This has been hands down the best week in my mission. Even though we weren't out proselyting for almost two days. The time we were out was amazing. I'll tell you more later, but lets start at the beginning. Get ready for a short novel...
First off, the rat in the apartment is back. It makes me sing in my head, "Oh Rattigan! Oh Rattigan!" From Disney's the Great Mouse Detective. Or Betect Mouse, as I once called it.
In Preach My Gospel it counsels missionaries countless times to "Do all you can". This week we made a first contact with a less active who was baptized in Bacolod when he was young, and has since moved here and "returned" to Catholocism because his wife is Catholic. We ran into him at a part member's house, just about to drink a shot. I found an effective method to stop him from drinking: Ask endless questions. It goes like this. (English translation for you Murican citizens.)
*lifts shot to mouth*
"So, where are you from, Brother?"
*pause*
"*mumbled reponse*"
*lifts shot again*
"Oh, I'm sorry, what was that?"
*pauses again*
"Magsungay."
*lifs shot again*
"Oh so how old is your wife?" [Stop judging my questions. I was just popping them out]
*Pauses again*
This interaction went on for a few minutes before he left, wishing, I suppose, to drink his shot in peace around the side of the house, but you know. "Do all you can". Even when it means talking irritated people's ears off. Ahaha.
Okay. So mission tour was AMAZING. The 6 hour bus ride to Bacolod was NOT. But mission tour made up for it. Just to clear things up for the confused:
Mission tour does NOT mean that I go and tour my whole mission. Haha. it means that the Area President of the Philippines (Elder Ian S. Ardern) selects a few missions to visit and the trains the whole mission. He gave an incredible training, and it was really a revelatory experience. Just a few of my favorite notes:
- Being "humble up" is just as or more important as being "humble down"
- Establishing the church is important, and is accomplished as we establish the church in the person.
- The blessings of sacrifice manifest themselves in others, not in you.
- Feasting on the word of God is important, but is useless if we do not also digest the word of God. It doesn't matter how many times we've gone through the book of Mormon, but how many times the book of Mormon has gone through us.
Those are just a few of the many gems. Since our area is farther than Hades, we got to sleep in Bacolod the night before the conference. I got to sleep in my first area, where Sister Foote (my old companion, if you don't remember) is serving right now. And the biggest miracle/tender mercy of my life, was this:
I got to see T. again. My beautiful, amazing, 23 year old recent convert from my first area.
The day was almost exactly a year from the day we began teaching him, November 12. There are just some things on a misson that you can't describe, no matter what words you use.
T. is serving in the ward in the Young Men, and he baptized his best friend, Jake, last Saturday. He showed me his beautiful scriptures, which are marked with colors and flags to his favorite scriptures, and he expounded scriptures in the lesson to his two friends that sat in with us. He has set a goal to serve a mission when he is 24, and told me that he's also set a personal goal to go to the temple. I was not surprised at his spiritual self reliance, but I did sit in awe as I looked at this spiritual giant of a recent convert and the Sprit testified to me that there are prepared people waiting for the gospel. I did not bring about his conversion, neither did Sister Fitzgerald, Sister Person or any of the other missionaries who have taught him... He did it all with his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We simply invited, and he went and did. God is so good.
Sister M. passed her baptismal interview this week and is so looking forward to being baptized. She is a single mother with 6 kids, around 53 years old, and she works every day just so they can eat. She shared with us how much the example of the members helped her desire to go to church. She always saw one family, the Soronios, always going to church, walking by her house on Sundays and that she always thought , "I want that." And now, here she is. Set to be baptized on the 22nd of November :) Members make such a difference. There are always unseen eyes watching us.
C.s baptism was amazing. So, so wonderful. She gave a powerful testimony that she knows she's found the church that can change her and her family, and she will never forget what she has felt here. She has such a strong determination to endure to the end. Our other RC, her aunt, gave a wonderful talk and at the end, added, "Even though I don't know how to speak English, I do know that this church is true, and it's the only way for us to make it back to the kingdom of God." It was so sweet and sincere.
Another miracle this week: E. SA. She was invited to church one time a few weeks ago, and finally came to church randomly yesterday. When we went to her house later in the day to get to know her better, we found out her story. She's gone to a lot of churches, searching for the truth. She told us about a dream she had when she was 22 years old, (now she's past 50) wherein she saw the Lord, and knelt at His feet and worshipped him. She told us in all the churches she's gone to, she's never seen a picture that reminds her of her dream with the Lord. But when she was given a Restoration pamphlet, it was there that she felt the stirrings of the Holy Ghost and remembered the Lord's face in her dream, as she looked at Christ holding the lamb. Golden? Golden.
R. is set for a date on the 29th of November. She's also doing wonderful. She's another testimony to me that the Lord leads us to those who are ready to be led.
In my studies today and this week, I've been thinking a lot about light. Jesus often speaks of Himself as the Light of the world. In 3 Nephi 8:22 we learn that when Jesus was crucified, there was no light for 3 days in the Nephite lands. I love the symbolism and the literal evidence that Jesus Christ is the light. The light returns to the world only when The Light is resurrected, in chapter 10 verse 9. In 3 Nephi 9:18 and in 11:10-11 Christ introduces himself as the light of the world to the Nephites, and later in 3 Nephi He challenges us all to let our own lights shine before men.
But as I studied about these things I ran across D&C 88:6-13, which explains that Christ is literally the light in everything. I'll just insert the verses because paraphrasing just isn't enough.
He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth;
Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made .
As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made;
As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made;
And the earth also, and the power thereof, even the earth upon which you stand .
And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings ;
Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—
The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.
This, to me, explains why in 3 Nephi 8:22 it says, "And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land. "
How could it, when our Light was gone? In periods of apostasy or in these 3 days of darkness after Christ's death, or in times of spiritual darkness in our lives, we see that whenever Christ is absent- either physically or spiritually, or in the life of a single person- there is an excess of confusion, darkness, fear, and uncertainty. When the Light is present, there is trust, love, knowledge, enlightenment- all things good. I testify that we must choose to yield to this great Light of all things, who has the power to bring the light back into our lives and bring us to the power of the Atonement. I see it every day. I see the light in these people, the light in my companion, and the light in the work. How grateful I am for The Light that makes this all possible.
Have a lovely and blessed week, filled with The Light.
Sister Luke
1. Happy 14 months.
2. Sister C.
3. The three turkeys all parading for one female. It's like a turkey pageant.
4. Sister M.
5. Sister R. and company.
6. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.
7. How I feel about my watch face breaking.
PS I'm dying because my pictures of T. and I are not loading for some reason... We'll try next week.
