Burning Bridges

On the island of Palawan, on the western border of the Philippines, there is a small fishing on the eastern coast, right in the middle of the norther half of the island. This small town is called Roxas, there are several towns further north which are so far removed that they are home to several resorts, tropical getaways, though you'd be hard pressed to call them tourist towns, they're just that small. Some things I'd like to tell you about Roxas. It's economy is supported by two industries: fishing and cashews. Those who aren't fishermen or farmers run one of the town's few shops, and then there's your random mix of city and church officials and constructions workers. Roxas is a very small town.

I spent four months there and in that time I personally spoke with three of the town's city councilmen. I met with members from every church in town (Adventists, Catholic, INC, Pentecostal (two dif. churches) Baptists, and Muslim) and with pastors from 4 of those. I knew the home and names of the top ten richest people in town, I knew family relations between many of them, and I met several of them. I walked every single street in within the 'downtown' area many many times, and even explored some of the alleyways. I met with school principals, radio announcers, and big business men, but not because I was so cool, or even because I worked so hard to find famous people, it's just that there were so few people that you couldn't help but meet all of these people.

Pictures: (1)Google map image of the entire town (2)me being 'lost' looking for the seashore.

So it's a small town. On the western edge of the town there is a large school run by some Canadian/American charity that takes donations from 'sponsors' and uses the money to teach kids, (a good education can be a very big thing in the Philippines). The only stipulation for families enrolling in said school is that the kids and the parents attend a bible school type thing. It's some strange non-denominational 'We read the bible" hotshots who think that their reading of the bible make them superior to everyone else (and this attitude rubs off on the families).

So those two factors (small town, crazy bible schooled adults) combine to make this story:

I was wandering down sandy walkways going from house to house talking to people, we had taught a simple first lesson at the home of an older lady, and noticed some people watching/listening outside (easy to do since the houses are bamboo and windowless). We left and started talking to those who had been observing us, this one lady was rather stern about not listening to us, but I guess she was too polite to send us away because we got invited in.

Being the great missionary I am, I had her round up all her kids, and bring her husband in from the back room and we began to teach a lesson, however she made me promise that we weren't there to baptize her into our church. Her husband was quiet, and she was compliant mostly agreeing with everything we said, but not really caring. When we started teaching about Joseph Smith and modern prophets I asked her if she believe me, she said yes. I asked her then if she would be willing to follow the prophet, she said sure. I didn't think she quite understood my point so I repeated myself, she once again agreed and said something to the effect of, Oh good, Joseph Smith's a prophet, that's a great thing for him, I read the bible too, and it's a great thing for me. I'm normally a calm guy, but something a her saying "big whoop" about Joseph Smith really caught me on fire, so I did my little logic thing again, saying prophets have authority (sure) Joseph Smith's a prophet (sure) you must get baptized by authority like the bible says (sure) then you have to get baptized in the church restored through Joseph Smith- the one with authority!

She wasn't happy that I told her to get baptized, and I felt really bad that I had told her to, we quickly finished the lesson, got a return appointment and left. The next morning right after comp study I couldn't contain myself to do what we had planned, I had to go back to that house and apologize to her for breaking my promise. Sadly, it was too late to apologize, the bridge was already burned now that family, and likely any one in their neighborhood will listen to the missionaries ever again... and it is sad.

Luckily I had enough success on my mission that I didn't beat myself up too much over that one. Now it serves to teach me a very important lesson on promises, trust, and the influence for bad and good that one man can have.

not today

Remember that part on Toy Story when Woody and Buzz are flying up in the air 'cause Buzz is strapped to that rocket and Wood is all worried that they're going to explode and he says, "This is part where we blow up!" and Buzz suavely replies, "Not today!" pushes the button to release his spring-loaded wings, cutting the duck-tape and allowing them to glide away to safety. ... yeah, I like that part.

So the other day I was feeling very grateful for some of my material possessions, namely my beautiful earphones. A few months ago I posted about the varying quality of the earphones I used, saying how great it would be to have a real nice pair of earphones that could deliver superb quality etc. Well my loving mother read that post and decided that Santa should give me such for christmas, hence I now own a very fine pair of d-Jays, noise-canceling, in-ear earphones. While ecstatic over their quality I was dismayed that I had but my laptop in terms of portable music (translation: I had no iPod), it was still absolutely marvelous to watch movies with my own personal surround sound.

However, before the new semester even started, I was chillin' with some friends talking about Christmas gifts when one friend mentioned they got a new iPod Touch, I jokingly (but slightly serious) asked if I could then have her old iPod nano. She said sure, and I am now a happy owner of a silver, 3rd gen. iPod nano :-D. As I was moseying around campus, listening to some killer tunes, I realized how extremely glad I was for this gift. I think it is a great halmark of a deeply christian person that they may not act nice on an outward, every-day level, but when it comes to the big things they're ready to give.

All I have to say, go world.

Somber

My most recent post has been removed until further notice... not that it's content was interesting or that you actually wanted to read it, but I like to make this whole blog thing sound official.

So for now I'll just say that I had a good posting topic that I have since forgotten about.

As my last post has been removed due to it's offending nature, I wish to offer my public apology to those involved.

I can't help...

I'm posting today about nothing in particular. I wish I had more time to do everything. Yeah I'm sitting on campus wasting the next ten minutes writing this post, but I really don't have much else I could be doing right now. Some things take large blocks of time, like structural analysis work for example. One problem takes me about 30 min to complete, and half of that is just understanding the question. Therefore for me to start working on my structures homework right now, I'd get started and in 20 minutes I'd have to go to class and then later tonight I'd practically be starting over again thinking about what the problem is asking me to solve and how to do it. I could study for my stats test, but pretty much this first chapter has been so super easy that I'm not sure what there is to study. Finding averages is something I think I learned in like 5th grade. And so I will continue to sit here.

As of late I've been spending an extraordinarily large amount of time with a certain person, Stephanie. Pretty much if I'm not in class or sleeping (or when she's in class or sleeping) we're together. Its nice to have a constant companion like that, not one of force, but one I've chosen myself. In fact, to be honest, she's my girlfriend, and having not dated much it doesn't mean much when I say that I've never enjoyed being with someone as much as I do her, but I still say it. An interesting thought I had the other day was about some advice from my dad. He doesn't give me advice everyday, but the things he tells me are often very precise, measured, and direct advice for struggles I'm facing (and they're often accompanied by a general conference talk or BYU devotional that deals with the same subject). His dating advice has come to me in chunks over the years, and one of the most memorable sparked not by a talk or experience of his own, but by an Adam Sandler movie, '50 First Dates.' He has told me the message of making your [significant other] fall in love with you everyday is one of the best he has ever seen in a movie. As I pondered on that thought I realized that giving Steph a reason to fall in love with me every day is not something I've worked at yet... but that's because it's come naturally. Again, the limited time (two weeks of dating) may present a less than adequate knowledge, but I feel pretty optimistic for the future.