A message from Sister Reategui

I received a text from Sister Reategui this morning at 3:35 a.m. She was not able to e-mail, but did get permission to send a text to her family. Here it is:

Hello Friends and Family,

How are you all? Sorry I didn't e-mail, there will not be electricity here for at least a month. There is so much I want to tell you, this past week I have seen and learned so much. The storm hit pretty hard here and we are slowly rebuilding and cleaning everything up. I will write you all, snail mail for now, please write (LOTS) and keep me updated! Read D&C 6:36. I LOVE YOU ALL!! Don't worry about me. Let everyone know that I am okay. You're all always in my prayers! LOVE YOU ALL!

-Sister Reategui

TYPHOON GLENDA

We were able to talk with Sister Reategui this morning! She received permission from her mission president to call and tell us that she is safe. Typhoon Glenda had wreaked havoc on her area all night long, but her and her companion and roommates are all safe. According to Sister Reategui, mostly everyone was prepared and ready for the storm, and there were not any serious injuries or fatalities that she was aware of. When she spoke with us it was 10:30 p.m. and the missionaries in the area  spent the day cleaning and re-building the area. She was exhausted, but happy and grateful. She let us know that she would most likely be without electricity and running water for at least a month. Which means that she may not be able to e-mail very often if at all. It was fun hearing her speak Tagalog to her companion and those around her while she was on the phone with me. She sounds completely fluid, and almost more comfortable speaking Tagalog than English. It was great to hear from her, we had been worried about her safety.

WEEK 46: Speechless.

HELLO SA INYONG LAHAT!!! I am on a little early today, because there is a typhoon coming in tonight and tomorrow and we have a lot to do in preparation.

This week went super fast and there's always so much I want to report on and no time. But let's get started!

Tuesday - Power 

Yeah we again went to all our appointments, and no one was there....so we went to another area and taught some of our less active families that morning. In the afternoon, we taught Cindy and her family. Since she is a new member, we are just finishing up her new member lessons. We reviewed lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And what I mean by we reviewed it is that Vincent reviewed it himself...hahaha he is the brother of Cindy and SO SMART. He studies the Book of Mormon like crazy and is always at seminary...and he's only been a member for barely a month. I love seeing how fast he's progressing and how much he loves learning more about the gospel. More about them on the other days...

We also taught a few other less actives and recent converts too. That night we taught the Arabia family, who I have talked about before. We have really been focusing on Sister Arabia, because she is struggling with a few things right now in her life. Usually she doesn't read her scriptures, but this week she totally did and told us all about it!! It was awesome. She told us about how she prayed before she read that she would learn something from what she read. Well she said she just opened the book and read the first verse she saw. She said she read a verse that said something about how it's bad to keep committing the same sin after you know that it's a sin. She told us that was her answer to all her prayers. It was just a simple verse, but it was what she needed to hear straight from the Lord. That is the power of the Book of Mormon!!! Heavenly Father knows us and knows what we need to hear from Him.

Wednesday - Binyag sa...upuan?

Hahahaha oh my goodness. Another funny day. First we started with our CSP (see the pictures I sent) We totally washed all the clothes for a whole family...by hand. Hahaha and even got to use the awesome well in their village. The service was awesome because literally EVERYONE in the village came out to watch us (me an American) hand washing clothes haha and they kept asking why we were washing clothes. We told them because we wanted to help out, and started talking with all of them and got a bunch of return appointments!! They were so surprised that we would do something like that and everyone in the village was talking about it. They kept saying "oh that's how those Mormons are!" And they were so excited haha. We started teaching a lot of them later on in the week!!!! 

That afternoon we taught lots of our investigators!!!! One being the crazy kids I talked about last week...the ones I just love so much. Well we taught about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and focused on baptism. We used pictures and I was telling them that there's two parts of baptism, baptism by water....and I showed them the picture...and then I showed the next picture and I was about to say baptism by Holy Ghost, but I showed the picture and before I could say that, they yelled "BAPTISM SA UPUAN??" Which means "baptism by chair???" Hahaha because in the picture of the boy receiving the Holy Ghost he's sitting in a chair. Haahahahaa we were all laughing so hard. You had to be there....

