hey, so we had a baptism!

this is the crew :) with Edwin his daughter Zam. Baptism girl Emily and her cousins. 

hello po nay,

a quote to start things off: "habits, good or bad are first like cobwebs and then like chains" thats why i love being a missionary such good, clean, organized living. love the schedule.

HEY, SO WE HAD A BAPTISM! Sister Emily (or ate mimi). so she came up to us like my first sunday here with some friends and we were told she dated a boy who just left for his mission to legazpi (right now in Shane Lethabys first area) and wants to be baptized. at that point she was reading the Book of Mormon everyday and has not stopped since! so it was just teaching her and then baptizing her. She is an amazing girl tho. always going above and beyond with all commitments, reffering everybody she knows (we now teach lots of teenage girls lol), and being incredibly easy to teach. she's got some super fun cousins who always come along to listen but the dads pretty anti :/ the baptism was good. kinda just showed up, watched her get bapatized (the boy she's datings dad did the baptizing) and left. sat in the back row, got a picture and out the door. felt super good to see the ward just take care of everything and magnify their callings. because it was before a halloween party in the same building we had some pretty scary people peek their head in lol and a huge attendance! my man Edwin came to support! just excellent.

something funny about Edwin is he wants our missionary "holy sounds". so i copied too much motab onto his USB so he can feel peace while reading the book of mormon or cooking his street food. super awesome eating at his stand with some motab going. it really carries as well for the neighbours. idk just such a good guy! super excited to be baptized here soon!

also got ANOTHER letter from Oma. she now says shes my oma. amen to that!

Hey, don't be like the Zormanites: (great chapter btw) Alma 31
23 Now, after the people had all offered up thanks after this manner, they returned to their homes, never speaking of their God again until they had assembled themselves together again to the holy stand, to offer up thanks after their manner.

24 Now when Alma saw this his heart was grieved; for he saw that they were a wicked and a perverse people; yea, he saw that their hearts were set upon gold, and upon silver, and upon all manner of fine goods.

Elder Kearl 

oh, fancy type sign off by accident

just read and replied to 60 emails from my fans

dont let presidents face confuse you. the zones doing really well :)

hello po nay, 

bit of a mix up but ill write the big nasty as the fourth thing i do now. 1) president. 2) refferrals 3) mom personally 4) big nasty 5) the fans...... priorities. 

after reading/replying to 60 emails i got no time for all my pics!! next time.

wow thats crazy about uncle dave. things can get shaken up pretty quick. I actually really look up to Dave alot and thought about him quite about out here. great man. 

Ethan is planning on heading out next year on a mish? that is one good kid ill tell you that much. always has been killing it. tell him to email me! and ask questions if he wants 

not much to talk about from the work but so this week our area president, Elder Shayne M. Bowen and his wife visited and it had quite the impact. he went into some deep old testament house of isreal doctrine that just tells ya the Book of Mormon is true and we are cousins with muslims. He started off by saying "what im about to say will cause you to doubt and fear." and the expectations of every aspect of our work skyrocketed. left some anxious feelings the rest of the day. it pushed me to talk to 8 people during the hour and a half bus ride home from cauayan. i never stoped talking and my mouth got pretty sore. but hey, lots of people now know Joseph Smith. 

the thing that hit me was a clearer understanding of Hell. before we come to earth a veil is put over us that causes us to forget everything before and also afects us on earth by limiting our ability to remember clearly our life on earth. causes us to currently see through a glass darkly. But when that gets lifted we will see everything from the beginning with perfect clearness. we will see how we were before and perfectly understand what we had, who we could've become and all the things we threw away due to our disobedience on earth. Hell is now actually a lake of fire and brimstone nor does God want to literally roast us over a fire but Hell is a state of mind because we will have a perfect idea of how much we messed up. we will only be torchering ourselves. 

on a happier note we are baptising a golden investigator this saturday and i have some really really good friends here :):):) lifes good.

one more thing. the principles of happiness you find in the scriptures always fascinates me. so in Alma 28:2,6,8,12-14 we see there was the biggest battle in the whole book of mormon with thousands of righteous people dead. the first thing they do is fast and pray. thats there reflex. and while thousands are mourning for the death of love ones they end up rejoicing in hope because of the doctrine of slavation and they know their loved ones who died are experiencing never ending happiness. we need the gospel. than there is an invitation to be diligent in the vineyard. so go share!!! 

Elder Kearl 

"The eyes of God and all the holy prophets are watching us. this is the great dispensation that has been spoken of ever since the world began" - Wilford Woodfruff

talking buisness with the Area President, Elder Shayne Bowen

"it's just the chicken's spit"

lunch

hello po nay!

so yesterday after i wrote my letter to the president and organized our refferrals a bit on our portal the site crashed like mission wide tbh tho it wasnt' the end of the world not emailing.... i've considered to just stop emailing to get more immersed in the work but how else can I lift, encourage, inspire and bless my fans back home??? so she still goes......

that is nice of you to host amy's missionary family dinner at our house.  Amy is ready to go!  you should read her emails and the letters she sent me.  she is a really really good egg.  either way the MTC whips anybody into shape pretty quick.  

it is fun organizing and leading isn't it?  i enjoy to do it;):) organizing our zone interviews and such is fun.  nothing new here but i love this area so many good people!  first area where  i could say its really progressions!  we have like 5 amazing investigators!  this is my favourite area but nothing can replace my first area even tho it was incredibly challenging  If I were to come back to the philippines this is the only place i feel like i could live.  crazy as that sounds.  i l feel at home and comfortable here.  lots of beautiful tress .  

i love john lethaby so much..

i'm really interested i business when i get home.  dad really will know whats best but should i do construction management or genera business?  I would like to know all my options for bussiness.  

