Memories of a Mission – Page 19 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

People come to church but the wrong ward

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Today was a really confusing day. We had church with San Juan this morning but it was weird because a sister from Greenhills ward spoke and a lot of members from Greenhills came to that sacrament meeting. What made it even stranger is that at Greenhills meeting Brother Art came and he usually comes to the San Juan ward. It was also a good day though because we got to teach a good second discussion to Bro. Art. We gave him a goal date for baptism on the 16th of October. He seemed to understand and seemed satisfied with our answers to his questions. He also seemed excited to have a date for his baptism. We have a schedule with him on Wednesday to teach him a 4^th discussion about the plan of salvation. He had questions today about what happens to people who die without the opportunity to hear the gospel and to be baptized. We briefly explained it to him and told him we’d teach him more about it on Wednesday. I was disappointed today, though, that Winnie Ramos didn’t come too church. I really hoped he’d come.

I’ve been having trouble with my right foot for the last few days. I’m not sure how but my foot, right on the pressure point, got a really big blister. I didn’t realize how bad it was until last night when I was taking off all the dead skin. It really hurts and I have to walk all crooked because of it. Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow when I get up and I’ll be better able to walk on it.

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Feeling the Holy Ghost

Saturday, September 18, 2004

We had a really good discussion with Bro. Winnie Ramos this morning. We taught him a third discussion about the founding of the church in our time. He really felt the spirit and it was good. At the end of our discussion he just sighed and said that he felt good. I told him that what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost. I realized today how much of the spirit we carry with us as missionaries and even as members of the church. I’ve sort of just taken the companionship of the Holy Ghost for granted sometimes but I sort of realized today how much power and help that he really gives to me. I have great hopes for Brother Winnie Ramos. Elder Tipton and I were talking and we said that sometimes it’s given to us as missionaries to see people’s potential as members of the church someday. I really hope that he’ll come to church tomorrow so that he’ll keep his commitments and continue progressing toward baptism.

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Bad blisters. Good work

Friday, September 17, 2004

As I’m writing this I’m sitting with my feet soaking in a tub of hot water. I have some bad blisters on my right foot and soaking feels really good. We got a lot of good work done today. We had two discussions, both firsts, some good retention work and also some activation. For our retention work we’re helping people learn how to give talks in sacrament meeting. We have a page with the topic and when and how long they will speak. We also give them resources that they can use to prepare. We gave the page to Judy today and shell speak at the investigator’s class in two weeks. We’re really close now to finishing with getting the CBC’s[1] updated. Hopefully Sister Tess will speak at church next week and then she’ll be updated.

It rained a ton this day and we didn’t have our umbrellas. The wet and bad socks led to my fun blisters.

[1] CBC = The Convert Baptism Checklist was a list we used to keep track of how people progressed before and after baptism. This record was replaced when Preach My Gospel was introduced later in my mission.

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Finding and Power Naps

Thursday, September 16, 2004

This morning we left at 8:30 to go and follow-up with the sisters. We usually do follow-ups at the MIR but it’s really far away and so we just had them at the sister’s chapel. They are doing fine but both wanted blessings. Sister R. because she has heart problems and always has to go to St. Jude’s Hospital for checkups etc. and Sister A.because she just wanted a blessing of comfort. The sisters are really nice and really work hard in spite of all the troubles that they have. They even gave us soup and buko[1] salad today after follow-ups.

After we were done with the follow-ups we tried to find the five families that we are working with for the San Juan ward. We found all but one of theme so that was good. People here go inactive so easily. They will get offended at the smallest problem or word that they don’t like. I don’t understand it.

We took our lunch break at about 12:30 and ate these spam/lunch meat and egg sandwiches. They were okay but not the greatest thing in the world. After we ate, I tried to study but I kept falling asleep. Elder Tipton and I decided we’d take a power nap but we ended up sleeping until about 2:00 when we were supposed to leave.

This afternoon again all of our schedules fell through. We ended up just trying a brother that we had talked to the other day. He was actually there and we got to teach him a really good first discussion. He’s interested and said that he has a lot of questions but that he’ll try the Book of Mormon first. He also has a family that we hope to teach later on. We’ve really been having trouble getting discussions this week and I’m not really sure why. We’re really working hard still and I have faith that the Lord will bless us through our trials.

[1] Buko = coconut. Buko salad is a sweet salad made with fresh coconut meat and juice with some added sweets (fruits and sometimes breads).

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Buying fabric for pants. Some Trials

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Today was P-day again. This morning we went down to Divisoria[1] to get some fabric for the curtains of our apartment. I also got some nice fabric for some pants. The fabric only cost $4[2] and it’ll make a really nice pair of pants. After Divisoria we went to a book binding place. I bought a bible and I’m going to have the TG and BD re-bound into their own book so that I can cary it easily.

When I emailed today I got in trouble for taking money out of my checking account. Mom told me that they increased the monthly price of missions and that we only have enough money for about ten more months and then they’ll be on their own and all my money will be gone. She also told me that Dad’s been forced to take a furlough where he doesn’t work and doesn’t get paid and also that he’s in danger of getting laid off. I wish there was something that I could do to help them. I really don’t want to be a bother and a trial for them. I don’t know what to do but just to pray for them.

