The past week has been good, though challenging at times. As Elder Torsak and I continue to sort through the information given to us when we arrived, we have had to drop (for one reason or another) almost all of the people who were investigators before we arrived. This means we've been doing a lot of finding among part member families in the ward and on the streets. Thankfully I can talk to people on the streets without too much problem, though I do wish my vocab was larger so I don't feel like I'm repeating myself over and over again so much.
Elder Torsak is really learning pretty fast, which I'm grateful for. I'm trying to teach him about the culture, language, and the gospel as fast as I can, but of course I'm not a Filipino or a Seminary teacher. :P Thankfully he really is willing to work hard and be obedient, so I'm very grateful for that. Elder Torsak is a good guy and missionary, and we really get along quite well. He likes basketball (he's so tall I can't even block him when we play on P-days), listening to music (including some of the same "epic" music that I like to listen to) and spending time with friends.
I personally am holding up pretty well considering all the random challenges and stressors that have showed up. Another one of the Lord's many blessings. I definitely won't say that I wanted to whitewash a struggling area with very few active members and train a brand new non-Filipino missionary all at the same time...but I just keep focusing on all the counteracting blessings. :)
Thankfully, we've had some good progress made in our area, despite the difficulties. We went into a lesson with one of our new people (Estalin) ready to teach a short lesson about the Book of Mormon. After starting the lesson, he started bombarding us with questions about Joseph Smith seeing aliens, plural marriage and whether or not children can sin. Needless to say I starting praying really hard interally to not say anything stupid and know how best to answer Brother Estalin's concerns (the internet can be a dangerous place to get information :P). Putting my old scripture chase skills to use, I was then able to hunt down a scripture in the Book of Mormon to answer every one of Estalin's questions, effectively keeping focused on the Book of Mormon while still letting Estalin's needs guide the lesson. It was kind of a crazy experience, but I felt incredibly blessed to know what to do. God truly is aware of our needs in every moment and will give us what we need if we ask sincerely.
In the semi-crazy-Philippines story category, this week's experience comes from Elder Cuaco and Elder Van Drimmelen (our apartment mates). Shortly after finishing a lesson last night, the two Elder had only walked for about ten seconds before they were ambushed by two gigantic dogs who apparently wanted to eat them. In an epic missionary moment, Elder Van Drimmelen started dueling one of the dogs with Ang Aklat ni Mormon and a pamphlet, while Elder Cuaco grabbed an orange out of his bag and nailed the other dog directly in the face with it, causing a very juicy explosion. After jumping into the road (and traffic) to try and escape the dogs, their attackers finally decided missionary steak wasn't worth it and left. Never a boring day here. :P
Anyways, thank you so much for you letters and prayers! Please remember I am praying for you every day! I love you all so much! Please take care of yourselves!
Love, Elder (Joshua) Dickison
Pictures this Week:
1) A very steep hill we climb up three times a week
2) A very large rat drinking out of what appears to be a rat-feeding-bowl
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