7 November 2015

These 2 Elders are going to be trainers for new missionaries
coming today.  They rode in our car.  Can you imagine?
This was supposed to be at the end but wouldn't go there so
I left it at the beginning.

  Hello again.

We invited these 4 sisters for an American breakfast
on Monday morning.  

We just completed a very busy but great week which included breakfast with the sisters; some additional English tests along with all day workshop on Tuesday; most of the day with the incoming missionaries on Wednesday; piano lessons and vehicle reports on Thursday; Naga District meeting on Friday and today is a rest day. That is when we will do our big shopping for the weekend and part of next week.  We have the office Elders coming tomorrow for dinner at 3:00 pm.  Then the Facilities Management group coming on Wednesday for lunch.

Before the breakfast was over, we had 5 more sisters
come into the office and ended up with us for the
morning.  They said they were waiting for the mall to
open but 45 minutes after it opened, they were still here!

While reading from the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago, I found another scripture that I thought would be good to address here.   It is in Mosiah 2:36-39, "And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved. 37. I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples.  38. Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever. 39. And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment."

17 Missionaries going home.  Picture taken outside the
new Mission home.

King Benjamin clearly teaches that it is we who withdraw ourselves from God and not the other way around.  We withdraw from the Spirit and when it has not place in us to guide us and help us, then we have come out in open rebellion against God.  We have chosen the evil spirit over the Spirit of God.  Remember, it is either one way or the other.  The only way back is to repent and turn again to God and strive to live so his Spirit can be with us.  King Benjamin also teaches us the meaning of never-ending torment which in my words is having to live forever with the knowledge that we could have made changes in our lives and didn't.  I hope and pray that all will recognize now where they are in life and make the changes necessary to be on the right side with God.

Camila is in the background.  She didn't want her picture taken.

Sister Hoopes went to the church house on Wednesday evening to check on piano lessons with Isa, the Bishops daughter.  She found the Bishop's wife and the 3 girls there.  The power had been off all day and they go to the church since it is cooler there.  The church has a generator which gives us power for fans and lights but not for air conditioning.  Still it is cooler there than at home.  We had some fruit pizza left over from the day before so Sister Hoopes invited mom and the kids over for the pizza.  I have pictures of this family in the blog from before.  The girls are really cute and a lot of fun.  They came in so excited to come to our place and to try fruit pizza.  The middle girl named Camila just sat and talked to me the whole time she was there.  I think she is about 4 or maybe 5.  She speaks only English and is not happy to have to go to school.  I asked her which language she spoke at school and she said, "English".  I asked which language the teachers spoke and she said, "Tagalog and sometimes English but when they speak Tagalog, I don't understand a word they say". Amazing little kids.

Here are some pictures from the week for some of the families who follow this blog:

24 new missionaries who arrived on Wednesday.

I did have an individual picture of him Sister Wright.  This was shortly
after he arrived at the Stake Center.

Another week has come to an end.  We will go to church in Naga again tomorrow as the Stake Presidents son is speaking and will be leaving this next week for a mission in Africa.

Stay well!!!