Well, I never thought that the day would come that I am not very excited to tell people that I am going home. I don't know if I am scared about going back to regular life or if the Philippines and the people here have just become a part of me. A part that will be hard to leave behind. But anyways, On transfer day, I was positive that I would be out of Aguisan! But, then on Monday night I heard through the grape vine that I was not the one leaving... my companion was! So wednesday morning we went to Bacolod and I picked up Elder Villanueva. An even smaller Filipino from mindoro (upper island of the Philippines). He is a fairly new missionary. He was just trained by elder moody and then thrown at me. He is a really quiet little guy but I will do my best to break open his shell. I am getting pretty good at that... Anyways, I am sure that you got the text from Elder Ellis' mom earlier. They came and picked him up and since I am in Bacolod today, we went bowling and out to lunch with them. They are a really nice couple. Oh yeah, I am in Bacolod today because tomorrow morning at 4 am I will fly to manila by myself to get my fingerprints done and go to the temple. It will be a fun experience and I will get to use my tagalog a little bit.. It is rad that the stewarts got to listen to a sister come home from the Philippines on sunday. If she spoke tagalog that means she is from luzon... Lame! But, maybe I will get to talk to her when we are up there for kates baptism. On saturday, it was family week here in Binalbagan stake. So we had a stake baptism and I was super bumbed because our investigator didn't show up! So we watched them take the picture and sat in the back as the program started and then sister Maryjoy Jabagat came running into the building! She made it! After the baptism, we found out that she had to wake up at 5 to go to the beach and collect crabs and sea snails so that she could sell them so that she could pay for the travel fare to Binalbagan... She is so awesome. Her to daughters will be baptized this Saturday. On sunday, we only had 5 investigators at church but they will all be baptized in the coming weeks. On another note, I had another testimony building experience with death this week. A daughter of a less active came to us on thursday night because her 3 year old son was sick. Very, very sick. He had menangitis and was in a lot of pain with a bad fever. We gave him a priesthood blessing and the next night we came back and found him laying on the table. Lifeless, but in peace. His mom sitting next to all that was mortal of him. We sat down with her and shared a little bit about our heavenly fathers plan for us. While we were talking, she told us that it wasn't painful for him when he died. He was sleeping peacefully when he stopped breathing. Just helped me realize that my ways are not Gods ways. Sometimes we all just need to humble ourselves and submit to Gods will, whatever that may be. I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you in a few weeks. Pray that I don't get stabbed in Manila and pray that I magically loose 15 lbs before I come home.
Don't miss me too much...Thursday, October 30, 2014
September 29, 2014
