RAINY SEASON YESSSSS
Good week. The rainy season is just starting this week so sleep is
getting much better! We started off the week really strong and worked
our tails off on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then the rain started on
Thursday which made work a little slower. The rain is pretty nuts here.
Really heavy and loud and literally it takes about 30 seconds from the
time the rain starts until everything is flooded, but I love it because
seriously summer time was a nightmare.
We had a
baptism on Saturday! My home slice Carl Justin Bruce! He is awesome and
he is the little brother of Angelo whom we baptized a few weeks ago. His
older brother Noel baptized him. We got to have the baptism in the
river right next to our house so that was awesome, but I wasn't
baptizing so I didn't get to go in. :( It started raining right when we
went outside to go to the river haha so everyone was slipping and
falling in the mud. I have seen a difference in Angelo and Justin since
Angelo was baptized a few weeks ago. They have been less shy and more
brave and they are participating more in their church classes. Plus
after Justin was baptized he even bore a short quiet testimony and I was
so proud of him. :,)
I want to share a cool
experience that one of our recent converts from February, John Cloyd
Ramos, after he was baptized by Elder Abonitalla. He shared this with
us the other day.
After he was confirmed a member of the Church he kept having daily experiences where he was being told and led by the Spirit. After he would come home from school he would usually go hang out with certain kids or go to the computer shop or whatever, but now he would come home from school and the Spirit would tell him to ditch his friends and just go straight home. Then he would get home and usually would do whatever, but then the Spirit would be like, "don't do that right now, go sit down and read the Book of Mormon." He would always follow the promptings. John Cloyd kept having experiences like this daily. Then one night He was coming home but it was now after dark. The path to get to his house goes through the mountains and there are no lights and it is pitch black and there are tons of mean annoying filipino dogs. He prayed for help and he said that he started walking and the path became bright like a light was shining on it. He said there was no source of light anywhere. The path was just bright like there should have been street lights. He walked all the way home and the path never grew dark and not one dog came at barked at him or chased him. That in it self is also crazy cause I have walked that path like a gagillion times and there is ALWAYS dogs. When he got home he said he just prayed and prayed giving thanks to God. We are now teaching his younger brother John Mark who will be baptized in the next 3 weeks and also John Cloyd's cousin Angelo wanted to be taught. Angelo is usually staying in Magapit so we gave home to the missionaries there and he has been going to church there. John Cloyd told us that as soon as he was taught by us he chucked his cigarettes and hasn't used them since. We hadn't even taught him all of lesson 1 yet haha. Then John Cloyd told us that a few days back, Angelo was on the Cagayan River, and the wind was really strong and the water was crazy and he thought his boat would sink. He remembered the story that John Cloyd told him about how he prayed and the path lit up. So Angelo prayed that the wind would stop and that the water would calm...AND IT DID!! Isn't that crazy!? I couldn't help but think of when Jesus told the sea of Galilee to be still. Jesus lives and is still calming stormy waters in our day! The church is so true!
After he was confirmed a member of the Church he kept having daily experiences where he was being told and led by the Spirit. After he would come home from school he would usually go hang out with certain kids or go to the computer shop or whatever, but now he would come home from school and the Spirit would tell him to ditch his friends and just go straight home. Then he would get home and usually would do whatever, but then the Spirit would be like, "don't do that right now, go sit down and read the Book of Mormon." He would always follow the promptings. John Cloyd kept having experiences like this daily. Then one night He was coming home but it was now after dark. The path to get to his house goes through the mountains and there are no lights and it is pitch black and there are tons of mean annoying filipino dogs. He prayed for help and he said that he started walking and the path became bright like a light was shining on it. He said there was no source of light anywhere. The path was just bright like there should have been street lights. He walked all the way home and the path never grew dark and not one dog came at barked at him or chased him. That in it self is also crazy cause I have walked that path like a gagillion times and there is ALWAYS dogs. When he got home he said he just prayed and prayed giving thanks to God. We are now teaching his younger brother John Mark who will be baptized in the next 3 weeks and also John Cloyd's cousin Angelo wanted to be taught. Angelo is usually staying in Magapit so we gave home to the missionaries there and he has been going to church there. John Cloyd told us that as soon as he was taught by us he chucked his cigarettes and hasn't used them since. We hadn't even taught him all of lesson 1 yet haha. Then John Cloyd told us that a few days back, Angelo was on the Cagayan River, and the wind was really strong and the water was crazy and he thought his boat would sink. He remembered the story that John Cloyd told him about how he prayed and the path lit up. So Angelo prayed that the wind would stop and that the water would calm...AND IT DID!! Isn't that crazy!? I couldn't help but think of when Jesus told the sea of Galilee to be still. Jesus lives and is still calming stormy waters in our day! The church is so true!
So
those are some cool stories. We hopefully were gonna have a baptism
this coming Saturday with our golden investigator/member referral but
there was a misunderstanding with her mom about her getting baptized
(cuz Catholics) but she said it would be fine and she just wanted a few
more weeks to prepare, so we extended her baptismal date to June 11. The work is going well, and this may or may not be my last week in Lasam :( I guess we will see.
I
love you all and just remember the next time you whine about your
trials, remember that you still haven't been tried as Abraham was.
So there is my random advice for you all. Seriously though cause most of us haven't and we will all have to be tried as he was one day so gear up!
So there is my random advice for you all. Seriously though cause most of us haven't and we will all have to be tried as he was one day so gear up!
-Elder Andersen
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