Precious!

June 5, 2011


Precious and her family on the day of her baptism

Precious:
There was once a sweet couple who, though they had been married for years, did not have any children. They wanted to, but this was a blessing they had not yet received in their home. They decided that they would try for one more year to have a child of their own and then look into adoption. The mother had a strong impression that there was a precious soul waiting to come to their home.
After months of fervent prayer and fasting, the mother became pregnant. The pregnancy was not easy, for many months she was restricted to complete bed rest. The doctors were very concerned about the baby who, though seemed healthy and had a strong heartbeat, hadn't yet moved. The mother gently placed her hand on her stomach and softly whispered "Precious"... for the first time the child moved.
After that, whenever the simple word "Precious" was stated, the baby moved. A healthy baby girl was soon born. As the doctor handed her to her mother and asked her what they were going to name her, the mother responded "Precious" and the tiny baby opened her eyes and smiled.
I had the opportunity to meet Precious nearly nine years later. She was preparing to be baptized, an event which in our church usually occurs shortly after the child's 8th Birthday. Though nearly 9, Precious had not been baptized. The primary reason- she was terrified of water. She would not get into water deeper than her knees, whether it was the ocean, a pool, or a bathtub. But she wanted to be baptized because- as she said it- "It's what Heavenly Father wants me to do." And so she turned to prayer. My companion and I taught Precious of the power of faith and the importance of her baptism as we helped her prepare for her baptism day.
Just this Saturday, Precious was baptized by her grandfather. If you listened carefully, you could hear her whisper a soft prayer before getting into the font. She clung tightly to her grandfather's arm and to the railing. The moment her baptism ended, she practically ran out of the water. But when she came back into the room, her face was filled with a huge smile and her eyes glittered with joy.

Evidence:
This week was also filled with evidence that my Heavenly Father, as well as lots of people back home, love me very much. The week started off with me beginning to crave red vines, a candy unavailable here in the Philippines. I knew my mom had just barely sent me a package so it would be a long time before another would be sent that I could request her to put red vines into. On Tuesday, every road we walked down seemed to be playing the same song, a song that always reminds me of my best friend because of the number of times we've sung it together on Karaoke Revolution. It made me miss her sooooo much. On Wednesday I find myself wishing I had a dry erase board for practicing Hiligaynon, I've found the easiest way to remember words is to write them over and over. Thursday was similar to Tuesday, though with a different song. All in all, I was having a very unusual week and missing the people and things I left behind.
Friday is cargo day- that's the day that the mail and any supplies we need for missionary work is delivered to our apartment. In the cargo I received a letter from my best friend letting me know that she was doing okay and that she had been thinking about me. I felt so special and strongly felt that it couldn't just be coincidence that I received a letter from her the same week I was missing her so much. In addition to this letter, I received an unexpected package from a family friend. It contained red vines, a dry erase board and markers, along with a dozen other random things like construction paper, markers, and pop rocks. Once again- coincidence isn't enough to provide one with red vines and a dry erase board the week one wants both so much. I'm so very blessed to have a Heavenly Father who loves me, as well as so many people back home who love me and support me as well. Thank you!

Three Things!

May 29, 2011

Here are three interesting things I've experienced this week. They don't have much to do with missionary work or church itself, but they are unique experiences that stuck out to me this week.

MILK
I stand in the grocery story looking at the shelves in front of me. I am not in the refrigerator section of the store. The shelves contain cartoons of a substance that claims to be milk. They are stamped with statements like "Produced July 2010, Consume before July 2011." I'm scared...
I love milk. By myself I usually drink an entire gallon in a week Since getting to the Philippines I haven't touched the stuff because milk is not something that ought to be stored on a shelf with a life span of an entire year. I'm comforted only slightly by the fact that it says consume within one week of opening.
My love for milk and my curiosity finally pushed me to experimentation. So I purchase a small "snack size" cartoon of milk and a package of cookies to go along with it. After giving it a day in the fridge to get sufficiently cold the cartoon is opened. Final judgement- it's... tolerable... is that really the word I'm using to describe milk!?! Tolerable! There are somethings that I'm really excited to get home for. But until then, it's decent enough to satisfy a milk and cookies craving.

