I'm glad to hear that you all had a great Thanksgiving!! This week was sure a good one!
On P-Day last week I got to play basketball with some of the youth and it was fun, but really frustrating because they just leave a player at the other end of the court and then throw the ball down to him, so they just cherry pick. And that's how they play. So, not really fun haha, but it's okay.
We had the opportunity to do a service project for two women in our ward, and what it consisted of was digging out trash and making a trench/gutter type of thing. It's really sad because people just throw their trash anywhere, and this had just built up and was nasty mud/gunk kind of stuff. We cleared it out with shovels and made it pretty nice, water can flow down pretty well now. I was reminded of all the times working for Bishop Scott and how much that helped me, two of the other Elders didn't really know what to do haha. After the service project they gave us this dessert called Biko, which is like a sticky rice dish, and it was soooooooo good! Pinika Masarap! It was warm and to me is the equivalent of German Chocolate cake frosting, but with rice instead of all the coconut, but there is still coconut. Anyway, I'm going to try and be an expert at cooking it by the time I return.
We have two investigators that are being baptized, one
this saturday and the other
next saturday. I am really excited, and their families are interested now too. One of the girls older sister lost her job and was really having a hard time and the other day I was talking to her (trying at least) and she was just so worried about life, and didn't really have any idea what to do. She is 21 and can't afford school so it's hard for her. I realized the love that Heavenly Father has for all of his children, for all of us, and how he just wants us to reach out to him and trust him and through that action we receive help, and comfort. We have taught her a couple times and she understands a lot and asks really good questions, so we are working on her.
We also met with a Less Active member who we ran into a couple of weeks ago, and met with them. The father is not a member, but his wife is, and is actually endowed. Their son went on a mission too! And right now he is working in the Cebu temple! The whole family are members except for the father, but sometimes he will go to church. To be honest I don't know the details of the situation because I had no idea what anyone was saying. But when we arrived at the house the father didn't want to come out on the porch and Elder Masula was really persistent and got him to come out! I would've just let him stay in there, but I think that is part of the culture, or not rude to be persistent, I don't know. But basically it got really spiritual and I was really bummed I couldn't understand anything, but the wife said to him, "Don't you want to be with your family together forever?" and then Elder Masula talked about his dad, and his conversion and how they ended up getting sealed as a family, and I thought of Dad and how he decided to be baptized and we were sealed. It was a really cool experience, and the Father was just so, prideful I guess you could say. He would never really answer questions right away, and just mutter something, but when Elder Masula told his experience and about his father, and then the wife asked if he wanted to be together he started crying and went inside to hide his tears and came back, and his heart was softening. He let us come back again and Elder Masula challenged him to be baptized and he agreed. The family was not really sure, they have the "I'll believe it when I see it attitude" but I was still really neat to see how much this man loved his family. He wanted to know why his son left for 2 years and has a very deep love for his wife, I can't wait to go back again and teach him, and see him progress.
Yesterday,
Sunday, I had a very fun experience, I was asked to give the concluding talk because the speaker didn't show up. And I was asked 5 minutes before sacrament meeting started. Luckily I had brought the Ensign and was able to talk about two talks and give scriptures about them and things I learned from my personal study that week. I t was in english, so the Senior Missionary couple were really happy about that haha. I talked about trials and why they are given to us, and about President Monson's talk, I will not fail thee or forsake thee, and Elder Vinson's talk at the
sunday afternoon session. Basically, The Lord can prevent anything, but he allows things to happen to test us and to allow us to grow. That is why he had the Brother of Jared think of the idea for getting light, and that is why he was going to send the waves and the storms to get them to the promised land. We need to always remember that the Lord is with us, and knows what we are going through. And I love what President Monson says how we need to take the trials we are given as an opportunity to refine ourselves and grow. That should be our purpose and goal. We may be tempted to ask, "Why Me" but we need to remember to have patience, and when we make the gospel of Jesus Christ the center of our lives, we will be able to endure all.
I love it when investigators come to church, and the Galang Family- The one with the really tall kid- came and are going to play basketball with him next sat. We taught their family
, and they are so into it, it is awesome! We talked a lot about The Book of Mormon and read with them, and Patrick read and knew a little bit and he just seems to have such a strong desire it is so awesome, I can't even explain the feeling I get when I see his face and the look of intent he has to hear more!
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