New Companion

family :)

I have been so blessed to be here on my mission. my new companion is Elder Plandiano from Zambales Luzon Olangapo. he is a recent convert of 2009, and is the only member in his family. He is actually half American. His father served in the us navy and met his mom when he was stationed here at Clark base. Sadly, his father left them when he was 2 years old, and he had not had any contact since. It is okay though he knows that one day they will meet again. He is so smart and has been learning Visayan so fast!! At first it was difficult to communicate with him but it is good now because he understands a lot of what i say to him. Not going to lie this training business is tough work, and i am dead tired at the end of every day. I guess that is good though because we are working hard.

last Thursday the Conde family was sealed for time and for eternity in the Cebu temple. the service was so special and the spirit was pure and strong. i had the excellent honor and privilege to be a witness along with Elder Taylor. the happiness that was brought into the lives of this family is so special and i know if it weren't for the church, and for the knowledge we have, we could not be truly happy. i am truly happy here and am having the best time of my life. working hard, being diligent, and always trying to help others come unto Christ is my purpose here as a missionary.

Yesterday the missionaries here assigned on Negros island were gathered together for a special meeting with president Schmutz and Elder Ardern from the area presidency. We were each interviewed by Elder Ardern and it was so great. He told me to shine my shoes lol, but i feel so much more of a desire to serve and be obedient because of his guidance and words. I love my mission and i wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, even when there are earthquakes and tsunami warnings that could possibly kill a lot of people. I love the people here and the food, and this language is just so special to me.

I know the church is true. that the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints is the lord's living kingdom on the earth today. It is guided by a living prophet and is headed by Jesus Christ himself. this is the truth and the way. No words can describe my happiness because of this knowledge. Be true in the faith and always pressing on. Like Joseph Smith said, "shall we not go on in such great a cause?"

much love, Elder DeSchepper

NOT ABLE TO EMAIL EVERYONE

Jake hasn’t been able to write a mass email to everyone the last two weeks but wanted me to send his love to all of you. I thought I would share some excerpts from what he sent to me.

Mom!!
We were walking home the other night, and I was thinking about putting up the Christmas stuff with you. I got a little teary eyed, but I looked up at the stars and I just felt peaceful and happy. But it’s all good. Things are great here. I am so happy that Isaac’s baptism went well, and that makes me happy. We had a baptism last Saturday as well so in a way I felt like I didn’t miss Isaac’s special day.

But yeah so I will be able to Skype for Christmas. My companion and I are thinking Monday morning here like early. We don’t know what time exactly yet but I will let you know next week. So the mail gets to me from when the zone leaders or whoever goes to Cebu or when president comes here to our island. I got your package!!!! Thank you so much the food is so yummy. Oh and my companion loves you!!

So we eat some sort of fish pretty much every day here with rice. And sometimes we eat baboy (pig) that can be cooked tons of different ways. People here do whatever they can to buy food for their families. Fishing, driving pot-pots(little tricycle things that you can ride around town), sell or fix motorcycles, there are tons of bakery places too. There are some good treats, these things called quakes. kind of like a type of little debbies that we get every week. And we get bread a lot. It is so good here. The market here is called a chungy and it smells. I don’t really like walking through it because it reeks of fish, but yeah sometimes we walk through if we need eggs or oil or something. But every p-day we come to Dumaguete to do our grocery shopping at a grocery store called Robinson's. It’s cool.

Sometimes I drink the water, but mostly it is just from our house. We have a filter for our sink which is good. I never really got diarrhea or anything too bad. There are a lot of mosquitoes and cockroaches and little lizards everywhere, but not too bad.

I am in a branch, and we had like 55 people at church last Sunday. We are really working hard to reactivate less and inactive members but it is hard work. It is good though.

Everything is so great here!! My comp and I are working hard even though our branch is struggling. There is no budget for any activities... even a Christmas party. So we don’t get to really do anything like that with our branch members. It’s so sad because our branch is probably one of the poorest in the mission. And we might not have a very merry Christmas in Siaton.

I’m working hard to help the branch progress. So the training in Cebu was good. We learned more about how to progress as missionaries after the adjustment. To become real effective missionaries. That is my goal. My mission president is so awesome. We had a Christmas program/devotional/party for Negros Island and elder Pasikala and I performed a musical number, away in a manger. He played on a little guitar thing and we both sang. Then pres Schmutz gave us fist bumps when we sat down. He is just like a father/bro/greatest mission president ever. I love him! But yeah things are good.

Because here I realize how much I took for granted back home. Just be happy we have shoes r clothes or underwear or soap and food. It is so different here. But the gospel is true and I know it will help those who listen to the call of their father in heaven. I love being here and being able to be the instrument in the lords hands in which his children may attain life eternal. It is so great.

Thanks for being such a cool family, and being active in the lord's church. It is so great. Well I love you all so much and am so excited to Skype on Christmas!!

gugma gikan ang akong kasingkasing, Elder DeSchepper

New Focus

Hello all!! well here is my status report from the Philippines... clear skies and one paved road in my whole area (Siaton, Negros). i love it here. it is getting easier and easier being here, and being able to understand more and more Visayan each day. my comp and i have two baptisms on Saturday (same day as Isaac & Shelby) which is awesome. We had a zone conference with President Schmutz last friday, and there is new revelation that there is to be no more tracting in the entire Philippines... NO MORE TRACTING. It's crazy!! We are now focusing on reactivating members and getting families to the temple. this is so we can have a firm base to which we can bring more children into the fold and them stay in, instead of "baptizing into inactivity". So i am going to cebu tomorrow for a update training just for one day. it will be a long journey just to be in cebu for like 4 hours. (1 1/2 hour bus ride, 1 hour barge ride, 8 hour bus. and back again) butttttttt things are going really well. well a lot of good things happened this week, and i am just so happy to be a missionary. i eat a lot of fish and rice every day, but it is all good- part of the experience and most of the time it is really yummy. well yeah no much else going on besides the work. I'm loving it. I love not having to worry about anything else except for preaching the gospel. It's the life. Well i gotta go. Much love, kinamanguangan DeSchepper.