Time is flying!

Week 62

01 February 2016

This week was super busy. Monday night the Assistants came over, as we had exchanges with them in our area on Tuesday. Woke up on Tuesday, and got into the vibe straight away. My companion for the day was Elder Tumanguil, and it was good because he was actually assigned in this area of Gumaca for 3 months way back near the beginning of his mission. To put in perspective, he goes home at the end of this transfer.

Working with him was great. I haven't had a Philippino companion in almost a year now, and actually haven't had a companion that's been really fluent in the language since I was trained, so I was able to use so much more Tagalog than I normally do. I learned so much about teaching, language, finding, and many other things. We visited his recent converts that he has in the area, and they were so excited to see him again after so long! The members we saw along the way, they were also happy to see him. Elder Tumanguil and his companion Elder Kaifoto are the most talked about missionaries in Gumaca, along with a couple of other Polynesian missionaries.

The funny thing about the area, is that they've only had Tongan missionaries, so when I came in and said I was a Polynesian too, they automatically assumed I was Tongan. Even now, people forget that I've said I'm Samoan and say I'm Tongan, and then I correct them for the 10th time. Just feel a little offended sometimes when I hear that haha. No offence to the Tongan people though, love them still. Ofa lahi atu, hahaha.

Friday we had our zone interviews with President Mangum, and that was good to talk to him and Sister Mangum about the mission. We were last companionship of the zone, besides the Zone Leaders, so we were there for ages!

The Zone Leaders gave a good workshop about weekly planning, and the practice teaching was the drama game "Freeze" while implementing weekly planning into it.

The week was a rough one, but full of miracles, so I have nothing to be upset about, or disappointed about either. Sunday was rough for me at the beginning, with disappointment due to un-kept commitments to come to church, but life goes on.

We had a PEC though, and the idea that the PEC came up with, along with us, was to have me and my companion give workshops every Sunday at 2pm about basic missionary skills, then they'll go out and work. Sort of like a missionary weekly District Meeting, complete with reporting and an area book to be kept. It will take a lot of time, but it should get traction and move forward really well. It will definitely boost missionary efforts, and we would hope a lot of members return to church when this happen. Gotta love having four RMs in P.E.C.

As I close in on my last 9 months, I realize now is the time to roll up and roll out the hard work, as I feel like I'm in my peak of my missionary life. I requested to President if I could have Elder Nikau be my next companion. He requested me to be his next companion too, because we talk a lot, and we feel like the bond that we have as brothers, and both of us ready to roll out the work, we really feel that we could go into any area and blow it up. I've been praying about it, and I feel that it would be a really good idea, so hopefully President Mangum feels inspired and agree with us.

Life is great, time is flying, and 2016 is the year.