WATER BOTTLE
One of our investigators has a one year old daughter named Allea. This week during Sunday School, Allea discovered my water bottle. She figured out how to get it out of my bag and hand it to me. Since it was in my hands and I was thirsty, I took a drink and stuck it back in my bag. She then got it out again. After this, I'll admit to paying very little attention to the teacher as I watched this sweet child display her intelligence. She looked back and forth between me and my water bottle then sat on the ground. She shook the bottle and watched as the liquid inside it moved around. She then stuck the top of it in her mouth (lid still on). She glanced back at me with a face that said "well, that didn't work" and stared at me for a long time as though trying to remember what I did. She put the water bottle back in her mouth (lid still on) and tilted her head back. She experimented along this path for a while before deciding she still was missing something. After another minute or so of staring at me, she smiled as if she finally figured out what she needed to do. She placed her hand on the lid of my water bottle, wiggled her fingers as though doing magic, put the water bottle back in her mouth (lid STILL on) and tilted her head back. I so wish I could have taken a picture of her face when she discovered this didn't work.

... okay, so after all this writing and thinking and ect. I've forgotten what the third thing I was planning on writing about was. Brilliant eh? Ah- I remembered! Hurray for planners!

THE FAN FAMILY
The Fan family was a referred to us by another investigator. The have 8 children between the ages of 19 and 3. When we came to visit, most of the kids were home, but most of them also (regardless of age) kept their distance and stared at me with wide eyes. We started talking with the mother and sat down to teach her. We sat outside because during sunny days outside in the shade is much cooler than inside. I tried my best to make sure I stayed focused on the lessons and not the kids. The youngest three quickly lost interest and went back to playing. The others, however, couldn't seem to get over the idea that there was an american sitting in front of their house speaking Hiligaynon. They insisted at the beginning of the lesson that they were busy and couldn't join, yet they took turns hiding around the corner, peaking out the window, and standing just inside to door to listen. The window seemed to be the preferred location as it was still within hearing range but was more difficult for me to see. Well, at least they listened- even if they claimed they were too busy. I'm excited to come back to teach them again. The mom promised that next time she would gather the kids to listen instead of just letting them pretend not to listen. She smiled as she apologized that her kids were "too busy" eaves dropping to join the lesson.

Life's great!

Typhoon!

Picture from Zone Conference

May 29, 2011

This week has been really fun- it's gone something like this:

Monday- "There is supposed to be a really big typhoon coming later this week, make sure you are careful"
Tuesday- "The typhoon will get here on Thursday, it's supposed to be intensity 3" (scale of 1 to 5)
Wednesday- "The typhoon itself will miss Panay (the island I'm on), it's just going to be really rainy tomorrow"
Thursday- "... well, it's kinda windy...sometimes"
It was a fun experience.

The rain itself did eventually show up. Friday we had a zone conference. The rain would start and stop unexpectedly and would be so loud that they had to find a mic so we could hear the speakers, even though there were only 20 of us. It continued into the night. The rest of the weekend was fairly dry whenever we were out working, but it rained a lot at night time and it was always cloudy so the ground never dried. This meant more muddy walkways. One of them was so muddy that we started walking in the plants along the side of the road and discovered that there are actually stepping stones the whole way to our investigators house so we didn't get muddy at all. We just wish we had discovered these stepping stones earlier.

Overall, it appears that summer is spending most of it's time on vacation this year. It's the end of May now and the "hottest months" are April and May. This means I've survived the hot season and now get to enjoy the weather as it cools again towards winter. I hope I survive winter as well, I have a feeling I might join the natives in wearing long sleeves and sweaters. (I'm aware that I'm weird).

Well, That's life for this week. It was also filled with finding new investigators, having people tell us they are no longer interested in listening, finding an old investigator who wants to be baptized, and mga amo na (things like that). I love being a missionary, there is never a boring day.

