(This is Alayna. Sorry for the delay in posting. Frasier had a bit of a rough go in October and November, but don’t worry...he is fine and doing much better. I’ll post about October today and November soon.)
10/7/18
Mountain Dew
I'll just start off by saying this week pretty much hated me. The first week of October 2018 will not go down in history as one of my favorite weeks ever.
Monday was pretty good. It was P-day and that’s always good. Nothing too out of the ordinary happened.
Tuesday started off with a bang! I got up and went outside. I sat on a railing and was using my hammock that I have set up as a backrest. All of a sudden the rope that was tied to the post came undone. I think it was because my companion was messing with the rope or something. Anyway, with no warning and no way to help myself, I fell backward off the railing. It was only a few feet so it probably wouldn’t have been that bad, other than our landlord had just barely done some gardening so all the bushes were cut down to stumps so my back and shoulder got the full force of the bush stumps. Luckily I didn’t get hurt too bad. I just felt like an idiot. For the next few days, it felt like I was working out my back really hard though.
After that, we went to the city for our district meeting as missionaries that we have every week. That wasn't that great either because everyone was acting kind of like they didn't want to be there. It was kind of a wasted opportunity to have a great meeting. After that, I went to go to the computer shop because I needed to send an email real quick. After walking to 5 different shops, and having one shop owner try to help me. I finally got the email to send. All it did was cost me a few hours it felt like, and the guy that tried to help me messed up my camera files. Luckily, he didn't delete the pictures on my camera, but now I can’t look at them on my camera. Also, while I was in one of those computer shops the plastic chair I was sitting on broke. Then later that night I went outside to do my laundry, and as I was trying to screw in a light bulb into a socket so that I could see outside, it fell and broke. At that point, I just gave up and went to bed early because Tuesday was not a great day.
Wednesday we had a normal morning, and then at about lunchtime, my stomach started to, in the words of Brad Anderson, do a little dance. A few hours later, and more than enough bathroom trips later, I finally was able to go out and work.
Thursday was really sunny and hot. We walked around all day and got punted by everyone. All our appointments were dropped. We had no fellowshippers to accompany us so we could not teach any ladies and all the men were out working in the bukid. We ended up walking around all day and did not teach one lesson. The bright side is as we were walking around throughout the day tons of people gave us snacks. I drank so much soda that I thought my blood was probably soda. We went to a member’s house to say hello. Their son, who is not a member, and some of his friends were singing videoke and were absolutely drunk out of their minds. I figured my BSC (blood soda content) was still probably higher than their BAC (blood alcohol content).
Friday was weekly planning and neither my companion or I were really in the mood to do weekly planning, and if you have ever served a mission you will know that weekly planning takes a lot out of you. We also ended up having not a terribly great day of work either.
Saturday we had a great day of work scheduled until our fellowshippers that promised to work with us didn't show up. We ended up having another pretty punted day. We found a few new investigators, but I don't know how many of them we will end up going back to because half of them started trying to debate with us.
Sunday at church we had a lot going on. Our two recent converts had their children named and blessed at church. That was one of the only good things that happened yesterday. Rubina bore her testimony too – which was awesome. I’ll talk more about her later.
The rest of church there were a bunch of just messy things that happen when you are in a still-developing area of the church. It wouldn't have been that bad, other than my patience was about out for the week. Then my companion and I got back to our apartment, and my tummy starts to rumble again. That took us out of work for a few hours while I was waiting for my stomach to slow down.
Luckily, I had some leftover medication from a few months ago when I got LBM. We went to one appointment on Sunday, but then that didn't end up happening because it was raining super hard. Then last night as I was laying in bed and I started getting this pain in my throat and chest. I got to the point where I finally texted Sister Hiatt even though it was after bedtime. After heating up some coconut milk that I had, I finally thought I was fine. And then with no more than a few minutes to spare before midnight I felt like I needed to throw up, went outside, threw up, the pain finally went away, and then I fell asleep. This week was just trying to kick me while I was down!
One of those past days we went to our progressing investigator's house and I am pretty sure he was drunk when we went there. They have a super strong spirit in the home usually, but we ended up just kind of going and leaving because there was not much spirit there.
That added with me and my companion have been together long enough and this week was just enough that we have started getting just slightly impatient with each other. Mostly me with him, but I’m sure deep down he gets a little bit annoyed with me at some points too.
My companion is awesome though. He has taught me a lot about patience and being happy. He is super patient and happy and he has been able to help me be more patient and happy. (And also at points, he has tested me on my patience and happiness.)
