4 Baptisms This Week!

So ya 15 months now!! So crazy how fast the time has been going by!  I still don't feel that old here in the mission/  So that's going pretty crazy.  I'm actually like one of the oldest now.  A big batch just went home so that's crazy!!  All my older friends just went home, so I don't have any older friends really now!  Just a couple!  I have been getting some of your written letters.  Sorry I never say anything about it.  I don't have much time to write letters.  Super busy, but I'll try and get some started!  Sounds like the family is going really good.  That's awesome.  I love hearing about the family.  I miss them!!  Can't believe Quinn is actually growing up... that's weird!!  And Sydney is also! I'm excited to come back and spend some great time with you guys!!!

So as for here in the mission!!  My companion just went home! It's my first "kill" in the mission, so that's pretty awesome!!  It was great and he was a great guy!!  It's sad to see him leave!!  As for right now, the transfers don't happen until Thursday, so my companion is actually my companion from the MTC.  His companion also went home, so we are together.  He's freakin' awesome still.  So it's super fun.  We just laugh and talk about stuff from the mtc and have fun and teach hard!!  So that is really sweet!!  I've been loving that!!  So until Thursday, he will be my companion!!  I do know that I will be training a new companion as a zone leader.  So I'll train a new zone leader.  I think he's actually older then me in the mission so that will be fun!!  President just told me a little about it in our interview... so that was good!!!

The interviews went well with president.  It was fun.  He didn't have too many questions.  It's just different because it used to just be questions about me and my work and how i was doing.  This time it was all stuff about the zone and companionship's and what I've been noticing here in the zone.  So that was cool!!! A lot different!!  But it was good.  We also gave our workshop which was great.  We actually chose to do it about being accountable and accountability, which was really sweet.   I've learned so much stuff while I've been out here on the mission, so its crazy!!  I know I'll keep that principle forever now that I realize how important it is!  So that was basically all that happened this week for the interviews!!

So as for the baptism!!!  We actually only had 4!  It's kinda a funny story!  4 is still amazing of course.  But we got there and one of the people that was supposed to get baptized was at a party and lost track of time so she showed up late to the baptism after everything was over.  So 4 of them got baptized and we just moved the baptism up until this upcoming Saturday!!  So we will have another baptism this Saturday.  That's pretty sweet!!  So over all, I've had like 12 baptisms in 3 months and that is so awesome!!!  We are getting great work done here!!  Now we just have to do all this finding because like nothing good now is happening in our finding.  So that's fun!! hahaha  So I'm working on that!  Maybe it's just a trial of patience.  But I know as we continue to be obedient and work hard, we will find souls that the Lord has prepared for us to harvest.  So that is good!! (:

I'd love to hear how about things happening with cousins also and stuff in the ward with members and other stuff.   How is the old ward doing?  I miss the members there!!  But its crazy to think that I'm so far out in the mission!!  Thanks again for everything that you guys do!!  I love you guys and its a great time to be in the service of our savior!!  Remember he is the only way to salvation so we might as well turn our lives to him to be changed to become better!!  I love you all!!

Remember the atonement is real and it will be there every step of the way! (:

Elder Hedman

Truly converted

So this week was a pretty uneventful week also!! Sorry, it might not be to long.  This next week will be kinda eventful.  It's the last week of my companion and then he goes home.  We also have interviews with president tomorrow.  I'm excited but we have to give an hour workshop, so that sucks.  More studying and planning... wohoo!!! hahaha (: 

The zone tshirt!

So first off, dad sent me a picture of Quinn playing basketball.  What the heck, he's not a midget anymore!  That's kinda crazy.  Everyone is looking so different.  I don't even recognize people in pictures anymore.... so whatever. (:   That's cool you got to eat Filipino food.  That's all I'm eating when I get back.  I'm not eating anything else, besides subway I guess. (: haha

So this week was a pretty good week.  We actually didn't have a baptism.  But the sisters in our branch did so we went and got pictures.  But this week we have 5 baptisms!  So that's pretty sweet!  I'm looking forward to that!!  I'll make sure and let you know how that goes!!  It's kinda cool because it's my companions last week and we have 5 baptisms.  That is going to be his record for a week.  That's 7 this month.  That's like amazing.  We have had amazing work here so that's going awesome!!  But we just can't seem to find new people.  Maybe when my new companion comes, the Lord will have prepared so many people for us.  So I'm looking forward to that!!  So this week, I've been working just on my Book of Mormon reading and just about the atonement still.  I'm still learning a lot.  I love listening to talks still.  I just learn and learn more and more so that's pretty fun!!!

I've learned to see why the lord loves children so much!!  So this week we were teaching a recent convert with her family and it was so cool!  We were just like messing around before the lesson and she went to grab something.  Her older sister grabbed like her journal thing and read to us what her new years resolution was.  She is 12 years old by the way and named Jasmine.  All her resolutions were about being more involved in the church, going to all the activities she can, reading the Book of Mormon every day and talking notes, and making her prayers better.  I was like woah- that is so awesome!!!!  I was just so impressed!!  It kinda made me feel like crap because when I was 12, I'm pretty sure my resolutions were like drink more soda, play more video games, and probably like learn how to talk to a girl.  So I was so impressed!!  It's so cool seeing the gospel work miracles in the lives of people.  I can't believe how much it has changed me and helped me through everything.  I don't feel like the same person.  I just feel better always and never worry about myself and just want to help others.  It's kinda a really cool feeling!! 

So I've just had some great testimony builders while I've been our here that's for sure!!  Every day I feel like I'm getting more and more converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ!!!  So that was basically my week!!   Sorry I don't really know what to say.  I always forget stuff that happens during the week!!! 

