Wala pa kaming tao sa simbahan

Dec. 31, 2019 - Jan. 5, 2020

There actually seemed to be more celebrating this week for New Years than for Christmas last week. The rest of the week was pretty typical work though. This week we tried to focus a little more on trying to teach people on our first interaction with them. We always teach anyways but this time we just lengthened our time with them to try and give them a little more incentive to go to church. So far it hasn't been super effective.

Tuesday -

In the morning we had district meeting in Bangui. Our zone leaders Elders Orozco and Rebito (I think that's the spelling) also attended the meeting so it was nice to see my zone leaders here for the first time. After district council we all ran into a bishop from Laoag that my companion Elder Powell met before since he was assigned there before. The bishop bought us lunch which was really cool of him. Once we ate lunch we headed back to Pagudpud and started working. The day went as it usually does and we talked to lot of people. We had to go back to the apartment early though because the entire mission was given an earlier curfew because of New Years / lots of drunk people with fireworks. It was kind of loud at night but we were able to fall asleep.

Wednesday - 

We actually ate a huge breakfast with the Torrado family. They had lots of preparation for New Years. We also ate with the branch president again later for dinner. Also during our work in Agassi we managed to find someone that said they'd consider going to church so we're excited to try and return to her home and family and teach them more. 

Thursday -

The senior sisters did an apartment cleanliness check. They didn't seem abnormally impressed but also said it was pretty clean. They seemed more concerned that we don't have any chairs in our apartment since the office elders never brought any. After that we got out to work pretty quickly and found three people that we're gonna try and recontact.

Friday -

We did more finding and found one new person that might care in Tarrag. After work the branch president asked us to download the Philippines Area Presidency video to be shown in church. The download took around 3 hours or so, so while waiting we watched Other Side of Heaven 2 which my companion had. Fun fact, Elder Powell is also the grandson of Elder Groeber from the movie.

Saturday -

It was a full day of work and we taught a couple people with great hopes that they'd attend church.

Sunday -

They didn't attend church. Haha. Oof. Both us and the sisters companionship had no investigators at sacrament meeting. Aside from that, personal study was pretty good.

Deutronomy 8:6,19-20

6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.
20 As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.

So I really liked these verses because I feel like I understood them slightly differently than I have before. These verses are about being obedient to the Lord and His will for us. It tells us to "walk in his ways... [or] ye shall surely perish." I feel like previously I would have interpreted this verse as almost a threat that's telling us to be obedient or suffer the consequences. I think this is actually just statement of warning and of sincere concern for us. This a plea to try and help us reach our fullest potential. If we "walk in his ways" we're not just being protected from evil but actually taking the steps required to become as God is and that's even more important. We're doing what He has done to become what He is. It's about that spiritual growth and not just comfort and safety. None of this is meant to change our physical environment but simply to put us in the best position to become like God. (D&C 29:34 - all laws of God are spiritual not physical).