Hello Family and Friends!
Another week has come and gone. Seriously I
can't stress how LONG the days are but how SHORT the weeks are! It seems like
just yesterday I was in here writing a letter and again, I'm back! And it's
already September...what the crazy! It still feels like summer...oh wait it is
here in the Philippines! Ha! Rainy season is coming to a close so it's really
starting to heat up and yep you betcha those tanlines are starting to rage,
gotta love it. My theme for the week is being submissive to the Lord's Will. I
was starting to become confident as a missionary, I'm no where near fluent, but
I felt like for the most part I was starting to understand what people were
saying and really starting to be able to express myself for the most part. But
just when you think you are getting good at something, the Lord always comes in
and smacks you down to humble you a little bit and make you realize you cannot
do this without Him. I had an experience this week that really humbled me. We
were teaching one of our new investigators Denmark, and his uncle Bong decided
he wanted to listen in on the lesson. We were just getting to know him a little
bit and I told him I've been here for a month now and am still very much
learning the language. Sister Hynes looks at him and goes she's magaling
(talented) yeah? And he looks at me, laughs, and goes umm No. She has a lot of
work to do. If there's one thing about Filipino people it's that they're
extremely blunt and honest. I was a little bit shocked when he said that and to
be honest it hurt my feelings! I felt so dumb the rest of the lesson but did my
best to get through it. After the lesson Sister Hynes was giving me advice to
keep me positive and keep me from getting down. I started to doubt myself, and
think you know what he's right. What am I doing here, I can't speak this
language, I barely know anything. But then I realized, Heavenly Father has
CALLED me to the Olongapo Philippines Mission for a reason. I am His servant,
He won't send me anywhere that He knows I won't be successful. To doubt myself
is to doubt Him and His will.If I say I can't learn this language, it's pretty
much saying I don't have Faith that my Heavenly Father can help me to be
successful. It was a humbling moment for sure, I really don't want to
experience that again, but I have been extremely motivated to learn this
language. Just when I thought I was doing good, I got smacked down, but for all
the right reasons. Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor to say the least!
Like all weeks there's always those hard times,
we experienced something really frustrating this week. One of our progressing
investigators Marvin has been doing so well. He is the guy I felt prompted to
talk to on the street that one day I wrote about it a few weeks ago. Well he
has been doing well, coming to church, and keeping all the commitments we give
him and has been really diligent. We taught him on Wednesday about the Word of
Wisdom and he told us that he quit smoking on his own but that quitting
drinking was going to be tough for him. I bore a really strong testimony to him
about how important it is to keep the word of wisdom, and told him we would do
everything we could to help him quit drinking. He said he would do it little by
little, that he couldn't just stop immediately, but would lower the amounts of
times he drinks per week to eventually stop. We were so excited! Then this
weekend there was a little baptism after party at his neighbors house and we
happened to walk by. One of our branch missionaries said that he had seen
Marvin going to this party with Tatay Arturo We walk by to see Tatay Arturo
smoking and was completely wasted. Then we see Marvin at the next table over,
drinking as well. I'm not going to lie it was so funny when we saw Tatay
because I have never seen a 75 year old run away as fast as he did. We walked
by 30 minutes later and Tatay is lighting up a cigarette and the next second he
sees us and hides under the table. Then Marvin texts us after we leave and said
he was so sorry that we had to see that and that he told us he would do it
little by little. It's hard as missionary you have this wishful thinking that
by some miracle all of your investigators problems will just go away and that
they will be baptized within a few weeks, but it doesn't always work that way.
We taught Marvin again this week about the Word of Wisdom and he is going to
try even harder this week, he came to Branch FHE and to church so we have a lot
of hope in him. We then visited Tatay Arturo yesterday and I kindly but harshly
gave it to him how it is his responsibility as a member to be a good example to
our investigators, and basically called him to repentance. He took it and said
he would repent for drinking and smoking. I love that man to death but he is
such a little stinker sometimes!
We also had an investigator her name is Wilma
(46) who had a big fight with one of her little sisters this week, she had
given up all hope as her sister ran away and basically told us that this gospel
wasn't for her anymore and she couldn't be baptized this month. We completely
switched what we planned on teaching and catered to her needs, I kept finding
that all these words were coming to me, the Spirit was so strong and we just
bore the strongest testimonies it was truly incredible. At the end of the
lesson, with tears in her eyes she looks at us an goes, okay, I can do this, I
will be baptized, this church is true, I felt the Spirit through your
testimonies, I know God loves me. It was so incredible, I wanted to cry I was
so happy.
As for the funny things for the week, dogs have
just been giving me a hard time this week! Theres SO many wild dogs here like I
can't even explain. Within 3 houses there will be over 14 dogs walking around
it's ridiculous. We were walking at night and I was carrying some vegetables in
a bag that one of our investigators had given us, and out of nowhere this HUGE
dog just comes charging right at me, I went to smack it with my bag of
vegetables and I wound up so hard that I broke the bag and all the vegetables went
flying, but the weirdest part was the dog got within a foot of me and then it
was as if it bounced off a wall, it just abruptly stopped and walked away as if
I wasn't even there. Just shows how the Lord protects his missionaries, it was
so surreal, but so funny at the same time as I pathetically picked up all of my
vegetables.
Sorry this letter is so scatter brained! So
much is happening! But I absolutely love it here! For the first time I finally
feel like it's my home. We have some baptisms coming up these next 3 weeks so
hopefully they all workout! We are so excited! Love you all lots!
Mahal Kita!
Sister Pilkington
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