This might be kind of short but I will do my best....
Monday - Michael Jackson in Tabaco City. Real life. You know how I told you all about our little investigator that loves Michael Jackson....hahaha well today was his birthday, so of course being the missionaries that we are we threw him a birthday party. It's actually a sad story, his dad is dead and his mom was supposed to come for his birthday but she never did.....so it's a good thing we were there. Anyways, we get there and he was so excited because he had gotten a Michael Jackson CD and he performed not one...not two....but three songs as in singing and dancing performance and everything and let me just tell you he will be the next Michael Jackson hahaha it was awesome. (see picture attached) and he also told me to tell all my friends to look him up on youtube (guys remember he just turned 10, I hope you are all laughing like I was....) well he has a youtube video called "Michael Jackson can Tabaco City" Hahahaha so enjoy. That was our P-day.
Tuesday - It's all part of His plan. Today we taught lots of people, 10 lessons to be exact!!! Crazy and busy but our last appointment was with the Arabia Family. Words cannot express how much I love this family!!! So they actually shared some verses about faith so that's what the lesson ended up being. They have SUCH strong faith, at the beginning of teaching them we thought neither of the boys would have been able to attend church because of their jobs but miracles have happened and now they are both able to come almost every week!!! And their mom, she has come to church now 2 weeks in a row!!!! Ah, miracles have happened to this family and it has been such a blessing to be a little part of it. They told about how grateful they are for us, as missionaries, acting on our faith and coming on missions to teach people like them. They just always say "Heavenly Father has a plan for us and thank you for helping us learn of His plan." They are just so grateful!!! And I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to witness their conversion. I testified to them that He really does have a plan, especially because I was supposed to still be in Bulan and not transferred a while ago, but because of the emergency transfer I ended up there being able to teach them. I have learned so much from them and I know it is in His plan for sure.
Wednesday - Finding: Less Actives addition. Usually we go finding and tracting for new investigators.....today we went looking for less actives!!! Here in the Philippines, about 4/5 of the members are less active. It is a HUGE ratio and that is why as missionaries, we normally are told to focus half our time on investigators and half on less actives. We have a list of members, and the other day when we had curfew I went through the list highlighting all the ones that I didn't know yet who were probably inactive, and the list was so sad!! Seriously like more than half were ones that I didn't know yet. So I just prayed to Heavenly Father that we would be able to somehow find these people!!! So this day we went out with some members to find them!!! And we were blessed and were able to find a lot!!! And they were so grateful because they all missed church and the missionaries so much. So, it was a good day :)
Thursday - A strong testimony of missionary work. Today we taught a lot again....and one lesson really struck out to me. We teach this 80 year old man every week and he just has the coolest life stories. He was actually one of the first members here in the whole Bicol region!!!! And he has the STRONGEST testimony of missionary work, so yes I just love him. He was inactive actually for around 10 years, and then missionaries came and visited him, and the next day he attended church! Since then he hasn't missed a day, even though he has arthritis and has no money to get to church. He has to ride his bike for 45 minutes just to get to church every week. He is an inspiration to me and it always makes my day to teach him because he just thanks us so many times for serving a mission. He says every time in his prayers, "bless these servants and their families and friends at home that they won't be too sad they are gone." So know that you all are prayed for quite often :)
Friday - Some really strong people. Seriously these people amaze me every single day, they are so incredible. A family we teach has started coming to church for a few weeks now, and their neighbors are of a different faith so they've been getting a lot of persecution for coming to our church. They were just handling it...and this week they cut their power!!! Because they come to church. Like what? Who does that.....anyways we didn't even know about this because they didn't complain or anything until one day we asked them how their reading was and they said they don't have much time to read, because once they are home from work it is already dark and they can't see because they have no power, and that's when they told us!!! And they could have chosen to be sad, but all they said was "Sisters it's okay, we will just start saving for a flashlight." OKAY yes these people are amazing.
Saturday - TRANSFER ANNOUNCEMENT. Aka the most awaited day. We found out that Sister Simonson is transferring and I'm training a new missionary from the MTC! It was a good day, a member worked with us and introduced us to her whole neighborhood, we got 10 referrals and 8 new investigators!!!! It was an awesome day :)
Sunday - Welcome Welcome Sabbath Morning. Now we rest from every care! It was a good day, I always love Sundays as a missionary! The Arabia family came to church, and sister Arabia even bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting! We had 8 investigators at church, that's double the standard of excellence for the mission! And we were able to end the week with over 40 lessons YAY!!!!! Who would have thought a few months ago that that would be possible in this area. Kaya, there is nothing impossible with our Heavenly Father. He qualifies the called :)
Well, that's the week....it was a good one. We worked hard and then worked harder and really saw the blessings of it.
I read a really good quote that I loved this week....."Loving Him is a powerful foundation of helping others." Let our love for our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ be our inspiration to serve others! I challenge you all this week to do a little more service for others, because that is the way for you to show your love to our Heavenly Father. One of my favorite scriptures is Mosiah 2: 17 and it says "when ye are in the service of your fellow being, ye are only in the service of your God." Serve God by serving our brothers and sisters here on earth!!! We are His hands here on earth, as we submit ourselves to His will, we are entitled to HIS help.
I love you all so much and keep those emails coming!!!!!!!
Nagmamahal,
Sister Reategui
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