I figured out why this week was not quite up to par though…through an experience, and then a scripture that I read. First of all, we were struggling through one of the days, so I decided to buy a mountain dew at a little store we walked past. I actually felt a lot better about the day as we were walking and I was able to have my drink and just think. Then I read this scripture from the Tagalog version of the Bible: “Aklat ng Anak ni William, Cabanata 1:1. kaya nga kung nagkakagulo kayo sa gawa ng panginoon, bagaman ay lalabas kayo sa bundok at uminom ng hamog.”
Let's see if you understand what book that is and what the scripture says.
(Added by Alayna…The translation is:
Book of William's Son, Chapter 1 Verse 1. “So if you are in trouble with the work of the Lord,
though you will go out into the mountain and drink the dew. ")
I totally realized that I didn't buy a two liter of Mountain Dew on Wednesday, like I usually do, and that is exactly why I was not having a great week! Lesson learned: drink more Mountain Dew!
Last thing, I just want to give a shout-out to Rubina Besa real quick. She has been a member for just over a week. In the past week, she had been questioned and teased and called crazy for being "Mormon". Some missionary people walked by her house to talk to her, and if I got the story straight…saw her statues that she has in her little store so tried to talk to her about Jesus. Ruby then told them that she was LDS. They called her crazy and then left. The next day Ruby got rid of her statues even though she said they had special meaning to her. She also bore a super strong testimony at Sacrament Meeting yesterday!
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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!
10/14/18
General Conference
This past week was a great experience with General Conference! I did a little bit of a different approach this time where I listened and just took a few notes, then I am going to re-read and study the talks to more fully understand and apply what the talks said. Some of those talks were so awesome that I couldn't even take it all in! Being nice, being patient, dealing with hard times, all of it was awesome! I am excited to try and apply those talks and inspired words into my life so that I can be more successful in all aspects and areas of what I do here in the mission and after my mission as well.
In some not so good news, my stomach has had a hole in it for two weeks now. I will live, but my bathroom visits aren’t that fun, and they are a bit more frequent than they used to be. I have tried all the things I can do and talked to Sister Hiatt when it first started but nothing has helped. I guess I will just have to apply the teachings at General Conference and tough it out.
I am super excited to still be here in Mallig and serve the people here. I think even more happy than me were the recent converts. They were waiting all day Tuesday to find out what was going to be happening to us and then when we finally told them they started crying and saying that they had fasted that we wouldn't leave! That could I guess be a problem if they were missionary converts and not gospel converts, but from everything I have felt I truly believe that they are gospel converts. Everything that they have told us and the things that they have already gone through after being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ makes me think they are truly converted.
(Added by Alayna: that would have been Frasier’s companions last transfer. They stayed together so Frasier is “killing” the companion, or in other words, sending him home.)
The one fear I have had in the past is that I did not want to "kill a companion" because I didn't want to deal with having a companion that would be "trunky". Elder Dela Cruz and I are happy to be companions and still be with each other. We have not ever fought or anything like that. We are very different and have very different personalities, so that has sometimes led to tiny little misunderstandings (most probably my fault), but we are very happy to be together still. Going back to what I said a little bit earlier, I don’t want to have to deal with "trunky" companions. I would not say that Elder Dela Cruz is anywhere close to being that, but starting Tuesday when we found out the transfer list until now, I have noticed a little bit of a lack in effort and urgency in some areas of our work. We have discussed that as a companionship, but it has so far been about the same. I hope I am still doing my part to progress the area and help the people here.
There are a lot of imperfections in this area, but I am happy to be here. Just a few examples are I have gotten the feeling that in previous years this area has had a bit of a history of disobedient missionaries. Members always want us to come in their house and just talk, have a snack, and watch T.V. One even turned YouTube on and then asked us what we wanted to watch. We told them we had to leave. That is only one example. Other things is sometimes members make us wait a little while if they are going to fellowship with us and whatnot. We are trying to be exactly obedient and help the branch though. Other little imperfections are just how church meetings are being run, what is being taught, people using the extra sacrament as a snack even though it was blessed as sacrament, people asking us if they could use our consecrated oil to cook their food, not very many people showing up to General Conference, and on and on. It isn’t like there are a ton of big problems, it is just a long list of imperfections. Like I said though, I still love it here.
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Forever and a day, Love Elder Williamson!
(Added by Alayna: On Oct. 21st we heard from Frasier, but we went back and forth on email and he didn't really write a letter. He was trying to get his stomach and a skin rash better and his companion had to have minor foot surgery, so it was a weird week and we were just asking about all of that. Both recovered from their ailments.
Then on October 28th, we heard from Frasier again (and then also the mission home) that another Typhoon was coming and they were being evacuated again. So, again not a letter, but a back and forth making sure he was safe and that they had enough food and water, 72-hour kits, etc.
I will update soon with lots pictures and details about the typhoon soon.)
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