HELLO TO MY GRAND FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! Another good week
here in the best place in the world. Ah, it was such a great week. Words cannot
express my love for this work and for the people here. How grateful I am to be
a missionary!!!
So I have an announcement…..Sister Alabanza and I totally
fulfilled one of my mission dreams. WE TAUGHT AN ENTIRE VILLAGE. Yes. You read
that right. An entire village. All eyes on us as we taught them. Let me start
at the beginning of this grand story:
So,
Sunday morning we were making our usual rounds before
church to our investigators to invite them to church. We decided to try
to find one of
our potential investigators named Harry. He is usually super hard to
find because
he doesn’t have a permanent home. He’s 21 years old, and he has attended
church
but we hadn’t had the chance to teach him yet. So, we go to the general
area of
where we thought he would be. Here, you basically just start asking
around and
people point you in different directions and just say “doon!” “there!”
until
you can find who you’re looking for. So we kept asking and looking, and
finally
we were pointed to a village right on the beach. So we walked over to
the
village and spoke with a few people to find out exactly where Harry was.
They
had no idea and hadn’t seen him in a few days. This was over a span of a
solid
hour. By now we were getting kind of discouraged and losing hope. But, I
was
prompted to walk over to a certain little shack and introduce myself and
ask
where Harry was. Out of no where, I was suddenly given a little hope
that just
grew from there. So I started talking to this lady. Her name is Bella.
She is
about 40 years old and has a family of 5 children. I shared with her a
Tagalog
pass along card about eternal families. I told her, in my broken Tagalog
that
families can be together forever through the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Guys the gift of tongues is real!!! I had only practiced explaining the
pass
along card a few times before and I was able to really explain it to
her. In
just these short few minutes, Bella noticed something different about my
message.
She just stared at me as I kept repeating that families are forever. The
Spirit
was so strong. Then, all the sudden she started asking me questions!! So
that’s
when I just looked at Sister Alabanza hahaha. She was asking when we
could come
back to teach her more because she wanted this gospel for her family.
WOW. So then we
were done talking with her, and I look around, and then all the sudden
the
whole village is there! Kids, mothers, fathers, grandparents,
families….seriously.
Everyone in the village. They all were asking when we were going to come
back
to teach them!! So we set an appointment for the next day, TO TEACH THE
ENTIRE
VILLAGE. The next day we show up and they are all waiting. Really, words
can't describe how happy I am when I walk down to the village and they
are all chanting "the Amerikana! Sister Ratgee!" and running to me to
shake my hand. Just imagine 20 kids screaming your name and chanting
your name. It is possibly one of the best feelings in the entire world.
So anyways, they gather up any
others, and search for 2 chairs for Sister Alabanza and I. I’m pretty
sure they
were the only 2 chairs in the entire village and they just gave them up
so willingly
for us. That is how the people are here. Willing to give up literally
everything they have for others. So incredible. Anyways, back to
teaching the
village. So, we taught them God is our loving Heavenly Father and that
the
gospel blesses families. The Spirit was so strong. One of the most
incredible
experiences so far of my mission. I was so nervous to open my mouth and
teach
all of these people. Just try to picture a whole village sitting around
me with
a good 30 people. Once it is my turn to speak, ALL eyes are on the
Amerikana trying to speak Tagalog to them. I was so nervous! They
desperately need to
hear the hope this gospel can bring. I wish I could just pour out my
heart to
them but I felt so inadequate because my Tagalog is so limited. But, I
opened
my mouth and suddenly I was filled with words. I just poured out
everything I’ve
got to these incredible people and testified that families can be
together
forever through this gospel. How incredibly blessed we are to have
eternal families!
It is something that is so special to me and I wanted them to feel that
too. I
said phrases and words I had never even practiced before. THE GIFT OF
TONGUES
IS REAL! These people needed to hear the gospel. How lucky I am to be
trusted
to be the mouthpiece to bring this gospel to them. When I was done, we
asked if
they had any questions. Then, Jayson, a 28 year old man that was amidst
the
village, raised his hand. And I heard the most surprising, amazing words
come
out of his mouth. He asked, so innocently, “How can I become a member of
your
church?” OKAY MY FILIPINO WORLD STOPPED. I looked at Sister Alabanza and
she
just pulled out her scriptures and turned to 2 Nephi 31. Doctrine of
Christ.
