Dear Family-
This week was amazing. A prayer answered, a problem solved, a testimony strengthened, a fire rekindled, a missionary sanctified, and a man humbled. Life is good.
Love,
Jake
Dear Family-
Ok, so that last letter was a little lacking, but it would pretty much explain how my week went. I think my week started with Thursday…
Last Thursday was zone conference. Zone conference is always a really good experience because of the spirit which is felt and the messages that are given. President gave one of those speeches that belongs on a sports movie-one of the ones that gets everyone fired up to be their best. The spirit was way strong in the first session, and continued to be strong until my zone got up to sing our musical number. We have been practicing for a few weeks kaya nga it didn’t sound too bad when we sang it. We picked the EFY medly “well bring the world his truth/as sisters in Zion” to sing and it made everyone’s hairs stand straight up. We sat back down and people got up and started bearing testimony. One of the elders got up and was like dude president, we need to sing that again. Haha that is what he said at the pulpit. So, president agreed, people finished their testimonies, and we all stood up to sing the song. It is such a beautiful song and opens spiritual doors to those who listen with a humble heart. It would be really difficult to explain what happened when we were singing. The elders gathered, and the sisters gathered in kanya kanyang pook and elder sales started playing the piano. Well, its not hard to guess what happened when we started singing. Joseph Smith explained the feeling he would get when he felt the spirit as “the flowing of pure intelligence into [a person]” That is the only way to describe it. Almost as if I was told what the problem was that I was facing and the solutions to them all. It is funny how the gospel makes you want to be better. Kung baga, you want to make the Lord proud so you adhere as close to obedience as you can. The gift of the holy ghost is my most treasured possession here on the earth. There is nothing that can imitate it (not even wal-mart’s “equate” brand), nothing that can replicate its edifying effects. If only people realized how privileged they are to be members of the church. There are so many times that we go visit less active members who say that they don’t go to church because they were offended (for example, yesterday). Sometimes it’s hard because you obviously cant force them to think another way, but it is like wait a minute…you were offended so you stopped going to church…stopped the blessings that come from the renewal of sacred covenants sa pamamagitan ng taking the sacrament, stopped paying tithing and fast offering kaya nga becoming unworthy to participate in temple worship, and most of all, pushed away the comforting presence of the third member of the godhead. That zone conference answered A LOT of things that were troubling me. My mission has taught me napakaraming things-things that I couldn’t have learned within 10 years had I not decided to give 2 years up to give others an eternity. Missionary work r-o-c-k-s my socks!!!!!!!
Sunday we had a member work with us which was a little bit on the stressful side. He is a good guy, he just, unfortunately, doesn’t get the fact that missionaries live in a higher standard than other people. When he worked with us he went nakashades (he was wearing like matrix style sunglasses), and texted the whole time. It was kind of frustrating because it is a really good experience for him to work with the missionaries in order to prepare him for a mission, but he isn’t using it to his full advantage. He brought a whole bunch of barkada (I don’t know if that is Tagalog or English or Spanish…it means group of friends) drama into our work which kind of effected our lessons which plucked a few nerves, but I took him aside and told him why and how missionaries live above the world which solved a couple problems. We will see how next Sunday goes.
Today we went to UP Los Banos (University of the Philippines). It is one of the top universities in the Philippines and it was a really cool place to go to. They have this place called the botanical gardens which is kind of like the equivalent of a national park which we went into and walked around in and stuff. It was really relaxing to get into nature away from the exhaust of cars and stuff. I don’t know if you all remember me mentioning an elder named Richens (he was an elder in Lopez with me), but he is my new zone leader…he is a good guy, but he always has to be right about everything. I have stopped trying to make a point around him because it just leads to unnecessary contention, but he had it out with his comp last night (we slept over at the los banos elders apartment) and half the zone so that wasn’t the coolest. Plus he swears which is really sad to see but hopefully the contention will lower over time.
This Friday we are baptizing this little girl that we have been teaching. Her name is Xavier Deanne and she is one of the brightest 10 year olds that I have ever met. She is so awesome. Her mom is actually in Canada (she lives with her grandma) also being taught by the missionaries. Day (that is her nickname) always video chats with her mom and tells her what we teach her haha.
Last Sunday we kind of got a shock. We recently dropped an investigator for a ton of reasons-long story. In easy words (is that right? Haha it is in Tagalog) she didn’t understand anything we were teaching because of a crazyness in her brain (I don’t know if that is the right word...just google translate nagugulohan ang utak niya…). Her fellowshipper totally chastised elder De Leon and walked out on him last Sunday. We went into PEC this Sunday (a meeting with our bishop and the leaders of the auxiliaries and stuff) to find out that she ran to the leaders of our branch and complained about us to them and spread all this stuff about us. Cool. Oh well, in Tagalog-bahala siya sa buhay niya. Gotta love banal na aso, santong kabayo (hippocrites).
That was pretty much my week. Sorry, this email is kind of out of place. It isn’t the longest and kind of jumps. This week blew by fast. Happy 4th of July!!!!! I don’t have that much time so I had to speed it up. Love you all and hope you are all doing well!!
Love,
Jake
ps-sorry, im gonna bail on the pictures. Ill send some next week:)
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