Ohhh my! What a week indeed!
First and foremost, about the work: we have two families that we're focusing on hard. The Wakas family I mentioned in my update last week and my new possibly even more beloved family, the Uwi family! Quick update: the Wakas family is made up of two kids and their parents, all of whom are active and church going members except the father, John John, who's been taught by a lot of missionaries in the past and just hasn't committed yet. The Uwi family is also the bomb. Brother Carlos and Amelia Uwi are about 50, and their kids are mostly grown up and gone. Brother Wakas left for a job up in Baguio City, about an hour's bus ride from my area here, and he won't be back for a few more days, but we just had an amazing lesson with the Uwi family on Friday, and I really really really felt the Spirit, to the point where I feel like the questions Brother Uwi was asking were given to him by the Spirit!
"What is the name of the church Christ restored in these days?"
"How do we act on your message? What can we do?"
It was the best. Ever. We extended a baptismal invitation to them in that lesson for November 28th which they accepted! :D I don't want to be overly excited, but they are the first investigators I've had who have accepted a serious "I will commit to prepare myself" IBD since October... of last year! I am overjoyed. They committed to go to church and even asked that we come to pick them up on that Sunday morning because they didn't know exactly where it was (which in Filipino culture means that they really intend to do what they're talking about.) My companion and I were ecstatic!
... and then the typhoon hit! Typhoon hit! I've experience two typhoons and a monsoon in my mission so far, but this one was a monster. We haven't had power for days and lots of poor little Filipino families have had lots of things destroyed. The Uwi family weren't able to get to church and actually the only people that did were us six missionaries in Damorits branch, the branch mission leader who presided and two men from the Elder's quorum. The typhoon has mostly passed by now, but we actually had to bus from Agoo to San Fernando, a much bigger city, in order to email and buy groceries. They eye of the storm and some of the most powerful bands of the storm were reported, this morning, to be directly over the little town of Santiago Ilocos Sur, the little town I just came from. Please pray for those folks, they'll need it.
We're safe and mostly dry. I love everyone back home. Please pray for the Wakas and Uwi families!
"Keep practicing!"
Elder Mikesell III
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