Monday -
So anyways, the only thing that happened last Monday that I didn't put in the last email is that fact that we went to Pizza Hut in the mall which was awesome.
Tuesday -
We didn't really do much on Tuesday in all honesty. We woke up, exercised, ate breakfast, daily planned, and started studying like usual. Unfortunately, after we started our personally study we received a phone call from Elder Reamon asking why were weren't at the church for district council. Because we were trying to make sure that we started our morning schedule perfectly on time we actually failed to remember that we always have our district council on Tuesday. It also meant that our daily planning was also messed up since we didn't take district council into account. Anyways, that was pretty much the start of the day and in the afternoon we ended up talking to the Tumamao family. There's a member named Jefferey Tumamao and he's going on a mission to Ghana in a couple months and we were at his house and shared a short message to his sister that's a recent convert. We also tried to get to know their parents better because the dad is less active and the mom is not a member and we are interested in teaching her. Luckily, we were able to schedule a lesson to return to her on Thursday.
Wednesday -
The schedule for Wednesday was also a little weird and out of place. In the morning we did pretty typical planning once again, but during personal study the plumbers we requested came to our house. Because our water pressure has been really annoying we asked our landlord to help get it fixed. The plumbers showed up and were there all morning. They didn't really end up doing anything to increase our water pressure but they did change the rusty faucets which made it so more water could come out so we now have slightly more water. It's not great pressure but better than it previously was.
Later in the day we went out and taught a lesson to a recent convert named Jamaica. It was a cool lesson and we were able to teach her in depth about the gift of the Holy Ghost which she apparently didn't previously understand. As we talked about it and described what it should feel like she said "Does it feel like there's a light inside you?" And we said "Yes, it feels different for everyone but you should feel a sense of comfort and peace" and she said "Okay because that's what I feel right now." It was a really cool experience because we went to teach her thinking that our lesson would probably be a simple review, but it was an awesome opportunity to explain the gift of the Holy Ghost that she has access to as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. It also is a very key part to the baptismal covenant which is good that she now understands a little more. If she's worthy she can have the companionship, help, guidance and comfort of "ang banal na espiritu ng Diyos" constantly in her life. That is God's promise to us in the baptismal covenant, and really is one of the greatest gifts we can receive from God here in mortality. He will tell us all things that we should do if we simply seek for guidance ( 2 Nephi 32:5).
Even later that night we ate at the home of the Valedez family. It was weird because they are a Filipino family that lives in California but are staying here for one year in the Philippines because the father needs to keep watch over his construction business. They wanted us four elders to share our spiritual thought in English and it seemed super weird. I kind of didn't know what to say or how to say it very well, but it was good. Now I'm not saying I'm a master at Tagalog, I'm far from it actually", but I can say it was very weird to try and teach in English and I'm very thankful for the opportunity to serve and teach in Tagalog.
Thursday -
In the morning Elder Kartchner the senior missionary actually came to our house to do some work in the bathroom. We told him that we got a little more water pressure and he wanted to come give us a new shower head to see if it would be enough pressure to work. He also gave us a bidet, neither of which have enough pressure to function completely like they should, but they're kind of nice to have I guess.
In the afternoon we taught a the first lesson about the restoration to the Tumamao family. We taught Jefferey's mom and the spirit was VERY strong during the entire lesson. Previously Jefferey's mom had never been taught by the missionaries and always avoided it but we ended up being the first one to teach her. The whole time the spirit super powerful. I could feel it the whole time. The lesson seemed to be going well but at the end we invited Nanay Tumamao to to pray to know if our message was true and she simply would not accept the invitation to pray alone. Finally, after a while of convincing her to pray, she agreed to "try". After the lesson I talked to Elder Morely about it and he said that Nanay Tumamao's daughter, Jackie ( a recent convert), when she was being taught, was actually very hesitant to pray to know if she should be baptized before her baptism because, as she would later say, she already, knew it was true. Elder Morely and I both think that Nanay Tumamao might just be scared to find the truth because she kind of already know's it's true, which is kind of a reasonable fear. Change is sometimes scary, and recognizing that what you've been taught your whole life might not be correct isn't easy either and it will become even harder to deny the message if she receive's an answer directly from the spirit through prayer. Now, we just hope that she really does pray about it.
Friday -
We did weekly planning, finding, and taught a lesson to a long time member. We also taught a lesson to the Paguirigan family. We've been debating whether to drop them or not. Apparently they've been taught for a very long time and never seem to progress or follow through with commitments. It's a very difficult decision though because every time we go to try and teach them a "final" lesson before dropping them the lesson always seems to go pretty well.
We then headed back to our apartment once we finished our dinner appointment we had had with the other two elders in our district. While we were preparing for bed We then got a phone call from a member of the YSA. It was very concerning. The member said that the Elder Reamon (our district leader who we see all the time because they're apartment is actually in our proselyting area) got injured. We found out that he and Elder Etcheverry were walking on the road and he got hit by a drunk kurong-kurong (motorcyle with an open sidecar) driver. He was rushed to the hospital with a broken leg and that's all the information we really got.
Saturday-
In the morning we headed to the hospital and brought Elder Reamon some donuts from Seven Eleven (that was the first time I've seen a Seven Eleven here in the Philippines). It turns out that from the accident Elder Reamon was thrown about 10 feet backwards and broke both his tibia and fibula in his left leg. He's very lucky though because other than a few scratches and his broken leg, he was virtually unscathed. The doctors were very surprised that he wasn't more highly injured and say that in most situations like this the victim usually hits their head on the pavement and becomes severely injured. The whole day we mostly stayed in the hospital helping Elder Reamon and Etcheverry. Because they were a companionship Elder Etcheverry couldn't leave so we went on splits to give Elder Etcheverry a break and also get more things from their apartment for them. We also helped occasionally lift Elder Reamon around and we also helped support his leg and things since the hospital itself wasn't very helpful.
Later both President and Sister Peterson came and checked on Elder Reamon. We also went and got McDonalds with them for all four of us elder.
Sunday -
My companion and I went to church and explained individually to what seemed like a 50 members what happened to Elder Reamon. After church we headed back to the apartment. to help the other two elders more. We helped for a while, took a break and did some quick proselyting and then returned again. Anyways, Elder Reamon's parents came from Manila to come get him, and then he was shipped home to Manila in an ambulance in order to get surgery on his leg. Apparently there's no orthopedic surgeon here in our mission so he had to go all the way back to his home. Now Elder Etcheverry, Elder Morely, and I are a three member companionship and now have to figure out where all three of us are staying and how to manage our areas.
Pictures -
in the hospital, x-rays, our new companionship in the computer shop, Pizza Hut, the water in our apartment, a couple pictures from proselyting
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