Memories of a Mission – Page 21 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

Moving to a new apartment

Friday, August 27, 2004

Well today was a fairly hard/worthless day. We changed apartments today and moved to Little Baguio. The new apartment is a ton nicer than the old one and about 3x as big. We were supposed to meet our whole Zone at the statue at 8:00 but of course none of them were there. We were also supposed to have Brother Mendoza’s jeepney to help us move. Well after waiting for a long time, we went back to the apartment to see if he was there. He wasn’t. We then took a jeep to his house and they told us he had left. He was already at our place. When we got back to the apartment, all the Zone was there too. They had all decided that they were hungry and ate almost all of the food that Elder Mathews and I had bought yesterday. They just ate all of it and I’m almost out of money because on top of that we all had to pay ₱150 to Bro Mendoza for the use of his Jeep. I hope I have enough faith that the Lord will bless me. I only have ₱300 to do all that I need to in the next few days including a taxi for transfers

Manila from the top of a members appartment building

Manila from the top of the apartment building where we had Elder Sangco’s party.

.Tonight, once we were done moving, we all went to Sis Chamberlin’s apartment for a “Birthday Party” for Elder Sangco. We were there all night until curfew. It was hard because Elder Sangco’s old companion was on the IM and they just talked. I’ve learned a valuable lesson from this, don’t talk about old companions. Of course you love them but don’t talk about it. Just focus on strengthening your current companionship.

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Elder Sangco’s Birthday!

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Today is Elder Sangco’s birthday. He is twenty-three now. It was nice because the nanay that does our clothes for us bought him a really good cake which we enjoyed. This morning we went to the mission office because the office Elders called last night and said that we needed to come in order to get my bank card. We go there around 11:00 but then they told us that we really didn’t need to be there until 1:30. So we sat around until then but of couse they were late and didn’t arrive until 2:00. Then they just had me, and the rest of the last two batches who were there, fill out the same forms that I had already filled out about three weeks ago. They also needed two forms of ID. Luckly I had brought my driver’s license and a copy of my passport so I had it but most didn’t It was really another example of inefficiency. Another P-day gone with no time to prepare.

Tonight we re-taught Juris a second discussion. She remembered it and we set a date for September 18. She’s going to come on Friday and help us move. I’m really excited for her.

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Lots of lessons

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Well today was a really good day. This morning we left at 7:30 because we realized that we had forgotten to give Sis Bautista her book of remembrance yesterday. She left for Hong Kong today and was really excited. She was at the MRC and so we got to eat breakfast there. Yeah free food pa la. Anyway, they told us there that they had a lot of Elders that just got to sit around because their companions were sick. We told them that we could work with one this afternoon.

We went back to the apartment to do our companionship study. We worked on the second discussion because hopefully we’ll get to give one tomorrow. It was okay. I presented and the Tagalog was all there just fine but the needed spirit wasn’t. That’s my weakness in bringing the spirit when I use Tagalog.

At Nanay Josie’s house (nanay, Elders Sangco, Catubag, Arnesen, Matthews)

We then had a lunch appointment with Nanay Jose. We had chicken curry and it was mapakasarap!After our study, we went to Brgy[1]. Pasedina and taught a really weird first discussion to the Brgy. Capitan. He just wanted to talk about what we could do to help his barangay. We really had to fight to keep on returning to the discussion. We did finally succeed in getting him to accept a Book of Mormon and to read it.

Right after lunch we went back to the MRC to pick up Elder Hale from Georgia. He serves in Bacolod mission but his companion is sick so he just sits. He worked with us for most of the day. He didn’t know Tagalog but is just happened that both of our discussions spoke Bisayan. We had two more first discussions today, one with a Nanay and the other with the Brgy Capitain of Corazon de Jesus.

[1] Brgy = Barangay: A barangay is roughly equivalent to a neighborhood but slightly larger. It is the smallest elected governing body in the Philippines society. The Barangay captain knows basically everybody in the Barangay and can be very helpful when you need to find someone.

