June 10-16, 2019
Monday -
So we were just enjoying our p-day like usual and ended up eating at this one place called Zark's. As we tried to pay, the worker said that someone had already paid for our meal anonymously. We still have no clue who paid for our food but as you can imagine we were both very thankful.
Tuesday -
I lead our training in our district meeting once again. This time I choose the topic of our 'missionary purposes.' The point of the meeting was to kind of re-focus ourselves on our purpose and how we can apply it in our daily activities through both our teaching and actions. After our meeting, our entire district ate together at this place called Mang Inasal which is basically a restaurant that has a little bit of chicken and unlimited rice. As you can imagine, this is a favorite of the Filipino missionaries.
Once that was finished we continued to the mission office to have our interviews with President Petersen that we have every month and a half. The interview went alright. During the interview I explained the well being of the members of our district and then how the work in our area has been kind of slow despite the effort being put in everyday. Our area honestly has struggled to progress recently. In my last area of Ballesteros we were able to help bring 11 people to the gospel in four cycles but in San Lorenzo we've only been able to help one individual in two and half cycles. President Petersen kind of expressed concern for our area and then explained the numbers that missionaries in other areas are achieving. He really wants us to bump up our numbers and thinks our current ones are low. In all honesty it wasn't very encouraging to see the difference in outcome in other areas despite the seemingly same amount of effort used.
After the interviews I snagged my two packages from the mission office and then we headed back to our area. There was lots of good stuff in the two packages. There was lots of trail mix and there were some Tim Tams (which excited my companion from New Zealand) as well. There were also a few books I was excited to receive. The first one, 'Missionary Special Forces', was kind of cheesy but made some good doctrinal points and scripture references nonetheless. The next one was 'Teachings of Russell M. Nelson' which of course is also good. The most interesting one in all honesty though was the last one. 'The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints' is actually just a different translation of the New Testament. The author, Thomas A. Wayment ( a professor at BYU), translated an old copy of the New Testament from Greek into modern English. It's very intresting to read side-by-side with the King James Version of the Bible. The book also has many references, alternate translations, and explanations of historical context and things. It's been very interesting to read so far and actually has made we want to dive deeper in depth in the New Testament.
After that we went out and did some finding in our area. We talked with lots of people but no one really seemed to want us to share with them.
Wednesday -
We actually managed to find some new people to teach. We found three people and shared a little bit with them after talking to them for a while. Their names are Aldridge, Idhel and Jenelle. The are 13, 17, and 11 years old. Though these people aren't necessarily our target group (our target is families) there's no harm in sharing a message about Jesus Christ with them. It's only positive to share. Our goal is also to get to know their parents as well so the whole family can be involved which has kind of worked so far.
I also finished reading the 'Missionary Special Forces' book.
Thursday -
So Thursday consisted of a lot of studies and things as well. I also started reading a lot of 'Saints: The Standard of Truth' and it's been really cool to learn about the restoration and the early history of the church. The book also doesn't leave out much detail about sensitive things that some might have thought they'd skip over.
Once we finished our studies and such we continued trying some finding in our area called San Pablo. We found this area in the past but Thursday was the first day that we really tried to do some work there. It was okay and we talked to a lot of people but no one seemed super serious about learning.
Friday -
We had our exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I stayed in our area of San Lorenzo while my companion, Elder Doyle, went with Elder Egana to Dingras. Elder Alarin became my companion for the day. It was nice because San Lorenzo was actually one of his previous areas so he was able to show me around to some of the areas that I was not yet familiar with. He showed me a lot of the homes of less active members and we did some OYMs. There's a couple people we found that we'll probably try to return to at a later date. We also went and stopped by the houses of a couple members that Elder Alarin wanted to see again. This was the first time in about a year that he's been in San Lorenzo again. We then ate dinner with the Barruga family and ended the day by talking to the Bulatao family.
Saturday -
We ended our exchanges at about 10:00 am and then headed back to our areas. We also received a text saying that on Tuesday we're going to have apartment cleanliness checks so I used a pretty good amount of time mopping the floors of the apartment and then quickly did some laundry since I was low on clean clothes.
Later in the day we headed back to the Allado family (Aldridge, Idhel, Jenelle) to try and teach them a full lesson. When we got there we talked to Idhel, Aldridge and their mom for a little bit. Despite the fact that we were able to kind of develop our friendships with them a little bit we ended up only teachin Aldridge because Idhel was busy doing school assignments and their mom was busy as well with laundry or something. Though we were only able to teach Aldridge the lesson went well and other kids in the neighborhood sat down and listened as well. We taught them about the restoration and prophets and priesthood. One of the kids who sat in was named Harold Allado (their cousin) and he listened VERY well to our message. He payed more attention to what we were saying than most adults do in lessons (which kind of isn't saying too much since people don't often give very much attention to us). Harold is only 11 but we're excited to hopefully keep teaching him and his family as well.
After we got back to the apartment I also finished reading 'Saints.' I also started 'Our Heritage.'
Sunday -
Other than church, we also did some work and then attended the farewell party of two cousins; Jeffery and Benjie Tumamao who are serving missions. Jeffery is going to Ghana and Benjie to the Philippines Antipolo mission. It's cool to see them leave on their missions because they've previously been pretty helpful fellow shippers in our work. I also read the book of Abraham while people spoke in Ilocano at the pulpit since I can't understand Ilocano.
I also finished reading 'Our Heritage' during studies and started 'Our Search for Happiness.'
Later after the day was winding down a bit I did followups with members of our district since I'm the district leader. The whole district seems to be doing good and not to have huge concerns. I also talk to Laoag 3a (Elder Butler) for a long time out of mere conversational value because since their area is doing good as well.
Note -
So even though the work in our area has not been the easiest lately, I've learned to love studying time even more. Recently I've learned a lot about the history of the church, both modern and ancient, and as I've done my scripture studies I've felt like my relationship with Christ has continued to develop stronger. Something that I've also been focusing on his 'pondering.' Normally I try to ponder while reading scripture but I've been trying even harder recently after reading a quote from a modern day apostle. The quote suggests that pondering is actually a form of prayer. Taking that into consideration has helped me feel like divine answers are more easily accessible and that I am not forgotten. So, being the missionary I am, I invite all of you not only to read the scriptures, not only to study the scriptures, but to ponder them before the Lord and I promise you'll receive more divine insights and direction in your life than you know you needed.
Pictures -
us after district council, Elder Doyle, my packages, the ice in our freezer that continually builds up and floods the apartment, a random water tower we found, the thermometer showing 78 degrees (which felt slightly cold actually), and Elder Alarin and I
No comments:
Post a Comment