What a wonderful week to be sharing the gospel! Definitely not an easy one, but doing the work of the Lord was never meant to be easy. Elder Anderson and I have had some great opportunities to teach the gospel, and great opportunities to be punted (have our appointments fall through) many times as well. But in spite of not being able to teach as many lessons as we wanted, I have felt the Lord trying to teach me further patience and persistence, especially when it comes to working with people.
We have a two separate families we are working with (the Oller's and the Eisma's), each with three kids, all of whom are ready to be baptized. However, due to situations with their parents, none of them yet have permission for baptism. This is somewhat frustrating as a missionary, being so close to something wonderful and yet feeling stuck. This past Friday as we were visiting the Eisma's, I had an idea pop into my head that we should have the children teach us a lesson instead of the other way around. While this was a slight divergence from our normal plans, Elder Anderson ran with it, and we were both impressed my the Eisma children's knowledge of and excitement to teach about the gospel. Truly the light of that message has influenced them profoundly and they know it is true, despite the current delay in their baptism. The Spirit I felt during that lesson stands as a testimony to me that the Lord is truly mindful of us all, despite the frustrating and trying circumstances that we all face. If we turn to Him and have patience in His timing, everything will work out for the best.
Okay...random story time. On Wednesday we decided that we were going to go and visit a man that Elder Anderson had met on the beach before I arrived in Agoo. This man had told Elder Anderson to come back and teach him, so we figured we better follow through. As we walked down the beach to find this man, we just kept trekking further and further away from civilization into abandoned coastline until I realized we were in the very far reaches of our area. Then we ran into a stream running in from the ocean...and stopped. Neither of us really wanted to jump right in since wet, sandy shoes are a bit nasty to walk in...but we didn't know what else to do. Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea, "Let's build a bridge to get across!"
For reasons unknown to me, Elder Anderson answered "Okay, let's do it!" So we dragged/pulled/pushed a huge pile of rocks and fallen branches over to the edge of this stream and started building a bridge. By throwing all of the branches and rocks into the stream. Ya...didn't work out so well. So, we resorted to plan B: taking off our socks and shoes and walking carefully barefoot. This plan actually worked...but we looked completely ridiculous in the process. We could only conclude that we looked like the lost boys from Peter Pan in their British getups walking around on the beach....
Anyways, we trekked even further down the beach until we saw smoke spewing into the sky and discovered...not native Filipinos dancing around a fire in warrior outfits...but a gigantic vacation resort. Go figure. Turns out the "Beach Man" is actually a worker at this resort and he and his fellow maintenance worker were cleaning it up after the Typhoon last week by burning everything that had blown into the premises. We actually were able to sit down and teach them about the Restoration (despite a group of very large turkeys running around us squawking) and they told us to come back and teach them more. Blessings from above. :)
On our return trip, I followed Elder Anderson through the water and somehow managed to step on some very sharp rocks that he completely avoided (despite the fact that we both walked along the exact same path) and I ended up with a wounded foot. Good adventures. While I was fixing the wound, Elder Anderson found two massive shells which turned out to be pretty good picture props. (See below). All in all, it was one of those days where you look back at and wonder what in the world you were doing, but smile at the memory of it nonetheless. :)
Well, I think that's quite enough of my story telling, so please take care and know that my prayers are with you! Have a wonderful week!
Love, Elder Dickison
Pictures:
1) Pine trees actually exist in the Philippines!
2) Elder Anderson is a Lost Boy
3) Elder Dickison is Peter Pan
4) Blowing our shell-trumpets...because we can!
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