I've officially been here three weeks! There are times when it seems like it's been two years already and times when I feel like times are a flying by.
Also, I can't thank you enough dad for sending that note, and mom for the cookies which are on their way. The other night, as our District Leader was passing out mail, Elder Tamale started to tear up because he knew he wasn't going to get an email. Then our District Leader said hey, Elder Tamale you've got a letter! Everyone just stopped, and I thought Elder Tamale was going to have a heart attack!! He was SOOOOOOO excited. Dad, you were literally the highlight of his week! It's still been very tough because his family won't write him. We're writing right now and I've lost about 5 minutes because he's been crying....
It's been a busy week but time has really flown by! The days are starting to fly by more than ever. We picked up two new progressive investigators this week. Brother Day and Sister Sorensen, two of our teachers are respectively John and Salva. They are both VERY tough. What makes it even more difficult is appointments can only be 20 minutes long so we're forced to split the lessons in half. On Wednesday we taught John. He was very uninterested and even fell asleep a few times. I even had to tell him to stop texting. I feel like I'm starting to pick the language up more and more. It's amazing that three weeks in we can teach the first two lessons! Anyways, I felt prompted to start talking about the Atonement and Jesus Christ, right as I did, he perked up and just got so excited. I asked him if he had a testimony of Christ and he started bearing his testimony! I felt like we were on a roll, and then ET, whose language and listening skills are still behind just jumped in and said,"God calls prophets for us". Oh no! The entire focus just kind of started to drain! I was frustrated, and our teacher gave me a wry smile and a wink because he knew how close we were! Our first lesson with Sister Sorensen went very similarly. She purposefully uses words we have absolutely no idea of knowing. It makes things quite awkward as we repeatedly say "Paki-ulit!" (Please repeat). So after that lesson we were pretty down. We had the TRC later that evening and boy did that go different. It was our first time teaching ang Plano ng Kaligtasan (Plan of Salvation). It went to so well!!! I know the Spirit blessed us with the things to say. We really needed a morale booster. We asked the right questions, shared the right scriptures, and when the prompting came to extend the baptismal commitment, there was no way we would hesitate! She agreed to be baptized!! Even though we were teaching a returned missionary, just that feeling we got was indescribable. We may not have baptized a non-member, but I know we had fulfilled our purpose in "Inviting others to come unto Christ..."
I think often times we forget what that missionary work is not just about baptizing. While this is a major focus, our purpose is helping ALL people draw nearer to him through the Doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31). We got to go to the temple today, one of the temple workers asked me if I was related to a Paul Yost from the USCG. His last name was Austin and he was from Concord California. Ring a bell? Anyways, I have 6:30 left to type.
Thirty minutes just isn't enough time! Anyways, I ran across some really awesome scriptures this week. In Jeremiah Chapter 1, I felt like the Lord was talking directly to me. Read it! I've also been flying through the Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ. I'm 150 pages into Jesus the Christ and have read about 250 pages of the book of Mormon since I got here. I just finished 3 Nephi. What a feast! I can't help but hope that we'll get that opportunity one day.
So what's gonna happen with this debt ceiling? I tell you what, if the President doesn't get this figured out, he'll take the bulk of the hit. Talk about ineffective leadership. I think this is a bigger issue than people think. This could set the stage and draw the line in the sand for the battle over the deficit. Have no fear, follow the Prophet's advise on keeping a budget and living within our means. I'll take his side every time :)
Love,
Alex
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