So, we taught the doctrine of Christ to the village. She was about half
way
through and then just looked at me. UM OKAY I BARELY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING
ON.
Possibly the scariest moment of my life. So I taught the rest and
testified about
following the example of Jesus Christ, and then I extended baptism to
him!!!
And somehow he knew what I was saying (through the Spirit of course) AND
HE
SAID YES!!! Actually his exact response was “Yes I really want to” UM
HELLO HE
IS SO PREPARED!!! So incredible. So we finished, and then Bella asked
“When can
me and my family be baptized into your church?” UM HELLO I REALLY DIDN’T
THINK
IT WAS REAL LIFE. I wanted to cry/scream and hug her. These people were
so
prepared. The whole village was so prepared!!!! So we extended baptism
to her
as well, both for the 21st!!!! YAY really words can’t
describe how
amazing it was. The Spirit felt was something I have really never
experienced
before. The words were really put into my mouth. SO SO SO AMAZING. Hahah
as we were walking away, my cute little companion just said, "I feel
like Jesus Christ teaching a huge group of people!" Hahah. But it is
true to a sense. We are real representatives of Christ. Entrusted to do
what He would do and say what He would say. What a great calling! So, we
taught
them 2 more times that week. GREAT THINGS ARE INSTORE FOR OUR VILLAGE!
This week is a week full of new investigators! We have our
village, and we also started teaching two of Jorel’s friends. Jorel is the 9
year old that was baptized a few weeks ago. Already such a good missionary!!!
He always brings friends to church and shares the gospel with others and HE IS
ONLY 9!!! At 9 years old, I did not have the strong testimony he has. This week
we went and got lunch with him. This little boy was probably starving because
there are a lot of kids in his family and he is always telling us that he’s
hungry. He inhaled his food….but I looked over and he had saved exactly half of
it. I asked why he had saved it and he said “you taught me to always share what
we have so I will save it for my brothers and sisters.” OKAY CAN YOU SAY
PRECIOUS?? He is progressing so much. Then, he told us how this week his school
teacher was drinking coffee. He told her that it was bad and that she shouldn’t
drink it. She told him that it is okay and that he just shouldn’t drink it
since he is little. He then said to her, and these are his exact translated
words “Coffee is bad for you and it is a commandment of God not to drink
coffee. I don’t drink coffee because my body is a temple.” OKAY HE IS SO GREAT.
Oh how I love that boy!!!
Let’s see….nothing really beats that for this week. Haha but,
besides teching the village, lots of other great things happened as well.
Tuesday we had a workshop with President and the AP’s for the new missionaries
and their trainers, so of course it was great to see all my old district mates!
And President Guanzon is amazing and always teaches me so much. Also this week
I had exchanges with the Sister Training Leader in our zone, Sister Papica who
is Sister Fonua’s companion. She is an amazing missionary and I really learned
a lot from her! And on Friday, we had a Family Home Evening with the newly
baptized Nares siblings at Tatay Alfredo’s house. We had a super good turn out
with lots of the Branch Presidency and lots of members there so it was awesome.
He is so nice to us and prepared dinner for us all! Really I can’t express in
words how amazing these people of the Philippines are. They are so selfless and
so giving. They teach me so much every day, as a missionary and as a person. How
lucky I am to be here for a short while.
Here is the funny story for the week....
So,
today I am walking through the market just like normal. These markets
are crazy and there are tons of people everywhere selling anything you
can think of. Then, I walked through the middle, a point where most of
the market is open so you can see basically the whole thing. I am just
minding my business, following Sister Alabanza, when a man calls out
"Sister! The Amerikan sister!" And next thing you know, ALL the people
in the market, in unison, chant "SISTER! THE AMERIKAN SISTER!" And
calling me "attay" which means sister in slang Tagalog. Hahaha serioulsy
like a good 30 or 40 people chanting at me and wanting to touch my
light skin. I was laughing so hard! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE AND I LOVE THAT
THEY LOVE ME. Hahaha
Well, THE WORK IS WORKING. Missionary work is real work.
Hard work. But the blessings and happiness I receive from it are far greater
than anything I could have ever imagined. I love this gospel. I love that I get
to share the hope that this gospel can bring to these people that are facing so
many trials in their lives. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! And I love all of
you!!! Have a great week!!!!!
Mahal Kita,
-Sister Reategui
PS- Pasensya (sorry) but the pictures aren't working this week!!! I will send some next week hopefully :)
No comments:
Post a Comment