Sooo how is everyone doing?! Sounds like it is pretty great. The Philippines is just going nuts with all the happy people and with Christmas just around the corner. Christmas is such a huge celebration here that they start celebrating it in...SEPTEMBER! So there are tons of lights and little display things and the whole nine here for pasko. Everyone always sings, "pasko na naman!" It's great. So we had some pretty awesome experiences this week. First regarding some of those pictures, the ones with the members in the branch are because we had a little activity with the young single adults of the branch. They set up the whole thing! It was a "one day mission." Basically we just had little groups of ysa's and leaders and we went around to the less active ysa's to help them come back to church. It was awesome! Elder Pugmire and I were in charge in the morning about just teaching them about missionary work and then showing them some good tips. They all got so excited about missionary work and they even want to do the activity again! It was really cool because a lot of them want to serve missions and this really prepared them for it. Another really sweet experience was with a new family we have begun to teach. The Santiago family. We were actually looking for a less active family but they were not home when we got there so we taught the neighbors, the Santiagos. The lesson went so well. They loved the message about the Restoration, especially that we have a living prophet today. They really wanted to learn more so we set up an appointment to teach them again the following Sunday. The message was great and we taught on the Book of Mormon. We gave them copies and they began to just thank us so much. I never heard "salamat po" so many times in one minute. It was awesome and thy loved it. They told us they really want to be ready in order to get baptized because they don't just want to get baptized just because. Which was great to hear because that is exactly what we believe as well. I can't wait to see this family grow in the gospel and come closer unto Christ. It is crazy to think that this week will be the end of my first transfer here in the Philippines. I can't believe all the experiences that have already happened. I knew I would have awesome experiences but not this many. I have been so blessed. We were actually at a lesson today and I bore testimony about just that. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission. I know the gospel can help anyone who wants to learn about it and it they gain a desire to seek the truth, they will find it. I am especially thankful that I get to serve here in the Philippines. My "roots." I couldn't imagine being anywhere else at this time. Well I love you all. I love hearing from you. Stay safe and keep on keeping on. Over and out.
Elder Stephens
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