Mahal ko kayo

So Dear Family!!! And Friends!

So first off go DUKE!  I just know the church is true because my prayers are being answered and duke is going to win.  There we go, another reason why we know the church is true.... just thought you should all know that... (:  So this week has been a pretty good week!! 

We have been having a pretty good time in our lessons and me and my companion are still getting along great.  So that's awesome!!  We just taught really well this week and taught quite a bit of investigators and we even found a new investigator which was awesome!!  He was actually a referral from the guy that just got baptized on Saturday.  It was awesome he even came to the baptism of his friend and he accepted a Baptism goal date right away for May 16.  So that's really awesome.  He also ended up coming to church with 2 of his friends so that was great.  We got basically 3 people at church that were investigators because of it!!  We are still trying to focus on finding a good family though.  We really want to get a family baptized.  That would be so awesome.  So we are still doing some great finding.  It's good we are getting some decent results but some just don't want to hear when we come back for the 2nd or 3rd time.  So that sucks.  But it's just missionary work I guess.  Haha.

So the baptisms did happen this week.  I did take some pictures.  So I will send them to you!!  And actually I thought the coolest part was one of our recent converts who was baptized back in January actually baptized them.  So that was really sweet!!!  He is actually probably going to serve a mission in a couple of years so that is really sweet!!  I'm excited for him!  But ya the baptisms went through great and we got a decent turn out.  Everything here is just kinda annoying... its called Filipino time.  We said the service was supposed to start at 1:30 so we were there at 1:00 to get everything ready.  The next person didn't show up till 2:05 and then the candidates showed up.  So ya not to bad, just like 45 minutes late... to a baptism... but whatever.  Can't really do anything about it.  haha.  So that is just the most annoying thing in the world.  But on the bright side the baptisms did happen!! 

Something else that was kinda funny happened this week.  So the kids here are the cutest kids like in the world.  And they just love tall people and white people.  It's funny.  So we were teaching a recent convert family and then the kids came up to us.  And a little girl named Marsha, she's 7 years old, came up and just gave me a kiss.  So that was kinda funny.  All the other kids laughed at her.  It was kinda cute and funny!!  So that was something really random that happened this week.  But funny!!!

So another thing that kinda really bugged my companion was interesting.  So there is this religion here and it's literally like retarded. They are so weird and no one likes them at all because they completely teach false doctrine and basically go against everything.  They make you pay to go to church and if your rich you get a high calling.  It's just weird.  They are called Iglesia Ni Cristo and the members are dumb as heck... it's funny!  But they literally don't believe that Jesus Christ is a god.  They believe he is a normal person and just basically was given power to do all that stuff.  So my companion is like huge and huge on Jesus Christ and loves his life.   So he was mad and we almost got into a bible bash about it.  But then I just started talking and we calmed it down and just invited them to pray to know if Jesus is truly a god.  So that was funny and really interesting.  Gotta love being a missionary and having funny experiences!!!

So that was basically my week.  Sorry I think more happened but I don't remember.   I got a lot of reports to do. haha   Oh well, just remember the church is true and duke is going to win march madness.  Missionary work is so important!!!  I love you guys!!!

Mahal ko kayo.... pero kung lalaki ka, di naman ako bakla..... Ingat kayo!

Elder Hedman

SD card got a virus-sad

**his SD card got a virus and he lost his pictures from this week.  Luckily most of the others he has sent to me.  I've saved everything he has sent our way.  But that means no pictures.  

Dear Family and Friends!!!

So first off, March Madness!!! That's so awesome that Utah is doing good!!  I didn't even know they had a good team actually now.... it's okay we all know duke is going to win!  They are the best... so that's awesome!!  I heard BYU blew their game to make it in... funny, not really surprising though!! Hahaha

So this week for the work it was a little different!!  On Friday, my companion went to Manila to get finger printing, so I worked with the elders in our house, our kabahay's so that was fun!!   They are Elder Van Tassell and Elder De Leon.  Elder De Leon was in my first district in the mission, so it's fun seeing him again.  And Elder Van Tassell is from Maple Mountain.  He's a way tight elder also... haha.  So that was fun.  We got some really great work done even though we were basically running all over the place!!!  We were able to teach our 2 really progressing investigators here and that was really good.  We got the rest of the lessons finished off which was really good!!  They both are just continuing their desire to be in the church and it's such a great blessing!!!!

So then this week also, we had their 2 interviews and it was so cool!!  They both passed.  So this Saturday we will be having 2 baptisms!!  That's really exciting.  It's been about 2 months almost since I've had a baptism so I miss seeing the service.  So I'm really excited for that!!  So I'll let you know how those 2 go! Fun stuff!!  Also we saw the mission president a ton this week.  It was kinda funny.  He had to keep coming up here for meetings, so we just happened to run into him all the time.  So that was funny!  And he also spoke at our district conference!!  He gave a really good talk about being obedient and following the commandments and tithing so it was really great!!!

