I want to express my apologies for not writing about my investigators for so long. They are amazing and love teaching them. We currently have a lot kids that we are teaching. Normally our focus would be on priesthood and older more responsible people that could come to church on their own. We have a lot of family that the parents are members but the children aren't, and they want to prepare to be sealed in the temple as a family. Its amazing to see the light in these families eyes went we show up and they say that they have kept their commitments and read the Book of Mormon as a family and had family pray each day. They are seeing just how big of a blessing an eternal family will be.
AJ is 11 and knows so much already. He answers questions with answers and even more questions just so that he can get as much knowledge as possible. I can't think of a more powerful way to start a lesson than to hear a him pray for each and everyone of us that we will feel deep in our hearts the message in which Heavenly Father has for us. He does it without fail each lesson and for everyone specifically by name.
Adam. Adam. Adam. I love this kid. He's the person we go to after a hard day and he changes everything. I laugh every time we go over there because he either has a new joke for us or a great story of something he did the past week.
We have a sister that we're teaching right now with three kids and her husband works over seas. Her husband is an English speaker and knows no Tagalog. Her kids know English but she's asked that we speak only English when we go over there so that her kids can have the practice with English seeing that we're native English speakers. Its pretty neat to teach the same amazing principle in different languages and see that the Holy Ghost works right along side us. We were teaching over there yesterday and I reached in my bag to pull out my scriptures when my April Conference edition of the Liahona fell out. (As a background, I had put it in there to take it to a different sister so she could read a talk form it that I felt would help her overcome some struggles she's having.) Edesa, the mom, picked it up and asked what it was. She opened it up and we were able to talk about prophets and apostle for 2 hours. We talked about the revelation they receive and the priesthood power they hold that Joseph Smith restored to this earth. Sometimes the things they ask us to do dont seem like they're that big of a deal if we obey them or not. It is a big deal. They are speaking directly for Heavenly Father. We must listen and obey. It was so powerful seeing that it wasn't planned up the spirit testified to them of the truth.
Christmas has now hit the Philippines! They start in September an go to January. The streets are ringing with Christmas music which seems a little weird seeing how theres no snow but I love it anyway. I wish everyone had the spirit of giving except for the dogs out here. I went to slip my foot in my shoe after a lesson this week and found a little present but I had already put my shoe on by the time I realized what was between my toes. It was really gross and I was not very happy hahahah.
I love this work and I love you all.
Love Elder O'Neil
