How’s it goin? This week was pretty good. Our house had a brown out
(no power) every night I think haha. We had to do lots of studies with
candles but the worst part is how HOT it is haha. Especially trying to
sleep. But it just makes the mission adventure more fun. Sunday we ran
out of gas for our stove but luckily we had power during the day time
so we basically just had to put tons of eggs in this tiny
microwave-type thing and cook them up for 30 minutes. My chef game is
still goin strong. Usually so far in this area we eat the same things
every day. Breakfast: eggs, hot dog, rice. Lunch: There’s a canederia
like a minute walk from our house full of super nice nanays who make
really pro food. They’re always so happy to see us haha. I eat
sinigang and rice there basically every day so they make sure they
always have some ready for me haha! That’s my favorite Filipino food.
Dinner we just eat hot dogs and eggs again or sometimes something
quick outside.
This week we had some good lessons. Lots of people are keeping
commitments-reading, praying, etc but nobody will come to church haha.
We had sister Lian Go at church yesterday which was good though. She’s
a single mom and the daughter of Judith Go and she would occasionally
just listen but was really shy. She never read so we just kept
focusing on her mom Judith. It’s funny though now because Judith is
never home and Lian is progressing better than her mom! Sometimes it’s
funny how we find people. You never know who is truly ready as a
missionary so it’s our job to offer as many people as possible an
opportunity to accept the gospel. One lesson that was kinda funny this
week was to the Morata couple. Their son was baptized awhile back and
missionaries started teaching them right before I got here. Usually we
can only visit them once a week though because they’re kinda far from
our other investigators. Anyways Nanay is the one really progressing
and Tatay just kinda listens but is nice. This week we showed up and
Tatay was super drunk haha! So we taught sister morata on their porch
area and brother was inside. He kept interrupting us though as we
tried to teach haha. The first time he walks out and says standing
before us about to fall over “I have just ONE question: Does the Lord
love us?” Haha we just answered “yes, he loves us!” He got super happy
and we just told him thanks for the great question and to go back
inside haha. About five minutes he came back out and bowed down to us
missionaries and told us that we are really nice. Ha the third time he
came back out he just yelled “we’re out of rice!!” Haha it was pretty
funny but it kinda messed up the spirit in our lesson.
We visited David, the guy from California again and had a good lesson
with him. He told us that every month he picks a family in the
neighborhood and installs a solar energy system for their house! He’s
really smart so has kinda shopped around and learned how to make his
house rely on solar energy. Since lots of the houses don’t have lights
or energy, he picks one and manually himself puts it together for them
so the kids can study at night! Super nice! We sang families can be
together forever and he went off on why he liked the song so much. He
said “one thing I like about you guys is how family focused you are.
When I visited Utah there was something EVERYONE had in their
backyard! A trampoline! But it’s because family time is very important
for you guys, and I like that.” It’s kinda hard to teach him because
every thing we say he has an insight for it. We’re hoping this week we
will get some English pamphlets we can give to him and next lesson we
are going to focus on the Restoration of Christ’s church.
I went on exchanges with our zone leader, Elder Orpilla on Saturday in
our area. I learned a ton from him, especially in lessons. He asks SO
MANY good questions and the investigators basically teach themselves.
I’ve never been with someone who has so many good questions. He also
memorizes names really fast and writes them all down in his planner so
he won’t forget. When he prays he will pray for every person by name,
even if there are 6 of them! It was cool for me to remember the
importance of always remembering names and praying for people
specifically. We had a cool experience where we were trying to find a
member’s house when we accidently knocked on their neighbors house.
Sure enough they let us in and we had a powerful lesson with them
about life before this life. We’re the only church who knows this
message because we’re the only church with the fullness of the gospel.
Who would’ve known that people who lived literally two feet from
members haven’t even really heard our message. It just reminds me not
to assume people aren’t interested or that they already know what we
believe in. My goal is to really listen and be more dialed in on
lessons this week so I can better know the situation of our
investigators.
This week we did lots of finding but didn’t find a ton of people
really ready for the message. We got put in a few situations where we
got bashed and people were really against things we had to say. Had
some pretty weird situations you could say haha. It kinda made me
wonder about whether I really had the spirit while I was finding. I
felt like we have been having a hard time lately finding those who are
truly ready. Lots of people who had listened to us were actually
uninterested and I wondered why the Holy Ghost hadn’t warned me that
we would be wasting our time teaching them, that they wouldn’t
progress, or that they would just bash us. But we had a dinner at two
RM’s house, brother and sister Andres. They have one kid and are super
nice and love helping with the work. We were telling brother of a
crazy situation we were put in and he was just laughing and stuff and
sharing some stories from his mission too. He then said something that
really stuck with me though. He said “wow you know that’s really cool.
God is truly reaching out to all of his children through you two, even
those who might be the furthest from the path. He loves those type of
people just as much as us and knows that they have a chance to accept
the message once again as well.” The next morning I read in 1 Nephi
26:24 and it says “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of
the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own
life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none
that they shall not partake of his salvation.” I am thankful for
Christ’s atonement and for his love. He wants ALL men to return to
him, and I realized that never once was I “wasting” my time teaching
these people who might’ve not been interested. I realized that the
spirit led me to those very people. He laid down his life for us all.
He wants all of us to partake of his salvation. In verse 28 it goes on
to say “all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none
are forbidden.” I know that every person we come in contact with in
life is a child of God and they once accepted the plan. No matter how
far we vere off the path, Christ is constantly reaching out more than
we realize. We are all of equal importance to Him and through His
atonement we can return back to our Father in Heaven. I will always
remember that and will remember that I can always trust in the Spirit,
even when he works in small ways that I don’t always understand. All
things that happen are for the benefit of me and for others as well.
Love ya all, Elder Reber
This weeks pictures are again from the past. The theme I chose is... Elder Lambert and his selfie stick. We are so looking forward to meeting and listening to Elder Lambert at his homecoming this Sunday. He came along at the perfect time in Parkers mission and helped him so much. I am missing the weekly pictures but looking back on these ones gave me a good laugh.
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