The end is near

Hello family. Sorry my email is late today. We just came from getting X-rays. All of the missionaries that go home in July had to go get x-rays.  I think it’s for TB or something. But it was in Manila so we are all kind of exhausted. But it was fun to see all of my 'batch' and catch up on what is happening to them.  Missionaries are crazy when they get together haha. And loud.  But it makes things fun.  

   So this week was a little bit on the downward slide when you compare it to my last few weeks. But it wasn’t an awful week.  So you all remember our investigator that read and came to church and made us all so excited.  Well this week we taught the word of wisdom and were super energetic and tried to help him find a way to overcome his struggles.  Well the next thing you know he is avoiding us and stopped reading and didn’t come to church.  He said we are forcing him to change things that he has done all his life and he doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore.  So that was a little bit...no a lot rough. But we’re definitely not giving up on him. Because his wife told us that he is still praying. So that means there is still hope. But I think we’re just going to go back to basics.  Yeah buddy. The joys of missionary work! 

On the good news...one of the tatays we are teaching came to church!!   He came even though his family wasn’t able to. It was super exciting because he’s not one to go to church too much. But he has been really open every time we have taught him. And he asks so many questions.  So that was defiantly a highlight of the week. 

What else happened?  Not much. We went to the beach to celebrate my companions 1 year mark. We just watched the sunset. So that was fun.

We walked and walked and walked some more. And I’m trying to work on my patience for other people. It was so crazy hot this week and most people weren’t there, were sleeping, or sent us away because they were busy/tired.  It would have been so easy to just tell them what you are really thinking. Believe me. I wanted to.  But that won’t help things at all. That won’t make it less hot and it won’t make them want to let you in any more.  So basically you just have to remember that no matter what they say or do, they are all still children of God and they have their choices and we have to love them. :) All you need is Love haha. 

We were walking and trying to find people to teach and there was no one. So we decided to say a prayer. So we stopped at a quiet spot and prayed to know where to go.  And that’s the moment that you would expect me to write that a miracle happened. Well one did but not in the way you would think. The miracle that happened is that we were given new energy to keep walking and keep talking to people. We didn’t find anyone but that doesn’t matter. Miracles are miracles no matter how small.

Alrighty everyone. Have a great week.  Don’t have too much fun haha. Enjoy your air conditioning. I would kill for one right now. 

Talk to you next week!

-Sister Van Tassell