Jesus Christ will appear to him in a dream and literally point to the right church. He says if that happens the arguments over and he will do it. Such faith!! I already feel such a love for the guy! And its hard because his body has a lot of problems so he has a hard time traveling a long way.

We got to play basketball again this morning with another zone! Its some good basketball too! There's four really good players there and I enjoy playing with them so much! Dang! We start really early so we dont get caught in the crazy heat. And even then, the heat starts coming and sun shines, and you feel like dying. haha its fun tho!

Gosh this work is true! And i'm loving every second!!! I know that Jesus Christ lives and directs this work here in the Philippines! There are times like right now... when I feel Him so close to me!

Love ya!

Elder Navarro
 

Oh heres another story about spiders! Haha we found 2 more huge ones in our apartment, and the first one, Elder Baclea-an tried to kill with his sandal and when he did, he like threw it against the wall and apparently it had a huge huge egg! And then it exploded with a billion little tiny spiders! Which means that they're all going to grow and be huge like its mother...I'm scared. ha but yeah i'm not looking forward to finding those things. but we're spraying a lot of insect stuff around so I hope that that is enough protection. haha.