Sept 4, 2011

silly scripture of the week is Job 39:9

well the bishopric is pretty helpful for the most part. i never realized how much they do do until elder woodford explained how in the wilderness areas they don't do anything. the real help of the ward has come from the ward missionaries who do a tremendous amount of work with us. we've gotten really close and that's the way how it should be in every ward.

last week, for p-day we went bowling and ate pizza with the ward missionaries. we went to the bowling lanes which was in our area. there is a legitimate one outside of our area but the one that we went to was one of those old school alleys where they put the pins up by hand. and the bowling balls were about the size of shot puts and the pins were about the size of a 1 liter bottle of soda. i didn't win at all, Mud Dogs won it, 30 to 27. but it was one of those fun memories that i'll have.

so right now i'm pretty broke. (don't worry i didn't spend any money at the bowling alley, it was all free) but it is hard to come by money when you're broke. maybe someone could send a care package with a few bills in it..

the more i learn about other church ideas and beliefs, the more i know that this church is true, and that other churches have gone far away from the truth. take for instance, the baptists that i talked about last week. the bible verse that they base their whole belief on contradicts one of their main beliefs. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. they believe that all you need for salvation is faith in jesus christ, and that jesus christ and heavenly father are the same person. but the verse that they memorize clearly states "son" (also read acts 7:55-56). Not only that but if you look only a few inches away from that verse on the page right next to it, it says that you need to be baptized in order to be saved. John 3:5 - Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (also see James 2:17-26)

i've also learned that god doesn't want us to dance and sing to worship him, or pretend that we have devils in our body and that someone is expelling them, or to crucify ourselves, or to worship a statue of him, or to burn incense and wave it around. i'll try to be a guide for them, but if they don't want to listen, let them worship how, where, or what they may and i'll do the same.

so i've made a list of scriptures that would be helpful to know if you are preparing to go on a mission and would be easy to use in situations such as these. of course, there are better resources available (like my missionary pal), but this is pretty much the basics. Matthew 7:13-14,21, 15:14, 16:19, 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 6:16,39, 13:1-5, John 3:5, 3:16, 14:6,12,15,21,26, 15:16, 20:17, Acts 2:38-42, 7:55-56, Galatians 1:6-12, 6:7-8, James 1:22-25, 2:14-26, Romans 2:13, Ephesians 2:20, 4:5, Hebrews 5:4,10, Amos 3:7. they are pretty useful.

well i've been able to forgive and forget from last week (the 3 people being baptized). in order for me to be forgiven, i need to forgive others. even going so far as to forgive and forget, for that is the way that Jesus forgives us. for if we don't forgive and hold onto those bad feelings, in us stands the greater sin. i've been in the mood of writing down scripture so i'll add a few good ones on forgiveness. if you want to learn more about it, read the miracle of forgiveness. i haven't read it yet but i've read passages from it. (Matthew 18:23-35, Mark 16:15-16, Colossians 3:13, D&C 58:42, 64:9-11, Isaiah 1:18.)

i've forgiven them and our area has been divided to keep from having any controversy or conflicts or contention. our area has been divided and Elder Woodford and I want to keep it divided from the other companionship so no problems arise. the other companionship is pushing to try to make the entire area free to roam in. but from counsel from the Assistants to the President and from past experience, we feel that keeping the area divided is the best course of action. we want what's best for the area and we would really like a stronger missionary presence in our area to help the people there. but it would only cause more conflict.

killed another rad roach today. also watched a traffic cop dancing in the street. like Spongebob.

