Hey Everyone! Monday
was good! We visited JR in the hospital
and he seems to be doing ok. He looked
up and said to me, “Elder! I haven’t
smoked in 2 days!” He’s so funny. We were going to give him a blessing, but he
was in a really crowded and noisy room,so we just offered a bedside prayer
instead. Email was good; my family had
the most picture perfect Christmas ever.
Not gonna lie, I got a tad bit homesick, but then I prayed about it on
the jeepney ride home and I remembered how awesome my mission is and I got over
it. In the evening we went to Atate and
met Alloy and Julie Mendoza, two of Tatay Bulacan’s referrals and we taught
them a bit of Lesson 1. They had a lot
of questions, especially about the priesthood and how God can offer salvation
to all of his children if His authority is only in this church. We decided to go home, plan, and come back
the next day, so that’s what we did! On
Tuesday when we came back, we taught about the apostasy, the restoration and as
a part of that restoration the restored truth of baptisms for the dead, then we
offered the Book of Mormon as the evidence that all this doctrine is true. And they accepted baptismal goal dates for February! They have real intent and it is AWESOME! We also taught two referrals of Sister Jorja,
who were good but their husbands may have problems with us teaching them so
we’ll see if that goes anywhere. We gave
Mia the do or die lesson and she chose DO!
She committed to come to church on Sunday. It was awesome! We taught Dustin and his scripture study
crew, who are awesome as ever! We taught
the Llamas family about the Proclamation to the World, which was a nice lesson
as well. Tuesday was a really good day!
Wednesday was good!
We had district meeting in the morning, which was cool. We had a workshop on faith where I really
began to understand that if faith is just that and there’s no result or fruit,
then it’s not faith. Cool stuff! I was a bit worried about Elder Palibrica for
a while there, as he was really quiet and serious and he said he was
“pondering”, but eventually he was back to his old self. In the afternoon Tatay Bulacan showed us
around Atate, where various members, less actives and former investigators
live, which was really nice of him! We
then taught Dahlia, Bien’s mom, and she committed to come to church on
Sunday! From there we went home at 6:00
pm because we have a curfew on NEW YEAR’S EVE!
We had lots of fun eating lots of food, watching church videos, playing
UNO, taking pictures…Good fun! And now I
have finished 2014, the year where I served the Lord all 365 days as a
missionary! Pretty cool!
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| Harry Potter in the Philippines on New Year's #1 |
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| #2 |
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| #3 |
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| Spider-Man with an Aklat ni Mormon! |
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| Hipster on New Year's |
Then the next morning we had a service project at the
Bulacans. We started filling in an
enormous 15 foot hole. Tatay threw a
small cobra he found at his family and then his family started lighting off
fireworks at him, and I cut my hand on a barbed wire fence. All in all, a regular CSP here in the
Philippines. In the afternoon we went
out to contact some referrals, but none of them were around. After dinner we finally got Cristel to our
lesson with Mia, and it was a super good lesson. BTW, Cristel is the one we’ve been trying to
get as a fellowshipper for Mia. It was
awesome. The spirit was rocking. While we were teaching Dustin, my companion
started to not do so good, but to his credit he said he could keep going. We taught Jeffrey, our 17 year old returning
less active, about serving a mission.
Then we taught the Llamas family about keeping the commandments before
coming home at 9:00. Elder Palibrica
passed out on his bed in full proselyting clothes.
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| Asleep in full proselyting clothes |
But all in all, “nothing changes on New
Year’s Day.”
