Crocs to Flip-Flops

So this week was incredibly fast. Tuesday was zone conference and it was the best. We all met at the mission home and it was just our zone so it was a really great time with President and Sister Koster :) They are the best and you can really tell that they love you as they do their own children. We also had MTC exchanges (which is new missionaries from the MTC for the day into our area and they work with us, and go back after work is done.) And we (Elder Cagnayo and I) were in charge of it! haha It was a really good experience and the new missionaries just had that special spirit that comes from the MTC :) This week also, we reflected on President Koster's words about having a "vision" for our area and ourselves and what we want them to become. This past week, me and Elder Cagnayo came up with a vision for our group and it is defiintly a good one, we were guided by the Spirit. We were blessed with the highest attendance in our group since I have been here! We had 30 people come to church, it was amazing!!:)  This week was good. The Lord lives.

So let me briefly explain the subject line. So I haven't mentioned this in any of my letters, but I'm sure that you have noticed that in my pictures I have been wearing crocs.. haha. So for the past month I have had ingrown toenails, and so I have been able to wear crocs as we watched them and cleaned them. So this week because they weren't getting better and weren't healing, we got to go to the hospital here in our mission, and we saw a doctor today, They said that they would have to do a "minor procedure"  on my feet in order for them to heal. So that's exactly what we did. We met with the specialist at 12 and at 3 I was wearing nice hospital clothes (the ones that dont have the backs on them) and flip flops as I was being rolled down the hall to the surgery room. I was then laid on this table with a blanket as they strapped a "safety belt" to the table so I couldnt "fall off". I'm not sure but it seemed pretty fishy to me ;) They loaded my toe up with a couple shots of anesthesia and they tried to operate but I could still feel it, so they just unloaded about 5 more shots and took something out. I'm not sure if I have a toenail still on my foot because I didn't want to watch as they did surgery. So that's my watered down story of my first operation in my whole life. It was great of course! I'll send pictures next week:)  The Lord lives, The book of Mormon is truly the word of God:)

-- 

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

Divine Design

So ever since last conference I have constantly thought and pondered about Elder Rasband's talk about the Divine Design of God. And everyday it's gotten more and more real for me. There have been a lot of great things that have happened this week. One of them that topped it off for the week, happened last night with a recent convert here :) He has been stuggling lately with some things he struggled with before his baptism, and he started going back to his old life. This was really hard for me because I just have this special love for him and we are close. But as you can imagine, it was even harder for his mother to see him like this. I won't tell exactly what happened because I feel it's not really my story to tell, but yesterday I could see as he told me that a huge blessing, a huge miracle, happened to him. As we talked about it, about him and the Lord, it was a very tender moment, especially for him. I know this is kinda vague, but I know talaga that the Lord is SO mindful of each one of us. Even when we feel like we are alone (as I mistakenly felt last week) that's when God is closest to us. This Gospel is true. This Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. There are a lot of things or people that say otherwise, but the Lord has blessed me with many moments I cannot forget or mistake for mere coincidence. If you follow all the commandments-both scriptual and latter day- the Lord has given us, there is no way we won't know these things personally for ourselves! :) 

I love the Lord. I love my God, my Father in Heaven. I love this Church, I love this missionary work and know it to be the most important work on this whole earth. I love my wonderful HUGE family the Lord has so lovingly given to me in this life. I know that without a doubt Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the head of this church because afterall, it is His.

Have a good week, remember to be loving, remember to see the many blessings you receive every day (One of my favorites, simple but powerful, Alma 26:2) and you will truly be humbled :)

 

-- 

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

Eating corn, like Nacho Libre ;)

A member from my last area sent this to me. In the middle are two of our converts attending the temple.  How awesome!  Mark your calendars for Sept!  Temple dealings of course!

Busy busy busy

So this week honestly has been sooo stressful. We had transfers and I have a new companion just after 6 weeks of being here in this new area. So I'm still adjusting and trying to remember the investigators and members, but with faith and hard work I'm sure it will all work out!

I don't have that much time, but this week as I said, was so busy, and I honestly felt like I have just been kinda thrown out in this area and I have no idea what I'm doing, like I was forgotten. Then on Sunday, when we attended church at our group, as I was the one to bless and my companion to pass the sacrament, I just looked at each of the members. Because there isn't a lot of us, we as the missionaries know each and every one (well for the most part) of the sturggles they have. And how great is it that they could all attend sacrament meeting with their individual struggles and all go out of the meeting somehow stronger to meet the next weeks needs? How PERFECT is the Gospel of Christ. As I was sitting there, the Lord helped me to remember some very tender moments I have had in my life that I knew without a doubt that the Lord was there. He helped me to remember I wasn't forgotten. The feeling of the spirit was a special one on Sunday.

As we plead with the Lord each and every day and do what he wants, it will all turn out for the good :) That's His promise to us :)

-- 

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

FHE

"family picture" anak ko sa gitna​

Part of my area

They took my camera haha!

Christmas
That big slab in the bottom right is 12 pounds of pig :) lechon style

1340!

So maybe I would like to start out to say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and happy january 9, because we haven't any time to email that last couple weeks! Its just been super busy! :) 

Also, I would like to explain what that number is in the heading! No, it's not my social security card, its not my pin to my bank account... it was the number AS A MISSION OF THE SOULS AND STORIES WE WERE ABLE TO BRING UNTO CHRIST in the year of 2017!  SO GREAT ISN'T IT? I'm thankful I was able to be a part of people's lives in bringing them unto Christ through the sacred ordinace of baptism :)

For 2018 our goal for a mission is 1900 souls (1 stake) to be baptized through our hard work, obedience, fasting and prayer :)  I'M SO EXCITED AS WELL to say that President Koster (our amazing mission President) said that I COULD EXTEND MY MISSION UNTIL 2019!!! (6 extra months!!!!) Which I'm so thankful for to stay here and just be a missionary! (*ok that part about extending my mission was a JOKE please dont have a heart attack family, I love you! hahahaaha) But I do love it here and I'm so happy.

