Fw: Happy Easter

 

 

Herro!!  :D

 

HAAAAAAAAPPY BIIIIIIRTHDAAAAAY, DARCY!!!!!! :D :D :D

 

...

 

And Happy Easter to the rest of you, too.  :D

 

I'm sure the choir's presentation went well.  :)  I kinda miss choir... :/  They don't have ward choirs here in the Philippines (because nobody here can sing... ;P ), so instead, they always just have a rest hymn in sacrament.  Our ward doesn't have anyone who really knows how to play piano, either, so guess who gets to play every Sunday? ;)  They have the missionary choir, which performs at the musical firesides, but having a choir of 170 or so in which probably 30 can pick out a tune at all, and only about 7 can read music just isn't the same... ;P

 

Holy Week is interesting in the Philippines (I got to experience Holy Week last year, too, but I was still new back then and still had no idea what on earth was going on anyway).  The first thing that happened was that half our investigators went home to the province for Holy Week (grr... >.> ).  They'll hopefully be coming back this week.  What's odd is that Good Friday is celebrated more here than Easter itself.  On Good Friday, all the stores are closed, everyone's at home, and there're parades going on everywhere depicting the last week of Christ's life (We didn't get to watch a lot of them, because we were busy teaching our investigators, but the parades were all kinds of fun to push and shove through on the way to appointments, especially when we were going the opposite direction of the parade).  For Easter, on the other hand, everything's back to business as usual. :/  All the stores open again, and everyone goes back to normal life..  It's kinda sad.  They seem to have missed the point.  The whole reason we celebrate Easter is because of the Resurrection.  Good Friday, with its cross, gives us hope because Christ gave His life to redeem us from our sins, but Resurrection Sunday, with its empty tomb, should give us greater hope because He lives!  One of my favorite lines from the Bible is, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen!"  (Luke.  I forget the reference exactly.  It's in the last chapter).

 

Anyway, that's my rant about that.  All and all, it was pretty cool.  It was certainly different.

 

Two of our investigators, Jinkie Tekayo and Anita Saquing, are just about ready for baptism.  They just need to be interviewed, and then everything will be all set.  Another, Sister Thea (pronounced "Tay-ah", like in Yu-Gi-Oh), who's last name has escaped me, we'll probably move her baptismal date up by a week, because she's already pretty much ready.  They'll probably be baptized on May the 7th.  We went with Jinkie and Anita to a cool park here in our area, called Nayong Pilipino, and hung out there earlier today for P-Day.  Yaaaay P-Day!  I'd send pictures, but they don't have an SD card reader at this shop.

 

Yesterday quite a number of our investigators (most of the ones that didn't go home to the province) went to church.  We had quite a bit of a crowd in Gospel Essentials.  And then there was another woman, Sister Zenny, who also went to church, who we didn't know.  We asked her afterward who she came to church with, and she said, "No one.  I just read the sign outside, saw 'Jesus Christ' in the name, and figured I like going to church, so I went."  ...Oh.  o.o  Cool!  :D  She didn't know her address, since she's new here, but she gave us her cell number and a vague location, so hopefully we'll be able to find their house.  We actually saw her again on a jeepney earlier today.  I didn't notice her at first, but she tapped me as I was getting off and waved, and I was like, "Huh...? Oh, hi!  :D "

 

On Friday (after swimming through the parades of people), we visited Sister Jobelle again, and she taught us all of lesson three, about the gospel of Jesus Christ, perfectly, based entirely on what she read from the pamphlet we gave her.  o.o  Tama.  We asked her a few questions to follow up her prayers and she eventually (after going off-topic a few times) said that she had prayed about it and knew that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is the true Church.  I then tried to extend a baptismal invitation, but it bounced off.  :/  Family concern.  >.<  Her family is Catholic, and she's not sure if they'll allow her to get baptized into another church.  And we need her parents' permission, since she's only 17, so we can't just kinda do it behind their backs.  ^^''  Shoot.  But we'll talk with them.

 

Anyway, i-Happy Birthday n'yo ako kay Darcy, at kay Bryce din.  :D  What's weird is Elder Gillette's older sister also just turned 23 on the 24th of April.  o.o  Malapit lang pala kayo. 

 

Ah, may halamanan na pala si Mom. :D

 

Still trying to find time to write those essays... >.<  Haven't found it yet.  Still looking...

 

Anyway, this is the last week of the transfer.  It's gone FAST.  But most likely, Elder Gillette and I will stay another transfer.  Sister Howard's been sick, so President Howard's been taking care of her, and couldn't do interviews this transfer, so pretty much, the zone leaders have the say about who transfers and who stays.

 

Wala nang oras.  :(  Ingat kayo lagi!  Mahal ko kayo!  :D

 

Love,

Elder David Jones