Memories of a Mission – Page 7 – "We will work for the glory of our Lord"

Trying not to be “plastic”

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Well it’s been two day since I wrote last. I didn’t write on Tuesday because I was on exchanges with Elder Fa’oa and I was so involved with talking to him that I didn’t write. Yesterday I had just received a tape from Amy and so I listened to that instead of writing. Anyhow, right now I’m feeling kind of down about myself. I don’t know why but every time that I get into any sort of leadership position I feel awful about myself.

The sun over the rice fields

Today should have been a good day. We had three lessons and accomplished a lot of good work. I guess I’m feeling a little bit of friction between myself and Elder Cox. I don’t know why. When I had my other three senior companions I was the best of friends with them but now I’m just judgmental and hard on Elder Cox and keep on lifting my own self up. I’m going to focus my study tomorrow on how to work in a companionship and how to not make it plastic.

Adam10 February, 20158 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

“Poor people” food

Monday, February, 7, 2005

Poor people’s food actually does taste good after all. After hearing all the complaining from people about how hard life is and how the food isn’t good, I finally got to taste it for myself. We went to the Zepata family tonight hoping to teach Jun-Jun about prayer and scripture study but as it turned out he had to go down to Central to get some wood. We ended up just talking with Brother for a while and help him get comfortable with us again. He actually invited us to stay for dinner! His wife was kind of shy because the ulam (stuff on top of rice) wasn’t very good. They fed us fish, very very tasty, rice, of course, and ulam. The ulam was simple, onions, tomato, small fish, etc. just in water, but it was really good. Here at the house we don’t really have anything with flavor and so that was a rare treat. They are going to feed us again on Wednesday and I’m excited. Work was good today as well. We got to teach a first and that was refreshing.

Adam7 February, 20152 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

“You don’t have a salary!?”

Sunday, February 6, 2005

We had a good turnout at church today. Not all of the Andales family came but we visited them tonight, taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and committed them to come to church next week. Brother Andales seems to be doing well. He said that he hasn’t drunk alcohol since the last time about 3 weeks ago. If all goes well in the next couple days we’ll do his interview later on this week and have his baptism on the 19^th. Hopefully his four children will follow shortly. Tonight while we were waiting for the bus in Dagupan we talked to the pastor from the local “Four Square” church. We had a good talk. He asked us toward the end how much our salary was. When I told him that we didn’t get paid he was taken aback. He was speechless for a little bit. The bus came right then and we went back to Calintaan. I guess he felt bad for us or something because he paid our fair for us. Elder Cox and I were talking about it later and we decided that the Catholics and most of the protestant churches probably don’t really, deep down inside, believe that there is one true church on the earth. Perhaps that is one reason that they are all trying to “unite,”—because they don’t really think that anyone is correct. What a sad state to live in.

Adam6 February, 20158 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

Lots of lessons . . . and one weird one

Saturday, February 5, 2005

We taught a lot of lessons today. In fact we taught more lessons today than my whole first week in the mission. It felt really good. This morning we took the long sandy walk out to the end of Niyayos II to try for the last time to get the Andales family progressing. It is Bro Andales’s brother and if they don’t come to church tomorrow when we will wait until after Bro Andales is baptized before we go out there again. For lunch we ate rice for the first time in a while. It was good. After lunch we went and visited Bro Malakad, an inactive. I guess he’s progressing but still at a snail’s pace. We also had a good visit with Bro Aldana. We read Enos with him and had a good talk about prayer. They only thing we accomplished in Dagupan was to teach a really weird discussion off an OYM. There was a sister and a brother but they invited about seven young women to the lesson and then didn’t participate. Today the least, it was really strange. Tonight we got to read a little bit out of 3 Nephi with Jun-Jun Zepata. That was also good. He’s the first person that didn’t have to go back to review the reading when we asked him a question.

Adam5 February, 20152 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

Singing with the Andales family

Friday, February 4, 2005

Today has been a really long, hard, but also very rewarding day. I taught another lesson to Lennie Tardio on the piano. She is really improving a lot. She finally figured out how the rhythm “sixteenth-dotted eighth” is supposed to go. She really has diligence and is doing well. This morning early we went jogging.

We started doing that for 20 minutes every morning since Monday. We were just given a new health manual and so we’re following it. It feels really good to go running and I’m really enjoying it.

We got to have a really good discussion with Bro Aldana today. He shared a lot of his favorite scriptures and we taught him about missionary work and sharing the gospel. I’m continually amazed at how strong he is. Hopefully he will find the courage to let us teach his three children and his wife once she comes back from the middle-east. The spirit is really strong every time we visit him and I’m grateful to know him.

We also had a really good experience with the Andales family tonight. We got to teach all of them, both parents and all seven children, about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. This is the first time that I’ve actually seen all of them together. The spirit was really strong. We gave them the commitment to do family prayer and scripture study. Each of the children individually said that they would support it and Brother and Sister said that they would do it. To close up we sang “Sa Inyo aking Diyos, Lumalapit”or “Nearer my God to Thee.” As we were singing they were all smiling. I’ve never seen them so happy before. It must have been a reflection in some small way of the joy that will exist in the Celestial Kingdom.

