Called to Serve in the Philippines: WEEK 65: "Ahh, Sister, the wind is cold, Christmas is coming!"

Yes the title is what my cute companion says every time we walk outside or anytime a gust of wind comes by. Which is a good 15 times a day. Hahaha! So, for you all to know, Christmas is coming. Because it isn't extremely sweaty anymore, but it's just 'sweaty.' Counting our blessings :) Haha joke lang, I love the heat. And everything that has to do with this great island of Masbate. Even though it's 5 times hotter here. IT'S SO GREAT!

Well the work is working everyone. We stay busy every single day and come home completely exhausted but also completely and utterly HAPPY. GUYS. The work is so happy! Pure happiness. I am obsessed with it.

Let's see this week....This week was a week full of lots of ups and a few downs and not knowing what will happen one second and the next second finding a solution and then it happened again and again. Hahaha but that is missionary work! It is unpredictable but that's what makes it happy.

We worked hard and were able to find so many people that the Lord has prepared for His message. We were also able to see the growth and progress of our investigator who is preparing for baptism. Melfa will be baptized on Saturday and IT WILL BE SO GREAT. I wish I could share her whole story with you all. She has come a long way but is now so ready for this sacred ordinance of baptism. AH. Being a missionary is so great.

Guys, do you want to hear a funny story?? Okay I will tell you all. Remember last last week when I told you all that there was a group of boys that sang "Cecilia" to me? Well when that happened last week I joked to Sister Villeza that we have to find them and teach them because that's revelation and they are in tune with the Spirit. (guys that was a good joke in the life of a missionary haha look at my sense of humor now) Okay well we went tracting this week over close to the basketball court they are always at. Well we got to the door and said "ayo po" (yeah it's not even the normal "tao po" here) haha and then a man walked out, looked at us, then called to all his friends in their house and screamed "hurry! Cecilia is here!" HAHAHAHAHA oh man like what do I say to that??? Hahaha it was great. Anyways we were able to teach them and turns out they are SUPER receptive and even came to church yesterday!!!! WAHOO!!!

On Saturday we got to go on exchanges yet again. This time I was able to go with Sister Erickson. We are like BFFs because we live in the same house and two of the little bit of foreigners here on Masbate. Our exchanges were AWESOME. We worked in their area and we had a lot of really awesome lessons. One really stood out to me. We taught a less active woman that has been a member for years but inactive also for many of those years. One reason I love the Filipino people because there is no hiding anything with them. You can look at them right in the eyes and see that they may be struggling. I looked at this Nanay straight in the eyes and could just really feel all the hard things she has gone through. It was as if I felt those burdens that she was carrying. It was the weirdest thing because I had just met this lady this day. But suddenly I really felt FOR her. I saw her how our Father in Heaven sees her as a daughter of God with so much potential. Well, at the beginning of the lesson she just looked at me with the saddest face and said "Sister, by the way you look at me, I feel like you can finally answer the question I've been asking for so long. I feel as though I have made so many mistakes in my life, is there any way to not feel that anymore?" OH MAN. I really felt for this lady. How grateful I was to be able to share with her the power of the Atonement and our chance to repent of our sins and overcome our weaknesses. I am grateful to this lady who simply taught me of the importance of this knowledge is. "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ." We have hope through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. My gratitude for Him has grown this week as I have seen the excitement of others when they come to the knowledge of the power of the Atonement.

Well, in other news....

>last night we finished all of our planned lessons at 8:50 and decided to tract with our time left. We tracted into this AMAZINGLY receptive family who were former investigators! They even went to church about 5 years ago! We walked in and they were so excited and welcomed us warmly and fed us all the fruit in their house haha. We were able to teach them and they even gave us two full bags of fruit to go home with. (it was a mistake in telling them bananas are my favorite because they went in the backyard and picked all the bananas on their trees for us. hahahahaha i <3 the Philippines) anyways, it was a little tender mercy. we went home feeling like we were 'walking on the moon' (S/O to dad for his awesome saying haha)

> this week we also attended the self reliance opening for Masbate. They had the Mayor's "representative" there and they gave him a chance to talk. Hahahaha HE WAS AWESOME. He said to us at the end of his speech, "I will tell all of my students to convert to the Mormons! You are a beautiful people! MASBATE WILL BECOME RICH BECAUSE OF YOU! Let's all clap for the Lord!" And then walked off the stage. HAHAHAHA LOVE IT.

Well there's so much more I wish I could share with you all but time is up. Know I love you all and think of you all often!

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui

PS eat lots of Mashed potatoes for me this week because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here!

pictures:

tracting in the wilderness

headbands and hairdo by the great Melfa

picture from my exchanges with the beautiful sister Sanoy! the people in her area are so awesome and so loving even though that was my first time working in their area!

why buy toys when you can find free toys in your front yard? aka spiders.

this is the sister that worked with us on our exchanges, and then their recent convert. aka my new bffs.