Memories of a Mission – Page 12 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

Our investigators struggle

Monday, December 13, 2004

This was a strange Monday. We went into San Jose today for district meeting because tomorrow the Zone Leaders have to go and represent the church in court on Tuesday so they wouldn’t have been able to make it. Elder Cox taught both lessons and they were both excellent. He taught again about patience. I again realized that this is really something I need to work on. We also emailed but my family hadn’t written yet. I did write them a good letter anyway. We also went to the palengke and bought what we need for chop suey tomorrow. It was really expensive but it’ll be worth it when the Vilorias actually get married tomorrow. We found out tonight that we have to have to find a way to get them in San Jose, at the White House, at 7:30 on Friday morning. We were told that President wants to see how strong their faith is. I hope that they’ll be alright. They’ve had so many trials already that I hope one more won’t hurt them. We dropped by Bro Andales again tonight and he was drunk again. I had such hope for him. I think that maybe the only reason that he hadn’t drunk was because he hadn’t yet been tempted by it. He doesn’t by alcohol, but when others buy it and then give it to him he can’t say no. They weren’t joking when they said missionary work is the hardest thing ever. It is emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining.

On the way to San Jose we were running late and saw this Jeepney drive by just before we could get on. We were frustrated because we had to wait for 20 minutes for the next one. When we saw this accident, we realized we had actually been protected.

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Miracles at church and way too much food

Sunday, December 12, 2004

I asked Elder Cox this morning if we were going to have to do anything big at church today. He told me, and I also was sure, that we weren’t responsible for anything huge. Well, when we got to church Pres Isla told us that we were, one of us, supposed to be the concluding speaker. He said that he had just forgotten to tell last week. Well, because Elder Cox spoke last month, I got the opportunity to speak about fasting. I prepared during priesthood and Sunday school – shame shame. I think it went ok. My Tagalog was alright but I found myself repeating a lot. I think the basic message got across and I did feel the spirit. We had some crazy answers to prayers today. We both prayed individually before Sunday school that the power would come on because it had browned out so that we could use the piano. Well, right before the opening prayer the power came on just long enough to play the song and then it promptly turned off again. Well we got just exactly what we asked for. We again prayed that it’d come back for sacrament. This time, however, I asked that it’d stay on so that the children would be quiet and so that the keyboard would work and the spirit would be strong. Well, that was better because the power came back on and stayed on the rest of the meeting.

After sacrament meeting, we had a meeting where they organized the Christmas party. Also we got the home and visiting teaching assignments made and setup. We didn’t get back for lunch until 2:00! We ate way too much for lunch. Between the two of us we had one loaf of bread, two cans of tuna, three things of “Eden[1]” Cheese, two cans of creamed corn and seven ice pop desserts. Wow! I felt really fat and bloated after that meal. Just to top it off, when we went to Gregorio’s right after lunch to plan the baptism they fed us rice cakes, 1.5 liters of coke, and spaghetti. We were feeling like hogs after that. We had a good visit with the Vilorias tonight. They’re still a little bit down but they’ll be ok I think. We just have a lot of things that have to happen for them this week. Hopefully we’ll be blessed and all of it will work out.

[1] “Eden Cheese” wasn’t really cheese at all. It was more like yellowish white rubber that kind or sort of tasted like cheese. It was awful but it was as close as we could get.

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We have awesome investigators

Saturday, December 11, 2004

We had an interesting and fairly stressful day today. Our main worry was the Viloria family because we were afraid that they would get discouraged and that Brother would slip back into his drinking. We cooked lunch with the Pulido family today and so we invited sister to come. She was doing all right but was a little bit sad. We encouraged her and she was feeling better after lunch. We didn’t find brother until late tonight and we were really afraid. When we finally talked to him he was doing fine. He’s been working all day to get the money to come to church tomorrow. They’re really and awesome family and I love them. It’ll be a great day when they’re actually baptized.

The Filipino kids are the cutest! These three loved it when we’d come visit their families. (Cherise Pulido, Michelle Viloria, Rachelle Viloria)

We also taught a Plan of Salvation (Plano ng Kaligtasan) lesson to Bro Moreno Delfino. It went well. I got to give him the baptismal commitment. I guess I did an ok job. He said that he couldn’t decide right then but that he would pray about it. We had him read in 2 Nephi 313 about baptism and then pray if that is really what he needs to do in his life. Hopefully he’ll come to church tomorrow with and answer. Once he decided that this is actually what he should do then starts the battle to help him give up his alcohol. It may be a very long time but it’ll happen eventually.

Elder Cox and I in the field up by Grill.

