WEEK 43: Jesus said love everyone.

Another week down and this whole mission thing is going TOO FAST. This week I will hit my mark of only 8 months left.....YIKES. Time flies when you're having fun right? Tama. Lets start this thing up again....

Tuesday - Families. This was a good day. This day was really focused on finding and teaching FAMILIES. Because the unique message I have as a missionary is so focused and centered on families and how much happiness they can bring us. I have seen so many blessings in this work as we pray every day to find families, and somehow by the end of the day we have found a new family to teach!!! This day was no different. I was really praying for a complete family to teach, because a lot of our investigators are just parts of families. Well, we ended up being able to teach a family!!! The wife was our investigator, and before her husband was really against us sharing with him and their kid, and now he has had a change of heart!!! He told us "I've seen how happy my wife is when she goes to church and I want that too." He also told us from the start that this is what he wanted for their FAMILY. OKAY YES--WE WANT THIS FOR YOUR FAMILY TOO!!!! Wahoo for families. 

Wednesday - Miracles happen once in a while...when you believe. This title may or may not have come from Princess Diaries...but that's beside the point. I've seen so many miracles in this work, today being another day of miracles. There is one in particular that I want to highlight....about one of our investigators! We used to call her our eternal investigator since shes been investigating the church for 14 years......YES 14 whole years. She has NEVER accepted a baptismal goal date...until THIS WEEK!!!!! WAHOOO. We have really been focusing on her for the past few weeks because we feel that she is so ready. Usually when we extend...and I mean we would extend twice a week for the past 2 months now...she would say "I'll tell you when sisters" and this day we extended and she just said "you two make me feel like I'm ready so okay yes" WHAT. It was a glorious moment. I was like a little too excited and didn't know what to say after that.....hahaha it was a really good day. We tracted this day too and found 3 new investigators yay!!! People are so receptive and nice here, I love it. 

Thursday - "Wow, it's really for me???" This was the response of one of our new investigators when we gave her a Book of Mormon. She was SO EXCITED her face just lit up and she just kept saying 'it's really for me???' hahaha YES ITS FOR YOU GO READ IT NOW!! She said she will read it every morning and every night!!!!! Hahaha I love seeing people get so excited about the Book of Mormon because it is EXCITING!!! These are real words from God for us!!! Who isn't excited about the Book of Mormon?? Everyone should be as excited as she was.

Friday - Learn to laugh. Well, we went to like all our appointments for the day and everyone was busy....WAHOO. It's okay. You can be sad or you can be happy....so what did we choose to do??? Be happy of course!!! We just went tracting....no one let us in. It's okay though because while we were finding someone to teach, we saw one of our investigators filling up her water at the well so we got to help her!!! She was holding her baby at the same time as trying to fill up this huge thing of water, so we ran over there and helped her with the water. We carried this huge thing back to her house....then we went back and another one of our investigators (its in the village where we teach ALL of them) was there filling up her water so we got to help her too. It may sound stupid but the wells here are kind of tricky and it takes awhile and they really appreciated it. So that proves you can turn a bad situation into a good one by learning to be happy no matter what!

Saturday - "Wait...the living prophet...is ALIVE??" Hahaha this was a funny day. We taught one of our investigators who is just 11 years old. We taught her about living prophets before but maybe she just forgot or something....we taught her again and I said he lives in America! And she just froze and she said "wait.....the living prophet......is alive right now??? THERE IS A LIVING PROPHET????" Hahahaahahaha we all just busted out laughing. We were like yes!!! He's alive!!!! She was like speechless and was just breathing so hard and like about to cry. Hahaha when she caught her breath she just said wow God is really real!!!!!! There is a living prophet!!!! Hahaha she jumped up and said "Mom, there is a living prophet!!" And her mom was just like "I know, the sisters taught you that the first time they were here..." Hahahaha we all laughed SO hard. WAHOO FOR A LIVING PROPHET!!!

Sunday - Grateful. Sometimes on Sundays during Sacrament meeting I just look around and am just SO GRATEFUL. I just look around and realize that this is all so real. I'm serving here in the Philippines in the exact spot where the Lord wants me in this exact moment. These people are real. And I feel so blessed to teach them and be a little part of their lives!!!!

Well that's a fast overview of the week. As a missionary, I get to meet and teach all different kinds of people. This week especially I really realized all the different people I've had the opportunity to teach. We teach people of all religions, all different beliefs, all different classes of people, some that have mental problems, some that are addicted to drugs, some that are homosexual, all different kinds of people. Why? Because everyone is a child of God. Jesus said LOVE EVERYONE! I'm not going to lie, before my mission, I used to be a little too judgemental. And I'm not a perfect person now, but I have really grown to love each and every person I've met. I've grown to appreciate people for their differences. I really think I've been blessed with a HUGE heart. I always think how in the world I have room for all these people in my heart....and somehow, even if I've just met someone 2 minutes before, it's impossible NOT to feel Heavenly Father's love for them when you just TRY. 

"Pure Christlike love flowing from righteousness can change the world" - Elder Holland (shout out to my mom for sending me that quote...#igotitfrommymomma)

IT'S TRUE. May we all do a little better to be a little better and love others a little more. It's what Christ has asked of us, and it's what He would do if He were here!!!!

I love you all and I LOVE THIS WORK. This is His work and I am grateful to be a little part of it.

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui

Here are pictures from my birthday last week:

Side note....John Christian printed off a picture of me...the one in his hands.... (he somehow found my facebook....)  and it is currently hanging in their house with the other family pictures. LOVE IT. I FEEL SO LOVED. hahaha heres proof.....