A Day In the Life...

Our newly called ward missionaries--ready to get to work!  this last Sunday we had 14 investigators at church and they did great fellowshipping all of them!
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My brother requested I that I give a little sample of a day in the life of a Philippines Cauayan Missionary. So here it goes...

Every morning I start the day by waking up at 6:30. I don't even need to set my clock anymore because my body wakes itself up a minute before the alarm goes off.

...my sleep saving fan.

I do my morning work out routine and then take a nice cold shower. AHHHH....LOVE MY COLD SHOWER! No pictures of our shower though...it's kind of gross and where we find most creepy crawlies... :{

our kitchen

At 8:00 I start my personal study. Usually I read in the Book of Mormon. I just finished reading from cover to cover this week so I started studying more in Preach my Gospel for the first half and have started the Book of Mormon again for the second half. I actually really enjoy reading the scriptures. Before the mission it wasn't something that I loved. It was more of something that I just I needed to do, but now I truly have a testimony of it and I love it.

my study place

After personal study, we start companion study and we prepare for the lessons we have planned to teach for the day. And then after that is finished, I start language study for another hour.

After all the studying and normal missionary stuff, we eat lunch and go straight out in the field. We take either a Jeepnie or a van to one of our areas and start the day.

my usual mode of transport

We typically teach on average about 5 lessons in the day. It makes it easy when they all live really close to each other...we try to schedule it like that but unfortunately it doesn't always work out. I have found there isn't really a sense of time. When we set an appointment for a specific time, it really means just some time between the hours of 1-5 on a certain day. Kind of like those repair guys, but sometimes when we get there they are sleeping (especially on a hot day) or they are not around. By 6:00 we return to our apartment. Normally, missionaries work until 9, but here it gets really dark at 6 and there are no street lights in our area, so we have an early curfew. It's nice that it gives Sister Lamac and time I to do our training and planning.

And just like that, the day is over.

This may all seem kind of boring and mundane, but in reality when we are out teaching and working really hard no matter how exhausted we are, no matter how hot it is, and no matter how many times we get "punted" from a lesson, our day is really fulfilling and I don't regret for a second what I am doing. Through our hard work and with the help of the Lord, the work here in Diffun is really progressing. It is super exciting!

Here are a few more pics to enjoy...

Take care and have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Koncurat

it really is beautiful and I love it.

our big comfy couch! Don't you just want to stretch out on that for a Sunday nap?

the super hi-tech washing machine...OH how i miss the Maytag!

prayer

The power of prayer is seriously so real. The first couple of weeks here, we haven't had a lot of success. We would go out and find so many new potential investigators. We keep teaching them but they were not progressing. People's free agency sure gets in the way!! Haha. We have been praying a lot for our ward, trying to find out how we can better help them and how we can move our investigators to the next step. Finally, one of our prayers has been answered. We were lead to a recent convert and got to teach him about missionary work. Not only does he want to serve a mission now, he has invited his family and friends to church. He has helped to answer our prayers and we now have five progressing investigators and two have actual baptism dates. The members make such a difference when it comes to moving missionary work along. The other day, I heard a statistic. Only one out of a hundred of the people that we may come in contact with each day is likely to be baptized. But one out of ten invited by a member is likely to be baptized. DID YOU HEAR THAT??  Members--YOU are essential to the work!

Another example of how prayer works...yesterday, Sister Lamac and I were trying to get to a member's house for our dinner appointment. It was a long walk from where we were coming from and after awhile, there were no transport vans going in the direction we were headed. We waited and waited for a van to pass as it got darker and darker.  In our area, there are no street lights, it's very dark and scary, we were afraid that we weren't going to make it there or home. We prayed for some means of transportation, and decided we just better start walking faster.  Finally, as we were just about to give up, a tricey came around the corner. We flagged it down and we got to where we need to be. In the end, we went to pay, but he told us not worry about it. It was a huge answer to our prayer and we were so thankful. 

Being a missionary is hard work. I never thought it would be easy, but I am really learning the importance of prayer and how it will not only give us the power to know where we need to be, but also all the wonderful blessings it brings. 

