2-22-12

Hello sa tanan!

 

My English has hit an all time low this week.  I guess that's a good thing, but Elder Shelley makes fun of me all the time for it.  Just yesterday I cooked dinner and then told Elder Shelley "its putted in the fridge."  Freaking Bisayan.  I love it though.

 

So more great success this week.  I am loving life right now.  My companion is awesome.  He is learning really fast, and is always there to let me know when I make a mistake or have something I could improve on.  It's fantastic.  We are also seeing tons of success in the work.  We committed 2 people for baptism this week and have another planned 5-6 for next week.  We should hopefully be baptizing around 10 people in March and maybe April.  That's our goal.  I wanted to share a little story with you this week.  Just an example of how the Lord is leading us wherever we go.

 

I want to share with you about a golden family, the Borlau family, we were led to while looking for a member about a week ago.  We stopped by a house inquiring about some members and after we talked for a bit with the father and mother of the house we were at, we asked them if we could come back to share a message with them.  They accepted and gave us a date we could come back.  When we arrived on our scheduled date, they were eating, but upon seeing us, they all (family of 10) immediately cleaned up their dinner, ran into the back and put on fresh clothes, cleaned the floor of their hut and rearranged the house to accomodate us.  I was astonished at their reverence for the messengers of the Lord, even before they really knew much about us.  We had a great first lesson and then when we came back for the second lesson they weren't there.  We left a note at the house telling them we would come back a different day, and when we did, they were waiting for us.  They all said that they felt our message was true, and the the father said he heard God speak to him when he prayed.  We left them with a Book of Mormon and promised to bring them more the next visit.  When we went back for our appointment we were very disappointed when a couple of the kids told us their parents weren't home.  We were ecstatic, however, to learn that they had left us a note!  On the note was written this:  "We are very sorry that we aren't here Elders.  We had an emergency come up and will be out until Thurs.  We are so thankful to you Elder Garver and Elder Shelley.  We love you.  Love, Brother and Sister."  That note made our day.  We are going back to see them tomorrow and will be commiting the entire family to baptism.

 

I love the Philipino people so much, and my heart has been filled with charity as I have seen the Spirit work wonders in their lives.  I'm loving the work so so much, and am so greatful for all the support from back home as well.  Thank you for everything!

 

Love,

Elder Garver

 

P.S.  Dad, the people here usually only have enough money to buy a bit of rice and put some leaves on top of it to give it some flavor, but every single time they see you they gesture you over and invite you to share their meal with them.  The love and generosity of the people here is amazing, but due to the poverty, we usually leave them to eat for themselves and eat on our own.

Mom, honestly, my favorite food is... rice.  It's just super good.  I don't really mind what's on it, as long as it's hot.  I guess one of my favorites is mungos, which is a kind of bean soup mixed with pork.  But the BBQ here is really good too.  Thanks to Elder Shelley talking about food all the time, I am now craving pizza really bad though.  I don't suppose you could get some Dominos delivered to the Philippines could you?