Bands

Sunday May 1, 2011

Another week has come and gone- they really fly by so quickly. I swear I was just here the other day emailing you. This week, I've focused my personal study time on charity. I've realized I spent many weeks worrying about and thinking about myself and I haven't thought much about others. This is something I want to change for the transfer ahead of me. (oh- side note, this Friday is the transfer day, nothing is changing in my companionship)

One of the biggest insights I had this week about charity actually occurred during my regular Book of Mormon reading, not when I was intentionally studying charity. I was reading in the book of Mosiah, chapter 7. Ammon and some of his people go to search for a group of people who has separated from the main population a few generations before. When they find them, they are immediately taken prisoner and cast in jail for several days. When King Limhi finally gives Ammon a chance to speak, Ammon explains who he is. Ammon had come to find and help the people of Limhi and rescue them from captivity. King Limhi had imprisoned the person who had come to help, without even asking him who he was. The thing that stuck out to me most was when Ammon said, "I am assured that if ye had known me ye would not have suffered that I should have worn these bands."

So- how does this relate to charity. Sometimes, we don't know someone very well. We don't take time to talk to them and figure out who they are. Before we give them a chance we bind them with titles like "annoying," "ugly," "anti-social," or "stuck-up" or any other label. We imprison them in our thoughts and don't give them a chance. How long do we wait till we let them speak and discover that we have bound someone who can help us? How much greater would life be if we didn't label them in the first place and just let them teach us who they are?

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." -Mother Theresa

This Past week has been very exciting. The excitement began Monday as soon as I finished emailing and hasn't stopped yet.

Just after emailing we went to a less-active family to celebrate the fathers birthday and hold an FHE. The FHE never actually happened because far more people showed up to the birthday than anticipated. One of the guests was a cousin of the wife, and he was very very...very drunk. My pale skin, as normal, attracted a great deal of his attention and- in English- he asked me how long I had been in the Philippines, if I knew Hiligaynon, and how I knew Hiligaynon having only been here 3 months. I answered these three questions in Hiligaynon. Then he asked me again- all three, still all in English. Then he asked again, and then again. I'm not sure how many times he actually asked me these three questions, but that's basically how the afternoon went. We had delicious food- at one point or another the drunk man attempted to ask me to marry him, and then everyone convinced him he was to drunk and needed to go home.

Wednesday I celebrated my 6 months as a missionary mark. It's amazing how fast the time flies. I celebrated by making pancakes for breakfast. Nothing super exciting, for the most part the day just slipped quietly away. It's strange now, to realize I've already been gone for 6 months. I feel like I left yesterday, and I feel like I've been here forever.

Sunday was stake/area conference. We each met and opened as a stake, and then had a broadcast for the whole area. This area conference was part of the kick off of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of missionary work in the Philippines. It was so cool. I feel so very blessed to be here at this time and participate in this celebration. In the afternoon we headed out for our typical work day- we had an opportunity to visit Brother L, a new-ish investigator. Last time we visited we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read the introduction. With most investigators, we come back and they say they aren't finished with the intro yet. This is how our conversation with Brother L went: (translated, obviously. oh- and his answers are usually really short because he's had a stroke and has difficulty talking, he doesn't say more than he needs to)
Missionary: Did you get a chance to read, Brother?
Brother: yup
M: How far did you get, What have you been reading about?
B: Some prophet with a funny name
(at this point we are thinking, hey- that means he's at least finished the intro)
M: Do you remember what the name was, what was happening?
B: I've dog-eared the page- just look.
M: Here!?! (Pointing to a page that's been folded, nearly halfway through the book)
B: yup.
It was really cool. He says he plans on finishing it before we come back later this week and he's such a receptive investigator. I feel so blessed for the people I get to meet.

Love you all!