Dear Family and Friends,
Well its official I'm addicted to the street markets here! I've tried going back to the grocery store, but the food outside is so much better and cheaper. I've recently bring back my Jamba Juice knowledge and making smoothie every morning from the fresh fruit we pick up every morning! If the last sentence made you jealous, good, it was intended. We have also used our time at the market to meet some really great people, I don't know what it is, but the people here all have this "spark" in their eyes, they always have a skip in their step, and its very rare to see a sad Filipino. I have also been finding joy in taking selfies with the kids I meet. If you even mention the word "selfie" the kids perk up and go looking for the person with a camera. You can see one of the examples in the attachments below!
This week we had another baptism. And it was great! Sister Davillo was a "Golden Investigator", but she had been waiting for a visit from the missionaries for months. Apparently she was a referral that had been given another missionary a long time ago, but that missionary forgot to contact her, then our Branch Mission Leader told us about her, and when we met her she told us that she had been going to church at another ward every week for 12 weeks, and had been reading the Book of Mormon ever since. We didn't have much to teach her, because she was already thoroughly familiar with it all. At one point I thought she might actually be a member. Every lesson she did her assignments and we all saw her progress in the short 4 weeks we taught her. I know this doesn't happen very often, but it has been very neat to see her progress.
This week we went to a special church service in another part of Malasiqui. They have another service in Palapar because its too far away from the church building so we have sacrament and Sunday school at someone's house. I was asked to give a talk, and I decided my topic would be on prayer. I have kinda realized that sometimes I take prayer for granted. I think it all comes from expectations that answers come immediately, and in the way we want. My dad referred to the title of a book that mentions "I feel like my prayers just bounce off the ceiling". If we feel that way, we're doing it wrong. I think it comes down to 1 of 2 problems: 1- We haven't seen the Lord's answer, or 2- We aren't asking for the right thing. The Lord knows what we want/need before we pray, so praying is a matter of where your heart is. If we are honest with our Heavenly Father in our prayers he is more likely to help us, so why not "open our hearts" to Him when we pray? For me my answers in prayers don't come in the form of "This what you need to do" but as "Whatever I need you to do, you can do it". He leaves us to choose what we will do with our agency, but gives us the help and motivation we need to accomplish it! So if you feel like your prayers "bounce off the ceiling" try finding out why, and I promise your look at prayers will change.
I hope you all know that I love and miss you! See you all soon!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (TWMYK)
Well its official I'm addicted to the street markets here! I've tried going back to the grocery store, but the food outside is so much better and cheaper. I've recently bring back my Jamba Juice knowledge and making smoothie every morning from the fresh fruit we pick up every morning! If the last sentence made you jealous, good, it was intended. We have also used our time at the market to meet some really great people, I don't know what it is, but the people here all have this "spark" in their eyes, they always have a skip in their step, and its very rare to see a sad Filipino. I have also been finding joy in taking selfies with the kids I meet. If you even mention the word "selfie" the kids perk up and go looking for the person with a camera. You can see one of the examples in the attachments below!
This week we had another baptism. And it was great! Sister Davillo was a "Golden Investigator", but she had been waiting for a visit from the missionaries for months. Apparently she was a referral that had been given another missionary a long time ago, but that missionary forgot to contact her, then our Branch Mission Leader told us about her, and when we met her she told us that she had been going to church at another ward every week for 12 weeks, and had been reading the Book of Mormon ever since. We didn't have much to teach her, because she was already thoroughly familiar with it all. At one point I thought she might actually be a member. Every lesson she did her assignments and we all saw her progress in the short 4 weeks we taught her. I know this doesn't happen very often, but it has been very neat to see her progress.
This week we went to a special church service in another part of Malasiqui. They have another service in Palapar because its too far away from the church building so we have sacrament and Sunday school at someone's house. I was asked to give a talk, and I decided my topic would be on prayer. I have kinda realized that sometimes I take prayer for granted. I think it all comes from expectations that answers come immediately, and in the way we want. My dad referred to the title of a book that mentions "I feel like my prayers just bounce off the ceiling". If we feel that way, we're doing it wrong. I think it comes down to 1 of 2 problems: 1- We haven't seen the Lord's answer, or 2- We aren't asking for the right thing. The Lord knows what we want/need before we pray, so praying is a matter of where your heart is. If we are honest with our Heavenly Father in our prayers he is more likely to help us, so why not "open our hearts" to Him when we pray? For me my answers in prayers don't come in the form of "This what you need to do" but as "Whatever I need you to do, you can do it". He leaves us to choose what we will do with our agency, but gives us the help and motivation we need to accomplish it! So if you feel like your prayers "bounce off the ceiling" try finding out why, and I promise your look at prayers will change.
I hope you all know that I love and miss you! See you all soon!
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (TWMYK)