Baptism n' Stuff

September 2-8, 2019

So this week we had the baptism of Brother and Sister Reolalas. That's probably the most significant thing that has happened. We've also been fighting our bitter war with our rat roommates. They are proving to be very durable.

Tuesday -

So we had our district council as usual and I taught once again. The sister missionaries weren't there because they had to go to the MLC (mission leadership council) so I recycled a lesson I made for my last district because I didn't want to make a new lesson for only part of my district. Later in the day we taught a lesson to the Reolalas family in order to further their preparation for baptism. Also, our electricity went out for the whole day once again because the infrastructure is great in the Philippines.

Wednesday -

Around ten in the morning we had our apartment checked by the senior sister missionaries. They checked our apartment and they were actually very impressed. Which is awesome because it took me a ton of time an effort to clean the mess made by previous missionaries and rats that no one was willing to clean up. They didn't really have many complaints except for the clutter under our kitchen sink which I then proceeded to clean as well. While doing so, an open container of paint thinner spilled and it was a very strong smell. It the fumes gave my companion and I very bad headaches. I took a break, opened the windows and then finished cleaning it. Later we went out and taught our investigator Jennalyn and also the recent convert of Elder Denton. Also, our landlord/branch president came by our house and was very surprised and pleased with the cleanliness.

Thursday -

We tried to go out and visit a bunch of the people we're currently teaching but no one was available. This of course was moderately discouraging for us but especially for my companion. He's going home soon so he's kind of getting 'trunky' didn't really want to go our much no matter what I said.. so I did some extra studies and made a stand for my guitar.

Spiritual Thought - 

John 14: 23

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

So this verse is pretty simple, but it also states a simple truth that many people we talk to here in the Philippines (and probably the rest of the world) don't really get. It's the concept of belief alone vs belief and action. If one has true belief in something, clearly they act on it. For example, if you knew there was going to be a powerful storm you would probably prepare you home beforehand but if you didn't really believe there was going to be a storm, you would likely do nothing about it. This verse is similar. Christ says, "if a man love me, he will keep my words." It's that simple. If we truly profess to believe in and love Christ we will do something about it. And if we do act on our belief there is a promise that the Father and Son will "abode with [us]."

Friday -

So in the morning we did our weekly planning and the rest of the day was preparation for the baptism. This included washing the baptismal clothes, cleaning the font, filling it with water, and creating a baptismal program. All of this seemed to take a very unnecessarily long amount of time. Especially filling the baptismal font and creating the program. Creating the program was difficult because there was no Microsoft Office programs on the computer so we had to use this program called LibreOffice which is just a rip-off of word.. and it was very difficult to use. Filling up the font was weird too because I had to go into the water pump tower behind the church. I had to first unlock the very strange door and then I had to figure out which of the seven valves to turn and which switch to flip. There were no real instructions and I just flipped one random switch and it seemed to work. I was really concerned that I was going to cause some problem, but since the first switch I flipped was correct nothing bad seemed to happen. I also mopped the dirty font.

Saturday - 

Today was the baptism of the the Reolalas family. So these were some people being taught before I arrived here but I've been to their home a few times and taught a few lessons. The story of brother Reolalas in particular is pretty cool. He used to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day and tried to quit many different times but never was able to. He was final able to quit when he started hearing the lessons and going to church. It's a pretty cool miracle that shows the power through Christ is much more powerful than anything else.

Anyways, at the baptism itself, I was the conductor, chorister, and closing prayer and Elder Denton was the baptizer. We missionaries ran the whole show. 

Sunday - 

We had an interesting Elder's Quorum experience. Our meeting started 10 minutes late or so and then for the lesson our elderly elder's quorum president just read the entire time from both the Liahona and Friend magazines. That's all that happened the entire block. Later, the electricity went out again and then we did some work with some youth. We ate dinner at President Bote's house

Pictures - 

old money from Japanese imperialism, Sting - the energy drink that a very excessive amount of missionaries drink, my companion and I, my desk with my rat fighting airsoft gun, a cool old style key for the church, my guitar stand I made, baptismal stuff.