The rest of the night we taught less active families. That is one of our focuses here in our mission, so half our time is spent with less actives. About 4/5th of the members here are less active so we really work with them too. Well, we finished all our lessons and it was only 8:45 and we still had a little time left. Something told me that we needed to visit a certain less active family, but I was a little confused because the last time we went there, they said they didn't want any more visits from members or anyone from church. Well I knew that this was a prompting from the Holy Ghost that I needed to follow, because Heavenly Father knows His children better than I do. So we went there, and they actually let us in!!!!! GUYS. If you knew this family, you would know that this is a huge miracle. They hadn't let any missionaries into their house in at least a year. We were able to share with them and the Spirit was strong. I was grateful for the Holy Ghost and that prompting I received. 

Thursday - Speechless.

Ah today was a great day. We went to a lot of appointments but I want to share about our appointment/testimony meeting with Vincent and Cindy and their family. I say testimony meeting because we get there..and they had prepared their favorite scriptures from their reading to share with us. Even their mom who isn't a member. TALK ABOUT SPEECHLESS. They are so amazing. They really have nothing, they work SO hard just to eat a meal or so a day. Their mom is a single parent, and she does her all to provide the temporal needs that her children need. She has shown them what is important in life, which is the gospel. She really is my inspiration. Some days she even has to work in the junk shop next to their house, standing in the sun ALL day (7 am to 5 pm)  washing bottles with a chemical solution that burns her skin, just so her kids eat some rice that day. Well, she shared with us a verse in Alma 39, verse 14 which says "Seek not after riches nor the vain things of this world; for behold, you cannot carry them with you." Okay. She is the best example of this verse that I have met here. I am grateful to learn from these amazing people!!! She shared, then her kids both shared, and then sister Leonardo and I shared. I was just so overwhelmed with the Spirit the whole time we were in their house. I have literally seen their progression, since the first time I stepped foot into their little humble home, they have been so receptive. I am blessed to have seen them since the very first time missionaries entered into their home just a few short months ago, and to see them now..wow. Even though there are SO many trials and hard things in their lives, they are so strong in their faith and they know what's important. I was really speechless. I feel just so blessed to see their growth. 

We ended that day with a family home evening at the home of our Relief Society President. (see pic attached)

Friday-Saturday....relax ka lang.

These days Sister Leonardo was a little sick because of eye problems...so work ended early when she blacked out for a few seconds in our lesson. Haha she is doing a little better now though so don't worry too much. We were able to still teach lots of lessons and have a good time. But the title came from something sister Leonardo and I always say....just relax. Even if everything is going wrong...relax and trust in the Lord. There is a solution for everything!

Sunday - Happiness.

This happens to be the title a lot of times in my emails....because if there's one thing I've learned in my mission, it is that this life is meant to be HAPPY!!! Even though there are a lot of hard things that happen, we are really wasting our time if we are not happy all the time. There are so many great things about this life that we take for granted every day. 

We had a family home evening today at the house of Sister Venus, Vincent, and Cindy. One word to describe....HAPPINESS. Oh my goodness. I just wanted to stare at Sister Venus (their mom) the whole time because she was SO extremely happy. She had requested that we have family home evening so she can experience it with their family. We started spreading the word. I am so grateful for this amazing Tabaco Branch because they are AWESOME and never let me down. I will send some pictures of the family home evening. We had over 20 people there!!!! Ah it was so great and so happy. We had some fun games....and here when you lose in the games you get lipstick on your face,...awesome. Hahaha and sister Venus even prepared a soup for all of us. It was so sweet of her because she had worked just specifically to provide that for us so she could show her gratitude. AH I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE. I never want to leave!!!!

Goodness. There is so much more I want to share but that will have to do for now since I'm almost out of time. 

I read this scripture that I LOVE in Matthew 6:21 that says "For where you treasure is, there will your heart be also." That is definitely something I've learned here on my mission. Where are our hearts?? Are they placed on things of the world or things of importance?? Are the centered on Jesus Christ or on things that are worldly? Let's make sure that our hearts are always centered on things of importance that we can carry onto the next life :)

sidenotezzzzz:

--tuesday: a dog took my shoe during a lesson. he ran across the little canal and it took us 10 minutes to find my shoe. but it was still intact.

