Chairless in Basud March 22, 2015

This week was pretty crazy. Tuesday afternoon, we went to Naga and stayed the night. In the morning, we got on a plane to Manila. It was way cool because my whole batch and all of the other batches around mine were all there. I got to see Elder Snyder, Elder Green and a bunch of others. It was really fun. After getting off the plane in Manila, we got in vans and spent like half an hour in traffic on our way to the immigration place. We then waited in line for a long time, and when that was over we packed back into the vans and headed for Moa (Mall of Asia). Moa was awesome. We got to eat subway which was great and then went bowling. It was completely insane. It was way too much fun and I even got a turkey once. I got a good amount of gutterballs too, so I ended up bowling like a 126 or something like that that time. After that, we went and got Jamba Juice. (Can you believe they have that in the Philippines?) It was way fun, but as it turns out we weren't supposed to go there. President had given us permission, but what happened was that the area presidency called President after we were already at moa and told him that we weren't even supposed to go there at all... Oops. I just feel bad for the next group of missionaries that head up to Manila because they definitely won't end up being able to go. We ended up making it back to the hotel around 7pm and just hanging out there. We flew back early Thursday morning and I got kinda airsick. I am very happy not be in that plane right now. I totally hope that I get to see all of these cool missionaries again. After we got back to Naga, we ate lunch and then took the 3 hour bus ride back to Basud... Super long... I was so tired when we got back that I almost fell asleep in the middle of saying something during a lesson. I'm doing fine now though :)

About the Chairless thing...

When we got to the barangay hall for our sacrament service this week, the barangay people had only left us like 6 chairs... Super crazy... We ended up having a lot of people sit on tables... Super crazy... And on top of all of this, our seventh day adventist investigators came to church this week. Fortunately, they really enjoyed the meeting despite the lack of chairs. We were so glad to see them. It turns out that they are friends with one of the other members. They ended up giving them a ride home after the service. It was great. I'm so thankful that the Spirit can still be there in our little barangay hall. We rearrainged their baptismal date for May 2. I probably won't be around for it, but I think they will be in good hands and that they will really be ready by then. We are really excited for them. We are working like crazy and talking to everyone, but haven't really found anyone with tons of potential yet. There are definitely a few people with some pretty good potential.

Next week, we will be in Daet for church, so that will be nice. We don't plan on having a shortage of chairs.

I have one thing that I would like to share from my personal study this week too. It is from Helaman Chapter 5.

6 Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them;and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.

7 Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written,even as it has been said and written of them.

8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.

I really like how it says that we should do good not so that we can boast, but that we should keep our focus on laying up treasure in heaven and gaining eternal life. I think it can be tempting, especially in the mission to brag about numbers of lessons, baptisms, and things like that. The better thing to do is keep our focus on the souls that we are bringing to our Heavenly Father.

I don't really know how to get the formatting back to normal, but I love you tons and have a great week!

Elder Merrill