Thanks for the awesome email today dad. I'm super lucky that I have you two as parents, I always hear about other missionaries with family problems and teach people with broken families and that has caused me to think many times how lucky I am that you are such great parents and that I have such awesome siblings, no wonder I was so homesick at the beginning haha.
I wish I would have understood how awesome Elder Craven was back when I was at home, I didn't know anything about the quorum of the 70's or mission presidents and I remember that every time that we went to that temple class, I would just watch the clock until we could go home haha. I am super grateful that they took the time to teach me though.
As for being an assistant, I've taught a few classes now and I've driven a couple of times. I usually don't know what I'm doing and then I just get up there haha, but I taught the mission a couple times as a zone leader. Look up on your phone the underground river in Puerto Princessa, it's one of the 7 wonders of the world and we are going to go there in March! We're going to Palawan to teach at zone conferences in the end of February too! It's awesome!
Our area hasn't baptized anyone in a year and the assistants haven't baptized anyone in about 8 months, so we've been praying pretty hard for miracles since we get about half the working time of a regular missionary. Our prayer was answered last night.
Two nights ago, no one wanted to hear us, they were all just telling us they were busy, so we stopped what we were doing and said a prayer that Heavenly Father would lead us to someone who was ready. We all split up on the street and each knocked on a door (there are 3 of us) The door I knocked on had a small family in it watching tv. They didn't want to talk to me, so I switched to speaking to Ilokano, (a province language) to get their attention haha and the mom, came over and talked to me. They said that they were busy as well, but that we could come back the next day.
Yesterday, we returned and they let us in to teach. The kids weren't there, so we taught the mom and her husband. Before we could say anything, Gemma told us that she was a "devoted Catholic" and that she would listen but that we better not try to convert her. We said we wouldn't (but we were lying haha) and we started the lesson. As we talked to them, we found out that Billy and Gemma both have family that are members and that when Gemma was a teenager, she attended church a couple of times. The lesson was pretty regular until we got to the part about Joseph Smith. The atmosphere in the room changed as the Spirit entered and as we handed sister Gemma a Book of Mormon, she began to cry. When we asked why, we heard the story about why she opened the door the night before, it had nothing to do with my Ilokano skills haha. A couple days before, she was talking to her friend about how the word of God should be free and how they shouldn't charge people for the Bible and that she wished that someone would give her one. Then, a couple nights ago when I knocked on her door, she said she wanted to just ignore me, because missionaries for all religions apparently, including ours drop by there all the time and they annoy her, but she said that she felt something whisper to her to open the door, so she did.
At the end of the lesson, we extended baptism and they accepted. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers and I know that He will help us set this area on fire so we can be a better example for the mission.
Follow up:
How is the trans am? You don't have much longer and if its not done, then I'm just not going to come home. Haha
Letter to Mom...
I just sent dad the best email in the world, so you can read that too, but yes we have a microwave! And my first p day in the mtc I bought some popcorn and saved it, just in case I ever got a microwave. I ate the whole box this week and it was awesome!
I love you mom, thanks for that awesome quote!
I am super lucky that I have you two as my parents, pray that we can have some great stuff happen in our area and also that dad will start working on the trans am.
No comments:
Post a Comment