8.19.13

Dear Family,

So the work has been slow again this week. We had our district meeting on Tuesday and then had to travel to Bago a couple other times throughout the week so that took some time away from us to work. I was able to play basketball last week with the Elders in my Zone on p-day! It was really fun. There were a bunch of Filipino kids at the church when we got there to play, but President Lopez won't let Missionaries play with people other than Missionaries, so we had to tell them they couldn't play which kinda stinks! They ended up just sitting behind the basket and commentating the whole game for us! And cheering us on whenever we made a basket, so that was kinda fun. As if we aren't like heroes to them already, then we're good at basketball and they're even more impressed haha!

I've decided that whenever we're out riding a bus or walking and somebody just stares at me that I'm going to wave at them. Well mostly the girls, cuz that'd be kind of weird I think If I waved to guys. They really love it here when we smile and wave, especially the kids. I love it. Everyone always yells " 'Der " meaning Elder, but here in the Philippines they shortcut everything, which makes it kinda hard to understand, but hey, I probably won't understand most words if they said the whole thing anyway! :)

So in the few lessons we were able to teach this week, we came away with 2 Baptismal dates, so that's pretty awesome! We aren't too sure who for sure they are, but at least we got them to commit. Here in the Philippines, the investigator has to attend church for 4 weeks in a row before they can be baptized! I believe they can actually miss one week, but once they miss 2 it resets. So we kinda need to get our investigators to church in order for it to have a chance! It's still really hard for me to understand everyone, I definitely understand better than I can speak however!

So I was reading this morning in Alma about the Sons of Mosiah. For those of you who don't know or remember their story, these young men we're once wicked and doing horrible things, but they turned there lives around repented and served missions. They were called to serve amongst the Lamanites. Their enemies, and people who wanted to kill them. However it says in Chapter 17, they "took courage", "trusting in the Lord" and they "prayed and fasted much." I know that for me it would take a lot of courage to be called to serve people who wanted to kill me, so the Sons of Mosiah are a great example to me. My mission should never be as hard as there's because I don't need to fear for my life. I have no reason to complain about the heat or anything else because my problems aren't as bad as theirs. It says in Alma 20:29 "...nevertheless they were patient in all their sufferings." If the Sons of Mosiah could be patient while being thrown into prisons and being bound, then I can get over the little problems of heat and sweat. Just a fun little story and lesson I read and learned from today! :)

So on Saturday night we were doing our personal study because we had to attend a Baptism that morning, and I was reading Alma 5:62 when we received a text message saying "Please kindly inform Elder Walters that he has a talk tomorrow." So that was awesome. My topic was on missionary work and the verse that I was reading tied right in. Crazy how things like that happen! In that verse Alma was talking to the people, and he said "I speak by way of command to you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye to may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life." As missionaries our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ." Just like Alma was saying, "I speak by way of invitation." We invite all people. Others doesn't just mean investigators, or nonmembers. We visit members as well. As missionaries we bring ourselves closer to Christ, and we bring our companion closer to Christ every morning! We all need to continue to get closer to Christ. They only way to do that is by going to church and reading our scriptures. In 3 Nephi 27: 21 & 25 Christ says "...for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do." & "...what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." How do we learn of Christ in order to become like him and do the things which he has done if we haven't read our scriptures or attended church?...... Exactly, we can't for we haven't learned anything in order to help ourselves on that path. The best way to learn of Christ is by reading of him in the Scriptures. Whether we read from The Bible, The Book of Mormon, or any other of the Standard works, they all refer to Christ. I know that as we do these things with a real intent to learn more of our Savior and a real desire to come closer to him that we can. I've been able to see it as I've studied they scriptures more diligently and more fully over the past 2 months. There's a lot to learn, that's why we continue to read and re-read our scriptures. Because there is no way we can learn everything the first time!

So I encourage all of you to read from them everyday. Even 1 verse, or 1 chapter. Start small, anything is better than nothing! I love all of you guys and all the love and support that you give me! I love seeing the families at church here in Valladolid. It reminds me of the days that I was little and went to church with all of you!

So let's see what crazy things happened this week... Well I ate squid, and calamari, which now that I think about it I'm pretty sure calamari is squid, but whatever! haha I played basketball in the rain, and walked in pouring rain. This morning on my way to email I stood on the back of a jeepney again for like 40 minutes, and for the last half of that I had to Filipino squat while standing on the back so we didn't get in trouble. Which doesn't make sense because there's like no rules here, so I don't know who would enforce anything! But that was fun. Quite the leg workout! I think that's about it --- wait just kidding. We caught a mouse last night in our apartment, and then we had to drown him :/ poor thing. But not really, I'd rather not have him crawl on me in my sleep! We also had a small Tiki (Lizard) die on our kitchen table. Makes sense because it had no tail, and it's front feet were gone, so it couldn't really move. So much death in my apartment in one day. But what can you do! ;)

Palangga ko kamo! Salamat sa inyo para sa tanan nga nagahimo ninyo para sa akon! Palangga ko diri sa Pilipinas!

(I love you guys! Thank you for all that you do for me! I love it here in the Philippines!)

-Elder Walters