Just remember I love you guys!!  This week marks my 15 month mark out here in the Philippines.  Crazy stuff!!  But I'm loving it!!

I love you guys!!!

Elder Hedman

5 in a row!

Hello!!!

So sorry I don't have too much time to email this week but don't hate me!! hahaha  So first off, I got your package but don't send it that way again!!  I had to pay to pick it up because of customs.  Just use the normal mail system.  It's free for me here!!  So I just lost 2000 pesos or like 50 bucks. (Mom fail!)  So I will have to withdrawl some personal money.  So just thought I'd let you know! (;  So this week was a pretty good week.  We had another baptism!!!  I'll send you the pictures in another email.  It was a pretty good week.  The baptism went really well.  It was great hearing his testimony.  Hopefully we will be able to get his family also converted to the gospel, which would be so awesome!!  This next week I think we have some more baptisms, but I'm not exactly sure!!  So it will be a surprise to let you know!!  So this week we have just been getting some good work done.  It's been hard finding some new people to teach but I know the lord will bless us for our hard work.  So we will keep trying!!

So on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had MLC (Mission Leadership Counsel) again for all the zone leaders.  It was pretty sweet.  I got to see 3 other elders from my batch.  There are 4 of us who are zone leaders from the batch.  So that's pretty sweet!!  It was a really neat experience.  We talked about the atonement a lot!!  It was so amazing.  We are going to be studying the enabling power of the atonement again for the first 3 months of this year.  I'm so looking forward too!!  Also we talked about what the focus for the mission is going to be for the year of 2015.  We are going to be focusing on the concept of real growth!!  So I'm also pretty excited for that because there is so many different ways that it can apply to the everyday of our lives.   So I'm really looking forward to that on how I can implement it into becoming a better missionary and how I  can become just a better person in general.  To live a life that is more like the saviors life. 

So today we went on a hike for p day.  It was so awesome!!  It was the first time that I have been hiking in forever.  We so had a blast except for the fact that 5 of us, me and elder kilts and 3 sisters, went to the top of the mountain but there was absolutely no trail.  So we got destroyed by the branches.  We are so cut up.  And I put alcohol on it and it feels like I'm gonna die.  So that was the fun part of the day.  The view was gorgeous!!  So it was overall a good p day.  Just lots of stuff to do and reporting and I haven't started yet. So sorry if I forgot stuff... its just busy and I have no idea what I want to say... haha

Remember that I love you guys!! I hope you guys have a great week!!

The church is true don't you guys forget it!!!

Elder Hedman

9 months na lang

Dear Family and friends!!

So Happy new year!  Wow, I can't believe that it is already here.  The time has gone by so fast.  I can't believe I wasn't in America for a single day of 2014.  That's so weird.  But hey, the Philippines is going pretty dang great!!  So for new years eve we weren't allowed to be out of the house past 6:00.  So we went back to the house and basically just relaxed and did not much.  We played quite a bit of chess.  And I"m not gonna lie, I'm pretty dang good now at chess.  It's pretty fun! haha  Then we also played this other game that is called the game of the generals.  It's a Filipino game but it's like chess kinda.  But a strategy game also.  It was pretty fun.  So that was basically our whole new years eve. We stayed up for the fireworks and it was pretty cool!!  The fireworks were really good in our area!!  But something that happened is in Guimba, another city close by, where we had our district meeting.  In the morning at like 9:00, a firework in a shop got lit by probably a cigarette.  The whole store went up crazy!  2 motorcycles exploded!!  It sounded really cool, lots of fireworks and really loud so that was awesome!!  I'm pretty sure that no one got hurt.  So that was kind of a crazy thing!!! 

I love how squished he looks in this picture!  But reminds me of the Sesame Street song...One of theses things is not like the other....one of these things just isn't the same!

So this week for our work, the baptism did happen again!!  So that was awesome!!  This is the 4th week in a row that we have had a baptism.  So it's going way good.  It's really cool.  His testimony was so strong of the truthfulness of the church.  We are hoping and helping him get ready so that he can serve a mission!  So that is so awesome.  I think he really has a desire to go out and serve also and help others know of the fullness of the gospel!  So that was so awesome!!  And then this upcoming Saturday, we have another baptism which is going to be really good also!!  We are getting such great progression in this branch.  It's so insane!!  So the work is going really good!!  Also later today, we are going to Tarlac because tomorrow and Wednesday are our MLC meetings with all the zone leaders again.  So that will be fun.  I'll get to see some of my batch again which im really looking forward too!!  So that will be good some new changes again probably for the mission.  So I'll let ya know what changes there!! (:

So something kinda weird happened on Sunday.  I was like so shocked.  haha  So there are like no Americans here in the Philippines that I've seen.  So I was just sitting in church, ya know taking the sacrament.  And I like saw some blonde hair out of the side of my eye.  I was like- what the heck? what is this?  So I look around and like an american family just walks into sacrament meeting.  Everyone was just staring at them.  It was kinda funny. I was like woah!  So then they came and sat behind me.  And I hear him talking to them and I heard him translating what the speakers were saying.  So the dad was like a returned missionary from 1996.  And he came back to visit with his family!!  Haha they were the Smith family, from Tooele, Utah.  I got a picture with them!!  Haha so that was kinda weird, just some random American family came to our church.  It was pretty sweet, I spoke some english with them which was fun.  But that's basically the highlights of the week!  2 recent converts were also given the priesthood which was really awesome!  So the work was really good this week!!  I love you guys keep up the great work and remember the church is true!! 

An American Family in the Philippines!  Yeah!

Happy New years!!

Elder Hedman!