FEELINGS, EMOTIONS AND PERSONAL SATISFACTION OF

INDIVIDUALS WHEN HELPING THE UNFORTUNATE:

A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

By

Prof. Jose Maria G. Pelayo III

Sister Deanie Martino

Mr. David Martino

INTRODUCTION

This research study discovered the effects on individuals

when helping other people. It aims to enlighten and inspire

other individuals though the value and satisfaction of giving,

assisting and helping. It will try to persuade that even in your

own small way you can make a difference in the society. Empathy

and compassion are essential in our society in order for us to

live in a safe and beautiful world. In every individual, there

is an innate drive to help others in need. It is the focus of

the researcher/s to determine the motivation and patience that

people must possess when helping others. But, most of all, the

purpose of this research study is to indicate the feelings,

emotions and satisfaction reciprocated upon helping other

people.

Prof. Jose Maria G. Pelayo III met Sister Deanie Martino by

chance. Sister Martino had a flat tire, and fortunately Prof.

Pelayo was nearby and overheard what a local traffic enforcer

said to the man helping Sister Martino. They were talking about

the money they would get after helping her since she was a

foreigner. Prof. Pelayo could not accept and could not even

believe that they would take advantage of an elder woman who was

then currently giving out food to street children nearby while

waiting for the man to finish changing the tire. So, the

professor approached Sister and gave her his calling card and

told her that he just works across the street and if she needs

any help, just call. The professor made sure that the local

traffic enforcer and the man helping her change the tire heard

and understood as he reiterated it loud enough for them to hear.

From then on, the professor and Sister Martino had

communication through email. The reseracher/s hope to inspire by

determining through these case studies and analyzing

qualitatively the psychological and spiritual rewards that

individuals acquire when helping the unfortunate. Hopefully, it

would serve as a reference in understanding Abraham Maslow’s

idea on Self – Actualization.

Ms. Le said, “Being inclined to care and help others can

paradoxically be rewarding for the self, even when we’re not

looking for explicit benefits. When we’re caring for others, we

actually feel better about ourselves, we have more self-worth,

and we also feel more satisfaction and love in our

relationships.”1

1 The Benefits of a Communal Orientation Research explains why helping othersmakes us happier. Published on April 16, 2013 by Bjarne Holmes, Ph.D. in Loveby the Numbers

According to one such study that analyzed data from the

German Socio-Economic Panel Survey, a collection of statistics

representing the largest and longest-standing series of

observations on happiness in the world, the trait most strongly

associated with long-term increases in life satisfaction is, in

fact, a persistent commitment to pursuing altruistic goals. That

is, the more we focus on compassionate action, on helping

others, the happier we seem to become in the long run. What’s

more, according to another study, altruism doesn’t just

correlate with an increase in happiness; it actually causes it—

at least in the short term. When psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky

had students perform five acts of kindness of their choosing per

week over the course of six weeks, they reported a significant

increase in their levels of happiness relative to a control

group of students who didn’t.2

BRIEF HISTORY

David and Deanie Martino, from Denton Texas, USA members

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. We were

called by a Prophet of God to serve for the period of three

years in Angeles Philippine mission.We started with 160

missionaries and are now at 225. 60 0f those are sisters.Our

2 How to Reset Your Happiness Set Point The surprising truth about what science says makes us happier in the long term Published on April 21, 2013 byAlex Lickerman, M.D. in Happiness in this World

mission covers from Angeles, to Baler and to Dingalan and

everything in-between. We have missionaries from around the

world who have come to work and to serve without pay but because

they love the Lord Jesus Christ. They do get a living amount,

but their parents are asked to help out with that and or their

home ward (which is a church) where they are from. David is

called as President of the mission, he is in charge of the

training and managing of the missionaries, and their housing,

medical and any other problem that would come up with the help

of Deanie who is referred to as Sister Martino. Our call is for

three years during which time we can not return home except for

extreme emergencies and David when called was asked to stay for

the three years and not return for any reason. There are 21

missions in the Philippines with a membership of 600,000. The

church has been in the Philippines for 50 years.