Bro Andales is also beginning to show remarkable progress. He’s not had a drink of alcohol for 2 weeks and he’s really happy and excited about coming to church. I’m hoping that he’ll also be baptized in January. He’s been worked with for so long that to now finally begin to see progress is awesome.

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Working in the fields

Friday, December 10, 2004

We had exchanges today and I worked all afternoon with Elder Boucher. It was okay I guess. This morning we went and worked in Bro Gregorio’s bukid. We were working on stacking up the mud on the divisions between terraces. It was fun and I got to have a good talk with Bro Gregorio. We also got to talk to his boss a little bit about the church. After lunch, Elder Boucher and I went up and did some finding in Niyayos. We had a lot of good talks. I liked it because I was able to actually do some of the talking. I’m actually seeing that I’ve really been blessed with the language. I was at or above the level that Elder Boucher was. I’ve just been intimidated by how very good Elder Cox is at the language.

The rice fields where Bro Gregorio worked.

Me working on the field. We were making pilapels (the little dams between terraces)

Elder Cox, Elder Fa’oa, Bro Gregorio and me working in the mud.

We also had Elder Fa’oa interview the Vilorias today. It went well except that they had a problem and will have to talk to Pres. Beck to get the baptism approved. They’ll still pass but they are understandably feeling a little bit down right now. They’re still a great family and we’re still hoping to have their marriage on Tuesday and the baptism on Saturday.

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The 40 day fast

Thursday, December 9, 2004

I just finished fasting as part of the 40 day mission fast. we are each, as a companionship, fasting for a day on a scheduled day, with the purpose of getting our number of baptisms back up to 100 a month. It was hard partly because of hunger but also because one of us wasn’t in a very good mood today. I’m not sure if it was me rubbing off on him or the other way around. Anyhow, we didn’t talk as much as usual today. Sometimes I wonder if I just have a character that is really hard to make friends with. I’ve only felt really close to a small number of people outside of my family and I’m not sure why that is. I wish that I could improve and be a happier all-around person.

Other than my attitude, this has been an alright day. This morning we got the Viloria’s information all set up and did some work at the municipal so that we now are able to get them married next Tuesday. Hopefully the Mayor of Vice Mayor will get back from Manila before then. We also had a good refreshing first lesson up in Panay. I think that I’m finally being able to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I just need to get more faith so that I’ll have the courage to act on those promptings. I say that because I acted off a prompting today to “tao po” at the man’s house. Anyhow, a first lesson was the result. We also had a good reading session with Bro Aldana. He’s doing well on his iwas and will most likely be baptized on 1 Jan 2005. Hopefully Bro Andales will also be baptized then if he continues on the path he’s on now.

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Fun in the mountain

Monday, December 6, 2004

Today was an interesting day. We spent the morning, after our planning session, working on the Viloria wedding. We had to go to the municipal several times and also go out to Dagupan to talk to them once. Hopefully they’ll go to the municipal on Wednesday and get all of the papers in order. We’re hoping to get them married before the 17^th so that they can still be baptized on the 18^th. This is one crazy country.

Me on the mountain

Elder Cox on the mountain

We also went up to Saligsig today. On the hike up, Elder Cox had a slight stomach problem and had to take an emergency trip out into the trees off the road. Well, he forgot to take toilet paper so leaves made an ok substitute. I felt bad for him but it was still really funny. Also the path up there was blocked because of newly planted rice. We had to walk all over the place until a kind Filipino shoed us the way. We delivered the book to the Manzos for their baptism. We also had planned to ask them to get us another referral but they were already working on it so the whole asking business wasn’t exactly necessary. When we left, we went over the mountain because we thought that maybe it was easier than the way we came in. Well it wasn’t. There were a lot of trees and stuff in the way. It was okay though because the view was absolutely amazing. I am so blessed to be working in such a beautiful area with such great people.

All the bridges (logs) were washed out by the storm

Don’t ask what the leaf is for, just a bit of indigestion i’m sure

The rest of the day almost all of our appointments fell through. We did get to visit Bro Andales today and he is doing really well. He’s almost finished reading in the book of Mosiah. Tonight was actually the first time that I’ve seen him smile.

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Bringing people to church

Sunday, December 5, 2004

We left this morning at 7:00 in order to pick up Bro. Aldana. We got really lucky and a jeep came right away and we got there really quickly. We had told him we would come at 8:00 so we decided to wait until 7:45 to go in. We waited for a while and then we saw a lady that lives with him and she told us that he was waiting for us. We went back to his house and he was waiting for us all dressed up nice and ready to go. We also caught a bus back to Calintaan really quick and ended up getting to church at about 8:00. That was good because it gave Bro. Aldana a good hour to meet people and start making friends. It was great because the Tardios and Pres. and Bro Pulido all made friends with him. He really liked church and gave a really good answer to a question asked in Sunday school. Bro Manzo sat next to him and also made friends. He told us afterward that Bro Alana wants to have others in his home also be taught. I’m pretty confident that he’ll keep coming to church.

