ANG PINAKAMAHUSAY NA BALITA! WEEK 99

Heyyy fam and amigos... soo this week I had my last zone confernce.. which was actually a cluster conference which means we had other zones in the mission with us and we had all of the zones except 2 so pretty much more than half the mission.. and I got to bear my LAST testimony in front of all those missionaries!! I just bore a nice 1 minute testimony about my favorite thing ever... THE BOOK OF MORMON!! It truly is the keystone of a testimony.. 

Well I heard the COOLEST NEWS EVER at that conferene!! So the Masbate zone was there which was my first area!! Well the elders from mobo stayed at our house the night before the conference cause we’re right by the office.. well we were talking and GUESS WHAT?!? That family that we baptized back in the day in mobo (the Cantoria fam) well they're SUPER ACTIVE STILL and the mom GOT ENDOWED!! ahhh I was close to tears when I heard that!! I was soo happy they are still super strong in the church! The elders said she is still pretty sad cause she wants her husband to get baptized so they can be sealed in the temple.. but her husband is never home cause he works far away... but that time will come!! And her 4 boys want to serve missions and maybe the one daughter!! AHHH soo awesome! #blessed 

Well other than that, we also were #blessed because we found this part member family that apparently has been coming to church for like A LONG TIME!! haha but we just met them this last week and now they might get baptized in July!! SOO hey that’s cool! no?? haha They will probably get baptized when her husband gets back from work in a different area! Sunday was interesting also because some guy from Masbate showed up at the church on Sunday morning, apparently he’s a principle for some religion school in Masbate and came to Daraga this weekend and was like I’m gonna go to church at the "mormons" so he showed up and had a ton of questions and he said he really likes our church and wants to always go to church here when he’s here in Daraga... and his son is gonna go to church here every week now. haha Kinda weird but okay!! It’s funny cause he’s also baptist like our investigator that’s been coming to church and they both really like the church! We are gonna try to teach him next week if he comes to church again! 

Well that’s just about all that happened this week! IT WAS ANOTHER GREAT WEEK! And I’m ready for another great 4 weeks!! hehe 

LOVE YOU ALL!

LOVE ELDER PANADERO

HAKUNA MATATA!!

pics from the conference 

Dillon and his comp after a good game of P-day basketball!!

MGA HIMALA!! (MIRACLES!!) -WEEK 96

WOAH!? What a week just like a fellow missionary said after all the hard work and diligence... the MIRACLE COMES!! We had SUCH AN AWSOME WEEK I CAN’T WAIT TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT!! But first lemme tell you about the awesome food I ate.... SQUID!! ahhh haha so like I HATE sea food so it was a BIG step for me to try and eat squid haha but.... it was DELICIOUS! haha they cooked it in like coconut milk and it’s SOO good! Then the second thing I ate was SNAKE! haha JK I didn’t eat the snake.. haha but funny story! So we went to go teach one of our investigators one morning and showed up and there was a SNAKE on the loose haha so we helped trap it and KILL it then the kids just went nuts on it and tore it to pieces to show the snakes friends not to mess with their house again!! Then we got to help our investigator clean their house but we didn’t get to teach them cause they were busy after killing the snake haha..

So.. the first miracle! Well one of the guys we have been working with brother Mike CAME TO CHURCH!! He’s super cool.  He’s a baptist and he’s super good at the bible so it’s hard to teach him but we finally convinced him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about Joseph Smith and decide to come to church! But the real miracle was how WELCOMED he was at the church! Cause he always tells us how he wants to see in a church how the members really PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH! And he said that he saw that in our church and was very welcome! You might ask where he told us that?? Well HE TOLD IT TO THE WHOLE WARD IN TESTIMONY MEETING HAHAHA! He walked up on the stand and bore his testimony about how welcomed he felt in the church haha! Soo that was pretty awesome! 

