It has been a wonderful week in the Philippines! We are seeing miracles occur with our people, I'm finally not totally clueless with what people are saying to me, the sun is shining, and our Nanay (very friendly landlady) gave us ice cream last night! What could be better?! I guess there have been challenges too...but I'm excited for the way things are progressing, and looking forward to things to come. (Especially if there's more ice cream involved. :)
One of our investigators, Marianne, has been meeting with missionaries for some time now. For the past several weeks, she has been kind of skeptical of the whole message of the Restoration of the Gospel. She's a very intelligent woman and has many beliefs shaped by her past experiences. However, she (thankfully) been reading the "Book of the Mormons" (her words, not mine) and praying about it too. After weeks of meeting and wondering if she would progress, she finally received a strong witness through the Spirit that the book is true! What a miracle! Despite her many doubts and skepticism, the Holy Ghost softened her heart, and she sincerely wants to come unto Christ. This resulted in her attending church yesterday with us, and the ward members were amazingly inviting and friendly towards her. Hooray! Hopefully she will continue to learn and keep commitments so she can receive the blessings of baptism.
Of course, I'd heard many stories like the one above before, but up until this point in my mission, I had never had anything even close to that happen with one of my own people. It was a firm testimony to me that the promise in the Book of Mormon is true: anyone who reads and prays with faith, desiring to sincerely know will have the truth confirmed. Elder Garcia and I had another similar experience a few days ago as we taught a Sister named Shiena. After explaining Joseph Smith's First Vision to her, she told us she was quite skeptical of the whole story. We agreed that it was kind of a wild story, but we then shared both of our testimonies with her, and Shiena responded by saying that she felt like someone was holding her comfortingly. 8I Not what we were expecting to hear, but definitely what we had been hoping to hear the 50 other times we had taught the same basic lesson and shared our testimonies. Proof once again the the Spirit is real and that people prepared to receive the Restored Gospel do exist!
I am so grateful for these miracles, and the many others that occur regularly. Even if it seems sometimes like heaven is closed and God is far from us, my testimony is that He is ever watchful over us and will bless us greatly if we are faithful to Him. Persistence in doing what is right always calls down blessings from above. The Lord is with those who are trying to follow Him.
Many thanks for all that each of you has done for me! I hope that your coming week is wonderful, marvelous, and full of many tasty things (which I will just have to dream about eating in roughly 19 months :P). Take care!
Love, Elder Dickison
1) Elder Garcia and Elder Dickison taking a selfie break in heaven
2) The proper appearance of a properly organized missionary desk
3) A gigantic gap where there should be a bridge
4) The backup bridge. :)
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