Dear Family,
It rained for 4 days straight this week. Our clothes, washed on Tuesday, are still damp, and my shoes are growing mold even after sitting in front of our electric fan for 3 days straight. The temperature dropped to around 27 degrees, and with our fan on inside, it was around 25. All of the rubber boots here are too small, and I could only avoid the ever-growing lakes in the roads for the first day or two. I've never seen rain like this before. I've never been so happy to see that blazing Philippines sun as I was when the clouds broke Sunday morning.
Swine flu was all investigators talked about for a while. Someone bore a testimony about it yesterday. Nate! Careful! I thought it might be something like Pasma at first (a disease that only exists here, supposed to be caused from rapid changes in body temperature -- ie: if you work out in the morning and get all sweaty, then take a cold shower right away, it'll weaken your immune system and you'll develop "pasma". The symptoms range from cold-like to mental trauma. Beats me, sounds like everyone in Utah should have it) There are a lot of things like that here. Most people believe that "cold" causes "colds". Cold is just that rare, though. Getting wet in the rain causes head-aches and weakens your immune system. When in Rome. . . .
About Kent, that's amazing!!! Wish him the best from me, my companion and I are in awe right now about Elder Holland marrying them. Danielle? She's amazing at the piano, and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Wow, Matt and Alex's farewells are so close! Seriously, I wrote Matt a letter -- tell him he'd better get started writing.
And about letters, I just found out where the post-office is around here, and all the letters I wrote a month ago -- family, great-grandma Peck, Smiths, and more, will go out next week for sure. I'm sorry it's taking so long, it's impossible to get letters out here.
Tomorrow we have a devotional with Elder Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy. The entire mission is gathering, it's a big deal and we're all excited. Zone Conference was inspiring this week, I love the Puzeys. They talked about giving our love to everyone like Christ does for us, and Sister Puzey talked about "life's extras" and God's love for us.
Two weeks ago, President Puzey surprised us by showing up at our house for Companionship study. Elder Gumiran was on a split in Conception for an interview, and I was with another Elder that's only been out 3 months longer than me. We heard the gate squeak and all of a sudden, there was President Puzey's smiling face peeking through the window at us. I about had a heart-attack, and frantically exchanged my flip-flops for shoes, tightened up my tie and straightened my hair. Thankfully, I'd swept up the place earlier. He brought muffins, and we studied with him. He read us a verse in Acts about the Apostles that were rebuked, despised, imprisoned, beaten, and still rejoiced that they were worthy to suffer for Christ. Before he left, he gave me a package from headquarters along with a hug. As I nervously opened it, I was surprised to find piano teaching materials. Sister Puzey had mentioned piano teaching a few weeks ago, but I never thought . . . I mean, this is Tagalog we're talking about! It'll be quite the adventure, I have no instructions except "put it to good use". I'll keep you updated.
This week, when we weren't slogging through mud and over-flowing sewer water, we did missionary work. And it was great this week. We had to drop a lot of investigators that we've been visiting for a long time, which is a heart-ache. We spend so much time praying and planning for these people, it hurts when they don't progress. We've been blessed with a lot of new investigators.
Last night, one such investigator stopped us near the end of our lesson about the Book of Mormon and asked "are you happy right now?" The question startled me. "I mean, are you happier than you were before you were Mormon? Because, I'm not happy with my life right now. I've got doubts about my religion, and I feel like something is missing."
It was amazing! Elder Gumiran related his conversion experience at age 17, it was the first time I'd heard it. I related how I'd come to know the truth for myself.
After we bore testimony and talked about some more of our beliefs, she asked about where we go after we die. "So, after we die, our spirits leave our bodies, right? And then they either go to Heaven or Hell, right? But Christ, he's got a body, because He was resurrected. I'm confused about that." She later asked if we believed in never-ending happiness after death, and said that's what she wanted, but was confused about how it was all going to happen, and what did she need to do to get there?
Needless to say, we're excited to teach The Plan of Salvation tomorrow evening. She offered a beautiful prayer last night, and she's already been reading in the Book of Mormon. We'll be giving her a tour of the Chapel on Friday. It's things like these that make everything worth it.
I love you all, and by the way, thanks, Landon for the picture! I love it! It's on my desk right now. Sarah, for Elder Gumiran's "year out" 5-minute party today, we're determined to find ice cream. The most common flavors here are Vanilla, Ube (a purple sweet potato), and Cheese. Aside from that, there's Lychee and a multitude of other wild flavors.
Thanks so much for everything. This week has been amazing! Love you all --
Elder Loren Peck
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