Mar 1: Joy in service

By now, sitting on the floor during lessons, drinking coke, giving high-fives to hoards of children, being asked “What’s your name?” dozens of times a day (the kids love to practice their English and that is usually the extent of it), then being greeted as “Hey Jo” by older men (because that is just what they call people here)… this has all just become quite normal for me. However, speaking and understanding Tagalog is a bit weird still.

We had a fun activity with our zone earilier today, consisting of volleyball, basktetball, pingpong, batmitton, and just talking story. I have Elder Murray, MTC companion, and Sister Svedi in my zone so I was finally able to have a good long chat with them about the mission life. Later today we will be going to SM (Super Mall) which is only permitted by President LeSueur. We naturally got permission, yesterday, at zone conference where was learned about finding and OYMing.

So the families in Bicutan that were being taught when I came in have been falling out one by one. The Joven family who is an unmarried less-active father at unbaptized mother has not come to church for the last couple weeks. We were actually teaching the kids only, but not anymore. The promising Gimong family just announced that they are catholic fanatics after humoring the missionaries for the last few months. They came to church, are still reading, improved their lives, but are not yet ready. The Ambasing family has overcome a marriage problem so they will not separate, but then did not come to church. They have the most potential still, but as of right now are not progressing and must be married before they can be baptized.

We have others who are progressing wonderfully towards baptism. This is just a testimony to be about the importance of teaching with the spirit. Because the previous missionary here was honestly not doing teaching by the spirit. I love this work and attribute all my success to hard work and obedience. This is the best mission in the world for me and I thank each of you for your thoughts and prayers.
Sige,
Elder Benson