--wednesday: a different dog in a different area took my shoe. i found it after our appointment and the strap was gone. awesome

--here in the philippines we are already singing Christmas Hymns

--every soap here you buy at the store has skin whitening in it. like i just want to get tan....(its considered ugly here if you're dark)

--our investigator spelling her name "a" as in "egg" "q" as in "cute"

--shout out to my mom....i can actually cook really well now and i cook with vegetables..this week i cooked with green beans. YAY for a change of heart haha vegetables are masarap!!!

--the power went out on sunday...aka we went through the whole 3 hours in darkness lathered in sweat

--i recently found out that the hotdogs here are made of worms. awesome

Well, life is good, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! This is the greatest and happiest time of my life. 

Thank you all for the support and love, and please keep the people of the Philippines (me included) in your prayers this week through the typhoon. It's supposed to hit us pretty badly.

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui

WEEK 45: Savior, Redeemer of My Soul

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!! How are you all doing??? Oh man. Time goes by too fast. It feels like I was just here yesterday emailing you all. But another week has passed and there is more to report on so let's get started!

Monday - How did he get a family? Okay. Another interesting lesson with our little investigators. Hahaha they are the grandkids of the District (like stake but smaller) second counselor. One is 9 and one is 7 so we teach them both because the 9 year old hasn't been baptized yet. Well we taught them about Joseph Smith and invited them to pray if he was a real prophet. So we decided to pray right there with them...to make sure that they actually did it. They are the craziest kids I've ever met and I love them so much. But they always have the WEIRDEST questions. Anyways, let me just tell you about her prayer when we asked her to pray about Joseph Smith. Remember...she is 7 years old and very chubby because she loves to eat. Hahaha this was her prayer...."Heavenly Father, we are thankful that the sisters are here. We ask Thee for more food. And we want to know how Joseph Smith got a family. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Hahahahahaa okay it was supposed to be a really spiritual moment....and we all busted out laughing. Even their family that was there, we were all laughing so hard. She asked for food and how Joseph Smith got his family...what? The first thing that her aunt said was "Mae, you will never get skinny" hahahahaaha we were laughing so hard. So like I always say, it is very happy times here in the mission. We had dinner with them also. They have another house that has a bunch of trees of pretty much every kind of fruit you can find in the Philippines.....yes. Needless to say, it was a good day!

Tuesday - Naglakad at naglakad at naglakad.

Naglakad = walked. Today...hahaha we walked through our area about 10 times....back and forth and back and forth. Everyone was busy and said to come back later....hahaha awesome. We were able to do some tracting and found a super receptive family so that ended up being good!!!

Wednesday - Tracting....for the other sisters.

Hahaha so funny story...in the morning we walked and walked and walked everywhere.....and no one is home. Awesome. We tracted again and found some new potentials. Later that day...we went to all of our appointments for the day and no one was home...hahah so we tracted again. Well we were just walking and trying to explore our area since there are a lot of places we haven't seen, and we asked a member that lived close if a certain area was still in our area. (confusing,sorry) Well anyways she said yes and we were SUPER excited because it was a super maganda (beautiful) area with huge rice fields and native houses. We hurried and walked through the rice fields because the member had said that missionaries had never been over there before. We went to a man that was working in the rice field with a huge carabao (a cow type of thing) and he hurried and stopped (he was  harvesting the rice and SO MUDDY) and he ran over and asked us to teach his family.....#k. We can do that. We started teaching his family and his family was so receptive!!! Him on the other hand....well at first he told us he is very religious. So we were asking him if he is familiar with the Bible and he said "I don't believe in the Bible because Jesus Christ Himself visits us here all the time, so He just speaks His words right to us." #k. Like what do you say to that??? Then he took us and showed us the place where Christ visited him....right in the middle of his rice field. Hahaha it was an interesting lesson to say the least....but his grandkids and their parents were super receptive so we just kept going and talking to them haha. Well he went out to finish his work, and we finished the lesson up with them and they immediately asked when we would come back!!!!! We set a date and asked what purok it was (which is the addresses here) and they said their area.....hahaha and it wasn't even our area. AWESOME. We totally tracted the whole day for the other sisters in THEIR area. Hahaha whoops. At least we found an awesome family for them!!!! Don't worry guys I got a picture at the rice field with the man and his carabao in the backround....

