We had a district meeting in Santa Ana, which is the farthest area in the Philippines Laoag Mission. It's about an hour from my area. After the district meeting we went to a really nice restaurant by the beach. It had legit American food. I tried to order some chocolate waffles, a burger and a shake, but they didn't have waffles and they forgot my burger and shake. All I got was fries. I was sad, but hey, I got fries! I also got to take a lot of really cool pictures on the beach!
After we came back to our area we got to do a little birthday party for Elder Mortenson with the Pajarillo family and a couple of others. It was nice and lots of fun. We had spaghetti and little cakes for Elder Mortenson. It actually reminded me of family parties at home so I felt like I was in the right place!
So more about the 2 cool experiences this week.
I did 2 more exchanges and the first was with Elder Fainu. We traveled to Gonzaga to my zone leaders’ area. It's actually pretty hard in all of the Cagayan area because by the time the sun goes down around 6, everyone goes inside and starts to go to bed. You can't really go finding so in Gonzaga we just visited members.
We ended up visiting a couple of members but it was the last thing we did that really hit me. Elder Fainu didn't want to go home early so we decided to rearrange some pictures at this one member’s house. They had lots of good pictures that actually had lots of pictures of older missionaries who have taught them but it was all on a dusty wall and not super noticeable.
We went to a computer shop and printed a bunch of LDS inspirational quotes. Then we made a little collage on their wall! It was a simple service but it ended up meaning a lot to them and to me. I felt so great after and I was happy I got the opportunity to do it.
The next Friday, the language of the Spirit continued to bless my life. I went on an exchange with another missionary in my district named Elder Pongyan, who is a Filipino. This time it was in my area so I led. We ended up getting a lot done.
We found 3 new investigators, 2 referrals, taught 2 less actives, 1 recent convert, and a couple of other lessons. During our lesson with Sister Janeth (our recent convert who I just got to baptize) we taught about temples and family history. Apparently it was really rough for the both of us. I've never really taught that before. I did the best I could. After the lesson Elder Pongyan apologized to me because he said it was rough for him too. I didn't really notice though (because I still don't really understand all) but I told him it was fine because I still felt the Spirit.
I've come to know that when it comes to teaching new things, I am going to struggle a lot. There are going to be days that might be worse. That day was one of them. But do you know what? It didn't really affect me at all. I know that part of growth is to labor and struggle and it's not my words that teach them, it's the Spirit’s. If I just rely on that, then I will always be okay.
This week was actually really happy for me. There are days where I feel like I don't know anything, but this week I gained some more confidence in my ability to talk to people. Little by little, it will keep growing. Always have faith that you can do things and always build your faith. Till next week! "Faith without works is dead.”
- Elder Espiritu
**Several more pictures were sent by Elder Espiritu but we couldn't open the files. Hopefully we can post them with next week's email...
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