Thursday, August 29, 2013

August 12, 2013 - Blessings of Prayer

Dear Mom, Dad, and Ryan,

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!!!

Doing you Proud,
Elder Froude ^_^

The Heve Family

No comments:

Post a Comment