Maayong buntag! Here's my letter!
August 1st, Monday, Sister Huxtable and I visited Sister Anjie, recent convert, and shared with her about trusting in God through trials. Sister Anjie is so awesome. I love her to death. Everything just comes naturally for her when it comes to the Gospel. She loves to learn! She's the best. After we did some teaching, we went and played some volleyball at the church with some members and Sister Huxtable and I totally killed it! haha. I miss playing volleyball. It's so fun playing here in the Philippines. It's ten times hotter, but it's still fun!
August 2nd, Tuesday, we didn't have a meeting today, so instead we went out and visited sister Renalyn Ompad, investigator, and taught her about the Holy Ghost and His role in our lives. All we wanted was to help her understand how to receive answers to her prayers, but the lesson kind of changed when she started crying and opened up to us about her life/boyfriend, Juwarsi Pocong. We've been teaching Brother Juwarsi and he's a great guy, but he's had problems in the past with how he treats Sister Renalyn/his kids. They aren't married yet, but really want to be baptized. The Spirit was so strong there. I love how this mission has helped me to open my heart to others and love them for who they are. We then visited Sister Maricel Mangubat. It's been a while since we've visited her, but we were able to share a little bit about The Godhead. She believes in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, but she never knew that they were separate beings and that God also has a perfect body of flesh and bones. I love being able to share about the Godhead and helping others to realize that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are not one being. She's pretty receptive and loves to learn. We then visited our other investigator, Sister Rocelie Batal, and shared with her about repentance. Sister Rocelie has been an investigator for a while, but because she isn't married to her boyfriend, Juanies Pocong, she can't be baptized. She's really receptive and loves to learn. She's really easy to teach because everything just comes naturally to her. After teaching her, we shared with the Tomimbang family, members, about obedience to the commandments. They're an awesome family. The little girls are the cutest and love to learn as well.
August 3rd, Wednesday, we visited Brother Gino Liston, convert, and taught him about prophets. He's such a funny guy. He's always being sarcastic with us but when you teach him, you know that he knows the Gospel is true. He's pretty smart too, even if he acts stubborn. We then visited Brother Elmo Cotton, and shared with him and his wife the importance of obedience. It wasn't a condemning lesson, but it was kind of like a praising lesson. Brother and Sister Cotton are pretty old and sick, but they've been trying hard to come to church. They don't really have money for the fare, so they just walk all the way to the church; and it's a pretty far walk from their house. They are trying SO hard to be obedient. I love them! For our last appointment, we visited Brother Juwarsi Pocong, part member investigator, and shared with him about faith. He's got a lot of faith and everything, the problem is just acting on his faith. I know that the moment he takes action, he can see miracles in his life.
August 4th, Thursday, Sister Huxtable and I had a zone training meeting, where every missionary in the entire zone gets together. It was such a great meeting. Towards the end of the meeting, the zone leaders got me and one other missionary that's leaving to bare our testimonies. For some reason, I was really nervous! But it felt good to testify of what I know to be true. After the meeting, we went and shared with Sister Anjie about the Holy Ghost. She's a really good member, we just wanted to remind her about the Holy Ghost and the affect He has in our lives if we listen to his promptings. We then taught Brother Rodel Batal, investigator, about church and the importance of attending. He has a baptismal date, but he's having trouble coming to church. We thought that maybe if we shared about what goes on at church and why we go, he'll grow more courage to go. Our last appointment was with a less active, Sister Vanjie, and her nonmember friend, Sister Rachal. We shared with Sister Rachal about the Gospel and how it can bless our families. The lesson was going okay, and then all of a sudden, Sister Rachal stops us and says, "I have something to tell you." And she competely opens up to us and tells us about her past mistakes and what she's recently done. It was crazy! Sister Huxtable and I didn't know what to say. We testified of God and His love for us, and the importance of repentance. She's so sweet. She really trusted us. I love that about people here. They just trust you so easily, especially if you're a servant of the Lord.
August 5th, Friday, Siter Huxtable and I visited Sister Maricel Mangubat again, and we taught her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We talked about where we all came from, and Sister Mangubat loved it! She's been Catholic her whole life, but she's been so confused when it comes to the doctrine. Ever since we've been teaching her, she's been able to understand everything a lot more clearly; it's awesome! We would have continued teaching her because she's SUPER smart and understands quickly, but her kids started running around/being loud so we just closed the lesson and scheduled for a different day. We then went to our other investigators, Brother Juanies Pocong and Sister Rocelie, and planned on teaching Brother Juanies, but he was upstairs hiding from us, and Sister Rocelie told us that he's done listening to the missionaries. Sister Huxtable and I were shocked. We got him to come down and talk with us, and we opened up with a prayer just to invite the Spirit because Brother Juanies was not in the mood to listen. It took some patience, lots of questions to get him to open up/calm down, and then he finally agreed that he was being dumb, and wanted to continue listening to the Gospel. After we talked with them a bit, we went and visited his older brother, Juwarsi Pocong, and shared with him a little bit about fatherhood and the role of a father/husband. Brother Juwarsi is awesome, but the only problem he has is applying what he's learning. Once he acts on what he's learned he will be the best member ever!
August 6th, Saturday, we visited Brother Juanies Pocong and Sister Rocelie Batal again and shared with Brother Juanies about the Restoration. He was really receptive and he repeated himself telling us that he feels really good and happy every time we are around and share with him. We then visited Sister Renalyn and shared with her about faith. She has a lot of faith, but hope also goes with faith and sometimes her hope for her boyfriend disappears every time he makes a mistake. I absolutely love Renalyn. She's got to be one of my favorite investigators in my entire mission!
August 7th, Sunday: Today was Fast Sunday! My favorite part about this Fast Sunday was the testimony meeting during Sacrament. There was one specific testimony that gave me goosebumps. Every Sacrament meeting is loud and there's always people talking and it's just so distracting. And when people were getting up/baring their testimonies, others in the congregation weren't paying attention/having their own conversations. But there was this old man that got up and started walking with his cane to the podium. Everyone was still talking, babies were crying . . . I was SO distracted and could not feel the Spirit. The old Tatay started telling a story about his school days when he had to learn English and struggled speaking it when he was younger. While speaking (it was still pretty loud) but the moment Tatay bore his testimony in English the room was silent. As in, not even babies were making noises. The Spirit filled the room again; and I was filled with goosebumps. It was the best! And all he said were 12 simple words. "I know that God lives. I know that Jesus is my Savior." It was the most simple yet the most powerful testimony that I heard that day . . . maybe on my whole mission. After church, we went and visited Brother Juwarsi and Sister Renalyn and shared with them about the family and role of parents. They've been doing really well so far with trying to be good parents/strengthen their family.
"If you want to be forgiven, forgive others."
Love,
Sister Johnson