things are going great here! Christmas was kinda just like any other day and no one did very much for it but apparently new years is the biggest thing in the world cuz everyone went crazy. like fireworks alllll day and allll night and then at midnight our two philippina house sister mates came in making crazy amounts of noise and yelling and made us all watch the fireworks for like an hour. and then prayed for another hour. and gave us gifts. it was insane. im still not convinced it wasn't all a dream cuz i stayed decidedly in my bed the whole time. lolz it was fun though and then for new years day everyone and their mom fed us a huge feast. we were like rolling out of the jeepney, it was pretty much thanksgiving every two hours. cray cray.
We have been so stoked this week! last week we got chewed out about not having a relationship with the members so they don't fellowship our investigators and so we worked really hard on that and i swear we had at least one meal a day with members, snack/dessert at every appt and members coming with us to lessons allll week. it was awesome! and we have a baptism next week! and he is so ready!! and we found a family yesterday! we were teaching tatay rosete and his son/neighbor just came over and was like oh hey i went to your church once it was great. so we taught him and he was like i need this in my life! i need to be baptized! and we were like ummm yep that's why we're here!! and then we went to his house and taught his whole family!! that was tight. and there is a sister who is super strong in the ward but her husband has never been interested but i guess like a month ago he just came to church randomly and was like super interested so we taught him and he is soooo great! so prepared by the Lord. there are so many people like that its ridiculous. and such a huge blessing.
This morning we got to go to the temple! we woke up at 3 to catch a bus at 4 to make the 6 am session.... except we got there at 5 and they told us that the schedule changed cuz its a new year and the first session wasn't till 7. yaaaaay. so we took naps in the waiting room. but it was a beautiful day and a great temple visit! we're taking ericson (our jan 12th baptism investigator) to the temple on sat for a tour cuz he wants to serve a mission so we're involving the temple in our lessons a lot just to make sure he knows that baptism is only the first step! in one year he can go to the temple and go on a mission!! i would still be on my mission and that would pretty much be the coolest thing ever. just saying.
hmmm what else happened this week....... it was the bishop's birthday so he fed the whole ward lunch after church and we had three investigators there and they were stoked. we had to explain that doesn't happen every week lolz (our bishop is kinda loaded)
We taught a family that lives like out on a farm and they were super legit. they're "inactive" cuz their daughter had a stroke so they take turns coming to church so one of them can stay and take care of here but they are both endowed and super legit. the daughter and their other son both aren't members but just recently they have both become interested in the church so once the daughter is strong enough to come to church she will get baptized and then they can all get sealed in the temple!! super exciting for their family, they have been waiting a long time.
Fun story: sister garcia and i were waiting at jollibee (spell? its a fast food joint) for our member to meet us to go teach and we were just chilling and like 6 little kids came and lined up against the glass and just stared at us for like 10 mins..... we felt like goldfish... or zoo animals... then we were at a part member family's house and they fed us so we were just chilling, eating some food, and we hear like a bunch of giggles from above and there is a hole in the wall that connects their house and there neighbors house and there were a bunch of like teenagers poking their heads through the hole just like watching us eat.... then they started playing music and i felt like i was in a movie... it was great lolz i was cracking up and sister garcia was like what is going on?? lolz happens all the time. usually i have stare offs with babies in the jeepney.... they always win...alas. one day.
Well life is good. only a couple cockroaches around our apt, no worries there, we close the window at night so they don't come in, which is really hot, but its better than bugs :) im healthy and happy and the work is great!
love you all
-sister jones
Wow! What great emails! It seems as if Sarah was born to be a missionary in the Philippines...very inspiring!
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