Been awhile since I started in English. Thought I'd try it :D
Alright. Yeah, I've been AWOL for like 3 weeks. Cuz I'm in the Bukid and the only city is Tagbi. So if we need important things, we have to go there...and traveling there is like 4 hours there and back. So it consumes like our whole P-day! So I'm sorry I've lacked email time...
So this past June 24, M got baptised. She's a convert from Iglesia ni Kristo. I've been teaching her since my first week here :D The picture attached is at her baptism, with Elder Meliang, Elder Fox (who baptized her), her husband (who is getting baptized this Saturday - July 12, along with 5 of our other investigators) and Sister Orzal and I.
So yeah. This coming Saturday, July 12, we'll have 6 baptisms and another one is working out some stuff and will probably be baptized the first week of August if he keeps progressing like he is right now :D
Aright. Questions now:
1. Tell us about your new companion.
Sister Orzal. Where do I start?!? This Sister is SO amazing. The past few weeks with her have flown by. She is so obedient in every way, and always learning and helping and just being awesome. She teaches me so much and I love her to death.
2. What was the hardest thing you have had to do as a trainer?
Umm...training hasn't actually been difficult. I'm more of just a senior companion - Sister Orzal came pre-trained. I thought the language would be hard, but it's not bad. I thought I'd have to do all the teaching, but she's already participating a ton. So it actually hasn't been hard yet. She's just so good!!!
3. Tell us about an investigator.
Hmm....we have this one investigator named J. She's in her late 50's or early 60's. She lives an interesting life. She had 3 kids - her oldest is C. Her other son lives in Cebu and she doesn't see him a lot. And her youngest, J., who was killed by a stray bullet and died on Christmas day a few years ago due to blood loss. That was right after her husband had died and so they couldn't afford the blood they needed to save J.'s life. Now, after several years, she has a new man in her life and they're working on getting married. Last night, we went to her house and had the opportunity to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. She recognized the truth of our message through the peace that came with knowing where her husband and son are right now and that she can see them again one day. It was really spiritual and she really felt it. She can get baptized once her and her boyfriend are married.
4. With your new companion, who does the cooking?
Mostly Sister Orzal. She actually knows how to cook. Sometimes I cook....and I always help. Usually I wash the dishes and put the rice in the rice cooker and she cooks the sud-an.
On a side note, I when I went to Cebu to pick up Sister Orzal, I met one of her batch - Sister DeTal. and Sister DeTal told me that she's read my blog! Followed by: "You're so much prettier in person!" haha...is that a...compliment?
Also, we have this giant hill. Like it takes a good 15 mins to walk up and you're doing lunges up it. It's the short way to this one family so we walk down and up it a lot. It's either short and steep or 45 mins one way. So when Elder Fox and Elder Meliang came to do the baptismal interviews for the family, they got to go up and down the hill. They also brought our Branch Mission Leader, brother M. On the way up the hill, Elder Meliang sat down on the ground half way through and told us he could go no farther. Followed by a comment from Brother M: "Moniwang si Sister Warner." Which basically means: "Sister Warner's gonna get skinny. Followed by a round of laughter. Lolz! I've been walking up that hill for 2 months now! (Not with Sister Salima cuz she didn't wanna do it....it's really hard.)
The work here is really being hastened. I'm so lucky to be a part of it. The coolest thing about the mission, the thing that makes it all worth it, is watching these people really change their lives. Like huge changes. And watching the spark of the light of the Gospel become a bright burning flame within them. That radiates in their countenances.
No fireworks on the Fourth of July. Unless you count the fireworks in the eyes and souls of the missionaries and the investigators when they are given the "go-ahead" for baptism. When their salvation is almost palpable - right there, within reach. And they're grasping it with their whole hearts. There is no replacement for those fireworks.
I'll leave you with a quote I saw on the back of Sister Mahinay's planner.
"We should not expect the Lord to remove our challenges just because we promise Him that we will always be faithful if He does. Rather, we are to endure well, and then we will be blessed."
- Elder J. Christopher Lansing
Well said.
Nahigugma ko kaninyo :D
Amping!
Ingat!
Halang!
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