Thanks for all your emails - I loved them! Right now there is a high school kid behind me that is reading everything I type but like phonix reading and it's wayyyyyy funny!!!. Every Sunday night every area texts their key indicators to the DL and then the DL's send them all to us. Along with the Key Indicators are goals to improve them and an action plan. Most of them are natives and the reports are in English. This makes it difficult for those not strong in English and makes me wonder how we must sound in Tagalog. We got the best one ever last night. It said "Goal: 8 new investigators. Action: We request form. In our clerk. And search and rescue unbaptized men." Elder T & I got a kick out of it.
We taught one of our new investigators named R this week. He's really nice. We teach him in his friend, B's house who was, until recently, not active in the Church. He has recently been to the temple. He has overcome some difficult problems and now everyone knows and respects him so much.
We helped him with his lesson for Sunday. He speaks Ibanag, a language that lots of people in our area speak. It almost sounds like birds chirping. There is Ilocano too but mostly Ibanag. We can only say a couple things in Ibanag though. Sometimes they speak both and then mix in a little Tagalog as well so we don't get half of what they say.
Anyway, R shows up just after we finish helping B with his lesson and we start teaching him. When those two are together though, they start telling stories. One story was about a guy who got bitten by an ahas (snake) in the bukid (rice field) and died. Then they killed the snake and ate it.
Our toilet has no seat and is really small with no flushing capabilities except pouring water down it. The best part is that the light in the CR (for "Comfort Room") doesn't work so we have to do our business in the dark.
We did training on Wednesday for both districts. The AP's and the president were at the second one. It was a little nerve wracking as it was only my second ZL training but I think it went well. Turns out that some missionaries in one area were having some difficulties and the president heard about it and decided to cancel his appointments and take the 6-7 hour drive here and meet with them. That's the kind of guy he is.
We meet with a less active member way far from here but still in our area. He is so cool - nicest guy ever. His story is pretty amazing too - he prayed to God for answers to questions that had been troubling him. He said he was thinking about the different churches he knew about and remembered seeing the elders a few days earlier. He told God that if the elders knocked on his door that day, he would know it was a sign and be baptized. Minutes after his prayer, the elders knocked on his door so he told them he wanted to be baptized. The elder who baptized him told my companion that they were really far form his house but he felt a really strong prompting that they should go to that barangy that day.
One day last week, after our visit with him, he insisted on taking us back to town. As he started to drive us back he saw a man walking past his house - it was another less active member. So we stopped and said hi and then he said, "Hey, come to church tomorrow!" So he came and participated too!
We also had a leadership broadcast from Elder A of the Seventy about the new focus and the different roles within it.
Anyways, it has been an exhausting week but we are both so happy.
We've been putting our own words to the song "Chop Suey" by System of a Down lately and it's hilarious - just anything we want to say to each other. It all started when we heard a Tagalog version of that song and it was great!
I am just realizing that the Church and the gospel really make life so much easier. We see that too, with the members here that are fully converted. Even though they work in the bukid everyday and may never have a vacation from it and neither will their sons and their sons' sons, they are still able to have incredible joy in their lives.
Some people we teach can't summon up the faith to do what we ask as they fail to see that the gospel isn't another burden for them but helps lighten all other burdens in life.
I am so happy in the Lord's work and will forever be happy as long as I choose his "yoke". I just love how the gospel helps me infinitely. It helps the richest man and the lowliest bukid worker. I'm grateful to you for helping me realize the importance of the gospel. I love you each so much.
-Elder Dustan
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