Magandang Hapon po!
Kamusta sa inyong lahat!
Earlier today we had
a neat privilege of being invited by the mayor of Gamu to attend a flag
ceremony at the city center. Several weeks ago he had invited Elder Mills to
share some thoughts from the scriptures as part of the flag ceremony.
Apparently every Monday morning, they do a raising of the Philippines flag
(complete with a prayer, the singing of the national anthem, and their pledge
of allegiance) and typically invite a pastor from some church (I don't think he
quite understands that we are just missionaries and don't have any
"pastors", but that is a bridge to be burned another day. Haha) to
give an uplifting message to start off the week and then the mayor says a few
concluding words and a little message. When we got there, we found out that
they had accidentally double booked Elder Mills and some other pastor, so Elder
and Sister Mills and Elder Villania and I just stood and watched the whole
time. There were probably over 50 people there, most of them being employees of
the mayor/city. Of course with 3 Americans there, we stood out like a sore
thumb and the mayor introduced everyone to us and saying we were missionaries
from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or better known as
Mormons. He told everyone that next week, Elder Mills will be the one to give
the scriptural message and joked that everybody had a week to review their
English dictionary to be ready for it. This all started because one of the
mayor's good friends from childhood and main bodyguard happens to be a member
of the church here in Gamu. He said that he has seen his friend change to being
a much happier man since becoming a member of the church and is always friendly
and nice to people. After the ceremony, the mayor invited us to his
office for a snack and we ended up chatting for over 30 mins. During our
meeting, the mayor asked a few questions about our beliefs, said he respected
us for what we were doing, and said he wanted to meet with us again next week
and introduce us to his family. On his desk was a copy of the Book of Mormon
and Bible that the Mills had given a few weeks ago when they met with him the
first time, and he asked how to use them better because that is how he prepares
his weekly messages every flag ceremony, so we taught him how to use the Bible
Dictionary and Topical Guide. He is super nice and it will be fun meeting with
him again next Monday. All of this happened because one member was living
the gospel standards and being an example for everyone else. The down side to
all of this is it takes a couple hours out of our P-day. Haha. It is a
sacrifice worth making though, as it is an excellent way to get our name out
there and gain respect among the people.
Last Saturday was
pretty intense because 6 of our investigators had their baptismal interview. 5 of
them are the Lapitan family, and they are way awesome. They first met
missionaries several months ago when the Tatay was driving his tricy at night
and saw the Elders walking home, then felt some impression that he needed to
turn around and give them a ride. He immediately invited the missionaries to
come over to teach his family, and ever since then, they have been living every
commitment that is given to them. The day after the missionaries taught them
about fasting, he tried it out and said it made him feel a lot better and he
didn't even get hungry during the day. They are even consistent in their family
reading of the scriptures and prayers. We went to visit them yesterday and we
found the 9 year old and 12 year old reading the Book of Mormon by themselves.
The other baptismal candidate is , and she has a great amount of faith.
Every time she leaves her house to meet us for a lesson or for anything related
to the Church, she gets yelled at because her family is super against her doing
anything with the Church. She begs us to teach her almost every time we see her
out of the house not only because she desperately wants to learn more about the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, but she also wants to avoid having to leave her house
again so she isn't yelled at. She is 23, so because she is old enough to decide
for herself to be baptized or not whether she has family support or not, I
asked her one simple question: Despite all of the problems you are going
through right now, why do you want to be baptized? Then tears started rolling
down her cheeks as she said that the blessings that come the Gospel of Jesus
Christ are worth making any sacrifice. What a great testimony to have.
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| February Zone Leader Conference |
Mahal ko kayo,
Elder Nay
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