Monday 1 June 2015

Week 19- Sapang Palay, Philippines

Hey Family!

So to start off I opened Emma's email first, and I got slightly excited cause her subject line (which is all i see at first on my front page) had some !'s and a :) yet no call hahaha

Anyway the Camera Deal. So the cable is needed for charging the camera. so firstly, good news, the cable is in my hands now. The bad news I spent nearly all day today trying to buy a new one :(

So firstly in my Zone, there is a mall about the size of capalaba park which is about 30min away (it';s around 4km away but things here travel really slowly) anyway I went there and there are none, they don't sell them there. So today (p-day) we traveled about 1hr 15min to a Supermall (SM for short), it's literally a bigger Carindale shops (no joke everything they sell there is real and expensive). Anyway we traveled there and we go to the top floor of the place where there are about 35+ computer and electronic stores. I went to nearly all of them and, nothing, no cables like the one in my hand. I couldn't find a charger either for the camera battery and I couldn't even buy a replaceable battery. So yeah :(

In the end we're back here now, at the internet shop where I think I lost it.
Yeah the cable was at the front desk so now It's in my hands now..... hahaha
So yeah I did a lot of running around today for something that was within my ward boundaries :) Although at the markets today I did find a flashlight with a tazer on it :) hahaha I wish I could buy it

Anyway so we gave out 4 baptismal dates to 4 very good investigators :) Except none of them came to church :( So that kinda sucked a little :( but's all good cause they all really understand the doctrine that we teach :)

Other than that I went on splits this week for a little bit. So that means Elder Balili goes of with some workers and then I go off with other workers so that way we can get double to lessons in the same amount of time :) The hard part is that I'm stuck with people who speak tagalog..... So yeah good thing i work hard on my tagalog otherwise splits would get real hard. That and during lessons if you don't understand what the investigator says, you have no one to really translate for you haha But it's all goods cause as long as you have the spirit with you your good :) One of my favorite scriptures for missionary work is DC 50 which is the title of PMG (or really the full title), Preach My Gospel by the Spirit. So as a missionary you're called to teach it one way, by the spirit, not any other way. And that leads to another cool experience I had this week :)

So this is with our investigator, Kevin (15 and also the brother of Kempee). So this lesson we were teaching Lesson 1, The Restoration. So in this part of the lesson you want to carry on from the last lesson, which was the apostasy (btw one of our first lessons with Kevin we did an overview of the entire lesson 1, just briefly so he's read the BoM).

Anyway in this lesson we taught as usual (by the Spirit) and we gave two commitments, the first was to be baptised and the second was to pray to know if the BoM was true and if Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. Anyway he accepted the bap date :D and then for the second commitment we asked if he'd do so in the closing pray, he accepted also. 

So firstly I'm sitting about half a meter from him and he begins the closing prayer, and I can't heat squat.... like he spoke so quietly that I could barely hear his words, he was speaking just so soft. But here's the cool/awesome part. I knew everything he said. The Spirit whispered to me the words that he spoke, and thus I understood his prayer fully. His prayer was heartfelt, he expressed his love of the Saviour and his desire to know whether the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith is a true Prophet of God. He paused and at that moment I knew he received his answer, tears began to stream from his eyes as he thanked Heavenly Father for this conformation. At that exact moment, he knew that this was the true Church of Christ, the same one that Christ established on the earth millenia ago. 

So yeah :) cool huh :) A lot of times during my time out here on the mission I won't understand what someone will say to me but the the spirit will tell me what to say next, and it's never failed me :) The scripture in DC 50:17-18 is true when it says, 

"17. Verily I say unto you, he that is ordained of me and sent forth to preach the word of truth by the Comforter, in the Spirit of truth, doth he preach it by the Spirit of truth or some other way? 18. And if it be by some other way it is not of God.

If you preach by another way it is not of God, as God works through the Holy Spirit.
For my misison I do not intend to convert anyone, infact at the end of my mission I will come home with no conversions because I do not convert souls, the Spirit does. I have been called to preach His Gospel by the Spirit, and that is what I will do :)

A lot of people do not realise the power that they gain when they have the spirit with them, it is truely a force to be reckoned with.

Anyway, hope you all have a lovely week :) I heard today that the Maroons won :D hope that continues haha
Also I'm curious to see who'll be the next Apostle as on Sunday I heard  the saddening news that Elder L Tom Perry passed away.

Have a great time guys :)

Love Elder Holzworth

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