Monday, May 22, 2017

Week 64: So Hungry, So Grateful, and So Stinking Wet!

"You're still out in this weather?"
"Oh, it's just a sprinkle!"


So hungry. So grateful, and so stinking wet.  The rainy season is not supposed to start until next month but apparently Mother Nature is in a mood or something so it's literally raining buckets (it started raining during one of the lessons and by the end of the 10/15 minute lesson the bucket the investigator had placed under the rain spout was overflowing. So, I'm not exaggerating when I say it's raining buckets. We had exchanges with the Santo Domingo Sisters this week and didn’t take that into consideration when we bought our groceries last Monday so about Saturday morning we realized we had no food. We thought ‘oh whoops no food!’ and then went back to work and forgot to address the problem. We do have about 20 green mangos in the fridge that our neighbour keeps giving us but they are super sour (like it gives me a headache it's so sour) unless you eat it dipped in vinegar or soy sauce  or salt but we ran out of vinegar and soy sauce and salt so I was out of ideas. Luckily the mission has had us prepare 72 Hour kits of food and that was extremely helpful.
This week was fun as I got to prove some people wrong about missionary work. I got into a light discussion/ argument with a few elders in the past about golden investigators. That elder posed the idea that they do not exist.  I proposed otherwise as I have been able to work with several. This week I'm adding two more to that list. Kennedy and Michella. Kennedy is a professional football (soccer) player for the Ilocos team and he is actually a referral from the other sisters who are working here in Vigan. He is half Filipino half Nigerian and when we extended a baptismal goal date his reaction was “Yeah! What day?” and he is always asking great questions about the lesson and how to get to church. For example:

“So brother Kennedy, do you have any questions about what we just talked about?”
“Yeah, what time does church start?”

So he is great! Sadly he couldn’t make it to church this Sunday because he got in a motorcycle accident Saturday night and injured his hip. (don’t freak out it's not serious) He kept apologising about not being able to make it and even said he had tried coming regardless but that his motorbike would not start anymore. That means he honestly tried! Oh, did I mention he speaks English? It's so fun to teach in English as my companion keeps speaking Tagalog at him.
Michella is dating a member and technically the elders should be teaching her as she lives in the elders area but she is too shy to talk to the elders (she gets really flustered if we suggest it) so we teach her after church on Sundays. She accepted a baptismal goal date the first lesson and this last Sunday her boyfriend came in to the lesson and wanted to ask her something and she just put her hand in his face because she wanted to listen to what we were saying. It was quite funny as the expression on her face was ‘this is life changing and I won't be distracted by anything.’ Her boyfriend’s mom has the best comments during the lessons and I can tell they are super close.
This is where it gets good. Remember how I said I had a discussion with a few elders about ‘there is so such a thing as golden investigators’? One of the things they said never happen is that after the first meeting investigators never remember Joseph Smith or the First Vision and both Kennedy and Michella remembered it. Kennedy almost recited it to us.
So life is good and beautiful and rainy.
From the sister staying dry
Sister Eldredge

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