Miracles For This Week



I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS!



Feb. 19, 2012
Hi Family! Oh how it brings a smile to my face every
monday when I get to read your letters! I have soo
much to report on here! Its been a crazy, but fantastic
week! Mom to answer your question "hindi ko alam"
means "I dont know" hahaha and I didn't realize
I was saying some things in tagalog...I will try
and not! haha Sorry...guess it's a good  problem to
have though! :)
Um...where to begin. Ah yes, this sunday Tommy,
our baptism last week received the priesthood! Yay!
He was soo proud, he went out and bought a white
shirt and nice dress pants and shoes and he is wearing
it to church now...I have never seen someone stand
soo tall in sacrament as they read his name saying he
had recieved the Aaronic Priesthood! And of course,
Sis. Fajardo and I were beaming as well! :) I got to
sit up on the stand again...because of course I was
a speaker in sacrament meeting...only this time
they actually assigned topics...yay!
Progress! I was asked to speak on the Atonement...
one of my VERY favorite subjects! I didn't realize the
story before that I shared in my farewell talk was
from Elder C. Scott Grows talk "The Miracle of
the Atonement" and the story I shared was about
his brother who had had the "perfect" life- been
married and sealed in the temple, served a mission,
had a great family, everything going for him but for
whatever reason lost himself to distructive behavior
and lost his family, wife, and even membership in
the church. After more than a decade of being lost,
the Lord had not forgotten him, and he began to
return to the church a be active! Wow...how that
relates to MOST of the less actives that I am teaching
now...I didn't realize I was so inspired before I left...
haha joke-lang! But for real, I shared that talk again
this time...only tried to say it in tagalog. I had a really
hard time, because the first talk I gave here I pretty
much just read the entire time because it was in
tagalog, its hard for me to regress...when in America
I can just talk without a piece of paper in front of me
...its a humbling experience haha that's for sure!
Anyways, I didn't want to read- so I read parts of
the story and a scripture-but I DIDNT READ! I was soo
excited- I just bore testimony and the Lord really did
give me in the very hour what I needed to say. The
spirit was soo strong. For me especially because I got 
up there and just started right off the bat by saying
how grateful I was to be there of course but then
"Alam ko po no maaaring hindi ako makapagsalitang
mabuti sa wikang ito. Pero...tinawag ako ng propeta
ng Diyos para ibahagi ang nalalaman ko. At kaya
ako nandito, ngayon." or in English "I know that I can
not speak this language very well, but I have been
called by a prophet of God to share what I know.
And that is why I am here now." I was crying soo hard
I had to stop and compose myself haha because its true,
 every day I feel that way. That is the biggest challenge
for me. The stinkin language. Yes, I am considered
fluent, yes I can answer questions and teach all the
lessons now....but it's not how I would normally answer
questions and teach in English, and that is frustrating
to me, because I desperatly want to feel like myself.
Anyways, things went ok though yesterday and I was
very grateful...the spirit really does give you in the
very hour what you need. I looked down and saw
Sis. Gloria (tommy's wife) just crying...because she
knows its hard for me...she was the one I taught
on my 3rd day and I actually talked in tagalog...and
it wasn't me doing the talking, I know that. But because
the Lord wanted them to return, for whatever reason,
I was able to communicate with her even my 3rd day
here...and she knows that I am terrible at tagalog...I
guess that's why she was crying too...nah jk...she's
just a very close friend and I love her! :)
I had a couple of realizations this week about how
important it is to listen to the spirit, even in finding
less actives. To know what area to go to, when to go
to it, and what people to search for. The first
week I was here, Sis. Fajardo read to me a list of
names and asked if any stood out to me and there
were 2 that stood out to me, so we went to them.
We visited this family, the Orpia family. They have
a son and daughter that we're teaching the discussions
to, and they want to come to church, but their parents
and older siblings are all inactive, and that' s why we
found them because we were searching for their parents.
They are having a wedding this next month because
their son found out his girlfriend is pregnant...so now
they need to get married. He is 20 years old. His
girlfriend is 18 years old. His life could be so
different had he been active in the church. I remember
our first visit after we found them, which was about
3 months ago now- the mom expressed how much she
wanted her son to go on a mission- which kind of boggled
my mind because she's inactive- if you want your kids
to be active you should probably be active yourself...
just my crazy way of thinkin, but whatever. Anyways,
I remember sister fajardo saying " you can serve a mission
if you want to, but the first step is being active in the
church". haha of course. Anyways...I just think about
now- his girlfriend is 4 months along right now...at
that time he had made some serious mistakes- and if
the missionaries before here would have found them-
they could have maybe prevented this huge
life-altering course that his life is now taking. If only
they had been there sooner. I also had an experience
myself yesterday. My heart crumbled as I found out
that brother Modesto Aquino (91 yrs old) had lost his
