A Cold Sprite in Africa

So many great things happened this week! I don’t even know where to start! My companion, Sister Hardy, and I have been working hard and were able to see the fruits of our labors – especially at church on Sunday! J

I need to preface this week’s post with a story. Last fall my dad and I traveled to Africa. One day after being there for about a week we were walking through the small village market in the hot sun. It was a nice afternoon – we were just sweating BUCKETS! (Kind of reminds me of life right now.) It also happened to be my birthday. My dad asked if anything sounded good, but really I just wanted a Sprite. We walked over to a store that looked like they had canned soda. Yup. Success! Even better? It was COLD! Fresh out of a FRIDGE! (That was the first time we had had something cold since being in Africa.) It was by far the best Sprite I have ever had in my life – I don’t know if I will ever have a Sprite as wonderfully delicious as that cold Sprite in Africa.

I shared this story with a less active member of our church that we have been teaching. I made it into a little analogy. They are having a lot of struggles – sometimes they don’t even have money for food. But instead of allowing these struggles to bring them closer to God, Mama H is asking, “Why me?” As she was expressing her trials and her doubts to us, I shared the cold Sprite story (but I changed it to Coke because Filipinos love Coke). I said that we go through life and hard things happen. It’s hot. It’s a struggle. But when it’s super hot and you are so sweaty and thirsty and you’ve been walking all day a cold Coke becomes heaven on earth. Whereas if it’s a cool day, you are just hanging out, sipping some Coke…it’s wala lang (just nothing/regular). That’s why God gives us trials. So we can appreciate and more fully enjoy our cold Coke.

We went back to Mama H’s house a few days later. She was actually really excited to see us. She invited us in right away. She told us that she had been up all night just thinking about her problems – just worrying so much. She decided to flip open her Book of Mormon and just read. She ended up reading Alma 34. She cried, telling me, “I remembered what you said about the cold Coke. It’s true. If I didn't have the trials in life I wouldn't appreciate this.”

Here’s a quote from the talk “The Fourth Missionary” that goes along with this:

“Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness and tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation, and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so, you are changed to become more like Him.”

NEW TOPIC

OH. MY. GOSH! We have TONS of progressing investigators! Brother Ordinario is doing GREAT! He is living the Word of Wisdom. He couldn't make it to church this week because he got a boil on his butt. Yup. He told us that when we dropped by Sunday afternoon to check on him. He is going to get BAPTIZED on Nov. 1^st!

Jan, a girl we are teaching, is also progressing. Let’s be real, she is basically a member. She is 10 and lives with her aunt and uncle who are members. She loves coming to church and is excited to get baptized on Oct. 25^th!

The Fonganillo family came to church! The mom is abroad working and the dad usually works on Sunday. He is a trike driver (the motorcycles with a side car). We promised him that if he came to church, even just for one hour, that his family would be blessed. He came! So did all the kids except for one. We taught them all Sunday evening and they LOVED church. Bong (the dad) said it felt really good inside and he wants to keep going. He was able to talk to his wife about baptism and she said she will support him, whatever his decision is. GUESS WHAT!? THEY WILL BE BAPTIZED Nov. 8^th! Brother Bong still needs to overcome some addictions, but he will make it. J

RANDOM THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK!

• We moved! The new apartment is tiny. The bedroom my companion and I share is barely big enough for 2 twin mattresses on the floor. Since we don’t have screens yet we have to keep the windows closed so it is in an OVEN in there! Yup. I only got 2 hours of sleep the first night. Hopefully we will get screens soon!
• I got electrocuted last night. My arm is really sore but I am totally fine.
• My companion and I go running! We also eat cookie dough so I think these two things sort of cancel each other out.

Thank you all for your love and support. I am loving life as a missionary!