Our call is from the Lord through a prophet and our job is

to train the future leaders of the church and of the world. Our

missionaries carry a message to the people of the Philippines

that there was an apostasy or a falling away from Christ's

original church when the apostles died there was no authority to

act for God so man made up their own rules and changed what they

didn't like. We believe and teach that God the Father and Jesus

Christ came to a young boy Joseph Smith and gave him a book, The

Book of Mormon, Another Witness of Jesus Christ, and through

him they set up the Gospel again on the earth. We believe and

teach that God speaks to man through his prophet, just like

Moses and Abraham.We also believe that we are each entitled to

person revelation to govern our own lives. We know this to be

the truth and that is the reason we would leave children a

comfortable home and life style and everything that is familiar

to accept a call to serve by a Prophet of God.We love this

gospel with all our hearts. We know it, we love it, and we live

it. These young missionaries are 18-21 years old a few older

preaching the gospel in a foreign tongue because God said, " by

simple things great things will be brought to pass. These are

very simple young people and yet they are doing a great work,

and we are so thankful to be a part of it. We do not get paid,

we get an amount to live on, but there is no amount of money

that someone could offer me that would make me turn down this

wonderful opportunity to serve. Our priorities in life are l.

God 2. Spouse 3. Children and family 4. Community and the World.

We believe that we are our brother's keeper and God expects us

to take care of people in need. We use the Bible along with the

Book Of Mormon so we have two witness for Jesus Christ. The

Bible is a record of the people who lived in Jerusalem and the

Book of Mormon is a record of the people who lived in America,

each bear Testimony of Jesus Christ.

Professor Jose Maria G. Pelayo III is one of my OYMs and

missionaries have visited him with no success. This

questionnaire and the research project, which was his idea, may

be the Lord's way to touch his heart to want to know more.

RELATED LITERATURE

This paper examines how the Daily Spiritual Experiences

Scale (DSES) relates to a range of prosocial behaviors, using a

large, nationally representative U.S. data set. It finds that

daily spiritual experiences are a statistically and

substantively significant predictor of volunteering, charitable

giving, and helping individuals one knows personally. Daily

spiritual experiences better predict helping to distant others

than to friends and family, indicating that they may motivate

helping by fostering an extensive definition of one's moral

community. The relationship between the DSES and helping is not

moderated by sympathy and is robust to the inclusion of most

religiosity measures. However, the relationship becomes non-

significant for most helping behaviors when measures of

meditation, prayer, and mindfulness are included in a regression

equation. The DSES is particularly effective in predicting

helping behaviors among people who do not belong to a religious

congregation, indicating that it may measure spiritual

motivations for helping among people who are not conventionally

religious.3

3 . Daily Spiritual Experiences and Prosocial Behavior Author(s): Einolf, Christopher J.Source: Social Indicators Research, v110 n1 p71-87 Jan 2013 PubDate: 2013-01-00

Given the passivity of many adolescents upon witnessing

peer victimization, the goal of this study was to evaluate the

features of school-based peer victimization events that promote

helping. A sample of 470 early adolescents (52% girls; 71%

White, 9% Black, 6% Latino, 2% Asian, 1% American Indian, 8%

Multiethnic, and 3% Other) reported likelihood of helping and

specific helping and non-helping behaviors with an experimental

vignette method and through descriptions of recently witnessed

real-life victimization events. With both methods, an

adolescent's relationship with the victim predicted likelihood

of helping and specific helping behaviors above and beyond the

contribution of other key personal characteristics including

gender, empathy, communal goal orientation, and previous

victimization experiences. Examination of adolescents' real-life

experiences yielded systematic patterns between their responses

and their reasoning about the responses undertaken. The results

illustrate the relevance of taking into account peer

victimization event characteristics for promoting witness

intervention in adolescence.4

Human adults will sometimes help without being asked to

help, including in situations in which the helpee is oblivious

to the problem and thus provides no communicative or behavioral

4 A Two-Method Investigation of Early Adolescents' Responses upon Witnessing Peer Victimization in School Author(s): Bellmore, Amy; Ma, Ting-Lan; You, Ji-in; Hughes, Maria Source: Journal of Adolescence, v35 n5 p1265-1276 Oct 2012 Pub Date: 2012-10-00

cues that intervention is necessary. Some theoretical models

argue that these acts of "proactive helping" are an important

and possibly human-specific form of prosociality. Two

experiments examined whether young children proactively help in

a situation where an adult did not provide any concurrent

behavioral cues that help was needed. Specifically, in

Experiment 1 an experimenter either dropped an object without

noticing (experimental condition) or on purpose (control). Even

though children were bystanders engaged in their own task, they

spontaneously intervened by helping instrumentally in the

experimental condition in the absence of concurrent behavioral

cues from the actor (significantly more often than in the

control condition). These acts increased significantly from 21

to 31 months of age, probably reflecting children's emerging

social-cognitive capacities to represent goal-directed action.

