Maybe some of you heard about Mario, the tropical storm or whatever it was this week, but we definitely had some crazy flooding right outside our apartment. That picture is of the road that we use to get out from our apartment, and the water you can see behind that wall is the huuuuge chasm that normally funnels out all the water. Talk about a flood! I don't know why that lady was using an umbrella while she was up to her waist in water, haha, or where was so important for them to get to that they walked through all that rat and human feces and trash that's in that water.
When we were restricted to staying in our apartments because of the flooding, I washed my laundry by hand (the Filipino way) for 3 hours (it takes that long. Be thankful for washers and dryers), took a nap, wrote a coupla letters, and ate a lot of food. It was fun. Fun... we're gonna have some later on today when we play basketball and volleyball as a district.
Anyway.
This week I've really been working on talking to everyone. Sometimes that's productive, sometimes it's not. One time as we were walking, I saw an older gentleman walking ahead of us. And I saw in his hands... nun-chucks! Then I got excited, now I definitely had something to talk to him about. So I walked up and said, "Bakit mayroon po kayo mga... nun-chucks?" (pretty sure there's no word for that in Tagalog.) The man turned around and said, with a strong British accent, "Oh, my, I do not speak Tagalog." Turns out he's from France, but went to school in England, and teaches self-defense to some of the other foreigners that live in the area. We talked to him a bit, and when we asked him if he would be interested to learn about our message centered on Christ and families, he said, "Absolutely not, but thank you for the offer... I have nothing to gain from religion, and am actually a very wicked man." So, there we go, but he wished us well, and we went on our way. On the way back later at night I heard from his house the sound of a punching back getting whacked, probably by nun-chucks. New life goal - learn how to use nun-chucks.
We also had a "work and self reliance" workshop this week where missionaries who are going to go home in a few months learn about applying for jobs and doing interviews and all that stuff. It was SO funny because when we did the practice of people walking into a room where their "potential employer" was, they were supposed to walk up and confidently say, "Hello, I'm (their first name and last name) and I'm here to apply for the (job.)" Almost every single one of them who did that walked in and said, "Hello, I"m Elder..." or "Hello, I'm Sister..." and they just couldn't say their first names! It gets hard for sure when we haven't used our first names for the past two years or so.
Speaking of which, I will be coming home in mid-November for anyone who doesn't know that. I'll be looking forward to seeing most of you all then, and for now I'm focused on being a missionary! But thanks for all your continued love and support throughout these 18 months.
Thought this was way awesome when I read it in the Bible Dictionary this week. The definition of the word earnest in a Biblical context.
"Earnest"
A pledge or security. The word thus translated is a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything. As used by Paul (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14) it means that the Lord gives us His Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. The Spirit is also the Lord’s surety that He will fulfill His promise to give eternal life to the faithful.
May we all live earnestly to receive the gifts of the Spirit and have that foretaste of joy every day. I know that the Lord does and will fulfill His promises to us, and there's only one way for us to be happy - through obedience to His commandments and pure, clean hearts.
Much love,
Sister Larsen
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