Thursday - A little bit of planning (aka 3 hours...)

Every week we have a 3 hour planning session for the next week...awesome. We taught lots of lessons afterwards, found out some big concerns of our investigators which is always good that they trust us a lot. Makes me feel like I am doing my job since they haven't told any missionaries for about 2 years. We have really been working with our investigators and focusing on baptism, so they know our purpose and so they understand why we are there to teach them, because we love them and want them to make those sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. Everyday I am just reminded how important this work is and how blessed I am to be here!

Friday - If you're sick...just make some smores.

Today Sister Leonardo and I were both sick...so that was fun. We did go to our Zone Training in the morning and then went home to plan but weren't able to leave and work again because Sister Leonardo was super sick. We did make smores though on a little candle light. We made the best of a bad day!

Saturday - Saturday is a special day.....

WAHOOO WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! Cindy was baptized, the sister of Vincent. It was glorious. We also tracted and found some pretty receptive people too. We went back to the loko mga bata (crazy kids) that I secretly love so much because they remind me of my siblings...and we taught about Joseph Smith AGAIN and taught about the Book of Mormon. We also taught (again) about how Jesus Christ established his church when He was here on the earth and at first I had just said "when Jesus Christ was here.." and before I could say here on earth the little girl jumped and screamed "PAPA, JESUS WAS HERE IN OUR HOUSE????? EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" Hahahahaha I was laughing SO hard. Oh my goodness. We had to tell her that He didn't come here to her house....and she was disappointed. Hahahaha oh my goodness. They fed us again and even prepared my favorite Filipino dish and had all my favorite Filipino fruits!!! WAHOO no complaints from me...

Sunday - A greater appreciation of Christ.

Sunday's are always good days...especially when we get to take the sacrament. This week I really tried to focus my studies on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'll get to that later... :)

Today was another good day, our recent convert, Jaylyn, worked with us!!! She is awesome and basically taught all of our lessons. It was a good end to a good week!

So like I said, I focused a lot of my studies on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Do we realize that He sacrificed for each of us? All because of His love for us. I was reading this week in 1 Nephi 19 and verse 9 really struck me. It says:

And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

 I was really just overcome with Christ's love and was almost brought to tears. My goodness, the gospel is so perfect. Christ sacrificed for us, He felt what we are going through in our lives every day. It reminds me of one of my favorite hymns, Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. If you havent heard it, listen to it NOW. Here are the lyrics....

 Savior, Redeemer of my soul,

Whose mighty hand hath made me whole,

Whose wondrous pow'r hath raised me up

And filled with sweet my bitter cup!

What tongue my gratitude can tell,

O gracious God of Israel.

Never can I repay thee, Lord,

But I can love thee. Thy pure word,

Hath it not been my one delight,

My joy by day, my dream by night?

Then let my lips proclaim it still,

And all my life reflect thy will.

 O'errule mine acts to serve thine ends.

Change frowning foes to smiling friends.

Chasten my soul till I shall be

In perfect harmony with thee.

Make me more worthy of thy love,

And fit me for the life above.

Every time I hear the words of that song I just want to cry. The love of Christ is so overwhelming. Can we just take a second, at least every week during the sacrament, to really think of Him and His Atonement for us. It makes us WHOLE. I put some of my favorite lines in the song in red..I especially love "never can I repay thee Lord, but I can love thee, Thy pure word." There are no significant words I can say to adequately express my love and gratitude for my Savior. How grateful I am for my mission, which I have been the one truly converted to His gospel. I know without a doubt in my mind that this gospel is true. Christ died for us, that we all might be able to return to Him again. He is a part of our loving Heavenly Fathers plan, that we can never repay. But we can love Him till the end of our lives. May we all do a little better to show our love for Him in all that we do!

I love you ALL and I LOVE my mission. I am grateful to have this opportunity to come closer to my Savior and better understand how to represent Him.

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui

PS----THANK YOU TO ALL THAT HAD A PART OF MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!! I GOT IT THIS WEEK. The pictures of everyone literally brought me to tears!!!! I felt so special that you all would take the time to do that for me. Especially to my family and friends that live far and sent them to my family, THANK YOU!!!!!!! I love you all so much.

