Christmas!

Im still in my Second Area, at the end of this 6 week transfer i will have been here in this area for 6 months now, i could stay longer but it really seems like i might be transferred this next transfer, but then again it all depends on the Lord!

Currently, my companion is Elder Vail and we are Co-Seniors right now. We entered into the MTC and the Philippines on the same day. He is from a very small town in Utah called Genola. He is a great Elder and we are really working hard, just yesterday we got 11 investigators and 2 in-actives to come to church, and we are expecting even more next week! So far, this has been a great transfer, and its seems like every other day the spirit guides us to some or a family that is ready to hear the message of the Restored gospel!

Like always it is Very Hot here in the Philippines! It is just very weird thinking that I am almost one full year in the mission and I only have one more left, time really does fly! I am doing great and couldnt be Happier!

Thanks for everything!! ELDER PALMER

Update!

These last couple weeks have been busy! We were able to do a Manila Mission Missionary Musical fireside. A lot of great music was performed and we all sang several great songs as an entire mission. Then we had a Stake conference, which I was able to listen to many great talks by Local Leaders in the stake that I'm assigned to right now. Then we had General Conference the next Sunday. In my opinion, its just like Christmas on your mission when you get a chance to listen to general Conference. This last Sunday we were able to hear from Elder Teh, an area seventy who spoke to the Stake where i'm at right now. Last week, we as a mission, were privileged to hear form Elder Quinton L. Cook who gave a fireside to our mission. Other than that i'm still in my second area on my 6th transfer, and fifth companion. The Language is good, i can understand pretty much everything, but still hard at times to speak. Right now, i guess, its just like polishing it up and then i well have it down.

alright i'll see if i can send more next week.
ELDER PALMER

My Birthday/Transfers/Rain

For my Birthday. Well of course I'm still a missionary on my birthday, so we worked that day, but it was also the Birthday of my ward mission leader in my last area. So we decided to have a Family Home Evening at their house that night. We had some food and some frozen fruit salad that they made and some ice cream for desert. A member gave me a sweet shoulder bag, and another member gave me a mug with a map of the Philippines on the side of it. It was Great!

Yesterday was transfer announcements and we found out me and my companion are going to stay in the area for another transfer. We went to transfer meeting anyway today. Its always great to see the other missionaries and swap stories with them about what has been happening. I really like my 2nd area, in Las Pinas. Its more city and a lot more people. We have two great Ward Missionaries who are leaving on their missions in about 2 months. My ward is great. My apartment isn't as nice as my first one but its what makes your mission exciting, we killed a Huge Rat in our apartment this last week. They come up through the drain in our bathroom.

It is now rainy season. Just last night we look at the sky and looked at each other and said wow it is really going to start raining! we hurried to our next appointment and it was sprinkling and in a matter of seconds it was Poring! and we were still about 50 yards form out next appointment and we got soaked!

k well i am out of time.... Thanks for everthing!!

New Comanion/Language/Rainy Season

Well things are going great here!! I'm still in my first area and just got a new companion last week. He is Philippino and a great Elder!! We are working really hard! And we are teaching some really great people right now!

Its amazing these last 3 weeks my understanding of the language has really improved!! I'm still not very good at speaking it though.. But I feel this transfer my language is really going to improve!!

The Rainy season is just starting now, yesterday we were walking to an appointment and it started raining. yeah it wasn't long before we were soaked!

Well I'm doing great!! Take Care Everyone!
ELDER PALMER

First Baptism

Well I had my first Baptism last Saturday that I had the opportunity to see and teach the investigator from start to finish. He even asked if I would be the one to baptize him. His name is Rosher Cruz and he is 11 years old. His Mother and older brother are members and they really helped us through the teaching process. He is a great Kid and I'm glad I was blessed to see him progress in the Gospel.
Elder Palmer

Magtrabaho, Magdasal, at Pagsunod

Magtrabaho Magtrabaho Magtrabaho, Magdasal Magdasal Magdasal, at Pagsunod
Work Work Work, Pray Pray Pray, and be Obedient

This are going great here in the Philippines! The people here are great, other than the fact that we hear Hoy Joe or Hoy Americano so some other ones like that countless times each day... LOL The expression on their faces when we walk up to then and start speaking Tagalog is pretty funny at times! The language is still really hard for me! but, trust me, I am progressing by the gift of Tongues.

My Mission President, President Howard is a Great Man! I was able to go to the Manila Temple last week, It was so Pretty!

Beings how Me and my Companion Elder Ward were assigned to reopen an area that has been closed for sometime now its been a lot of Finding! We are OYMing upwards of 350 people each week and teaching about 40 lessons each week. We are now seeing the fruits of our labors because we have 3 baptismal dates set up now.

Conference seemed like it was a lot better as a missionary than it has normally. There were a lot of great talks given this Conference. I Especially liked the talks given in the Priesthood session! President Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles are Truly Called of God!!

We had a Zone Activity today; we hired a Jeepney to take us to Cavity and we went for a hike to a river and to a Bamboo hut were we played some games and ate. We ate fish and rice. We used cut up pieces of a banana tree for our plates. It was very pretty up there!

There is no Way I Can truly cover everything thats going on in my life as a missionary, But just so you know i'm doing great! I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE! I truly can't express my love for the Gospel in my life!

