SO MANY BUGS (oh and transfers)

Okay so for some reason bugs are attracted to light right? So because it was a full moon, all these little black beetles who usually chill in the rice fields decided to bombard the homes of all the Filipinos and wow there were so many.  We had a dinner appointment and and we had beetles crawling on our clothes, in our food, on the floor, on the walls, etc. It was super fun and I'm probably not going to forget it because it was nuts.

Oh and Transfers *teardrop*

One of the Zone Leaders transferred out and another elder in our district. But because I'm training, Elder Macanlalay is still stuck with me! Haha! He's a funny guy.

So now our zone leaders are Elder Mcquarrie, and Elder Zeyer (new zone Leader).

Elder Zeyer shared a story that was in the Liahona a couple months ago and I thought it was very good.

It's the story about the piece of jade that had many imperfections, such as discoloration and cracks. But because of its many imperfections, a Chinese artist was able to turn that imperfect jade into what looks like a perfect replication of a head of lettuce.

The story goes something like that.

But the point is.... our weaknesses and imperfections do not go away when we work to become stronger, but rather our present weaknesses and imperfections actually turn into our strengths through diligent work and effort. And of course, through our Faith in Jesus Christ and our reliance on Him.

Anyway, buhay pa rin.

Much love!

-Elder Ahn

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

So as usual no time. Forgive me.

So random stuff:

Karaoke. People love their Karaoke here. It’s really funny. But sometimes their voices are really. Um. Meh. So I give them an A for effort. *two thumbs up*

Another random thing:

I swear everytime we’re in a teaching appointment and the Spirit is very strong or we’re bearing our testimony or our investigator is thinking about our question, flippin Satan is outside kicking dogs and chickens and making babies cry… Because it’s when the Spirit is the strongest that it “for some reason” becomes the loudest outside. One of these days I’m just going to walk outside and be like “Satan. What are you doing. Satan. Stahp.” Good thing light conquers darkness though, right?

Okay because no time, here’s something that really helped me this week.

Once again, it was during my Personal Study! (best thing ever)

It was Alma comparing faith to a seed and letting it take root and nurturing it. And I was really looking for an answer to the question of “How can I feel more peace? Because I’m still a new missionary and I feel like I can’t contribute a lot and sometimes it’s hard.”

So down at the bottom, the footnotes and some notes to “Patience” and “Diligence” and I was like “OH. THOSE ARE CHRIST-LIKE ATTRIBUTES IN PREACH MY GOSPEL.”

So I went there and read about those and those two things + “Humility” were exactly what I needed to read. Quoting from the section on Patience, “It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing… you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled.”

So that was a little wake up call for me. I need to just keep doing what I’m doing because the Lord has promised me blessings now, and even greater ones later.

That’s all. Times up.

Love your faces!

-Elder Ahn 

VIOLIN. I HAVE A VIOLIN.

AHHHH.

Sister Ostler, the Mission President's wife, really likes music and she likes violinists.... and so during our interview I was like "Hey I play violin" and she was like "Wow awesome! You're going to be playing violin for us a lot!" and now I have the mission violin in my room and I have the privilege of practicing a lot of the music she sent with it and I am so happy.

There are two universal languages: The language of the Spirit, aaaaand music.

So this week had its ups and downs. But everything turned out fine in the end.

This week was as usual, lots of teaching and trying to talk to people, and actually we had like 3 dinner appointments. We walk a lot everyday, but holy cow the amount of rice people eat here is insane, and it's going to take it's toll on my body sooner or later.

We taught A LOT of new investigators this week and we got many baptismal dates! Out of all our investigators: one came to church. A little discouraging, but hey it's progress!

What else what else.

Okay I can't really think of a whole lot that happened this week, but I do remember this.

So we had exchanges this week and I was leading our area as a 4-week old missionary, and I got discouraged because we taught no lessons that day. So that night, I prayed with sincerity and just asked for help and comfort because that day kicked my butt and all my feelings of inadequacy hit me like a truck.

Then the next day was AWESOME. I felt like I was able to share a lot more in Tagalog than I had before, and that day we had a lot of lessons and lots of baptismal date commitments and it was great.

So yeah. Pray with sincerity. It helps.

Aaaaand that's all for now!

Love you!

-Elder Ahn

MY PWET HURTS

Pwet means butt.

Anyway, yeah we had exchanges last week and it was a biking area and holy cow it was painful. But it was so fun.

The people in that area were incredibly kind and hospitable, but then again, everyone in Palawan is like that.

So yeah, sorry about last week. There was a "brown-out" which is pretty much like a black out. So all of a sudden, there was no electricity and our computers shut down and then there was no internet.

But I hope you enjoy that last email I just sent, and I really actually have no time right now again? Because internet is incredibly slow here. So I will report back next week. 

Love you! Be safe!

-Elder Ahn

CERTIFIED FILIPINO

So I finally ate balut. Twice.

It's not that bad actually. It tastes like a boiled egg with some chicken-y flavor. But it looks really nasty... so as long as my eyes were closed it was fine.

So this week was just a LOT OF WALKING and a lot of OYM-ing (Open Your Mouth and sharing our unique message). I'm trying my best to open my mouth more, but you know. Language barrier. Bahahahaha this language is nuts sometimes. But i really do love learning it and speaking it, even if I sound like an idiot.

I really want to get to know our investigators and members more but it's a little difficult not knowing a ton of Tagalog or knowing HOW THIS GRAMMAR WORKS but i know that it will just come in time. At least that's what everyone keeps saying so we will see. Haha!

We got quite a few new investigators last week! Like around 8-ish. Out of the 8, only one came to church yesterday, but hey! It's still progress. And then one of our Less Active members that we've been teaching came to church so that was great too! Now we just need to keep them coming to church!

Hmmm. Ah! Nanay Angelita!

Oh, so in the Philippines, "Nanay" is "mom" and "Tatay" is "dad", and so they just address adults like that. Nanay and tatay.

Anyway, yeah Nanay Angelita is a Recent Convert, like 70+ and awesome. She's just so happy and she always greets us and listens with this warm smile and her love for the Gospel is so prevalent. Haha Elder Macanlalay and I love her.

Hm. Sad story.

So two little girls with baptismal dates, the Ancheta Sisters, now are no longer getting baptized because their grandmother won't allow it. So that really hit us hard this week, but all is well. We're praying for their lola to soften her heart and allow them to get baptized.

Oh yeah. I wash my clothes by hand with a brush and some buckets. So that's fun too.

Um um um..... Yeah I think that's all that comes to mind.

I'm still alive. All is well.

Mahal ko po kayo!

-Elder Ahn