S'mores:

 Pictures from Cindy's baptism:

 

this is the amazing sister rances that i love so much!!!! she worked with us again :)

  the house to the left is the one we tracted......hahaha look closely for the man...he is the one like on the carabao..

WEEK 44: Great things are happening.

Hello hello!!!!! How are you all doing? I hope everyone had a great week. It was another great and sweaty week here in the Philippines. I feel like every week so much happens, and then I get on to email you all and I never have enough time to talk about everything. Just know that we stay SUPER busy and I only have time to tell you like 5% of what happens....

Monday - Nagselfie ba sila? HAHAHA this may have been one of the funniest days of my life. Oh my goodness. So we teach a family that is part member, and they have a boy that is 9 years old and a girl who is 7. The 9 year old hasn't been baptized yet, so we are teaching him and preparing him for baptism. Well this day we taught them about prophets. We showed the individual pictures of all the prophets and then the girl all the sudden just screamed out "Nagselfie ba sila?" which translates to "did they just take a selfie?" Hahahahahahaah we were laughing so hard. Great times. We also taught Cindy this day! The is the sister of Vincent, our recent convert. Her baptism is on Saturday :)

Tuesday - FIESTAAAAAA! Today was fiesta day in Tabaco. Which means one thing.....FOOD. EVERYWHERE YOU GO. Hahaha I love the Filipino culture because they love feeding people...and I love eating. So yes, it was meant to be that I was called here. We had breakfast/taught some of our recent converts in the morning. Then we went to a lunch at the Branch and District President's home. Then we went out and taught. Our work was cut short, because we had a curfew. Apparently people get pretty crazy for fiesta. Haha but that was the day!

Wednesday - EXCHANGES. We had exchanges again today. I worked again in the other area. I love exchanges because I get to meet so many more people!! We taught 11 lessons during our exchanges which was AWESOME.

Thursday - Examples.  Guys seriously some days I feel like I'm just here to learn from the people I get to teach. They are all seriously SO AMAZING and such strong people. This morning was no different. After our studies, we went to the house of a member, Sister Rances. She is a single mother, and she is such a strong person. I think I've talked about her before and how much I admire her. She has to support her family all on her own. She works all day long just for them to eat that night. And then the next day she gets up and does it all over again. We shared with her this week about trusting in God....and by that I mean SHE shared with us. Hahaha I love learning from these strong people that go through so much every day. And what I love, is that they are just so happy. No matter what happens, they stay positive and really trust that everything will be okay. They are such great examples to me of pure faith.  That day we also had interviews with President, and then taught a few more lessons that night.

Friday - May tubig na? Today started off early...hahaha well there was an announcement the night before that all water in Tabaco City would be off for TWO DAYS. Um what??? Yes. So we had to find a pump to pump water for our showers. So that day we woke up at 5 am and went to the other sisters apartment, and found the closest pump, and pumped water and carried it there. Luckily the Zone Leaders also came and helped us, so us sisters just had to pump the water and they carried it there for us. It was a fun morning. Well we finally got enough water...and then we all showered and went home....and then the water turned on. HAHAHA good joke. At least we got a good exercise in that day!  That day we had weekly planning and we taught a lot of lessons.

Saturday - REALLY GOOD DAY. GUYS. Today was the baptism of Jaylyn!!!! Our investigator. She's 20 years old and basically like my best friend here. She has been through SO MUCH, I mean really like everything you could imagine. But she has changed so much and was baptized this week! It was a glorious day and I just feel so blessed to be a part of this work. That day we taught more and more lessons. Life is good as a missionary when you're CRAZY BUSY.

Sunday - WAHOO FOR SUNDAYS! As I've mentioned before...I LOVE SUNDAYS AS A MISSIONARY!!! It's just so exciting to stand at those doors welcoming everyone in. Especially when you see those people that you have worked SO HARD with and they finally come to church!!! We had one of our investigators that we have been working with so much....she came to church!!! WAHOO! And we had a couple others. For the returning members...we had over 20 at church!!!!! It was a happy day. That day, after church and our studies, we were able to somehow teach 8 lessons!!! Guys...usually on Sundays we get around 3 or 4 lessons....this day we got double!!! WAHOO! And we even got 3 new investigators!!!! YAYYYYY for happy and busy days.

