Elder Bryan Haacke: Love Being A Missionary

Good to hear from everybody again! Seems like everyone is doing good and Sam is absolutely loving the mission! I am too! Even though some weeks are tough (last week) the Lord's work will never stop!

This last week flew by since we had conference for two days. Work was alright this week. No progress again with any investigators that I have talked about in the past so that was unfortunate but it still feels like we had a good week this last week. On Wednesday we went out to a part of the area called Marcos. Elder Corcuera and his companion here before me stopped going to the area because they said it was too far and not worth it. I never went there with Elder Corcuera since he never wanted to but with how the work has been going lately, we decided we should go back out there and try it again. We had no idea where we were going and some farmers we passed on the way just looked at us and said we have a long walk ahead of us. Actually, the walk wasn't that far at all. About a 30 minute walk was all. Kinda weird since the other part of our area that we have always gone to is like a 40 minute walk and Corcuera always told me Marcos was way further. We got to Marcos and just did finding the whole time since we had no people to contact there. It's not a huge area but there are enough houses to make the trip worth it. We made a loop on the way back to the apartment and went by Nanay Dominga Cantor(Inv), Brother JunJun(recently returned LA), and Tatay Cabading(LA) who all were not there. We didn't get many lessons but we contacted a lot that we can follow up with this week.

Thursday and Friday were alright days. Just usual days of work. Still had no luck with the Investigators in the area but we tried our best. I was supposed to have my first baptismal interview Friday night. We went out to Mallig (different elders area in my district) to do the interview. We met up with the Elders and went to the investigators house and she wasn't there. We waited for about 20 minutes and she never showed up so we just told the mom we'll reschedule it for this coming week.

Saturday and Sunday was awesome. Absolutely loved General Conference! There were a ton of talks centered on the family on Saturday especially. Saturday night after the Priesthood Session, Elder Brandon called and we talked about conference for a little bit. He's still up in Tuguegarao but I think he'll transfer next week. Speaking of that, transfer week is next week. How fast was this cycle! This is the last full week of the cycle then its transfers again! Can't believe it! I don't think I'm going anywhere so I'll probably be the same for another cycle.

After conference on Sunday since we were in Roxas we just went on splits so we didn't have to go back to San Pedro then come back in the morning. I went with Elder Lavelua and Latu. We had a ton of fun and taught 3 lessons which was awesome for the short time we had. One was a little over an hour but was an awesome lesson to their investigator. Two of my favorite elders in the zone and we got to split together. It was super fun teaching together. Then we had dinner with a family in the Roxas branch at night. They were a sweet family! We could've sat and talked all night! Maybe it is because of splits that my week feels better than it really was. Got to end the week with an awesome splits!

Being a missionary is such an amazing opportunity. We were talking about it on splits yesterday. Just about how awesome it is to meet all the people we do and build relationships with them and see them change and find a happiness you can't find anywhere else except for in the gospel. I have come to know without a doubt that there is no better work than sharing the gospel of helping people come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Hope everyone has a great week this week! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Service from last week: