Kamusta
Kamo!!!!???
Helloooo
Everyone! Its so great to talk to you again, this week has flown by, but a lot
of good work has been done! I am now to the point in this area (a little over 5
months) that almost every kid in the barangay (neighborhood) that we work in
everyday knows my name, so thats a fun. I would say I give out an average of 50
high fives a day and use a bottle of alcohol for my hands everyday haha. This
area is great, it is a great place to serve with a lot of support from the
members.
It is kind of crazy that it is already July, wow time is flying. I
remember a year ago the only thing i worried about was Gordon Hayward leaving
the jazz, a lot has changed in a year. My perspective and even desires have
changed, I realized not to long in my mission that this mission is not about
me, and the days that I always remember that are the best days. We become so
much happier when we focus on others instead of always on ourselves.
This week was a pretty good one. We had the
opportunity to go on exchanges with some elders in our zone this week and that
was such an awesome experience I have learned a lot from working and serving
more closely with the missonaries in our zone, it is awesome! I love learning
new things, new ideas, new ways to teach things, it keeps the teaching fun and
interesting. At the beginning of my mission I was mostly focused on the
language during the lessons, but for a while now, it has just been not even
worrying about that and just focusing on the people and the spirit and that is
when the miracle lessons happen. This week we have been teaching this new young
family, they are super interested and want to know all they can. WE taught them
a couple of times and left them with a little cliffhanger as we taught up until
the apostasy then waited until the next day to share the restoration. when we
came back the next day they were so excited for the lesson and it was such an
awesome lesson. They were prepared, we were prepared and the spirit was so
strong as I recited the first vision. They have had so many questions, we saw
their doubts fly away. The message of the restoration especially the first
vision is such an amazing blessing, and I was just so happy that lesson,
because they had so many questions,doubts, fears, confusion, and we or I was
lucky and blessed enough to tell them the greatest truth this world has! It was
so cool. I was so excited before that lesson, walking in to their house I got
the butterflies and excitement I got before playing basketball. It is a
blessing to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.
Another
cool experience we had this week was, early in the week we got a text from a
less active member who I have taught many times and he told us that he was
going to move to manila. So I asked if we could visit him one more time before
he left for manila. This guy is and RM and i met him my first day in this area
and have had many spiritual experiences while teaching and talking with him. I
know from all the experiences he told me that he still knows the chruch is
true, but maybe he just needed a little help or motivation. So the night came
of our last lesson with him before he left, up until we went to his house I was
not exactly sure what we were going to share with him, but when we got there we
asked him to grab his book of mormon and when he went inside to get it, I just
said I silent prayer asking for guidance. When he came back and we began the
lesson, we were led and guided by the spirit to share with him exactly what he
needed to hear. I felt prompted to share with him Alma 37:44-46 about how the
Book of Mormon is our modern day liahona. Bro Arnold opened up to us that he
was going to leave his Book of Mormon here when he left for Manila, but after
the lesson he said to us with tears in his eyes that there is no way he is
leaving his Book of Mormon behind, it was such an amazing experience and I love
bro Arnold I will never forget him, I was blessed to be able to serve him and
help him in anyway.
Well
I love emailing you all and telling you my experiences! I love this opportunity
that I have to serve here! A mission isn't easy, but I wouldn't trade it for
anything!
Palangga
ko kamo!
Elder
Degen
No comments:
Post a Comment