SOO THE SECOND MIRACLE was we finally found "THE ONE" but it gets better it’s not just the one as in 1 person.. WE FOUND "THE ONE FAMILY"!! This is a family that has been prepared for the gospel!! We first meet them while out walking.. I saw a guy in a hammock with his kid and shot him a smile... then he smiled really big right back at me SOO of course we went and talked to him and he invited us in his house and we taught him a lesson it was just him at this time cause his family was gone, but he was so excited for us to come back and teach his family the next time! So when we went back his wife had read the whole pamphlet and knew everything we were teaching! And knew it was all true! Then when we were leaving she asked us about church.. we totally spaced on inviting them, but she asked us where our church was and what time so they could come to church that Sunday!! haha like WHAT?!! #BLESSED! So we went back and taught them on Saturday and when we showed up she told us she was scared they weren't gonna be there when we got there cause they were gonna leave and she said that we would just see each other at church haha!! HAHA AWESOME!! Well here’s the sad part.. they didn’t make it to church on Sunday because they had to do stuff for school because today is the first day of school they ended up being busy but she said they would definitely be there next week!! We are so excited for this family!! And for these next 7 weeks before I go home! The blessings are finally coming in after a lot of hard work and diligence here!!  

#blessed!

LOVE ELDER PANADERO

HAKUNA MATATA

 money in the Philippines...very colorful!

 Elder Baker's new fan his comp gave him.  Looks like he needs it!

 the snake...after it learned it's lesson!!  haha

 a goat Elder Baker was playing with

 the SQUID!!! 

 The NEW FAMILY the found to teach!

ASU boyz take the streets! -WEEK 94

Soo this was another awesome!! week not how I was expecting it to go but it ended up being a great week! So it was weird cause we didn’t get to teach our progressing investigators this week because they were really busy...and almost all of our other appointments fell thru.. so sad right?? NOPE #BLESSED! Because we weren't able to teach the lessons we had, it only opened up MORE time for finding! So that’s what we did! And we more than doubled our new investigators this week! We found 13 this week and that was at least 1 everyday! So it was still an awesome and productive week! It’s been awesome to find so many people out here and also see 2 of those new investigators come to church on Sunday! It’s been a blessing to see the work progress here in Daraga! Hopefully we will still see MUCH more progression! Maybe I’ll get to see ONE more baptism before I head out haha! We are really working with Arcel to help her progress towards baptism but it’s been hard cause she’s been busy with getting enrolled in school but hopefully things will calm down and we can really help her progress! 

SOO about the ASU boyz taking the streets. ME AND ELDER ROBINSON had exchanges this week.. haha Elder Robinson is my batch and also from AZ he went to school at Corona Del Sol! Although their school always killed us in basketball... we LOVE EACH OTHER BECAUSE OF ASU!! and it was soo cool working with an American haha we actually have a really funny story.. so we went walking thru this village that I've never been to before so we asked some kids to lead us out. So they did and then they went ahead of us and told EVERYONE there that we were coming thru. haha So as we turn the corner there was like 50 people outside their houses staring at us and then started yelling at us "hey joe" and “what's up man" hahaha it was AWESOME!! Me and Robinson just walked thru smiling and saying hi haha but it was just soo funny at the moment..then it got funnier as we passed thru this little place we were walking away and I looked back again and they were ALL standing in the middle of the road staring at us HAHAHA!! it was hilarious! 

But my day with my ASU boy was awesome... we practically were finding ALL DAY!! haha and we found alot of potential investigators that we went back and taught the next couple days! Overall it was a super awesome week and really fun! 

I kinda realized these last couple weeks how #blessed I was to learn this new language and be able to connect with these people so good and I need to take advantage of it so I’ve been trying to make the very best of these last couple months!  I LOVE THIS PEOPLE!! There is no other people like them! No one that can be SOO HAPPY while posessing SOO little and still be willing to share whatever they have! They know how to TURN OUTWARD instead of turning inward!

I LOVE ALL OF YOU ALSO!! and hope you all have a good week! 

LOVE ELDER PANADERO

HAKUNA MATATA!!

When I'm home or far away, 

Heavenly Father, hear me pray,

Keep me safely in thy sight;

Help me choose and do what's right.

Thanks for home and family too,

Many things to love and do.

Thou art very good to me.

Heavenly Father, thanks to thee.

