Week 70: I’m here in the Philippines with no AC and all that comes with a 3rd world country because I know that people can have their minds cleared, their souls calmed and to feel the love of deity.

Preparing a Chicken for Dinner

I’m not going to beat around the bush, this week was hard. Hard emotionally, but mostly just in enthusiasm (no I’m not sick don’t send me vitamins haha.)  Starting with Monday, as we have a curfew here in Cagayan (so the witches don’t carry us away when they come out at 6pm) we have to be creative with our p-days and teach during the day, and we had an appointment to teach a group of college students but it fell through because of a schedule mix up because I am soooo good at planning... so when we got home at about 5ish with no lesson and all the people near our house busy I flopped on my bed and felt like turning into a plant because plants have no responsibilities and don’t have to schedule things and try to teach people when there are only like 100 houses in our area, and we have already knocked door to door to them all.

Tuesday was nothing as well. We went out and had plans and still only ended up finding as all our appointments fell through and finding is so hard here because it’s a small town so they already know us and about 80% of the people we found were previous investigators... so we are trying to be more creative with our time and how we find and teach to still have things to do no matter what happens. And it’s all fine and dandy for me to say ‘yeah missionary work! All my life has been a series of doors in my face!” (name that movie)

By Wednesday I lost nearly all enthusiasm for work so I did cleaning and reorganizing until my companion dragged me out of the house. That day was actually a good day and when we  met with our most recent convert Tatay Perpicto and his wife, who normally hides from us was very chatty and welcoming and even sat in on a portion of the lesson!

As the week progressed my enthusiasm for the work decreased and I was doing my best to just get out of the house and I want so bad to have the enthusiasm for the work but it's honestly just hard right now.  However I have noticed that I truly love fasting. I honestly do believe that out of all the commandments (besides the obvious Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity) that the ones people have the hardest time with is keeping the Sabbath day holy and giving a full fast. I can’t say I love fasting, but I love the blessings I see in my life and I know that if you give a generous fast offering (even if it's slightly painful to donate that much) that the Lord will not leave you and He will support you.

Our investigator, Robert, has now listened to the first lesson (the Restoration) about 3 times as he 1) just loves the spirit he feels as we quote Joseph Smith’s telling of the 1st vision, and 2) he always  has referrals for us who want to hear the lesson as well... soon we will have taught his whole company! We are excited for his progression and he can already recognise the spirit and last lesson with him he said: “wait, why is it that when you guys are here teaching me that my mind feels so clear and choices are so easy to make, but once you leave my mind clouds over...it’s the spirit isn’t it?” and so then we got to tell him that he can have the ‘enlightenment’ he was talking about as he continues to read his scriptures daily, pray and regularly attend church so as to invite the spirit into his life always. It was a big moment for him and he just wanted to sit and think about it for a minute before saying. “This is why I have to be baptised. I always want this feeling.”  Stuff like that is what helps you remember what you are doing here. I’m here in the Philippines with no AC and all that comes with a 3rd world country because I know that people can have their minds cleared, their souls calmed and to feel the love of deity, if they just try.

As for funny stories we have a cat who eats the scraps (that we leave outside for her) and this morning about 6am she jumped on my bed and poked me in the face as if to say ‘where is my food?’ so she somehow found her way into the house!!  So now we have to find out how she did that so she won’t do it again but needless to say I’m no longer accustomed to cats waking me up so not only did I know that the cat was inside but the neighbours might have heard as well due to my scream of surprise.

From the girl on a mission

Sister Eldredge