14 August 2016

This week was the Filipino version of frigid, piercing cold- in other words, all the way down to an average of 80. People were dying of frostbite in the streets. Not really, but everyone we visit has started giving us Milo (the Filipino equivalent of hot chocolate) to keep us warm. There's been plenty of rain, at least. Almost constantly, for the first few days. Anyway, here's the news of the week:

Monday, the head fell off of my umbrella. Not a big problem- umbrellas are fairly cheap here, so I replaced it. Saturday, my brand-new umbrella wouldn't close. That makes it a lot harder to take it places, but fortunately it hasn't rained much since. 

Tuesday, we woke up at 5 to make it to a zone training. There, we learned a lot about finding, and went back. We had to return barely an hour later for interviews with the new president, President Koster, due to an unexpected schedule change. There seems to be a lot of those around here... That went pretty well, and didn't take too long. We finally made it back around 4:30, and bounced around from one bunked appointment to another until we managed to meet with the Dimacali family, who did come to church this week!

Wednesday, we tried to meet with Roland again, but without luck. We then met up with Ninya and Blodemir (the Filipino equivalent of Vladimir), and went on an exchange with them. Both of them got their mission calls recently! With them, we tried Roland again, who was there this time. We taught a few more commandments, and he mentioned, out of nowhere, that he was going to church this week! That's big, considering that he, just a month ago, had a hardline "no" against going to church. Later that day, we visited the Gutierrez family. They are close to baptism, and were on date for Saturday.While on our way back home at night, we met an interesting person. He's an American named Korbit, who tried to subtly warn us about "going away from the true doctrine of Christ". People who just try to subtly hint make me laugh, to be honest. 

Thursday, we visited the Adesna family again. They were much more receptive to the possibility of marriage now, likely because they just found out the wife was pregnant earlier that morning. God works in mysterious ways, that's for sure. We visited the Gutierrez family at night again. 

Friday,we had a thrilling weekly planning session, where we had to decide whether or not to baptize the Gutierrez's on Saturday. After a lot of thinking and scripture study, we had to call it off. They're close, but still not ready. Fortunately, we are confident they will be ready by this Saturday. We met with an interesting member later: Carlos. He has some fascinating ideas: that he is a prophet, that God talks to him at night, and that he knows all the secrets of God. Oh, and you can't forget: he doesn't make mistakes, and cigarettes are the only things keeping him from translation. That was a fun lesson. Whatever you say, Carlos. 

Saturday, we had a fixed appointment in the morning with a French guy, Thomas. He bunked...again. We went all over visiting a ton of less-active members after that, but nothing too eventful happened.

Sunday was the big day: my 19 month mark. Roland made it to church, along with all the Gutierrez's, and a couple more. Good turnout! We had lunch with a member, followed by a lot of missed appointments. By the end of the day, we still taught a few people, though. Things are going well!

See Ya!