August 29, 2011

silly scripture of the week is Luke 17:32
sister Ina finally had her baby. She named him Timothy. in case you forgot, she was the baptism where i baptized her while she was pregnant.
today marks my 8 month mark, 8 months ago, i walked into the MTC and started my mission. 8 months have passed and i still have 16 to go. so if you're sagad (good) at math or if you have a calculator. that means that i am 1/3 the way done with my mission. boy how the time flies and goes by really slowly at the same time!
we finally got a new filter. but it's different than what we had. before, we had a 3 stage filter. now it's only a one stage filter. it doesn't fit properly though, so we had to rig it up as best we could to the old filter system to make it work. the water doesn't smell as bad as it used to, but it still kinda smells... whatever, it's better than what we did have. we also got a new propane stove. this one isn't broken and probably won't explode.
so the bananas on the banana tree in our yard finally ripened up. it took like 5 months of waiting until those things were ripe. they're way different than bananas back at home though. there are a few different types, but the most common are three types. tiny, straight and fat, and almost banana size. the tiny ones are sweet, the straight and fat ones taste like a potato, and the almost banana ones are sorta bitter but are the closest thing to a banana back home. in the house, we have the tiny ones. every day, i take one off (they ripen one by one) and eat it. it made me realize that there is just so much random fruit everywhere here. like, i walk down the street and without even slowing down or stopping i'll pick some fruit off of a tree and eat it while walking. this is still the city though so it's not like i'm in a jungle or anything. now i wish our mango tree would actually grow mangoes and that our jack fruit tree wasn't a jack fruit tree because jack fruit sucks. i'm also thinking bout planting a pepper plant. i don't need to water it or do anything for it, it'll just grow like everything else here. it's got enough rain water to keep it alive, even if it isn't even planted in dirt. (literally, we have this plant that's just hanging on a clothes like, no pot, just a plant and it's been alive the past 5 months) it'll be way different coming back to america where i won't be able to either pick it from the tree or buy it from a portable street vendor (they have trikes with food on them)
well last week was alright. we spent a few more days at home because Elder Woodford had a huge boil in his arm. it was really bad and he had to get some medicine for it. even so, we were still able to find a lot of new people. we've changed our area of focus so that we can find people in banago (which is where the nicer beach is)
on Sunday, (your Saturday night) i was walking on a really nice beach (because no one lived there and it wasn't filled with trash) so we picked up shells and taught some people over there. I've taught people on the beach before but this was one of those times where you can really see the beauty in island life. it's simple but beautiful.
the people who we taught were members but very inactive and they had went back to their baptist church around 7 years ago. when we taught them, it was really interesting to listen to their questions. all of them were easily answered from the bible. for instance, many people believe that faith is all we need to be saved. we turned to about 3 scriptures where it explains simply that faith without work is dead. that we need to be baptized in order to receive remission of our sins. and that we need to obey the commandments of god in order to be worthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven. sometimes i wonder if people actually read the bible, or if they just listen to their preacher. but seeing as how they believe that they don't need to do anything but believe in Christ to be saved, i'd assume that they don't. otherwise, they would be able to see that all of those religious ideas are false. and that they're wrong colonel sanders, mama's right.
this got me thinking as to what else would be a help for people preparing to go on a mission. really, the best things to prepare to serve a mission is
1.) be fixed on your purpose, for Satan will try you, the weight of your calling he perfectly knows.
2.) work with missionaries as much as possible. this will give you hands on experience. and do it more than once a week. it will help you learn how to teach people in a loving way
3.) study the doctrine, there are many false ideas out there. sometimes, even members get confused in the doctrine and what is necessary for salvation.
4.) teach the doctrine to family or friends who are members or returned missionaries. they will help you to teach it simply yet effectively, so that even a child could understand.
there are still more things that i could put down, like buy shirts with a bigger neck collar so it doesn't itch while your walking in the hot sun or buy shoes that are waterproof. but i'll leave that for later.
so awhile back, i was upset about something... in our ward, there are two missionary companionships. at first, it was all fine and dandy because we are on the same team. but slowly, it stop being same team and started being opposite teams doing there own thing, trying to get more numbers. so their companionship started doing sneaky stuff such as asking for members to work with them on days that they were scheduled to work with us. sometimes asking them to show them around in areas where me and Elder Woodford had investigators. had scheduled dinner appointments without our knowledge. had eaten food at the church without saving us any (when we saved them some and even brought it back home to them). had been visiting referrals from members whom were talking to both companionships. so it kinda got to the point where the other elders had been entering into secret combinations. Elder woodford and i had done our best to not be sneaky like they were and to give them a lot more than what we were taking. but it got to the point where we decided just to split the area in half for both companionships to work in different areas. we split it across the river which runs through 5th ward. things were working out good from there until we had a big huge slap in the face. after the split, the Assistants to the President had promised us a referral because we had been giving them a few referrals in 3rd ward (both mine and Elder Woodford's old area). we told the other elders that we were expecting a referral from the APs and we even told them in what area it was supposed to be in (on our side of the boundaries). so the other Elders knew that the referral was meant for us and was in our area and that we knew that it was supposed to arrive. but it never did. The other elders at the time, were going to the office to pick up supplies, so they had gotten our cargo and all that stuff. they could have easily given us our referral, but they chose to visit them, even knowing that it was not in their area nor meant for them. so now, those investigators are getting baptized. for a while, i was infuriated. but it took me some time to let my emotions dwindle so that i could be humble enough to tell myself "whatever, what's done is done. just be happy that they're being baptized, not mad that someone went behind your back in order to do it." hopefully i can learn to let things go. probably another thing that i can learn on my mission.

on a brighter note, i killed a radroach last night with a bb gun. took 10 shots to finish it, but i didn't go into VATS mode. Something was wrong with his medulla oblongata!