May Sipon Pa La Ako (Translated: I Still Have a Cold)

This week was a little slow for me, only because my cold got worse. (I’ve had a cold for over a week now and it has really been annoying.) It actually got so bad that I was told to stay inside for a couple days so I could get better. That made life boring and was very disappointing. It wasn't all bad, though. I got a lot of reading done in the scriptures and Jesus the Christ. I'm glad that I started reading Jesus the Christ again after about 20 months of my last reading of it. It's really interesting and so inspiring.

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago when the missionaries celebrated Elder Adorza's birthday

Colored spoons for candles made it easier
for Elder Adzora to make a wish

I just realized again that our area is really, really challenging. Not only do we face rejection with almost everyone we talk to, but the people we do end up teaching can't afford to come to church with the little money that they have. It costs 100 pesos just for someone to travel Gapan for church and another 100 pesos to return home. Until we get a meeting house built in our area, I don't really see it progressing all that much. It is just such a big obstacle for people to financially attend church on a regular basis. However, one less active family came to church yesterday with their non member father and we were able to teach him for the first time after church. He seems really interested and could be the answer to our constant prayers to find people to teach. Let's just hope and pray that we'll be able to have a lot of progress with him. I would love to see him baptized before I leave the area. That would be really cool. Other than that, we pretty much struck out with every appointment we scheduled. Here’s a story that sadly represents what happens all too often here. We went to teach this "Golden Referral" that one of the missionaries gave to us. As we were walking towards the house, we saw three people get up from their chairs and run away. When we asked some neighbors where their house was, they pointed to a large house and said: "I think it's this one?" (You "think"? You've probably been neighbors for years and you "think" it's over there? I didn't say that, but we just played it off and went to house to see if anyone would answer the door.) When we went to the house and knocked, no one answered and the neighbors then told us that they had gone to Gapan. (Man, those people can really run fast if they already made it to Gapan.) That was a little frustrating, but it is an all too common occurrence. You can't do anything about it but carry on and have faith that there are people right now somewhere in our area prepared to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ who will run to us to receive His message of salvation and exaltation (instead of running from us). What makes these experiences so heart wrenching is that we have so much love for these people and so badly want to teach the Savior’s Plan of Happiness. I suppose it is all part of the mission experience, which makes the highs from those accepting the gospel so great.

The APs worked with us on Friday, so it was fun hanging out with Elders Palmer and Dadizon. I am presently working in Elder Dadizon's old area, so we went to the Galang Family's house at the end of our work day for dinner and played Uno. I hadn't played Uno in years. It's actually pretty fun.

Jordan doing some intense fishing at Santo Cristo

Well, I'm pretty sure that's it for this week. Sadly, it’s not much. Sometimes mission life has its challenging weeks. This was one of those, for me. Anyway, Dad, happy birthday. I hope you have fun partying this week. Oh, and Dad, I was blown away that my friend Elder Yu is serving in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission and that you got to meet him. That’s amazing. What a small world. (He’s from Australia and we used to hang out in the dorms at Helaman Halls. Great guy.) Please tell Elder Yu I said hello. I am glad to hear that Beckham had a fun birthday and that Kambria will have her baby soon. I left on my mission as a brand new uncle when Beckham was a month old and will return as an uncle of four. That is awesome. Okay, that should do it. I hope that everyone has a great week! Love you all and please stay safe.

Elder Jordan "nasipon" Royal