Man, this was probably the most
stressful week of the entire transfer!!! We had so many meetings this week and so many
changes and so many announcements for changes to the changes being made and to
top it all off, it's transfer week and Elder Acera is leaving me.
So, let's start off with the
beginning of this week when Elder Acera and I went to visit with the District President
to coordinate our missionary effort with the District Presidency. Then, the next day we had our mission
leadership council. Many things are
changing now that President Revillo is getting used to being a mission
president and we've had some very heated but successful discussions as a
council to what we should do to better the mission. Most of the details of them aren't really
important but one major thing is that our district meeting is now changing to
Tuesdays so it is not on P-day anymore. Anyway,
the meeting lasted most of the day and then President let me drive him from
Aurora Chapel to Antipolo to help him get to a meeting on time. Antipolo is about 3/4 of the way from Cubao to
Teresa so we gladly took the free ride and were able to get home by about 8 o’clock
that night. Man, it was pretty long day!
The next day, we had exchanges
and I had the opportunity to work with Elder Coe again, my 4th companion. He's gotten a lot better at Tagalog and he
looks pretty happy. He seems to have
mellowed down a little bit and is a lot more reverent to sacred things and
noticeably more humble too. It's cool
cause we were companions almost a year ago and too see each other again and how
the mission has changed both of us. It
was kind of a wake-up call. Haha! He's
doing really good.
Friday, we went to Binangonan to
interview an investigator to be baptized. It’s about a 45-minute jeepney ride so you can
guess it was pretty exhausting. And that
was the day before our baptism day. So,
after we got back we had to make sure everything was ready for the baptism.
So Saturday, we had 5 people getting
baptized; 3 of the kids of Brother Rodel and 2 from Elder Bagonbon's area. It was a great service except they didn't have
any baptismal suits for kids in our chapel so we had to go all the way to
Morong to see if they had any over there, which they did, luckily, and we were
able to get it to them. Unfortunately,
there wasn't a good coordination going on. We had everyone there at 5 pm but we had to
wait for the Branch President to come and he didn't get there until 6:30 so we
all were watching church videos until he came.
It was super stressful naman especially since Sister Janet was there
with her kids Jay R, Jay M, and Rose Ann since like 1:30 pm to make sure they
got all the kids there ready and on time. It was so funny though, cause we visited them Friday
night and Elder Acera said that they need to go to the church early. How early? He said..."tutulog kayo dito (sa bahay
nila) tapos gigising kayo doon sa simbahan." (“you’re going to sleep here at home but wake up already at
church.”) So, the kids
thought he was serious when he was just joking and Nicole, one of the youngest,
woke up the entire family around 6:00am already dressed trying to get them to
go to the church. Haha! It was cute...
she was really upset though when she found out she wasn't getting baptized yet
because she was only 7 years old. I felt
so bad. But ganun pa man (nevertheless),
Brother Rodel was able to baptize all 3 of his kids. So it was a great day! We even taught him how to recite the baptismal
prayer in Tagalog because he can't read.
We have a recent convert family,
the Heve family, and they have been a really great blessing to me here in
Teresa. Sister Heve was the only member
in her family until we were able to teach and baptize her daughter Julie Ann. Since her baptism their family has been
progressing so well in the gospel. We
committed them to have family prayer every night and they have actually been
keeping that commitment. The difference
in the Spirit in their home is almost unbelievable. All 4 of them have been participating in that
family prayer and there is just such a strong love and happiness that is in
their home. They have 2 non-members, the
dad and the Ate, Sister Joann. She has
been progressing very well, though. Since
she started listening to us she has now gained the desire to be baptized when
before she wasn't sure. The spiritual
change that has occurred since they started family prayers has influenced the
entire family. Tatay Heve has become
more accepting to us and will even listen to our lessons now and when we have
family home evening, he used to be shy to give any comments or remarks about
things but now he presides family home evenings well and confidently. Sometimes, Julie Ann says that she'll get home
from school and go to bed and her dad would wake her up and remind her about
family prayer. It's amazing! I love missionary work! By small and simple things are great things
brought to pass, no? We also got a text
from them earlier this morning that their neighbors were wondering what they
were doing last night that made them sound like they were having such a good
time. They shared about family home
evening and the church and now their neighbors want to go to church with them! Best Day Ever!!!
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Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^
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| The Heve Family |
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