He Doesn't Know What He Doesn't Know

NOVEMBER 24, 2013

Sooooooooo, remember Jovan? The 11 year old who cant read? Well this week we got to the root of why he is so slow and difficult to teach. He only speaks Ilocano. Yeah. That was a bit of a shocker. Sister Abelhouzen and I literally sat after his lesson for a good five minutes just saying "He speaks Ilocano" over and over to each other. The reason he does not progress is because he cannot understand what in the world we are saying to him! And now, thinking about it, he is one of the most polite and patient little boys for sitting in lessons for as long as he has, listening to two white girls who are not speaking his language. Awesome. So now that we have that problem figured out, we can figure out how to really help him. I just cant believe we didn't figure this out before now! How in the world?! Not even Sister Sese knew that. Glory on high. Jovan speaks ILOCANO!!!!

Miracle moments from this week: A sister who was baptized at the beginning of this year who stopped going to church the Sunday after she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, who then got baptized into the Born Again church, came back to church for the first time yesterday. And it was seriously like she had never left. All the branch members welcomed her with open arms and she was talking to everyone and it was just one of the best things ever. I really hope and pray that she comes to church again next Sunday. She is so sweet and I think really needs the kind of support, spiritual and temporal, that the branch can offer her.

The Vigan Sky. Look at that sky!!! That is what it is like every night here. All that smoke in the air makes for good sunsets. Or maybe clown pants. 

We also went finding out in an area that I had never been to before and it is basically and entire Brgy of less actives. We went out there with a list of people to find and we found two families and one random woman who was not even on our list. We walked out of a lesson and she saw us down the road and started waving and saying "I'm a member too sisters!" Her name is Valen and she is the neighborhood bookie, which she knows is bad, but she was just so nice, we asked if we could teach her right then and she was like "sure! Is right here okay?" So we basically taught her on the side of the road, gave her a Book of Mormon and told her we would come back. She was just so excited to see us, it was nice after having this one guy keep saying "Gabi na" or basically "its late" when we were trying to set up a return appointment. Also, his reason for not coming to church was "wala na" or "nothing." So we will have to hit that one up with some more inspired questions later. But the main point is Valen, and how she is adorable.

ALSO, we have this daughter of a less active who has a baptismal goal date and she is just so solid. We went over and she had read the Book of Mormon, she read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left and had prayed about them both and was like "yeah, they are true" No one ever reads between lessons! No one ever reads the pamphlet! And Eloysa did! Squee! We also had a break through with an investigator we have had for a long time, the Plan of Salvation was just the hook we needed. Oh the work is just plugging along. I am giving it all up to the fact that now that Sister Abelhouzen and I are not so rocking at Tagalog we really need to focus on simplicity and making our purpose clear. The How To Begin Teaching bullet points are real y'all. I have a testimony that they work.

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet