ya i got his patriarchal blessing (grandpa Loosle's), it's interesting how drastically different patriarchal blessings can be from one another. Like when reading his and hearing about others i feel like everyone has very specific parts to their blessings, but mine seems kinda generalized. Not that it's a generalized blessing but that it doesn't specifically say stuff like "you will do this, you will have this calling, you will live through the second coming, etc." It's all good though, my patriarchal blessing says everything I need to know so I'm happy. I just think it's interesting how some people's blessings are specific jud.
and ya i'll see if i can call this sunday (Mother's day) but we'll see.... there's not really any place i could do it besides at a member's house but we're not really suppose to ask if we can borrow member's stuff so ya we'll see.
Interviews! for the first time in what feels like forever we have interviews for our people with baptismal dates! We're finally going to have baptisms! It's taken so much time and effort to make it happen. Of course it's 100% worth it though. We've also been finding some really progressing people so that's been really cool. We had 6 people that we've been teaching come to church last sunday which doesn't seem that significant but we've only been having like 2 come for the longest time so it's actually really exciting. I feel like I'm finally reaping the rewards of my efforts here in Zamboanguita. It's been crazy here but I love it. I love the members, I love the area, I love the people. There's a chance that I could be transferring this upcoming transfer but I hope I can stay one more transfer.
Ya I miss the joy of just serving people and not having to stress over so many things. Of course I love supporting and helping the people here but when I have to deal with companions and stressing over being obedient and all these things, it just kinda takes from the joy of doing the work. I don't really know what I can really do different to change things but I just hope i can focus more on the joy of the work and not the stress of everything else.
Basta things are doing better, I love it here,
Elder Shirley
Interviews! for the first time in what feels like forever we have interviews for our people with baptismal dates! We're finally going to have baptisms! It's taken so much time and effort to make it happen. Of course it's 100% worth it though. We've also been finding some really progressing people so that's been really cool. We had 6 people that we've been teaching come to church last sunday which doesn't seem that significant but we've only been having like 2 come for the longest time so it's actually really exciting. I feel like I'm finally reaping the rewards of my efforts here in Zamboanguita. It's been crazy here but I love it. I love the members, I love the area, I love the people. There's a chance that I could be transferring this upcoming transfer but I hope I can stay one more transfer.
Ya I miss the joy of just serving people and not having to stress over so many things. Of course I love supporting and helping the people here but when I have to deal with companions and stressing over being obedient and all these things, it just kinda takes from the joy of doing the work. I don't really know what I can really do different to change things but I just hope i can focus more on the joy of the work and not the stress of everything else.
Basta things are doing better, I love it here,
Elder Shirley
April 30, 2019
That's cool that shelby graduated. It's been a long time coming.
That's cool that shelby graduated. It's been a long time coming.
And ya this week has been a lot better. Our area is really starting to improve and get better. My companion is actually doing really good now. We actually get along really well. And ya we talked things over and we're doing really good together now. And ya I get what you mean when you say you feel like you could do better or that you sometimes make Heavenly Father shake is head at you. I feel the exact same way like all the time. I always strive to be obedient and to be really diligent in the work, but I know I'm not perfect I make a lot of mistakes in the mission as well. Even just yesterday. We were visiting some Recent Converts and they were talking about how they had a Caribou (not alaskan caribous but the bull looking thing) and they offered to let me ride it so ya without hesitation I accepted the offer and I rode their Caribou around but it wasn't even until this morning that I realized that might not exactly be allowed. It just is frustrating sometimes because there's nothing wrong with riding a caribou so I didn't even think twice about it. Living the higher law is tough. It's super stressful and often times doesn't really seem to benefit much. I know it's what leads to miracles though and to do the work here I need miracles.
we started doing a "friday fun night" at the church to encourage the young men and young women to come to church more and it's been really good so far. We've had a lot of people come. Even some of the people we've started teaching have been coming and that's been awesome. We should FINALLY be having a couple baptisms this May 18 so I'm really excited for that. It's been a reeeeeeeeeeeally long time coming. It's just really hard to visit everyone because everyone is super far apart and my companion doesn't know how to bike so we've been doing a lot of walking lately. It's been ok though. The work is still going and the area is progressing so it's all good. We have a new branch president, President Soloa'i.... he's the one person in our branch that doesn't know bisaya (kay he's somoan but he met and married his wife when he went to college at BYUH). So ya we'll probably be helping him a lot but that's all good because he's a really good guy and he's been really trying to help the branch before he even got called. so ya new changes all around. crazy times.
Elder Shirley
Elder Shirley
April 23, 2019
Ya i honestly didn't even think about that.(calling for Easter) I think we just have to ask our mission president for permission and then we can call on holidays, I just didn't even think about it kay it was sunday and we'd be a 2 hour trip with travel alone so yaaaa maybe next time. Sounds like you guys are still staying plenty busy though.
Um they celebrate easter as Semana Santo so really it's just the catholics that celebrate kay on Thursday they just parade around town while carrying statues of different saints. As far as I know I don't think any of the members did anything special for easter. just another sunday.
So ya I got a new companion! His name is Elder Teodoro, from Ilo-Ilo on the otherside of Negros in Bacolod. He's still pretty new to the mission so he's not super fluent in Bisaya but he's doing a lot better than foreigner elders would be. He knows hilango and tagalog but he's not very comfortable speaking in english so we just always talk in bisaya. We're getting along good though. He's actually already really capable as a missionary. He's confident in doing the work and ya it's already been a good week. We've got some new people that are really receptive so that'll be exciting to see where it goes with them. The problem we keep running into though is that everyone lives super far away so it's hard to get anyone to come to church. Hopefully we can get things moving with them though and help all these people find a way to get to church. But ya seguro kana ra para karon.
Love ya!
Elder Shirley
Ya i honestly didn't even think about that.(calling for Easter) I think we just have to ask our mission president for permission and then we can call on holidays, I just didn't even think about it kay it was sunday and we'd be a 2 hour trip with travel alone so yaaaa maybe next time. Sounds like you guys are still staying plenty busy though.
Um they celebrate easter as Semana Santo so really it's just the catholics that celebrate kay on Thursday they just parade around town while carrying statues of different saints. As far as I know I don't think any of the members did anything special for easter. just another sunday.
So ya I got a new companion! His name is Elder Teodoro, from Ilo-Ilo on the otherside of Negros in Bacolod. He's still pretty new to the mission so he's not super fluent in Bisaya but he's doing a lot better than foreigner elders would be. He knows hilango and tagalog but he's not very comfortable speaking in english so we just always talk in bisaya. We're getting along good though. He's actually already really capable as a missionary. He's confident in doing the work and ya it's already been a good week. We've got some new people that are really receptive so that'll be exciting to see where it goes with them. The problem we keep running into though is that everyone lives super far away so it's hard to get anyone to come to church. Hopefully we can get things moving with them though and help all these people find a way to get to church. But ya seguro kana ra para karon.
Love ya!
Elder Shirley