Experiment 2 replicated proactive helping in 2-year-olds in a

more closely matched comparison in which in both experimental

and control conditions the actor did not notice the accident,

and children thus had to infer whether help was needed from the

actor's previous responses alone. This result shows that

children are able to infer a need for intervention on concurrent

situational cues, without behavioral or communicative cues by

the helpee. These results indicate that proactive prosociality

might be a characteristic of early human ontogeny, emerging in

children as young as two years of age.5

5 Young Children Proactively Remedy Unnoticed Accidents Author(s): Warneken,Felix Source: Cognition, v126 n1 p101-108 Jan 2013 Pub Date: 2013-01-00

As different competencies or professional backgrounds may

affect the quality of program implementation, staffing is a

critical issue in home visiting. In this study, N = 430 women

received home visits delivered either by a tandem of a midwife

and a social worker or by only one home visitor (primarily

midwives, continuous model). The groups were compared in a

quasi-experimental design on level of participation,

implementation of the contents, and clients' responsiveness

during pregnancy and child's first year of life. Trends towards

a higher dropout rate and lower ratings of the helping

relationship indicate an increased challenge to retain a strong

working alliance in the tandem model. This is attributable to a

stronger orientation towards the participants' interest in the

continuous model, whereas treatment fidelity in the tandem model

is higher. Recommendations to improve the helping relationship

in the tandem model are given.6

This study examines the literacy practices of Mormon

missionaries and articulates the way in which these practices

are then incorporated into the literacy practices outside of

missionary work. This study also seeks to situate the study of

the literacy practices and sponsorship of Mormon missionaries

within the broader field of Literacy Studies, arguing that a

6 Implementation Differences of Two Staffing Models in the German Home Visiting Program "Pro Kind" Author(s): Brand, Tilman; Jungmann, Tanja Source:Journal of Community Psychology, v40 n8 p891-905 Nov 2012 Pub Date: 2012-11-00

study of Mormon missionary literacy practices will not only

complement current studies, but can also enhance understanding

of the role that institutions like religion play in literacy

sponsorship. This study focuses on the missionary training

guide, Preach My Gospel, but will also incorporate other texts

that are described or are related to the literacy events

described in Preach My Gospel. This study is textual in nature

but will also incorporate personal experience as a means of

setting the study in context. As the primary text for training

missionaries, Preach My Gospel is an effective artifact to study

the literacy practices of missionaries. This study argues that

Missionary literacy practices are worth attention outside the

Church because they can transfer to situations and contexts

outside of the Missionary context, especially pedagogical

contexts.7

This article analyzes the ideals and principles that

organize American evangelical Christians' work in Africa. Based

on field research conducted among a group of American

restorationist missionaries working in Kenya and Tanzania, the

author argues that the education-oriented work of these

missionaries is paradoxically socially encompassing, yet

excluding. Missionaries themselves anticipate that their

7 "For Our Profit and Learning": The Literacy Practices of Mormon Missionaries Author(s): Sloop, John Paul Source: ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Texas A&M University – Commerce Pub Date: 2011-00-00

educational programs will help to connect Africans with a global

community and that by evangelizing quietly, through actions more

so than through words, they can establish a sustainable church

that has buy-in at the grassroots level. On the ground, however,

these missionaries' work is neither fully integrative nor well

established. Yet globalization, indigeneity, grassroots-focus,

and sustainability are powerful organizing tropes that carry

these missionaries' projects forward.8

In the years after the Civil War, there were millions of

newly-freed Black children and adults who emerged from slavery

worn, but eager and determined to get something they never had--

a chance to learn how to read the Bible, write their names and

words on a page, and be educated. Even before the Civil War,

some Blacks in the North were pressing their way forward into

church-basements-turned-schools and rough-hewn wood frame rooms

established just for them mostly by benevolent White Christians.

In 1837, the largess of a Quaker philanthropist established

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, which began as the African

Institute, a school for Black children. But years later,

religious leaders, local churches, missionaries, and

denominations were descending across the South in the 19th

century, believing that it was worth it to spend their time and

money and do the right thing when they decided to establish

8 . Pedagogy and the Paradox of American Evangelical Involvement in East African Schools Author(s): Stambach, Amy Source: Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v31 n3 p295-306 Jul 2010 Pub Date: 2010-07-00

seminaries, classrooms, colleges, and even medical schools for

Blacks. Led by their "consciences and hearts," the Board of

Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church declared they would

act to rescue and educate Blacks. They did not wait for Southern

states to decide whether they were going to "make some provision

for the education of the colored children now growing up in

utter ignorance in their midst." With the support of the

Freedman's Aid Society, the United Methodist Church (UMC)

responded by establishing 70 schools in the South and Southeast

for Blacks between 1866 and 1882. Eleven of them remain. Today,

Bennett College for women, Bethune-Cookman University, Claflin

University, Clark Atlanta University, Dillard University,

Huston-Tillotson University, Meharry Medical College, Paine

College, Philander Smith College, Rust College, and Wiley

College are affiliated with the UMC.9

The article traces the fundamental incoherency that

structured the Danish Missionary Society's work at a boarding

school for low-caste "heathen" children in South India in the

1860s and 1870s. Through elaborate disciplinary methods, the

missionaries set out to Christianize and civilize the Indian

children's morality, social behaviour and bodily comportment.

