This week was rough and I am sorry but, I don't have a lot of time to write you today because our support hasn't arrived yet so my companion and I have money to email and no food and we are living off of 50 pesos for the moment. Yeah, that's 1 dollar. I was so greatful to be able to watch at least one session of conference because here, the missionaries are not allowed to attend saturday or priesthood session, and there was no jeepney sunday morning so I missed the morning session. I was still really greatful to be able to hear the prophet speak and I especially loved Elder Hollands talk. I was surprised how much time they spent talking about families and marriages. I am so greatful how much love we have for each other in our family and how close we all are. Anyways, this week went super fast. I don't know why but I felt like I struggled a lot in the language this week but I am starting to communicate with my companion a lot easier. Which is good because I finally got him to open up a little bit. On monday we had a FHE at a members house which was super fun and I ended up having to do the gundum style dance in front of everyone. It was pretty fun, I reminded me ofd the days I used to tear it up at the wedding receptions. Marcie knows what Im talking about... On tuesday we had a service project. I built a fence for a member in our ward but it wasn't exactly Shields fencing style. We cut down a bunch of bamboo and then it up into little pieces then built the fence. I tore the crap out of my hands because our tools were machetes and tree branches. They don't have shovels, saws, or hammers in the jungle. That made it pretty fun. But Mathew, you should tell your dad that i'm gonna teach him a few things when I get back... This week we also baptized the Catalan family and a kid named Aldren, Ill try to post the pictures on dropbox. I was amazing to me, to see the change that the gospel made in there lives and how grateful they were to have the blessing of the gospel and the support of the members. I think that we, a lot of the time, become accustomed the blessings that we have as members of the church. I felt really bad because after that baptism we had a party at the Catalan families house and Sister Catalan spent all of the money they had( literally, all of it) on food for us and the members because they were so grateful for what we had done for them. That meant a lot to me. Well, for some reason people keep asking me how they can receive more revelation and understand the scriptures better. To be honest it is still really hard for me, but hear are some things that I do that help me. Don't read for distance, if you don't understand, stop, reread and footnotes and cross references help a lot. What else really helps me is after every personal study, my companion and I talk about what we read and try to teach each other short lessons about it and how it applies to our lives. But most of all, I feel like I receive the most revelation when I try to apply it to other peoples lives. I know that that sounds kind of weird, but when I am with members trying to help them understand how certain scriptures apply to them, that is when I receive revelation for my own life. I know that's kind of backwards from the whole, "first seek to obtain my word, then seek to share my word". But hey, I'm trying. I feel like I am at such a lack of knowledge hear in the mission field and that is probably my biggest struggle is trying to understand the doctrine and have the spirit with me when I teach. But, it amazes me how when the spirit is there, everything seems to come out perfectly and I can see the spirit touching our investigators. I loved all of your letters and I am really sorry that I don't have time to write you all back personal letters. I am so grateful for this gospel and that my family has such great faith and is so rooted in it. Thank you so much for your prayers and I love you all and miss you all so much.
Love Elder Pulsipher
