I have learned A LOT from the sacrament. I learned "If you can't have faith that the Atonment will change other people, how can you expect it to change you?"
My special assignment is still stressful, but this week I am studying repentance and forgiveness.
yesterday, we got hit with two typhoons at once. the floods were up to our knees after church, and flooded the chapel. The other elders wanted to walk home. I felt prompted distinctly NOT to. a few minutes later one of the other companionships rescued a lady and a baby washed away in the flood. after this I went out to help as well. there were some people stranded on a road island, but they refused to come in to the church. meh, their choice.
after everyone was rescued, they wanted to walk home again. I told them I would not go, because I had a feeling. My companion said, "fine, but I am going with them."
of course, as per handbook I immediatly reported to the zone leaders that my companion left without me, (skipping the district leader, because he was the one my companion was going with!) one of the zone leaders ran them down, and convinced them not to leave, and my companion would not speak to me for a few hours.
when we finally got authorization to leave the church, and we were no longer in ear shot of the members, he began cussing me out.
we both apologized, but he still doesn't seem to want to talk to me. I studied by myself, and we haven't planned in a few days.
as much as I want to tell President I am not in to the whole "special assignment" plan, I know that the revelation was inspired, and the Lord will qualify me for the work. I can't council God. I am sure He has MANY more lessons for me to learn. we'll see how this goes.
at the very least, I still feel the Spirit, and that is what matters! I look for it more, when I am in a harsh enviroment. and Sacrament, has taken on a temple-like experience for me. when I realized it was not just "renewing baptisimal covenants" but a new and sepparate covenant every week, I really started paying more attention to how to Atonment and the sacrament are related. the sacrament gets me a Spiritual High that I really can't describe. I miss the temple a little bit less, because I get the same intense feeling. I guess that is why they are called "high priests" no? (all though, the sacrament is not a replacement for the temple. I still REALLY miss the temple. I can't even tell you how often I ponder about it!)
well this is all for this week, I have MANY emails of encouragement and support to reply to from last week. sorry for being such a downer. wish I could have been more uplifting last week, I hope you at least come to appreciate the Atonement a little more yourselves every day! love you all! bye!
Part 2
Oops! Forgot to tell the independance day shenanigans! For lunch, before fasting, we went to "pancake house" which is owned by the same guy as our favorite restaurant, so we were expecting awesome service and food.
I asked what was in the spanish omelete, and after 5 minutes of "umm......." the waiter finally replied "egg." Despite how many times we kept telling him to speak in Tagalog, the waiter just kept trying to speak in unintelligable, broken English.
Then the food arrived, and Elder jones had ordered a salad, which came with four pieces of iceburg lettace, although the menu said "mixed greens with alfalpha sprouts." when we gave them back the salad, and told them we just would be happier without it, a few minutes later the manager came out to yell at us. (we didn't tell her we are friends with the owner.) she said (in a nutshell) 'we are out of stock, you get what we give you, and we don't have to explain ourselves!'
after all this, the food was twice as much as any where else we have eaten (including the other nice restaurants)
It was really interesting to compare this event with the reason we went out to eat: Capitolism Day! Because our "forefathers" died in a war, we can complain about our orders, and if we dont want it, we can return it!
I still love the Philippines more than they do. I won't lie, I was REALLY happy with the food I ordered. probably because I ordered something I knew wouldn't disappoint me ;) I got a rootbeer float too! rootbeer floats on the 4th of july! happy New Years everyone! (I mark my calander by this day, because of all the marching I did back in highschool :D) oh! p.s.! in 8 days, I will only have exactly six months left! have a great summer everyone! it's raining on my parade :D we didn't have any work yesterday for the storms! love you all. bye!
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