Philippines Mission--Week 32

Maajong udto kamong tanan! Here is my week so far!

November 10th, Tuesday, Sister Herdegen and I were able to teach about 6 lessons (which is quite the accomplishment here in Valencia because our area is pretty big and gets dark really quickly). Sister Herdegen and I worked in Garcia and visited Mary Grace and Ambrosia Bag-o. We ended up just teaching Sister Mary Grace because Sister Ambrosia was sick. We taught her about the pre-earth life and Adam/Eve. Sister Mary Grace is really interested and really wants to be baptized. The only problem is she lives in Garcia and the church is in Valencia (about 20 minutes away), and they don't really ever have money to take a bus to get there. But she really wants to go to church and really loves this church and has a testimony of it.

After teaching her and a couple of other people, we went and taught the Caseres family. I had actually taught them as well when I was on splits with Sister Anderson, one of my sister training leaders, so it was awesome being able to see them again. I don't know if you remember my email about this family a couple of months ago, but the Caseres family are converts of almost 1 year, and are planning on going to the Temple to be sealed together!! Brother Caseres is blind, but has read the Book of Mormon like 10 times already! The family is SO strong in the church and love the Gospel. They're definitely gospel-converted, NOT missionary-converted. They are the only ones in the family that are members. The relatives are strict Catholic and actually harass the Caseres family because they're LDS. The Caseres family is always being persecuted by family/neighbors, but they stay strong in the church because they really want to be sealed together in the Temple and return back to Heavenly Father. Its so awesome being able to teach them again and see them progress towards the Temple! They are saving up because the ward Temple trip is this December 18th/19th. Please pray for their family that they will be able to go to the Temple and be sealed!

November 11th, Wednesday, Sister Herdegen and I visited a Sister Demetria (mother of our ward missionary leader), who is not a member and used to be an investigator but stopped taking lessons a couple of months ago. I had actually gone on splits and taught her before so I remembered where she lived. We talked to her son at church and he really wanted us to visit her and teach her again. So we went over and taught her about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and how this gospel can bless families. We had committed her to pray about our message and also to baptism, but she said she needed to think about it first.

After teaching her we went and taught an investigator, Sister Aiza, about the Plan of Salvation. Sister Aiza is a VERY spiritual person and LOVES to read from the Bible because it's about Jesus Christ. It was such a good lesson because we felt the Spirit, and we helped Sister Aiza to discover the truth. When we taught her about Adam and Eve and asked her how she felt that they ate the fruit. She said that because of them, we have problems/sins in our lives, but then we shared 2nd Nephi 2:22-25 and explained that if it wasn't for Adam and Eve eating the fruit, we would not be able to come here and gain a body in order to return back to Heavenly Father. She was SO shocked after we explained, that she couldn't even speak. After she read the verses, she had to reread them and was just so surprised that she didn't know that before. We then committed her to pray about our message, and to baptism on December 12th. She said 'yes' because she knows that it's the right thing to do.

November 12th, Thursday, we went to the Valencia church and had a zone training meeting, where every missionary in our zone comes and participates. So the missionaries from Jagna got to come over as well! I got to catch up with the missionaries in Jagna about the members in my first area and see how they've been doing. It was awesome to hear that a lot of them are doing well, but also a lot of them are struggling/going inactive now :( After the meeting, we went and ate at Nanay Paz's house and all caught up with each other and met all of the new missionaries in the mission field and in the zone.

Sister Herdegen and I got punted throughout the day, but we were able to teach Brother Dave, a recent convert. Brother Dave hasn't been coming to church and has been struggling with his surroundings (friends/family). Brother Dave is the only member in his family and so he struggles a lot trying to stay active and his friends always influence him to do bad things. We taught him about the Holy Ghost and that in order for him to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost, he needs to choose the right and be surrounded by good things. He's really struggling right now. He doesn't have a good family that supports him, especially his step father. But I'm hoping that the more we involve the youth and visit him, he'll remember what the Holy Ghost felt like, and will want to return to church.

November 15th, Sunday, Sister Herdegen and I went to church and I thought the talks were really helpful for me. One was "beware of pride" and the other was about "unity with each other." The pride talk really helped me to realize that I've been pretty prideful with Sister Herdegen. Sometimes we would have a disagreement, but instead of talking it out, I'd just stay quiet and not really talk to her. Sometimes it's hard being humble and not letting that pride creep up and ruin your day. But I'm thankful for the Lord, that he's always there to help us humble ourselves and think of others.

This transfer has been pretty hard. I've seen the help that Sister Herdegen needs, but every time I would try and help, she would tell me that I'm wrong, so then my pride gets in the way. But I can really see that this transfer is also helping me out A LOT. It's helping me with my pride, patience, humility, and love for others.

This week has been a real test for me.

And P.S. I hit my 9 month mark in a week! 9 more months! Time has really been flying by fast.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Johnson