Eat the Whole Pie Shill - 30 March 2026

 

Well good morning, afternoon, and evening to my wonderful family and friends.

I have in fact survived yet another week in the mission field, however this week we took some casualties: not necessarily a bad thing, however, difficult non the less. What was the casualty? Any amount of confidence or pride I had in my ability to teach the gospel, and teach it in another language.

Before I get into that however, there were some other things that happened this week. We started off with a District Blitz where all 10 Elders go to one area and do finding for that area. This was brutal. We knocked every single house that we passed and I don't think I have ever been in a less interested or welcoming part of this country. However, we did find this weird statue place that freaked me out kinda-- I'll add photos to the album. I also hear someone playing Space Song by Beach House, in the same statue garden, weirdly enough. 

Wednesday and Thursday were just a grind, contacting all the people that were found in our area during the district blitz, we got punted (or rejected/they didn’t answer) a plethora of times. It was not very encouraging but looking back in the calendar is nice, because we literally just did everything we could. So ya its ok I guess.

Then Friday came along, and this is when it all changed.

On this day, we have interviews with our mission President and we had to do a practice teaching a lesson to his wife. Now, when it came my turn to do the practice teaching, let me tell you, it already started off bad. My companion got called into his interview right as it was time to start, so it was just me, a lone foreigner, trying to teach in Tagalog while everyone watched. So I started the lesson, she gave me a scenario where she had attended church and she like the sacrament, so I started talking and immediately the Filipinos started laughing cause I had switched up some Tagalog grammar, and after that, it all when down hill. I was rather embarrassed when they started laughing and nervous so when I went to share a scripture, I said a different verse than what I said we were gonna read. Ya, idk it was bad. Anyways, after that I immediately go into my interview with President and at the end of my 2 minute interview he says, "Shill, teach me about Prophets." My initial reaction was like huh? I did not sign up for this. So I start teach and when I get to the scripture, he just stops me. I thought he was going to correct my choice of a scripture cause it was from the Bible, turns out the scripture was the only thing he liked. He proceeded to change my entire teaching method for Lesson 1 (lowkey I'm not angry) however, it did feel like a slap in the face from God.

So the title, Eat the Whole Pie Shill: Elder Thatcher in my last area always said we have to take a bite of the humble pie sometimes, and I would like to add sometimes you don’t even have to try, sometimes God will just force feed you the whole thing.

Anyways, it's been really cool though, because now I'm really trying hard to master tough things and its really kind of illustrating the truth in Ether 12:27

Verse 27: And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I'm going to try my hardest to master teaching and Tagalog this upcoming month and I know that if I give it my best that God will work miracles that could've never happened.

Love you guys and sorry for the rant session, however I felt this needed to be said.

Love you all, take care, and feel free to reach out I would love to hear from you:

alexander.shill@missionary.org

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