Rollercoaster

Magandang Umaga pamilya ko!!!!

Yay, I LOVE our Christmas tree!! That just made me so happy to see it in all it's glory. I've been trying to find a little one to buy here, but lets just face it, I’m a cheap skate and if it's not a necessity, I don't buy it. It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas though without a Christmas tree. And snow. Weird. I've been listening to the Forgotten Carols over here. Makes me pretty happy inside. For thanksgiving though we did get to celebrate a bit. We stopped at a bakery and bought a slice of pineapple pie and went to mang inasal. So I had lechon chicken and rice for thanksgiving, which is pretty close to turkey and stuffing right? Haha, it was good though.  And we have an H&M now! That's like a shopping dream come true. Can I just say, I'm so so tired of dressing like a missionary. We went to an Ukay-ukay last week and Sister Lorente and I just mourned for a bit the fact that we can't dress cute at all. We miss our shoes :) I NEVER thought I'd say this, but I miss being a girl! Even just once to actually get ready and not have my hair foofed to no end and sweaty and blugh. haha, but it's all ok. Much more comfortable to be gross and frumpy, that's for sure. Especially when you're walking around squatters areas and jumping in and out of tricycles all day.

So I've noticed as I’m typing this my vocabulary is starting to get smaller and smaller. Sometime I find myself saying a word in English around my Tagalog structure if I don't know the word in Tagalog. Then I realize that that is a way deep English word that they probably don't understand. Haha. Example, I said, "ibig sabihin kung magiging apathetic tayo...". Haha, I didn't know the word for apathetic and it's now habit for me to just use my tagalog and if I don't know the word, I just use the English version. That's happened a few times. Apathetic, vicarioius, disconcerting. yep.  So I've had to abandon my vocabulary so they and I can figure out what's going on…dumbing it down.  

Sigue, so updates for this week! Yes, lets just say being a missionary, period, is a rollercoaster. I'll give you an example. Yesterday was Sunday and it was just so great to start with! We went to church and the mom and dad of Melvin and Ester, two of our converts from last transfer are now coming to church and have baptismal dates. And they were there and also the Traspaderme family came even though their baby was sick and had a fever. And I was just so incredibly happy. You can't really describe the kind of happiness that it is, but it's like your heart is going to burst. I'm just so happy for them!!! Then as the day went on, oh boy. We went to Sister Jescel...she told us she can't get baptized or go to church anymore because her husband doesn't want to listen too. So that's code for, she really doesn't want to listen anymore. It made me super sad. But you just kind of have to take it, keep having hope for them that it'll happen for them someday, and move on to the next. That's just one stop that we had, but the whole day was like that. As we were headed home, I'm was just walking through palenke and looking around...seriously, the only thought was, "Sabbath ba ito?", Is this really the Sabbath? There's a barcada to the side listening to their American rap music and drinking, the lady in front of me is dressed like she's headed to the corner and then a herd (and when I say herd, between 10-20) baklas come walking down the street (baklas are boys that are gay and cross dress. as in, you can't even tell sometimes that they're guys. Oh my goodness. Don't you worry, I am always sure to address them as BROTHER), all in the midst of this busy market. Serious chaos. I felt like I’d just stepped into Sodom and Gomorrah. My heavens and that was in the matter of one day. Roller coaster is kind of an understatement. It's not so fun when all of your emotions hang on someone else's agency. But no worries, the good feelings more than make up for everything.

For example, we found 2 new investigators this week that I am SO excited about. Sometimes I hesitate to get too excited about a new investigator. Mostly because it's like dating...you know, you meet them the first time and you're way excited and then you get hopes up and get crushed. Yes, buhay ng misiyonero iyen. Haha. So I usually get excited, but not TOO excited if you know what I mean :) Anyhow, their names are Evelyn and Rea. They're both moms with kids. We've only taught them 2 times but they have such great questions. Our last visit there we taught the restoration and after I explained about the church of Christ and there has to be only one!". Oh my goodness, yes! I swear, sometimes you can explain it so clearly. Evelyn goes, "wait, so there's only one church then! I've never thought of that before.  And it clicked for her before I even said it! And we talked about prophets and Joseph Smith. And after we were talking about prophets, Rea asked, "So the prophet is like the pope kind of. Who has more followers, the Pope of Thomas Monson?". And my companion just looks at me, like, your turn. Haha. So I just said, "Remember how we talked about priesthood authority.  In  your opinion who holds that priesthood authority for God to guide the church, the Pope or President Monson?" She goes the prophet. Oh my goodness, never been so happy in my life. We walked out of there like we were walking on clouds.  Love it :) That's one thing that I’ve really noticed being here. It doesn't matter how good of teachers we are or how clearly we can explain the gospel, if #1, they're not prepared, or #2, they don't feel the power of the Holy Ghost bear testimony, it does absolutely no good. They just won't understand. They won't get how important it is, or how it applies to them. We just can't do this work by ourselves. We HAVE to have the Lord's help. It’s that simple.

This week we've been trying to find a lot of the Less Actives in our area. That's the new focus of the 70 Presidency, the less actives. We have new key indicators for it that are super specific and new rules too. We can't baptize a kid if they're younger than 12 and don't have an active member in their family. Active meaning, goes to church every week, has a calling, goes to activities, etc. Also, we can't even teach someone if their house is more than 2 rides away from the nearest chapel. We've been told to wait and build the areas where there are already members.  They're just picking up on the fact that there are a ton of less actives that need help. For a lot of them, they were baptized years ago, usually 20 years or so, and went inactive immediately. A lot were missionary converts. Of course, 2 guapo foreigners, of course they got baptized.  Many times we've found that they don't even know what the restoration is or who Joseph Smith is. example 1, sister Ghina. She was baptized when she was 14 years old, nearly 35 years ago. She's a VERY active Catholic and she straight up told us that every time a ward member or the missionaries come by, she tells them to go away and never come back. I still don't know why she even let us in. But she did, and we were able to share with her about the restoration. She really listened like it was all brand new information for her. It was honestly like teaching a brand new investigator. She's still a little fuzzy on the restoration and thinks there are a lot of true churches. It's like, "Sister, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that your Catholic church is not the true church of Christ. The good news though is that you're already a member of the true church!". Haha. We found a ton of members like that this week. It's incredible. Elder Eyring talks about having a living testimony and uses Alma 32 to talk about continually nourishing our testimonies. I think for a lot of these less actives, they felt that it was good, they planted the seed, but after it sprouted, they forgot to take care of it. And I don't care if your tree is a little tiny sprout as a recent convert or if it's a huge strong maple as a seasoned member of the church. If you stop giving it water and sunshine, it will eventually die. That's just how it works. Those little things that we all brush to the side, that's what makes the difference; daily scripture study, daily prayer, going to church. Just the basics. They're so crucial. So we're on a mission to find all those members that had their testimonies die because they weren't ever taught how to take care of it. It's just starting from the basics, square one, and helping them to regain their testimonies. But it's the same for all of us as members too. I feel like I've learned so much not just about the gospel, but about those things that I need to be doing in my life to make sure that I'm continuing to become more and more like my Savior. I feel like everything I teach applies not only to them who are struggling, but also to me too. Anyhow, that's all for today. This email is LONG if I do say so myself. Ha, and I’ve only scratched the surface, seriously. Man, I really can talk a lot :) but I love you all and hope you're enjoying this Christmas season. Maligayang paskol!! Sa susunod!!