Sounds like it's been a busy week like always. Things have been pretty busy over here too. Time is really starting to speed up. As we've visited the members and investigators here we have been able to catch glimpses of the news here and there. And wow. I can't even imagine what it must be like over there in Tacloban. And because of the circumstances in the Tacloban mission those missionaries have been (I think temporarily) reassigned. Some of them have been reassigned here! So we have a few news missionaries in our zone.
Thanks for being concerned about me over here, I feel loved. Every once in a while I think to myself, hey I'm in a different country right now. And it really is a totally different world over here. But I really love it. During our lessons we get all kinds of exciting visitors. Like cockroaches, geckos, stray dogs and cats, chickens, and even the occasional goat. It's a party. Most of our investigators rights now are kids whose parents are members of the Church but are less active and so these kids haven't been baptized yet. At first things were going really well and they were really receptive and would listen attentively during the lessons. Now however, some of them run away when they see us coming. I don't really know what changed. But it's just kind of funny to me. I never really thought that would be one of the challenges of missionary work. Some kids here really are genuinely afraid of me. The little gang of boys that are always around our house crack me up. There's one little boy who when he sees me will scream '' 'Cano, 'Cano 'Cano!!!' to warn his friends that the Americano is coming and then once I get close he gets scared and runs away. I never thought I would be able to invoke so much fear.
One of my other favorite people in our area is this little old lady who rides around on her bike attached to a cart selling chicken nuggets. She wears these big purple rain boots and I really can't help but smile when she calls out, "chicken nuggets!" Its like all of my favorite things combined into one person! I want to be like her when I grow up.
I was never a huge spaghetti fan, but wow. The spaghetti sauce here is great! It's like sweet but spicy at the same time and I love it. Who knew?! I am so glad my kasama and I decided to broaden our horizons. We usually eat random weird things. Like weirder than the food I normally make for myself. But we're always so hungry we don't really care. Another thing that I really love here is ube. Its some kind of sweet potato that is purple but they make it sweeter and put it with different things. I had some ube-filled bread the other day that was DIVINE.
The work here is different than I was expecting. I figured I'd be out trying to share the message of the restored gospel with random people on the streets and walking from house to house to find people to listen to our message. Turns out that most of our work is focused on the ward here. Because if the ward isn't strong there is really no point in bringing new members in because they're not going to stay. I don't know why I never understood that before. Maybe because I had never seen a ward that didn't have basically all of the positions filled. But I've realized that the members and the missionaries have to work together to accomplish anything.
In PMG pg 220 President Hinkley says, "It will be a great day when our people not only pray for the missionaries throughout the world but ask the Lord to help them to assist the missionaries who are laboring in their own ward." I really have gained a great testimony of the responsibility that we all have as members of this Church. I want to be a missionary who when I come home I don't want to take a break, but a RM who comes home and wants to continue to help build up this kingdom. Brother Yambot is a recently returned missionary here in Cabanatuan who the Sunday he got back, accepted a calling as the Young Men's president. He has already been so helpful in this work. He is a great example of what missionary work really is. Being a missionary definitely doesn't mean you have to leave your home town for a year and a half or two years. But I am very grateful for the opportunity and privilege
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