I do not know exactly know where to start, but there is a lot of good stuff going on right now. Today was the transfer meeting and it was good to see a lot of familiar faces again, one of my roommates has been out on Palawan the whole time, so I saw him for the first time in 4 months, which was pretty awesome. Even though it did not seem that long it was good to see him.
I have been thinking, studying, and praying a lot the past 6 months, but I have seen some bigger changes in myself in the last few weeks. There is a family that I am teaching right now, I have mentioned them before, the Piedad family! Nanay (Mom) is a member, but the Tatay (you guessed it, Father) is not, and he does not want to have his children baptized until they are 18, because he wants them to be sure in their decision. 18 is still a long ways away for those 3 girls. I find myself on me knees a lot praying for them, and I had a thought come into my mind that I would serve a full 2 years here just for their family. Then I kind of thought about my thought , well that's a long time, 4 baptisms in 2 years is not a lot. But without hesitation I would do that for this family. I am still trying to get myself to the point where I could easily say that for anyone. And I am getting closer to that point where I would, even for people I have never met before, or who might be seen by the world as of less importance. When I have been studying in the scriptures I have learned a lot about love and teaching and realizing even more how those go hand in hand, if you love someone you will serve them, if you do not love someone enough to help with dishes, or to even smile at them you have some things you need to change in your life. From my recent studies in the scriptures I have noticed a remarkable similarity between Paul in the New Testament, and Joseph Smith. After focusing on their similarities I noticed their striking similarity to the way that my Dad writes, and the way that I think he thinks, but I am not quite a mind reader. If you read from his blog about Devin's accident and study the scriptures you will see it also. Maybe you need to know him as well as I do. Well anyways, this led me to different things and ways of thinking about teaching people, and realizing the differences and similarities between people, and which Prophets or teachings they will connect the best with. I am guessing my Dad connects best with Paul and Joseph Smith. Which is what I seem to be growing closer too. But you can tell me if I am wrong.
I have also noticed that sometimes life is really hard, and I have noticed that sometimes you just plow through the tough times with such happiness and enthusiasm that you do not even notice how hard something was until it was already over. Then you look back and say "Holy Cow! I actually did that!" Sometimes you need to slow down enough to realize how much Heavenly Father is actually helping you, and be more thankful for what he is doing for you, because it is probably a lot more than you are doing for yourself.
I had an exciting day today, last night I spent the night at the Zone Leaders apartment, they are awesome, we got some pizza and stayed up a little late... and Elder Taylor played the Ukulele and we all sang along (Taylor Swift). It was quite fun. We made it over to the meeting and I confirmed that my next housemate is Elder Ward, my MTC companion, I was so excited! This is going to be the best transfer ever! I hope :) I received some letters, some dating back to March 14th, some were more recent, I think one was from April18th, I think they just send them whenever they get enough letters going to the Philippines from the US. I do not really know, but they take their time sometimes. And I am sorry if I neglect you a little bit in writing back, the past few transfers have been rough in terms of extra money, so I had to pick between eating and mailing. :) I ate.
I will try to do a little bit better at keeping you up to date with some of the people that I am teaching, and I will probably buy a new camera in the next few weeks, I do not have a ton of extra money, so I may beat anyone who comes near it with Elder Vail's Filipino fighting sticks. Joke lang!
Oh yes cannot forget this, I will be calling home on Sunday, I am going to be getting up early just for you and I am going to call sometime around 6-7 am my time, which means you should just all be home Saturday if that is alright with all of you. It will be in the early afternoon most likely, if we do not get to talk for long, or if something does not work I will try again on Sunday night, which will be Sunday morning for you, and hopefully everything will work alright. If not, I will be calling on Christmas, that is only like 8 months away, not even that far. :) I love all of you, some of you more than others. ;)
Love, Elder Munk
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