Saturday, October 2, 2004
Well last night we fell asleep while we were planning so I obviously was really tired and forgot to write. Today was an okay day. We tried to go to visit Brother W.R. this morning but he was still at the hospital being treated for “high blood.” I thought that he’d be better this week but he still hasn’t been able to come back from the hospital. They told us that he should be back later on.
I just remembered that I wanted to write about one thing that happened yesterday at our service. We did service over in the Sister’s area in Sta. Mesa and what we did is we swept an over-pass that people use to cross over the highway. There was trash everywhere and it looked really bad. While we were working of course people were still using the cross-walk. I was amazed that the men still said “hey Joe” and all the delagas, young women, still wanted to flirt with us. Here we were, two Americans, who are, supposedly, respected here and we’re cleaning up their mess and yet they still showed no respect. Elder Tipton actually got makulit with one of them and just told him straight out that he was being really rude by calling us “hey Joe.” I don’t mind serving them but when they don’t even care I get a little bit frustrated.
On a happier note we got to teach a really cool second discussion to R. C. We got a referral card with his name on it and taught a first to him on Thursday. Of course we committed him to read and pray. When we went back today, we asked him how his reading was going. He told us he’d read and then summarized what was in all of the suggested readings. He really read all of them! I was so happy. We then asked him how his prayers were and if he’d gotten an answer. He told us that he had prayed and he got an answer. Wow! We were so excited. We taught a good second to he and his mom and he accepted baptism and said he’d come to church tomorrow. He’s really an awesome brother. He’s 24 years old and he was referred by a family friend who works at the PBO. They are really close and the friend is really helpful to R. R told us the reason he accepted a visit from us is because of what he saw in his friend’s family. He said they were always so happy and welcoming of him. This really is the way it should work. The members have so much more effect than they think they do. People really do notice us and we need to take care that we’re always showing good examples to everybody.