Yet, the missionaries' perceptions of "the Indian child" also

reflected the contemporary bolstering of racial thinking in

9 . Echoes of Faith Author(s): Hawkins, B. Denise Source: Diverse: Issues inHigher Education, v29 n12 p14-15 Jul 2012 Pub Date: 2012-07-19

Indian colonial society, resulting in doubts whether Indian

children could in fact become true Christians. This paradoxical

endeavour shows how children became a site for the production of

difference that sustained colonialism.10

Background: This paper challenges the dominant story of

Protestant and Catholic conflict by illustrating the critical

role that mission schools played in creating denominational

consensus in the West. Focus: Protestant and Catholic

missionaries cast aside their differences as they worked toward

common goals to "civilize," Christianize, and "Americanize"

natives on reservations like Rosebud. United as whites against

indigenous "others," these predominantly female missionaries

forged new, interdenominational conceptions of American identity

through their work in western mission schools. Research Design:

The article offers historical analysis and interpretation.

Conclusions: Despite a long historiography emphasizing conflict

between these groups, this study of a Protestant school and a

Catholic school on Rosebud at the turn of the twentieth century

provides new perspectives on the Americanization process at the

center of schooling during this period. This examination of

missionary education adds to our understanding of educative

efforts among Native Americans in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries by illustrating how religion, and religious

10 Adam's Escape: Children and the Discordant Nature of Colonial Conversions Author(s): Vallgarda, Karen A. Source: Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research, v18 n3 p298-315 Aug 2011 Pub Date: 2011-08-00

denominationalism, operated on the frontier. Against a long

history of missionary work in the West and denominational

conflict in the East, Protestants and Catholics alike affirmed

their own "American" identity through their work on Rosebud.11

Background: Empathy is an individual's capacity to

understand the behavior of others, to experience their feelings,

and to express that understanding to them. Empathic ability is

an asset professionally for individuals, such as teachers,

physicians and social workers, who work with people. Being

empathetic is also critical to our being able to live with

others in general, and ultimately to leading happier lives.

Subsequently it seems imperative to examine if and how it is

possible to enhance people's empathic ability. Purpose: The

purpose of this article is to use narrative review method to

analyze studies of empathy training in human service and social

science disciplines over the past thirty years to address the

questions: "How have people been trained in empathy and what are

the findings?" and "How was empathy training evaluated and how

valid are these evaluation findings?" Setting: Not applicable.

Intervention: Not applicable. Research Design: Not applicable.

Data Collection and Analysis: Narrative review. Findings:

Twenty-nine articles pertaining to empathy training evaluation

11 Americanizing the West: Protestant and Catholic Missionary Education on theRosebud Reservation, 1870-1920 Author(s): Bennison, Sarah Machiels Source: Teachers College Record, v113 n3 p431-462 2011 Pub Date: 2011-00-00

research were identified based on an advanced computer search on

the following databases: "Education Full Text," "ProQuest

Education Journals," "Web of Knowledge" and "Educational

Resources Information Center" (ERIC). Seven types of training

methods were noted in these 29 evaluations with the most popular

being didactic related (42%). All but two studies (93%) reported

positive findings, mainly in regard to learning (86%), or the

cognitive component of empathy. These findings suggest that

regardless of the training method, individuals can learn about

the concept of empathy. Unfortunately, information pertaining to

the effects of training on individuals' feeling for others, and

their ability and propensity to take the perspective of others

and to demonstrate it in the natural environments is lacking.

Consequently, very little is known about the trainability of the

affective and behavioral components of empathy. Also, some of

the findings were moderated by gender, age, education level, and

time of measurement. Regarding evaluation research designs, most

of the studies used self-reporting to collect trainees'

knowledge about empathy and most of the quantitative studies

used a control group and pretesting to examine training impact.

Construct validity of both empathy measurement and training is

very problematic. A majority of the studies did not clearly

define empathy, provide training as defined, and/or measure what

is being trained; conceptualization of empathy across studies

was not consistent either. In sum, data from the studies

reviewed were neither complete nor valid enough to provide a

clear and full understanding of the trainability of empathy.

