Letter #64 (24th Oct, 2012)

Hey all,
This week has been great! Elder Manansala and I have a great time
every evening talking about all sorts of doctrine and about our
investigators, all of whom are progressing so well. We have 4
baptismal dates for this November and both of us are so hopeful that
we will have two transfers together in Amlan.
To answer your questions, the branch is great. There is actually a
larger body of priesthood here than in any other branch I have been in
(even our ward... hahaha).

The work of a zone leader does leave you very tired at the end of some days.
We have ZLC (zone leader coordination) on the 6th of Nov and we will head
in to Cebu to the mission home for that. The Zone is an interesting group of
missionaries. We actually went on splits Monday and yesterday with the Bindoy
elders. I was with Elder Veloria in Bindoy and had a great experience. The work
is going well in Amlan. We met a family this week that has a very difficult
situation. They are 9 in their family and all members but they are
living in an old baptist church that is no longer used for services.
They are severely persecuted by the owner of the house and have
stopped coming to church because of it. Not only that but there are
other members who are also persecuting the family saying they have
apostatized and all sorts of things which both Elder Manansala and I
feel are not true, especially after visiting with them and feeling
their testimonies about the church. They are one of our focuses this
week and we will try and get the members to look out for another place
for them to live, as Sister M, the mother of the family, expressed her desire
to get away from the house so they can start coming back to church.

We also visited with this one member, Sister L, that is constantly
visited by the Jehovah's witnesses and heard her hilarious stories of
their visits with her. She said it started out with just the ordinary
members coming to visit, two sisters, that were sharing a message
about equality of women in the world and the church. They said
something like "In some churches women are seen as under the men..."
and so on, then Sister L, replied, "Oh is that how it is in your
sect, because in our church we are equals!" I laughed so hard... then
in ended up that the members stopped coming to visit and this one man
started to visit, who had a lot more knowledge than the others. She
suspects he is the pastor. And then she continues to outsmart this
pastor in every visit they have. The other incident that is my
favorite is when they were talking about some doctrine that was
different and the pastor says "oh, so that's how it is in your
church?" and Sister replied "No, that's how it is for all of us, it
says so right here in the Bible..." Oh, how I laughed. This Sister is
a great example of how to share the gospel without being offensive but
being upfront about her beliefs.

Things have been doing well with Elder Manansala, and we are getting
along really well. We have quite a bit in common with one another and
we are having fun getting lost in the work. We were so thankful to
Heavenly Father that we achieved the standards for the lessons this
past week and are excited for what we can achieve this transfer. 
We gave a blessing of comfort and counsel to a very distraught Sister, and
as I acted voice for the blessing, I was overwhelmed... I cannot fully
explain what I was feeling but I think it touched the realms of the
love Heavenly Father has for this Sister, his concern and fatherly
care. I was choked up and brought to tears myself and amazed at the
things I was saying. The priesthood is a very sacred power.

Just yesterday I had another experience in giving a blessing to this
one girl that had a fever and she was crying because of the pain she
was in. The moment I spoke the words "We bless you with a peace for
your body from the illness..." She fell asleep. We we had finished
giving the blessing she was peacefully resting, fast asleep. There is
no doubt in my mind right now about the power in the priesthood. We
have given so many blessings these past weeks and the feelings I have
as we do so are amazing. Sometimes I feel like we are about to burst
through the veil as we give the blessing, it is just exhilarating.
I just love the work we have experienced here in Amlan, and I have
felt an amazing burst of spirituality in my teaching and study and
just everything this last week. It was like I burst through some glass
barrier of spiritual level.
I love it here in Amlan and as a zone leader. Its so much fun!
Miss you all,
and love you all tons!
Elder Taylor Addison Cox