Week 55: Fishbowl Fun with Fellowshippers in Malayo

Hello to all of you from across the globe. This is the Elder Menzie, back with another ~quality~ update on the life of being a crazy person teaching Jesus for 2 years in the Philippines. It was a pretty good week.

This week we worked with members a lot, which was pretty surprising, because we haven't really had a lot of that in this area. it was great though. They're all really cool, and are getting ready for their own missions.

That's right, the fisheye is back.

I didn't write about this when it happened, but a few weeks ago, their mom got up and bore her testimony in sacrament meeting. She was talking about how she had always wanted her sons to serve missions, but they didn't seem all that interested, and she didn't want to force them. Then, after a youth activity about missionary work or something, one of her sons just came up to her and said he wants to serve a mission. The joy I saw in the eyes of this mother as she was trying to express the joy she felt of having a missionary son in the future just hit me hard. I'm so glad I've got the opportunity to help them prepare in some small way for full time missionary service.

With one of these good bois, I went to a far part of my area, called Malayo, and if you speak Tagalog, that's pretty funny.

Malayo's pretty.

This week we also had Zone Conference with President and Sister Craig, which was great. I conducted the meeting, and I think that that's probably gonna be the last time I'm given responsibility for a while. I'm just kidding it was fine. We had a testimony meeting at the end, and it was one of those "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." (1Nephi 4:7) moments and testified of the Eternal Love that Christ has for us, and the hope that gives me for blessings in this life and the life to come. I feel like hope is something like a feeling that we get because of the faith we have. For me it's closely related to the comfort the Holy Spirit brings, and is probably the most basic evidence of the substance of our faith.

My hope in Christ's love and the blessings from it has grown astronomically in my year, which I am so grateful for.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Tagalog in-line:
Malayo -- Far

Picture:
Us and Sister Divina Viernes (she's a cool person we're teaching)

Week 54: Staccato, or the Blind Leading the Blind

Hello folks! How're y'all doing? That's great! I'm doing pretty good. Still doing the missionary thang. Y'know.

This Sunday, we had choir practice, because we've got a district conference coming up, and they wanted to have a youth choir, but the youth didn't have enough gusto in their souls, so they roped some missionaries into helping out, and like I said before, I am one of those, so I'm in the choir.

In said choir, we're singing Battle Hymn of the Republic and I Know That My Redeemer Lives, so I was pretty optimistic, because those are great songs! And then, the choir director started to *direct* us. For the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the young men/Elders sing the first verse in STACCATO. That's Italian for "as you're singing, you divide each syllable with a 'HUH' " that's not actually what staccato means, but that's how we sang the first verse, and also how we sang the first half of the 4th verse of I Know That My Redeemer Lives. It's great. I'll take a video when we finally perform it, so get excited for that.

Aside from choir antics, this week we were able to teach the Valdez Family. They're super cool. They live back a little ways off the road, so we have to take a cool footpath to get to them:

Don't worry, it's marginally easier to see the path in person.

The Valdez family is really cool though. they were super welcoming to us and seem to be pretty accepting of the gospel. Their family is really big, but most of the older kids have moved out, but Sister Valdez doesn't really seem to mind that much. she's got her hands full with the kiddos she's still got at home.

Hope your week is just as staccato as mine was!

Love,

Elder Menzie

Tagalog for my Mom:

Pagibig sa tahanan -- Love at Home

Pictures for Everyone Else:

Picture 1: I found out my camera has a fisheye function

Picture 2: After choir practice