4-10-16 A lot of tender mercies.

Kumusta po dad! Magandang hapon!

 I feel kind of bad. I don't have any crazy, "Wow!" moments to share this week, not even any pictures really. But, as usual, it was a great week. A lot of tender mercies. Elder Umpat continues to be a great companion and help in our lessons. I realized I'm super lucky that he's already fluent in Tagalog haha, imagine how hard it would be sometimes to train a foreigner. Elder has a strong spirit and does a great job re-explaining things when I have errors in my Tagalog haha. 

 Besides General Conference, my favorite part about this past week was our new leaders training meeting on Thursday. It was so great! Since an elder kind of near our area needed to attend the meeting, he and I went to Cauayan together and his companion worked in Alicia with Elder Umpat. I was so happy to get to Cauayan and see Elder Bice again! He seems like he's doing really well. He said everything is going well with him and his anak too, so I was happy to hear that. Elder Perkins was at the mission office too! He was there for a different reason, but we got to talk story for a while and catch up with each other. Although that was great, the meeting was the peak of my time in Cauayan. The spirit was so strong as President, Sister Rahlf, and the elders who helped taught about our roles as new District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. I realized how much more I need to develop myself as a missionary. And so many things I need to repent of haha. But I'm all the more stoked and honored to be a District Leader! This calling is pushing me to try harder and be better. 

 Like I said earlier, work continues to go great. We were able to share with a lot of LA's and some of them really seem like they want to return to church. We actually had kind of a weird experience just yesterday. We had a few fellowshippers (Jonathan, Rodel, Carmelo, and Novy) working with us and we decided to head to this one, unplanned area since we were punted. On the way Rodel said there was a house of a LA nearby. We visited him and just before sharing a message we realized it was actually the area of the sisters in our ward. We still shared though and all bore our testimony, but Rodel's stood out the most. As he bore his testimony I had a strong feeling that that was what this LA needed to hear. Later on at dinner I told the sisters we accidentally taught one of their LAs and Sister Baker said they usually can't get a hold of him. Maybe Heavenly Father needed Rodel to share his testimony with this brother at that time. I don't know, God works in mysterious ways haha. It was just one of those tender mercies of the week.

 Now for the last part, General Conference. Sorry, I left my notes at home, but it was so good! It was sad that President Monsons talks were so short, but they were still just as powerful as the others. Overall, the main message I got was that God loves us. I feel like no matter how much we say it or believe it, we will never understand just how truly He loves us. This was a great spiritual experience for me, since lately I've been asking Him what I can do to feel His love for me more often. The Conference was a great reassurance for me that He knows me and does love me personally. And He loves you! And so do I haha. Thanks for the emails and pictures! 

Mahal ko po kayo,

Elder Ishibashi

This picture is actually from Transfer day before Elder Umpat them arrived. This is Elder Reynolds, from Ogden! Look familiar at all dad?

*Elder Ishibashi is asking this question because I served in the Utah Ogden Mission.