Hello All!
| Baler Zone |
I learned so much about how to improve my teaching and how to make solid lesson plans! And the rides down were fun as we blasted Tagalog Christmas music and kwentohaned.
We taught Elma when we got back to Maria, which went well! We made a lesson plan. :)
Well, this is a rare opportunity; I have a little extra time. Currently, I’m a bit freaked out because of time. For example, two years ago I was going to college at BYU. WHAT?! No, I feel like I was a junior in high school two years ago. And, I hope this doesn’t sound trunky, but the end is starting to be in sight. In 9 months from now I’ll be home, and if those 9 months go as fast (or faster) than the last 9….Man, I don’t know. I had successfully convinced myself back in San Jose that this was eternity, that I really was never going to go back home. Then I started to believe in it, like the Second Coming, in that I’m sure it will happen, but I don’t know when, so I don’t worry about it. But now…agh! Throws me for a loop.
Well, the past few days haven’t exactly been easy, but good things are still happening. Wednesday we found out that Nanay Jesusa moved to Baler, so that was sad. Then we went to Queen, and now I’m sure what happened last week was preparation for me this week. Her mom told us that Queen no longer wanted to be taught and that they are just Catholic. (Which I don't really know how true that is. The mom has always been suspicious of us, but since queen is 17 we don't have a choice really). That was hard. I put her teaching record in the former investigator section in the Area Book, but I wrote in big letters to go back to her when she is 18, because she really is golden. There must be a bigger plan behind all of this, but yeah, that was really hard this week. We had a high note in our lesson with Arsenio, as he accepted a baptismal date on October 18th! Tatay Marcos had a tough question: He asked what will happen if he really wants to be sealed to his family forever, but they don’t want to be baptized and in the end he’s with the Lord, but his family can’t be with him. Man, that’s so hard. My heart ached for him. We made lesson plans for Nanay Linda’s neighbors, but they were all drunk when we went. Hard day. Thursday we went finding in the morning and taught an old Methodist Nanay who thought we worshipped Joseph Smith. She didn’t seem to love the idea of a living prophet. Oh, and we saw a crazy guy wearing my Spiderman jacket that he evidently stole from our apartment…Cool, cool. We taught Apple, but she was sick. We taught a referral, the DelaCruz family, and they were really nice and receptive, even though it was just the mom and her kids.
| Costa Pacifica! |
Friday we woke up super early to finish personal study, companionship study and weekly planning all before 10:00 am, then we did house checks with the Lunds and they treated us to Coast Pacifica again. (SO GOOD!) They are so nice!
The afternoon was rough again. Arsenio is progressing, but that’s about it. Nanay Linda’s neighbors seem to be hiding from us now. A good thing is that we taught Darwin Centeno, just him, and that was a good lesson. We had made a lesson plan about the first two principles of the gospel and I felt like it hit home. He really liked James’ imagery about how faith without works is dead like a body without a spirit is dead. That and he finally realized to receive forgiveness for his sins that he has to change. He committed to come to church and I really hoped that would happen. We went to try to find referrals. We weren’t able to contact and teach them, but we did find two former investigator families! Good stuff! On Saturday we mostly tracted the next morning…I do NOT like tracting! Not effective, lots of rejection…We planned a missionary fireside for later on all about referrals and I was praying that we could get some new investigators there, because they are SO much more likely to progress. The fireside actually didn't end up going through, though, for various reasons, but it is rescheduled for next Saturday! Sunday we only had two investigators at church, Nancy and Elma, even though we had so many good lessons with investigators that said they were coming to church on Sunday...oh well! On Sunday we went to a funeral of a member’s still born baby...so sad. So hard, I have a lesson based off the last verse in D&C 137 there to try to comfort the family...so sad. President said there was a Bagyo (typhoon) coming, so we had to be inside by five yesterday, but nothing happened...just a little rain....Oh well! And that's all!
-Elder Christensen
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