So today is transfers and I'm staying here in my area, but my companion is transfering to Angono which is really close to my first area Tayuman. So my new companion is Elder Cagnyon, which is finishing his 12 weeks and I will be his first senior companion here in the mission! So that will be fun. I really love this area and hope that only after 6 weeks I'll be able to remember where everything is exactly because it's a total maze here! hahaah. And I found out that our district is changing and me and my companion will be the only elders with 4 other sisters so you could say that it's pretty powerful here ;) 

Also I'm trying to learn Bisaya (which is another dialect in the southern philippines) because almost all of my companions, that is their native language, and most of the people in this area speak tagalog and bisaya! haha wish me luck! It's been pretty fun and they said I"m a fast learner so we will see how it goes!! haha 

Thats all for now! ill try to send pictures for all of you :) di ako makapag english haha nose bleed na ako dito!

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

The Sanchez Family

Merry Almost Christmas!

Hello Everyone!! And Merry Christmas I guess? This week was a great one as well as the other ones! So I dont have that much time this week to explain waht happened. But I can tell you that the Lord ALWAYS has his hand in our lives. I know that for fact. I hope you can feel the love of the Lord as you all serve someone you love this week:))🎄🎄🎄

-- 

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

Man I love this place!

This week has been great. And because of that I'm just going to get straight to what happened :)

-We had Mission Tour with Elder Haynie (area presidency) and it was truly so amazing I felt like my testimony and my love for the Gospel of Christ turned into this mountain greater than Mt. Everest!!

-We attended a baptism of the sisters in our district of Brother Neson Jacob, the one I was able to interview a couple weeks ago! Long story short I was the person the ended up baptizing him and to make a longer story shorter, I didnt bring a change of clothes so I was walking around with a nice wet mark in my pants to our ward christmas party (But YES it was worth it. No doubt about it) 🎁🎄😊

*Note from Mom* This is what Cody sent us regarding the baptism :) "Last Friday we attended a baptism for the sisters in our district, of a guy I had interviewed. He had invited us to his baptism and of course we had to go. So at his baptism the person who was baptizing brother Nelson, tried about 7 times to baptize him. But because of it being probably his first time to baptize anyone in his whole life and probably because he is kinda small, he wasn't able to baptize him correctly.  Finally, I volunteered to baptize him. I changed into a nice jumpsuit the church had and performed the baptism, thankfully successful in one try. But the problem was I didnt have a change of clothes. So even though I was laughed at (by the sisters) for the wet mark of my garments through my pants, it was well worth it even though my garments were soaking wet :) hahahah! But I was blessed for them to dry off pretty fast!"

So my new Companion is Elder Iligan and he is from Negros Occidental here in the Philippines. (I would send a picture but a child of a member accidently deleted all my pictures on my camera so I have absolutely none saved...) Here in our area we have a "Group". (It is not yet a branch) Last Sunday there was about 15 people that atteneded. So here I was, a speaker last Sunday, (we are back up speakers every week :) we bless the Sacrament, we teach classes and I was asked about what topic to assign a member for their talk next week. So, in short you could say I LOVE IT here and love the members. They are the best. I'm thankful for the opportunity the Lord has given me and hope I can accomplish what the Lord expects of me and also help others reach their full potential as sons and daughters of God. Please keep them in your prayers :) And also keep in your prayers to have missionary experiences everyday so that you can be used as an instrument in God's hands and help scattered Israel find their home. I love all of you. I know that our prayers are always answered and that God the Eternal Father and His son Jesus Christ live and love each one of us!:)

Eler Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

Last week at the temple. Shout out to Elder Polotu that sent this!

​

What the bundok?

So this has been my first area in Quirino area, and the "city" I thought I was moving to turns out to be just a mountain!! haha we are the only one in the whole city zone that has ABSOLUTELY NO CITY AT ALL!! It's awesome :) Anyways, it's only been one week and I can say that I already LOVE the people so much. They have a very special place in my heart :) Our area also is basically "squatters" as they are called, which is just houses built on houses, so there are tons of people living in a pretty small place. 

Our district is super amazing!! We have 4 Sisters and 4 Elders and it's a super happy district!! I've been able already to interview 2 children of God for baptism this past week. I was able to see and hear how the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ has touched them personally and changed their lives as they were able to come to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church here on the earth. I'm thankful for that and for the many things that have already happened this transfer. 

As I look back on how TIME HAS FLOWN BY so incredibly fast, I feel so blessed to be sitting down in the humble homes of my brothers and sisters here, eating their food, learning their culture and how willingly they have accepted me here. I didn't think I could be able to grow so close to a people that were so foriegn to me just 16 months ago.

I love the Lord, I love the Philippines and I know the church is true. It just IS! I can't fully explain my experiences but as I see how I and the investigators have changed by abiding to the precepts of the Gospel, I know we have come closer to Christ than by any other way. 

NXT WEEK I WILL HAVE PICTURES :)

Elder Cody Aguiar

Philippines Quezon City Mission

I met this guy, Brother Zebe, (He's from Vegas too, small world) outside the temple earlier today.  He and his wife decided to attend the temple as well, here in Manila