Thoughts

May 22, 2011

This week, if you look at what we did, is about the same as any other. If you look at what I studied, there were no brilliant insights. If you look at my planner, there is nothing unique. If you look at my journal, it's seriously lacking in detail because I didn't have time to write anything. It was a "normal, busy, week" but the amazing things about missionary work is that "normal busy weeks" occur every week and each one is filled with distinct memories that make it special.

One thing I've pondered this week is the effect we have on other people. How many people are there in your life who have changed who you are. How many times has someone helped you without knowing that they did it? Who has helped me along my way to be where I am now? And as I've pondered- I wonder how often I've been an answer for someone else.
My thoughts began with receiving a letter from a missionary friend. She and I were in the same room while in the MTC and became close friends as walking buddies during gym class. At the time, nothing particularly stood out. I never noticed a drastic change because of this individual. Yet I know having her listening ear uplifted me and helped my burdens seem easier to bear. I know having a walking buddy during gym probably helped me not gain weight in the MTC and was a great way to practice the language I'm no longer using. I know that her simple action and friendship helped me through those 9 challenging weeks of my life and upon parting I was looking forward for the opportunity to maybe work with her again out in the field, for we were headed to the same mission.
The letter I received was sent from the states. Due to health issues, she served a shorter mission than she was anticipating. I read about her challenges as she made the necessary decision to go home and to recover, her disappointment as she did not serve a full 18 months. I'm not sure what Heavenly Father's plan for her is, what her purpose was as a 6 month missionary. But I know one thing- I know that her service has blessed my life. I know part of the reason she needed to serve a mission was so that she would be in the MTC at the same time as me. I'm so very thankful that I had the chance to meet her during her short mission and I hope to be able to help others in the same way she helped me.

Those are my thoughts for the week- as well as thinking that mud is really fun to walk through and even more fun when you have 10 minutes of trudging through mud to find your investigator not home and turn around for another 10 minutes of mud-walking. I've also thought about how lucky I am to serve in a country where the sky looks like heaven. To be in a place where we sit under a mango tree to teach a lesson and then snack on the mangos that fell as we taught. This world is a paradise, full of smiling people who are changing my life even though they don't know it. I really hope I can change their lives as well.

Yours truly
she who thinks too much.


From Elora's family letter...

This week, as all the others, has been super fun and busy. It's actually been so busy that I didn't even have time to write in my journal most days, which means unfortunately I've forgotten a lot of little details. But the big important things- like investigators- I remember, and that's the important stuff.

Monday was p-day, nothing particularly exciting, though my companion decided she wanted to go to the dentist for a cleaning so I spent an hour sitting at the dentist reading the Libro Ni Mormon. I have a goal to finish it before I come home from my mission, this goal may be adjusted if I end up going to an area that doesn't speak Hiligaynon- two of the zones in our mission use a different language. Anyways- as of right now I'm still in 1st Nephi, but I've discovered that as long as I stay consistent from here till the end I can finish it!

Tuesday was really fun. We got to visit with Brother T, a fairly new investigator. He was referred to us by a member in the ward who has come to nearly every teaching with him. It's really helping Brother T to progress and it helps him feel comfortable enough to ask us questions. He has a million and one questions, but he also is really good at knowing what questions to ask so that he can reason out answers to other questions on his own.

Wednesday we found 4 new investigators! It was cool. The biggest concern is that they are all in the farthest area from the church. Of course, this would be the area where our investigators are progressing most and have the strongest testimonies that the church is true. Unfortunately, many literally can't afford to come to church.

Thursday was unique because of the little things. I wore a black shirt. As we were walking from one investigator to another, a tiny brilliantly yellow butterfly decided to land on my shoulder. I wished I had my camera so bad, and I wished it stayed longer. It was only there for a heartbeat, but it was so pretty.

Friday and Saturday- we got free mangos. It's finally mango season- when the mangos are sweetest and cheapest, and I haven't bought any in several weeks because people keep giving us so many.

