Mahupay na aga, na kulop, ngan na gabii tanan na mga tawo sa ini na Kalibutan!
This week was pretty fun though I had a few misteps, literally. We spent a lot of this week finding and while it really helps me learn Waray Waray, it is most difficult. I think I can speak pretty well now but understanding is a whole other animal. They speak super fast in Calbayog and when I hear them I feel like a computer shutting down. Nevertheless my studies of Tagolog have helped a lot. We were able to hit some return appointments this week so hopefully we will have some progressing people soon.
At the beginning of the last paragraph I said I had mistepped literally. I wish to expand somewhat upon that. In the Phillipines there are some neighborhoods where the houses are built on wooden stilts. They are all connected together with small fragile wooden pathways. These patheways are similarly built on stilts and so they not very stable. All of this rests over a swamp like mud that consists of the waste from each of the houses. While attempting to cross through this week, the wood beneath me broke not once, but twice. I was luckily able to catch myself before I fell into the mud but I'm either really bad at walking or getting fat. Honestly, it is probably a combination of the two. I'm just glad the Lord has been protecting me from all my fumbles and falls because I have a lot.
This week I was thinking about something that was pointed out to me in 2 Nephi 2: 25. The scripture says that,
"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
At first glance one would think that joy means a general happiness, but upon further inspection of the footnotes you will find that another definition exists. That is "mens ability to become like God". I thought this was a very curious way to describe joy and so I went through the scriptures and sought to plug in this definition. I found that it adds a quite a lot to some scriptures. For example take the following verse from John 14: 28:
"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice"
Now, if we are to believe that joy is the ability to become like God, then the action, rejoice, must mean coming unto the Lord. If we are to follow this logic further then everytime the scriptures tell us us to rejoice, they are not just telling us to just be happy, they are telling us to come unto God. They are telling us to pray in gratitude when there are good times in our life. If we so love Him, why are we not coming unto Him? Whenever we experience happiness in this life, share it with the Father. He wants to hear all the parts of our lives, not just when its hard. He wants us to share in the joy, to come unto to Him, and through Jesus Christ it is possible. What other evidence do you need of His love, but His Son.
I encourage all of you to search the scriptures and send me your perspectives on different scriptures with joy in it. For example:
Ecclesiastes 2:10
Original: "my heart rejoiced in all of my Labour:
New: "My heart came unto the Lord in all of my labour"
Warning, its literally so fun I can't stop
Elder Wilhelm
This week was pretty fun though I had a few misteps, literally. We spent a lot of this week finding and while it really helps me learn Waray Waray, it is most difficult. I think I can speak pretty well now but understanding is a whole other animal. They speak super fast in Calbayog and when I hear them I feel like a computer shutting down. Nevertheless my studies of Tagolog have helped a lot. We were able to hit some return appointments this week so hopefully we will have some progressing people soon.
At the beginning of the last paragraph I said I had mistepped literally. I wish to expand somewhat upon that. In the Phillipines there are some neighborhoods where the houses are built on wooden stilts. They are all connected together with small fragile wooden pathways. These patheways are similarly built on stilts and so they not very stable. All of this rests over a swamp like mud that consists of the waste from each of the houses. While attempting to cross through this week, the wood beneath me broke not once, but twice. I was luckily able to catch myself before I fell into the mud but I'm either really bad at walking or getting fat. Honestly, it is probably a combination of the two. I'm just glad the Lord has been protecting me from all my fumbles and falls because I have a lot.
This week I was thinking about something that was pointed out to me in 2 Nephi 2: 25. The scripture says that,
"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
At first glance one would think that joy means a general happiness, but upon further inspection of the footnotes you will find that another definition exists. That is "mens ability to become like God". I thought this was a very curious way to describe joy and so I went through the scriptures and sought to plug in this definition. I found that it adds a quite a lot to some scriptures. For example take the following verse from John 14: 28:
"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice"
Now, if we are to believe that joy is the ability to become like God, then the action, rejoice, must mean coming unto the Lord. If we are to follow this logic further then everytime the scriptures tell us us to rejoice, they are not just telling us to just be happy, they are telling us to come unto God. They are telling us to pray in gratitude when there are good times in our life. If we so love Him, why are we not coming unto Him? Whenever we experience happiness in this life, share it with the Father. He wants to hear all the parts of our lives, not just when its hard. He wants us to share in the joy, to come unto to Him, and through Jesus Christ it is possible. What other evidence do you need of His love, but His Son.
I encourage all of you to search the scriptures and send me your perspectives on different scriptures with joy in it. For example:
Ecclesiastes 2:10
Original: "my heart rejoiced in all of my Labour:
New: "My heart came unto the Lord in all of my labour"
Warning, its literally so fun I can't stop
Elder Wilhelm
Attempting to learn Taglog on the floor
Exchanges with Elder Andaya
The Catbalogan Zone
Choir group for District Conference
