Back in 12 week program!

Hey guys! So I won't write a lot today. I'm in a huge hurry to get things for the apartment before I head down to Laoag for a few days to get trained on how to train a new missionary! I'm excited to be a trainer but when I was praying last night the spirit told me my faith will be tested this transfer. I don't know exactly what that means, but I hope and pray my faith will be able to be strong enough to make it through and help my new companion. But, I'm excited for it. Just help me out a little bit if I'm struggling of course :) It won't be easy this transfer or two I'm sure. 

I won't be too long on here but basically the story is that I don't want to go home haha. Saying goodbye to Elder Kabiling was hard to do but I apologized to him and he asked why, I just told him "because you're going home" Ha! I of course miss you guys a lot but I really never want to go home. Life here as a missionary is just too much fun and just so awesome. Living in the Philippines has it's challenges but I never want to leave. Ever. This place is a place that was prepared for me to go since before my mission call even came. I know I am supposed to be here. It makes me sad knowing it's only for 2 years. I told my friend if I could be a missionary for my entire life and live in the Philippines my entire life, I would die the happiest man ever. It's true. I don't want to leave. I don't want to ever think about leaving. I hate even thinking that the day will come that I'm going to go back to the United States. Like I said, I love all of you a lot and miss you dearly but there's no better place in the entire world than the Philippines. I hope my family can come out and see why I love it so much when I go home. 

I'm sorry for the short email this week, but I'm in love with my life here. I'm sure I'm going to need that testimony later in my transfer. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm going to have a lot of really hard times coming up ahead of me. Please help me out if I'm having trouble! I love you guys a lot! Please keep me in your prayers and I'll do the same of course :)

I love you all a lot! Sorry if it sounds like I'm in a hurry, but I need to prepare a lot of things before I bus off to Laoag for 6 hours tomorrow at 4 AM. Fun stuff right!? Haha I love you guys!! I love you all a lot! I miss you guys!! 

I love you!

Love,

Elder Oslund

Here are some pictures that give a little feel for what life is like for Elder Oslund...what it looks like where he teaches, goes to church, and the happiness he feels!

Hello from Aparri!

Hey guys!

Everything is great here now! Some tough experiences to get through, to learn and to get better. Moving up to Cagayan was like another culture shock for me all over again but it's a fun place to serve!

Basically my area now is one stretch of highway with houses on both sides and we proselyte there everyday so I've seen the same people each day for the last few weeks which has it's ups and downs but it feels like a small town here where everyone knows everyone and they really love seeing the missionaries here. It's a branch in a meetinghouse in Magapit, the meetinghouse is old and worn down, there's no air conditioning and the fans only blow hot air during Sunday service so needless to say I'm about to die during some of these hot summer days here. It's full of all new challenges but it's fun :) We haven't had a single second of work here without a member helping us so it's been a blast to have that kind of help here and share some experiences with the people here.

Like I said it's different, the food, the area, everything. It's very country here. It's very green, everyone is a farmer here no matter what, so we end up eating some pretty nice fruits and what not, but we eat other things. The other day Brother Bhong bought us Chicken heads, chicken feet, grilled chicken blood, intestines, Pork flesh, and I cooked a dog after it got ran over by a car also. I didn't eat it though. So yeah, it's pretty crazy here. A whole new culture shock but it was an easier adjustment this time :)

Our area is mostly walking but since we're in the middle of nowhere we ride on the back of flat bed trucks a lot that are driving along the highway. Elder Kabiling says they pull over especially when they see an American so I guess that's a plus for us here :) It's been a pretty crazy new adventure here for sure but the work is all the same :)

We're teaching a part member family and reactivating them right now and the 8 year old Precious will be baptized on June 27th here. It has been a lot of fun receiving the revelations for them :) They've changed a lot since I first arrived. The main concern is how hard it is to be a member in our church. One thing that I've learned, no matter where you live in the world, it is NEVER easy to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ because it was Never easy for Him. Elder Holland said that we need to pay a small amount of the price that has been paid for us. This mission has helped me to understand about 1/10000000 of what the Savior had to go through, and I still have trouble getting through at times. I'm grateful for the Savior in my life!!

The members here are so much fun to get a long with. Everyone here is easy going and just encourages you to work hard and have fun, and it's just so much nicer when you're with a companion and an apartment who enjoys doing the same. I love working hard, I love being obedient, and I love being a missionary here in the Philippines despite some of the hardships, but you experience hardships no matter what mission you're assigned in. I'm grateful to be able to experience them here in the |Philippines though. I have never loved people so much in my life, but I have never been tested to such an extreme in my entire life as well. Each day has been worth it, each day I've grown and I've gotten better. And I hope that each day from here on out for the rest of my mission will continually be a learning experience. 

