HELLO PO ULIT. IT’S ME AGAIN, YOUR FAVORITE MISSIONARY SYEMPRE :) I just want to say that life is really really good. I LOVE being a missionary and I never want to leave here. I’m sorry I don’t have much time (again) but I will do my best to inform you of my week….
Monday - We are the missionaries aka surprise birthday party throwers…Okay so today was P-day so our work started at 6. Well we went to the village we teach that I mentioned before because it was one of the girls birthdays, actually the daughter of Sister Rances, (who is the awesome sister I always talk about). So we came and brought a cake and had a family home evening there. Haha long story short it was awesome and made me realize(again) the importance of appreciating what we have. These people really have nothing, and it was so fun to see the happiness on their faces with a simple cake and little present for her. They hadn’t done anything the whole day for her birthday so it was a pretty exciting thing for them. I’ll attach a picture :)
Tuesday – April Fools doesn’t exist in the Philippines. Yes this is true, really sad news. But it was a really weird day so we blamed it on the fact that it was April Fools haha. We were out from about 10 am until 9:30 pm that day and seriously only were able to teach 6 people. It was just an off day, everyone was out and busy and it was seriously just a weird day. We had a lady chase us down (literally she ran after us) to tell us her husband lives in America. So being missionaries, we immediately tried to relate our message to her and we told her it is centered around families. Well then she went on to tell us that she doesn’t want to be with her family forever because her brother is a cross dresser and last week she caught him wearing their mom’s clothes. She went on to tell us the problems with her other family members and everyone in the family tree. It was an interesting OYM to say the least haha. We did have a really good lesson with our investigator Marvin though. He is seriously the most prepared person I have ever met. We ran into a little challenge while reviewing the BIQ with him so he won’t be getting baptized this week,but soon :) It ended up being a really cool experience though. He testified to us of the difference he has really seen in his life since we have been teaching him and how he wants this so badly for his family. Ask me if I bawled the whole time he testified to us of these things….okay yes I did. He’s so great and he has so much potential. I won’t go into too many details about the little set back that happened but I know that everything happens for a reason, and his testimony, as well as mine, has really been strengthened through it. I will continue to explain on the other days haha but another cool thing about the day was that I caught a firefly in my hand haha so like April Fools in the Philippines wasn’t that bad after all.
Wednesday – Sometimes it’s hard being a missionary. Guys missionary work is really hard. This day I can’t really go into too many details, but we ran into a problem with one of our other investigators dealing with abuse. As missionaries we can’t counsel, so this is where the really hard part comes in. I wanted to tell her so badly exactly how I felt and what she should do (which is obviously to leave him) but I couldn’t. So in a way we counseled her through the scriptures we strategically used about trusting in the Lord. As we shared these with her she was just crying and crying to us. It was so sad to see and so sad that I couldn’t do much about it. But I could, with all my heart, assure her that this isn’t how the Lord wants us to live, He wants us to be happy. And as we put our trust and pray to Him, He will give answers to us on what we need to do. So that’s what we did, and we keep her in our prayers every day.
Thursday – “I love this day.” The title is inspired by Marvin (yet again) as he said this so preciously in his prayer when we left their house this day. Hahaha I could have cried it was really so precious. But I’ll start from the beginning….so we went having a lesson plan of course but first I felt inspired to ask him if he had any scriptures that he wanted to share haha so I did, and ended up he had read Alma 9 and wanted to share it with us. OKAY HE IS SO AMAZING SERIOUSLY. Words can’t explain it at all. He specifically shared verse 27 that says “he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name.” Such a simple scripture talaga but he had such a STRONG testimony of this already. He just kept saying that he wanted to do this for his family,and he has noticed the change and happiness that the gospel has brought into his life. He testified about the Book of Mormon really containing everything we need and answers to all of our questions. He had a pretty personal concern and he said he opened up his scriptures and found this chapter and he said it answered his questions and concerns completely. He then said the most precious thing, he said “I love this book” hahaha seriously I could go on and on about how magaling and great he is seriously. His testimony strengthens mine every time we teach him.
Friday – “Perfect love casteth out all fear.” Moroni 8:16. Pretty average day in the life. We had Zone Training and our Zone Leaders shared this scripture and it really stuck out to me. In this work, love is the key. If people really know you love them, they feel the importance of the gospel in the lives and the rest just flows after that. Love is the most important part of missionary work or even our everyday lives. “Don’t let a problem to be solved get in the way of someone to be loved.” I think President Monson said that. I love it. AND I LOVE MISISONARY WORK!!!
Saturday – There is no greater feeling than being a missionary. Yes basically this title should be the title for all my journal entries. So this day we taught the Arabia family once again. So of course because of the awesome experience we had last time of him sharing what he read, I asked him again if he had anything to share. He said he did and shared from Mosiah 23. He first shared verse 14 which says “And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments.” We were wondering where he was going to go with it haha and then he said that he wanted to share this verse with us because when he read it he thought of us. He went on to thank us for teaching him and helping him come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He thanked us (a few days before I had shared a pretty personal story with him that I was prompted to share during our lesson) and he said that from my example of living the commandments of God, he has seen how it has and will continue to bless his life too. He talked about how he has seen the examples of us and the happiness it has brought us and he wants that for him and his family too. He went on and on (yes I was totally crying the whole time) as he just testified to us of the power of the gospel and thanked us with his whole heart for helping him come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This is when I realized that this is really what it’s all about. I am so so so happy to be a missionary.
Sunday –Happy day in Tabaco Branch. GUYS GUESS WHAT. We had an attendance of 230 in Sacrament meeting today!!!! In just our companionship alone, we had 7 investigators at sacrament meeting and 24 less actives again!!!! With our companionship we got the branch over 200!!! It was a glorious day. Also, the man that I talked about last week that had some personal issues after his baptism and stopped coming to church, CAME!!!! It was a glorious, glorious Sunday. Nothing beats Sundays as a missionary.
SiDeNoTeZZZ:
--Joel and Zenaida from my last area (the couple that we tracted the day after I went to the hospital 2 transfers ago) were baptized last month!!!!!
--The man that we were able to reactivate in my time here in Tabaco (the one that hadn’t come to church in 30+ years) received a calling this week!!!
--A padyak driver sang “Call me Maybe” to us on our ride home one day. S/O to Taylor Krill.
--Our District President (like stake president) worked with us 2 times this week. Talk about awesome member present…
--While reciting the first vision to our investigator, her baby started peeing on my feet. I guess he was really touched by the spirit and couldn’t hold it in…..
Well I love you all. Stay safe and always remember you are all in my prayers!!!
Mahal ko kayo,
Sister Reategui
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