Monday - How did he get a family? Okay. Another interesting lesson with our little investigators. Hahaha they are the grandkids of the District (like stake but smaller) second counselor. One is 9 and one is 7 so we teach them both because the 9 year old hasn't been baptized yet. Well we taught them about Joseph Smith and invited them to pray if he was a real prophet. So we decided to pray right there with them...to make sure that they actually did it. They are the craziest kids I've ever met and I love them so much. But they always have the WEIRDEST questions. Anyways, let me just tell you about her prayer when we asked her to pray about Joseph Smith. Remember...she is 7 years old and very chubby because she loves to eat. Hahaha this was her prayer...."Heavenly Father, we are thankful that the sisters are here. We ask Thee for more food. And we want to know how Joseph Smith got a family. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Hahahahahaa okay it was supposed to be a really spiritual moment....and we all busted out laughing. Even their family that was there, we were all laughing so hard. She asked for food and how Joseph Smith got his family...what? The first thing that her aunt said was "Mae, you will never get skinny" hahahahaaha we were laughing so hard. So like I always say, it is very happy times here in the mission. We had dinner with them also. They have another house that has a bunch of trees of pretty much every kind of fruit you can find in the Philippines.....yes. Needless to say, it was a good day!
Tuesday - Naglakad at naglakad at naglakad.
Naglakad = walked. Today...hahaha we walked through our area about 10 times....back and forth and back and forth. Everyone was busy and said to come back later....hahaha awesome. We were able to do some tracting and found a super receptive family so that ended up being good!!!
Wednesday - Tracting....for the other sisters.
Hahaha so funny story...in the morning we walked and walked and walked everywhere.....and no one is home. Awesome. We tracted again and found some new potentials. Later that day...we went to all of our appointments for the day and no one was home...hahah so we tracted again. Well we were just walking and trying to explore our area since there are a lot of places we haven't seen, and we asked a member that lived close if a certain area was still in our area. (confusing,sorry) Well anyways she said yes and we were SUPER excited because it was a super maganda (beautiful) area with huge rice fields and native houses. We hurried and walked through the rice fields because the member had said that missionaries had never been over there before. We went to a man that was working in the rice field with a huge carabao (a cow type of thing) and he hurried and stopped (he was harvesting the rice and SO MUDDY) and he ran over and asked us to teach his family.....#k. We can do that. We started teaching his family and his family was so receptive!!! Him on the other hand....well at first he told us he is very religious. So we were asking him if he is familiar with the Bible and he said "I don't believe in the Bible because Jesus Christ Himself visits us here all the time, so He just speaks His words right to us." #k. Like what do you say to that??? Then he took us and showed us the place where Christ visited him....right in the middle of his rice field. Hahaha it was an interesting lesson to say the least....but his grandkids and their parents were super receptive so we just kept going and talking to them haha. Well he went out to finish his work, and we finished the lesson up with them and they immediately asked when we would come back!!!!! We set a date and asked what purok it was (which is the addresses here) and they said their area.....hahaha and it wasn't even our area. AWESOME. We totally tracted the whole day for the other sisters in THEIR area. Hahaha whoops. At least we found an awesome family for them!!!! Don't worry guys I got a picture at the rice field with the man and his carabao in the backround....
Thursday - A little bit of planning (aka 3 hours...)
Every week we have a 3 hour planning session for the next week...awesome. We taught lots of lessons afterwards, found out some big concerns of our investigators which is always good that they trust us a lot. Makes me feel like I am doing my job since they haven't told any missionaries for about 2 years. We have really been working with our investigators and focusing on baptism, so they know our purpose and so they understand why we are there to teach them, because we love them and want them to make those sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. Everyday I am just reminded how important this work is and how blessed I am to be here!
Friday - If you're sick...just make some smores.
Today Sister Leonardo and I were both sick...so that was fun. We did go to our Zone Training in the morning and then went home to plan but weren't able to leave and work again because Sister Leonardo was super sick. We did make smores though on a little candle light. We made the best of a bad day!
Saturday - Saturday is a special day.....
WAHOOO WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! Cindy was baptized, the sister of Vincent. It was glorious. We also tracted and found some pretty receptive people too. We went back to the loko mga bata (crazy kids) that I secretly love so much because they remind me of my siblings...and we taught about Joseph Smith AGAIN and taught about the Book of Mormon. We also taught (again) about how Jesus Christ established his church when He was here on the earth and at first I had just said "when Jesus Christ was here.." and before I could say here on earth the little girl jumped and screamed "PAPA, JESUS WAS HERE IN OUR HOUSE????? EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" Hahahahaha I was laughing SO hard. Oh my goodness. We had to tell her that He didn't come here to her house....and she was disappointed. Hahahaha oh my goodness. They fed us again and even prepared my favorite Filipino dish and had all my favorite Filipino fruits!!! WAHOO no complaints from me...
Sunday - A greater appreciation of Christ.
Sunday's are always good days...especially when we get to take the sacrament. This week I really tried to focus my studies on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'll get to that later... :)
Today was another good day, our recent convert, Jaylyn, worked with us!!! She is awesome and basically taught all of our lessons. It was a good end to a good week!
So like I said, I focused a lot of my studies on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Do we realize that He sacrificed for each of us? All because of His love for us. I was reading this week in 1 Nephi 19 and verse 9 really struck me. It says:
And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.
I was really just overcome with Christ's love and was almost brought to tears. My goodness, the gospel is so perfect. Christ sacrificed for us, He felt what we are going through in our lives every day. It reminds me of one of my favorite hymns, Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. If you havent heard it, listen to it NOW. Here are the lyrics....
Savior, Redeemer of my soul,
Whose mighty hand hath made me whole,
Whose wondrous pow'r hath raised me up
And filled with sweet my bitter cup!
What tongue my gratitude can tell,
O gracious God of Israel.
Never can I repay thee, Lord,
But I can love thee. Thy pure word,
Hath it not been my one delight,
My joy by day, my dream by night?
Then let my lips proclaim it still,
And all my life reflect thy will.
O'errule mine acts to serve thine ends.
Change frowning foes to smiling friends.
Chasten my soul till I shall be
In perfect harmony with thee.
Make me more worthy of thy love,
And fit me for the life above.
Every time I hear the words of that song I just want to cry. The love of Christ is so overwhelming. Can we just take a second, at least every week during the sacrament, to really think of Him and His Atonement for us. It makes us WHOLE. I put some of my favorite lines in the song in red..I especially love "never can I repay thee Lord, but I can love thee, Thy pure word." There are no significant words I can say to adequately express my love and gratitude for my Savior. How grateful I am for my mission, which I have been the one truly converted to His gospel. I know without a doubt in my mind that this gospel is true. Christ died for us, that we all might be able to return to Him again. He is a part of our loving Heavenly Fathers plan, that we can never repay. But we can love Him till the end of our lives. May we all do a little better to show our love for Him in all that we do!
I love you ALL and I LOVE my mission. I am grateful to have this opportunity to come closer to my Savior and better understand how to represent Him.
Nagmamahal,
Sister Reategui
PS----THANK YOU TO ALL THAT HAD A PART OF MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! I GOT IT THIS WEEK. The pictures of everyone literally brought me to tears!!!! I felt so special that you all would take the time to do that for me. Especially to my family and friends that live far and sent them to my family, THANK YOU!!!!!!! I love you all so much.
S'mores:
Pictures from Cindy's baptism:
this is the amazing sister rances that i love so much!!!! she worked with us again :)
the house to the left is the one we tracted......hahaha look closely for the man...he is the one like on the carabao..
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