Good afternoon family,
Right now I am in Cebu. My companion had a blood test earlier and has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, so we will be sleeping here tonight. He had some health problems a few transfers ago and they are following up on him.
Good news! President Schmutz said you could come to pick me up. These are his words. "About your parents, I think it would be wonderful for them to come and pick you up from your mission. They need to understand that you will still be on your mission when they visit here. You will not be released. You will be given to them as your companions, and you will still dressed in missionary attire, wearing the missionary name tag. You must be very careful that you share a great and HUMBLE example with the Filipino members and people you have worked with. Sometimes Americans pick up their children and think of it more like a play vacation. But if you remain in the areas of your mission, you will still be a missionary in the eyes of the people you introduce to your parents. So don't do anything that would lessen their feelings for you as a missionary. It is confusing if you or your family don't act in the very best way as member missionaries. I will look forward to meeting your parents if they come. It will be an honor to tell them what a good missionary you have been."
I had a good time teaching my first district meeting on Monday. It was so great to be able to receive added revelation for the district and what I needed to teach. It just came so easily. I enjoyed preparing it. I think I will learn a lot from my new responsibility.
We had a great experience yesterday. We had originally planned to visit nanay Ilanan in the morning at 10:00. We had taught her once about a month ago, and thought nothing would ever come of it, so we didn't return. Every once in a while I would feel like that lesson was meant to be and that it will help open a door for something else. Our plans kept getting changed though, and until yesterday we had not gone back. We had planned to visit Gervasio Daitol on Thursday at 10, but Elder Laboson accidentally told him Tuesday. So we went there first yesterday and ended up talking to his wife for about half an hour. Gervasio wasn't there. After that we went to nanay Ilanan. She wasn’t home either, so we talked to her neighbors for a while. She ended up coming home, but was too busy for us to teach her. She did give us a bunch of bananas though that she had just cooked (they boil bananas here. They are good.) So we took the bananas and left to go home, hoping that we would find some other people to talk to. In that area there are almost no people. There are large fields with little bunches of 3 or 4 houses here or there. Usually nobody is home. While walking I was a little confused. I had felt like we had purpose there, but all we had gotten for our effort was a sack of bananas. Maybe the Lord just wanted us to eat more fruit. As we were walking we saw a man clearing some overgrown weeds and grass out of a field. He looked excited to see us and slowly began walking towards the road where we would cross. I was going to ask him for directions (because the path we took went a different direction than I thought it would) and my companion said "Give him a banana." So we walked over to him and began talking. He asked if we were Mormon missionaries. We said we were. He then asked if we taught from our bible. We said, yes, we teach from the Book of Mormon. He then said "Well let’s start. Shall we pray?" We were startled. We asked him some questions to get to know him a little bit and then offered him a banana. It turns out he gets paid 500 pesos (about $10) a month to clear the land and hadn't eaten breakfast and all he had to eat for lunch was a 1 peso water in a plastic bag that someone had given him! We ended up giving him all of the bananas, as they clearly were not intended for us to eat. He had been taught by missionaries in 2007 and was almost baptized but had stopped coming to church and ended up getting dropped. Before the lesson even started we committed him for baptism and by the end of the lesson had given him a date. He has forgotten almost all of the doctrine of the church, but still believed it was true. We ended up teaching him the first lesson and have an appointment to go back Saturday. That was such an amazing experience. Both Elder Laboson and I were flabbergasted at how many things fell into place so that we could find him at that time and had a bag of bananas to give to him. Only the Lord could have done that.
Take care. It was good to hear from you all this week.
Love,
Elder Schenk
Right now I am in Cebu. My companion had a blood test earlier and has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, so we will be sleeping here tonight. He had some health problems a few transfers ago and they are following up on him.
Good news! President Schmutz said you could come to pick me up. These are his words. "About your parents, I think it would be wonderful for them to come and pick you up from your mission. They need to understand that you will still be on your mission when they visit here. You will not be released. You will be given to them as your companions, and you will still dressed in missionary attire, wearing the missionary name tag. You must be very careful that you share a great and HUMBLE example with the Filipino members and people you have worked with. Sometimes Americans pick up their children and think of it more like a play vacation. But if you remain in the areas of your mission, you will still be a missionary in the eyes of the people you introduce to your parents. So don't do anything that would lessen their feelings for you as a missionary. It is confusing if you or your family don't act in the very best way as member missionaries. I will look forward to meeting your parents if they come. It will be an honor to tell them what a good missionary you have been."
I had a good time teaching my first district meeting on Monday. It was so great to be able to receive added revelation for the district and what I needed to teach. It just came so easily. I enjoyed preparing it. I think I will learn a lot from my new responsibility.
We had a great experience yesterday. We had originally planned to visit nanay Ilanan in the morning at 10:00. We had taught her once about a month ago, and thought nothing would ever come of it, so we didn't return. Every once in a while I would feel like that lesson was meant to be and that it will help open a door for something else. Our plans kept getting changed though, and until yesterday we had not gone back. We had planned to visit Gervasio Daitol on Thursday at 10, but Elder Laboson accidentally told him Tuesday. So we went there first yesterday and ended up talking to his wife for about half an hour. Gervasio wasn't there. After that we went to nanay Ilanan. She wasn’t home either, so we talked to her neighbors for a while. She ended up coming home, but was too busy for us to teach her. She did give us a bunch of bananas though that she had just cooked (they boil bananas here. They are good.) So we took the bananas and left to go home, hoping that we would find some other people to talk to. In that area there are almost no people. There are large fields with little bunches of 3 or 4 houses here or there. Usually nobody is home. While walking I was a little confused. I had felt like we had purpose there, but all we had gotten for our effort was a sack of bananas. Maybe the Lord just wanted us to eat more fruit. As we were walking we saw a man clearing some overgrown weeds and grass out of a field. He looked excited to see us and slowly began walking towards the road where we would cross. I was going to ask him for directions (because the path we took went a different direction than I thought it would) and my companion said "Give him a banana." So we walked over to him and began talking. He asked if we were Mormon missionaries. We said we were. He then asked if we taught from our bible. We said, yes, we teach from the Book of Mormon. He then said "Well let’s start. Shall we pray?" We were startled. We asked him some questions to get to know him a little bit and then offered him a banana. It turns out he gets paid 500 pesos (about $10) a month to clear the land and hadn't eaten breakfast and all he had to eat for lunch was a 1 peso water in a plastic bag that someone had given him! We ended up giving him all of the bananas, as they clearly were not intended for us to eat. He had been taught by missionaries in 2007 and was almost baptized but had stopped coming to church and ended up getting dropped. Before the lesson even started we committed him for baptism and by the end of the lesson had given him a date. He has forgotten almost all of the doctrine of the church, but still believed it was true. We ended up teaching him the first lesson and have an appointment to go back Saturday. That was such an amazing experience. Both Elder Laboson and I were flabbergasted at how many things fell into place so that we could find him at that time and had a bag of bananas to give to him. Only the Lord could have done that.
Take care. It was good to hear from you all this week.
Love,
Elder Schenk
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