How is everyone doing?  I hope you are all doing great wherever you happen to be.  A lot of things have happened this week.  We have a couple investigators that are just golden investigators.  We got referred to one family this that will most likely become a great family.  When we went to their house they said ‘Where have you been?’  It turns out that more than 6 months ago the missionaries here met them and set a return appointment but never managed to come back.  The missionaries only shared there once, and the member that referred them to us didn’t even know about that time.  They even kept their commitment from 6 months ago to read the pamphlet that was given them.  They were very receptive to our message.  Our other great investigator is Sister Villanueva.  We have only been able to teach her a few times, due to schedule misunderstandings, conflicts and unavailabilities, but she has been to church 4 times and last Sunday the Bishop told us she even paid tithing.  The only reason she can’t get baptized now is that we haven’t taught her all the lessons needed before baptism. 

This week we had the National Day of Service in the Philippines.  Well sort of.  The National Day of Service was April 28^th, but our ward did the service project for the National Day of Service this last week.  We cleaned out drains in an area of Pozorrubio.  We wore the Yellow shirts you always see in LDS service project pictures.  I was there with Elder Savage because we had exchanges that day.  Elder Savage is a pretty new American missionary.  He is a good guy, it was fun to work with him.  I feel like I see myself progress a lot when I look back.  I’ve worked with new American missionaries before, and I remember it being very hard, and also sometimes uncomfortable.  This time I felt very able to teach even though I was doing almost all of it.  My Tagalog has improved enough I don’t worry too much.  I was also able to focus a lot more on helping Elder Savage than previous.  Previously I was worried about pulling the lesson together, but now I could easily go through the lesson and I was trying to help Elder Savage to do as much as he felt comfortable with.  It was a good experience. 

I also went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders.  I was with Elder Teodoro, an Elder I really have a lot of respect for.  He was never in my zone before now, but in the few short times I talked with him I was highly impressed, and now I got to work with him.  However Before that, earlier in the day, Elder Tolman called.  My Trainer and now one of the Assistants called and told me I was going to be training a new missionary next transfer.  I still feel fairly new, but Elder Teodoro was very helpful for my confidence in training.  He acted in a way like a trainee by always asking me questions, he also as a Zone leader talked to me about some important things for trainers.  He is a very good missionary. I will find out who I am training at transfer meeting, I am excited but a little nervous as well to be training.  

This is a short letter, I am sorry for that, but those are the major happenings right now.  

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Good luck to you all and have a wonderful week,
                                                                           Elder Nathaniel J. Merrill