Elder Jace Breinholt's Mission to Olongapo: Diwa Family Baptism and Happy Fathers Day! 6-17-2018

The rain keeps on coming! It'll stop occasionally for maybe an hour or less, then it will pick back up again! Its been going on for weeks now! Pretty sure its Typhoons!

Yesterday when we were visiting the Diwa Family there was an earthquake! I was just siting in my chair and then i started to shake! I didnt last very long. Maybe 5 seconds. It apparently started in the ocean right outside our mission! Freakkyyy. We are all safe! (Dont worry mom) :)

As for that. This week was one i will never be able to forget! It started with a visit from Elder Uceda of the 70. Hes from Peru! Totally just reminded me of Max! Max have you ever met him? I shook hands with him..so if you did too..we technically shook hands too :p haha! it was cool because we got to meet up as an entire mission! His wife spoke to us with a translator because i guess she doesn't speak english! Shes spanish! There are some words i understood from his wife tho! Because a long time ago the Philippines was under Spanish control. So they have some spanish words! Then Elder Uceda talked to us! It was good and we learned a lot that day! That was an awesome day too because i got to see Elder Kammerman again! One of my MTC companions who i haven't see forever! It was great to catch up with him and other missionaries!

So our plan was to do the baptism on Saturday but on Wednesday we took a visit with the Diwa Family! Julie wasnt there but her husband was. So we were talking and taught him. And after we taught him.. he told us he wanted to see if we could change the baptism for tomorrow so he could see it. Because he was going to return to work on Saturday. So we said. Sure! Why not! We had to call everyone in the branch after that and get everything okay for the baptism! When we were calling around it turned out that there were no baptismal clothes at our church and the church is getting repainted so it is super dirty! So we did our routine on Thursday morning and then headed to the church! When we got there.. there were no members there to help. So my companion and I got everything cleaned up and then started filling up the font. We cleaned it up a little but and the started filling up the water..it was pouring out yellow water.. we were freaking out..because at this point it was 3! and the baptism is starting at 4! Well we decided to drain the water... no big deal.. but it didnt drain! the water drainages were full of water from the rain! With buckets we had to take the dirty water out of the font.. at this point there was other people there to help.we dumped all that water down the toilet..at this point everyone is here and watching us do this.. ahh it was super lame and i got so tired. And dont you guys forget about the baptism clothes. right. there is none? well we called around the other branches and Elder Yingling came to the rescue! He said he would check to see if they had suits. Well their church was flooded! They somehow got the suits tho and came to our church just in time the water was filling up! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh hahaha.. lets just say there was so many trials leading up to the baptism! But...

The Baptism turned out awesome! Julies dad baptized the 3 of them and Noel was there to witness. There was such a strong spirit after they were baptized. The sister missionaries sang the Peace in Christ and really really brought more of the spirit to the room. At this point you feel like you have a rock in your chest! And when they were done thats when they bore their testimonies! It truly is an awesome feeling to hear your converts testimonies and how they were converted! It was so awesome! It made me forget about anything before the baptism started. Sister Julie also cooked food for everyone and we all ate after! So it was super awesome!

On Sunday it was good too! They got confirmed and Noel went too! So he only needs 2 more churches and the family can be completed! Elder Yinglings branch went to church with us too! So it was super awesome! Elder Yingling and I got to go to church again together! And he was with all of his investigators. So i got to meet them too!

This work is awesome and I'm glad to be apart of it! These people are helping me more than I am helping them really!

Shoutout to my awesome Dad! Happy Fathers Day! I love you tons! I don't know how i got so lucky with the parents I have! Love you guys so much! Have an awesome rest of the day and week!

Love Elder Breinholt!