 

Then also Elder Mame?  I don't know how to spell his last name but he spoke as well.   It was really good and it was in Tagalog so that way all the people could understand it!!!   That's one thing that I don't really get here.  If you're a wealthier person, you tend to be better in English.  So when people come to speak, they always do it in English.  But most of the people here don't understand it very much at all.  So the talks basically don't help some of the people.  Oh well, I can't really fix that.  Just funny stuff happening.  But the talk was really good.  And it helped the people see a different view I think of the commandments and the importance of really being a disciple of Jesus Christ.   So he did a great job and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens after all of that!!!  So this week was a good week for the work!! 

The zone here is doing pretty good.   We have had some problems lately come up but nothing to big.  Just like attitude things and weird rumors and stuff.  But that's fine.  It's still fun helping others and being a zone leader.   Gotta love being a missionary!!! 

So that was basically my week!  Hope everything is going good for you guys!!  Remember the church is true and to always read the Book of Mormon!!  Love you guys!! 

Love Elder Hedman

Church is great!

So first off, wow!! That's so cool that Jessie went to church again!!!  Kinda funny story about that!!  So I was at church yesterday.... and one of the members is kinda wealthy.  So he has a super nice phone.  He gets on facebook and he's like whats your sisters name so I told him and he added her. haha  Then Jessie was at work and online!  So they talked.  And he called her.  I was like oh what the heck!!  So I ran off so I  wouldn't hear anything.  ( hahahaha cause I'm trying to be obedient of course)  So apparently they talked and I told him to tell Jessie to go to church!!  So that's flipping awesome!! Hahahahaha 

Sorry I don't really have much to say this week.... it was a great week though!  We had 253 people at church this week so that was awesome!!  Right now we are averaging 250 so thats really good!! (:  We are going to be having 2 baptisms on the 28th!!  And I'm super excited for that!!  And ya actually it was transfer week, but nothing at all happened to us.  I knew nothing was since president told me.  But it was good!!  We have like 14 filipino's in our zone right now which is a lot!!  So there aren't very many foreigners.  I'm still the zone leader here and it's fun!!  But wow the work is actually going really good!!  We goaled for 14 baptisms this month as a zone.  And holy cow... like every back up we could have happened is also going through so we might actually achieve something like 23!  And that's like crazy.  That's probably the best in our mission or maybe even in the Philippines for how small the zone is, only 10 companionship's.  So that's 2 baptisms per companionship in a month and it's so crazy!! So that is going great!!!

This upcoming week we have district conference so that will be fun!!  Someone from the 70 is coming to our church to speak to us so that will be fun!!  Then I also think the mission president will be here so that will be awesome!! (:  Can't believe how fast the time is going by.  I'm like 17 months now almost I think!!  Don't worry, I will work hard till the very end!!  I won't get trunky.... it's crazy!!  I can't believe I'm like an old missionary now... it's so fun!!  Missionary work is great!!  Haha maybe I'll just stay here.. and then I won't come home... (: that would be fun!! I like it here... haha 

So that basically was this week.  Nothing really happened!!  But I'll let you know what happens this upcoming week!!  It's a great time to be a missionary!!   Remember the church is true and to try and help the missionaries over there!!  Remember I love you guys!!

Love Elder Hedman!

Manila and the Temple

Dear Family and Friends!!!

So this week has been like the craziest busiest and trunkiest week ever... in a good and weird way!!!  First off, sounds like everything back home is going well!!  I can't believe Quinn sprained his wrist also playing football.  That's funny.  Hopefully everything will be okay.  I'm looking forward to going back and playing with him!! (:  Sounds like whatever vacation we do it will be fun!! I would love to come back here but I don't know.   hahaha   It would be so fun but family vacation sounds better!!

Well this week first off, we had a meeting with the mission president and all the other zone leaders in the mission.  So that was fun because we got to discuss things for the mission and what really needs to change and other things that would help us in our teaching and how to become better missionaries.  So that was really great!!  That was all in the house of the mission president which is a really nice house.  So that was really fun!!  Also a lot of my batch are still zone leaders so it was cool getting to see them all again!  So that was basically Tuesday and Wednesday!!  Then on Thursday we actually got to work like a normal day!! And then near the end of the day, I got a call from the assistants telling me I was going down to Manila on Saturday to get some finger printing down with some of the other missionaries!!  So that was kinda exciting getting that call!!!!  So then on Friday,  I had to prepare to get ready to get my stuff, because we were going to sleep in Tarlac (where the mission president's live) on Friday night so Saturday morning we could go straight to Manila!! So that killed the work for Friday.  We didn't get to work because in the morning, me and my companion had to have zone training and we trained the other missionaries on things that happened in the meeting with president!!!  Then after that me and some other missionaries from the zone headed down to Tarlac!!! It was super fun though because our whole entire batch was there and we all got to see each other so it was basically like a zone reunion!!!!

