Change is Good

The highlight of the week: New companion.  Pretty crazy, this companion exchanged marked the end of my training.  I am now a regular missionary. Yay. My new companion is great.  His name is Elder Clarito.  He's from the Philippines and has only been on his mission for one transfer longer than I have.  We've already become great friends.  One of the first things he told me was that he liked The Maine.  Instant friendship.  I can look past all other hardships or oddities if we have the same taste in music. He's nineteen years old, has one older sister and likes to play the guitar.  I think it will be a good companionship.

We're in a little bit of an investigator drought right now. Cabar is one of the most difficult areas to find new investigators because the houses are extremely far apart. Nearly everyone has already had the opportunity to hear the gospel and don't want to listen again, or they're Muslim.  Since Sister Gaira and the Amit family have both been baptized we only have a few progressing investigators. (I use the term progressing very lightly). We've been trying to find this week but haven't had too much luck. We had an interesting experience yesterday while trying to tract.  We saw some people in the distance working outside of their houses so we began walking toward them.  When they saw us, tumakbo sila. They ran. hahah It wasn't like a sprint but they gathered their children and began briskly walking in the opposite direction hahah we preceded to the next few houses but no one was home.  We finally made it over a hill to find a congregation of a few people.  When they saw us coming, they again gathered their children and began walking in the opposite direction. I guess they're not too fond of the missionaries. 

I'm going to end this email with a scripture that has been one of my favorites out here in the field. D&C 123:17. "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." I love this scripture.  It defines exactly how we should live our lives. One of my favorite words in the verse is "cheerfully". Not only do we have to do everything that we possible can, we have to do it cheerfully.  It's one thing to act because we have to, it's a completely different thing to act because we want to and then do it with a good attitude. Then, after we have done all that we can do, "we can stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." The lord promises us that after we have done all that we can do, he will help us. When I read this verse I imagine myself "standing still" because I’m too exhausted to do anything else.  At the end of each day, I want to fall onto my rock solid bed, energy completely depleted and be able to look back and say "I did absolutely everything that I could possibly do today." Then, and only then, will we see the arm of the lord in all that we do. I know that the lord is with us every step of the way. He walks beside us, bearing us up when we are too weak to walk, and then carries us when we're too weak to stand. I've definitely learned that this is the Lord’s work and it will be done in his way. He leads us and guides us everyday.  I love missionary work and I look forward to the next 19 months.