Elder English Serving in the Philippines: Apostle of the Lord

WEEK 83 - WEEK 84

Dear Family and Friends,

The biggest event that happened this week and probably the biggest in my mission was the opportunity to hear President Nelson speak in a Special Stake Conference for San Pablo Stake. It was an amazing opportunity to be in such an intimate setting with an apostle of the Lord. He gave very specific and inspired counsel on how we can better help ourselves and others to follow the Lord. It was actually a very intense and almost mesmerizing experience to be only a few rows away while he was speaking. He gave very simple counsel on basically every commandment you could think of. He would just pause and say, “I sense that there are a number of you struggling with …” and then he would say a very specific situation and give counsel on it. He had absolutely no notes and you could tell that the whole thing was completely by the spirit. It was definitely one of the coolest things that has happened on my mission.

I also have a new companion. His name is Elder Costales and he is from Ilocos Sur. He has all of the classic characteristics of an Ilocano. He has a really high voice when he talks, shouts everything, eats a ton, and is really good at cooking. (Hhmmm, I'm not sure where he's getting these generalizations from....) He’s really fun to be around and it should be a really fun next transfer together. He's 24 and already graduated with a four-year degree in business administration, so I don't think there's much that I'm going to be teaching him.

It was also transfer week, so we spent a lot of nights staying up late and getting up early. The sisters that I came into the mission with also went home with this last batch, so it’s really starting to set in that the time is counting down. My companion has a ton of energy and we should be able to make a lot of good changes in the office and just get everything as organized as possible.

Everything is going well, and I’ve now spent six months in the office. It seems like it’s barely been one. Hopefully, I’ll be able to teach Elder Costales everything that he needs to know so I can set him up to have a fun time as an Office Elder. We were also able to get out and visit some members this week, so I could introduce my new companion. We taught all of them lessons on the Book of Mormon. I’ve realized that you really could teach every lesson straight out of the Book of Mormon. It has everything that we need.

Thank you for all the counsel and support that you continue to give!

-Elder English