Hello everyone well again what an amazing week. Its getting close to Halloween! Here on November 1st there is a holiday for the dead. I don't know if its just a Filipino thing or a Catholic thing but people buy heaps of candles and set them up on the road to light up the night when the spirits are out roaming around. Very interesting and people here are very very serious about it! There are things called aswangs here. Ha ha say that word out loud! Which is a scary white lady that flies around at night. Again people are very serious about it and will swear to you that they have seen them. The culture here is awesome and the way of life is so sweet and simple. I am amazed!
Alright so the conversion process continues with the families we are teaching. This week was a lot on giving them baptismal dates so that they know the end goal. We do it every second lesson and it helps really bring out their real concerns and makes every lesson after that have a purpose. Its really cool! Helps a lot! So ya they families that really accepted the challenge to get baptised were. Alifaro family and Mariavilla family(I will talk about him later) and the Bayson family. All amazing. Another favorite family of mine is the Buendia family. Probably the biggest challenge is getting a time where they are all together. Because we are trying something new that if they are not all complete we won't teach them for a few reasons. But it gives them the idea that we expect them all to be there when we teach. It also shows them that we are serious which in turn helps them become more serious about the restored gospel! Its cool!!!
So ya the Mariavilla family...The dad cut our hair about 5 weeks ago and then saw him in our area about 2 weeks ago. He is different. I guess you can say he has the "bad boy" look. He doesn't look like a great investigator but he has surprised us this week that's for sure! He is a great dad tho and has impressed me the way he treats his family and doesn't go out and drink every night and leaves his kids with his wife like I lot of dads do here. Well we have a great relationship with him and taught him lesson 1 and he said he wants to change. Well we didn't think much of it but knew the only thing that is going to help is if he really reads the Book of Mormon. So we came back for lesson two and he is a big joker but he got serious and said that his week has been different. He hasn't smoked his mind has been clear and has just seemed happier. So we were pretty excited still didn't know if he was joking or not but asked him how much he read. And he read a lot. Probably the coolest thing you see here is the change of a family from lesson 1 to lesson 2 IF they read. So cool!!!
Then the other picture was a big moment for us! I can't tell you how many times people say that we can visit them. But then the next day when we come they are busy or not home.There are just to nice to say no even if they really aren't interested about finding a new church. Anyway this week when we went to the appointment someone left us a note that said they had an emergency and would get back really late. And apologized for not being there. IT WAS HUGE! Such a nice note that felt amazing. I have never had that happen ever!!! It was a big deal!!!
We went on splits with two of the far zones which was awesome. Its such a fun drive. Driving here is really beautiful. No real rules but very few crashes. Organized chaos!!! It feels sometimes like a video game. Don't worry mom I wear my seat belt. And I put the sunflower seeds you sent to good use! So was able to see a few families in my first two areas which was also a sacred experience.
I am having so much fun and really just in love with this work right now. I know Heavenly Father has a plan better than mine and I trust in it!
I love you all so so much and miss you all!!
Love,
Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne
