Monday, October 1,
2012
Molo, Iloilo City,
Philippines
Many names in this
blog have been changed to protect privacy; the editor’s comments are in italicized,
purple text.
 |
| on bamboo walk, between homes, over water |
I also got a hair
cut last p-day. My hair is now the shortest it will be for years to come. :)
Last week I was well
prepared for district meeting. I got
there early, was well shaved, and had all the analogies a man could ever need. The topic was how to begin a discussion with
an investigator. That is the easiest
topic ever. However, President and Sister
Pagaduan decided to come. Suddenly,
comparing “the beginning of the discussion” to “making a good first impression on
a girl” no longer seemed like a good idea.
I went halfway with it, looked at President, and did not continue the
analogy. I ended up getting kind of stiff
and so the teaching didn't go great. Everyone
who is usually upbeat and happy to answer was super quiet. Everyone was afraid to say anything that
wasn't a quote from Preach My Gospel. As
a result, the district meeting was good, but not all that great. To save anyone else the pain, I paired myself
up with President for the teaching practice.
After district
meeting, I was feeling way tired and light headed. I decided to lie down. Now, our landlord loves to talk to us every
chance he can get, and before I got into the house, he caught me and held me
there, trying to have a conversation. I
just told him "Bro Daku, I'm not feeling well, I need to go lie down." While I was taking a nap, he decided to repair
something in our house. When I got up to
do studies with Elder Maneateata, he heard me. We had prayed and were getting on our way when
he came upstairs. He had a thermometer
and a blood pressure thing. For the next
ten minutes, despite my protesting, I got examined by my landlord. I turned out to be fine. No one here believes you when you say that you’re
feeling fine, and it’s sometimes annoying.
Brother Daku also added that I seem malnourished. That's what skinny is called in the Philippines.
I went on splits
with Elder Domincel later that evening. He's
the AP. I enjoyed splits, and we taught four
lessons together. He likes to joke
around, and I do too. He and I were in
the same district when I was in San Joaquin and he was in Tigbauan. He was also my ZL in Antique. We had a good time talking about old times.
We have been
visiting a less active, nine-month pregnant girl and her boyfriend. That's a difficult situation, but this last
time the boyfriend's family joined the lesson. Now we are teaching an eight person family. We had an awesome "how to begin"
with them. We haven't been able to visit
them again yet. The baby was supposed to
come Saturday, but hadn't come by Sunday evening. I don't know medically what that even means.
Danielle joined us
on a lesson with long time investigators Dale and Maia. Maia is awesome and reads, but Dale is evasive.
We decided to go for broke and challenge
them to baptism. Maia wasn’t there for
the lesson. We were going to extend them
a date, but it didn't happen. Dale just
gave excuse after excuse about how he can't get baptized because he needs to
change, but needs to change on his own terms. He can't be forced so he won't commit to a
date. He wouldn't listen to reason. Danielle asked us why we even teach him after
the lesson.
We gave a blessing
to a five-year-old boy named Lester. His
mom is a less-active. He had a real bad
fever and has asthma. We gave the
blessing, and then Elder Maneateata did his amazing Polynesian head massage on
the kid. He got the kid to relax and
fall asleep. He had screamed and cried
during the blessing.
We have a 17-year-old
investigator who is a punk rocker. He moves
around a lot, and has been through so many missionaries. Now we are teaching him. He comes from a part member family, and we are
just trying to help him develop some interest. Each time, we do a 15-minute guitar lesson and
then a 15-minute gospel lesson. If he
didn't read the pamphlet, then we skip the guitar lesson. We've done it twice now. Maybe that's not the best strategy, but it's one
way that would have gotten my attention as a 17-year-old.
We've been looking
for a new house. We found a perfect one,
but it's a little expensive. It's not
too much higher than our budget, but we can't extend our budget. Elder Nunez tried to talk the old lady down,
but she wouldn't budge. President really
liked the house and asked us to try again. She’s Chinese, and Elder Nunez says they won’t
budge on price.
On Saturday morning
we had a double stake activity. We all
wore yellow shirts. We first had a
program where the institute students did a Korean hip dance that, apparently, is
all the rage right now. It was cool because
Danielle participated. We then walked along
the river for a mile and a half or so. They
have this nice paved sidewalk near the river here in Iloilo. The paved sidewalk is great because
motorcycles aren't allowed to drive on it and run you over. I mingled with a few different members during
the walk. When we returned from the walk,
it was zumba time. Zumba is exercise
dancing. There is a guy on a platform in
front who “shakes his booty.” You try to
follow him, and in the mean time sweat like a pig. We received permission to participate. It was crazy to be able to move like that in
public as a missionary. We took
advantage of the opportunity, but after four rounds of booty shaking we called
it quits. It was too hot, and only about
8 am.
Later in the day I
went on splits with Elder Foshee. We
were trapped in the office until 5:00 p.m. with financial secretary work. I helped him out. I was the secretary to the financial secretary.
After 5:00, we taught two lessons and
then got a call at 7:00 pm that we needed to go to St. Paul's hospital to pay
for an Elder’s bills. So our 7:00 p.m. appointment
didn't happen, but we made our 8:00 p.m. appointment. After that, Elder Foshee and I stayed up way
too late talking. I can't wait for him
to get off his mission so we can hang out.
We visited Tatay Sanz
twice this week, once with the guitar. He
likes our visiting. He had a stroke and
can't talk, but cries tears of joy when we visit him.
Last night taught Danielle
a new member lesson. She had a question
about LDS beliefs on hell. We then
taught a four-minute discussion on hell. That's the first time on my mission that I
taught about hell. I really enjoyed it.
There's sad news. Maria has been having some pretty severe
family problems. We hadn't been able to
visit her for a while, and we were sad about that, but we got even sadder last
night. She ran away from home, quit her
job, and hasn't told anyone where she is. She's not with anyone that her best friends
know. She's been gone four days. She
won't answer calls from her family, and has only replied a few times to the
texts of her best friends, Angel, Jessa and Isabel. She doesn't have a change of clothes and is
flat broke, and won't let anyone help her.
Jessa suggested that
I call her because she might answer our call. I tried, but she didn't pick up. I was bummed. Later that evening, while closing the day, I
got the impression to call her that moment. She answered. I got to talk with her for a few minutes. I offered help, and told her that her friends
and family love and miss her. She said
she can't go home, and she doesn't want help. I didn't ask her location, but did find out
she's sleeping in a cemetery. At one
point, I asked her how I could help. She
said that she is fine and content with her life. I told her I didn't believe her. She cried, and restated that she is content. It was a heart breaking phone call. Jessa was thrilled that I got through to her. It at least shows that she is still alive. Also, I'm told that Maria has started smoking
again, and I'm guessing is doing drugs too. I'm so down about this. I wish I could search all over Iloilo for her,
but of course I can't. It's such a
bummer.
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| Elders Maneateata and Sefeti |
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