Dear Family and Friends:
This week was really uneventful. We have about 5 investigators total, and many of them keep punting us whenever we try to go and teach them. So we had very few lessons this week. In addition to that, our members are also punting us and not keeping their commitments to help us in finding new investigators. And of the investigators we do have, we have actually planned to drop three of them this week because they are not coming to church.
We think the Puas are actually just missionary converts. And that's a sad thing when that happens because they seem to be doing well as they are reading the Book of Mormon and praying and Papa Pua has stopped drinking. But besides that, they only agree with us because they love us and like having us around. So we are going to have to "ITM" them, which stands for "Inspired Teaching Method". This is where we basically go in without really a lesson plan and we just follow the Spirit to ask questions to determine where they are at. It's a cool experience because every time we do it my companion and I get the exact same impressions, but it's also sad when it results in dropping them. I fear that's what we may have to do with these people.
Sometimes my companion and I decide to get creative when we go out to talk to people on the street. We've used a few methods to introduce people to the gospel, and this week we decide to go ball gown shopping. So I would go in and act like I am looking for a dress for some event. And then while I'm trying it on, my companion talks to the dress lady who owns the shop. I think the dress part might have been more fun if they had normal-size-dresses and not just Filipino-size-dresses, but of course that's not the real reason for our visit. Sometimes even missionaries get bored and we have to give ourselves a little break from the norm.
It actually feels like a huge task here in our area. I feel like someone just butchered an elephant and told me I have to eat the whole thing before I'm allowed to get down from the table. And that makes me feel like I wanna just go home sometimes. It doesn't help that my companion has only 3 months left either and she keeps talking about going home because she actually is soon. I'm just waiting for the trunky-ness to go away. I know it will if I can just hold out.
So we had what the Filipinos call a "brownout" last night, which is just what we would call a blackout back home. I don't know why they think their darkness is color brown because it still looks black to me. ;) Anyways, we had to get the candles out and light up the whole house. It was really cool looking actually to have candles everywhere. I let my companion know that it would be a lot more romantic if she was a boy. But thankfully I have a little over a year before I actually have to be thinking about that.
It was also a really uncomfortable night sleeping because we didn't have our fans working (I mean electric fans, not the hordes of little brown people following me because I'm white). But see, I know that God loves us because it rained this morning and might rain more today. Pray for our rain so that we don't have to slowly cook to death while we wait for the electricity to come back on.
Anyways, if you could pray for us to be able to find people and to also inspire our members to some sort of helpfulness that would be great. I really am thankful for all of these opportunities I have to grow and to more fully rely on the Lord. Pretty soon I am going to be relying on Him so heavily that He's gonna have to start pushing me in a spiritual wheelchair. Which I'm totally okay with:)
~Sister Lefebvre
This week was really uneventful. We have about 5 investigators total, and many of them keep punting us whenever we try to go and teach them. So we had very few lessons this week. In addition to that, our members are also punting us and not keeping their commitments to help us in finding new investigators. And of the investigators we do have, we have actually planned to drop three of them this week because they are not coming to church.
We think the Puas are actually just missionary converts. And that's a sad thing when that happens because they seem to be doing well as they are reading the Book of Mormon and praying and Papa Pua has stopped drinking. But besides that, they only agree with us because they love us and like having us around. So we are going to have to "ITM" them, which stands for "Inspired Teaching Method". This is where we basically go in without really a lesson plan and we just follow the Spirit to ask questions to determine where they are at. It's a cool experience because every time we do it my companion and I get the exact same impressions, but it's also sad when it results in dropping them. I fear that's what we may have to do with these people.
Sometimes my companion and I decide to get creative when we go out to talk to people on the street. We've used a few methods to introduce people to the gospel, and this week we decide to go ball gown shopping. So I would go in and act like I am looking for a dress for some event. And then while I'm trying it on, my companion talks to the dress lady who owns the shop. I think the dress part might have been more fun if they had normal-size-dresses and not just Filipino-size-dresses, but of course that's not the real reason for our visit. Sometimes even missionaries get bored and we have to give ourselves a little break from the norm.
It actually feels like a huge task here in our area. I feel like someone just butchered an elephant and told me I have to eat the whole thing before I'm allowed to get down from the table. And that makes me feel like I wanna just go home sometimes. It doesn't help that my companion has only 3 months left either and she keeps talking about going home because she actually is soon. I'm just waiting for the trunky-ness to go away. I know it will if I can just hold out.
So we had what the Filipinos call a "brownout" last night, which is just what we would call a blackout back home. I don't know why they think their darkness is color brown because it still looks black to me. ;) Anyways, we had to get the candles out and light up the whole house. It was really cool looking actually to have candles everywhere. I let my companion know that it would be a lot more romantic if she was a boy. But thankfully I have a little over a year before I actually have to be thinking about that.
It was also a really uncomfortable night sleeping because we didn't have our fans working (I mean electric fans, not the hordes of little brown people following me because I'm white). But see, I know that God loves us because it rained this morning and might rain more today. Pray for our rain so that we don't have to slowly cook to death while we wait for the electricity to come back on.
Anyways, if you could pray for us to be able to find people and to also inspire our members to some sort of helpfulness that would be great. I really am thankful for all of these opportunities I have to grow and to more fully rely on the Lord. Pretty soon I am going to be relying on Him so heavily that He's gonna have to start pushing me in a spiritual wheelchair. Which I'm totally okay with:)
~Sister Lefebvre