I love you guys so much and thank you all for your emails! Sorry I wasn't able to respond last week but everything is great here now. I love it in Magapit! I love you guys! I'll talk to you again next week :)

Love,

Elder Oslund

Missionary work, Lakers Jerseys, Just another week in Vigan :)

Hey everyone! 

So if you're wondering what the heading means it means that I'm getting everyone in Vigan 1 and 2 to start getting Laker jerseys so we can play basketball at night. The young men here are TOO much fun. Every night they call us and play basketball with us after work and we just play and make fun of each other here and we're just having A LOT of fun. You will not have so much fun in your life than with the members here in Vigan 1 and 2. We're spoiled with their love here so much! The basketball court we play on is at the church but we play on a dirt one to practice in the mornings for our workout time right behind our house. Some of the times we have here is too much fun with everyone in Vigan. I'm too blessed to be serving here. The Lakers jerseys are making their appearance here for sure :) Haha

This week was so much fun. It was a little hard at first just with the differences in our apartment but we were able to settle it a little bit better and end up developing such a fun and loving apartment with me, Elder Hoopes, Elder Rodrigo and Elder Leifi. We still have our differences sometimes but it's always fun. this work has always been fun for me since Laoag :) But it's just getting better and better now :)

Some of the things that we really need to improve on this next week is just finding and teaching new investigators. We haven't had supplies in our apartment (Book of Mormons, pamphlets, etc) for about 3 weeks here and the work hasn't been as fun without it because we've kind of been teaching empty handed lately and haven't been able to use ALL of our resources but we have a lot now so sacrament attendance and baptismal dates will go up again which will be nice to see :) The work has been suffering a little bit here because of the lack of supplies we have but it's all okay now :)

Elder Rodrigo and myself have very different proselyting attitudes. I like to find and teach new and progressing investigators and he usually leaves a good reading assignment for them and I've liked proselyting like that so far especially in Vigan since there's not too many members in our area and our area is big, but he mainly likes to go to less active houses and teach them. Both are good and are needed but we haven't been having the amount of lessons recently because of it and it feels like we are just kind of not helping anyone progress which is hard but we'll find a good way to proselyte this week for sure :)

Like I said, we have differences, but we become better because of it :) I'm excited to become a trainer after this cycle though. Elder Hoopes will be training here too so it'll be A LOT of fun to train with him here. Hopefully everything will go better and we'll be able to work better because of it :) I'm excited for it for sure :)

Anyways. nothing too much to report on on this side of the world. It was a good week of missionary work and a fun week with the Elders here again in Vigan. I hope to have more spiritual moments this next week than what we had this week but we'll be working hard for them for sure :)

Anyways I love you guys and I hope you have a good week this week as always :) I'll talk to everyone next week again :) Love you guys!

Love,

Elder Oslund

Seemed like we just talked :)

Hey guys so I'll keep this short since we literally just got off Skype with each other but I just wanted to write so everyone can have an email too :)

Skyping was amazing today! It was great to see and talk to everyone again since Christmas :) I'm so happy to see that everyone is still doing great! I love you guys!!

As for me, my new companion is Elder Rodrigo from Davao, Philippines (Mindinao Region) It was a hard adjustment for the first couple of days but we got everything working yesterday and I'm just loving it now :) I can't be anymore blessed than to be here in Vigan right now with Elder Rodrigo, Elder Hoopes, and Elder Lefi. Each day just keeps getting better and better.

My Tagalog keeps improving it seems like everyday. At first it was hard because of my American accent kind of but I wouldn't say that I'm a "native" speaker now but I would say I'm about 75% of the way there. :) But let's just say that the language is no longer a barrier for me anymore which is so, so, so much nicer.

