Cauayan Philippines' Mission : Week of July 3, 2017

Dear friends and family,

The last few weeks have held numerous blessings, testimony strengthening experiences, and now some hard goodbyes that I am enthused to share with you.

To start out, I would like to talk a little bit about our zone conferences last week and a chance I had to receive some much needed revelation. A couple of Saturdays ago, President Hiatt, Sister Hiatt, Elder Olsen and I met together to discuss the needs of the mission and thus what we should teach at the then upcoming zone conferences. After much conversing, President Hiatt expressed his strong desire that missionaries within the mission adopt a different method of contacting, which includes quickly referring to the message of the Restoration (Joseph Smith's first vision). And, by quickly President said he wanted our contacts to be about a minute long

To be honest, I had never tried contacting in such a short amount of time, as I had come accustomed to asking inspired questions (such as, "Have you ever wondered why...?) and felt conflicted knowing that I could not introduce myself, ask an inspired question, and connect to the Restoration in one minute. After the meeting, Elder Olsen and I began practicing and timing ourselves, and I could just not make out what I wanted to say in just a minute! Feeling a bit frustrated, the only thing I could think to do was to kneel down in prayer and ask for help.

In the prayer I offered, I first asked for help in seeing President Hiatt's vision for the mission and then told Him my dilemma. It was right after I sat down following that prayer that an idea came to my mind, which was to not to take the time to introduce myself until after the initial contact. Rather, I was instructed to just walk up to people, ask an inspired question and offer to answer it through a message (knowing the answer because of the Restoration).

I tried it with Elder Olsen, and then the Spirit prompted me to go practice the new method at the bus terminal adjacent to the mission office. Elder Olsen and I talked to people hurriedly walking from place to place and to be honest felt some apprehension in doing so. However, the results though were superb. In total, we talked to ten people within ten minutes and received 8 referrals that we were able to send to missionaries in other areas! It was the most successful contacting method I had ever tried in my mission, and I knew it wasn't from me.

To say it short, we took the revelation we received and went about teaching it the next week to all of the missionaries in our zone conferences. And, due to the help we received we feel it was very successful. As I recount what happened, I cannot help but feel immense gratitude in my heart for how immediately the Lord answered my prayer both helping Elder Olsen and I and the mission. At this point, the Lord has made it very apparent to me that He indeed "will show unto [us] all the things [we] should do" if we are just humble enough to ask Him (2 Nephi 32:5). I know now more than ever that His infinite wisdom can be our blessing if we but ask and live worthy of it.

I also have some news. As many of you may know, transfer day is this upcoming week and my companion of over six months is going home. In preparation for his departure, President Hiatt called a new assistant named Elder Uy. I already know him pretty well as he has lived with me the past month (he was assigned in my previous branch here in Cauayan) and things are going pretty well thus far. Elder Uy is a wonderful teacher with a humble spirit that I feel will bless the mission much. I must admit though that I feel a little torn knowing that Elder Olsen is going home. Honestly, the hardest thing I have found about serving a mission is saying goodbye to so many people. I have come to love Elder Olsen as my companion and will miss him in his absence. It makes me a little uncomfortable to be honest that I am the next to go next month. I'm not quite sure how the time has gone by so fast.

Have a wonderful Independence Day!

Love,

Elder Pulley