April 6,
2016
Pastilan!
It is already April! Where is 2016 going? I am still alive here in Pardo, peeps
are still alive here in Pardo and school just got out last Saturday so all the
little kids are out for summer break (summer break is April – June 1). Every
day is a new challenge, especially this transfer.
So funny
story… My companion, Elder Beretara, will pray for about 10-15 minutes on end,
walay katapusan! We tell him to not take so long cuz it literally is done just
to be funny and waste our time. Well last Wednesday as we left to go to email (idk
if I shared this already) E.B was praying forever. So the other five of us just
started walking down the road and waited over there until he was done. After a
while he opened his eyes and noticed we all weren’t there... OK so it may not
be so funny if you just read it, but it was funny being there.
We got a
call to go up to Lahug (where the mission home is and the temple) to get our
new phone (because the old one was lost when E.B fell into the sewer). It is
the new 2016 model and the first of these models to enter the mission as a
mission phone. It is very nice:). It makes me remember the joy of when I got my
Droid Maxx - haha.
We haven’t
had our water for like three 3 days! It is on and off all the time and it makes
me a little mad. Well we found out the problem. Our neighbors keep turning it
off!!! Pastilan!
Last Friday
we did splits with the ward missionaries. I went to the White Road and met the
sister whose husband was arrested. As we talked I came to learn that she had to
sell EVERYTHING she owned (motorcycle, jewelry, everything) just to pay the
37000 piso bail. She was very distraught and upset. We shared a very simple
verse (Alma 38:5) and immediately she was brought to tears. The quick visit
ended quite well with her receiving a BOM and return appointment. Return
appointment: So after praying a lot for her and fasting specifically for her
and preparing a message we returned. Right as she saw us she was like "Oh
I'm busy! Next time." and shoed us away like nothing happened. :/
We have
this family that has pretty much dissented from the church (as in baptized into
another religion too) that we are teaching. They were even sealed in the temple
and they are also very rich. Like VERY rich. We finally got their main concern
and they told us to return the next day to answer their big question. I spent
the next night praying for them, praying for help on how I was going to
approach this as well as pondering this thing ALL MORNING LONG! Well we
returned. Spent 30 minutes waiting for tatay to finish his massage and then
taught him and his son in law about repentance for an hour while the main peeps
we went to teach were getting... MANICURES! They were in the next room over
too:/ Didn’t even bother to tell us they were busy. Right after the lesson they
came right out with all this food and spent a very long time talking to us
about nothing to do with the previous night. It took another hour too. Two and
a half hours there and, to be honest, a waste of time. I know no effort is wasted
but we lost valuable appointments we could have been at.
What I am
getting from these experiences is that the harder I try the harder it actually
gets. Yesterday we went on splits the whole day with the District Leader. I
worked in my area and for the first time in 4 weeks we actually left the house
ON TIME! I was so excited!! Then we got punted from EVERYONE! We had a very long day on this day when we
actually had the full 8 hours of work... The stress hits at these points. It
makes you wonder, "Am I actually doing what I should be doing? Praying and
fasting for others? Doing your best to serve?" I was not quite sure what
the answer was until this morning in personal study. In my fourth time reading the
Book of Mormon from cover to cover, I finished the book of Mormon (the one
before Ether). My favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon are 2 Nephi 25-29 but
my favorite part in the whole book is those last four books (4 Nephi, Mormon,
Ether, and Moroni). As you further read up on Mormon and understand who he is
(you can tell by his writing style, and yes, it is different) you can see how
he was the ONLY ONE in this entire nation of Nephites and Lamanites who is in
tune with the Spirit (in exception to his son Moroni). He talks about how much
he loves the people, how he prays for them, leads them to battle and tries his
best to call them to repentance but no one listens to him. In the end they are
all hewn down and killed and he is left to observe it. He cared for the people
and yet they still rejected him all the way to their utter destruction. Not to
mention he being born in 310 AD and his nation falling in 385 AD. For 75 years
this man had to endure the pain of losing those he loves to the devil. He had
to watch all those he loved reject him and in the end die. Moroni then
continues and lives nearly 40 years after the destruction of the Nephites in
isolation, all alone. These two guys had to face all this rejection their WHOLE
LIVES and here I am enduring it for a few hours? Days? It just gives me peace
that if people have endured these kinds of pains I can too. If those I love and
pray for and plan for reject me then I should at least be able to endure it to
since people have spent their whole lives doing it. Another
good lesson from the Book of Mormon…
This week
has been long. If you would like to know how long just ask my mother in the
email I will send to them.
I hope all
of you are having a good time back at home or on your missions! Take care moha!
-Elder
Morris
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