Yesterday, I was walking through my area. I heard
this kid yelling my name and then asked me if I knew Brother Romero. I asked
her if it was Bro Romero from San Fernando and she said yes. She asked me to
wait and then her aunt came out. Her aunt is Brother Romero's daughter! She is
his grandkid. Out of all the places in Baguio she could have lived, she lives
in my area. Anyway, they invited us inside and gave me another giant bag of
mangoes from his mango tree. She then gave us letters for me, Sister Ackerman
and Sister Oco. He is SO active now. He hosted a family home evening at his
house and over 60 people went. He wrote us a letter that was so sweet. He said
that he was so sad and had depression when we first started teaching him. It
was due to the two biggest trials of his life-- his son had destroyed his life
because he was an alcoholic, and he found out his wife had been having an
affair for the past 12 years. He said he was so depressed and distressed. He
said that he loved the teaching of the gospel, especially scriptures from the
Bible and Book of Mormon, and our desire to teach him and help him accept the
gospel and make covenants. He loved that the focus of our teaching and of the
church is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He said that through the Atonement and
because of what he learned from the gospel, he was able to forgive his son and
his wife. He emphasized that the reason he had fears about baptism, was because
he wanted to make sure that he could fully keep his covenants with God. He was
worried about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the law of tithing. Finally, he
felt like he was able to do it and he was ready to be baptized. Now, he is
taking his covenants so seriously. He loves the gospel and he seems so happy.
He said, “We all have the duty to share the gospel. We are all missionaries.”
He then closed by giving me his daughter's cell phone number living in Baguio.
He told me to please work on his daughter.
So, I asked his daughter if we could teach her. She
was reluctant, but she said we'll see. I really really want to teach his
daughter. I feel like it can't just be a coincidence that his daughter happens
to live in my area. I just hope that her heart will be softened because of the
change she has seen in her dad.
Brother N and Sister M got married on Saturday. Their
wedding was super fun. I thought we were invited to just the reception, but it
turned out to be the whole thing. It was really cute. She is cutting down her
cigarettes. Hopefully she stops soon.
On last Monday night, Sister Tune and I were at our
desks planning for the next day. Then we found a cockroach, so we were trying
to kill it. All of the sudden, we just hear this blood curdling scream coming
from downstairs. It was the most awful sound I'd ever heard. Well, our first thought
was that someone had broken in and someone was getting murdered or raped. So
quickly I ran back into my room and slammed the door. Then I thought, oh no, I
should go help them. I'm a little worried that my first instinct was to flee,
haha. So we run downstairs and Sister Jackson is just having the biggest
freakout...sobbing, hyper-ventilated, the whole shebang. It's like in Parent Trap when Hallie and Annie put a
lizard on Meredith times 10. Finally we calmed her down enough and she told us
that she had STEPPED on a mouse. She said it crunched under her foot and then
squealed and ran away. She said she did some pretty bad damage to it, so we
suspected it was dying somewhere. We couldn't find it, so we forgot about it. Fast-forward
to Sunday. Last night we notice this AWFUL stench coming from the closet under
the stairs. It was the grossest smell ever. So, we had to carefully remove
everything (which was a lot) from the closet. Finally we discovered the little
decaying culprit. The dead mouse was just laying there behind my suitcase.
Luckily Sister Tune is really brave so she threw it away for us and then we
dumped a whole ton of bleach on the floor.
This week I got harassed by a drunken man on a
jeepney for 25 minutes. Don't worry, I was always safe and everything. It was
awful though. This super super drunk guy gets on the jeep and plops himself
down right in front of me. He offered to pay for me, but I told him I had
already paid. Then he just goes on and on about America and about how sometimes
he hates Americans, but he usually loves Americans and how he loves me and all
of this other stuff. Meanwhile, these two ladies who knew him were just
apologizing nonstop for him, but everyone else on the jeepney was just cracking
up. Then he touched my leg, so we got off the jeepney. I can definitely see why
we have the word of wisdom! Look what it does to people! Also, I find it pretty
alarming how many drunk people are actually members.
Did I tell you how we teach someone in Tuding (the
area of elders in our ward) because the daughter is too pretty and they don't
want to get distracted? Anyway, so we've been teaching them. It is pretty hard
though, because it is 2 jeepneys and about an hour of travel time with the
jeepneys and the hike to their house…an hour each way. So it puts a giant dent
in our day, but it is worth it. The mom is really progressing. She has a ton of
questions though. She’s really smart. Questions like "how could the fall
of Adam and Eve be part of God's plan if they transgressed a law of God through
yielding to the temptation of the devil? Are God and Satan working
together?" But I think she is just inquisitive. I don't feel like she's
trying to argue with us or prove us wrong. We shared some scriptures and asked
her to read 2 Nephi 2. So hopefully they will start to progress more. The walk to
their house is also beautiful…Giant mountains, rice terraces, it's awesome!
We also had a ward family home
evening on Saturday
night. We taught some games and an elder gave a workshop about missionary work.
I thought it went over really well. I am really starting to love the Pacdal
ward. I really love here how they have ward family home evenings on like a Saturday night. They
consist of a lesson (usually about missionary work), games, and dinner. It
appeals to all age groups which is great. We did games for the kids and then a
church trivia thing for the youth and adults. They are low stress and everyone
has a great time. I love the stress-free environment without people worrying
about decorations and having everything super planned out and stuff.
Love you! Have a great week!
Yummy Guacamole with Sister Jackson
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