Experiences of Elder Cole in the Philippines from July 2013 to July 2015.
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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