Called to Serve in the Philippines: WEEK 61: #islandsister

HELLO TO ALL!!!! Woweeee what a week it has been!!!!!! This has been one of the craziest, most spiritual, busy weeks of my mission life so far.

Well, like I said last week, I got transferred! Well, I transferred to MASBATE!!!! When they announced that I was going to Masbate I may have screamed just a little, I was so excited. Masbate is one of the two islands in our mission! Basically my mission dream to be assigned here and now look where I am. Guys I testify dreams come true. Hahaha.

I have been also called to be a Sister Training Leader here which basically means I have the opportunity to learn a ton from the others sisters that we get to go on splits with. IT'S SO GREAT!

My companion is Sister Villeza, who is 23, and from Cagayan de Oro. She is a special education teacher. Remember way back when I got emergency transferred from Bulan to Tabaco? Well, she's the sister that was emergency transferred then to Bulan, and I was transferred to her area in Tabaco. So basically we have served the same mission. Sister Villeza is an outstanding missionary and I've learned so much from her quiet example to me. Also, she is SO obedient, which is so refreshing!!!!!

Well as always, I don't have much time...but I will do my best to update you all on this weeks happenings.

Well, getting here in the first place wasn't the easiest task. To get to Masbate, we rode a jeepney for 1 hour to Pilar, then from Pilar Pier, we rode a Ro-Ro to Masbate. We left Legazpi at 2 right after transfer meeting, knowing that to take the Fast Craft at 3:30 because that was the last one that left that day. Well, on our way, it started POURING RAIN (all of our luggage was on TOP of the jeepney. Yes, it was soaked. I hand washed MY WHOLE WARDROBE this morning for around 4 hours. (But that's another story)The rain made us go a little slower than we would have. We got there at 3:37.....7 minutes late. The next one left at 1 am the next day. So we had to get permission from President, and he said we could just wait there until the next one came the next day. At 6 am the next day, we arrived in Masbate. :)

SIDE NOTE - they speak a completely different language here called Masbatanian. HAHAHA so much for all the Tagalog and Bikol I learned. It's great.

Like I said, it's been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission so far. We have been blessed to see so many miracles in the Lord's work this week. I know He is such a great part of this work and knows every detail of it. He has children just waiting for the gospel in their lives.

This week we made a goal to tract every day. We kind of laughed when we made this goal because our area is SO SMALL. Like only 3 different "barangays" which there are just a few little villages in each barangay. Hahaha so basically we've seen and talked with everyone in our area already just in my first week. But, we made this goal anyways because we knew it was important to show the Lord that we had faith that there were others ready. Every single day as we tracted we were let in IMMEDIATELY to these humble homes and it was the neatest thing. They all gathered their whole families and neighbors and let us share with them. The Spirit was strong as we shared simple messages with them about our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

One miracle from our tracting was that we found so many FAMILIES. One family in particular was a really cool story. When we were going home we saw a little dark street that led to what looked like straight jungle so we thought there were no houses there. But we decided to give it a try. About a half mile in, we saw a few houses. We tracted one and they let us right it. They said that they had never seen missionaries before and were so excited. The Nanay, who was 88, walked over and said she had a book she wanted us to see. She said she has had it for over 20 years. Well the book she brought back to us was THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! She said "I've had this book for years and I've just been waiting for missionaries to come and teach me about it!" AWESOME. The Lord places us in places that we need to be.

Saturday was by far the best day of our week. Well, a few days before that, we saw a huge endless bridge that led to a village of houses over this huge lake that looked endless too. I asked Sister Villeza if they had ever gone there and she said no, so we scheduled some time to go there on Saturday so lots of people would be home. Well we went back and turns out the people are SO RECEPTIVE!!! We walked a good half mile on this broken bridge that was around 10 feet above ground and built with all kind of pieces of wood you could find and was around 2 feet wide. I thought I was going to break it just taking one step on it haha. But the first house we went to, they let us right in. Then then referred us to their neighbors and had us meet them and share with them. That went on ALL afternoon until we had taught the whole right side of the village and we ended up teaching 13 lessons that day!!!!! It was incredible!!!!! People were literally asking us to come into their homes and share with them! It was awesome. People are so prepared here I love it. We have return appointments for this week :) We named that place 'paradise'. Haha

I know that we are blessed for our obedience. I have seen it this week more than ever in my life. I know that what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21 is true...

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

Well, there's so much more I wish I could share. But just know that I am safe and thinking of you all all the time. I love you all and I am grateful for your love and support to me.

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui