Subject: Watta week
Dear Family,
This was one of the weirdest weeks in a long time, a lot of just different stuff happened. Monday and tuesday was pretty normal, but wednesday and thurday were weird and hard, partially because we didn't teach a single lesson, and we saw this same crazy naked guy in Jones a couple times, then on Thursday some little kids tried to break into our house... I will send you the pictures, we live right next to the church, and there always these street kids, that dont go to school, and there parents dont watch after them or take care of them, they are alway really dirty and their clothes are usually raggedy, anyway they always play on church property, and on Thursday we got back to the house at night and saw that they had attempted to get into the house... the screen to the window was cut open, and the door was almost opened, but they couldn't reach the doornob and open up the door so they couldn't get in. The land lord, put up some glass spikes on the fence so the kids couldn't jump the fence, but just saturday we got home and saw that they knocked off some of the glass in a certain spot so they could get in. So they really want to get into our apartment.. I feel bad for them because they are street kids, their parents basically abandoned them, and there is no good form of foster care or orphanage here in the Philippines.. obviously these kids are probably hungry, but at the same time we don't want them stealing our stuff and getting into our house. Especially since sometimes there is a adult in the backround using these kids to get into people's houses and steal and such, because in the Philippines there is no Juvenal prisons. so if the kids get caught the police cant do anything... so the adults use them. We thief-proofed our house on Sunday, because on Sunday we went to Alicia stake center to see the Celebration of the Prophets birthday, and then later that night we just slept at the zone leaders apartment, because we couldn't get home at that time of night. There are no buses or vans going to Jones past 7:00pm...
Anyways we did have a lot of other cool stuff happen this week, like we taught sister Letlet, a amazing lesson, we went into the lesson planning on teaching her about Faith and Works, but when we got there the whole lesson changed to more of prayer and the holy ghost and forgiving... the lesson was super powerful. That is the only lesson that we were able to teach her that week, but the good news is that she came to Church, only for sacrament but that is okay.
We taught the Pemuliar family about the Plan of Salvation, the lesson was alright, well it was actually really good, just the start of it was really shaky, the last half of it was really good, brother gave the prayer at the end of the lesson, it was a great prayer, they listened really well, we had great contribution by sister Rebuca and Tatay Pong, the two members that joined the lesson. Sister Pemuliar has been reading from the book of Mormon and she received a answer about Joseph Smith! They weren't able to come to church because there little baby had a fever brother had to go to Santiago for something.
Myra we were able to teach her about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, she doesn't have problems with either of the two so it was pretty easy to teach. She was able to come to church, her book of Mormon reading is kinda coming along slowly then preferred, we really need to get her to read the Book of Mormon... her praying is doing great though... really the only concern that we have for her is her Book of Mormon reading.
The Cristobal family is doing great, we watched the Finding Faith in Christ video with them this week, brother hasn't drank in like 2 weeks, I am really happy for them. They are doing all of the right things.
We have finally been able to teach this week the people that we found to teach, on Friday Tatay Pong came out and worked with us and we taught 6 lessons! That was a very relieving day from wednesday and thursday two days we didn't teach one lesson, completely rejected those two days... This one sister that we taught though, sister Chang, we only taught here about prayer, but the lesson was great, and she came to church and Sunday! That was very exciting!
Finally a week without any awkward experiences with gays... this is a great area, at first it was hard but I am learning to love the people and am learning that success doesn't mean the number of people, or baptisms or less actives brought back to the church. If I try my hardest and do everything I can, then I am doing what the Lord expects and wants of me.
The Prophets birthday celebration was cool, I think that was one of the first birthday celebration for a prophet ever. It was kinda cool that steve young hosted for it.
Oh yeah can you believe that I am hitting one year in about a month, that is nuts!
Anyways thanks for everything,
Love you guys,
Elder James
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