Well last week was Election day, so the people here have been pretty politically excited here. It's funny how the politics work here. In every city here in the Philippines, there are areas within the cities called Barangays. In every Barangay, there is a leader, the Kapitan, and other leaders of smaller ranks, Kagawads. Every 3 years they have elections for all these positions, and last Monday was the election day. Before election day people print out pictures of the person they want to win, and they place them all around the Barangay, anywhere. On trees, buildings, tricycles, pretty much anywhere you walk you will see one. And then these people running for these position will go house to house in that Barangay and talk to every single person about voting for them. So we saw a lot of that the last week. And then on Tuesday when there was a winner, he held a huge party at his house and everybody could go and eat with him. So we stopped by :)
(from last week, but now we understand what it is)
Besides that, this week consisted of not much but working with Less Actives. Us four elders got together and wrote down every single less active in the Santa Ana Branch, there's about 350, and made a plan to go find and visit them all. Some of these visits are so sad when they tell us they don't have any interest in coming back to church. Most of them say that they are too busy because they are a fisherman. Others say that they are too busy working at the Casino. Some just say that they are straight up lazy and have no desire to go to church. The great, exciting part of working with less actives is when you find the ones that have just been waiting for somebody to invite them to come back. There have been so many people that I have seen active in the church back in the day, then go less active and their life just goes downhill. Makes me more and more understand the importance of the Gospel.
Elders Jenkins & Abarabar with a couple from the Santa Ana Branch
On Saturday, we had a big young men/young women mutual activity at a place called Dumasag. We piled into the van of one of the members (we fit 18) and headed up a bumpy, dirt road up through the mountain. After about a 20 minute drive, we had arrived at a nice, quiet place up next to a river. We had a nice little program and the kids had a fun time swimming and bonding with the other ym/ym.
Well, church wasn't as successful as it was last week. A lot of the Less Actives we worked with showed up, but the problem was a lot of the people that regularly come to church didn't show up. Sundays are emotional rollercoasters. I see a less active or two walk in to Sacrament Meeting, which just makes me so happy, but then one of the speakers doesn't show up, which disappoints. Sometimes I wanna jump on the roof because of happiness and excitement, and other times I wanna just go sit in my office and shed a few tears. Nothing has ever made me learn or grow more than the things that I face here in Santa Ana. The Lord has always been there every step of the way, guiding me and picking me up when I'm feeling down. I am so thankful for the love that He has for me and the motivation He gives me every single day. I could never turn away from the great plan that He has for me.
Love you all, talk to ya next week!
-Elder Jenkins
Your work with inactives will pay off for that area long after you've come home! Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteYour work with inactives will pay off for that area long after you've come home! Keep it up.
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