Patience and Past

I would say patience is one of the most vital things especially as a missionary, and if you don't have it you definitely learn how to become more patient. Opening an area does take a big deal of patience, but I'm grateful for what it's teaching me! I still had some really fun experiences this week including zone conference, some more blast from the past experiences, and weird things people have said to us this week.

So as for Vintar, it's still a work in progress. Something we learned from our Zone Conference was how important finding is in missionary work and who we need to look for. Good thing we are opening an area, because finding is basically all our work has been for the past couple weeks. We still have yet to find some people who are really interested, which is sad, but we are still just being patient. 

At the moment we are looking for new ways to find so the work doesn't get too repetitive. So here's what we did a couple of times: we went up to a group of teenager girls and I just straight up spoke English to them. They struggled to answer. For those of you who don't know, for the most part Filipinos can understand English, but a lot of them can't speak it. One of the girls said she was "nose-bleeding" but she said her nose was menstruating. Afterwards I just speak Tagalog, which really relieves them. Our focus right now is really just finding people to teach, especially younger ones. Lots of walking around looking for people to teach. 

One thing we were able to do this week was get closer to the members. The branch president worked with us a couple of times along with some other members, which is always fun when you have other people with you. It's weird to think that our branch president is only 25, but it's alright. He's cool. At least we have some more dinners scheduled!

Here's another cool blast from the past experience I had: although we didn't have any investigators come to church, afterwards we were just talking to the members. Some members from Laoag 3 ward came to Vintar again and one of them talked to me. I may have said this before but she has met my Mom and Aunt. 

While we were talking she told me she had something to show me. I was a little surprised to see my Grandpa, Grandma, uncle and his wife in the picture! Turns out, she was the missionary that taught my Tita Merce when she served in the Manila mission! It made me happy to see that picture of them, and it made me grateful again to be serving here in the Philippines. 

This gospel is centered on families, and I love that I keep seeing the blessings it has had in my family personally! This place is still amazing and I know there are people out there ready for us to teach! Just gotta keep looking!

Elder Espiritu

**you can email Elder Espiritu at joseph.espiritu@myldsmail.net

My homie Sister Persia 

My batch mate and now AP, Elder Jenkins

Another shot of Elder Ossola and me

My studly cousin in law Elder Maroket

My nephew (jk he's my MTC companions trainee) Elder Santillan

Some of my Tongan friends Sister Faoa and Sister Latu

My district leader Elder Lobaton

My district mates last cycle Elder Arangali and Sister Agudo

Another Fellow batch mate now Zone leader Elder Nichols

Blast from the past, that picture is one a lady from Laoag city showed to me (from Laoag city) as a missionary in Manila. She's on the very right. The 2 in the center are my grandparents and the 2 Filipinos on the left are my Uncle and Aunt, when my Aunt was baptized