More research is apparently needed and hopefully lessons learned

from our review will be considered in designing future studies.12

This study investigated how 2 different rating conditions,

the controlled rating condition (CRC) and the uncontrolled

rating condition (URC), effected rater behavior and the

reliability of a performance assessment (PA) known as the

Missionary Teaching Assessment (MTA). The CRC gives raters the

capability to manipulate (pause, rewind, fast-forward) video

recordings of an examinee's performance as they rate while the

URC does not give them this capability (i.e., the rater must

watch the recording straight through without making any

manipulations). Few studies have compared the effect of these

two rating conditions on ratings. Ryan et al. (1995) analyzed

the impact of the CRC and URC on the accuracy of ratings, but

few, if any, have analyzed its impact on reliability. The

Missionary Teaching Assessment is a performance assessment used

to assess the teaching abilities of missionaries for the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Missionary Training

Center. In this study, 32 missionaries taught a 10-minute lesson

that was recorded and later rated by trained raters based on a

rubric containing 5 criteria. Each teaching sample was rated by

12 Empathy Training: Methods, Evaluation Practices, and Validity Author(s): Lam, Tony Chiu Ming; Kolomitro, Klodiana; Alamparambil, Flanny C. Source: Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, v7 n16 p162-200 Jul 2011 Pub Date: 2011-07-00

4 of 6 raters. Two of the 4 ratings were rated using the CRC and

2 using the URC. Camtasia Studio (2010), a screen capture

software, was used to record when raters used any type of

manipulation. The recordings were used to analyze if raters

manipulated the recordings and if so, when and how frequently.

Raters also performed think-alouds following a random sample of

the ratings that were performed using the CRC. These data

revealed that when raters had access to the CRC they took

advantage of it the majority of the time, but they differed in

how frequently they manipulated the recordings. The CRC did not

add an exorbitant amount of time to the rating process. The

reliability of the ratings was analyzed using both

generalizability theory (G theory) and many-facets Rasch

measurement (MFRM). Results indicated that, in general, the

reliability of the ratings obtained from the 2 rating conditions

were not statistically significantly different from each other.

The implications of these findings are addressed.13

Background/Context: Educational historians have given a

great deal of attention to the early-twentieth-century growth,

development, and implementation of liberal progressive

educational theories and techniques. However, with the exception

of a few scholars, they have devoted far less attention to the

religious dimensions of liberal progressive educational thought.

13 The Effect of Raters and Rating Conditions on the Reliability of the Missionary Teaching Assessment Author(s): Ure, Abigail C.Source: ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Brigham Young University Pub Date: 2011-00-00

This gap has tended to blind scholars to the reality that

liberal Protestantism was an important source and ally of the

progressive education movement. This article seeks to combat

this neglect by looking at the potent interpenetration of

liberal progressive religion and liberal progressive education

between 1917 and 1940, specifically focusing on this

relationship at Teachers College and Union Theological Seminary.

Teachers College progressive educators such as John Dewey, John

Childs, William Kilpatrick, and Goodwin Watson were deeply

influenced by and sympathetic toward the social gospel and its

roots in Protestant modernism. At the same time, a group of

academic religious educators, many across the street at Union

Theological Seminary, found progressive education the ideal

companion for their religious perspectives. Dissolving dualisms

between the sacred and the secular, public and religious

progressive educators created a shared "common faith" that

allowed them to collaborate on a number of practical educational

efforts in schools and religious organizations.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article

seeks both to demonstrate the strong cooperative relationships

between liberal progressive religious and public educators at

Teachers College and Union Theological Seminary between 1917 and

1940 and to explain the theoretical and organizational basis for

these relationships. The article, therefore, looks specifically

at the institutional growth of this alliance, the theoretical

underpinnings of these connections, and two of the collaborative

efforts emerging from this coalition. Research Design: This

article attempts to make its argument through historical

analysis, the data secured chiefly through archival research,

and the analysis of primary historical documents.

Conclusions/Recommendations: In the end, I contend that

progressives in public and religious education were able to

cooperate so fully because they all possessed "a common faith."

