Guten tag! :D
The weather's been pretty squirrely lately.. Last week, like I'd mentioned, it was pretty wet and rainy and stuff, and got kinda cold at night. Now it's just been freakishly hot. O.o It's weird.
We extended a baptismal date to Hanz and Claire this week. We'd originally planned on giving Claire the goal of July 30th, since she'd already been to church twice and has a testimony and, as far as we knew, was pretty well ready for baptism, while Hanz, who needs to be married to his wife first before we can baptize him, we would give the goal of later in August, around the 20th or so. We extended the invitation to them, asking if they would be baptized, and they both said yes, they wanted to. Then we started talking to Hanz about what their plans were as far as their marriage went. He said they're willing to be married and make everything legal and stuff, like it's supposed to be, but that they're wanting to save up money first before they get married. As we were discussing it with him, Claire spoke up suddenly, saying, "Elders, I want to get baptized, too, but the problem is, I need to be able to repent first." She then admitted that she smokes, and that she sometimes gambles, too. I immediately thought, "Ah! Okay, so the 30th of July is too soon." We reassured her that repentance is always possible, and extended a baptismal date for the 13th of August. What was most impressive about it was that we hadn't even taught them about the Word of Wisdom yet, nor about how gambling is against the commandments. She already knew it was wrong, and understood that she needed to stop before she could get baptized. We've become really close to that family, and they're really grateful for our visits there. They told us that since we started sharing the gospel with them, they've had a greater desire to do good. Claire also stopped drinking (before we taught about the Word of Wisdom), and, while before she would occasionally wander off with friends up to no good, now she just stays at home and helps around the house. I'm really happy for the progress they've made so far.
We also talked more with Hanz and Mona about their plans for getting married. They want to get married, but before they just weren't sure when. They said they wanted to be able to save up some money, and so they were looking more towards December or January. I was like, "...Ahm.... no, that's too far," mostly because I wanna be able to actually still be here in the Philippines to attend their wedding. They've been living together for 5 years now, so I wasn't sure why they felt they needed to wait until December. Upon further questioning, they mentioned that the wedding ceremony itself would probably be really expensive, so they wanted to be able to save up some money to be able to pay for it. I was like, "...You know, the church holds wedding ceremonies for basically nothing... Why not just do it in August or September?" "...Okay." We need to finalize things with them, but it'll hopefully be around the 27th or so of August. :D Now that we've pretty well got them committed to it, now we have the fun task of taking care of all the paperwork and stuff they need to get married. Funfunfun.
We got to meet President Stucki last Wednesday. His style is a lot different from President Howard's, who was usually a lot more energetic when giving messages. President Stucki's a lot more calm and serious about things. He knows what he's doing, though; he knows a lot about the gospel and about missionary work, and I think he'll do well in leading the mission. I talked to him in my interview about going home early in December, and he said that probably shouldn't be a problem. Now I just hope my application gets accepted. He didn't mention anything about what would be happening to me next transfer like President Howard would tend to do, so I have no idea. I'm hoping I'll stay another transfer (I'm not a fan of only being in an area for one transfer), but nothing is certain. We'll just have to find out next week at transfer announcements.
Anyway, that's about it. Say hi to the Maughan family for me and say congratulations to Tannar on his mission call, if you get the chance. :) Also, hope Richelle enjoys her new job with the Warrens.
Love you all! Until next week, ingatz!
Love,
Elder David Jones
The weather's been pretty squirrely lately.. Last week, like I'd mentioned, it was pretty wet and rainy and stuff, and got kinda cold at night. Now it's just been freakishly hot. O.o It's weird.
We extended a baptismal date to Hanz and Claire this week. We'd originally planned on giving Claire the goal of July 30th, since she'd already been to church twice and has a testimony and, as far as we knew, was pretty well ready for baptism, while Hanz, who needs to be married to his wife first before we can baptize him, we would give the goal of later in August, around the 20th or so. We extended the invitation to them, asking if they would be baptized, and they both said yes, they wanted to. Then we started talking to Hanz about what their plans were as far as their marriage went. He said they're willing to be married and make everything legal and stuff, like it's supposed to be, but that they're wanting to save up money first before they get married. As we were discussing it with him, Claire spoke up suddenly, saying, "Elders, I want to get baptized, too, but the problem is, I need to be able to repent first." She then admitted that she smokes, and that she sometimes gambles, too. I immediately thought, "Ah! Okay, so the 30th of July is too soon." We reassured her that repentance is always possible, and extended a baptismal date for the 13th of August. What was most impressive about it was that we hadn't even taught them about the Word of Wisdom yet, nor about how gambling is against the commandments. She already knew it was wrong, and understood that she needed to stop before she could get baptized. We've become really close to that family, and they're really grateful for our visits there. They told us that since we started sharing the gospel with them, they've had a greater desire to do good. Claire also stopped drinking (before we taught about the Word of Wisdom), and, while before she would occasionally wander off with friends up to no good, now she just stays at home and helps around the house. I'm really happy for the progress they've made so far.
We also talked more with Hanz and Mona about their plans for getting married. They want to get married, but before they just weren't sure when. They said they wanted to be able to save up some money, and so they were looking more towards December or January. I was like, "...Ahm.... no, that's too far," mostly because I wanna be able to actually still be here in the Philippines to attend their wedding. They've been living together for 5 years now, so I wasn't sure why they felt they needed to wait until December. Upon further questioning, they mentioned that the wedding ceremony itself would probably be really expensive, so they wanted to be able to save up some money to be able to pay for it. I was like, "...You know, the church holds wedding ceremonies for basically nothing... Why not just do it in August or September?" "...Okay." We need to finalize things with them, but it'll hopefully be around the 27th or so of August. :D Now that we've pretty well got them committed to it, now we have the fun task of taking care of all the paperwork and stuff they need to get married. Funfunfun.
We got to meet President Stucki last Wednesday. His style is a lot different from President Howard's, who was usually a lot more energetic when giving messages. President Stucki's a lot more calm and serious about things. He knows what he's doing, though; he knows a lot about the gospel and about missionary work, and I think he'll do well in leading the mission. I talked to him in my interview about going home early in December, and he said that probably shouldn't be a problem. Now I just hope my application gets accepted. He didn't mention anything about what would be happening to me next transfer like President Howard would tend to do, so I have no idea. I'm hoping I'll stay another transfer (I'm not a fan of only being in an area for one transfer), but nothing is certain. We'll just have to find out next week at transfer announcements.
Anyway, that's about it. Say hi to the Maughan family for me and say congratulations to Tannar on his mission call, if you get the chance. :) Also, hope Richelle enjoys her new job with the Warrens.
Love you all! Until next week, ingatz!
Love,
Elder David Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment