This week was kinda a rough week for the work here in our area. We lost one of our investigator families, as well as another one of our investigators.The nanay of the family told us about how she usually tries to hide from us when she sees us coming, but she can't get away fast enough. She said that she didn't want to change religions, even though she felt good when she prayed about Joseph Smith. She told us that she doesn't really want us to come back. Our other investigator's father told us she is going to be away for a month or so to take care of her sick grandma. It sounds like a crazy story to us, so we think it was them trying to get us to stop coming over.
I thought I would share my Tagalog tracting techniques at the beginning of this email because I am going to be employing them a lot over the week, due to the handful of investigators that we lost this week. So here it goes:
The first thing I do do is say, "Tao po!" which means "people!" or "Person". This is the equivalent of knocking.
Next, I usually say good morning//afternoon/evening "Maray na Aga/hapon/banggi po." (That one is in bikol.)
Then we ask if we can introduce ourselves, "Puwede po ba kaming makipagkilala po?" or "Puwede po ba kaming magpakilala sa inyo po?"
Then, we are either told that they are busy, or belong to the Iglesia, or we get to introduce ourselves "Kami po yung mga missionaries ng The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, dinadala po namin ang mga mensahe tungkol kay Jesucristo. Gusto po namin na makapagbahagi po sa inyo at sa inyong pamilya" and ask for their name, "Ano po ang pangalan n'yo?
We then usually either proceed to teach then or find out when we can come over and teach them next, "Kailan po kaya yung pinakamakomportableng oras para makapagbahagi po kami sa inyo?"
Usually if they set an appointment for later in the week we leave a pamphlet, introduce it, and ask them to read it. "May ibibigay po kami sa inyo. Tungkol po ito sa yung ibabahagi namin sa inyo. Gagawin n'yo po ba siyang basahin?"
That is pretty much it. I wish it were as easy to do as it is to type. It usually gets easier after the first couple houses though.
I also remember how Dad used to say his thing in Korean when we knelt down for family prayer. I was thinking it might be fun for you guys to try learning, "Let's pray!" in Tagalog/ Bikol. Tagalog: "manalangin tayo!" Bikol: "Magpangaje kita!" (The j sounds like a j in English). That will be fun, right?
I am pretty excited to see what happens come transfer day (and to get my package). Should be a lot of changes. I hope we can get a lot of new investigators this week during all of our finding. We are still doing really well with Tatay . We found out exactly how old he is too. He is 86 years old. Nanay has been gone for a few weeks by the way too. She is visiting her sibling who lives out in Siruma (really far away) and shouldn't be back for a few weeks. We hope that she will come around soon and let Tatay get baptized.
I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well now. Just in time for spring break to be over... Don't have too much fun being back at school.
Love you guys tons!
Elder Benjamin Merrill
No comments:
Post a Comment