Elder Hedman and President Clark

Then on Saturday we headed down to manilla to have our fingerprinting!!  It was super fun because we headed back to the MTC to have our finger printing done!!  It was so weird being back at that place, it brought back so many memories!!  It was cool though because we got to see the temple!!  It was closed so we didn't get to go in but we got to see it and I took some pictures!!  I took a lot of pictures this week.... haha your welcome.... but it was so fun!!!

Another way cool thing that happened was there were other missions there also getting finger printing and I  saw people that I knew that were in other missions!!!  I saw a couple people from school!!!!  I saw Koa Wilson, he's in the Manila mission.  We played basketball against each other all the time!!  I Saw Mckay Jenkins, we were pretty good friends in middle school!!  But he's also here in the Philippines!  And then I  saw Weston Rindslisbacher, or however you spell his last name.  We played football all growing up on Brian Gepharts team!!  And he played basketball at Riverton, so when I'd play with James, we always played together!!  So that was super cool.  I got to see a lot of people that I knew!!

So that was basically the week.  Just traveling after traveling.  I think I spent about 28 or 30 hours of the week literally on vehicles traveling.  So that was no fun!!  But we still managed to have 2 investigators at church even though we got 2 days to work.  So that was good!!!   My companion and I get along okay.  I'll probably be killing him next transfer.  Oh this week is transfer week.  But I"m 99% sure I"m not transferring because president told me I was probably be finishing his mission for him.  So I'll be here a while!!   But it's fine.  It's a good area and I'm super close with the members and it's so fun here!!  We should be having 2 baptisms coming up in the coming weeks!!  So that will be good!!  Remember that I love you guys!  Keep up the great work in all your doing!!!

Elder Hedman

This could have been one reason for the excitement to go to Manila...Burger King and Dairy Queen!

Jam Packed

Dear Family!! (: and friends!!

So it sounds like you guys had a pretty jam packed week!!   Hahaha  That's funny about Sydney. (: hahaha That's funny.  But it sounds like everything is going good back home!!  That's good!!  I can't believe you didn't tell me about the surgery and how serious it was until after it was done.  That's so messed up.  But I'm just glad you guys are okay there!!  I'm glad nothing was found that was super suspicious, so thats great!  I'm glad quinn is still doing football.  I can't wait to come back and be with you guys again.  I'm looking forward to it.  But I'm loving it here in the Philippines!! 

 

I have gotten so close to the people here.  Sometimes I'm just like well, I guess my family wouldn't miss me too much if i just stayed here with these people!  Hahaha  They are literally so nice and it's so fun here!! Being a missionary is such a great thing.  It's so great seeing the gospel influence people's lives for good!! Even though there are small setbacks here in the mission, seeing people fall through on commitments all the time.  I just try and look at the good things that are happening here!  I love it!  We had a couple hard things happen in a couple of our areas this week.  Just people being a bad example, endowed members drinking with other people and then hiding and not doing anything good at all.  That was a really rough time and it hurt one of our areas a lot!  But on the bright side after all of that stuff, one of the recent convert families that is in our area GOT SEALED IN THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!    I asked president for permission to go but he said that our area is a little to far away so he wouldn't let us go.  So that was sad, but that was okay because I  was just happy that they got sealed in the temple!!  The Romagoza family got sealed.  Mark, the recent convert that got baptized back in December, got sealed to them as well!!  So that was so amazing!!  I was so excited for them.  I was a little sad that I wasn't able to go, but it was just a great thing!!  I got to hear their testimonies after on Sunday and it was so amazing!!  I was so happy to see a family be sealed in the Temple and to make progression here!  So that was a great thing!!!  And then also a less active return, Rosiel, she went and did baptisms for the dead!!  It was her first time going to the temple and that was so awesome!!  I let them borrow my camera and they took a ton of pictures so that was really cool!!  But it was something that they won't ever forget!!! (:  So that was basically my week!! 

 

Right now we are in a bit of a hurry because we are going to Tarlac later today because tomorrow is again our MLC meeting so that will be really fun.  We get another meeting with president and I'm sure I will learn a lot of great stuff!!  So sorry if this email isn't organized very well.  It's kinda rushed a bit but I love you guys and thank you again for everything that you do for me! (:   It means so much!!!   Remember that the church is true and that it will change our lives if we be firm in our faith and live the gospel in our day to day life!! (:  I miss you guys but I know it's for the best!!  Remember to always be obedient it will change your life! (: Love you guys!!

 

Oh by the way we are supposed to be having 2 baptisms on the 21st of March, Audrey and Michael !! (:  So keep them in your prayers that would be so amazing thank you guys!!

 

Elder Hedman