Hello Everyone,
This week was really great! We have great new investigators!! They are so so cool! Both of them are college professors, so we teach them in English. One is so sincerely seeking for truth, and he follows all of our commitments! His name is Soy Maglinte (lightning in Waray/Tagalog) But he's probably my favorite investigator right now. We spent 3 lessons teaching about the restoration because he wanted to make sure he understood. And we watched the restoration video with them as well. At the end he was almost in tears and he expressed that it touched his heart. He is so curious about Joseph Smith. He wants to know everything about him. He really wants to know the prophet. He was disappointed to learn that he had died a couple hundred years ago. He thought it was interesting that he came from such humble circumstances and only had a third grade education. He said, "Just like Jesus Christ. He was only a carpenter, but he taught the Pharisees in the synagogues at the age of 12." It so cool that he made that connection. This man is so prepared to have the gospel in his life. I don't know if it will take a long time, but I can definitely see him being the next bishop in Catarman.
In contrast with that experience, the other day, we were trying to find the house of a referral when we passed a different church. The leader of that church came over to us and started talking to us. At first it was a nice conversation, which quickly led into a horribly uncomfortable situation. He was just telling us everything he personally thought about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Eternal Marriage, faith, working for salvation, and many other things did he say against us. The worst part was that he wouldn't give us an opportunity to even defend our beliefs. I defended a few points of our beliefs in the most respectful way I could muster, but It was pointless. He didn't really care about what we had to say. We got out of it by talking about the celestial kingdom. Something He couldn't argue with because he knew nothing about it. But, that gave us an opportunity to end the conversation by offering our service to any service projects he had coming up.
To be honest, this is probably only the fifth time an encounter happened like this to me on my mission; Because Filipino people are very respectful about other peoples' beliefs. But all of the sudden, this preacher, ex-pat from Louisiana, decides to basically attack everything I know to be true. I think for the most part it made me so sad to see someone whose understanding about God's plan for all of his children and basically throw away his opportunity to receive further light and understanding into his life.
Today I was studying about the waters of Mormon in the 18th chapter of Mosiah. And how Alma taught all and any person that would hear his words. In the dictionary today I discovered that there is a difference between listening and hearing.
Listen: to pay attention in order to hear
Hear: To gain knowledge of by hearing
This man wasn't listening to us or hearing us. But it made me so grateful that I'm surrounded by a people who are willing to listen to words of God. I know that God chooses simple people to carry out his work because those are the people that are humble enough to hear.
Let us all be more willing to hear and follow the commandments of God.
I know that this church is true, and I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. That is nothing that can take this knowledge away from me. I love that we have the opportunity to have eternal marriages.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen
Love,
Sister Bingham
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