wife. She passed away. I remember Sis. Fajardo and
I going to their house one of my first weeks here and
she was completely weak...she couldn't talk,
she couldn't walk, she couldn't hear very well or see
very well...but...Brother Aquino is a member of the
church...and she is not. I remember leaving there
and seriously feeling this overwhelming urgency to get
her baptized. I didn't know how, because I don't want to
baptize her against her will...but she would be kind
of hard to teach considering her current state. haha
Anyways, I told Sis. Fajardo "We NEED to find a way
to get her baptized" Anyways, we tried going to
their house a few times, but Brother always said that
we could come back another time- so we never ended
up teaching them. My heart melted to know she had
passed away,and I did not persue that impression I had
to teach her. So...now I will get all of her information
and at least make sure that the temple work is done
for her. Brother Aquino told us yesterday when we
went to the viewing that now he would be at church
every week, because he didn't have a "hindrence" haha
He is soo cute, seriously the happiest little man I've ever
seen. I think I wrote to you about him and told him how
he was caring for his wife and I started to cry because
thats who I hope I end up with some day, someone who
would take care of me and care about me as much as he
cared about her.
We had Zone Conference this week! So maybe there will
be more pics on her blog Mom! idk...Anyways, it was fun,
 of course! I was sooo excited when I got 3 packages!!!!!
One from Kari! For Valentines day...and it wasn't even
late- I got it Feb 15th...that's basically valentines day!
hhaaha :) The cookies were delicious! :) And...I got a
package from Mom and Dad!!! Yay....I think I've got
enough "after bite" to last my entire mission now!
haha Salamat!!! Also...the M&M's weren't melted at
all...they were totally fine! Good to know :) And last
but not least...I got a package from Amber, Jen, Bud,
Chris, Vanessa, Nel, Misty...all of my amazing friends
from back home! I was sooo extatic...tears came to my
eyes as I saw the box! haha :) The kids loved the
valentines rings Jen sent, and the pillowcases you
made were soo cute! Also...the toilet paper roll with
all the quotes was hilarious! haha :) And just...everything
was soo great! I cannot even tell you how great it is to
have all of you as my friends...and such
an amazingly supportive and just great family! I am sooo
blessed...I cannot believe that my mission is 1/3 of the
way through pretty much...how crazy it is! For our
Zone statistics though I thought it was interesting- since
they've changed the focus to LA now for Feb in the
entire Philippines we taught 45000 lessons! Isn't that
amazing...and we've had 2900 Returned Members now
in the last 2 months since this effort started...to be
considered a returned member you have to return for 4 magkasunod...consecutive sundays then you're
considered returned. It looks like the missionary
efforts are working....and I know with the Lords help,
 they will continue to progress. But as our
Mission President said...it's not really about quantity
...it's quality haha :) Quality lessons, quality members
...quality testimonies...lahat!
Oh...I got to preach by the way to a muslim...haha that
was scary...nah actually he pulled over cuz he saw that
I was white...then started talking to me and I kept talking
in tagalog to him and then he finally said "I dont really
understand much tagalog" hahaha it was really funny
anyways, it was a cool experience!
Ah...Briggs passed his interview, so we have a baptism
this thursday!
We are soo excited!!! Also, we had our first MCM
(missionary coordination meeting)!!! Because now we
have ward and ward assistant missionary leader! Yay!
It felt soo good to coordinate the efforts with them. Ah...
on Saturday too we had a CSP or community service
project- all the men got together and helped clean 
Bro Tommy's fish pond...so we cut the grass and weeds-
with a kawit---no lawn mower here! :) haha It was so
much fun, we got some good pictures too...it was soo
great because we had 2 investigators with bap dates
show up for the service project- and the stake pres
came (cuz he's in our ward) and same with the
1st counselor-- also we just had like 15 men show up...
it was just great they acted like a ward- its that
"bonding actvity" that dad was telling me to start initiating
...well we did! First activity was successful! :)
Anyways, another week...sorry my letter is EVERYWHERE
...so many great things just happened this week.
It is going by fast. This wednesday...2 more days we
have transfer awareness...and most likely..
sister Fajardo will be transferred. My training is now
over...I'm supposed to be considered trained..haha
that's a joke!
Anyways...I am very very sad to see her go, she is soo
great,and I seriously have loved EVERY minute with her,
I am so nervous to meet my follow up trainer. She will
be missed by so many of the members here too...she
has spent 6 months of her mission here in this area-
that's a long time! Anyways, I love you all and you're
always in my prayers!
Thanks so much for all you do and all your support!
I will talk to ya next week! :)
oxoxoxoxo


Top L:  Raft we take across a river to get to a member's house
We pray it doesn't break or stop working haha!
Top R:  Farming here....this is how they begin to plant rice.
Center:  An Average house/hut made of Kanain
Bottom L:  Cute Audrey Udtu and her friend.
Bottom R:  Sis. Fajardo & I bought meat to make skewers....
we didn't have a grill, so we improvised.



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