This week was pretty weird. I had a bad week that started good and ended
good but SUCKED in the middle. Me and Elder Salazar started off real
strong and we opened up a new barangay to go finding in. It hasn't been
gone to by missionaries much in the past, which is why we decided to go
there, because in Centro the missionaries are way to common place and I
have street contacted the crap out of them all HAHA. I have given away a
gagillion pamphlets and a bunch of BoMs and gotten in a few debates
with the feisty other christian sects of the Philippines. But anyways
we decided to open the new barangay and it has been really promising so
far! We started there on Tuesday morning and we asked people if they new
any Mormons in the barangay. We find some names to use to go finding
while in the mean time street contacting and teaching everyone we came
in contact with. We find out that there was this member named Miguel
Tuzon who died when he was 86 about 20 years ago. We decided to find his
fam even though he was the only Mormon. turns out he had 8 kids and
tons of grand kids and tons of great grand kids all living here in the
baranagay. On Wednesday I set my record for lessons taught in a day as well as new investigators in one day. We taught 14 lessons and found
25 new investigators in the space of 4 hours in the morning and taught 4
more lessons to our progressing investigators in the afternoon for a
total of 18 lessons and 25 investigators in one day :0 We plan on
tracking down all these Tuzons and helping them come to the faith of
their father Miguel. Miguel has probs been working his butt off in the
spirit world for the last 20 years so his fam can be prepared to hear
the Gospel.
So yah are week started out pretty
DOPE. But on Thursday I got in a fight with the branch president over
the location of our baptism this Saturday HAHA. SO dumb. Our branch
president is kind of a feisty fellow and a lot of members and
missionaries have had and still have alot of problems with him. I wont
go in to details. We will just say that he is one of the more stubborn
people you will meet. But anyways we got in an argument and rather than
talk it out he just said I should take it to the mission president
because he will tell me that I am wrong and that I need to learn to
respect his authority as the BP. SO after a day of feeling like
absolute crap (because contention is from the devil) I decided to just
call him up and apologize and ask for forgiveness. He had just came
from Manila and was way tired and he didn't really feel like talking so
he kinda used it as an excuse to not say "its all good." Haha. But I
just forgive and forget and pretended like nothing happened but he still
acted weird around me this weekend haha. But that is his problem with
the Lord now, cause I feel fine and have no hard feelings at all. :)
So
the middle of the week suck but it ended good cause Sis Eleanor was
baptized! She is our branch clerk's little sister! She has been an
investigator for about 2 years off and on and she should have been
baptized a long time ago when she was 14, but because of the lack of
understanding of the rules, they allowed her to be interviewed for her
baptism by the branch president (the same branch president) and not the
District or zone leader like it is supposed to be. SO yah, the branch
prez didn't pass her in the interview...... and ever since then she has
struggled coming to church, and ever time it there came a chance for her
to be baptized she always got scared to be interviewed and ignored the
missionaries. But this time we made sure she was ready and that she
would be confident going into the interview, and she got baptized this Saturday!
SO Sunday we had a storm and we
couldn't leave the apartment and work cause it was dangerous so that was
fun. The power went out because one of the electricity towers blew over
from the wind, so it was dark and Elder Sivo told scary stories from
when he grew up in Fiji. (Fiji is insane! the superstitions there are
nuts!) SOOOO Good week after all.
I am
learning so much and growing up alot here in the mission and I just hit
month 13, which is blowing my mind. I am now starting to really study
Ilokano so I can talk to the old people and wow everyone else haha.
My
advice for you all this week is to just avoid contention. It sucks. It
is better to just be humble and don't think about who is wrong and who is
right and just apologize and ask forgiveness, forgive and forget and be
happy. Read the Miracle of Forgiveness by President Spencer W Kimball
and you will learn what I just learned.
I love you all! I pray for you all!
-Elder Andersen
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