Hello once again!
So Monday was interesting.
We went to Cabanatuan for P-Day, to withdraw our support, then we
emailed, ate at an all-you-can-rice place, then got some shopping done. We also found out what our investigators need
to do to get married so they can get baptized, which is good too! We didn’t get done everything we needed
to. Next time we’ll plan better for
sure! In the evening we went and taught
some members and got 2 referrals!
Sweet! We then went and taught
the Solis family. JR was feeling a bit
down, I think because he is struggling with the Word of Wisdom. We encouraged him and told him he was doing
good! We had a good lesson AND got a
referral from them, too! Then Tuesday
came. In the morning we went to a far
out area to track down a media referral, the first one of those on my mission
aaaand it turned out to be a member.
Darn. Oh well. My companion and I had a good laugh about how
“prepared” she was. In the afternoon we
went door to door. That was good for
just about nothing. Everyone rejected
us, and most were not kind about it. The
nicest one was a Diyakano from Iglesia ni Cristo, but he graciously told us he
couldn’t listen. We eventually taught an
old Methodist grandma, and she said she would listen, but she wasn’t seriously looking
to find out if this was the true church to join. Dang.
We went to Mariel, our golden investigator who is not married, and
basically it’s gonna take a whole lot of time, effort and money to get them
married, so we were a bit bewildered. We
taught Jared, but he wasn’t into the lesson.
The Ruiz family told us not to come back. They were nice about it, but that didn’t help
much. We taught Mia, who always has a
lot of questions. We then taught Roby,
who is really not progressing. We gave
her a reading assignment and if she doesn’t do it, I don’t think we can teach
her anymore. When we got back to the
apartment we were pretty discouraged.
That night and Wednesday morning, I was praying really hard
to know where to go and what to do to find these people who will be baptized this
year, but I wasn’t getting any answers.
I wasn’t feeling anything really and that was discouraging. I felt like I no longer had a right to
personal revelation. Then the spirit
finally spoke to me and it was something along the lines of, “How can you
expect an answer from God when you have such weak faith?” And it was true, my faith was wavering. I re-read James 1:5-6, as well as a whole lot
of other scriptures about how God is a God of power and miracles but he works
according to the faith his children. I
did that until my faith and the spirit returned, then it was on. In the afternoon we taught two sisters,
Jasmine and Jenin, who accepted baptismal dates for the 31st. BOOM.
We taught Mariel again, then Bien, and now his little brother wants to
listen to us, too! We then taught one of
those referrals, who is a less active/part-member family and they’re super
nice! Joshua and John Lloyd Sabido are
their names. We also contacted our other
referral, and set an appointment for Thursday evening. We then met up with Elder Westover, because
Elder Tufele is in Manila doing fingerprinting stuff for his exit visa. We ate dinner and on the way home we met a
girls basketball team, who had lots of questions for us! They reminded me of Ashley and Anna and how
they are true ballers! Anyways, AWESOME
DAY, and that’s just the key: FAITH!
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| "Doing Standard Work" |
On Thursday Elder Westover gave the zone training which
talked all about “real growth” and what we wanted to improve on in 2015. Really cool!
In the afternoon we taught a contact of ours, Lyn, and she was receptive
enough! We taught Michael about the
power of prayer, and then we had to go to Cabanatuan again to meet Elder
Tufele, which was a little crazy, as he didn’t have a cell phone, but it worked
out. When we got back we only were able
to teach one lesson to our referral, Grace, but her kid was absolutely crazy so
I don’t think she understood everything.
Friday we were pretty punted, so we eventually went to a less active’s
house and we taught a lesson all about sharing the gospel and asked her how we
could help her in her personal missionary work.
She asked for a couple of pamphlets, because she had a couple of friends
pass through her mind as we were talking.
Yes! We’re following up on that
next Tuesday! We had another good lesson
with Mariel and then we had an INCREDIBLE lesson with Mia about the plan of
salvation. She said she had prayed to know
and when she did she got goose bumps all over.
And when Elder Palabrica testified about the atonement—Man, that was one
of the most powerful moments of my mission.
She committed to come to church.
Saturday morning we taught Lyn and some of her friends, which didn’t go
so well, but we have a return appointment, so we’ll do better next time. In the afternoon we taught Jared and Bien, and
then we just were super punted again.
Eventually we taught Dustin, and then went to a viewing of a mother of a
member who suddenly passed away. The
members gave a little service and I gave a message based on Paul’s teachings
about the resurrection. Afterwards we taught
one more lesson.
Then it hit me that it
was the last chance to get people to baptism this year, because if they didn’t
come to church the next day, they couldn’t meet the requirements this
year. We tried to go to a couple of our
other investigators who had the greatest potential to be baptized, and they
told us that they couldn’t come or they didn’t even come to the door. We went home with our hands hanging low. The promise of 4 baptisms wasn’t going to
happen. The only thing I could think of
is that we didn’t do absolutely everything that we could have. They only thing I could figure out is that we
weren’t perfect, even though we've worked really hard. I really trusted the promise of President Clark
that there were 4 people that could be baptized before the end of the year and
if we came short I felt it must be because of my shortcomings. That weighed down fairly heavily on me on
Sunday.
Good things still happened on Sunday. We found and taught a less active/part member
couple and we were finally able to teach the Solis family again! But man, I was not in a very good place
mentally. I eventually talked with Elder
Westover about it. We first read the
section of Preach My Gospel about being a “successful missionary” and he said
that in his eyes I qualified there. Then he said that President’s promise was
that there were 4 people that could be baptized, but these 4 people still had
their agency. We can’t force anyone to
be baptized; that was Satan’s plan.
Until then I hadn’t thought about it that way. We TOTALLY have had super spiritual lessons
with way more than 4 people in my time here.
I know that the Holy Ghost testified to their souls, but for whatever
reason, they said no. All we can do here
is plant, preach, work hard and invite.
And like my companion said, we’re here to help in any way we can, but we’re
not here to fix everyone’s problems; that’s up to them and Jesus Christ. We can only show people the way and do all we
can to persuade them to walk that path, but we can never push anyone. I still know this work is true, and I do know
many more will be baptized in this area. We’ve just gotta work a little harder, fix the little things, and trust
that Christ’s grace will be there every step of the way. D&C 30:11 (And your whole labor shall be in
Zion, with all your soul, from henceforth; yea, you shall ever open your mouth
in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you. Amen.)
-Elder Christensen
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