Okay my incredibly rural mother started her letter to me with "Howdy partner!" I'm not the only one that finds that out of her nature am I? haha
Well I'mma chillin in a somewhat air conditioned internet cafe in Ternate, Cavite. Livin' as the great Kanye would put it "the good life." Well actually, my "good life" and his "good life" are probably two completely different things but hey to every man his own. It's so weird how things like tricycles, internet cafes, and Filipino people have become so normal to me! hahaha I love the Filipinos! I decided that I'm like half-Filipino cuz... pretty much just cuz. haha It's fun being with Elder Handy cuz it's like I am the Filipino. Cuz like white people are noticed like no other here, especially a white person wearing a shirt and tie and all that jazz. But when you're companion is 6'7", white, blonde hair, blue eyes, etc. Oddly enough, he gets most of the attention from passerby's.. Hmm.. weird. I guess I am Filipino! Woo!
Is it so nice to get back in the swing of everyday, regular missionary work?
It is pretty nice. It hasn't been too hard adjusting cuz in the office too we'd come home and just be completely exhausted. Elder Handy and I were talking about it last night. Missions are just like straight up exhausting every day. But like President Stucki has said that it feels so good, no matter what you're doing, to just be exhausted at the end of the day because you're working so hard. It's a satisfying kind of feeling.
You didn't give a lot of detail on your baptism a few weeks back.
Yeah, I guess I didn't haha. Well the kid's name is Jose Marcel Dingco. He's a stud. He's 14 and his mom was a less-active member but she's active again and we've been teaching those two at the same time. When I first met Totoy (he goes by Totoy. I believe its pretty similar to Bunso), he was pretty shy and pretty quiet, but I got to know him and he's awesome. His testimony first started to grow in the Book of Mormon. We'd leave him things to read, and I gave him a highlighter so he could mark the stuff he liked. He was very consistent in his reading and we always had him share what he learned or liked from the chapter or chapters we left him. From there I really began to see him change. We continued teaching him until he was like a different guy. Now he's outgoing, dances around, laughs, jokes, plays basketball with the branch, and all that jazz. I don't know what it was, but now you can really see the Light of Christ reflected in his attitude. He's really opened up and become a better, happier person because of the gospel.
How did your exchange go?
So yeah, I held my first exchange with the district earlier this week. It was pretty cool. I worked in the Maragondon area with Elder Bollena. Elder Bollena is from Tacloban and is awesome and is actually 27 but if you look at the picture he's definitely not any older than me.. haha So the exchanged started with a pretty funny story. I'll now proceed to quote from my journal. (Note: Look at me go! Writing in my journal...!) haha "So last night we went outside to take out the trash, and no sooner had we shut the door than did he realize that the keys were on the other side of that locked door. Butt. So we try to jimmy it open. No dice. So I say I'll sacrifice my laminated picture of me and my parents to try and open the door. No dice. Alright...time to start thinkin like a criminal... So we jimmy open a window but its barred and has a screen. Elder Bollena thought the keys were on his desk right below that window so we're almost in the clear. We bend the screen frame and start trying to feel for the keys. No dice, just lots of cuts/scratches on our arms from the screen...haha So we go and ask the resident bakla for keys. He/she/it tries all the keys. No dice. So bakla goes back and gets one of those little straight razors to try and stick in the door to get it. No dice. It goes and gets this guy smokin a cig in front of the tindahan. He walks over, and tries the door knob. Locked (Uh. Duh?). He takes a step back, puts his cig out on the wall, and tries again. Yep, its still locked.. "I'm goin call back-up," he said. And he called his little brother. His little brother comes over and tries the door. And wouldn't you imagine. . .I guess he doesnt have the midas touch either cuz its still locked. So they go and get a ladder. Ayan! Now we're thinkin! This ladder was sketch but it reach our second floor balconyish thing. Oh and don't forget about bakla. It's still hangin out there doing the weird stuff the only baklas do... So little brother climbs up the sketchy ladder and checks the door up there. Locked! Butt! But tis okay cuz this kid is determined. He scales/shimmys on this little ledge towards the 2nd floor window. Success! It opens and he climbs in and comes down stairs and lets us in! Woo!" So thats how our wonderful exchange started, but the rest went really well. This companionship has struggled the last couple weeks, but it was weird cuz Elder Bollena and I taught as many lessons that day than they taught the whole last week... So yeah.. Oh and Elder Bollena has a sick conversion story, I'll tell you it sometime if you remind me at any time in the future.. haha
So this week has been pretty awesome! You need to check out the pictures cuz its definitely one of my best weeks for pictures.. haha
This week we've seen a lot of progress with the husband of one of our pinaka-awesome investigators. At first he like didn't want anything to do with us. So Monday we had FHE at their house and focused on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We brought the Paddocks with us and some fellowshippers from the branch and it went really well! The Paddocks at the end were like well, we hit him with everything we got but I think he took it pretty well. This guy works in Makati so he's only home on the weekends so we challenged him to read the book of mormon after work while he was in Makati. Unfortunately he forgot it... Oh well. We went back and saw him on Saturday and when we walked in he was like "Hey Elders! How's it goin??" Like a complete change. It was awesome to see the Lord softening his heart. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and his family and it went really well! We talked to them about what they learned from that chapter afterwards and his wife was like "I learned about baptism and I really want to get baptized to receive a remission of my sins. I just hope my husband will allow me." Keep in mind that her husband is sitting right there next to her.. haha Then on Sunday, in gospel principles class, she was like I really really wanna join the church. haha She's awesome. Her and her daughter have a baptismal date fro Sept 15 and we're still working little by little on brother. But it has been really cool to see the Lord begin to soften his heart as we've been pleading in prayer to do so. At first we would have just been content to soften his heart to the point of allowing his wife to be baptized but now I'm thinking he's going to read the Book of Mormon (he likes reading) and get an answer and join his family in the church and then be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple! His wife already has her eyes set on the temple.. haha
Another cool success story this week was with a family that is moving towards activity and towards the temple. We challenged them to start reading the Book of Mormon together every day. So in conjunction with that challenge we read the first chapter of 1 Nephi with them. It went pretty well and we challenged them to read the second chapter before we came back. We came back and they had only been able to read like half-ish of the chapter. So we decided to read that chapter with them too. At the end we were discussing it and things really began clicking for them. I mentioned about how reading the Book of Mormon together cover to cover will be one of the biggest things that will help them get to the temple. And I saw a spark just flicker in Sister's countenance. That that was something that she really wanted. Then Elder Handy talked about how much we've learned so far and its only been two chapters. And they were like yeah! You're right! So its awesome! We think that they're one of the families that are on the right track of not only becoming active in the church but in the gospel as well.
In cool news, we had a less-active return to activity on Sunday, and it was fast and testimony Sunday. So what do you know? He gets up and bears his testimony! I was like what?? Thats awesome! It was like seriously one of my proudest moments! I don't know why I was so pumped but like it was awesome! I think its just like the satisfaction of someone you've been working hard with, someone you've been teaching these things, someone you love and pray for... and then he bears his testimony almost validating all of your hard work and making it known to you that he knows what you're teaching is true. Ewan.. Basta it was cool!
In other news, my companion got peed on by a two-year old child. That brings the total up to two companions that have been peed on my children. #GoingForTheRecord
Well I began with the words of the wise Kanye West and so I'll end with the equally wise words of Jacob Gadberry that I read nearly weekly..
"That's pretty much it. See ya."
Elder Michael Gadberry
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