100% Pinay na be (100% Fillipina now baby!)

                                                                    Their Baptism!!!


So, Sarah did it...she tried the balut this week!  Here's  how she tells it:


Sooo this week was prettttty eventful. first. 10 days between p-days is a long time. imma be honest with you, yesterday was long. second. i tried balut this week. imma keep being honest with you, it's not delicious. but now i can say i've tried it or whatevs.

 third. i had taho this morning, it is delicious. kinda like oatmeal in a cup but a completely different texture..... smoother.... idk how else to describe it... tastey :) that's pretty much it.

So this week we were teaching this little teenage girl that we like weren't super stoked about cuz her parents don't want her to go to church soooo she's a lil bit stuck. anyway everyone that we usually teach with her was gone so we were thinking about just calling it and teaching her next week with everyone else but we decided to just teach her by herself and it was super cool. she told us how much she and her life has changed since she started listening to us (we've taught her like three times) and how her family has even asked her what has gotten into her cuz she's super nice now and she told them its from listening to us! and her mom was like wow what are those sisters teaching you? and all this stuff and she told us how she's praying everyday and she told us like a ton of different experiences where her prayers have been answered and she has felt the Holy Ghost and all this super cool stuff. we were pretty much floored. she credits it all to listening to us! it was pretty amazing. that actually happened a few times this week with different people and it was really cool cuz sometimes we feel like we're not having any affect on people, but there it is!

This was also the week for people to make fun of my language. lolz. one investigator at the end of a lesson we were like soo do you have any questions for us before we peace out? and she was like um yes. and we were like sweet! shoot. and she was like is it hard for you guys to speak Tagalog? cuz it sounds like it is. lolz then she talked to Sister Garcia about that for a few and then she turned to me and was like umm your voice is really beautiful but it sounds like really unnatural for you to be speaking Tagalog. i just said thank you and moved on lolz but seriously, every word is like super long with a bazillion vowels and i've been here a month. of course it sounds unnatural! alas, life goes on. and if that's the worst thing she has to say about my language, im ok with that.

Also! we went to visit a less active family and i understood like the entire conversation quick enough to contribute to the conversation. it was pretty much the most exciting thing ever. we were talking about 3 Nephi 12 and how its suuuper hard to forgive your enemies. which was weird to hear from this family cuz i can't really imagine them having any enemies! they're so nice!

We have a mom and daughter that are both investigating and they started meeting with missionaries in like august. when i first got here they were about to get dropped. but they are finally getting there! they're coming to church and they're getting baptized next month! we're super stoked!!! it just shows that some people need more time but they always kept their reading commitments and they really were trying to know for themselves and to learn and that is the most important part.

A really big problem here is people having strokes. it happens way too much. its awful. the son of T __R__ that we are teaching was like i just want to go to church with my dad, and he was so excited to come to church this week with his dad cuz last week his dad left without him lolz. but this week his dad had a stroke!!!! so he shows up to church all by himself and we're like where is t__!!! and he told us he had a stroke but he knew he still needed to come to church even though it was by himself. (this guy is way legit, we're super excited about him)
Anyway that family is doing great!! its really encouraging to see them progress!! i think this week we saw over and over again that we as missionaries are really such a tiny part of the process. Heavenly Father is doing everything. all the people need to do is show a tiny bit of faith, just act. and then Heavenly Father takes them all the way. That's the biggest difference between our two dads that we're teaching. one has everything going for him with his family support, but he isn't acting at all. he isn't trying to change for himself, he just kinda wants us to change him. not gonna work. and then the other one has work every day but sunday, and gets home late, but he did his reading, he prayed, and he went to church, and he stayed all three hours and commented in priesthood the bishop told us, and he's gonna get baptized next month. none of that is because of us. it is all coming from his own actions to experiment on the word and the work of the Holy Ghost in his life.

Anyway we set a bap date for the son in our next lesson. he is getting baptized almost one year to the day after his dad was baptized. so cool. his dad is the only member, but he is such a good example to his family. i really really really hope T___ gets better so he can be at his son's baptism and they can go to church together. it was just a mild stroke, so he should recover ok. he's only 73 or something.

Conversion is such a personal thing. we have another dad (the one who works late that we got our curfew extended for) that has his entire family that goes to church and wants him to progress and is there to support him but he is just not progressing. he has his nine year old daughter (who is soooo cute) there like feeding him all the answers to the simplest questions and he still can't tell us who Joseph Smith is. we've taught him the 1st lesson twice. cuz when we went back the second time he didn't remember anything. and still. nothing. he just isn't doing anything on his own!!! so we're starting over with him. i think we just made assumptions about his level of readiness that we need to re-work. frustrating. but that's ok. they can't all be ready to jump in the water, right? :)

We have a family that was super inactive but they've been the last three weeks and we visited them again this week and they were like we're getting ready to go to the temple as a family!!! so that's way exciting, their goal date is the beginning of march. so cool. kinda bewildering cuz three weeks ago they were like nooo way, we're not ready to go to the temple, and this week they were like we're there! we're gonna do it! we have family prayer led by the dad every night and sometimes in the mornings too! (crazy cuz they have to wake up at like 4 for the daughter to get to school at like 5:30... seminary never looked so good in hindsight)


"When we obey Satan, we give him power. When we obey God, He gives us power."

this is a good quote from my Mission President  this week

Love you all,
Sister Jones