I think I will tell you the story of one of our newer investigators. She is maybe 60 or so years old. We actually found her when we were trying to find the house of a referral. We asked her if she knew the person we were looking for, and she pointed out her house. We then decided to introduce ourselves to her. When she found out what church we were from, she told us that her grandfather had been a member of our church, and she invited us right on inside her gate. She is such a sweet woman. She has big eyes that always get bigger as she listens intently to what we have to share with her and when she hears new things. She gets kind of surprised when she hears new things a lot of the time. In Tagalog, we would say, "Magulatin siya" Something kind of like that she is easily surprised. We invited her to come to church this week as well and of course she agreed. I didn't feel like there was a super good chance that she was going to make it to church, but when we walked in the church doors yesterday, there she was, and she even brought a friend who turned out to be a member from Virac, Catanduanes, which is part of the Legazpi mission now. It is really neat to see people so willing to try what we have to offer. I know that as she continues to make and keep commitments, she will progress in the Gospel and receive more blessings in her life.
Maybe now is the time for a little of bad news as far as investigators go. There was one family who we extended baptismal invitations to that didn't take it as well. They really feel like their baptisms when they were young were valid, and don't want to switch religions. At the time, I felt like it would just take another visit to clear things up there, but we got a text the other day that said they are happy to listen, but they don't want to switch religions. We later received another that said not to come back for a while because they are going to be busy. It is kind of rough to see that happen. Another thing that has been giving us trouble is that one of our best families is on vacation/ working in Manila for a while. I guess the last thing to mention is that the little lady I mentioned above is our only investigator that came to sacrament meeting, which means we will have to push back a few baptismal dates. I think once school starts again in June, things will settle down a little in this regard.
All in all, things are going well for the work here though. We continue to find a lot of investigators every week here, which is important, especially when people decide to stop listening to us. We found one other investigator that seems really interested. He is 18 years old, and believes strongly in the bible, but seems really open to new ideas (he also speaks a lot of Bikol, which makes it a struggle to understand him sometimes.) He told us that he is Catholic, but a lot of members of his family are Jehovah's Witnesses. He seems like someone , "who [is] only kept from the truth because [he] know[s] not where to find it" D&C 123:12 I think that he will serve a mission someday.
I think that is all for me for today. I hope my letters get there soon. I think there are about three of them. I think I will end with a little Tagalog testimony here.
Alam ko na totoo ang ebanghelyo, at ito ang nakakatulong sa ating lahat dito sa mundo para tayo ay maging masaya. Alam ko na sa pamamagitan ni JesuCristo, puwede tayong makabalik sa piling ng ating mapagmahal na Ama sa Langit.
I love you guys tons!
Elder Benjamin Merrill
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