Week 13

Hello everyone out serving the Lord across the world and back home.  

I don't even know where to start.  So much has happened since I have been here and it is crazy - I have been here for two months now.  But at the same time it feels like I have been here forever.  Anyway, like I said last time the nature here is pretty sweet.  One p day we went up to "Big Tree" it is this huge tree that looks like the deku tree on the legend of Zelda, it also reminds me of the tree of life.  That was cool.  

I am losing weight from all the hiking and walking.  I am getting pretty bony ha ha.  Everyone says I am losing it and I don't work out much anymore - I don't have any time but maybe I'll start.  I also tried Balut.  I was good, it just tasted like a hardboiled egg but the beak was a little chewy which was kind of gross.  

I think that the Lord sent me here to the Philippines to really help me to be patient and increase my faith.  At first when I got here I thought that missionary work was all about baptizing people and I just expected people to be getting baptized left and right.  With the rescue it has really opened up my eyes to the importance of enduring and continuing after baptism.  Some of the families we teach are like investigators though.  They were baptized forever ago and now they have a family with non member people in it.  I am learning to be patient with the people and also myself.  It is different here in the Philippines with the branch involvement -  it has been harder to get them involved but lately we have been getting them more involved which has been great.  Because of this we have been teaching with branch missionaries and leader on Saturdays and Sundays to less actives.  This has been kind of scary because Elder Natural and I have been splitting.  I really learned so much from splits to trust in the spirit.  I have gotten a lot better at the language from studying the CLO - I am getting pretty good at teaching the hardest part is listening and understanding, but I am really trying to improve.  Also Elder Natural is an English major so that doesn't help because he is so good at English it is a temptation to speak to him in English which I do a lot.  I need to start speaking the language more.  It is coming along though and with the spirit I can still know where the conversation is going and understand a lot and what to do and teach.  I have learned patience because there are so many ups and downs getting the less actives to return to church, sometimes they come for a while and then just stop, or sometimes we teach them all week and they don't come, and the people we don't teach come ha ha.  We also have found some really great and open investigators but we haven't been able to get them to come to church.  We are teaching them though and I know one day they will accept the truth.  My perspective has changed I know that no effort is wasted.   I already knew this but I think just from reading "Our Search for Happiness" it really opened up my mind to the plan of salvation and the importance of this work.  Every effort we make will not be wasted because even after this life missionaries teach in the spirit world and we are always growing, so don't get down when times are hard.  I am having a good time though.  And I also hope to help and baptize those people as soon as possible.  

Anyways with the rescue - one cool story.  We have been teaching this family named the Babor family and are helping them to return.  We testified of the atonement and repentance and they are returning.  One kid is 22 and hadn't been to church for four years and now he blessed the sacrament last week and plans to serve.  It is such a great feeling to see the atonement change lives and we hope to continue to have success and hopefully some baptisms next month.  Before I came on my mission I always thought that missionaries were perfect and what not.  Now I have learned that each day we can learn and grow and get better.  We all make mistakes I am definitely not perfect but as long as we are doing our best and trusting in God and trying to get better, that's all we can do.  I love the phrases "Come home with no regrets" and “exact obedience=miracles” but I have learned that a regret is something we purposefully do wrong because it is impossible to be exactly obedient or very hard at least.  One example of this was when we went to Bacolod and we were craving some Mac Dos or McDonalds, so we went and it was pouring, I mean pouring rain.  The streets were flooded, I was soaked, I had some great crispy chickens but we ended up missing the three hour bus to Canlaon and had to take another bus which was way longer and more expensive and sleep at another Elder’s home and take another bus in the morning. I joked, what would you do for some McDonalds?ha ha.  But anyways I am trying to learn from my mistakes each day and trust in the Lord to help me make a difference and become the missionary he wants me to be.  I love in the book "Serve With Honor" (sorry Cole I still have it :) that we need to take one day at a time.  If we are tempted and want to quit or slack off or go home, then say I will do that tomorrow, but then wake up the next day and give it your all that day and say tomorrow, which is when you get home.  I love that.  It isn't always easy and we aren't perfect but I know that if we trust in God we can improve every day. Elder M. Russell Ballard says in a talk called Mental Toughness, that we need to "become the creator of circumstances instead of the creature of circumstances." It makes me think of the football quote we had – “our Attitude determines our Altitude.”   Anyways I love you all and am thankful for your great examples, keep doing your best.  I know this gospel is true and am so thankful for a knowledge of the plan and for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for you great eternal friends and my eternal family and I know our joy will be full when we meet again.

Love Elder Mifflin aka Nature Man