Bugs and Boldness

Question: We haven't heard much about the bugs, are they big?

the bugs... yes they are big and all over the place and seem to be attracted to me all the time! i have grasshoppers who seem to just land on me and cockroaches that ran across my legs when i am in bed. We also have lizards that run all over the house. I catch them and make them my pets. I found out people are scared of them around here mainly children. So when i am tired of them (children) jumping all over me i catch one and its like anti-child! hahahahaha

Question: How are your sinuses?

my sinuses are fine just the normal allergies i believe.

Question: Do you still have Family Home Evening, like in Jaen?

hahahaha yeah we have fhe but no punishment of the marking on the face. normally they just do a silly act or something.... its not as fun... :/

Question: How is your tagalog?

for the first time ever i was told my tagalog is too direct (which means bold around here) Well i was sharing a scriptural thought to less actives in our zone leader's area (exchanges) and i shared the end of the Story of Abinadi. How King Noah was telling him to take back everything he has said or lose his life. I connected this to how we need to have a strong testimony and faith in the Lord. Also that the Lord is not asking us to just offer our lives to him but something even less important, our time (

cause time is way less important than our lives)

. Through reading, praying, going to church, and service we can give our time to the Lord. After the lesson you could see that they were slightly guilty for not giving their time to the Lord and the husband smiled and said basically "Your tagalog is better then it was last time!" The Wife chimed in and said it was too direct. Afterwards i thought, you know when you shared a story like Abinadi and how he sacrificed his life by being captured just to teach the people, then sealed his testimony with his blood for all eternity... it's kinda hard not to be bold... hahahahaha I just figure when people tell you that your Tagalog is too direct... it just means that they are feeling guilty because what you shared relates to what they have or haven't been doing.

By the way i am not anywhere CLOSE to fluent... but i try my best.

so in our email from President to all the missionaries was a Picture attached to the email:

That is the elder who replaced me in Jaen and Elder Manguiat (former companion) sitting on the ground, with the following message:

"The Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) comes to mind as I think of each of you in your fields of labor. The seeds that you sow sometimes “fall by the wayside” and those investigators hear and “then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts” and they hide the next time you come to teach them. Some seeds “fall upon a rock”. They are the investigators that hear and receive the word with joy and seem to believe but have no moisture and in times of temptation wither away. Other seeds that you sow “fall among thorns” and after they have heard and accept, go forth and are choked with the cares and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. The seeds we pray for and work so hard for are those that “fall on good ground” and bare fruit; those with honest and good hearts, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth the fruit with patience. Our call is to invite all to come unto Christ with love and hope that they may accept and bring forth fruit. Your joy will be full as you continue to love and lose yourself in finding, teaching and baptizing investigators. This picture of Elder Deppermann and Elder Manguiat tells the story of sadly waiting for the investigators that never came to church."

Yeah i got to talk to them at Missionary Zone Conference and they havent had investigators come to church since a month before i left so almost 4 months now no investigators. Man i want to go back to that area later on in my mission. There is so much potential there you just kinda have to be a bit pushy with the people hahahaha. That is Elder Deppermann's first area as well and when i see him at Conference he always tells me, "There is the Legendary Elder Grow! Boy do people talk about you in Jaen." I dont know what it is they say exactly.. maybe its something like, "Well that Elder Grow had some poor Tagalog!" hahaha i dont know what they say but knowing that i left my mark in that area always makes me feel like i did my best in the area. I did my part in planting and serving and I just hope someone will find those seeds and finish the work.

Well i have my hands full with this area as it is! Our Branch president has moved and just kinda said, "well sorry but i have moved and i hope things turn out for you all." So we don't know what to do about all this but its not exactly in our 'job description'. That's what President Puzey has told us. We are told that President is going to come to our area and check out how things are and what needs to be done. Oh yeah he doesnt speak Tagalog so that is always fun... hahahhaa He goes out and works whenever he can with his missionaries. By the way he is like 6'3 ft so he sticks out more then me around here! hahahaha

oh yeah, we still get the nightly thunder and lightning and rain! and the baptism for July 3 is on schedule so far