I think I'm the most tan I've even been in my life. Not just tan but
missionary tan - a beautiful white strip on my wrist from the watch and a nice
white neck from a high collar. It's funny because Elder Oliveros always looks in
the mirror and says "I'm so dark". Apparently just like it's cool to be tan in
the USA, it's cool to be light in the Phillipines. I will say though I think my
leg hairs are suffocating because they haven't been outside in shorts for 14
months now... Poor guys :(
The work is still where it was last week... all of our time spent finding.
We're doing a bit of everything - LARCs, member work, personal finding, formers.
It's going to come together at some point on the Lord's timeline, but right now
we're still kind of struggling in the dark.
I've been reading through all of the conference ensigns in our apartment
during "free time" (lunch, dinner-at-home, etc). It might also interest you mom
that we spend a lunch every once in a while in the church building where I've
been practicing hymns. I can play "Nearer My God to Thee" and "Come Follow Me"
now, and I'm working on a couple more. Piano lessons and music theory aren't
totally useless out here...
I don't know how many of you watch "The District" or know what it is, but
rumor has been going around that they're making a District 3 in the Salt Lake
West Mission... we just got a short clip the other day during Zone Training and
it turns out Elder Joseph Isabell is in it. Kinda fun to have a college roommate
become a movie star!
Also we just did the math and our area is 4/10ths of a square mile,
ha.
Have a good week,
Elder Chandler
--------------------------------
thought: Beguile, yet guileless
Part of training in my last 3 transfers has been going through the 12-week
training program. It basically adds an extra hour to companion study in the
morning and gives us time to go through a guided program through Preach My
Gospel. It's really insightful. Each week we've been coming up with a catch
phrase for what we've learned that week. This weeks was the title of the
thought.
There's a phrase that's always intrigued me, found in two places in the
standard works that I know of. "Be wise, yet harmless" - Alma 18:22-23 and
Matthew 10:16. The statement to "be wise, yet harmless" is directed straight at
missionaries - Christ gives the injunction to his Apostles right before they are
sent on missions, and Mormon uses it to describe Ammon during a classic
missionary discussion.
(I apologize in advance for the scripture math): Alma 18:23, Alma
"beguiles" King Lamoni. That's his being "wise". Therefore, "beguile, yet
harmless". Matthew 10:16 footnote for harmless defines harmless as "guileless",
and thus we get to: "Beguile, yet guileless". Guile = G. G = notG, which is
kinda dumb because that's a completely illogical statement.
I just like the idea though that as missionaries we're supposed to be
sneaky and crafty but, as long as we're doing so in love and for the right
reasons, we're doing our job well, specifically dealing with committing people
to do things.. It reminds me of the wording of Phillipians 4:12, counseling us
to be "full and hungry, to abound and to be abased". Because of the contrasting
opposites though, the idea that they are trying to get across is expressed even
though it's way hard to describe in words.
Sorry this was kind of a wordy thought without a good conclusion.
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