Dear Family and Friends,
This week has had its fill of adventures! But every week here shows me a million more reasons why I am so blessed to be in the Philippines! Now to start, you are probably wondering why the subject line reads "Woof Woof" well if you haven't guessed it already, as of last night I have eaten dog. Absolutly no shame! We sat down at the member's home and started to eat when they passed around goat meat to all the missionaries. We started to eat and as soon as they noticed we had all finished, with smiles on their faces they said "well I hope you liked the dog!". I can no longer look at a dog the same wayu anymore... Also here in the Philippines they have a superstition that dogs bark when there are bad spirits around, well I must have eaten one because now dogs go nuts when they see me!
In other news I am preparing for my first baptism this Saturday! Here in the Urdaneta mission all baptismal candidates must attend church for 4 weeks in a row before they can be baptized (as opposed to 2 weeks in other missions) because we want to retain more members and have them closer to true conversion. The member I am baptizing is awesome! He really is the golden investigator, and has done a lot of hard things to get to this point and I know he will be an awesome member!
In my studies this week there has been an emphasis on the word restoration. To restore simply means to bring back that which was before. you cannot restore something that was bad to something good, and you cannot restore good to bad. To me this can be put simply as "you just what you sow". When we do the right things we are given blessings equal to those actions. If we do wrong, the consequences match those of our actions. To me as a missionary this helped me see how very little time I actually have here, and so I must give it my all, because ultimately the brothers and sisters I teach here can make it back to Heavenly Father! My other thought for the week is ward participation in missionary work. Help the missionaries in your ward, the only difference between you and them is they are giving all of their time to the work. Statistics show that member participation helps immensely:
1: 270 People get baptized from contacting them from tracting
1:8 People get baptized when we receive referrals from members
This is pretty good, but listen to this:
1:2 People get baptized if they have a member present in their lessons!
1 in 2! That's insane! Think of all the people you could help if you gave 2 hours a week helping give lessons! Members bless so many lives and you are so important to this work!
One more fun thing about the Philippines (this one is for you Dad). they have a awesome variety of Tang here! In the USA we only have orange, but here we have Watermelon, Apple, Grape, and many more! Nothing is more refreshing then coming back to the apartment and having a nice liter of Tang!
Hey I love you all! Pictures will be attached in another email! If you send me letters through DearElder through the pouch system I will always get them, plus its cheaper than post so you can that if you want to write me!
Mahal Kita!
Elder Johnson ( The weirdest MIssionary you know!)
This week has had its fill of adventures! But every week here shows me a million more reasons why I am so blessed to be in the Philippines! Now to start, you are probably wondering why the subject line reads "Woof Woof" well if you haven't guessed it already, as of last night I have eaten dog. Absolutly no shame! We sat down at the member's home and started to eat when they passed around goat meat to all the missionaries. We started to eat and as soon as they noticed we had all finished, with smiles on their faces they said "well I hope you liked the dog!". I can no longer look at a dog the same wayu anymore... Also here in the Philippines they have a superstition that dogs bark when there are bad spirits around, well I must have eaten one because now dogs go nuts when they see me!
In other news I am preparing for my first baptism this Saturday! Here in the Urdaneta mission all baptismal candidates must attend church for 4 weeks in a row before they can be baptized (as opposed to 2 weeks in other missions) because we want to retain more members and have them closer to true conversion. The member I am baptizing is awesome! He really is the golden investigator, and has done a lot of hard things to get to this point and I know he will be an awesome member!
In my studies this week there has been an emphasis on the word restoration. To restore simply means to bring back that which was before. you cannot restore something that was bad to something good, and you cannot restore good to bad. To me this can be put simply as "you just what you sow". When we do the right things we are given blessings equal to those actions. If we do wrong, the consequences match those of our actions. To me as a missionary this helped me see how very little time I actually have here, and so I must give it my all, because ultimately the brothers and sisters I teach here can make it back to Heavenly Father! My other thought for the week is ward participation in missionary work. Help the missionaries in your ward, the only difference between you and them is they are giving all of their time to the work. Statistics show that member participation helps immensely:
1: 270 People get baptized from contacting them from tracting
1:8 People get baptized when we receive referrals from members
This is pretty good, but listen to this:
1:2 People get baptized if they have a member present in their lessons!
1 in 2! That's insane! Think of all the people you could help if you gave 2 hours a week helping give lessons! Members bless so many lives and you are so important to this work!
One more fun thing about the Philippines (this one is for you Dad). they have a awesome variety of Tang here! In the USA we only have orange, but here we have Watermelon, Apple, Grape, and many more! Nothing is more refreshing then coming back to the apartment and having a nice liter of Tang!
Hey I love you all! Pictures will be attached in another email! If you send me letters through DearElder through the pouch system I will always get them, plus its cheaper than post so you can that if you want to write me!
Mahal Kita!
Elder Johnson ( The weirdest MIssionary you know!)