Well this has been one of the craziest weeks on my mission thus far, but I have loved it and never felt so lost, confused, uplifted, stressed, and loved in all my life haha (mixed emotions right? (: )
Our new opened area is Canaman D, which means there are 8 missionaries in our ward!!!! 4 Elders in our ward, the Assistants to the President (AP), and two other Elders, and we have the two Sister Training Leaders living with us, Sister Simbol and Sister Sanft.
We live in the middle of Naga City. Like no joke there are so many people here, and our area is still HUGE! I forgot to take a picture of our apartment, but it is by the huge cathedral here in Naga, down this alley way (no worries the alley way has a gate, and is a boarding house for girls, so it’s so safe). It is just weird to have alleys here, and we take our laundry to a laundry mat, and there are malls, McDonalds, banks, supermarkets... etc... So quite a switch for me and I am somewhat having culture shock adjusting to the city life again. I feel a little overwhelmed and miss the rice fields a bit, but there are pros and cons to both for sure. I think I went from the smallest town in the mission, to the biggest hahaha.
My companion, Sister Roderick, is awesome! She is from Washington D.C area, 19 yrs old, went to BYU and was Pre-Nursing, and we have some people we both know at BYU. It’s quite funny to find these connections all across the world. She left the MTC last week, and came here. So we are both non-fluent Americans walking the big streets of Naga City, but it works out great. We have no teaching pool, and very few people to visit so we will be tracting and looking for less active members all this week. Tracting is not my strongest suit, but by the end I'm thinking I might be more comfortable doing the tracting.
Last week, was really hard to say good bye to some members and I admit I cried a decent amount, but I seriously just have to make sure I can come back one day and visit them. They may or may not be expecting me to come back (:
I gave the rings that Sister Johnson had given to me and told me to give to little girls in the Philippines. I sent some pictures. They loved it! And everyone wants to order them now haha. Let Kulei know (sorry if that’s wrong spelling)!
We had one experience last week in Lagonoy when we were visiting a potential investigator and she invited us in and started asking us deep doctrinal questions about Abraham and Sarah, and I was so lost, but I realized, and tried helping her focus on the facts that there are many mysteries of God that we will never know in this life, but we must build our faith on His gospel and the things that do matter most. This really caused me to reflect on my testimony and how what really matters is the basic things I do know, and have felt are true, not all the things I don't understand or have yet to understand. That’s what's amazing about our church is even the apostles are learning every day, and don't know all the mysteries of God. We must put the effort into studying though if we want to grow.
General Conference was amazing. We got to watch all the sessions and they were in English. One favorite, I cannot remember who said it exactly, but it was the talk that mentioned the grandma saying... "why was I given a grandson who is in prison, and makes these bad choices?" and I have been asking this week "why was I given this open area, and my companion just left the MTC and I don't know how to get around this large city?", but like the revelation the Grandma received the Lord knows I could and would love this area, and my companion. He knows what’s best. He knows why people are placed in our lives. He knew I would do my best, and could do my best here in Canaman. Even if it is really hard, and I don't always make sense when I speak Tagalog, He believes in me, and He trusts me that I can.
One miracle that I already have been able to be a part of was we found a less active member, Nelly, who has not been to church in 20 years. She may not be able to come church at the moment due to persecutions, but I have never felt so strongly in my mission that we were where we needed to be, and things fell through because we needed to find Nelly. I know she felt the Spirit, and she testified that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God with tears in her eyes.
I love the Lord. I love Him with my whole heart. His work and His Glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, and I am on His errand to help in that work. I know this church is the restored church of Jesus Christ, He lives, and through Him we can be saved from our sins, if we are willing repent and give our will to Him. I love this new area, I am excited to serve here, and I hope this finds you all well and happy. When life gets hard, look up (:
xoxoxox
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