Ch 84 Bowlin Some Spice

This week was pretty fun.  I don't really have much to say. it's been the same but I guess I just wanna say that everything worth anything in life has a price. A home, a car, a job, a spouse, everything worth anything has a price. And a lot of times it's hard but it's absolutely worth it. As a missionary one thing that's particularly hard is finding. Finding is a lot of work. It's genuinely caring about people you don't know who don't care about you or your beliefs and smiling at them with the same optimism and hopes as a 6-year-old opening their Christmas presents. It's a lot of work. and a lot of trust and faith that it will bring any good. now, of course, there are better ways to find to make things easier and to find more people but it all requires that small and simple faith. You can work as long and as hard as you can but at the end of the day, you still need faith that it'll all work out. Personally, I get tired from finding and I get discouraged but this week we feel blessed that it's working out and we have people who are willing to be baptized and to get there. This also is true in other aspects of life. If you want a job or a good date for the evening you have to work for it. Or else you'll be spending your time with someone or preoccupied with something not worth your time. This week we tried some new things and it was good. I may not know y'all to much any more but I know that if you pay the price, you will deserve your reward.

Fun stories

This week we went bowling. Not for any reason. we just did it cuz it was fun. 

Another fun story. Elder Bjornn is a typical white guy from Idaho. This means he cannot handle his spicy. And whenever I cook I love to cook spicy. It's been a while since I actually cooked. but last night I cooked and oh it was spicy. Now the trick to convincing him to eat it was to threaten him with his manhood and to make sure he eats it in the dark so he can't avoid the peppers. and that's exactly what we did. we ate it outside in the rooftop and we ate sisig. Sisig, or at least the way I make it, has a 1:1 ratio of meat to pepper (roughly 3-5 different kinds of peppers). And in the dark when all of it looks exactly the same. Oh, I was ready to see him burn. He took about 2/3 of a pound of it and it was glorious.  Don't worry he recovered too (;

-Elder Villanueva

Stay Awesome

Ch 83 Having a Fun Mindset

This week was a funnier week. My companion and I just had a lot more fun. 

A quick moral lesson thing. Every day there are a million billion decisions that go off in our heads and whatever decision we decide will ultimately decide the outcome of our day. That's a gift that God has given to everyone. Good or bad, black or white, tall or short, everyone has been given the right to choose. However even though we have the right to choose, we don't have the right to choose the consequences of our actions. Example: we can choose to steal a car but we do not choose the judge ruling if you get caught. Get it? It seems simple enough but it needs to be mentioned. Whelp that example might be a bit too much though.

Let's think a little smaller. Inside our heads. We all have the choice to decide our mindset towards a specific thing/situation/action. (if you have a mental disability or disease that might affect that but if there are none this is mostly true). I think every day we have a lot of small and simple decisions that instantly determine our day. like will you wake up?  will you smile? will you make your bed? will you care? 

A typical day in the Philippines can be happy or sad like anywhere else. Yeah, I was a bit down and angry last week but I think looking back it was because I was in a mindset that judged everything in a negative light. I forgot my purpose and I forgot why I wanted to serve but I know if we focus on our purpose on why we're here and where we want to be.  We can get there.  

This week we tried a little bit harder to be happy. For some, it might be a lot of effort but I think if you really value happiness, that effort is the price we all have to pay to get there. Nothing in life is free but I believe that the most valuable things in the world often have a big price tag. Whether an expensive car or just being happy. There's a price we need to pay to get there if we focus and do our best. My life isn't really that exciting even though it might seem like it. but here are ways we made it more fun.

-Elder Villanueva

Stay Awesome

Ch 82 Nothing Nice to Say

a lot of crappy things happened this week. I am sorry but I am not in the mood to write. At least not without hurting someone else. I am sorry but I will email next week and at that point, I'll do my best to say a funny or spiritual story. But not this week I am sorry.

-Elder Villanueva

Ch 81 Foreigners

Some Spiritual kwan first. You know, sometimes I am just utterly surprised with where we are right now. I know I may not look it, but this is the most emotionally exhausted I have ever been in my life. I was expecting that to be far in front of me, say in a marriage, or at the birth of my first child. Then again for most of my life I never expected myself to be here to begin with. Lately though I've been thinking about what we've been doing and you know what? I think the entire process of missionary work is a miracle. 

Yesterday we were just walking through our area when a member who just moved into the ward called us in the street,

"Elder!!"

Immediately we talked to him, he let us inside the house and we talked for a while, about God, about testimony and what we need to do to be happy. I left that experience thinking wow. This guy didn't know us at all, but he warmly invited us in, we walked about something we hold dear and important to us, and though he didn't know us, he treated us like family. 

We are literally foreigners, maybe not as much for me, but nonetheless I believe that it truly is a miracle for us to be here. Because I know that it is only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that that experience came to be. I know that it is only because of His sacrifice for us that I got to know that member. I know that it is only because of His everlasting love that I got to know you. And I know that it is only because of His infinite atonement that I am here. 

Oh also I baptized my aunt last Saturday. She is my 40th baptism and she is awesome.

-Elder Villanueva

Stay Awesome