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Navigating Personal Relationships

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Well I had a bit of a rude awakening today that people here are just like people at home. I guess I thought that here they would just sort of be the perfect people. I am writing this because of what happened today with Sister Tess and here “friend” Marisa Chamberlin. We were told at the beginning of priesthood meeting that Sis. Tess had texted to Brother Guanzon that she had a really high fever. She wanted us to come and give her a blessing. We left priesthood and went to her apartment. She didn’t answer when the guard called her room so we decided to go up and see if she was with Sis. Chamberlin. She wasn’t there so we went up to the 24^th floor to see if she was really not there. She was there and she had been resting and hadn’t heard the phone call. We gave her a blessing and then left. Before we left she told us that she was upset because her friend Sis. Chamberlin hadn’t talked to her for a week. When we went back down to Sister Chamberlin’s apartment she told us basically that she didn’t want to have anything to do with Sis. Tess. She told us that she already had enough troubles without having to help Tess. She basically told us that she didn’t want to be bothered with having to worry about Tess. I was really upset. I just thought about how much help Tess needs that can only come from a friend. I was actually beginning to get mat at here. People really are rude sometimes. I wish they would all just want to be Christlike and not be offended so easily. That is the #1 problem in our ward. The members get offended at the most stupid things and they have a really hard time forgiving others. I think that people taking offense is the main reason that our ward is having such a hard time.

San Juan district (f. Bautista, Antanante, Riparip, Catubag, Sangco b. Matthews, Arnesen)

San Juan district wishing farewell to Sister Bautista before she left for Hong Kong (f. Bautista, Antanante, Riparip, Catubag, Sangco b. Matthews, Arnesen)

I’m beginning to understand why this missionary work is so hard. You have to know everybody’s troubles and try to help them. It is really emotionally and spiritually draining.One good thing that did happen today is that Sister Juris came back to church. She was in our teaching pool when I first got here but we dropped her because she seemed to have no desire. I was really glad to see her there. I hope that I can get to have a good enough relationship of trust so that after this transfer I can keep on working with her.

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Teaching by the spirit

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Well today is my brother Spencer’s birthday. It’s kind of strange because it for him isn’t until tomorrow.

Today we actually didn’t get very much work done in our area because Elder Sangco had three baptismal interviews to do. One for Elder Mathews and Catubag and two for the sisters in our district. The interviews went well but I just sat there mostly and studied.

We did have a good follow up with Brother Winie Ramos. We read a bit of 3 Nephi 11 to help him fulfill his commitment. He read about 4 chapters from the beginning of the book but he hadn’t read the suggestions yet. The spirit was there while we were reading. I have to divulge a bit. I was actually a bit frustrated at Elder Sangco. I read an article today that talked about teaching by the spirit. I really have a testimony of teaching by the spirit but today especially I was frustrated because every time the sprit would start to get strong Elder Sangco would stop reading and start pulling other references out to “prove” the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I think that we should just read and then identify the spirit and let the spirit do the rest. We really need to just be tools and let the Lord use us in the way he thinks best. We need to let the spirit do its job and not try to take its place.

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Worried about losing my trainer

Friday, August 20, 2004

Well this morning we had service again this time we swept over on roads 3 and 5 sa Crame. It was interesting but we had some OYMs there so it was good. I was talking with Elder Alongo about the upcoming transfer because Elder Sangco will be going home. He said that he was in the same situation with his trainer and he said that his follow-up trainer felt like he was re-opening the area because he didn’t know the area very well. I’ve really been trying hard to get to know the area so that when Elder Sangco leaves I’ll still be able to carry on the work.

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Three-month Mark

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Well I’ve officially been on my mission for three months now if you don’t count the day lost in traveling! 🙂 It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here for that long. Time really goes by fast. We didn’t have to go to follow-ups this morning because the sisters had their follow-ups yesterday at the zone activity. This morning we tried to visit Donde and Joy again to give them the “IBC” but they weren’t there again. Before we went back to the apartment Elder Sangco went to a photo place to get a memorial photo. We spend a lot of time and also tried to find an umbrella for me because I left my good one on a Jeep somewhere. We didn’t find one so we went to Uni-Mart[1] and then home.

In the afternoon we went straight to Corazon de Jesus. We were trying to find a sister Rose that we OYMed earlier but we “accidentally” found a different Sister Rose and shared a first discussion with her and her husband. They are poor and old Sister Rose has to provide for all of them by herself. I feel bad for them. After we finished there we had another first discussion with Brother Mel and Sister Lai. It was good I guess but it could have been a lot better. My Tagalog for that discussion is really good now. I wish we could get more 2^nd discussions and have more committeds and not just so many first discussions. I just have to keep telling myself that I’ve already seen more baptisms than some ever see. After our dinner appointment on our jeepney ride home we saw a fight. It was scarry.

[1] Uni-Mart was the only real grocery store in our area that had food I knew how to cook. Most of the natives would shop at the outdoor markets, palangkes, but I didn’t know how to cook anything from there so we had to go to this place. It actually was quite a bit more expensive that it should have been. I thought it was a pretty bad grocery store when I used it in this first area but by the time I finished my mission, I realized that it was one of the nicest stores I had been able to use.

