Phaithful Phamilies

 

[We were able to skype with Ally on Christmas. It was awesome!]

I'm so glad I got to talk to you last week. It was so great! For Christmas, we got little hand towels with our names on them from Pres and Sis Balledos. They're cute.

 

 

We taught Sister R again a couple days ago. Guess what? She read the ENTIRE book of First Nephi. And she said that her family is lots of different religions, but she knows that this is true. She said she prayed about the Book of Mormon and she knows it is true. We were asking her about what she read in First Nephi and she told us about Lehi and Nephi and all that. The only problem is we can't get her to come to church. She said she would come but didn't. She’s worried that her baby will cry. We kept trying to tell her that so many people have crying babies, but she still didn't come... But we are very excited about the progress she is making!

Everyone else is good. We have a baptismal date figured out (Jan 25) for one of our other investigators. He seems very excited and he claims to have been living the word of wisdom. We are teaching law of chastity tonight. Got to memorize all those words in Tagalog haha. One of our other investigators has been reading the Book of Mormon and he keeps saying he knows it's true. Then he also keeps saying that all religions are true.... he says yes this is true and that is true. We taught the restoration and apostasy and all that again.... so I don't know. We also had a really good lesson with another investigator last week. The G family is doing well.

Lately people keep asking us if we are rich. One of our investigators just constantly talks about how poor he is and how rich we are. Kids are constantly just running up to us asking for money. It's sad. We are definitely very blessed to have been born in America. It's weird here because I think in America and other parts of the world, Filipinos are kind of looked down on because they are all working abroad. Here, only the wealthier Filipinos can work abroad. The others don't have enough money to go to another country. It's just amazing that those who work abroad are the wealthy people here. It just makes me sad because of all the problems with poverty here. Filipinos think all Americans are rich. And comparatively, they are. Even a really poor American would be sort of well off here. It's just totally different.

A lesson that I have been learning recently is that sometimes when things are hard and we pray for everything to be ok, Heavenly Father usually doesn't take away the problem right away. In fact, often he makes it harder. But if we rely on Him, He'll always give us the strength to overcome it. Here's a story to illustrate it: On Saturday, our entire mission was doing a fast for the success of the Baguio mission in 2014. It started after lunch on Saturday and ended with lunch on Sunday. Saturday was SO hot and we were getting punted like crazy so basically we spent most of the day walking. We needed to go visit a less active member that lives in the one junglish part of our area. To get there, you have to walk on this super slippery trail uphill for quite a while. We just sat down on a bench before we started and I just thought "I am so thirsty. There is no way I can even walk there to go to this person." But then I said a prayer that I would be able to do it and be happy about it. Then we were walking on a trail and we saw a member who lives by the less active member carrying all this stuff. She said they were getting kicked out of their house because apparently a politician bought it or something. So they had to move. So we volunteered ourselves to help her. So we walked back and forth along that trail for a couple hours carrying boxes and furniture and other things from their house. Somehow, once I got started I wasn't thirsty anymore and I had more energy to do it. We were able to do it quickly and we weren't tired or thirsty anymore. Later that night, I was so thirsty, but while we were helping we were able to do it. So I realized that Heavenly Father will always help us through our challenges if we ask for his help. It will still be really hard, but He will give us the strength we need to do it.

As Kolipoki said, “Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He calms his child.”

There are some really faithful families in this ward. Our laundry lady and her husband are a very faithful family. Her husband has at least five callings. Also, he rides his bike 20 miles to work every day. Another faithful sister is stake primary president, seminary teacher, relief society first counselor, and family history specialist. Her husband is YM president as well as a bunch of other callings too.

This apartment has a shower but no hot water. We have to flush the toilet with a bucket. Last P [preparation] day, I scrubbed the entire bathroom for about an hour. I finally got it clean. By the time I finished, I had to shower because I was drenched in sweat and my knuckles were bloody from scrubbing. Haha.

Ok, I need to go. Out of time! I love you all very much and thank you for all of you support and advice and everything always. Have a great week!