The Pass Along Card & Sunny!

Sept 4, 2011

I know that the Lord is always watching over the work that we are doing and guiding us. This week, however, I was privileged to see his guidance in small ways that really made a big difference.

Thursday morning started like any other morning, but we decided to make a quick trip to the mission office to pick up some needed supplies that couldn't wait till Tuesday (our district meeting). We came in, asked for our mail, picked up some pamphlets written in Tagalog to give to people, and headed back out. As we walked past the door, I felt this strange desire to grab a few of the English pass-along cards and put them in my bag. (a pass-along card is a card with a short message and the churches website on it, sometimes including information about the Book of Mormon or other church videos.) I knew we had some at home and I didn't really need any, but I shoved them in my bag before we headed out to work. As the day ran it's course, I didn't think again about the cards sitting in the bottom of my bag.

That evening, we hopped on a jeepnee to head home, a successful day of work over. To my surprise, I sat across from an individual almost as white as me. Following habit, I said Maayong Gabi (good evening), to which he responded, "Thanks, I'm fine, How are you?" I then continued to talk with this individual, a man from Belgium touring the Philippines, trying my hardest to make sure I only spoke English, it's surprisingly difficult sometimes. I felt a great desire to give him a pamphlet, but realized they were all in Tagalog. In fact, the only things I could think of in my bag that was in English were my personal scriptures and the letters that I had received that morning. Then I remembered the pass-along card. I was able to pull it out of my bag, explain it to the individual, and he said it sounded really interesting and he would make sure to visit the site. Then we reached our destination and hopped of the jeepnee. I'm so glad I followed that simple prompting to grab a pass-along card that morning.

Guess What! This week was sunny! It didn't rain all week... okay, well, it actually sprinkled a little bit yesterday, but other than that it didn't rain all week. It was cool.

Other than the weather, which I'm sure you are all tired of hearing about, this week was pretty great. Though also fairly difficult. This is the traditional pattern for weeks in the life of a missionary, but every week is worth it anyways. One of the most interesting things about this week has been the fact that it was the last week of one of my housemates. The last week of a housemate is somewhat difficult. They have a tendency to talk a lot about going home which gets one thinking about what they will do when they go home. But I've tried my best to remain constantly focused and worry about going home when that happens, which isn't till next year so I've got lotsa time left. (at least that's what I'm telling myself because I don't really want my mission to end, it's far to much fun). This week's also been interesting as we've waited for the transfer announcements, which we haven't yet received. I don't feel like I'm transferring, but really- anything goes so I'm not sure what might happen in the future, maybe next week I'll be telling everyone about my new area, maybe I'll just tell more stories about Oton.

Love you all!
Halong!