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Zone Activity with the Parañaque Zone

Monday, August 16, 2004

Well last night I had a strange experience. I was sitting on my bed studying and the next thing I knew I was waking up at 3:00 in the morning. I didn’t even change out of my proselyting clothes! It was really weird. We had zone conference yesterday and it was really good. We talked about stewardships and it helped me a lot. We celebrated Elder Sangco’s birthday and so I got to go up and tell two things that I liked about him. I said I like how he’s always happy and how he wants to always work. I realize more and more how lucky I am to get him as a trainer and as a companion.

san juan district (me,s atanante, riparip,bautista, e mathew

Our District (the San Juan District) at the combined Zone activity. (Back: me,Sister Atanante, Sister Riparip, Sister Bautista, Elder Mathews. Front: Elder Catubag, Elder Sangco)

Today we had a Zone activity with Parañaque Zone. I enjoyed it because I got to talk to Elder Clark. He is doing really well and his Tagalog is really good. The zone activity was good I guess. It was really geared to helping fellowship our investigators that some Elders had invited. We didn’t have anyone to bring so it was kind of useless. I didn’t even get to write any letters like I wanted to there. After riding in the train back, Elder Mathews and I went to e-mail sa Crame. I found out that my family didn’t ever get my letter last week. I felt really bad because I’d tried to send photos. I sent them only a few photos today but it still filled up Mom’s mailbox and I had to send the letter to Sarah and Rebekah to make sure they got it. Because we spent so much time at the Zone activity we didn’t have time to go grocery shopping so I’m without food now.

Our “work” tonight was okay lang. we visited Sister Marisa Chamberlin and had food. She invited us to come for a birthday party for Elder Sangco on the 25^th. We’re all going. I guess it’ll be fun.

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I meet the PEC

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Well today was fairly uneventful. In the morning we had some appointments over in Corazon de Jesus but none of them were there. We came back early for lunch because we have church at 1:00 and we wanted some time. We took a bit of a rest and left for church. At church I got to help pass the sacrament and that was really good. I always enjoy getting to do that because it reminds me of when I was first ordained a deacon. We had a good discussion with Judy afterward. Sometimes the new member discussions are hard because I only have a copy in Tagalog and I don’t always know all the words. It was good this time though and I got to teach about the priesthood being the power and authority of God. I was happy because I was mostly able to understand it. After church we didn’t even get to go back to the apartment. We stayed long at church for correlation and PEC meetings. In correlation we had a good organized meeting. Elder Sangco and I did a little training on building relationships of trust. I want to get the ward missionaries to be more excited about working with us. It’s hard though for them because they don’t’ really know what’s expected of them.

Anyhow, we didn’t get to go back the apartment because we had an appointment right then. When we got to the appointment though, he was drunk and obviously couldn’t do a discussion. We were disappointed and didn’t really know what to do. We ended up visiting Nanay Jose for the rest of the night. It’s virtually impossible to work here if you don’t have an appointment after about 6:00. Our appointments fall through a lot and we are without anything to do.

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Walking home in the rain

Saturday, August 14, 2004

We had two first discussions today. The first one they didn’t really listen to us but were walking around the whole time. This one was a man and his wife and some of their family.

Our second discussion was a lot better we taught a brother that we had tracted the other day. With him were his daughter and niece. They all listened really well and were involved with the discussion. His daughter is 10 and his niece is 16. They were both really attentive as well.

We got soaked by a bit rain storm. Water was running down the street in a river and carrying all sorts of garbage and sewage along with it. We had to walk up the street in that mess and got totally soaked.

We made something called an “IBC” today. It stands for Investigator Baptismal Checklist. W, as a zone, will give it to new committeds to help them progress.

Tonight at our visit we had with Nany Jose we had a good conversation about doctrine. She has done really well in our challenge to her to read the Book of Mormon. In 3 days she’s read to Jacob! She had a question about Joseph the son of Lehi and what happened to him. We explained about some lost books and I explained to her about the 116 lost pages of Joseph and Martin. I think that she’s beginning to accept me as a missionary.

After the big rain everything was wet so we ironed out my missionary handbook to try it out.

After the big rain everything was wet so we ironed out my missionary handbook to dry it out.

After it was raining really really hard. We had no umbrellas and the roads were 4-5 inches deep in water. We had to walk back in the rain and we were totally soaked when we got back. I got some good photos!

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