It was awesome to Skype on Mother's day though. Just being on my mission makes me so much more grateful for my family and especially for my parents. I know that families can be together forever through God's eternal plan for us :) That knowledge brings me so much peace in the troubling times that we sometimes have to go through in each one of our lives :)

Everything here is going great as always though. We're just getting the work started here in Vigan and hopefully we'll have Brother Bernandino baptized at the end of the month. He made some amazing changes in his life to quit drinking alcohol, quit smoking and drinking tea, and he's taking his first steps towards his baptismal date now at the end of the month :) I really hope that he'll continue to have these experiences and continue changing. I really hope and pray Elder Rodrigo can leave his mission with an amazing miracle in the lives of our investigators :)

We're helping a less-active family right now get a job so that they can come back to church and be sealed together in the temple as a family at the end of the year. They live so far away from us and the church and they are trying to support their kid while both being unemployed so they don't have enough money to really support all of their needs nonetheless enough money to go to church and back.  The scripture that comes to mind when I think of them is 3 Nephi 13:31-33. How great are His promises to those who keep His commandments first? :) Our Heavenly Father truly does know our needs before we even ask Him. He's anxious and willing to help us and I'm so grateful for the blessings we receive if we follow and keep ALL of His commandments :)

Anyways, it was a simple one today because of the Skype this morning but I just want to say I love you all again and I'm happy to see everyone and talk to everyone again :) I'll talk to you again on Christmas! :)) Love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Oslund

Hello Ulit from Laoag :)

Hey everyone!!!

So I'm writing this email from Laoag right now since Elder Gamboa is going home now. The bus ride was horrible but we made it haha :) 

It's really, really fun being back in Laoag right now. We get to work in my first area and I guess it's pretty fun to see my old "stomping grounds". Laoag is a great place :) 

Everything is going great here though, Elder Gamboa and Elder Angolluan just had their President interviews and we get to work with Elder Angolluan again tonight which will be a really really fun time. Then I go back to Vigan tomorrow morning when I pick up my new companion from the GMW here in Centro. My new companion's name is Elder Rodrigo and he's the District leader in our district now and he'll be going home after this transfer as well. All I know is that he's Filipino haha. Elder Risenmay is still up in Santa Ana but now he's up there with my co-batch mate Elder Kelley. They're way too lucky! But when I was in the office today President Barrientos pulled me in and told me to keep Elder Rodrigo working this transfer so he can end his mission with a bang and go home having a memorable mission experience. Then he said that I'll be training and become the new district leader once this transfer is over which is pretty cool I guess! Something to look forward to I guess :)

It's funny to look back at it now and see how worried I was to have a Filipino companion for the first time and all the differences we needed to get over, but now I would love to have a lot of Filipino companions through out my mission. They're a lot of fun I'm telling you!

Our new apartment mate with Elder Hoopes is Elder Leifi who's also going home this transfer but we met a lot of times before this. He's a really, really built Samoan who's planning on playing some college football after this which is pretty cool. It's going to be a good transfer this next transfer :)

As for this week, it was A LOT of fun again! We got bikes in our area so it's nice to not have to pay for pamensahe (travel funds) everywhere, but now we bike to the mountains and back so it can take it's toll on you  in the summer heat but it's still fun :) Elder Gamboa went over a bump to finish up his mission yesterday and his front wheel completely fell off and he ate it pretty hard which wasn't fun at the time but now looking back on it it's pretty hilarious haha!

Rolando Baro is doing great still! He has a job at the Pepsi plant and is employed by a really strong member there but we aren't able to visit or teach him until Sunday afternoon but he's still excited as ever about the church and the gospel :) He was also able to get the Aaronic Priesthood conferred upon him yesterday which was really special and HOPEFULLY he'll be able to get a church calling soon. We'll be praying for him for sure through out these next few weeks :) Sister Janalyn took the kids and moved down South for her work yesterday morning which sounds devastating to us Americans but it's pretty normal here to move away for a long period of time to support your family. Keep praying for them to remain strong together though :) Everything will be great in the end :)

Things are getting a little weird in our apartment though just between us and the other Elders. There seems to be A LOT of murmuring going on which is really hindering our relationship in the apartment. Elder Gamboa just advised me with what President Barrientos advised him with when he moved into the apartment, just serve, love and be patient with yourself and the others. It's sad to have that in your apartment as missionaries, but it happens and you just need to work it out between each other. Hopefully everything goes better soon though :)

Everything else is going pretty great though!! I'm still loving it here in Laoag and in Vigan of course haha. I'm excited to keep working this transfer and hopefully we'll have just as much success this transfer as we did the last transfer. It's been a lot of fun lately though! I love it here! :)

Anyways, I love you all and I hope this week is great for everyone :) Love you guys!!!

