Magandang araw sa inyong lahat!
So, my Mom was kind enough to inform me that my emails have been quite repetitive and frankly boring, so I'm going to try and make this email better than my past emails.
First off, this week went pretty well. Elder Madsen and I are having a great time together. We noticed that the work was getting a little stagnant, so we decided to pray to better understand for ourselves who of those in our area are ready to accept the gospel, and not just nice people who like to be taught (There are a great number of people like that here in the Philippines). After some sincere companionship prayers, Elder Madsen and I felt that we understood who we needed to visit this week and also what we should do for our finding tactics.
A problem here in the Philppines is you can gain a lot of "new investigators" just by tracting and street contacting, but only about 2% of all those who are found end up actually progressing, and both me and my companion feel like it's an inefficient use of time to teach those who really have no interest in the message, but want two white guys to speak Tagalog to them. To come to understand how to overcome this problem, Elder Madsen and I discussed some possible finding strategies we could do, but none of them really felt right. Thankfully, a member became the answer to our prayers when she mentioned to us that she really wants to visit all of the less-actives in her neighborhood and help them come back to church. She gave us many names and many of them are less-active member families who have unbaptized children, creating a great opportunity for us to help strengthen the branch here through reactivation and baptizing members of the rising generation into a newly reactivated family. So far, we were able to contact and start to reactivate one of the less-active families mentioned by the members, who do have some unbaptized family members as well. We are expecting some more progress to happen this week.
Elder Madsen mentioned to me yesterday that it was my second to last fast sunday in the mission field. This comment came as quite a shocking realization and affirmation that I'm starting to get close to the end of my mission. I'm still excited to work, and it really doesn't feel like this is all going to end next transfer, but I promised to myself and to the Lord that I'm going to finish my mission strong.
I was studying this week about grace. I learned quite a bit actually. Most of my life, I had kind of figured that we have to perform a certain amount of good works and then, once we reach a certain threshold, grace kicks in and makes up the rest of the difference.
How wrong I was.
Grace is a free gift to all. Christ atoned for each and every one of us, and nothing we can do will every "qualify" us to receive that grace. None of us can earn our way to heaven. None of us can, without Christ, do enough good works to achieve exaltation.
If that be the case however, some may ask, why do we have to do good?
The answer to this question came to me in my studies this week. If we think about a mother who pays for her son's piano lessons, she has already given that son the gift, the ability to learn how to play the piano. As the one who made the payment, the mother has the right to expect practice from her son, especially if the mother knows and expects that one day, for example, the son will be able to use that talent to bless the lives of others. If the son practices, it in no way gives the mother her money back, the son can't work off the payment either. There is no penalty for the son if he does not practice, however he does lose the opportunity to learn and grow his talents on the piano. We are the son in this analogy, and the Son of God is the one who has paid for our lessons. We are free to act in such a way that can help us learn or we can choose to ignore the gift. As we seek to "practice" through good works, we show appreciation for Christ and His payment for all of our shortcomings. We also prepare ourselves to achieve the potential we have to become like God as we strive to rid ourselves of evil by performing good works and resisting temptation.
Hopefully the though made sense haha. I've noticed my English has gotten worse as I've gone throughout the course of my mission.
Mahal ko kayong lahat!
Sana, exciting na yung email na ito haha.
Sa susunod na linggo na naman!