So Friday we taught Mariel all about scripture study and she
is doing awesome. We’re just waiting on
her papers for marriage! We taught Bien
and I felt bad because we were teaching his little friend, Jared, but we
stopped because there’s a rule that you can’t teach kids under 14 without their
parent there and his parents didn’t want to listen… It was sweet though in
Bien’s prayer he asked that somehow Jared could be baptized. I hope his prayer comes to pass. We taught Tatay Jose about the Word of Wisdom
and found out that, even though he’s been a member for some 10 years, he still
smokes after every meal! We’ll work on
that! After dinner, we taught Danny from Atate. He is a humbled less active
member. He has two kids and his wife has
passed away. We taught that families can
be together forever, and he asked if it was possible still because his wife
wasn’t a member. We assured him that it
was, and taught about temples. It was
perfect timing too because he was working in Manila but he just got transferred
to Cabanatuan, so he’ll be around at least every weekend if not more, and he
wants his kids to get baptized, too! We
taught the Mendoza family as well, and Tatay Bulacan came along. We weren’t exactly on the same page as far as
teaching, so it was a bit hard, but we were able to get the point across that
if the Book of Mormon is the word of God then this church is indeed the only
one with the authority to administer the ordinances of the gospel, which is his
big question.
Saturday I learned an enormous
lesson. In the morning we couldn’t seem
to find anyone to teach, but I remembered we had a new investigator with
potential a couple of weeks ago, Raquel, but she had gone out of town. So we went to go and check if she was
back. Well, when we got there she was
there, but she was not the person we met two weeks ago. She looked at us with such disdain and
disgust and grumbled angrily, “I don’t want to.
I don’t want to listen to you.
You just go find some other people for your whatever you call it.” And I don't know exactly why, but
that really affected me. All during that lunch and into the early afternoon I
could not get her angry face out of my head. I just kept thinking, what did I
do? What went wrong here? Our lesson with her was way good, she was excited to
learn about the gospel! Well I talked to Elder Westover about it, and he gave
me some advice about how when we have things like that we just kind of have to
say, "Well, they're not the elect," and move on. As we went out to
work, I was feeling better, but not totally sure. Anyways, we went out to
contact a referral, and I was blown away. His name is Dave, he's 17, has two good
friends on missions, and was taught last year but got busy with work, and now
is going to go back to school and he sought US out! And he is so prepared. He
remembered every doctrine about the Restoration, and he already has a
testimony! It was the biggest blessing. As we were teaching him, the spirit was
rocking, and I had the distinct impression where I felt, "You would not
have understood how prepared he was if that didn't happen to you this
morning." And all of the sudden I could see a glimpse of God's plan, there
was a reason for that grouchy woman to turn us away! And by the way, we'll do
just what you said, lady! We WILL go and find some other ELECT people for the
FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL. It was the greatest miracle. We taught the Planco family
that day, and we committed them to endure to the end, which pretty much means
come to church, but I didn't exactly have high hopes as Brother Planco hasn't
come to church in years.
Well, the
miracles kept coming on Sunday. When we showed up to the church, Brother Planco, our long time offended less active, was waiting for us with his
4 active kids! Absolute miracle! Then Mia, our longtime investigator, came to church
for the first time, and she said she had a really good experience and made a lot
of friends! Dave, who we met the day before, came as well! While the Branch
Presidency was getting started, the whole Llamas family, a less active family
we've been working with since my first week here, came for the first time! And
Tatay Jose, a less active we met our first day and have been working with since
then, came with his less active son and his wife. And Brother Mendoza, our
hardcore Methodist investigator, came in during the opening prayer and stayed
the whole 3 hours! I could not believe it. My joy just turned to shock as
miracle after miracle poured through the door! It was everything I've been
hoping for here in Palayan and it happened this Sunday! And later that
day, Brother Mendoza told us that he now feels the Book of Mormon is true! And we visited
with Tatay Jose and he seems to be doing better, and we ended the evening with
teaching the Llamas family about miracles, as there were many this day. Oh, it
was just too good. Amazing. I really, truly learned this week, "Those who
reject this glad message, shall never such [unbelievable, incredible and
miraculous] happiness know!" But I know it, and I get to share it with all
who will listen, how great is my life?!?!
--Elder Christensen
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| New Year's Eve snacks! |
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| New Year's Eve preparations! |
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