Philippines Mission--Week 36

Maajong udto kamong tanan!

I haven't emailed because it's been transfer week and so we don't have p-days on Monday, we have them on Wednesday, but here's my week and a half for you all!

December 8th, Tuesday, Sister Herdegen and I went and taught Sister Merly Bag-o and it was so awesome! We had followed up with her about her reading the Book of Mormon we just gave her and if she read/prayed about it. She said that she read, and prayed and feels that it's true! We then asked her if she believes that Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Church are true, and she said "Yes." So right away, without even teaching, we had committed her to be baptized on January 16th, and she said "Yes!" Before we had committed her and she told us that if she feels it's true, she will be, but it wasn't an exact "yes/no" answer, but this time she said she wants to be baptized. We then asked if she had any questions and she wanted to know what her baptism would be like because she was baptized Catholic, so she doesn't know. We taught her about baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. She understood really well and seemed really excited! She always tells us that she really wants to change her life and make it new again. She's SO awesome! She has really changed since Sister Herdegen and I first taught her.

December 9th/10th, Wednesday/Thursday, we got to have a Mission Christmas party!! The missionaries in Valencia, Jagna and Duero got together and traveled to Tagbilaran to take a boat over to Cebu on Wednesday. There was a Christmas conference that all of the missionaries got to watch and it was awesome! I loved being able to see my 'used to be' companions, and the missionaries that are going home.

On Thursday, Sister Herdegen and I traveled back to the church with our 'housemates' and all of the missionaries got together again and we had a big mission conference where some missionaries gave talks and in between the talks, each zone in the mission performed something, like a song. My zone is Valencia, and so we ended up singing, "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" and between each verse, each missionary would walk up to the mic and say a scripture from Luke 2 in the Bible. I was SO nervous! I hate getting in front of people and performing. When I got up I remembered back to my high school times singing in choir and my dad would always make fun of me because it always looked like I was going to pass out! haha. But luckily, I didn't pass out or throw up. And to be honest, our zone was probably one of the best to perform for the mission because we were pretty organized and had everything put together like we were an actual choir. It was so awesome being able to see all of the many missionaries in the mission. There were so many familiar faces, and even new faces to get to know. It was a really nice Christmas gift. The Spirit was SO strong when we were all together talking about spiritual things. I loved it. It's kind of sad that it was my first and last Christmas in the mission, but it was a good one!

December 12th, Saturday, Sister Herdegen and I went to the church early in the morning because we joined a little choir and had to practice the song "Mary Did You Know?" because we were going to perform it soon. After the practice we stayed at the church and attended a baptism of the other Sisters/Elders in Valencia. I love being able to attend baptisms because EVERY time the people enter the water (whole body) and come back out, my body is just filled with goosebumps that won't go away. It might sound dumb, but for me, it just confirms that this church is true. After the baptism, there was a farewell party for Sister Lera who is serving a mission. Everyone got to give their 'goodbyes' and there was more practice for the choir and eating afterwards.

December 13th, Sunday- Sister Merly came to church for the first time! Sister Herdegen and I walked all the way up to her house on a hill in Garcia to accompany her to church since she was pretty shy and didn't know where to go. The whole walk up there kind of sucked because it was really hot and the hill is really steep so we were tired and sweating. But the moment we saw her and her little kids dressed and ready to go, our hearts just jumped because we were SO happy that she was coming to church. It didn't really matter to us anymore that we had to walk up a big hill on a Sunday. It was an awesome Sunday because we got to go to church with Sister Merly. She was so happy and at peace when she attended. She told us she really liked it and felt good about it.

December 15th, Tuesday, we had transfer calls! My heart was beating out of my chest because I was so nervous! Everyone kept telling me that I would be Sister Training Leader, and to be honest, I don't really want to be one at the moment, maybe when I'm about to go home from the mission. But after our district meeting, we had the transfer calls and Sister Herdegen is transferring to Lilo-an, Cebu (which is what I had predicted would happen a couple of days before the transfer calls, so that was pretty crazy). I will be staying in Valencia and following up Sister Dayhop who just got done with her training. She will transfer from Cebu to Bohol where I will follow her up. It's a pretty rare situation where the missionary that is being followed up, leaves her first area, because they usually get followed up in their first area because they have to lead, and THEN they transfer after being followed up. But...that's the call and that's what's going to happen! There's two sides to my feelings: excited, because she is Cebuano speaking so she can definitely help me more with the language, but also nervous, because she's Cebuano speaking and I don't want to screw up. haha. I'm also excited/nervous because everyone here in the mission says that your 6th companion in the mission field is your "eternal companion;" so whatever personality they have, that's kind of personality your eternal companion will have as well. So that's going to be an adventure . . . let's see if the superstition is true!

P.S. Time has really flown by! 8 more months to go. Crazyyy! Also, Christmas is in like a week! And I get to Skype home soon! I'm so excited!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love you all! Amping kanunay!

Love,

Sister Johnson