Love,

Elder Oslund

Baro's Baptism

Hello everyone! :)

So this last week was of course better than the last :) Things just keep getting better and better here! Yesterday we were able to baptize the Baro family and that was one of the greatest days I could have asked for :) There was such an amazing spirit the entire day from the start of their baptism, through their confirmation and just all throughout the day :) It was really, really amazing to see them after their baptism! You can just see the joy from Brother Rolando throughout the day. After his own baptism he grabbed a mop and just mopped the church and after sacrament and our classes he stacked all the chairs and we tried to insist that we would take care of it but he just wanted to help out in any way possible. You can tell that they started a new life after that baptism as disciples of Christ :) We later taught them as recent converts about missionary work and they were super happy to tell us a story of telling their neighbors why they decided to become Mormon. It was one of the most memorable days in their lives for sure :) It was amazing. I asked later on what they felt after their baptism and they just simply said that there was "no doubt" that this church is the true church of Christ restored again through Joseph Smith. They shared a one sentence long testimony of the church after their baptism but you could tell that they knew that this was the best thing that they could have done for their entire family :) It was very, very amazing to find and teach them with Elder Gamboa this transfer :) But now there's an even greater responsibility on us to make sure they stay strong in the church especially with the trials of Sister Janalyn having to leave her family again to go work down South. It's going to be hard for them but the gospel will always help their family no matter where they are :) Your prayers would be amazing for them right now!!! They need them for sure :) 

Everything else this week was great :) Elder Gamboa and I are having a BLAST together! It's been so much fun these last few weeks of the transfer with him. I can't even begin to tell you the fun and the things we've been able to do recently with him but it's all been so so so much fun :) And it makes it even better just being able to be here and being able to do the Lord's work while still having fun at the same time. So yes...you can have fun while still living and spreading the gospel :) That is very, very possible haha. But as far as how much our relationship has grown, we've shared pretty much our life story with each other and depending on how soon after the mission he gets married, we'll probably meet up again either in the states or in the Philippines and just have some fun with some of the people we've met while on the mission. I've been able to meet some really, really great people so far and it's just been some of the best times of my life being able to be here with all of them. It's been a blast :)  It'll only get better as time goes on as well :)

This week we're just going to focus more on our areas where there's farms and corn fields because that area hasn't been proselyted in for a few years so there's A LOT of potential in our area. We've found 120 new investigators in this transfer alone from those areas hahaha! It's crazy I swear. We're really, really busy right now just finding and teaching and baptizing. It's been a blast thus far. I can't wait to keep it going :)

I love you guys and I'm excited to hear back from everyone next week! :) I love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Oslund

Too happy!! :)

Hey everyone!!!

So this past week was one of the best weeks of my life!! I love Elder Gamboa so much! I've never had so much fun in my life! It all just came down to accepting each other's differences and loving each other no matter what. And I have never, ever, ever loved someone as much as I love my companion and the people whom we serve here in Vigan. It was one of the best weeks ever! 

Being in an area with a companion that you love and an area you never want to leave from is the most amazing feeling. If I could, I would live in Vigan forever. This place has it all! I've never had so much fun in my life than being in Vigan! Being able to go to the mountains, go to the beach (on P-Days :)) and just being able to teach all the people here has been the best experience I've ever had in my life. :) I love it so, so, so much here :)

This past week was really simple but really fun. Despite all the fun we've been having, we're getting A LOT of work done. We had 40 lessons this week (The most since I've been on my mission) and we have the Baro baptism coming up this next Sunday and their confirmation the following Sunday!! It couldn't be any more amazing than what it is right now in our area :) We have the best area in the mission hands down :)

It was so much fun to teach lessons this week and especially to the Baro family to help them get ready for their baptism! It's going to be the happiest day of my life when we get to see them in their baptismal clothes with their two kids in their arms after realizing what they have been going through as a family. The most amazing thing to see as a missionary is to see how people change their lives after gaining a knowledge of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. And it has been one of the purest joys of my entire life to see how the Baro's have changed and not only them, but myself as well. I can say now that I am TRULY converted to Christ and His gospel :) It's been the greatest joy I've ever received since being in the Philippines :) I've never, ever, ever loved people as much as the people that I've been around these last few weeks. The Lord has blessed my life in degrees unimaginable and I feel that this missionary service is a small token that I'm paying for the love and the blessings He has constantly showered upon me. I cannot possibly thank Him enough! :) 

Anyways, I love you guys so much and I hope this email helps people understand how much I love I love my calling as a missionary here in the Laoag mission! It's been amazing and it will only continue to get better! :)

I love you guys!!! 

Love,

Elder Oslund