July 20th, 2015: Showing Charity to Your Companions, Even When It's Hard

Hey!

So, I just want to start out by saying that I'm still here in New Washington with Elder Beticon after transfers, but Elder Palzario transferred, so we have a new housemate, Elder Daniel!  I was pretty excited when I found out he was coming here because we were together in Culasi, and I really like him a lot.  He works hard and he's focused.  We found out that Elder Palzario transferred to one of the hardest areas in the mission to be companions with an Elder that he doesn't like.  And there is only two of them in that area, so they are just isolated together.  We kind of laughed when we heard that because we were teasing him that he was going to get transferred there, and then it actually happened haha.  I'll miss him though. 

Gary & Greta: what do you do if you feel a lack of charity to your companion or other people you have to work with? How do you deal with that.

Well, a lot of times I feel that.  It's really easy to get frustrated at your companion.  There will be times where there is a bad spirit between the two of us, even though we never actually show that we are mad.  But, honestly, I like to wake up a little early and just do something nice, even though that sounds really dumb, but it really just helps.  You don't have to say anything, but then there is a feeling of forgiveness between us and then we are both ready to work a little harder and it feels good.  I don't know.  Service helps.  We people that we teach, I just stick to what it says in PMG.  The best gift we can give people is teaching them the gospel. 
Keith: what was the topic of the last talk or training you gave?  The last training I gave was about sanctification.  I based it off of D&C 43:16.
Emily: do you have fungus free new shoes? Did you get Janes wedding invitation? I do have new rubber shoes.  They are nice right now for the rainy season.  And I did get Janes wedding invitation!  Thank you so much!  I'm so excited for her. That's awesome.  
Papa: do they have lots of venomous snakes? I know there are, but I've only seen one snake on my mission.  It was maybe like a 10 foot python looking snake in a rice field.  
Isaac: how many infestation of anything have you had in your house? And a favorite Filipino candy?  Um, well my house right now is pretty clean and tame, but my first one had a lot of cockroaches, spiders, and rats, stuff like that, but this last week, I walked out into our main room and there were two goats that had just walked into our house.  It kind of surprised me.  
Oliver: what is you new favorite ugly tie? Elder Beticon's grandpa sent him some ties and they are pretty ugly.  Elder Beticon is not really the person to sport ugly ties, so I now have them hehehe.  

Eliza: was are some of the tender mercies you've had this week?
Connor: what exotic fruits have you eaten lately?There is this fruit that grows off of the trunk of this tree.  I don't have a picture and I forgot what it's called, but I'll describe it.  It is a large blob shape (they can be different blob shapes, but they really can get quite large, like 10-15 pounds)The outside is covered by a thick, green, spiky skin.  The inside is yellow and it's kind of like a sweet flavor with a crunchy texture.  
Chloe: what's the craziest thing that has happened in the mission?  In my mission or in the Iloilo mission?  I found out that Sister Aquino had thyroid surgery this week.  That was pretty crazy to hear. 

I did have a pretty epic experience this week that I need to tell you.  So, we were tracting, and we wanted to go to the beach from the highway, so we found this path that was sided by two long tall concrete walls.  We walked in and found a large fenced in piece of property that was neatly kept.  The house was really big too, but we kept walking even though it actually felt like we were trespassing (which I haven't felt in a while.  We are always just cutting by people's houses or even through them if necessary)We wanted to go through to the beach.  We walked to the back fence by the beach, but didn't see an old man sitting in a little hut.  This guy had long straight white hair and a long white beard, but he was filipino.  He asked us in English if we were looking for something, so I told him in tagalog that we were trying to find a way to go through to the beach, but he couldn't understand me.  Anyways, apparently he doesn't speak Tagalog, just English.  He asked me where I was from so I said America.  He asked where in America and I said Wisconsin.  He asked where in Wisconsin so I said Green Bay.  Anyways, it turns out that this guy is from Kenosha Wisconsin!  It blew my mind!  He's a Green Bay Packers fan!!!  I couldn't believe it.  Anyways, we talked to this man for about 20 minutes.  He told us very clearly that he had met missionaries like us before and he was not a fan of them.  He was convinced that we are a cult/business church that marries a ton of women.  Anyways, he has a lot of different philosophies about religion.  It was kind of nice to talk with him, even though he was pretty rude to us.  Anyways, I just needed to tell you guys that I met somebody from Wisconsin.  I was pretty pumped about that.  

I have another funny experience the other experience with Tatay Almanon.  I sent a picture of him to you, but he really wants to be baptized and understands the gospel well, but we are having trouble getting over the cigarette addiction with him.  Anyways, the other night we were following him up to see if he had smoked.  He told us that he didn't, but then the Nanay comes in and just stares him down and says, Are you sure.  And he says yes, of course.  And then she told us to close our eyes while she forced the truth out of him, so anyways she goes over to the chair and puts tatay into a headlock and like is pinching his thigh or something for like 2 minutes until he finally admits, that he had one.  Anyways, it was so funny.  You kind of have to know their personalities haha.  They are so funny.  

Elder Beticon and I had a baptism this week.   Sister Magseco, who I sent a picture of.  Anyways, this family was really prepared by the Lord to recieve his gospel.  The father had been baptized as a kid, but has been less active for a long while. Anyways, this family is very young. The have a little boy who is a little over one year old and the second is on the way. They are from Negros, and just moved to New Washington, a couple weeks later, we met them and found out that Tatay is a member. They told us that they were so grateful we had found them because they were thinking a lot about God lately and wanted to change their lives. I remember in one of the first lessons we had with them, I forgot what the topic was, but they both just started crying and the sister was said something to her husband like, "did you feel that?  I feel so good.  It feels better than I've ever felt before in my whole life."  We just told her that that was the Holy Ghost telling her that it was true.  Anyways, we met them and four weeks later the Sister was baptized.  This family has just eaten up everything that we have told them.  We teach them about a commandment and they instantly want to follow it.  We taught about missionary work and the next day we go there and they have a jar with couple coins in it.  They explained that this is now the mission fund for their one year old son.  They put the money that Tatay would have spent on cigarettes into his mission fund so that way they will be able to pay for his mission when he gets older.  It's like that with this family.  I just wish everybody we taught would except the gospel with such readiness haha. 

That's about all I have time for today.  Have a great week!