[1] Divisoria was a large outdoor market located nearer to the bay. It was out of our zone at this time so going there was a big deal.

[2] Yes I do mean American dollars. It was really cheap to buy fabric there.

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Singing at a lesson

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Today was another day a lot like yesterday. We had a good follow-up visit with Brother Relampagos this morning. He’s starting to realize that the message of the gospel is for him and that we really aren’t there to debate with him. We had a good talk and resolved some of his concerns about eating pork. We ended out discussion by singing “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer.” The spirit really touched him I think. We bore our testimonies again about Joseph Smith and the truthfulness of his mission. It was really good.

After lunch again all of our appointments fell through. We did get to give a good discussion to Juris and another lalaki[1]. We taught about tithing and fast offerings. She’s pretty accepting and actually prayed without reading it this time. I fell that she still needs work on that though. I’m not really sure about her testimony.

The last place we went tonight was really good. It was really close to the Mendoza family. We got to talk with some people that actually wanted to talk to us. It was a nice change from always having to chase people down like we have to do in Crame. Hopefully we’ll have some good success there in the next few days. We really are working hard and it’s really had when people just drop their appointments.

[1] Lalaki = boy or male

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Interviews with President

Monday, September 13, 2004

Today was another day like Saturday. We had all our schedules but none of them worked out. This morning we had interviews down at the MIR with President Beck. They were really fast and we didn’t really have much of an interview. President Beck is great. He and Sister Beck really love us as missionaries and I really appreciate that. I got a few letters from people today. I got my first letter from A. while I’ve been here so that was good. We also had an interesting district meeting. Our district is only us two elders and two sisters. I guess today the sisters had a companionship problem and so we had district meeting just the two of use. It was good. We learned about overcoming obstacles and working hard.

We saw this huge trash pile in Brgy Crame. Note the irony of the sign above the trash pile.

We had almost all of our work in Crame today and it was really unsuccessful. We’ve had a goal to get at least one discussion a day and today we didn’t get it again. I just have to think of how blessed I am to be here. I thought of Jeff Ashton being over in Russia and maybe not getting one finding a week let alone a discussion. I really am blessed even when there’s a hard day.

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Nothing happened

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Today was a really crazy day. We had everything all planned out perfectly how it would go and then not one of our appointments worked out. We were planning on teaching a third discussion to Brother Ramos but when we got there they told us that he had to go to emergency on call duty because of the terror alert of 9/11. All of our other appointments were like that too. We were supposed to have a baptismal interview for Juris today at 2:30 but we waited and waited and she never showed up. It was really frustrating because now we have to change all of our plans again. I don’t know why she didn’t come but I don’t really get the feeling that she has a testimony of the church. I hope that she’ll come to church tomorrow and won’t just drop off the face of the earth.

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Service at the school again

Friday, September 10, 2004

Today was a really long day. This morning we went down to Elder Alongo’s area to do service. We did service at the same elementary school that we did a few weeks ago. We cleaned up trash again and also did some gardening work. It was a lot more fun than last time because I understood a lot more of what the kids were saying. It was really hot while we were working and I was really sweating hard. It was actually really hard work and I was tired after it.

Playing with the kids at school in Manila.

This afternoon we taught a fourth discussion too Juris. We took her to the Mendoza’s house so that we could have a third boy there’re while we teach. It went well. I think that she understood well and didn’t really have any troubles. We had to re-teach her how to pray though because she had written out a prayer that she would just read. It was hard for her to pray from the heart but she did ok.

After our discussion at about 2:00 we went over and worked in Crame for the rest of the day. We had some findings but we didn’t really get to give a discussion. As we were on our way out a brother stopped us and just out of the blue asked us about the elections in the states. I realized that I really don’t know what’s happening over there at all. I’ve been away from it for 4 months and it’s weird too not have any idea what’s happening in my own country.

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The Chinese elementary school

Thursday, September 9, 2004

This morning we were supposed to have follow-ups at the MIR. We knew that the sisters wouldn’t be there until 10:00 but we tried to get there by 9:00 just to see if we were able to do it. We left at about 8:10 and, after the train and walking, we got there at about 9:05. We’ll make sure that we leave at 8:00 exact from now on so that we’ll be sure to get there exactly at 9:00. We actually ended up not doing follow-ups because after waiting for a long time the sisters still hadn’t come. We did get some good studying in though and I was happy for that.

After our lunch break we went out to work. We had both of our teaching appointments fall through so we just did a lot of OYM’s and finding. We actually followed up on a card that we had been given at the church last week. It is a business card for a man that works at a Chinese elementary school by our house. We first asked him about service and told him that we wanted to come and do service at his school. He at first thought that we wanted to come and do a church service but we explained to him that it was more like community service. He liked the idea but wanted to have a “formal” meeting; we scheduled to meet him next Tuesday. Hopefully we’ll be able to teach him a great first discussion and explain to him about the church. He doesn’t speak Tagalog and so it’s going to be really strange teaching too him in English. We also this afternoon had a really nice first discussion with and elderly couple. They seemed interested at first but it only lasted for about five minutes. When we offered them a Book of Mormon they refused outright. Elder Tipiton said that that was the first time he’d had that happen. Usually, daw, they just take it but don’t read. It was a bit surprising. I feel bad for them. They just don’t know what they’re passing up.

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