Let me tell you. Sometimes, persistence, faith, and love all combine to make good things happen. That's one of the biggest things I've learned here in Paranaque - if people have some problem or obstacle why they can't be baptized, especially if they want to but there's some external problem, then we as missionaries must do all in our power and especially in God's power to help them overcome it.
I hope to be the kind of person who "makes things happen" according to faith and love for these people and of course with their agency to choose. When missionaries just do missionary things, then they can't very well expect their investigators to change their lives. When missionaries change their hearts to do missionary work because they love it and want it, then miracles happen. It involves a lot of pushing and pulling and working on our faith, but as we do so, it will happen as we work on our own faith and those investigating the Church strengthen their own faith. I've definitely seen miracles from that, especially in families where one of the spouses was a member and the other wasn't.
On a different note - I learned the Tagalog word for "goat" - "kambing" way before I learned the tagalog word for "twin" - "kambal." One day, I was talking about some twins in a nice family we're teaching. I said, "Opo, ang mga kambing nagsimba noon Linggo!" I meant to say, "Yeah, the two twins went to church last Sunday!" But I accidentally said the two goats went to church last Sunday. The ward missionary I said it to had a good laugh with me about it, haha.
On a more reflective note - there's another huge thing I've learned on my mission so far. These are the reflections of a missionary at her "halfway" point which I just hit last week. I realized for real how important it is to use time wisely in my life. Before, I didn't do a great job of that. I just did whatever seemed good but wasted a whole lot of time in my daily life. Seeing how much we do every day as missionaries, I know a lot more is possible, and I wasn't really living up to my potential. When I eventually return, I now have the tools to know how I must spend my time more wisely to really accomplish the Lord's purposes for everyone - myself included. Wasting time on the computer or whatnot is easy, but not really why we're here on this earth. On that note, it says in Alma 34:32 - "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for man to perform their labors." I've taught that about 100 times to different people here in the Philippines, but I got some personal revelation that I really need to do that in real time to myself here on my mission and after I return. We've only got one mortal life, so we had better use our short time wisely and make it productive and meaningful, not just "hayahay" or hang out.
I hope we can all recommit every day to have greater discipline and focus in our lives on the things of eternal value and worth, and check ourselves each day as to what we're doing with our lives. There's a lot of important questions we have to ask ourselves, and I know that laying plans hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly make for successful lives in a way I never really recognized before.
Hey. I love you all. Make good, worthwhile plans. Do whatever that thing is that you know you should do but have been putting off for a while. Serve others with real love in your hearts and receive true, lasting joy.
Much love,
Sister Larsen
I'm super pumped about a wedding I attended this week, in part because I love the family so so much.
Boddlefies! We ate off of banana leaves again in the little province area of our area at an FHE we had. It was awesome. I love eating with my hands so much. Especially rice.
I hope I don't get transferred, but I probably will. I love this ward so much.
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