HOT...RAIN...HOT...RAIN... -WEEK 88

Soo wanna know what the weather is like in the ppines.. well the subject tells you exactly what it’s like! hahaha It’s so annoying how one second it’s hot and then it rains out of nowhere sometimes just a couple minutes or seconds and then leaves and the sun comes back and then IT’S 10X HOTTER AND 10X MORE HUMID! hahaha

but......I LOVE IT! haha I can’t stand the cold! So this last Sunday we had general conference and we went to watch it in the stake center and WOW!! Air conditioned rooms are WAYYY TOO COLD!! I could barely pay attention cause I was freezing haha but it was nice cause it also kept me and everyone else awake! (along with my bag FULL of candies hehe) but CONFERENCE WAS UMMM AMAZING!! like WOAH! Soo crazy good! We were soo sad tho because we had 3 investigators that were planning on coming and 1 super special one that wants to learn soo much about prophets and apostles BUT...none of them came! The 1 bailed on us last second because her dad (who is an inactive member) wouldn't let her go.. #SAD! Then the other 2 didn't go because the member that was gonna go with them to show them where the stake center was got sick and didn’t go... me and my comp were super devastated because there was some AMAZING talks for investigators! The prophet bearing down in pure testimony of the Book of Mormon, and other apostles teaching clearly the doctrine of the Godhead and the role of the spirit in them learning its true! And then others just speaking STRAIGHT to investigators helping them on this CRAZY path that they are traveling! And giving them the courage to keep going...and others showing THE BLESSINGS they received thru the gospel and how it blessed their ETERNAL families... LIKE WOAH!! that conference was AWESOME!! 

But other than that this week we have been mainly working with those 3 I mentioned earlier.. their names are 1 Arcel 19 shes the one who wants to learn about prophets.. 2 Antonette 18 she is a friend of a member that just loves being in the church with people that treat her soo well! 3 Gilbert 18 he also has a couple member friends and his family is also members..just not active but he just told us one day he wanted to be baptized so we are working on helping him develop a testimony so he doesn’t end up like his other family members.. 

but we also are trying to find some new investigators we didn’t have any good success this week besides people that we set return appointments for this week and we’ll see how they are! And we got 2 referrals yesterday that we will contact to see if they are "the one” we've been trying to find!

I’m soo happy with the progression I’m seeing in this area and with all this work in general! I just heard that 2 investigators are getting baptized that I taught in my last area so I’m happy to see miracles happening in this work!! 

I know this church is true and I’m so #blessed to be here in this work! 

I love you all and I’m so thankful for all your support for missionary work thru your prayers and personal missionary work! 

LOVE ELDER PANADERO

ps.dont forget...

HAKUNA MATATA!!

Now we have a world where people are confused.

If you don't believe it, go and watch the news.

We can get direction all along our way,

If we heed the prophets -- follow what they say.

Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,

Follow the prophet; don't go astray.

Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,

Follow the prophet; he knows the way.

#blessed -WEEK 87

MARAY NA AGA TABI! 

Well it’s been another #blessed week this week! So pretty much all we did last week was check out my new area and meet some members and less actives and then I met the one or two investigators we had... But this week WOOOHH this week was AWSOME!! So I went thru the area book and wrote down every old investigator that missionaries taught and then we went out and I would ask members, investigators or whoever trying to find these people. Well it turned out to be QUITE A BLESSING! So here’s what happened! So we went to the area of the people and then the first one we found pretty easy and we taught her a lesson and she’s SOO ready for the gospel now! Not like back in the day where she just wasn’t interested now IT’S HER TIME! So we taught her and then I asked her if she knew these other people on my list.. and then she showed us the house and we taught those two other people and they're still a little closed minded but we’ll work on them! And then that led us to go to another house which had their 2 friends with him and turns out one of them was another name on my list so we taught them also!! hahha BUT THE BEST PART IS THAT 3 OF THEM!! ended up coming to church this week!! WOOT!! I was soo excited!! When they came in!! Then one of our other new investigators from last week came to church (the one that always feeds us when we go there!) I was soo pumped to see that there was finally some investigators coming to church!! And to make it 10X BETTER!! a part member family came to church also!! When the family walked in bishop turns to me (cause we were on the stand) and told me to baptize that family! hahaha Soo now we have a NEW PART MEMBER FAMILY WE’RE GONNA WORK ON!! 

So pretty much EVERYTHING IS BACKWARDS THIS WEEK!! Last week I thought we weren’t gonna have any success but now.. i SEE BIG THINGS HAPPENING HERE!! 

Oh and mom don’t worry I’m still getting fed like CRAZY!! I love it here! We have meals like everyday!! Especially with graduation these couple weeks everyone has food! hahaha 

Hope you like my new friend! MOY! the monkey! hahaha 

LOVE ELDER PANADERO

HAKUNA MATATA!!

"MOY" the monkey!