So to start this letter let me tell
you about Christmas and New Years eve.
Christmas- we had the opportunity to
visit the other elders in my district and we spent Christmas going to
a wedding and a baptism. What better way to spend Christmas than to
witness the real meaning of having someone take the first step to enter the
kingdom of heaven. It was an amazing thing to witness. I had a powerful witness
of the real meaning of Christmas It was by far my favorite one by
far. The no presents thing was a big change but i got a present that i
will cherish forever. I got to talk to my family for while and to tell them
about how awesome I am and how much i am loving it here. The work of the lord
never ends so we were out working on Christmas day. In
the Philippines Christmas is celebrated for like 3 months but when it
comes to Christmas day it is just like every normal day. all the stores
are open and everyone is doing everything normal. for me it rained
on Christmas eve. Like poured rain. If it were snow we prob would
have gotten like 5 feet. We visited a member of the other ward with the other
missionaries that night and we ate and had a great time. I got a recipe for
myself. pretty excited about that. So yay me!
New Years. So New Years eve was on
a Wednesday this year. So on Monday the lord really wanted
to test my patience level and see how willing i was to focus on the work. I was
really excited to email everyone and tell you all how Christmas went
for me. Well that didn't really happen. Instead I was given the
challenge that every computer i went to the internet would not work for me. I
got a little frustrated but I was willing to be ok with not letting everyone know
about how awesome my day was. So Monday we had a zone activity and then a brown
out. no power. So much fun. We were traveling back on the jeepney and the cover
would not stay down so my back was drenched and then to top it all off the
jeepney broke down. So when we got to the jeep terminal there were no more
rides going back to our area. So we went to the Allen Elders apartment and
spent the night there. We got up in the morning to leave but we got a text from
the Zone Leaders telling us that we were not to work that day (tuesday) so
instead we tried to email but it didnt work again for me. I was only able
to email my mission president. On our way to email I was told that we were in a
typhoon again. It was only a signal 1 so just a lot of rain enough to flood the
city. haha. So I had a little bit of fun playing in the flood. Oops. Well the
water came up to my knees and i was having a blast till we got a text asking if
any of the missionaries had been through the flood water. Yeah didnt cross my
mind how dangerous it was till then. So when i got back I showered and cleaned
up. We ate lunch and then we traveled home. We spend a lot of time searching
for people and trying to make everyone have a good new years. New years for us
consisted of us looking around the block and seeing 54 massive
speakers surrounding our house, and deciding that we were going to
leave. So back to Allen we went. We had a good time with the Elders
there and when midnight was near fireworks galore. bigger than the fourth
of July It had to have been like double the city fireworks. To top
it off everyone bangs what ever they can. So my ears were shot. If I would have
had money I would have carried on the tradition of my father. throwing plates
off the balcony. I guess it was a good thing I didnt have money.
So there are the two events of the
past two weeks. On Friday I went on splits with the zone leaders
(zl's). It was a blast. The ZL I went with was like a foot taller than me. We
had a lot in common so we got along really well. He is always super happy which
is awesome. It makes it really easy to talk to people. We rocked the exchanges.
I was doing pretty well with the language and we committed 3 less active
families to come to church. Well all three families showed up. well all three
families but not the whole families. But it was ok. Little by little.
So our investigators- We have
currently 8 new investigators and 3 families. We gained another one last night.
They are doing all really well and we are progressing with them pretty well,
except none of them will come to church. So our numbers we report at the end of
each week look really bad. But we are doing work here. I will be sad to leave
all our investigators and less actives and recent converts we have here in this
branch.
One last thing. I am approaching the
end of my first 12 weeks. Can you believe that it's been that long? I
found out that one of us will be transferring from this area. I will be really
sad if I transfer. I love this area so much. More importantly the people here.
I was told that as I loved the people I would find ways to help everyone of
them. I have seen that work time and time again. It is so amazing how simple
that phrase is and how it is so true.
I am so greatful for the opportunity
to be able to let all of you know how i am doing. It really makes me reflect on
how much I have learned and how much I have grown. It also gives me a break
from going nonstop. I think almost every night i will be saying my prayers and
i will fall asleep during them. I can tell those are the days that I gave it my
all.
I am loving serving a mission more
and more each day. Watching people smile and seeing them happy each time we
visit makes all the rainy days seem like sunny days.
Love you all,
Elder Carlton
Fun Facts:
It rained for 10 days straight saw
sunlight for the first time yesterday
I played in nasty flood water. oops
I cant seem to escape
the mosquitoes at night so i wake up bitten to death
I am going to learn how to cook
filipino food this next week
I eat rice for every meal mostly
I love getting letters
No comments:
Post a Comment