With a unified philosophical platform devoid of dualisms,

liberal progressives with religious interests forged a joint

perspective on education designed to elevate the descriptive and

procedural components of the democratic life. The Kingdom of God

proved to be a powerful image of the ideal democracy and a

powerful representation of religion and education working

together to build a better world. It is recommended that future

scholars continue to look in other parts of the country and

among other individuals to trace these powerful cooperative

relationships, thus restoring the place of religion as an

important source and ally of progressive education14

"Writings of Healing and Resistance: Empathy and the

Imagination-Intellect" is a multi-authored, interdisciplinary

journey. It continues the work started in Public Education and

the Imagination-Intellect (Peter Lang, 2003) by extending the

14 "More Religion in Education and More Education in Religion": Liberal Progressivism and the Educational "Common Faith," 1917-1940 Author(s): Setran, David P. Source: Teachers College Record, v114 n1 2012 Pub Date: 2012-00-00

importance of empathy in developing an action-based social

consciousness. Mary E. Weems doesn't argue for a specific way of

pursuing an empathy connected to mind, body, and spirit: She

acknowledges that just as artists work in various media, each

with their own process for sharing how they think and feel about

a particular topic or moment, each individual may arrive in

their own way at a deep, spiritual, close identification with

the experiences of the other. "Writings of Healing and

Resistance" encompasses a variety of forms: autoethnography,

ethnodrama, poetic inquiry, and critical essay, as well as

scholars' work in a number of disciplines including

communications, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology,

educational leadership, African American studies, and cultural

foundations. This book contains the following: (1) Introduction:

Hope, Pedagogy and the Imagination-Intellect (Norman K. Denzin);

(2) One Love: Empathy and the Imagination-Intellect (Mary E.

Weems); (3) A Space for Imagination: The Power of Group Process

and Reflective Writing to Cultivate Empathy for Self and Others

(Susan V. Iverson); (4) Anarchic Thinking in Acupuncture's

Origins: The Body as a Site for Cultivating Imagination-

Intellect (Mitra Emad); (5) Call and Response: Writing to Answer

the Urge of a Bruised Spirit (Dominique C. Hill); (6) The

Kindness of [Medical] Strangers: An Ethnopoetic Account of

Embodiment, Empathy, and Engagement (Elyse Pineau); (7) The

Poetics of Black Mother-Womanhood (Amira Davis); (8) Stop in the

Name of: An Auto/ethnographic Response to Violence against Black

Women (Mary E. Weems); (9) A Telephone Call (Norman K. Denzin);

(10) Tell It: A Contemporary Chorale for Black Youth Voices

(Durrell Callier); (11) Tasseography as a Healing Practice:

Education in a Post-Racial Classroom (Akil Houston); (12) What

Does It Mean to Be a Nigger in the Academy? (Mary E. Weems);

(13) Migrant Stories: Searching for Healing in Autoethnographies

of Diaspora (Marcelo Diversi and Claudio Moreira); and (14) In

Trouble: Desire, Deleuze, and the Middle-Aged Man (Jonathan

Wyatt).15

METHODOLOGY

A. Participants

The respondents of the study are eight (8) members of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints from the

Philippines and the United States.

B. Instruments Used

An open-ended questionnaire was used to gather data from

the respondents.

C. Analysis

15 . Writings of Healing and Resistance: Empathy and the Imagination-Intellect. Culture Critique. Volume 7 Author(s): Weems, Mary E., Ed. Source: Peter Lang New York Pub Date: 2013-00-00

Qualitative Cross-case analysis has identified the common

general themes of the respondents on their feelings, emotions

and self satisfaction when helping the unfortunate population.

Descriptive method and thematic coding are also utilized in the

study for the results and conclusions.

RESULTS

Based on the data gathered, descriptive, qualitative and

thematic analysis, all of the respondents are inspired in

helping other people specially the unfortunate. 100% of the

respondents‘ answers are always optimistic and inspiring

Participants also have cited the importance of helping, sharing,

giving and spreading the Gospel as an important tool, essential

for most of them to make a difference in this world.

Positive attitude and empathy are also indicated by the

analysis. The true meaning of wanting to help was eminent in the

results of the study. As missionaries, nothing is expected in

return on their missions. The respondents are more than willing

to help in any way possible just to make an individual or a

community better. The researcher acknowledges the fact that the

gathered information is filled with the inspiration of the

Gospel.

CONCLUSION

Themes, Trends and Patterns from the data gathered:

A. THE IMPORTANCE OF HELPING PEOPLE.

I think that the importance of helping other people comes

from understanding their importance in the eyes of God. When we

understand our relationship with our brothers and sisters, we

will naturally feel inclined to help when we are able and

needed.

Helping other people is important to me because I have been

blessed with so much that I need to help others in order to

truly so thanks for the blessings I have received. We live in a

world where people around us need our help on a daily basis.

Also if we expect others to help us when we are in need we much

also be willing to offer our service to them.

Every human being has the need to feel loved and important

to someone. In order to fulfill that need we help and serve one

another. As someone who is less fortunate is helped by someone

more fortunate they feel loved and empowered. Also, when someone

of a higher status helps someone of lower status it reminds them

of the importance of humility and the need to help those who

have not.

