Week 6: A peaceful prospect

The work is draining, but the rewards so much more encouraging. Truly my flesh is weak, I never knew how so, but the spirit is the force and strength behind this work. We could not do this great work without it. Yesterday we had my first Zone Conference/Mission Tour. Elder Snow spoke to use and one this he said was that the atonement is the greatest gift we have and then probably the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and yet, it is so underused. Even as a missionary, I feel like I cannot use it enough. This gift has helped and blessed me so much, and part of life is learning how to really use it (learn from it and listen to it).

The food is has not been too hard on me. We watch what we eat and only drink filtered water so I have yet to get the trots. One companion in our apartment, Elder Reed or Cason on “America Mormon”, has been to the hospital over 30 times, and one of those times for three weeks to recover from Dengue Fever. A runny nose is the worst I have received. I know that God has blessed me. And I don’t want to tempt Him by drinking clearly non-potable water. There are certain foods that are bawal (forbidden) like balut, aso, and street vendors (fertilized old egg, dog,…). I was so bold to eat a fish eye at the Abrego’s FHE the other night. It really was not bad tasting so much as strange feeling. It was like eating cooked snot.

The poverty here in Palawan is really not too bad. There are places in our area built out onto the water on stilts and layers of trash underneath. They are mostly fishermen. Almost no begging here occurs as opposed to the city. Palawan is the goal for every missionary. If an elder does not get sent out here they wonder what they have done wrong (or they did do something wrong, but not always the case), and so I am very fortunate to be here and count ever day here a blessing. It really is beautiful here. One thing that quickly makes Palawan so awesome is that it has trash can, public and private trash cans. I am told that they don’t have this in the city or even the mainland. They just throw in on the street and burn it or pay someone else to do the same.

There are only branches here in Palawan, two zones and about a dozen areas. Our area is quite small although the island is huge. We only proselyte in the dense population locations. My companion has been here for about four months now so I am not sure what will happen at transfers. This is my first one so I am anxious to see what happens.

I think that I mentioned Roben before, but I am not sure. I count is as a little miracle. My contribution was having us enter the gate because we were just calling from outside. My companion’s contribution was calling at the house long enough and then peeking in to find the guy. I am sure both of us were guided to do so and we may not have found him alone. We taught him, he was interested and said that he would come to church so we could only hope and pray. Well to only a bit of surprise, he nor many of the others we committed did not come to church, however, we latter learned they he came, but did not enter because he was all wet. The greatest joy came after we left on our last lesson. He had read the first couple of chapters of Nephi with a magnifying-glass because his vision was bad. He asked why God would have Nephi kill Laban, a common concern that we answered satisfactorily. As we left he said, “This book will change my life”. That brings me such joy to here another person say that because that is how I feel already. My life has dramatically been changed because of The Book of Mormon. It is an amazing book and no one can speak otherwise.

The seeds are being planted and the crop is good. The time will come when there are just two sides, those totally for the work and those totally against it or unwilling. It brings be such joy to be doing this work. I hope you all can feel the same.