Man! I can't
believe that it's already been over a year since I entered the MTC! On this day a year ago, I was with my awesome
MTC district watching General Conference for our first weekend in the
mission. I can remember that day very
vividly. I also the day that I entered
the MTC. I can't believe it's been a
year since then. SOOOOOO much has happened
in my life this past year. Not only for
me, but for you guys, too! I'm excited
to see what will happen to us this year.
Yeah!
 |
| Jordan with Elder Batingal, and the bishop and his wife |
Well, a lot has happened this week. We taught tons of lessons this week (over 40
again), but it felt like nothing was really coming out of them, because only
one investigator attended church and the attendance at church seems to be
decreasing each week. A lot of people we
teach, investigator or less active, are waiting for the chapel to be finished
before returning to church, they want the bishopbric to change, the ward to
split, or provide some other excuse.
It's hard to hear those kind of things.
The members don't know that the Church organization is/and will always
be true and perfect, but the members aren't.
Come on. We're all human aren't
we? I sometimes wonder what it be like
if a church member offended me (accidently or on purpose), would I forgive them
and go back to church? I would hope
so. We only hurt ourselves when we take
offense and hold onto negative feelings.
Anyway, as I said earlier, I thought that we didn't
really accomplish anything, because of the outcome of the week. However, on Sunday afternoon, we went and
taught one of our part-member investigators, Mak-Mak. He's living with his extremely rich cousins,
the Cortados, who are very active in the Church. Their daughter is actually serving right now
in the Philippines Angeles Mission.
Guess which Zone she's in - the Tarlac Zone. She's only about an hour drive away from
home. I don't know how all that worked,
but it's what the Lord wants. Her mom is
always asking us how she's doing and stuff and giving us letters to give to
her. She goes home in January, so that's
not too long. Anyway, Mak-Mak is 18, and
he's super awesome. He's been taught by
the missionaries for some time and been coming to church, so it's like he's
already a member. Well, we taught an
awesome about the feelings of the Holy Ghost.
Many people do not understand how the Spirit works, so after we
explained him the feelings of the Spirit and used Moroni 7 to teach hime about
how to know if something is of God.
Mak-Mak has been feeling the Spirit for awhile, but he really didn't
know what he was feeling until we taught him that lesson. We then invited him to be baptized on October
20. He gladly accepted and is
excited.
 |
| Jordan with Elder Batingal and Randy |
Other than Mak-Mak, we don't have any other investigators
as far along as him. However, we have
others that are progressing. Like 22
year-old Mark. He received a witness
that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, but
he's not coming to church. We'll
probably have to teach him about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. He's got a lot of potential, though. We also talked with a lot of people on the
street this week. When we would go back
for a return appointment with them, most of them just run and hide in their
house. I don't understand why people
don't just come out and plainly tell us that they're not interested. That would make life easier for
everyone. We respect all religions. We only invite people to come unto Christ and
add to their knowledge about Him. We did
have a pretty funny experience with this yesterday. We went to teach this old Tatay, who'd been
really nice to us during past lessons, but he hid when we came to his
house. When we left, we came back about
a half hour later and saw him in the bukid.
We decided to see if we could catch up with him. He was pretty far, we kept getting closer and
closer to him. We really weren't walking
that fast, but as we closed in on him, he began walking faster, and did not
look back. When he got to the highway,
we saw him practically running. By the
time we arrived at the highway, he was gone.
(Haha. O Tatay.)
Elder Batingal and I are having fun together. He goes home at the end of the month. We like to joke with each other and quote
funny quotes from the Tagalog version of, "The Restoration"
video. "Joesph, matagal na hindi
ka nagsisimba" (You haven't been coming to church Joseph). "Ganoon ba? Huwag kang maging palawo iho" (I see.
Be aware of pride boy.). It's
only funny because the way he says it (haha).
 |
| Jordan, doing some sole searching |
Well, I thought I wasn't going to tell you this, but I'm
pretty much out of stories, so I guess I'll tell you. So for the first time in my life, I got a
really painful boil on my chin. Like, it
was numbing my chin and it hurt to talk.
I always shower and have no idea how I got it. Anyway, that was when I first got here. Then on Monday, it got to point where I could
get rid of it. I'll just tell you that
it consisted of a hot towel, a needle, and some anti-bac ointment. So that one's gone. Then a few days later, I got another one, but
in a more painful spot: ride smack dab in the middle of my left armpit. Boy, it hurts a lot more than the one on my
face. I think that the bacteria is still
in my body and traveled to a different spot.
I'm taking antibiotics, so it should be gone this week. Hopefully by tomorrow, because it really
hurts to move my arm. I don't think I've
ever been through so much pain like that before until now. Wow.
I'm not telling you this to worry you, (trust me, I'm totally fine), but
to inform you about what's going on in my life.
(Job’s entire body was covered by boils.
Wow, I can’t begin to imagine how terrible that would be.)
 |
| Not a sole survives |
I think that'll do it for this week. We have ZL/DL Conference this week on
Wednesday, so I'll hopefully get some mail (including Mom's package for
me). I hope that everyone is going well
over there. I can't believe that General
Conference is already this weekend! I
watched that for my first Sunday in Mamonit.
Time flies. Well. I can't wait to see you guys in another year,
but I won't let that hurt the work. I
will keep working with all my heart, might, mind and strength, with an eye single
to the glory of God! Alright. Peace!
Mahal ko kayo.
Elder Jordan "1 Year Missionary" Royal
No comments:
Post a Comment