My dad told me when I was in Argao (my 2nd area) that being a leader is a lot of babysitting. Yeah... I'll get to that in a moment.
Last turkey day I celebrated real well! I ate a 16 day old balot:) That's the boiled duck fetus. Mmmm... duck fetus. I got a picture.
I won’t get into much detail about this, but one person in the zone has been using the cell phone to contact others outside of the Cebu Island. He used up ALL of their load on the phone so they cannot call or text. That is a real problem in the work especially when your companion is the district leader. So we get a call from their neighbors phone (the DL calls) and asks us to come over because there is a problem. At 4 p.m. we leave and by 11 p.m. we get home. A.Ps were involved and we even went to President’s office to sort this out. I just remember the A.P going up to the one bugoy person and saying "E., E., pack your bags you are going home!" The problems were rather quite huge, but like I said I won’t get into much detail. I got it in my journal:) He didn't end up going home that night but we did go on exchanges; me with the DL and Elder Espiritu with the other.
My day with the DL in his area was a day that I haven't ever had before. We left at 10 to get to an appointment and as we were walking we heard a guy calling us over. He was very adamant about it so we went over to his house. He pushed all of his furniture around to make room for us. He then sat us down. He sent his wife out to get stuff and she came back in with a litre of Coke and a ton of tinapay (bread). He then grabbed a mango the size of a coconut (like this thing was HUGE!) and cut it open for us and then fed us! It is common to get food and such from the people but not like this! He then told us his name, si Lee. He explained how he is named after the assassin of JFK. He has a brother named Stalin, another named Hitler and so forth! I honestly was like "This man is going to kill us both Americans!!!!" He then said how he has been bouncing around from religion to religion trying to find the correct one. So we took the opportunity to teach about ours and he was very in tune especially at the part about Joseph Smith. He was really good to be honest (not living up to his name!). I am not sure what became of him because he is not in my area but the lesson was fun!
We continued in the work until around 5:30. We were supposed to go to the church for a baptism. It was for a Child of Record, but we were still supposed to support. Well we are both one week in our new area so neither of us knew where their church was! Not to mention the DL doesn't have load on his phone so we couldn't call... I remember E. Espiritu telling me that their church can be seen from the big round about in Cebu and so we went there. It then started to down pour and we were running around that HUGE roundabout looking for the steeple of the church. We decided to stop and pray for God to give us a miracle i.e guide us to the church. Right when we started the prayer our companions called us! I was like WOW! Well Elder Murdock answered and then hung up cuz he didn't understand them... I was like "NO! YOU HUNG UP THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYER!!!!!!" So we ran around some more asking everyone we could if they knew where the Mormon church was until we stopped and prayed again. NO ONE knew where the church was. This time our answer came differently. I felt prompted to go down this one street and so we did. Got to the end of it and I felt prompted to go down another street and so we did. We got to the hospital. We kept asking everyone we could if they knew where the church was and still not one person knew. Well at the hospital we found a police (pulis) dude and asked him. He happened to be the only person who knew where it was! (Being guided to someone who knows the answer to our question was an answer to our prayers!). We jumped on a jeepney and went to the place they told us to go to. I saw the great white spire of the church and hooray! We were an hour late but still on time cuz those things don't start on time anyway.
Sunday we planned a baptism for this Saturday with one of the most golden investigators I have ever met! Brother Kenneth (Kent) is fantastic! He has a girlfriend fellow-shipper and his testimony about the restored gospel is exactly what it should be! He tells us how he feels that it is true. He feels that it is a hingpit (like whole, full, not missing anything) gospel. He was members of like 5 different churches but explained how this church has something that everyone else doesn't! He also went and saw Elder Cook last week so that ALWAYS helps (to see an apostle).
We also had a new L.A. come back to church. His last time at church was in 1993! His wife and child died last month and after being through the wringer this past month he decided to come back all on his own! No one knew about him but he just came by himself so that was a bit powerful!
Had a funny 2 FHEs. One we had a hair fight again haha! Maghairfight ta! We also had another FHE with a ton of mga bata, kids. At the end, one little 8 year old lost in the games so she had to do a talent. She chose to dance and then all of a sudden all these little 5/6/7 year olds started chanting "twerk it like Mylie!" and that little 8 year old girl started twerking it like Mylie Cyrus! I am not so sure where those little kids learned that but all of us older people were a bit... uneasy. She twerked real well too as if she had been practicing.
Other than that all is well. We saw a drug raid- left before the execution. Have been mocked by a ton of people this week too... My depression, for some reason though, has come back. I am not sure why but it just did. I almost always know the reasons for my depression but this week...inay.. I’m not sure. I am trying to be happier.
Christmas is coming up. I can't wait for that. Oh and I got mga package from home! THANKS MOM AND DAD and anyone else involved! All is well. I don't trust this place to plug in my camera but rest assured I do have lots of pictures. I have been going a bit picture crazy this past 4-5 weeks. I figure I can always buy more memory cards! I also have seen the huge blessing of writing my journal every day! EVERY DAY SO FAR! I can see how I was earlier in my mission and even now! I am grateful that my dad told me to do that! And also for sending me the camera in the MTC.
I am doing well, I hope you all are too! Love you all! Take care!
-Elder Morris
