16 Aug 2010

Hey everyone,

Well it was a busy week again and I don’t know where it went.  We taught a bunch, stayed busy, learned a few things at specialized training, and taught a lil more.  

On Wednesday we went to Santa Cruz for Specialized training and the training emphasis was on Revelation through Scripture reading and through prayer.  It was really good, I realized that I need to put a lot more emphasis and be a lot more persistent with my investigators on getting them to pray and read.  Then right after that we grabbed a quick bite to eat with everyone and left.  It started some rumors about me wanting to impress President Aquino. And this and that but, whada ya do? Honestly if we had the choice we wouldn’t even go down there.  We’d just work, the mission is too short. We often say we need 15 more hours in a day and 5 more days in a week to do this work justice.

Thursday-Friday I did splits with Elder Berueta, he’s assigned up in Bolinao.  I was worried because he is older in the mission and I’d heard some things about him not liking me very much.  All my worrying was in vain, it was so much fun.  I didn’t have to take on the roll of handling concerns or worry about the investigators understanding.  And I actually learned things from him! We were busy the whole time and The Spirit was so strong in the lessons! Friday morning we had a lesson with Joel.  His concern was about having to pay money in order to worship God.  He believed that you can worship and not have to pay money; because God does not need money.  And things got pretty heated. Elder Berueta likes to be really bold, more so than I, so I started being prompted to take over the lesson. So I did and as I was explaining a light came on and he said I understand  now, I believe that.  I explained that God does not need money in his place but here on His kingdom on earth we need it to build it so we can be ready for when He comes again.  It was cool how the Spirit directed the words I said. 

We had a dinner appointment with Huellas Family on Friday. It was so good we had ribs and corn and shrimp and all this way good food.  I was in heaven! And they came to church yesterday! I hope they are close to wanting to accept the truth.  

The Branch President President Balad worked with us on Friday, we spent most the day going to members but it was good for him and a chance for us to visit some of the members that we haven’t seen in a while because he is from another city he doesn’t know the area very well, but we know it pretty well. 

Transfers are next week.  My thoughts are up in the air right now about it.  President said I might be up here for a year or so but I don’t know.  I’m 90% sure that one of us will be transferred, cuz Elder Pennock needs a chance to grow more. Beyond what I can teach him; we have been together for about 4 and a half months.  And it has been a lot of fun. 

We had an investigator come to church yesterday that we haven’t even taught yet. She is a referral from the elders in the100 islands area.  And she has a friend that she went to school with that is a member.  We told the member friend that we were gonna go out there on Saturday night but she said they were having a YW activity that day and she didn’t know when they would get back so we decided to cancel.  Come to find out they were waiting for us to come and we never came. IT was a lil embarrassing but oh well.

We didn’t get lost in the bukid (farm lands) this week or face very many drunk guys this week so it wasn’t all that exciting.  Maybe next week. 

Well that’s all I’ve got time for. 

Love you all

Elder Westwood.