Jafar's Counsel

"Patience, Iago, patience." If you know me well, you should know that I am an avid fan of Disney and although this quote was given by a villainous character, I think it's an aspect that Heavenly Father has wanted me to work on early in my mission-with the language, the culture, the work, my teachings, my companion-Everything. I wish that there was a magical way for me to be fluent in Tagalog but unfortunately that is not the case. As frustrated as I can sometimes get, I know that it is going to take a lot of diligence, patience, and time. I still can't really understand what people are saying, but on the bright side, as we are teaching, I am beginning to be able to introduce principles during our lessons, rather than just bear my testimony at the end of it.

 

We hadn't been having too much success in our work at the beginning. I just wish everyone could see the importance and beauty of our message that this gospel can share with them. However, like Kaseem when entering the Cave of Wonder, there will be some people that are not yet ready to accept what we have to offer. For those people, we must do what we can to plant the seed for them. And then as we press forward with faith and hard work, we will be able to find those Aladdins in our investigators. We will be able to find our diamonds in the rough. Angelo (13 years old) and Jessica (11) are two of the main investigators we have been working with and I have high hopes for them to be some of those diamonds. They are very bright and I think they are moving in the right direction towards becoming baptized. Both were able to attend church yesterday and we have taught multiple lessons to them.

 

Just a quick update in regards to last weeks email: American Songs of the Week-Shots (turn up?), Roar, and Wrecking Ball (I was kind of surprised because if I remember correctly these were only starting to get popular as I was leaving). The record for passengers in the taxi-van (which is probably a little smaller than the size of the one Sawyer drove) is now 22. That is going to be tough to beat.
 

Before I close, we have another segment on Stories With Drunk People. So the other day we were walking along the road and we pass by this big birthday party going on in someone's front yard. As we approach, they insist on having us join them and us sitting down to eat. They were going super hard on the karaoke machine and as it turns out, most of them were drinking beer, but the food was great and it was a good time haha.

 

I have only scripture referenced from Jafar thusfar so if you want a scripture about patience from the Book of Mormon, Alma 34:40-41 should do the trick. But going along with this week's theme of Disney--If you go look up the lyrics of 'Go The Distance' and think of it from the perspective of a missionary, it's really pretty incredible. Well that's it for this week! Ingit ka mga kaibigan ko!