Sidenotezzz:

>companionship unity = picking lice out of each others hair. (this is the third time I've gotten lice)

>philippines fun fact: they eat avocados here with sugar and milk like a fruit. it tastes like ice cream. try it.

>last night a man escaped from prison and he was in our area. everything was caution taped off and somehow he still escaped...cool. we still worked until 9:30. the Holy Ghost is more powerful than any prisoner...

>saw a man wearing a mighty ducks hat this week. #goducks

>just to give you all a visual of what i go through every day:

average # of cockroaches I kill in one day: 8

average # of cockroaches that I hit off of me in one day: 20+

average # of dead frogs I see on the road every day: 5+

average # of chickens I almost step on everyday: 20+

average # of times I am called Amerikana by a street kid in a day: 50+ (this is not an exaggeration)

average # of times people mistake me for a Filipina: twice (im really proud okay)

Well that was the week in a 10 minute wrap up. We were able to teach over 35 lessons this week, which kept us busy but happy. I love this work. Every day I really think to myself "wow I'm really here!" Because it's so real and so amazing. I am learning so much and really trying my best to become the disciple of Christ my Heavenly Father needs out here in the Philippines for these people. I am really learning the importance of "losing yourself in the service of God" and I have been blessed to see the effect it not only has on those I get to teach, but on me as well. I've grown so much and really realized the kind of person I want to be for the rest of my life.

I read somewhere this week a talk that I really loved, it talked about the power of the interaction of faith and character. It said "God uses your faith to mold your character. Your character will be the yardstick that God will use to determine how well you have used your mortal life." May we all increase our faith every day to make us better people!

I love you all and hope you all are well! You all are in my prayers always.

Mahal ko kayo,

Sister Reategui

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.....

WEEK 42: LET YOUR FAITH SHOW!

HELLO PO SA INYONG LAHAT!!!!!! Kumusta kayo? I hope you are all doing well wherever you are in the world. It's been a great week here in the Philippines. Unfortunately we didn't have much work because Sister Leonardo was sick, but we still made the best of it. Let me explain some of the highlights....

We had a really good lesson with one of our struggling investigators. She has had a problem getting over some of her addictions. Well, we shared the story of Enos. (I recommend you all to read Enos because it's one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon) We read it and we were testifying of the power of prayer and repentance. Well, all the sudden she said, "Sisters this chapter sounds like it is just for me. I needed to hear all of that" and went on to tell us this super amazing experience she had that week. Where she was really struggling with her addiction, to the point where she spent all the money she had for a specific trip because of it. The money wasn't even actually hers, she was given it so she could go on a specific trip for their family. She said she felt so bad to the point where she said the only thing she could think to do was pray. She said she prayed and prayed for forgiveness. She prayed for a way to gain the money back again. Well guys THE POWER OF PRAYER IS REAL. She cried as she told us that He really did answer her exact prayers. There is a lot more to the story but for times sake, just know that it was a really big deal for this certain investigator. Prayer is real. God hears and answers our prayers. I've seen it personally in my life and I've been so blessed to see it in the lives of those I teach. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

It was my birthday on Friday! My companion is awesome. Even though she was sick, she still decorated and even surprised me with a cupcake in the morning with candles. We had a few family home evenings with families to celebrate. It was a very happy day full of many Filipino birthday things...such as spaghetti, spaghetti, and more spaghetti. Hahaha that is what they have here to celebrate birthdays. I cooked spaghetti for 20 people....it was awesome. That was basically our day. People singing me happy birthday and eating spaghetti...and now I'm 20 years old.

Well lets see what else...I learned how to cook more Filipino foods this week since my companion was sick and I had to cook...hahaha. I also had a lot of time to do personal study....we finally got the General Conference Liahona...I recommend to you all to read "Let Your Faith Show" by Elder Russel M Nelson....it's great and I've read it 5 times now. I love the quote that says "We might each ask ourselves, where is our faith? There is only one in whom your faith is always safe, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to let your faith show!" LET'S ALL STRIVE TO SHOW OUR FAITH IN CHRIST A LITTLE BETTER!

Well there's so much that happens in a week as a missionary....never enough time to write it to you all.

I hope you are all well and know that you are always in my prayers!!!

Mahal ko kayo, 

Sister Reategui