Is This. . .Heaven?

Dear Family,

In my humble opinion, San Luis is the most beautiful of the four areas here in the Baler Zone. About 50 feet from the house there is a river flowing, eventually to the ocean, and it is so clear and ferns and trees and flowers grow on the banks, year round. There is no wet/dry season here. It's rained for the past 30 hours without stopping, but other days are sunny. Our water at the house is free, and flows without having to be pumped. We experienced a 24 hour power outage this past week and we still had water. But we have to pump it manually in order to push it through the filter. But back to the area. We're the closest area to the Sierra Madres, they are up-and-down jagged but covered with thick undergrowth. We walk through coconut farms every day and I wonder at the swarming fire-flies at night. Crickets chirp at night but it's a different kind of cricket than I've ever heard. This place is paradise.
But the work is even more beautiful! This past week has been one blessing after another. We've hit the pavement finding and everyone we've talked to has been so nice, we've been let in again and again to teach, and when we come back, most have welcomed us in again! We've been making daily contact to many of them. One of them is a barber -- Antonio. He's in his 30's but hasn't married yet. He occasionally cuts the missionary's hair. We stopped by around his closing time, talked for a moment, introduced ourselves, and asked if we could teach when he was ready to close. He gave us a seat right away, and we had a great lesson. The next day, he had a lot of customers, but said he had some questions for us, and that we could come back the next day. He handed us a paper with 10 questions on it. The first was "Why haven't I received an answer that Joseph Smith is a prophet yet?" And the ones that followed were similar to "Does one need to become a specific religion to be completely saved?" and "Isn't one baptism all that's required as long as they believe on Christ?" Elder Casilac and I prayed, studied, and talked about that list of questions for the next 24 hours. When we stopped by the next day, the barber shop was closed. We had 24 more hours to worry. Then we saw him again, and got to start talking with him. We got off to a great start, but customers came and we had to cut the lesson a little short. The next day, we made sure there wasn't going to be any distractions before we started. We found as we talked with him that he'd read the entire lesson one pamphlet, and looked up the verses in the back. We talked about his questions, teaching a little about baptism but our plan was the Book of Mormon. I love teaching with Elder Casilac, we've been able to just bounce back and forth and we've been working on asking questions that get the investigators into the conversation. It's been a completely different teaching atmosphere with Elder Casilac. The spirit was there the whole time, very strong. It was clear that Antonio, even with all his questions, was not trying to debate, he was really looking for the truth. After the lesson he accepted an invitation to be baptized, keep researching, and said he was willing to attend church. We've got him started texting a member friend of his that is working in Tarlac. I left my Bible with him so he could look up verses in the Old Testament, and now he has enough reading assignments to last him a long time! He said the closing prayer and we noticed that at the beginning he mentioned the "Father" not like his first prayer a week ago that started with "Lord" and during the prayer he asked if this was right and that he was looking for the truth. We were surprised that his prayer had changed without us saying anything, and he mentioned that he'd picked it up from his reading in the lesson one pamphlet. Great start! Without the Spirit and the truth and Heavenly Father's help, we could do nothing to convince someone like Brother Antonio. I felt that very strongly. This work would be impossible without the Spirit going before and after us. Even with our shortcomings, he'll help us as long as we recognize the Lord's hand and thank Him. That's what I've been thinking about this past week. A family, the Digno family, is making progress and we look forward to seeing them at church in the coming weeks. A priest aged young man, Kim, will be the first in his family to be baptized on the 22nd. We've been meeting with his mother -- his father doesn't live with them any more. We managed 28 lessons this past week and we were running around, sometimes we have to walk a little ways. I've never been happier and never fallen in love with investigators and members so easily. I wait to see them, and just want to spend time with them. I love being out and about! And Elder Casilac is my favorite companion. Along with all the other favorites. We talk about how we felt after many appointments and we talk about everything and anything and this companionship has been different than any other. It's just the best! It doesn't get any better than this. I love the work -- love ya'll too!
Love, Elder Peck