May 27, 2012

May 27, 2012


I love being here in the philippines! the people are amazing! The area is amazing! We have been working hard with the members trying to get them reactivated and with our few investigators trying to get them interested in the gospel enough to be comitted to hear our lessons, participate, and feel the desire to get baptized and go to church.

We have some people that we are trying to teach that like to "hide" from us when we come or are so busy they cant take a few minutes to hear something that will benefit their lives. Studying has been going very well and very often in church and district meeting i get a huge headache from trying to listen and improve my knowledge of the language. Its hard but even when we have days like saturday where we only got one lesson in, I feel happy to be here! I feel like this is the place to be, and that our work is not in vain. I feel better in those times when we come home and we tried our best but didnt get much than when i wake up in the morning.

Mornings have been the WORST!!!!! I wake up and the first and only thing i can think about is how much i miss my family. It gets really hard some mornings and I feel like i want to quit and just be with my family. That ultimately has been the hardest part for me. I dont care about eating weird food, walking a ton to only get one lesson, being away from worldly things, doing laundry by hand, getting eaten alive by bugs, sweating out buckets of sweat every 5 minutes, not knowing the language well enough that my head pounds. That doesnt bother me. What has bothered me the most is being away from my family. Nothing prepared me for this. I have been studying and praying for those feelings to subside. And it really only happens in the morning. I havent felt much change day by day.

But as I go I try to tell myself it is only a season. My time and place is here in the philippines. I push forward and get through to the times of the day that we can go out and teach, and it is when we are out with the people that I can push forth and be comforted through the day. I know that I will see my family again. I know that we are sealed as an eternal family in the temple. I know this is where God wants me.
Anyway....
On a brighter note.. I made a funny mistake in a lesson this week. We were talking about the atonement and had just read a great scripture about it. I was thinking of asking "How is the atonement for your life" but my mouth said "how is your atonement?". Its times like these that I am glad we teach mostly less actives. This particular family we are reactivating and we just laughed for a second and I regained myself and was able to come up with the right words.

This week is scheduled to be fun! we have Zone conference on wednesday, apartment check on thursday, and a branch activity on friday.

I love and miss you all! Heres hoping for a good week and better mornings!