Adam4 February, 20152 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

The dental mission

Thursday, February 3, 2005

I felt like we wasted a lot of time today. I’m not sure why I’m feeling that way because our stats are good and we taught two lessons. I just feel such an energy to do this work. This morning we finally got to teach Bro Dioso about the “Gospel of Jesus Christ.” We really laid the law down on him and gave him a very strong invitation to be baptized. He refused with his usual “seventh day” business. Hopefully we finally opened his thought to needing to know if we are true. He says he believes it but can’t accept going to church on Sunday. I don’t know what else to do to help him. We spent the whole morning at his house. After lunch we went up to the Regara beach resort because there is a dental mission there for a week and we wanted to see if they needed our help. Also we thought that maybe they were coming from America. Well, as it turned out, they didn’t need help and they were from Germany. Sayang!! We also tried to visit the Siscar family up in Saligsig today but they weren’t there. Tonight was good however. We got to teach a quick first to Jun-Jun Zepata and his brother. It went well even if it was kind of late. He really has a lot of potential.

Adam3 February, 20152 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

A long-short P-Day

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Today was a really lazy P-day. It is strange, but ever since Elder Cox and I have been together all of our P-days have been spent at the apartment. I did get to take a good nap that really gave me a recharge from all the sleep that I lost last week due to Bible Week. I also got to write to Grandma Arnesen and Aunt Kathy today. I’m trying to get a package ready to send home and so I’m trying also to get quite a few letters to go with it. Work wise today was kind of weak. We went out to Cansaliw first off to teach President Isla’s sister. Well, she was busy so we set a return appointment for Friday and headed back out to Dagupan. We had a lot of appointments set up there but they all fell through because people weren’t home. Finally we came back to Calintaan and were all ready and excited to teach a second lesson to AJMar Manalo. As it turned out, he was out watching a video somewhere and we couldn’t find him. The long and short of today was that it was short—short on time and short on people to teach.

Adam2 February, 20152 February, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

Getting stopped by the military (or someone)

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

We had district meeting again this morning. It was good and I learned a lot. The only problem is that today we did month end stats and so it took forever. Also, the other elders didn’t want to eat at Mackeys and so we went to P&P’s which took, again, forever. We also did our email today. It was strange because there was no letter this week from my family. I have faith that they are alright but I’m still a little worried about them. Hopefully all that happened was that the computer broke or something. I still wrote them a good long letter. Also the computer shop finally finished burning my CD so hopefully I’ll get to send a package next week for their really late Christmas package.

On the way home from San Jose, we got stopped by the army at a roadblock. I guess they were looking for somebody maybe. They had to pay them money before we left and so I’m not sure what the purpose was. This country is really just corrupt.

Our work tonight consisted of taking down the Bible display and doing a family home evening with the Andales family. The FHE went well. We shared a lesson to the Andales children about Joseph Smith. It went well. We also found out that they have 5 of their 7 children who are not yet baptized. Hopefully we’ll be able to teach them and they can all be baptized on the same day as their father. That will be our long term goal.

Adam1 February, 201525 January, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

FHE with the Vilorias

Monday, January 31, 2005

Today was back to work like normal. We taught a really strange first lesson out in Niyayos this morning. At first brother told us that he wanted us to just sit and talk to him all day long. We obviously couldn’t just do that and so we decided to teach him instead . . . surprise, surprise. That’s just what missionaries do! J We taught and all went well until I tried to commit him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he’d read if he had time but then about the praying and asking God if it is true; he just told me that it was up to me if he prayed. Well, I was more than a little confused by that. Anyways, it was a strange experience. I’m not sure what will happen there. It is sad sometimes because people don’t’ understand that there really is a loving powerful God that twill hear and answer if they just have faith.

Ramil Viloria

Michelle Viloria

Samuel Pulido

We had a good family home evening tonight with the Viloria family. They are so great. I started the lesson by showing the little girls a picture of Joseph Smith and asking them who he was. Both of them knew exactly who he was. I was really impressed. Also we shared about the first vision and I also asked them who appeared to Joseph Smith and both again knew who they were. Brother and Sister Viloria have really done a good job with them and they’ve only been members for a couple of months. I hope every day that I will get to see them at the temple at the end of this year. We also got the chance tonight to give a blessing to Gabriel Viloria, their little boy. It was the first time that I’ve done it all in Tagalog. Bro Pulido was also there and so he got to see how it works.

Adam31 January, 201525 January, 2015 Calintaan No Comments

President and Sister Beck visit

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Today was the final day of “National Bible Week.” I’m really glad that it is over because even though it was a great opportunity it demanded a lot of our time and hurt our work a little. I’m excited for next week that we’ll get to move on and just do normal missionary work. After church block today, Pres. and Sis. Beck came and paid us a quick visit. They went with us down to the Catholic Church to see the exhibit about the Bible. They also met Father Redz and complimented him greatly for his work. President even gave him some money to help build the church. I am really grateful that they were able to come out because it served to open Father Redz understanding even more of the church. I think that we’ll try to teach him.

Elder Cox and Me with Father Redz at the Catholic Church

As the final part of Bible week, we had a program at the municipal, in the “plaza.” I thought it would be good but it turned out to not be very good at all. There was absolutely no spirit there at all and I felt like I was doing something wrong. I felt sorry that we’d had the members come to a thing that was that bad. I was hoping that when Pres. Isla gave his prayer that the spirit would come but Pres. didn’t give a very humble prayer and he tried to imitate the other preachers in his prayer. He also used some fairly inflammatory language and I hope it didn’t just serve to close people’s minds against the church. I walked out of the assembly and we had to pray before the spirit came back.

Church today was good. I had a good talk with Bro Aldana before Sunday school and I told him about how this waiting really will help him. Of course he’s sad to have to wait but I really think it will be best if he does wait.

Again the experience at the closing program just really strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the church. I understand what a great gift it is to have the gift of the Holy Ghost an also the priesthood. I also understood more now why it is important for investigators to come to the church. Even when the meeting is really crazy the spirit is there in greater power than they have ever felt before.

Adam30 January, 201525 January, 2015 Calintaan No Comments