Monday, September 16, 2013

Well this has been a week of adventures in the Philippines.  This week Elder Manicdo and I struggled to get lessons due to the Pena Frenca Festival.  This festival lasts for about a week and there is a lot of alcohol involved!!  On Friday we couldn't even work because we couldn't get to our area. But  I had a very unique experience on Saturday night though.  Elder Manicdo and I were going to go teach Brother Daniel Roman, he's a 50 year old retired military soldier and was an investigator of the church 20 years ago.  When we arrived to home, we saw him through his gate and it was obvious that he was drunk, he couldn't walk straight and his eyes were bright red.  But he saw us and insisted that we come in and teach him; so we went in thinking we were going to share a quick scripture and leave.  But as we sat down he started to ramble about stories from when he was in the military.  It got to the point to where he just started to cry non-stop. During his service he said that he had killed three men and of the pain that he feels for it all this time later.  He doesn't feel like he can repent of this because "They were innocent men" is what he said.  Brother Roman was almost reliving that experience as we were talking to him; he would make sound effects and kept  acting like he was holding a rifle.  This poor man said that he feels that he's done more wrong than Satan himself.  Even through his drunken eyes, I could see the pain and the anguish that these experiences have caused for him.  These eyes yearned for peace and forgiveness.  But at the end of this lesson he asked us if we would give him a blessing; that blessing was probably one of the single most spiritual moments I have had while on my mission.

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