Dear Mom, Dad, Ryan, and all my friends and family,
Life is so good right now…some problems with obedience
had occurred in the house but they were resolved quickly and things have been
great ever since. It is as if our area had completely turned around. Before, it
was as if none of our investigators would progress and things felt at a
standstill but now, all of our investigators are now progressing and they are
all asking the right questions. We were even able to give out a baptismal date to
an investigator who lives down the street.
There have been so many miracles this week I don't think I
can type them all but I will try my best. On Wednesday we decided to go finding
on our way to an appointment because we got punted. Well, I decided to talk to
these two random guys sitting on the corner of the street. We talked to them
about Jesus Christ and about forever families and they wanted to learn more. So
we taught them about the Restoration on the side of the road. haha. It was loud
sometimes but the Spirit was still there. We have a return appointment with Jun
Aquino and Jayson next week. I feel we were really led by the Spirit to find
them. Not that we felt any sort of specific prompting to talk to them but we
just went about with our message in our hearts and our willingness to share it
and we were led to those who would receive us.
The next day we got punted from a different appointment
on the other side of town. It was around 4 or 5 pm so there were many people
out in the street. So we decided to try to find new investigators. So we start
walking down this street and this one man about 45 years old asked us where Elder
Linder was, the elder I had replaced. We told him that he was reassigned to Pasig
and that we wanted to share with him about Jesus Christ. He said, oh, I’m not
interested but my friends are... so he points us inside his house where there
are a group of 5 friends all over 35 years old around a table, kind of like a
Filipino version of "Friends," but they invited us in and wondered
what we were doing. One of them said that they are Mormons sharing their
message. So they quickly bombarded us with questions like, who is Mormon? What
are you sharing about? Do we have to pay to listen to you? And such like that.
Elder Basalo and I professionally answered all of their questions but centered
it all on Jesus Christ. Finally, the question came up, what makes your religion
different from ours? That is when we shared about the Book of Mormon and the
Spirit flooded the room. They were suddenly really interested since we asked
them if they knew that Jesus Christ visited Ancient America. We tried to give
them a Tagalog version but they said, "Do you have one in English, we
understand that one better." It was a great experience and opportunity,
especially since they are all middle/ upper class citizens. They have much
potential and want us to come back next week with and English version of the Book
of Mormon. ^_^
Yup yup and so many miracles have happened since then.
Like yesterday, we went on splits so I was with a 16 year old young man named
Jomel and we taught about the scriptures to Brother Bricks and Sister Mika.
They have been taught by the missionaries for a long time but I decided that we
needed to invite them to read the scriptures every day. We talked for a little
bit and I saw that they had a guitar. So
I asked if I could play it. They said sure and so I opened up by playing A Poor
Wayfaring Man of Grief. And then I
played "More Than Words" cause that's the only other song I had
memorized. haha. It's been like a year and a half since I’ve been able to play
guitar! It was great because they loved
the song and that just increased the love and charity I had for the family. It also got their sister to be interested in
what I had to share too. I was able to
teach most of the lesson and Jomel more his testimony but in it I shared my
strong faith in the scriptures especially about 2 Nephi 32:3 about how the
words of Christ will tell you all things that ye should do. That seemed to
strike a chord in them and the Spirit entered the room. An hour had almost
passed and they were asking more about the Book of Mormon. I told them that we
had to continue it another time because we had another appointment but I was
able to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to Brick's Ate who said she wanted to
read it. It was a great lesson. Jomel loved and wants to serve a mission more
now than before!
Of course, all of these great blessings and miracles took
lots of hard work and sacrifice. Certain
trials and challenges had to be faced before these blessings were able to
come. But in all things, do it
cheerfully and you'll see the hand of God in your life. Of this I testify.
Doing you Proude,
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