We had a good week here in Pola. We were busy, busy, busy which is always nice. We even have our first baptism scheduled for next Saturday! It was supposed to be in the ocean but instead it will be in the District center in Calapan. He's a 16 year old boy who said he wants to serve a mission!!
We had an interesting experience this week. We were teaching the man at the piggery pretty late at night. The piggery is tucked back in the woods, so it was pretty dark out. We've just been reading with him in the Book of Mormon, and we were reading with him in 1 Nephi 11 where it talks about Christ casting out evil spirits. We were outside and I was sitting on a bench, when I felt something tugging at my pant leg. I ignored it, and kept on reading. I threw my hand down to knock off whatever it was, and I felt what felt like a tail slip through my fingers. I jumped up and starting freaking out, but I think my companion was even more freaked out than I was because he said he saw what looked like a small white hand recoil when I threw my hand down. People here are a little superstitious and believe in monsters and other stuff like that. I had look behind that bench and hadn't heard anything, so I was sure it wasn't a person. People here believe in something like an aswa or something like that which is a mystical creature I think. Well my companion was sure that it was an aswa that had been taken control of by an evil spirit and was trying to scare us away so we won't help this brother that is so close to being baptized. Well when you're terrified, you'll believe about anything. So we left the appointment and had a 20 minute walk home. I have honestly never been more scared in my whole life, because I thought there were monsters in the forest following us home! It didn't help when my companion (completely serious) said, "They're following us, we need to go faster!" That felt like the longest 20 minutes of my life! Even after we got into our apartment and locked all the doors we were so so scared. I even considered calling President Peterson (How would that conversation have gone? "President, Satan is commandeering the bodies of animals and is trying to kill us!").
Anyways, it was our investigator's son. Well needless to say I felt pretty stupid. My journal entry that night is the weirdest thing I have ever written in my entire life. I said some of the WEIRDEST things in that journal entry. I thought about tearing it out, but I thought that my kids 30 years from now will get a pretty big kick out of it, and the journal entry for the day after which was pretty much saying don't pay any attention to anything I wrote yesterday!
I've had really funny experiences teaching commandments on my mission. When I was serving in Calapan, we were teaching the Word of Wisdom to an 8 year old boy who's a part member, and his mother is semi-active. We taught him about Coffee and how we shouldn't drink coffee and he starting yelled to his mom who was tutoring on the porch, "Mom, why do you drink Coffee??" She just kind of put her hands on her face. I think she'll think twice next time. This week we were teaching the Law of Chastity to a family. We starting talking about pornography and they stopped us and the mother called her 12 year old son in from outside. They gave him a chair in center and said, "Elders, please teach us all again the law of Chastity. We started talking about how pornography is bad and the mother said, "Can you say that one more time?" The father had such a big smile on his face and he was laughing pretty good. I think the parents were really grateful that someone other than themselves was teaching correct principles to their son. The ironic thing about this whole situation was that they have a pornographic picture on display that is just like a decoration. A lot of houses have that here. It's just like a piece of art or picture we'd have at home!
We have a transfer list coming out a week from today. It will be interesting because a lot of missionaries are going home and a lot are coming in. We also have 10+ missionaries leaving two weeks later because they have the option to go home a month early to be home for Christmas. Needless to say, there are going to be a lot of changes in the next 3 weeks. We'll have a new AP and half of our Zone Leaders will be new. I get the inkling that my companion may be training, so we'll see if my name is on the e-mail next week, or maybe the week after. He's already telling a lot of the members in our branch that I'll probably be transferred. Yeah.....It'll be interesting.
We've spent a lot of time focused on the man at the Piggery this week. We visit him every day and just go and read the Book of Mormon with him and share our insights. It's really become the highlight of my day as it's the last lesson we teach. I've really grown to love this brother. His 9 year old daughter lives with him there. She lives in a little compartment built into the pig stalls. She sleeps probably 6 feet about hundreds of pigs. And through it all, she always has a smile on her face and is the sweetest person I know. There's never a word of complaint that her life is hard, or that she can't go to school like other kids her age. She's just happy to help her father and spend time with him. Her name really describes who she is; Angel is one of the sweetest people I know.
I've often asked myself, why do their lives have to be so hard? I've wondered, why can't our Heavenly Father just reach down and fix all their problems? These are some of the best people I know, and yet they have to pass through so many afflictions. I've really gained a testimony, being around, them, and learning to love them, that Heavenly Father is aware of each of us individually. We were talking to this man and he said to us that one of the elements of his testimony is that the Elders have never given up on him. He's been an investigator for years, and yet the missionaries always come back to teach him. He's getting closer, and his faith is building, and I've finally realized why. It's just love. And isn't that truly what the Gospel of Jesus Christ boils down to in the end? Let us love everyone, and truly follow in the Savior's footsteps in our love for others. For truly, God is Love.
I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Yost
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