October 26, 2010

Thanks for the pictures mom! That was neat to see. You need to make sure dad brings his camera next time. I miss those days. This week is transfers. Elder Agbayani is transferring to Bohol and is going to be a district leader. My new companion is going to be Elder Nicoleta. He was in my last district, so that will help our relationship start off faster. I had a baptism this week as well! Jerom Benzone. He is 11 and his family are members. We got there 2 hours early on Saturday, and found out that all the water the church had came to about an inch in the font. Water here is different. It comes on every other day and you have a tank that fills up. The church has a huge tank, but it was empty. But by Sunday they had fixed it and we had plenty of water for Elder Agbayani to baptize him. His friend wants to take the lessons now. But he lives in the next town over, not our area, but visits on the weekend.
Erlinda Alcala is another one of our investigators. She just married a semi active member and wanted to take the lessons. She is progressing, but has not come to church in a month. She just got a job and probably will be working 6 days a week, including Sunday. So that could be hard.

Our other investigators are:
Maria Reyes, Glen Feloso, Rochelle, Nitchie, the Lumin family, Nicolasial Singson, and our newest investigator that we found yesterday, Jesus Constan.  They need all the prayers they can get.

So to answer your questions, the monsoon didn’t get us here. It has just been raining a lot. I actually got cold yesterday. It had to be in the upper 80s but was rainy and windy. I am going to freeze when I get home!

People don’t ask hard questions. They are all catholic and have been for generations. The younger ones are willing to change but their parents won’t let them, and the older ones don’t want to find out that what they have believed their whole life is wrong. So they don’t want to find out our church is true, because then theirs is wrong. But everyone believes in Christ and is very accepting of the gospel. Finding people to teach is definitely not a problem. It is just finding the ones that are willing to change that is hard.

I have got a little thinner, but I have only lost 5 pounds, and since I gained 10 in the mtc, I figure I’ll be all right. I found out this week that if you make more food, you actually get full! So I have been making more.

The language is coming well. I focused too much on doctrine my first transfer and a half, so I am probably a little behind, but if you have faith, and actually work at it, you learn super fast. Elder Agbayani volunteers me to teach from the scriptures all the time when I am unprepared, and I can usually get the point across. Most people speak a lot of English, especially the college students. That is nice so I can substitute words when I don’t know them.
As far as I know the mail is still coming regularly. I usually get a letter every week from someone. Thanks for that.Thank everyone for their prayers for me. I really appreciate it. I feel so much help from the Lord. That is the only way to be successful in this work.

I love you all! Thanks for all you do! Tell people sorry I don’t mail more often, there is just no time.
Love you!
Elder Schenk