Good morning family and friends,
Time is really flying here in the mission. I am coming up to only having 6 months left in my mission. It is crazy how fast the time is going. I am not quite sure where it is going. We are going into our 4th week together, me and Elder Panugao. It seems like we just became companions, but I guess its been about 4 weeks na! Tondo is still doing good. I guess I can give an update on myself to start with. I have been struggling with diarrhea for about 2 months now, fluctuating weight, and just basically an upset stomach. About 5 weeks ago I was put on a liquid only diet, trying to let my body reset itself or whatever. That was a long, miserable 5 days. Then it "went away." But not really. It came back and I have just put up with it for about a month now. I finally am so fed up with it that I told the nurse this week that it was time to see a doctor. She agreed, and I went to the doctor. On Wednesday we actually went to this SUPER nice mall called Power Plant Mall in Makati. At the mall they had a lab thing where I was able to take a stool sample and then get the results after about 6 hours. So thats what I did. A few hours later, I got the results. I have a parasite in my intestines called Giardia. I don't think its too serious. The nurse wasn't freaking out or anything. I had some members google it and it seems not too freaky. I guess its found in untreated water, uncooked food, or in person to person contact. I am not sure where I got it exactly, but I am thinking it was that nasty chicken feet adobo that I ate around 2 months ago. Who knows though. Anyways, so I was put on a medicine called Metronidazole. I have to take it for 10 days. I went to the drugstore with my "prescription text message" from the mission nurse and they let me buy. Gotta love the Philippines. Anyways, within 1 day I felt the medicine making a huge difference. Up until now, I feel 100% better. I just have to finish my medicine and hopefully it will all be gone and then I can be normal again. I never thought about how thankful I am to have the health that I have had in my life. So its been rough, but we are figuring it out. I am doing really well now though:)
About our work, so this week we wanted to focus on some of the Less Actives that I talked about in my last email. We had some things come up that took some time, one of them being our trip to Makati on Wednesday. On Tuesday, we had zone meeting. That stared in the morning at 10. I saw some of the people that I was in the MTC with, they are sisters. Its crazy, because the sisters in my batch of missionaries go home in about 2 weeks, so thats insane. It was good to see them. I saw Elder Eteaki as well. He told me if Utah wins the PAC12 he will transfer to Utah haha. Anyways, at the meeting they just followed up on the things we learned at our zone conference. I also had to speak for about 3 minutes about diligence and happiness. Those go hand in hand, especially when it comes to missionary work. That was pretty simple. After zone meeting we had to go home and have our studies. After studies, we tried to contact some OYMs that we talked to some of the previous evenings, nothing. Then we had something very interesting that was announced at church the previous day before. The father-in-law of Bishop Altre passed away. So we had a "necrological service" for him. So we attended. Elder Reber played the piano and then I was asked to conduct. That was good, we got some good food though so that was nice. So those were a couple of the things that we had that kind of took some good chunks of time out of our week. On Thursday we had exchanges again, me and Elder Reber in our area. Neither him or Elder Panugao are able to lead the area right now so it is always me and Elder Cibuco leading the areas. We did our best to have a good exchange with some good planning and stuff, but people still have their agency to punt us. I have decided that Tondo has some of the most hard headed people, lots of them are so kind, but others are just so hard in their ulo. It was a good exchange though. I know Elder Reber likes to have a companion who speaks English for a day.
The Manuel famiy is still doing well. We are pushing for that October 1st baptismal date. We had to move it because of conflict in the ward. Its a set date now. We are very blessed, neither of them have any kind of addiction. Brother has never been an alcoholic or a smoker, while sister has never been a super heavy coffee drinker. So when we taught the WOW like a month ago, no problems. Then last night, sister told us that she was drinking coffee sometimes. So that was super rough. We are so close, and then she breaks. We are thinking that if she drinks it again, we will have to postpone the baptism for 4 weeks in order for them to live the Word of Wisdom. That would make me sad since I would maybe miss yet another baptism due to transfers which is onOctober 5. But we will see. We really want them to make that October 1 date. With some of our other people, we are seeing some nice, but slow progression. Especially with some of the LA. We have seen some great progression with them actually. Some of them are working toward the temple. I need to get a picture with some of them, but we are excited. Some of the other LA that we are working with are dealing with some potential drug problems. So there is only so much that we can do in that situation. We just keep working with them and pray for them.
Overall it was a good week. Still pretty exhausted. We are really doing our best trying to find new people to teach, but we can only invite so much, they still have their free agency. The Lord is blessing us though, in small and simple ways. I am blessed to have a companion who really helps me 50/50 in all aspects of the work. That is something that I am very lucky to have. We will see where I end up in a few weeks, if I stay or if I go. I guess tradition says that I only stay 3 transfers in an area. I want to go back to Palawan, but I will hopefully be attending 2 or 3 temple sealings for Recent Converts this coming November and December, which does include the Vinculado family. I don't wanna miss that. But I also do want to be on Palawan one last time. The struggle. Anyways, I love you all.
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Elder Lambert
Philippines, Manila Mission, Earth
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