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| Jordan's big box got rave reviews in the Angeles Mission Home . . . the Adonis family is hoping for some chocolates |
I’m training now!
Pretty awesome stuff. My new
companion, anak, is Elder Dela Paz from Dabaw City, Philippines. Which is on that big island on the bottom of
the Philippines - which also means that Tagalog isn't his first language. It's not even his second language, but his
third. He speaks Bisaya, Cebuano,
Tagalog, and English - all of which he's very good at. Amazingly, Elder Dela Paz is only five years
old . . . because his birthday is Feb. 29th. (He likes to joke about that a lot. haha.)
I was pretty nervous about training, but that all went away and I am
super excited now. Elder Dela Paz is a
great guy, an excellent missionary, and I see us having a lot of success
together. More on how all that developed
below, after I tell how things went from the beginning of the week.
Since I was without a companion from Monday-Wednesday, I
worked with Elders Declaro and Ilayat in Mayantoc. That was pretty fun. Working with Elder Declaro reminded me of
when we were in Kalikid together just a short time ago. And Elder Ilayat is just a missionary working
and teaching machine. He does not waste
any time. As a result, we taught a lot
of lessons. Since almost everyone here
speaks Ilocano, communicating in Tagalog can be challenging. Ilocano is really hard to understand -
especially when Elder Ilayat and the other people they talk to each other while
we're there. I find I am able to pick up
a couple of sentences and phrases in Ilocano here and there, but that's about
it. Elder Ilayat's first language is
Ilocano, so he's the only one who understands them. When he would teach people in Ilocano, Elder
Declaro and I had absolutely no idea what was being said. All we could do is just give an occasional
thumbs up to indicate that what Elder Ilayat said is true. (haha.)
Anyway, now for the highlight of the week...transfer
announcements. Like last transfer,
everyone was congratulating me on becoming a trainer before announcements were
made (especially Elder Declaro). I then
just joked with him on how he would become a zone leader and would have to
transfer. Both of those predictions came
true. Elder Declaro became the zone
leader in Tarlac Zone and I am now a trainer (tatay). I was not initially excited about it. First, I hate to see Elder Declaro go. I really enjoy working with him. Then, I questioned my readiness to be a
trainer. I also wondered about the kind
of success we would have together in Mamonit, where the work has been so sadly
difficult. Finally, I still question my
ability to speak the language well enough to lead other missionaries. Nevertheless, I took it as an opportunity to
improve my language and become closer to God than ever through very sincere,
humble prayer. I prayed for the courage
and help that I needed to be excited to meet the new missionary (my son or anak
ko).
I woke up 4:30 am on Thursday feeling a little better
than I did the day before, just more tired.
Yeah, that was the second time this week I had to wake up before 5:00
a.m. (Yay for lack of sleep!) The three of us met up with the other future
trainers at the Tarlac Chapel, and guess who else I saw? Sister Sharp from my MTC District! I totally called it. Everyone in my district is or has trained
already now except for Elder Brown.
Elder Bell, from my MTC batch, is also training. We all met at the mission home tired, feeling
inadequate, and scared to meet our mga anak.
Twelve new missionaries entered the field that day and none of them are
foreigners. Everyone that is training
(except for one) are all foreigners. We
had a workshop with President Martino about our new responsibilities and then
we went upstairs to meet everyone. The
trainers were on one side of the room, the new missionaries on the other. My companionship with Elder Dela Paz was the
first announced and all my fear and anxiety was immediately replaced with joy
and excitement. All of the worries and
concerns that I had earlier that day just vanished. While I still feel a little unprepared, that
sudden change in emotion was very comforting.
We ate at the mission home, which is always awesome! It seems that I was just there even though
it's been seven months.
 |
| Let's have another look at that wonderful big package . . . shall we? |
Oh! So about my
big package...I saw it. So that's
good. I didn't want to carry it because
it was too heavy and it would've taken up a lot of room on the way home. Sister Martino said that they would drop it
by this week, so I will just let them take care of that. It's in Camaling right now, so they're
supposed to bring it by today.....daw.
(I can hardly wait to write you about how much fun we had opening it.)
My first day of working with Elder Dela Paz was really
interesting and a pleasant surprise. Our
first lesson was with a less active member, so we just shared a spiritual
thought and stuff. When it was Elder
Dela Paz's turn to speak, I thought he would nervously testify to her that our
message was true (like my first day), but there was none of that. When he started teaching, it seemed like he'd
been out way over a year on his mission.
He showed absolute poise and courage when he taught, with no hesitation.
I was completely shocked. I would not have expected that from a brand
new missionary (Filipino or foreigner).
He even gave them a commitment to them to keep for our next visit. Wow.
Talk about a well prepared new missionary! Elder Dela Paz and I get along very well with
each other. He's pretty funny. He really wants to learn Ilocano and always
asks people how to say certain things.
Since Elder Timbas left, everyone in the ward just wants to help us all
of the sudden - including our ward mission leader, who didn't work with us at
all for over two months. Sunday was a
pretty good day. During our PEC meeting,
we came up with a less active reactivation plan that will hopefully work like
it did Kalikid when I was there. Elder
Dela Paz is just an awesome guy. We are
going to have a great couple transfers together.
I’m sorry for emailing you guys so late today. We went to Tarlac this morning and played
basketball against the Tarlac Zone.
Everyone in the zone is new now, so it was cool to meet everyone. Elder Ilayat is still in Mayantoc and is
leading the area after only one week, which would be next to impossible for me,
but this guy is just awesome - very experienced and motivated. This is his last transfer before he goes
home, so he's definitely sprinting to the end.
(It is nice to watch a missionary sprinting to the end of his
mission. Elder Ilayat is a great example
of diligence.) We've become best
friends, so it'll be sad to see Elder Ilayat go. It's really funny to talk to him, especially in
English (haha). Elder McCormack
transferred and stepped down as a zone leader and became a co-senior for his
last transfer. I saw him for the last
time earlier in the week. He'd been my
zone leader since January, so we got really close, too.
Well, I think that will just about do it for me this
week. Hoping to receive my package
today. Mahal na mahal ko kayo! Thanks for all of the emails and updates!
Elder Jordan "Tatay" Royal
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