Elder Drake McFall: Week 90 – Heritage Festival!

This week was a blast! We had our emails today because this last weekend we had Heritage Festival, which is the biggest festival of its kind in all of North America! That is what they say at least. I believe them though because there were so many people there! It really was crazy! We were able to volunteer there at the Filipino Tent serving food. Oh, this festival is pretty much just countries from the entire world, having foods and different things that you can buy. So back to it, we were in the Filipino tent just serving food like crazy! It was definitely a great time and a great way to talk to tons of people and get the church's name out there. I think that is the biggest thing, helping others to just see the Church in action and helping them on their way to opening their heart and mind to the message. I was talking with the mission president at lunch and we got talking about this festival that we were all at and how there are so many good people around us, but how can we help them to have that desire to hear our message? We were with the mission president at lunch because we had a special time to go to the temple as just the Tagalog missionaries.

We had a great experience this last Sunday! We were up at one of the wards where Josephine goes to church but there is another one of the Filipino members there and she brought two friends to church! We were able to have them stay for the first two hours, which was great and then change around our schedule and see them later on again at the member’s house that we usually teach Josephine at every Sunday. Out of the two, one is really interested and we started teaching her that night and she is excited to read from the Book of Mormon! Miracles without a doubt! When we have the members actively involved with the work, I am confident we will see miracles take place consistently. The members are the key to missionary success. This lady's name is Ruby, and she is seriously so prepared for the gospel. We are hoping to then have Ruby's and Josephine's baptisms on the same day in September! I really am loving serving here right now. I don't want this to end. Just seeing others starting to take the gospel into their lives and seeing the changes it makes and will make is so empowering.

We helped a bunch of people move this last week and the one that we helped the previous week, Chris, stopped by this week and since we helped him and chatted with him a ton he then went on to look all into the church and why we do things the way we do as missionaries. He was talking all about how he was interested and wanted to chat more. We are hoping to go out to supper with him this week as we had to reschedule last week. Such a good guy. I will have to do my best to stay in touch with him! Just those simple acts of service, just doing the right thing honestly, changes people's perspectives and softens hearts to our message. Got to always follow that perfect example of Christ.

Chatted with our new friend Eric this week and had a real nice discussion. He got talking about the day that we met and he was just like, you know usually I just kinda brush people off, I mean I am comfortable, but when you two came to my door that day and we talked it was different. I don't know what it was, but it was different. I wanted to talk more. I mean that day he went back into his house and then we just kept on going. He came back out hoping we would be close, and sure enough that exact time we walked back around the corner and talked more. I know without a doubt that God is at work in his life and doing all He can to gather him in. I know that God is perfectly loving and knows the hearts and minds of His children, that is the beauty of this work. So long as we are instruments we are able to do all things. We need to always live that way so we can go on His errand.

"Nevertheless, ye are blessed , for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you. " This scripture from D&C 62:3 has really stuck out to me this week. I am just so grateful to be a missionary at this time and to have that authority to bear testimony of my Savior being His authorized representative. Hit the 21 months, got to give it everything the next 3!

Thanks for everything. I'll talk to you soon!

Love, Elder McFall

Heritage Festival