Tough life! |
Anyone recognize these 2? |
No thank you!!! |
Well, this week was great- but I didn't get to
go to Pasacao so it wasn't as amazing as last week haha. I am way
jealous that Eagar is so green and beautiful right now, this is the best
time of year to be in Eagar. But let's be real, anytime of year is a
great time to be in Eagar, maybe not a "beautiful" time in Eagar, but a
great time in Eagar. Eagar is a little slice of heaven. But speaking of
heavenly lugars, The Philippines is STINKING AWESOME! I am still
convinced that I will have a harder time with my transfer back to
America than I will with my transfer to The Philippines. Anyway this
week was good, and it went by SO FAST! All weeks go by so fast!
This past week was the last week of the transfer which
means we are BUSY! We did all our Transfer Planning and Travel Planning
this week and it was super time consuming. It is fun work, but nothing
beats missionary work- actually hitting the streets and rice fields and
preaching the word. It would be safe to say that I miss the regular
missionary work, too bad I still have 6 months to be caged in an office
haha. It is okay, it is worth it just from all the things I learn from
President and Sister Reeder. But President Reeder knows that I am
"field trunky" I am ready to hit the streets again. Anyway this week has
been crazy hectic but way fun and I have learned a lot.
So as far as cool things go- I ate a goat. Or maybe I should
say, I ate goat. I didn't eat a whole goat that is just nonsense. But I
did have goat or kambing as it is called in the blessed language of
Tagalog. It tastes really good, it is tougher than beef. It is sorta
like a beef and pork mix. Anyway now I can say I have eaten goat- can
you? Try it some time.
So to elaborate a little more on what "transfer and travel
plans" mean, that is when President Reeder assigns missionaries to their
new areas and assignments and who will train and all that fun stuff. We
help and council and suggest things to him about transfers and then
when it is finished Elder Datu and I go into the logistics of all these
things. How the transfer will work so that no one is left alone and
everyone will be using their time wisely and just so that everyone and
everything is in the right place at the right time. It takes forever but
it took even longer when we weren't split in half yet and when we had
two islands to take care of. But it is still pretty complicated
especially because we are opening up 13 brand new areas this transfer
alone! And all of the missionaries who are opening these areas up are
TRAINING! We have so many new missionaries, we are getting flooded with
missionaries. It is awesome. The work is going forth faster than ever.
We don't know where to put all of these missionaries!
The highlight of my week was yesterday after church. We had a
great lesson with one of our investigators and invited him to baptism.
It was a great lesson and he TIMIDLY accepted the invitation that was
given quite boldly haha. Anyways he is progressing and so is his family.
Nothing compares to inviting people to come unto Jesus Christ. My
Purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Jesus Christ
and they do it in the most noticeable way through following Jesus
Christ's example and be baptized by immersion with someone holding the
proper authority of God. Anytime I am able to invite others to come unto
Christ I am a happy happy missionary! When they actually do it, I am
BEYOND happy! But I haven't had a day on my mission so far that I am not
happy!
Just earlier today before I started emailing Elder Datu and I
were walking by a store and a man came running behind me, grabbed me by
the back, turned me around, and shook my hand like we were old friends.
I was shocked, especially because this person was American. I said,
sorry but do I know you? Turns out we don't know each other, he just
wanted to talk to us. His name is Jimmy from Arkansas! And he talks like
a "Jimmy Boy" from Arkansas! Haha he also knows some Sherwoods there
apparently. I told him I was related to them and that my buddy Rulon
Udall was serving in Arkansas doing the same thing I am doing here. He
thought that was pretty cool and so did I, It's a small world. But the
most interesting part was he wanted to ask us about the church. He is a
very firm member in his religion, which I won't mention, and wanted to
know how many missionaries we have in the Philippines. Sadly I didn't
know the exact number but I told him how many we had just here in Naga
and he was shocked! He said and I quote, "Sadly my religion doesn't do a
lot of things we should do." He was a very nice man and had a great
testimony of Jesus Christ. I was pleased at that, we talked about our
belief in Jesus Christ being the number one most important thing and
that is true. But he mentioned so many things that he thought wasn't
right about his religion. I am so glad I have no doubts about this
religion. We wanted to go visit him at his house, because he was staying
here in Naga, but he is leaving to go back to the states later on today
so we couldn't. He was just lost, he believes in Christ and is a good
man- which says a lot I think but you could see it in his eyes that he
wants more. Anyway, open your mouth and talk to people about the Gospel.
Sometimes they come up to you but sometimes you need to be the one to
open your mouths first. Isn't it great to know what we know, and to have
what they need. Maybe Rulon will talk to that man in a couple of weeks-
that would be a real small world.
How do you like the pictures of who used to be Elders Walker
and Adair? Someone asked me, "Hey do you know these guys, it says they
are from Eagar." I said yes before they said their names. If they are
from Eagar- I probably know them haha. Also a district mate of mine from
the MTC (Elder Atwood from Australia) trained Elder Ryder Neilson from
St. Johns, cool no?
Do you see the size of that bug? By my body language you can
probably see that I was a bit scared of it- haha the funny thing is
Filipinos play with these things like it is nothing. The kids even put
strings on it and then they let them fly around in the air. But when
they started putting that thing on me (and by put I mean they would
throw it on me and where it landed it just sticks to because it's grip
is crazy good) it was basically on my neck at one point and I was
squirming they thought that was pretty funny! Big tall massive white guy
scared of a "tiny" little bug!
Well I don't have much to say this week. We were in the
office a lot and we will be in the office a lot this week, we will be
training all the trainers and greeting all the new missionaries and send
out all the old missionaries and all of that. It should be a good week.
But sorry the letter wasn't great. But I do have a favor to ask, I
would love it if all of you who read my blog would send me your
testimony. Just a quick little testimony. I haven't heard the
testimonies of my family members in over a year. I would love to hear
them. And all of you who may reads this I would love to hear anything
you have to say! I would love it if you could do that. Thanks for that.
Well have a great week. Find joy in the journey, life's too short to
only be enjoyed in retrospect.
Elder Davis