7 August 2016

This week was very long. Tuesday, we had a zone conference. We had to wake up at 4:30 to get there on time! There, we had a bunch of workshops on finding new investigators, and working with recent converts and less active members. The workshop itself only took 4 hours, but with all the travel, it took 12 hours out of our day. At night, we went straight to a less active family, then a "compassionate service" thing, a funeral. There, we gave talks, and talked to the family.

Wednesday morning, we tried to visit Roland, a very interesting investigator. He was already on his way out, and asked us to come back later. Instead, we visited a less-active member who (hopefully) will be returning to church soon! His biggest problem was his work, but he is soon switching jobs. Later, we tried to visit Roland again, but he still wasn't there. We visited a part-member family afterwards, the Adesnas. They have a strange situation- the wife is not a member, and vehemently against marriage. Because it is incredibly hard to get a divorce in the Philippines, a lot of people are married to people that they no longer live with. This woman doesn't want that- she said that if she wants to break up, she wants to be able to walk out at any time. That's trust for you. 

On Thursday, we tried to visit Roland again. He asked us to come back the next day. We had a couple consecutive plans fall through, but managed to recontact an old investigator, Jolo. He is great! I think he was dropped from availability issues, not interest issues. Either way, he learns quickly, keeps commitments, and remembers things! Those alone make him more promising than pretty much anyone in our teaching pool. We climbed up the mountain to try to find an investigator, but he wasn't home, so we visited Carlos, another fun guy. He loves to talk...a lot. He described in vivid detail his life, friends, and many other unrelated things. That night, I tried to get some barbecue for dinner, which turned out to be chicken heads. I ate them anyway, but it wasn't very good- too many little bones.

Friday, we had weekly planning, then managed to meet Roland for real. We taught him the law of chastity, which is always a fun discussion. He took it really well though, and told a bunch of stories, as usual. For one of them, he mentioned afterward that he'd signed a confidentiality clause about it, and asked us not to repeat it. Okay, Roland. 

Saturday, we visited the Adesnas again in the morning, and talked about eternal marriage. They reiterated their position. The great thing about the day was that a member came on exchange with us nearly the whole day! We taught a lot of lessons. The only question was, who was coming to church? 

Well, not too many people. All of our serious, progressing investigators came, at least. That doesn't count Jolo or Roland, though. We tried to pick up both of them before our (8:00) church, and both were sleeping. Roland was hilarious. We called out, and eventually he staggered out of his house. He was wearing mismatched slippers, and looked like he hadn't slept in a week. Apparently, he'd only slept at 4 that morning. 

That's the news for the week- see ya!