2016-8-29 Half Day Mission

Kamusta po! 

This week was really good, and we still have a lot of people progressing towards their baptisms in September. Gordon B. Hinckley has talked a lot about missionary work, especially about helping recent converts of our church. I'm realizing that the Mormon church has it's own culture, and it's very nuanced. I teach recent converts and spend time with members that haven't hit a year in the church yet, and what I realize is that it takes a long time to understand every nuance. They make a lot of 'mistakes' so to speak. 

My past week has been all about mistakes. I've made quite a few, but it's not as bad as it sounds. I remember a piece of advice about learning a language and about the gift of tongues. To become fluent, one will have to at least make 30,000 mistakes. Which means I need to keep making more! Speaking out even if I'm not confident, and being circumspect enough to realize where I'm wrong and when a phrase doesn't carry the meaning I want to across.

Also, the idea of making mistakes in order to practice is true with members and especially with recent converts and investigators of this church. It's really amazing to see them progress, and begin to understand doctrine, and build their testimony. It's really helps them progress to be patient, and gentle when giving advice, for example with praying. It's cool to teach someone how to communicate to their Heavenly Father, and to see the fruits of it too. 

As always, thanks for reading! Love you all!

--

Elder Fish

Our ward had a "half-day mission" today, so this morning Elder S- and I went with a bunch of youth and covered our whole area, doing home teaching. It was really beneficial for the ward, and it was good practice for the future missionaries here! Of course it rained, but it stopped in time for us to play some basketball so that's fantastic. 

 Here is my amazing ward, from this morning. This was after we got back from working.

Of course, we had some ulam! (any non-specific food on rice) afterwards, delish. this is adobo manok, which is pretty much the best thing ever.

Here's a desert at the P-'s, it's sticky rice around chocolate and peanuts, wrapped in banana leaves! The food here is the best! 

Here is the P- family again, with an awesome wacky face by M-. They are our most progressing investigators at the moment, and more importantly for me, they are my home away from home. We visit them 3 times a week, and they always feed us, and we play little games, and overall just have a great time. Our lessons are super spiritual and poignant, once we get down to it. It is so easy to love them!