About the tsunami we heard about the earthquake Friday night and we heard it was going to hit 19 provinces in the Philippines. I don't think it hit that many and the ones it did I know were all on the east side so nothing happened here it didn't even rain. Kinda scary for a few minutes but nothing to be worried about, the good thing about it is people recognize it as a "sign of the times" and its kinda opened people's minds and hearts to the gospel. We even got into a house talking about that how our message can help them feel safe and happy with everything that's going around. One scripture I've shared about it too is 1Nephi 1:20 about tender mercies of God and how he wont give us anything we can't handle and will always give us that little bit of comfort and the comfort that comes from knowing that if we're faithful, whatever is supposed to happen is going to happen and God's in control. Amazing how stuff like this makes people remember God.
Ya and my companion Elder Febbo is pretty awesome. The first half of the week I felt kinda distant from him but we had a good weekly planning on Friday and since we've gotten a lot closer and have tried to really become friends not just companions, cuz that's how I felt with my first two and everything is happier, funner and easier if you're friends with your companion and you guys can relate and talk to each other as you work. I'm definitely learning a lot from him. he's really good at talking to people and getting in the door when we tract. Me on the other hand, I suck, I'm either too quick to let them say no or I'm too like out there. I don't know how to explain it but I guess I'm not practiced cuz last transfer we didn't tract once. He's also a good teacher, really tries to pause and listen. That's always been my problem is listening even in English haha but especially in Tagalog. He also isn't afraid to give me advice/criticism which at first I didn't like but he knows more than me, has been out longer than me, is a lot older than me and has more experiences than me. While we don't agree on everything I already see the reasons why we are together at this point in our missions.
The work has been pretty good. We went on splits again on Wednesday with Ian (his name's christian but still that's astig) and Jelica. They're really cool, 19 and 20 and we went tracting and found a couple potential investigators. It was pretty fun I like going on splits I learn a lot more Tagalog cuz its my only chance to have a filipino companion since I haven't had one since I've been on my mission yet. It's funny this week since I told you about last Sunday and everyone said I was good at Tagalog I've felt like I've kinda struggled this week at it. My pronounciation isn't the best, I've gotten corrected by investigators and I don't know I think I was getting comfortable with where I was, pretty confident and the Lord has definitely brought me a little low. Even Febbo brought stuff to my attention to fix, like I need it but its still hard to be corrected even when we need it. Then there was yesterday. oh man. we split I went with John Rey an RM who was in the same mission with Bro Itri my MTC teacher. He's really cool and also these two relief society sisters came with us too, both RM's as well, and man was that tough. One of them is from Quezon province where they speak pure Tagalog so the entire time I taught she would correct me and worse than that laugh whenever I pronounced something wrong. I mean I'm still learning vocab and everything, pronounciation and not sounding like an American is pretty much at the back of my mind. It was pretty bad in one lesson when 3 other ward members happened to be there at the families house so it was like 12 filipinos correcting me as I taught. I was getting really frustrated but I kept it in pretty good and tried to not let it show, the thing is filipinos are really nice and don't want to correct you, but when one of them starts to its like the flood gates open and everyone takes their shot. It's been a fun week tho, we even did service with our Zone Leader's that we live with on Saturday. It's a part member family, the wife's parents aren't members but they're really nice and also very well off, in a 4 story house. The work is going pretty well other than we only got 2 investigators at church. that was way disappointing but we felt we didn't stress it enough this week so we'll try to do better at that this week. Sister Tessie one of our investigators has stopped smoking and is really close with quitting coffee too, she's really funny I like her. and sister Ibanez is still awesome, like she told us she has a lot of friends at church which is way awesome. Anyways the area is coming slowly but surely. I'm starting to get the hang of it and hopefully by the end of the transfer I'll have it and wont get transferred again. I don't want to be one of those elders who goes to every transfer meeting (has never had a companion for more than one transfer) like my last Zone Leader, Elder Izatt. Hope everything is going great over there and thank you for all the support and prayers. you all are in my prayers every day. amazing how fast a mission goes, gotta savor every minute before it's gone.A good scripture this week was Ezra 7:10. talks about Ezra preparing his heart. That's what we all have to do to accept what God is trying to teach us and help us with and recognize the blessings that come from that.
but love you all
Elder Stover
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