Thursday, December 9, 2010

Not Dependent on Outcomes.

Dear Mom,
This week has been crazy! It's felt like forever since I was able to write even though it's only been an extra two days. Anyway, not time to waste on fluff, let's get to it!

Had some funny experiences this past week. One of the people we're teaching's kid threw up on me after a lesson which was not very pleasant. All I could do was laugh and rush home and change. Luckily we have a person that comes to wash our clothes so I won't have to deal with that and she does a really good job. I also had some people come up to me while tracting the other day and ask for my autograph because they thought I was some Filipino superstar named "Jericho Rosales." Funny right?

Anyway, my week was well, long. It started with a slightly depressing note being at church. This past Sunday was pretty rough not seeing any of the people we are teaching come to church. I felt like somehow I was doing my best but still failing. It's not exactly like school where you put all you get and you get the satisfaction of having a good grade. It's hard, and all I could think of was all what I was doing wrong that I could fix.

In those times, I've found it's good to just remember the blessings. We had some great things happen this week too. On Monday we had the Pation family put together a family home evening to show the Aoalin family how to hold one. They put together great games and a great lesson. Somehow I seemed to lose at all the games though and ended up having to sing for everyone which was pretty embarassing. Maria's baptism was also this past Saturday which was a great blessing to see. To see all she's gone through and finally get to the finish was such a beautiful thing especially to see her father be able to baptize her. She's special to me because their family is also from Ilocos and she was the first lesson I ever taught here. Her mom made me karioka that night in thanks because she knows it's my favorite. It was really good and I couldn't have been more happier.

We also had an experience with a drunk, high, tattoo'd guy the other day. Here we are trying so hard to find people and this guy found us. We were walking and he saw us while he was on the trike and got off because he knew we could help him. He said he wanted to turn his life around so we couldn't complain. We'll be meeting with him and I'm excited to watch the gospel change his life and have him come back to where he needs to be. It reminded me of an experience Brother Doria in the MTC had teaching a drunk guy and then having him end up be one of his strongest converts.

One of the things that I just had to remember was something we learned at zone conference this past week. Sister Jafek gave a great lesson about conversion. She said as she was looking at our shoes outside the mission home, all she could think of was all the doors we've stood in front of and miles we've walked only to convert no one. We don't convert anyone, the Spirit does. We don't force anyone, the people have the choice and they choose. We just help and do the best we can.

I realized that all I can do is have faith. I heard a great story about a family who lost a loved one but said, "Our faith is in Jesus Christ, and is not dependent on outcomes." I knew that's what I had to realize and do. And when a member saw that we helped a couple new people come to church this past week, he put his arm around me and said quietly into my ear, "Good work Elder."

The worth of every soul is great in His eyes. This is truly a dream job.

Love,
Elder Corpuz