We went up to Grill with Bro. Rommel this afternoon. We taught a first discussion to one of our OYMs from Friday. It was good. Also Rommel introduced us to one of his friends up there.

We dropped by the Tardios as well today to return two of their plates that they brought us delicious fish on the other day. Nanay Amy Tardio gave us each a Christmas present. That family is absolutely amazing. They live in a little hut with no electricity or anything and the love us and the Lord that much to sacrifice a ton for all of us. Sis Amy’s daughter Eva and also Lennie Tardio are both branch missionaries and do awesome work. Sis Eva is also waiting for her mission call. Their faith is amazing. I really love that family. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something for them for Christmas.

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Trying not to debate the minister

Saturday, December 4, 2004

Well we met our friend from yesterday and, well, he’s the Minister at the Inglecia ni Cristo here in Dagupan. His name is Denis Rayes. We went back to a follow-up with Bro Santiago and we got in a little ways in reading 3^rd Nephi 11 when he just “happened to drop by.” He started right into the question of if Jesus Christ is a God or not. He started quoting scripture all over the place and using really crazy strange logic. The spirit really wasn’t there. We didn’t debate him but he wouldn’t even let us share. He told us that we could share but every time we tried he’d just stop us and not let us speak. I admit I wasn’t having the nicest feelings toward him and it was kind of hard to keep from debating him. My mind kept picking out holes in his logic and stuff and I just wanted to attack him outright. I guess it’s a good thing that Elder Cox is better in tune with the spirit than I am because it might have gone really had. I need to work on loving people more and seeing that they always still have potential. I really am too quick to wrath and I need to become patient and slow to anger.

Adam4 December, 201430 November, 2014 Calintaan 1 Comment

Taking a trip out to Grill

Friday, December 3, 2004

Well it looks like the brown out isn’t going to be as long as we thought. We saw them fixing the polls that were down in Calintaan earlier today. Sadly enough, I’m a little bit disappointed that it’s coming back on. We were really hoping that we’d beat the mission record of one full month without power. I’m still happy and excited that it’ll be back on soon because then I’ll be able to listen to my music and sit in front of an electric fan.

This morning we went out to Grill. I don’t think that missionaries had been there before us because most of the people didn’t know us. It was kind of strange at the first house that we went to. There were a lot of people sitting outside talking. Lots of them were dressed really nicely dressed and therefore we had no idea what was going to do. We went in and started talking to them. Well one of the men sort of took charge and started telling us about things. He asked us what our most basic doctrine was. Elder Cox told him about the restoration. He then proceeded to tell us about our religion and all about the Book of Mormon. He even told us the scripture out of Ezekiel that talks about the two sticks. I was amazed. It was like he’d already read the Book of Mormon. I don’t understand though how someone can read the Book of Mormon and not be converted and be baptized. He’s really smart and really knows his bible. We asked him what his religion was and he just said that he studies scriptures a lot. Other than that we didn’t have much success working up in Grill.

We’ve been reading the General Conference issue of the Liahona for our companionship study. It is really good and I’m really enjoying the spirit that I feel while we are reading.

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First lesson with the minister’s son

Thursday, December 2, 2004

Today was a good teaching day. We taught five lessons in total. Three of which were taught to new finds off of OYMs. One of the lessons was to the son of the Inglecian minister in Dagupan. We talked to him the first time several weeks ago when he invited us into his house. We didn’t think that we’d ever get back into his house but when we went by he invited us in right away. I thought at first that he was just going to want to bash us but we actually got to start with a prayer and taught a whole first lesson. He didn’t accept a copy of the Book of Mormon and he asked us whether Jesus Christ was a person or a God. We of course told him that Jesus Christ is a god. In the Inglecia ni Cristo they believe that he is only a man. We challenged Bro. Santiago to pray and ask God if Jesus Christ also is a god. I think he’ll ask and I just hope that he has enough faith and desire to receive and answer. We also got a chance to talk to the Vice Mayor today about getting the Viloria’s married. They Viloria’s actually went also and talked with her. They are planning that hopefully they’ll go to the Municipial tomorrow and get on the list to get married. We are hoping that they’ll be able to be baptized on the 18^th of December.

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