Love you all!
Sister Koncurat

PS...I'd love to hear from you...hint hint...I'd love some mail!

Adventure Pictures from the past weeks!

told you I rode a caribou.

My balut experience mmmmm eh...

weekly...weakly??

All is well with me. I've been having a good week and no brown outs either! Last week we went to the Bishop's house. His daughter actually took us to their farm to ride their caribou and we had fun playing
around there too. Respectfully of course. We got back inside right in time for a nasty storm to start. We had dinner with them and taught FHE. Super fun day!

Every Tuesday we start the day off with a district meeting. Afterwards we got to teach the nephew of a member family for the first time and we could just tell how excited he was for the gospel. We left him
with an assignment to read the next part in the pamphlet and before we even left, he was reading it. So awesome!

Wednesday Sister Lamac and I went to the mission home for a new missionary and trainers meeting. It was a super good meeting, and definitely recharged me for the work. The rest of the week was pretty normal. Go out and teach for hours in the hot hot sun, but I love it. We have been trying to find service opportunities, but it is hard. Whenever someone is just doing something, you kind of have to jump in before they say no. The other day we went to visit a family, and the Nanay was stripping the leaves off of dead palm tree branches to make a broom, so we just started picking off leaves and doing it with her. It was fun, and then we got to teach her less-active son.

We have our weekly dinner appointments every Friday with the Busania Family, and every Sunday with the Fernandez family. But other than that, we don't have any scheduled, but almost always someone invites us to eat with them after teaching. People are so sweet. We have been asking for referrals from everyone we talk to, but we don't get very many.

Today for our zone activity, we got to explore some caves and then we ended up having lunch at a beautiful waterfall. It was a good hike but I am so sore! All four of us in our apartment are working out as much as possible. I was a little achy while we were hiking, but it is all good. As Dad would say, pain is just weakness leaving the body, right? I have a lot of motivation to work out, apparently it isn't rude to call someone fat. So I hear that more often than I'd like. In the last 2 days, 2 different people said something about it. We walk and I swear I sweat off two pounds a day off, why am I not getting thinner?? Last week, one Nanay told me I am looking fatter. My clothes all still fit and actually feel a bit looser so it's all good. Filipino's are TINY so anything more is "fat" I guess. I really get called all sorts of names though. I don't take it too personally. I'm fat, beautiful, barbie, snow white, milky just to name a few... whatevs!

My dad sent this quote this week;

"The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:

The stronger wind, the stronger trees."

-Douglas Malloch a favorite of JW Marriott

 
It was just so appropriate this week...This IS the hardest thing I have ever done. I am always tired. I work all day in the heat. I am constantly sweating and the hardest thing is that I barely know the language. Most of the time I sit there clueless, until there is a break and I ask Sister Lamac what is going on. I am trying my best to teach parts of the lessons, but I can only do a little introduction into the topic and then Sister Lamac needs to do the rest. It is so hard. But with all of that, I know that I am in the right place, doing the right thing. I am learning and growing, and by the end, I know that I will be stronger. Besides, I have the Lord on my side...how can I fail?

Mom (via Sis Stucki) sent this quote as well this week.

"Pure Christ-like love flowing from true righteousness can change the world. Travel the path of Christian discipleship-it is straight and it is narrow without a great amount of latitude at some points, but it can be thrillingly and successfully travelled with steadfastness in Christ, a perfect brightness of hope, and love of God and of all men. In courageously pursuing such a course, you will forge unshakable faith, you will find safety against winds that blow, even shafts in the whirlwind, and you will feel the rock-like strength of our Redeemer, upon who you build your unflagging discipleship, you cannot fail"
-Elder Jeffrey Holland

Stay strong everyone!  

Love,

Sister Koncurat

(note from mom--Can't wait to Skype with my sweet girl this weekend for Mother's Day.  Also, she had a bunch of pictures to add but couldn't get them to load and she was running out of time so, next week we will hopefully get to see those beautiful waterfalls and her riding a caribou!  crazy to think!)