Masarap ang aso

We've had a pretty decent week of work. We've just done lots of finding and returned to a lot of the people we've previously talked to. We also walked in on a person we previously taught cooking and entire freshly killed dog. That was an experience.

Monday - 

As you can imagine, since it was preparation day, we did preparation things. We also did in depth apartment cleaning. it was very gross. I don't really want to go into much detail about the cockroaches and trash and things underneath our stove and fridge.

Tuesday - 

We had district council in the neighboring area of Gonzaga. I assigned Elder Squire to teach the lesson for our training but the Zone Leaders came in and just gave announcements practically the entire time. We were left with 10 minutes left so I just filled the time with some short discussion. We didn't want to waste Elder Squires nicely prepared lesson

Once we returned to the apartment the Senior Sister missionaries came and gave an apartment cleanliness check. They were very impressed.. and rightfully so. Before Elder Rasmussen got here I did lots of apartment cleaning (to try and help with his adjustment into the Philippines). He and I also did even more cleaning while he's been here. Our apartment is VERY clean. The Senior Sisters said "Sorry, we have to be really picky about the small things when your apartment is THIS clean." It's awesome because we put a lot of effort into it and they recognized it. Also, the companion you have and their desire for cleanliness also affects the entire apartment.

Later we went out to work in San Jose. We met a lot of new people mostly and taught about the Book of Mormon a couple of times. We also met this random guy from Manila who just complained to us the whole time about the Ilocano people here in this part of the Philippines. He just told us how bad their Tagalog is here and how they're attitudes are bad or something. It was kind of funny just to hear him rant. He was pretty nice though.

Wednesday - 

In our work, we focused on this place called Ammunitan. We also did some teaching to previously contacted people. The coolest part of the day was when we found this lady named Sister Casafrancisco. She immediately let us in, was super nice, gave us a snack, and asked us lots of questions. The rain was really strong and loud on the tin roof though so it was difficult to hear very much. We taught about eternal families and then both my companion and I felt a prompting to give her a Book of Mormon immediately (which is a little out of the normal order that we do things). She's excited to have us come back and we're excited to teach her again.

(random scripture I liked: 1 Corin. 12:20)

Thursday - 

We worked in two areas, had a great lesson with a Brother Mark Bermejo. We asked if he read and prayed about the Book of  Mormon and he said he did pray. He and his wife prayed and both "felt the spirit rush into their house." It was pretty cool and he seems like he'll really progress. It was an awesome lesson. The rest of the day consisted of typical finding and stuff.

Friday - 

We had weekly planning in the morning, ate lunch at a member's house, and then worked in an area called San Jose. We returned to the little rural fishing village we visited previously and taught a new person. One lady we taught recently had a stroke. We shared about the Book of Mormon and Christ's atonement and how they can help her. He immediately cried and it was a very good lesson.

Saturday -

We did lots of work in Ammunitan again. We returned to some people and taught some new people. We're trying to decide who really cares and who's just nice (that's a real problem here). We ended up finding 13 new people and teach 2 new people. Also, as we were returning to one of our contacted people we found them cooking a freshly killed dog. It's body was still in one piece, it's throat was slit, and they were holding it with their hands over the fire. They were burning it's fur off and scraping it's skin off with a spoon. It was pretty gross one might say.

Sunday - 

A full day of finding on the highway. We did lot's of competing with Jehovah's Witness missionaries that were EVERYWHERE.

Also another scripture I like is...

2 Corinthians 7:

4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

6 Nevertheless God... comforteth those that are cast down..

I like this scripture because it's about being joyful in tribulation and receiving help from God. Often our trial isn't removed as we hope, but we still receive a sense of peace. We grow through that trial. We become more like Christ as we suffer as he did.