Ingot Po Kayo,
take care everyone
si, ELDER PALMER

My first couple of weeks here in the Philippines has been great!! We were assigned to reopen area of Dasma Bagom Biyen 2nd ward. we are out in the province and so we arent in Manila. We had Two Baptisms two days ago, two younger sisters about 20 years old, Dai Dai and Jobilin, They are great!! We don't really have any progressing investigators yet because we reopened the area, its been closed for quite a while. but this last week we OYM'd over 200 people and we got about 70 return appointments/new investigators.. My companion is Elder Ward he is from Boise Idaho. he has only been here in the Philippines for 7 months now. He's great and we get along really well! And he is way good with the language! The language is still way hard for me but elder Ward has really been helping me so I've been learning a lot faster than I was in the MTC. Do you know how hard his is to explain... You honestly have no idea how much stuff has happened in the last week and a half....... there are 4 elders in my apartment. our showers are buckets and there's no toilet paper. we also have to wash all of our cloths by hand. Seeing the living conditions here for the people of the Philippines is very humbling, Americans honestly live like kings compared to a lot of people here, but its way cool because they are happy!! I can't tell you how many times I've heard Hoy JOE or Hoy Americano by little kids in the last week....

The Philippines!!

Alright well I got to the Philippines safely! It's been a pretty crazy first week!!! My mission President Howard is a great guy and his wife too. Our first night they sent my group out into Manila to do some finding, the elder I went with found 3 new investigators. The Manila mission has 190 total missionaries right now, and averages more baptisms than any other mission in the Philippines. I got my new companion, His Name is Elder Ward and he is from Boise Idaho. He has been in the Philippines for 7 months now and is way good with the language! My area is Dasmarinas Bagong Bayan 2nd I'm out in the province, and not in the city. I have a bunch of really cool elder's and sisters in my zone. Elder ward and I are assigned to an area that has been closed for some time now so we are shotgunning the area, so neither of us know where we are going but the ward mission leader works with the missionaries everyday so he takes us around. Its been really hard for me to communicate with people, but we do have two baptisms coming up on Saturday. The living conditions of the people are very humbling!! Our apartment is one of the nicer ones, but nothing like in America and there are two other elders in our apartment, one of them trained elder ward.
Anyway, Im out of time. Until next week!
Elder Palmer

MTC #3

The language is Way Hard! But a guy named "Brik" during a teaching appointment told me exactly what I needed to hear about learning the language. My prayers were answered! All the Elders in my district are great! Elder Dahlan is a lot like me; he works on cars and likes doing a lot the the things I like to do.

Elder Palmer

"Faith is the Power, Obedience is the Price, The Spirit is the Key, Christ is the Reason."
James E. Faust

L to R: Jones, Ward, Dahlan, Riner, Hale, Buzbee, Farley, Hardman, Me.

MTC #2

Well alright. Starting out we had 9 elders and 2 sisters in our district. Sister Horne and Sister Pindeda. Sister Pineda's dad is from the Philippines and so she knows the language pretty well so she took a test and passed and got advanced and she left the MTC 7 weeks early. They didn't want to leave Sister Horne as a solo sister in our sistrict so they transferred her to another district with some sisters in it.

The Elders in the district 2C. Elder Ward is from Boise Idaho and his companion is Elder Riner and he is from Tri Cities Washington. Elder Hardman is from Salt Lake and his companion is Elder Farley from Northern California and is companion is Elder Hale from Ogden. And my two companions, Elder Jones is from Olympia Washington and Elder Buzbee is from Mapleton UT. Elder Daholan loves Volles Wagon Bugs. Elder River cries when he laughs. Elder Buzbee has a band and plays the guitar. Elder Jones plays the french horn. Elder Hale has averaged two packages per day from his family. Elder Farley is way good at learning the language. And Elder Ward likes to fish.

Our district gets along real well, always having fun when we can! We had an arm wrestling tournament with our district which eventually grew to our entire Zone in our residence hall. We go to the temple on Monday morning and Monday is our P-Day. We have firesides on Sunday and on Tuesday nights. L. Tom Perry came and talked to us on our second Tuesday. Our district has two teachers. Brother May and Sister Laythumb. Brother May got back from his mission one year ago and he served in Manila. They both have very strong testimonies. The food is pretty good, but we got the short stide and have dinner at 4:30 so we are starving by breakfast.

Well, I'm out of writing time.
Elder Palmer

MTC #1

The MTC is great! It’s like being in the City of Enoch. I actually have two companions right now. Now, everyone has heard stories about how companions dont get along to well. This is one of them, but it is getting better. I have a district of 9 elders and two teachers. My district is awesome! We are all going to be great missionaries. Our days consist of leaving our residence hall at 7 in the morning and being in class and meetings till 9 thirty at night. We study a lot! The language is very hard but it will come in due time.

Taga pagligtas natin si Jesu Cristo
(I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior)

Elder Palmer

MTC Drop Off

I Will Go And Do!

Well I leave on my mission in about 13 hours! Wow its crazy thinking about leaving for two years! I don't know what all I should put on here because I have had so many things going through my head the last couple of days its not even funny! I can't tell you how much influence my friends, family, co-works, and church leaders have played in my life! If it wasn't for them I would not be where I am in life!! And these last couple years have been great with all my friends, I have so many great memories! LOL I can compare the church and life to a great big puzzle! There are so many pieces and your always trying to find the correct places. Sometimes they wont fit, but when you do find one that fits its always the best feeling! And when you finish the puzzle its always Beautiful. The Lord loves Everyone!!! In the scriptures it compares working with the lord like a Yoke of Oxen, if one oxen doesn't push they do not accomplish anything, and there is no better person to be next to you while you are working than the lord! Now is my time to strap up next to the Lord and Spread the Most Perfect Message on Earth! The Church IS True!

I WILL GO AND DO!!!