Mar 19: The field is white

As I look back at the last year and some, I cannot help but realize how much the Lord has blessed me. I see some missionaries with huge struggles and my biggest concern is "Can you give more?" The answer is yes. I have great reason to give my all, because I have been given this all because of his mercy. I love the Lord and hope to do his will the rest of my mortal probation.

This last week has been incredible. The Martinez family of four (and one more younger child) was baptized last night. Elder Thorne said he never saw a more ready family. We were so excited to help bring this family into the church and show the members the joy of missionary work. It was a little startling when the mother of this perfect family came to her baptism wearing a nice sleeveless shirt. Where did we go wrong!!! I guess we missed that. She has always been so modest, but the shirt was not too bad, most of the members did not even notice until she got up to bear her testimony. After the baptism, we literally ran to the Stake President's house to get some food at his wife's birthday party. We ate the best fish over there. They offered us ice cream, and as much as I wanted some we had to refuse because we would barely make our curfew. We ran about a half a mile last night just to make it home on time.

I am very excited about the baptism of Kathy on Saturday. She is our deaf friend who will be baptized first. She loves the scriptures and was us looking us sign language talks on the church website. She has some other friend who we still teach who will probably be baptized next month.

Another amazing story is that Andrew, a recent convert here, has been trying to get his friend taught for a while now, but it has not worked out. So just last night (Andrew's birthday), his friend, Millard, came to church before the baptism and we meet him. When I first saw him he looked familiar, but I hesitated because I have not really served in Manila long. He recognized me from Dasmarinas. I baptized his friend, Kling, down there and saw his once. It turns out that Andrew is also friends with Kling. This made me so excited because I really got close with Kling, but have lost touch with him. I will try to get him to visit our ward here. We will teach Millard on Sunday.

My companion is dying. I love him but must say goodbye, as he continues his life in the afterlife. The assistants will be working with us later. Elder Thorne joked with his family in this last email that they will ask him to extent. I want to hear their reaction since he will go home this next Wednesday.

I love you all and thank you for the prayers.