Sick

From June 22, 2014

Well, the highlight from this week isn't very exciting... the biggest thing from my life this week is I got really sick. Blah. :P I had to stay inside for 3 days! I'm not really sure why I got sick, although every couple hours my companion would throw out a new reason as to why I possibly got sick: the pollution, the food, the heat, etc. haha so maybe it was a host of reasons for why I got sick! Right now I'm feeling... hmm... maybe 85% better. Pretty good, but I hope to recover more in the next day or two.

This was my first real time getting sick on my mission. I've had a couple minor ailments here and there, but those have past in a couple of hours. This is the first sickness that has really hit me hard for a longer period of time. But, I guess I've done pretty well for not getting sick for so long considering the countries I've been living in! ^_^

One night, as my sickness was beginning to decrease, I told my companion I wanted to go out and try teaching some of the investigators and recent converts that live close to our apartment (like a 5 min walk away). He jumped on me saying that, because he was more than ready to get outside after being indoors for so long.

One of the families we went to is the Bobilies family. Without a doubt, they are my favorite family to teach in this area. One, because they speak English, so they can understand me. But also because half the family is super awesome recent converts, and the other half are great investigators. A perfect family for missionaries! 

Well, we ended up teaching them a very basic lesson on the importance of scripture study. But... even with that I struggled! Haha my companion taught for a couple of minutes, then turned towards me, indicating it was my turn to teach, and the rest of the family shifted their attention to me, expecting me to say something, but I couldn't think of anything to say! My brain was still so out of it... For a couple of seconds everyone just stared at me, and then finally the mom asked "Elder Anderson... are you okay?" I replied "Ya... I'm okay. But just okay." After a little more thinking, I was finally able to come up with something to say, but I'm glad I had such a big brain fart with a family that we already have a very good relationship with. It would have been really embarrassing to have had that happen with other investigators!

On a side note, the mom is still an investigator because of Law of Chastity problems. The problem here in the Philippines is it is virtually impossible to get an official divorce in this country (it costs a lot of money, like a million pesos). So people very very frequently just separate, and then start living with someone else, because that's free. So, that's what Sally Bobilies did. She is a great woman, very kind and caring, a very good mom, comes to church every week, reads her scriptures every day, but can't get baptized because technically she is living with a man that isn't her husband.. This is a very common problem in the Philippines, and the church has made some rules and exceptions to help these people, but it's still difficult.

Also, Crizel Bobilies (I think I mentioned her last week) came to church this week! woo woo! Awesome possum! She also knows that I really like anime, so she drew me a sweet anime pic and gave that to me at church! Wow, what a great blessing after being sick - having your investigator come to church for the first time ever AND give you an anime drawing!

My Philippines District

Game Night