Growing Pains of Faith I Had in the Philippines

This happened a few years ago.

At that time, I planned to go on a mission trip overseas, which was one of my New Year’s goals, but to be honest, I didn’t think it was going to happen. I thought only those with good faith could go for overseas preaching. However, the opportunity to achieve the goal came sooner than I had thought; I was able to participate in the short-term mission trip to the Philippines.

I arrived in the Philippines with a big dream. However, it did not take long to realize the wall of the reality. It was November, but it was still so hot that I got a headache just by walking for half an hour. The extremely hot weather, which I had never experienced before, tormented me, but what was more difficult was the tight schedule. Our team preached the gospel for three months, traveling around three areas, including Cabanatuan in the province of Nueva Ecija located in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines. As we didn’t have much time in each region, we had to save time as much as possible. While running here and there, I ran out of my physical strength. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t expect it to be that difficult.

The smile on my face gradually disappeared, and I dozed off whenever I had a chance. I got sensitive even to the team members’ small jokes. I spent three weeks like that. Then what the team leader reminded us of woke me up.

“Not only preaching the word of the Bible, but also delivering the love of Mother is part of our mission. The local brothers and sisters regard us as the ambassadors of Mother and feel the love of Mother through us.”

We had been preaching by teaming up with the local members near the preaching area. Looking back, I had only focused on preaching and never shared Mother’s love with them. I just showed my tiredness, let alone love. Thinking how I had behaved to the members and to Heavenly Mother, I felt so bad to tears.

I always believed that I was a positive person. But it was only when I had no hardships. In the different situations, my true nature was exposed. It was shocking to my different self from what I had known. On the other hand, I thought there must be God’s will to send me to the Philippines; it was to let me realize what I lacked. If I had stayed in Korea, I would never have known it.

From that day on, I didn’t stand back with an excuse that I was tired. As if I was asking for forgiveness to the brothers and sisters who must’ve been disappointed in me, I tried to take the lead in difficult works and show a smile to them. They were genuinely happy to see my changes. I, too, was happy. Preaching was so exciting that a day went by so fast; I ran here and there to preach the gospel to even one more person who didn’t know Heavenly Mother. Then I met a precious heavenly family member. It is Sister Tamara. From the day after she received the truth, she came to Zion every day to study the Bible, and even cleaned the church and volunteered to help in the kitchen. She was truly a prepared worker.

While sharing Heavenly Mother’s love with the brothers and sisters and crying and laughing together, the time to go back to Korea came. My heart ached. Since we had multiple preaching regions, we kept meeting brothers and sisters and saying goodbye to them, but I could never get used to saying goodbye. Thanks to that, I was filled with hope to stay with the loving family members of Zion in the eternal kingdom of heaven.

Through my short-term mission to the Philippines, my weak faith became firm in the love of Heavenly Mother. I am thankful even for the growing pains that made the vessel of my faith grow. As a young adult, I will grow spiritually and have greater faith.