Week #37

June 29, 2015

Hello!

Well sadly this has been another week of very little work because my companion got sick. This area is just a curse!!! But we did have a lot of success despite the little amount of work! Sunday's are literally the best in the mission field because we get to see the reward for all our hard work! Yesterday we had 8 investigators attend church!! Goes to show that they actually do have faith and aren't going to church just cause we always bug them because we didn't really get that much time to bug them this past week! But anyways that was awesome!!! 

Even with the few lessons we taught they were very, very good. We have one family that is great! They read the Book of Mormon every day and have prayed and received an answer that it is true! They are totally converted already and it's only been like 2 or 3 weeks. They are a family of 4! The mother and father (thankfully married already!) and their daughter and her boyfriend (sadly not married but we are working at that!!). They are so funny because a lot of the time when we read a scripture in the Book of Mormon the tatay will just say "tinuod hini" or "this is true". I love it!! So this past week we had the opportunity to teach them lesson 3 or The Gospel of Jesus Christ! And it was an amazing lesson! The spirit is so strong every time we teach them and I can just feel it testifying to them that this is true. Sadly though we had to give them some bad news. The nanay asked us if they could all be baptized and we had to tell her that her daughter and her "husband" can't because they aren't married. But they committed right then and there to get a marriage plan going so that's awesome! The tatay also said something pretty funny! He said "kinahanglan kamo magkasal kay kon diri kamo makasal diri kamo masunod ni JesuKristo" or "you need to get married because if you don't get married you aren't following Jesus Christ". I love the guy! Also we had the opportunity to teach a recent convert last night and it was a very good convert. She is the mother of 4 kids and her husband is a member but he finally came to church yesterday!! Basta, we got to teach them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is the only way to return back to our Father in Heaven! We used Mosiah 4 (there's a reading assignment for you!). It was a very good lesson and they even had one of their Catholic friends over so it was cool cause he was totally listening and the spirit was really strong!

So Waray Waray is getting way easier!! It's so much easier to convey my feeling and say what the spirit is telling me now in every lesson! Of course since I am american my Waray Waray is a little blunt and to the point but that's ok cause they totally get it. Besides, the spirit is the real teacher anyways.

My spiritual thought this week comes from a book my mom sent me titled "30 Ways to Love Your Mission". The chapter I want to concentrate on this week is called "be responsible". Pretty much the entire focus of this chapter is that we need to take responsibility for everything that happens to us. If we are always blaming someone or something for all the bad things, we sacrifice that moment to learn and grow. If we take responsibility we can learn and do better the next time thus increasing in knowledge and wisdom because knowledge is nothing without wisdom.

Well that's it for this week! Next week is transfers so I won't be emailing until Tuesday or Wednesday. It depends. Basta, thank you for all your love and support!

Elder Child 

Pic 1-2: a dessert they make in the Philippines.  It's ice cream inside of a coconut.  They made it for a district lunch.

Pic 3-6: they went to a resort on the coast for a district activity