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| Jordan posing as "Easy Rider," Filipino style |
Well, the new year
is once again here. I have to say that
2012 was a pretty great year. I learned
a lot as a missionary - not just how to be a missionary, but how to come closer
to my Savior. And now, I have more than
a half a year to perfect my finding and teaching skills and grow my testimony
even more. So, the mission home and
office are now set up in Tarlac, and the Zone Leaders had Zone Leader's Council
at the new mission home on New Year's. I
heard it's really nice, so I'm excited to see it one day. The office is really nice, though. When we went in during Christmas Conference,
they'd just finished it, so nothing was moved in, but now everything's in place
and it looks great. The office is just
connected to the Stake Center in Tarlac, just like the mission office in Las
Vegas is connected to the Maryland/Serene building, so we can now receive mail
and pouch practically once a week now.
I'll probably be transferring in a couple of weeks, so I probably won't
be able to enjoy this blessing for much longer, but it'll be fun to take
advantage of while I'm still here. So we
had Zone Training on Thursday all about asking inspiring questions (because
President and Sister Martino said that's the mission's greatest weakness,
failing to ask faith promoting questions), and seeking the Spirit while asking
heaven-sent questions. I didn't realize
that I really need to focus on asking questions that come from the Spirit. I am grateful to President Martino for
providing such wonderful revelation. I really
worked on that during my teaching this week and we found it to be a lot more
effective. We got a new investigator
because of it, so I believe it works.
Asking people questions not only helps people learn, but it gets people
pondering about that certain question and how it applies to their relationship
with Jesus Christ. If we just ask "yes"
and "no", the people don't really learn or understand the
teaching. Well, I guess it depends on
the question, but either way, questions are better when they require thought
and contemplation. Sister Martino gave
us another reading assignment this month about Jesus Christ, but now we're
reading the Four Gospels in the New Testament to find out just how the Savior
taught and what kind of questions He used.
I've really been enjoying that.
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| Jordan and E. Rabino with a YSA group on New Year's Eve |
Alright, I don't know whether I mentioned this last week
or not, but James Guzman, Korin, and Jomel Lucas have new baptismal dates this
month that will happen on Jan. 19 (James) and Jan. 26 (Korin and Jomel). We've planned all of our teaching
appointments for the month with them, so we should be finished with all of the
lessons before then. James' interview is
this Friday, so that's awesome. No, it’s
way beyond awesome!
On New Year's Day, one of the recent converts here in the
area wanted us to change our schedule and come to her house that day to meet
her daughter before she returns for work in Angeles. So we decided to have an FHE there with some
of the YSA and our Ward Mission Leader.
Bless Nanay Elsa (RC), she's great and wants all of her children accept
the Gospel. We had a really enjoyable
FHE and her daughter enjoyed it, so hopefully that'll get her to contact the
missionaries in that area. I took a lot
of pictures there, but they didn't come out good at all, but I guess you'll
like them anyway. One of the YSA brought
a really old hymn book with her. It was
printed in the 1940s with all of the old hymns and stuff in there including, "Come
thou Fount of Every Blessing," so I took a picture of that to show you
guys. It was the first time that I've
seen an original hymn book that old. I
wasn't expecting to ever see one, especially not here, but it was pretty cool. A lot of the song names in the old hymn book
are different from the ones in our hymn books today. There are even some in different keys.
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| Hymn Book Jordan refers to above |
Well, I think that's about it for now. Oh, did we ever find out my
BYUnetworkID? Because I could get an
interview with President Martino for my ecclesiastical endorsement for the
application. I'm really sorry that I
can't remember the password, or the screen name, or the security question, so
hopefully something will happen. I'm
glad that you guys had a really good week and hope that you enjoyed your New
Year’s Eve/Day.
Oh, I met the Sister Missionaries earlier today from
Kalikid, so thank you Nanay Adonis for saying hi :). I hear that the area's going great. I forgot the names of the Sisters, but one of
them has been there for seven months now.
Lucky. I would've loved another
two transfers there, but it is what it is.
Unfortunately, they say that some of the people that we taught and
baptized are already less active :_(, but at least some of them are active
:). The sisters said that they even
baptized one of our former investigators there who didn't get baptized, because
her husband didn't want her to come to church, but I guess the husband's good
with it now, so that's awesome. Like it
says in Preach My Gospel, "No effort is wasted." Well, I will email talk to you guys again
next week.
Ingat. Mahal kayo.
Elder Jordan "Class of 2013" Royal
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