Week 78: "Panampalataya sa Diyos"

Ansel Childers
Nov 3, 2019
2 min read

Hello everybody! It's been a great week. This week we went out to Cagayan (the rural second half of my mission) for a couple days for zone conference which was a lot of fun. We stayed in a hotel with AC and a hot shower which was the best. It was also great to see more missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time, almost a year!

It's a big plus to be able to be closer to lots more missionaries.

We also had a couple baptisms on Saturday! That was awesome. I'll attach some pictures. I've loved this family and the changes that I've seen in their lives because of the Book of Mormon.

They are at a really hard point in their life. They're drowning in debt, live in a one room shack, have lots of problems with family and neighbors. They cook their food on a fire and shower outside with their pump. Despite the problems, they have not given up and continue to press forward and trust in God. It even came to the point that they had to make a choice between paying money to get a ride to church or to feed their kids. They trusted God and relied on Him to bless them.

At the baptism, sister shared her testimony of how she almost wanted to give up on it all and walk away from the church. But, one night after we visited her, she decided to try reading the Book of Mormon one more time. She said that a phrase about "pananampalataya sa Diyos" or "Faith in God" jumped out at her and she felt the spirit so strongly that she needed to trust in God and continue to draw close to Him.

I've learned a lot from watching this family work through their struggles. I've learned that even though we have problems and trials, we will always be blessed for trusting God and keeping His commandments. It works, it really does.

It was really neat to also see the power of the Book of Mormon is their conversion. When they began to focus on the things they could, like reading the scriptures and praying, the overwhelming obstacles became possible with God's help.

I know that God loves us so much. He knows everything that we are going through right now. If we trust him and make sacrifices to keep His commandments, He will bless us. I love this work and I love this gospel.

Alright here's some pictures!

Some fun pics we took on our way over to Cagayan, we stopped at all the tourist sites and had some fun :)