Sunday was bitter sweet. We lost an investigator who had really been progressing. Her husband was saying that she was free to do what she wanted, but being very critical whenever she started to show serious interest in the church. We all decided that we should discontinue the lessons so that she doesn't cause contention between herself and her husband. We also got to visit Brother T again, he's fun to visit. Then we visited some of the members, we want to strengthen the missionary relationship with the ward and the best way to do that is to visit the members. It was fun. One of the members we visited happened to be all alone, her children all had things that had to go to for the afternoon- she was really happy to have company. The other had invited us over and so gave us bananas from their own tree- which were huge!- cookies, and buko juice- the liquid from the inside of a coconut when it is still green.

Jubilee!

May 15, 2011

This past week was amazing! The most amazing part of it was getting the opportunity to attend the local Jubilee Celebration! The church is celebrating 50 years of missionary work here in the Philippines. In the past 50 years over 600,000 people have been baptized into the church, two temples have been built with one more in the process, and 17 missions have been formed.

I'm a geek so of course I had to do the math- with over 600,000 members in the past 50 years, and assuming a constant rate of converts which is a very silly thing to assume, there are over 1000 baptisms each month. If you assume the rate of growth is accelerating at a constant rate (also a fairly silly thing to do, we're talking about people here) then the current growth rate is 2000 people a month and there will be over 2.5 million members here in the Philippines after another 50 years. Isn't that amazing! This country has a total land space equivalent to Arizona by the way. It's not geographically a large country. I started to get myself into more complicated math before I remembered that a- I don't have my TI-89 with me to help me with the math and a cell phone calculator can only do so much and b- I'm a geek. So after enjoying myself with things I remember from calculus class I returned to thinking about the Jubilee itself.

At the local celebration- which occurred Saturday evening, there was a program where the stake president and mayor both spoke, we watched a video about the history of the church here on Panay Island and then had a cultural program where the youth portrayed cultural myths and dances from the history of the Philippines. During the video it was stated that the Philippines is a country "divided by oceans, but united by character." This idea was further emphasized in the Jubilee theme song- United. The chorus goes as such:
A thousand isles, a hundred tongues,
Gathered as one fold.
Shinning like a pearl for a weary world.
One in heart and mind- United!

This is the purpose of the church- to unite a country despite language, to unite the world despite culture, and to unite us all despite death. We are united.


The next most interesting thing about this week was that I got sick again- I think I've been sick more times in the past 4 months than I have in my whole life. Anyways- it was just a really bad stomach ache and it only lasted a day- so all is well once again. It did cause us to miss out on lessons though. I woke up sick Wednesday morning and by 2 in the afternoon it hurt to much to keep working. So we came home instead and I spent the rest of the day in bed- I felt very useless and spent a lot of time sleeping and reading the Book of Mormon. By the next morning I was perfectly fine again and work has proceeded as normal ever since.
Yesterday we returned to Brother L, the investigator who read all the way to Alma between visits. We've visited him other times- but he lost his glasses and hasn't been able to read. Since our last visit he found his glasses and has begun reading again. This time when we asked where he was he responded "really close to the end" and turned to Moroni chapter 8. He says he knows it is true because he feels the same peace when he reads it as when he reads the bible.

It's been a fun week. I really hope you are all doing okay, you are always in my prayers and I miss you bunches!

Lotsa Love

Mother's Day

Sunday May 8, 2011

Elora did not email this week because it was Mother's Day and we got to actually talk to her for an hour. It was absolutely wonderful! She was very excited and got to talk to everyone, Caimon is already home from BYU Idaho and Talin came home from San Fransisco for the weekend. She spoke a little Hiligaynon for us and told us all about her mission and area. There are 6 areas in her mission - 1 is just Elders, 3 speak Hiligaynon, 1 speaks Tagalog (which is what she learned in the MTC) and the last area speaks yet another language! She thinks she will be transferred on the next transfer date which I think she said was the beginning of June. It was a great Mother's Day phone call!

Elora's Mom

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!