Well this last week was pretty good...until on Saturday night when I found out that I won't be staying in Gubat anymore. I've spent my 6 months here, I wish it was longer, but the Lord knows what he is doing so I guess I just gotta follow. But anyways I'll start off on Tuesday, when I went on Exchanges with Elder Skeen who is actually from my Batch! So me and Skeen both are not amazing at Tagalog, but thankfully we do know enough and can understand to communicate effectively. We started the morning off with an awesome Comp. Study, I haven't had a good one like that for awhile. We talked about my investigators and how we could really help them on that day, it was really good. After our studies we went and started working. After working all day we ran out of appointments so we ended up tracting in an area I've never tracted here. We ended up getting 6 good return appointments and one of them was an entire family who was really interested in our message! So we were pretty stoked about that. At night we had planned to go to one of our Less-Actives house, who's nephew had just passed away. We got there and we sat down and talked to them and stuff. Then they introduced me to their Uncle who lives in Manila and he sat down next to me. Instantly he just started talking to me in English about why I was here and stuff. I explained that we were Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We ended up talking for about an hour and a half. It was the best discussion about the Gospel of my life! Every question he asked me I somehow managed to answer. And lets get things straight, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. But when he asked me about the Prophet Joseph Smith and who he was I just felt something stir inside me. I bore my testimony of him and the Book of Mormon and I could definitely see the Spirit work on him. Of course he talked about his religion too, Protestant. But he complimented me and thanked me for not attacking his religion when we were done. I got a kick when he talked about how Catholics always tried to attack him and he'd started talking about how they worship crosses and stuff which is clearly stated in the Bible as a no no. Haha it was awesome. He accepted a Book of Mormon and for the Elders in Manila to come to his house! It was freakin awesome, I'll never forget it. The Lord had definately prepared this man. Also that same day we tracted a house with some Beagles...I miss Duke, even if he is pretty much brain dead. The next morning before we switched comps again we went and taught this investigator family who aren't really progressing. We decided to teach about the Atonement and Faith in Jesus Christ. As Elder Wilcox has often told me,"When in doubt, teach about the Atonement and Jesus Christ." Which is very true, nothing can go wrong when you teach about our Savior. Anyways the lesson was awesome, the Spirit was there, and they definately felt it. Sister told us she was going to come to Church next week, and talked about how she was sorry for not coming and how she felt bad. Lets just hope and pray they act on their refound faith...because 'faith without works is dead' as we all know. Saturday night I got "the Text" from the ZLs...I was so ticked. Also Elder Guitierrez is leaving too, he's gonna become a Trainer/Open a new area...and theres a chance he could become DL...poor kid haha. Sunday morning we both dressed up in our nice long-sleeves and prepared to give our goodbye speeches. But it started raining...and Filipinos don't like rain. About 40 members showed up total...counting kids. We still gave our Testimonies, I almost got to tears, which isn't easy for me. The best part of the whole meeting was when Nanay Pimentel, who hasn't come once since I've been here, showed up. She's really really shy, so it was a big step. The kids say that she said she would start coming again, so I was really happy! I talked to her on Saturday because her oldest daughter was speaking in Sacrament, so that was really good to see her. Anyways Sunday stunk cuz I had to say bye to everyone...my beloved Gumang friends who I will never see again probably. The worst was when I went to the Pimentels, and Tatay wasn't there! I ended up saying bye to them without him. But this morning he came and found us, gave me a letter from him and the family, gave me this big ole short Filipino hug, and told me how happy he was that I was assigned here in Gubat. The Pimentels really are one of the biggest reasons I love this area so much, its kinda like leaving my family all over again. When I leave to go to Sorsogon tomorrow morning I will pass their house, hopefully it won't "rain on my face" or anything...I really hate goodbyes. So ya, thats pretty much all of the stuff thats gone on this week. Next week I'll be in my new area with a new comp...hopefully he actually wants to be here that would be nice. But what happens happens, its what the Lord wants and thats what I'll do! Hope everyone has a great week! Love y'all!
Elder Akins
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