Well this week we had one interesting and good experience.  We have an investigator that is doing well and progressing and has a baptismal date, but over the course of this week we were not able to contact him, not even once.  Then yesterday as we were waiting for investigators and less actives outside the church before conference, here he came riding on his scooter.  We of course were very excited.  He will definitely be baptized.  

        Conference was amazing.  It was a little different watching it in Tagalog. We didn't watch every session in Tagalog, but we did see some of them.  Tagalog is fun, and the investigators actually understand it.  It does add a new dimension of the need to pay attention, and sometimes they use 'napakalalim salita' or really deep words.  My companion Elder Sagayno even noted that.  It depended on the talk and the speaker though. I thought they had some really good music as well. I already downloaded the music to listen to it later.  

     This week we had good referrals.  We got a referral from the Bishop of another ward.  We were teaching, and he saw us and told us to come to a house after we were done.  We went to this house which turned out to be his mother in law's house.  We talked with them for a while and then asked to share a lesson.  We shared a short but quite powerful lesson and then (I think a little to the Bishop's surprise) we invited them to be baptized and they accepted.  

     I went on exchanges this week with my Zone leaders, this is the first time in a long time that I have worked in another missionaries area. For whatever reason it seems I always work in my own area. So in the Zone leaders area I met one sister that has been a member for a super long time, she was once the relief society president and has had many other callings before the wards were split.  Once back in my own area I realized that almost every less active knows her. Less actives ask about people they know, and if those people are still at church.  Now I know one of the people that they almost always say, I just never recognized it before because I didn't know the woman.  

        It's been good I think thats all for now.

Have a good week, keep your head up, and smile.
                              

                                             Elder Nathaniel J. Merrill