It benefits the helper and the one receiving help in both

ways. It is a win-win situation. The helper receives self-

satisfaction and gains more friends and associates, and gets to

feel what heaven really is like. The helper will feel the same

feeling God is having when God gives and helps. On the other

hand, the one receiving help is feeling hopeful and grateful as

he/she graciously receives it with all his/her heart.

It’s simply the essence of our becoming like the Savior. As

we serve and help the people around us, we are in many ways

serving our God. We are sent here on earth to strengthen our

brethren as God does to each of us and by helping our brothers

and sisters, we become as He is. Serving and helping is the best

way to show them our love no matter the circumstance.

I think that every human being has an innate desire to be

loved. We as humans long for interaction with one another and we

seek for acceptance and a sense of belonging. With that in mind,

the importance of helping others is the most important way we

can improve our society.

It is important to help others, because when we serve

others, we are only in the service of our God, the Father of all

people.

B. MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE SOCIETY.

If everyone were to be involved and willing to help each

other, the world would be a happier place. People wouldn’t feel

alone. Simple acts of kindness have the capacity to completely

change the direction of a person’s day in a positive way.

Absolutely yes, society would change dramatically if

everyone would go about doing good to others around them. People

would be happier, families would be closer and we would be more

concerned about other people than themselves or other worldly

things.

The more a person feels of his worth the more they desire

to help others. Service is a reciprocal process- you serve

someone, who then serves another, who serves another and so on

until you again are the recipient. As time goes by even those

small things will change the world.

Think of all those people who are in dire need right at

this moment or those people who are hopeless and helpless and

sorrowful or just those who need to feel loved. What a blessing

it is if everybody serves and loves everybody and set aside

greediness and envy and all those selfish desires. The world

will definitely will be a better place to live in!

It sure will. People naturally become more loving when they

serve and when they are served as well. That is what we need

most in our society right now. Genuine love not for money, for

societal appraisal, nor for any commission, but that kind of

love that’s from the heart and with all godly intentions with

it. We don’t have anyone except each other so why not help and

lift each other up.

Helping others makes all the difference in our society. The

improvement in a community starts with the individual deciding

to make it a better place by serving others. The problems caused

with crime rates, abuse, pollution, and many others would be

reduced if we all just look after each other. When we are

willing to contribute our little part to our society, the entire

society as a whole benefits.

Yes it will. If everyone serves their kapwa tao, the world

would literally have no problems. The world has enough resources

for all of us and we all have unique skills that if brought

together can solve any problem.

C. THE BENEFITS OF HELPING THE UNFORTUNATE.

When I have the opportunity helping others, it makes me

feel happy inside. To think that I could have been a part of

someone elses‘ happiness makes me feel warm inside, and

grateful.

I feel joy in my heart as if I have done my part to make

the world a better place. Nothing causes more joy than a smile

and a simple thank you from a person that you sincerely helped.

It is the most fulfilling and amazing feeling to know that

you have changed someone’s life for the better even in the

smallest way. I love to serve. It helps me to be selfless always

and not to be self-centered. I feel empowered to love and to

serve no matter the person.

First off, I am just grateful that I can be of assistance

to my brothers and sisters, it just touches your heart everytime

you give. The world is a lonely place to live in if not (and

thanks to them anyway) for those people who really cares about

people, their lives will never be the same. The same as with my

own. I am just craving to serve more and to touch more lives.

That is just how Gospel works when applied and when shared.

That’s the real path of discipleship towards Christ.

The greatest feeling brought from serving is the joy that

can’t be bought with any amount of money. It’s the satisfaction

I feel when I know the Lord made me an instrument of blessing

the lives of others. When we see them smile right after we’ve

served them, our hearts are filled with uncomprehendable

happiness as well. I know that when I serve others, my Father in

Heaven is proud of me.

I feel like I am fulfilling my purpose here on earth as I

serve others. It reminds me to prioritize what is most important

in life, which in a world that is slowly going numb to the needs

of others, is simply love and charity. When show those around me

that I love them through my service I know that I am

contributing my small part to better my society.

I feel like I am really doing the right thing when I see

people’s lives changed by our message and service.

D. MISSIONS AND PROGRAMS CONDUCTED AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE

RESPONDENTS.

