New Years in Sablayan

Hey family!

This week started out so well! On Monday we had our group Christmas party at this beautiful place called Feliz del Mar. Elder Pedrosa and I gave a lesson about what gift we as members of the church should give to Jesus Christ for this new year 2016. We ate delicious food of course and played super fun games. I love all the members here. I don't want to leave Sablayan. 

Tuesday was the best day of the week for me. The Zone Leaders came and we had exchanges with them. Elder de Dios worked with us again. I was so excited because Elder de Dios is awesome. I learned so much from this exchange. Elder de Dios is super bold.  That's one thing I love about how he teaches. He really asks inspired questions, his teaching skills are so impressive, and he's a PMG missionary. At the end of the day we had our evaluation, which is my favorite part. He had us divide our sheet into 3 sections.. our strengths, what we need to improve on, and what we need to repent of. I'm so grateful for his leadership, and his wisdom. He's a great zone leader and I learned so much from this exchange with him. 

On Wednesday I had another exchange with Elder Sambile (my district leader). He's the most humble missionary I've ever met. He teaches with love and passion and power. As I had these exchanges this week and that I've had throughout my mission so far, I try and acquire the skills and attributes of these great missionaries here in my mission. It's been a blessing for me. 

For New Years we went over to a member's house and she stuffed us with masarap pagkain (food), adobo, menudo, rice of course etc. For New Year's Eve, as a district we bought a big grilled chicken and 2 pizzas haha. It was a good night. At midnight the Filipinos go crazy here! It was so loud! Fireworks, people cheering haha. It's different than in the U.S. 

Friday and Saturday were really rough days for me- teaching wise. I felt like my Tagalog digressed and it was almost like I didn't know how to teach. They were days I want to forget and move on. I realized that I always need to be focused and pray for the spirit. I cannot teach on my own- it's impossible.  I'm going to move on from these past couple days and get back on track.  Missionary work is hard, and I'm starting to get really impatient with Tagalog. It's really frustrating to be honest. I just want to be fluent already. 

The only thing I would ask family is that you pray for brother Christian Monte. He came to church yesterday and we're hoping he'll be baptized on January 23. He's our only hope for the month of January. He's progressing which is great. We have many investigators but many aren't progressing. Well that's all for this week fam. This could be my last full week here in Sablayan (transfer day next week). But I don't think I'll get transferred. Love you all, talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

I ate dog this week!

New Year's dinner