Ohhhhh what a week it has been here in the mission. It has been a long, tiring week, but a good one. I am learning so much about the gospel everyday it is insane. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the doctrines. Everything is so simple, but so deep and it's amazing. I love love love love it. Anyway this week has three main parts to it. First, Brother Nathan (who is the coolest man i have ever met) second, procrastination as a college students helped me out tons this week, and lastly, what I realized about our Savior Jesus Christ. So here we go.. sorry if this is long, but I also sent pics so bonus cuz im in manila for the week for zone conference so I CAN SEND PICTURES!!
So first off, brother Nathan. Now Brother Nathan is a stud. He is so brilliant. Okay so he is probably in his mid 50's okay and he is a pastor (so he knows tons and tons about the bible) So we have been teaching him for the past 4 weeks and he was taught before with the Elders as well. So we were teaching him on Thursday about the Restoration again just because he was kind of confused about the doctrine. After we taught him he was like so pumped for his Baptism (on the 26th) and he was ready to go. Then we go back to teach him the next day and he has a billion of questions about baptism. So he asks why we baptize with the words we do when we are suppossed to be baptized in Jesus's Christs name. Why would we just say the Son? So I show him 3 Nephi 11 where Jesus specifically says the words we should use when we baptize. Then he understands and then starts asking questions about the God Head. He asked, why does it say the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, wouldn't that mean they are one? Why does it say in? So of course we were like no they aren't one, they are one in purpose, but not one being. It was kind of an interesting question if you dwell on it tho. So later that night we went home and told the sisters in our kabahay about it. Sister Vaka is so into doctrine she loves deep doctrine so when we said it, we all got out our scriptures and started studying the God head for the rest of the night. The thing is tho we have a 10:30pm curfew where are lights have to be out. So what we did is turned of the lights at 10:30 and just continued to study. Hahaha It was awesome. Just using flashlights and studying about the God Head. The unfortunate part was we didn't realize we stayed up studying until 3:00am... so that was a bummer considering we had to be up at 6:30amthe next morning. But anyway it's fine. We came up with a conclusion of why it says in tho, but you guys can ponder that question and come up with an answer of your own:) But anyway Nathan is great and he is getting baptized this coming Saturday so HOLLA!!
Next, Soooooo you know how i was a really big procrastinator all throughout my life and really really bad in college? Yeah, well it all payed off on Saturday night. So Friday nightwe were studying the doctrine so we didn't sleep. Then Saturday morning we get a call from the branch president telling us that we are going to be Speaking on sunday for 10-15 mins on a topic of our choice. So of course I start freaking out cuz i'm still not good at tagalog in speaking and in writing I am absolutely horrible cuz i don't know the grammar. soooo i'm freaking out. So all throughout the day im pondering on what I think the branch needs and trying to write this talk in english first so I can translate it later in tagalog and ahhhh man, lets just say I was stressing. Anyway, so I wrote my whole talk in English throughout the day. The topic I chose was on the attributes of Christ and how we can more fully develop them in ourselves. I decided to focus mainly on humility. Great topic, great talk, horrible word choice when it came to tagalog. So in tagalog Humility or humble is Magpapakumbaba. Yeah freaking longest word ever.. hahah so that was awesome. So that night I had my companion read it and translate each sentence while I video'd it. Then I listened to the video over and over again and wrote it down in Tagalog/ Translated it. Okay so It took my 4 hours to translate a 15 min talk in Tagalog. I didn't go to sleep until 4:00am. That is where my procrastination and my ability to work at night really cam in handy So I feel so so so thankful for that. Anyway afterwards It made me really ponder about Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon. I know with my whole heart and soul that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. No man could ever translate a whole scriptorial book without the power of God in what like 40 days? Wow. I know that Joseph Smith had the power and authority from God to translate the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so so so great. It is literally evidence that everything we believe in is true. It is evidence that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, that Jesus Christ is the Living Son of God, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true restored church on the face of the Earth today. I feel so blessed to be apart of this great work. Everyone read the Book of Mormon everyday and I promise you, The Lord promises you that you will be able to overcome anything. Ahhhh it is so so so great.
The last and one of the greatest things I learned this week is how blessed we are to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So In Coron it is just a branch. So very very few people. Most of them are recent converts of 3 years or less. I feel blessed to be apart of this work in helping them strengthen their faith. It is amazing to see how much love they have for the gospel and how devoted they are. Easter is on Sunday and we had a challenge from our mission president to read the accounts of the Savior in the New Testament. It was amazing to feel the power behind the apostles words of the Savior and to really understand what Easter Is all about. Easter is the time when Jesus Christ was resurrected. He overcame Physical Death for all of us. We owe Him everything. Let us serve him everyday. I heard this quote this week and I can't remember it fully, but in summary it is like, "You are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you know the fullness of this gospel, you do not have the right to do anything stupid or make wrong choices." This just made me think, yeah, why do we make wrong choices? We know the truth, we know how we can return to Heavenly Father, Why do we make wrong decisions that ruin our lives and others? I'm not quite sure, but I know that as we strive to live this gospel with all of our hearts, the Lord will bless us. We will be able to endure to the end. I love you all so much. I thank you for the support and the prayers. Serve the Lord everyday, for that is the only way the Kingdom of God here on earth will grow.
Mahal ko kayo,
Sister Barton
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