16 months na!!! in the words of a personal fave, Justin Milner, i have hit mission nirvana! and it feels good. im comfortable in the language with hardly any problems there, more confident talking to every person I see, deeper, but not perfect understanding of the culture and ulitmatly just a deeper and more clear testimony of whose work this really is. feels like nirvana. 

We were teaching under a tree with chickens in it (did you know that chickens love being in trees?) and it was raining very lightly and the investigator suggested we move under a roof but my comp calmly said "its just the chickens spit." chicken spit. that guy cracks me up.

Elder Schmutz of the 70 visited our stake conference and just edified the heck (you could even say hell here) out of me! he mentioned a story of this one recent convert couple in a small branch in Idaho or something and the couple never got greeted or welcomed by any one in the branch and felt like outsiders and they didnt feel like going to church any more, which i can understand, and one morning they were very close to just stopping. but the Brother came up with an idea to just be the ones to greet others! for the next weeks they said hi and shook hands with every member who entered the church. pretty soon they loved going to church and seeing all there new friends! this is an amazing example of becoming an agent and taking control of your own lives happiness instead of being an object waiting for others to act on you. 2Nephi 2:14. 

i had a thought i wrote down one night, ask your self these 3 questions regulaurly: 1) am i happy? 2)if not, what needs to change? 3) what am I going to do about it? only we are responsible for our well being. 

#sustainandordain -Elder Schmutz hopefully soon to be trending hashtag

Elder Kearl

i really miss Colin Steele, Grandpa Rosenvall, Dad, you, eric, Scott Wolff and others.

hello po nay,

cool email, thanks mom! it's also good to hear that grandpa rosenvall is kicking around with you guys! miss that man so much you know. its weird the people you end up missing out here. i really miss Colin Steele, Grandpa Rosenvall, Dad, you, eric, Scott Wolff and others. but hey you cant choose who you miss.

hearing these stories you shared from your family weekend makes me picture them in my head and chuckle. card games.... baby namess...

so ill fill you in on my email schedule:

first thing i do once i sit down is enter my companionships Key Indicators and than play around on the refferral manager for 5-10 minutes bc were supposed to and orginize our referrals and send out our found ones. than i write a letter to president about everything that has happend in the zone this week. than i write you personally first :). than i go to the bottom of my inbox and reply to all my beloved family and friends and last but not least i write this big nasty for the fans.

i would usually try to keep it interseting bc even tho i am a missionary i get very bored very quickly with other missionaries letters. not too into reading about others work beleive it or not bc i dont know the people or understand the area so thats mostly why i dont write much about my work. also missionary work is a slow ordeal. but through out the week if something special comes across my mind ill write it in my planner to write about on Pday's. i try to keep it light hearted and fun.

but what i want to do now is really just speak whats been on my mind. but idk we will see what happens. hope you enjoy

IDK if you remember Edwin or not, one of our investigators but i love this man so much! he is sucha  good person bc he sells food and drinks for the lowest possible price and doesnt advertise so others will still have buisness. teaching him is rad bc he thinks so deeply and intently about the message. He goes above and beyond in all commitments and yesterday was the first time he attended church and he brought his 13 year old daughter!! He also taught his daugther how to pray and his wife is in hong kong for 2 year periods with only 14 days inbetweeen to vist :( but they chat and its just pictures of food hahaha anyway he's just the best. 

Elder Kearl 

email from President Hiatt:  Hi Elders, thanks for caring for your Zone with extraordinary efforts!

You are awesome. Also  thanks for your obedience and trust.
I love you.

my comp sleeps in his proselyting clothes: name tag, tie, tucked in shirt and all!

hello po nay,

so a new cycle has begun and there have been some small changes! one of the other 3 canadians (Elder Atwood of Lethbridge) has joined the zone which is fun as well as a good friend from Cauayan Zone, Elder West! 

I'll be killing off this companion on November 8th so another change is my companion now comes home from a long sweaty day and doesn't change his clothes at all because he wants to sleep in his proselyting clothes. name tag, tie, tucked in shirt and all! He used to wear his nametag with his garments while lounging around the house and while he sleeps but i guess for hi last 6 weeks hes stepping things up a bit! atta boy! 

1 year ago on October 1 was my first baptism! Sis Erje is doing really ive heard and i re read my journal entry from that day and can still remember it very clearly. almost as sunny as any day can get! it seems life just keeps going on! 

something i've wondered about alot on my mission and especially this week is the diffrence between administering and also ministering. i've felt a huge lack in my leadership abilities throughout my whole mission and what it actually means to "lead" others. there's pushing and leading. i've also wrestled with the idea of letting others govern themselves but when is it appropriate to help them more? when is too much? i've learned that ministering abilities and administering abilities are equally important and need to be in balance. even better if both are 100%. i've grown alot in my past six weeks in santiago in this category but can also see how much further i need to go. idk more of just a ramble. 

heard a cheesy idea that might get you thinking but: Whats your question this year?

love you po,

Elder Kearl