As missionaries, we have ample opportunities to give

service. This comes through daily opportunities to serve as we

see others in need, through planned service projects, and I

believe that our biggest opportunity of service comes through

sharing the gospel with others. All opportunities to serve give

me a sense that I am fulfilling my duty to God. However, being

able to share God‘s teaching with others gives me great feelings

of spiritual satisfactions; especially when I see others develop

a desire to be a better person because of some truth that I have

shared. For example, we had the opportunity to teach a sister

about how God reaches out to us through a modern day Prophet

named Joseph Smith, and that because God loves us, He revealed

to us through this prophet a commandment to refrain from

substances that harm our body. She had previously been addicted

to cigarette smoking and coffee. When she learned this truth,

she developed faith to quit. She has a new glow about her, and

says that she is happy. I find happiness in seeing her happiness

and the change of pace of her life. I have seen family lives

change, become happier, and develop peace in the home because of

the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is hard to explain the joy

that I feel to see such things happen.

Again the word is JOY, not just pleasing or satisfaction

but an overwhelming joy that comes from God. Often helping and

service means sacrifice of time, efforts, money. This is

probably the reason some choose not to serve as much as they

should but that sacrifice is what really shows you love the

people and are helping them with sincerity. It really does make

you feel good inside, so the more you serve the more you feel

that goodness which is something I always want to feel. Here on

my mission I have sacrificed 2 years, family/friends, education

and money in order to serve. For many that wouldn’t seem worth

it but if you truly understand the eternal joy that comes from

helping others come closer into Christ then 2 years is a very

small price for the blessings that you will receive.

As a missionary there is a different kind of work and

fulfillment. As you first meet a person who is tired, depressed,

sad and lonely and you teach them of Jesus Christ and His Gospel

that is what changes their lives into happy, serviceable,

contributing members of whatever society they are in. I have

seen this always for the past one year. When we are all trying

to be like the Savior Jesus Christ, the world will change. I

love it. I have never felt so blessed myself for the service I

have rendered. Whenever we are selfless we receive so much more

than we have given. That is the beauty of service. We give and

we receive 100 times more than we gave-that is the compensation

and the motivation to continue to serve and to love everyone.

No words can describe my feelings when I feel joy. You

cannot be essentially happy without helping somebody. You just

can’t! There’s simply no way that we will feel satisfied with

life if we don’t help others feel the goodness of it. I am just

eternally grateful that I had this opportunity to learn for

myself the real spirit of Christmas everyday of my life. You

can’t know what I am feeling unless you experienced it yourself.

The very compensation we get from serving in our mission is

the relationship we get from the people and especially with the

Savior Jesus Christ. We serve people by helping them come unto

Christ, teaching them what faith is, repentance, baptism by one

holding the authority of God, enjoy the gift of the Holy ghost

and usher them to the right path of enduring to the end. The

best satisfaction we get from it is when we know that God

answered their prayers because of us. A lot of them are going

through deep hedges in life, and its amazing how the gospel that

we bring to their lives gives them enough hope to go on and look

forward for the future.

The reality of service is that through your willigness to

serve others, you in turn are being blessed often times even

more than those you are serving. This is why some claim it is

impossible to develop a truly altruistic characteristic. They

claim that there is always a selfish reason why we are motivated

to serve others, but I honestly believe that when we feel of the

pure love that Christ has for us we can develop this altruistic

characteristic in our lives.

The emotions of gratitude, love, satisfaction, and

fulfillment that come from serving missions cannot simply be

expressed in words. No missionary has ever succeeded in

expressing exactly what emotions and experiences they’ve had in

the time that they’ve sacrificed in the service of others. There

is just too much. All I have to say is that lives change as you

demonstrate the true love of Christ through your service to

others and there is no greater satisfaction that you will feel

than when you see people converted to Him.

I feel grateful for the chance to serve others and through

this mission have learned many things that I will use the rest

of my life. I feel joy when the people we teach come to know the

truth through prayer and through their own efforts.

REFERENCES

A. Books

Social Psychology 5th edition. Brehm, S., Kassin, S., Fein,

S. (2002)

Philiosophy of Man Selected Readings 2nd edition. Dy, M.

Jr. (2001)

Sociology International Edition 10th edition. Macionis, J.

(2005)

Teenage Life Enjoyment and Challenges. King, J. (2002)

The Book of Mormon Another Testamant of Jesus Christ.

Smith, J. (1981)

Holy Bible placed by the Gideons. (1908)

What does the Bible really Teach? American Bible Society

(2005)

Our Daily Bread RBC Ministries (2012)

The wisdom of Buddhism. Humphreys, C. (1960)

Manual of Zen Buddhism. Suzuki, D. T. (1960)

B. Internet

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-the-numbers/

201304/the-benefits-communal-orientation

http://www.eric.ed.gov/

http://www.davidpublishing.com/davidpublishing/journals/

J8/Psychology2011/physi2011/514.html

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/psychology-

psychiatry/

http://www.npr.org/sections/research-news/

http://www.apa.org/news/psycport/index.aspx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain/psychology/