Just Love this Place

Hello hello to my dear family!!

Honest to goodness, I feel like I just have lived here all my life. We sat in ward council yesterday and I ended up being the map. For reals though. It's hilarious. I just love this place.

So I have a story for you! So yesterday, we went to an appointment, but he was busy so we decided to contact one of the less actives in that area. So we figure out where she lives and go to the door and she's sitting there reading her scriptures. But she's not just reading her scriptures, she's actually reading the index. And marking it like crazy with all these weird dashes and lines. Wait, it gets better. It was like I walked into "A Beautiful Mind". So she gets super super excited to see us, invites us in and of course we start asking the usual questions..."kumusta po kayo?", then like the second question I asked,  I said so when were you baptized? And this was her answer, "Well, in 1972 is when I died. I'm a resurrected being"......yep. I sat there and went, hold up, am I translating this correctly?? Bahaha, it gets better! Apparently she's been given the priesthood and has seen the resurrected Christ....in the bishop's office. And she has a Urim and Thumin and she's had visions and revelations. Don't worry, she wrote a letter to the first presidency telling them all about it. She's prophesied to be the next apostle. At first, I was just trying not to laugh out loud! I couldn't figure out if she was being serious or not...but then as she went on, she just got creepier and creepier. I don't know how to describe it. She grabbed my hand and was getting real close to me and is like, you believe me right? We're the chosen ones. Brrrr, not even kidding. And you should see her scriptures....they're marked so creepily! Good thing I had my Phychologist of a companion with me....she said she had a patient like that once who was also a member of the church. Schizophrenic. Haha, oh my goodness. Definitely a first for me. Afterward, I couldn't stop thinking about it and as a result, I left my OYM bag in the tricycles with my Tagalog BofM that I've marked like crazy so I can actually find things and my Plan of Salvation that took me a month to make because there's no time. Shoot. I'm praying an honest person finds it :) Ha, it was quite the interesting night. 

BUT, guys, I have so many great stories for you this week! I know I've kind of been complaining lately, so I'm going to repent and tell you 3 stories from this week that were just so awesome and make missionary work the greatest thing ever. You ready?

 So #1:  So we've been working with a less active sister. She is seriously so great. She has a WofW problem, but she's working on it and she really wants to come back to church. Well this week we had an exhibit at the chapel, kind of like an open house about the history of the church in the Philippines and she came with us. So we were walking home with her and she just goes, "I wish I would have had a pen and paper. Our church is just beautiful, even from the start. I told that to my friend the other day. This is the true church". Ah, yes. So happy. Her faith is really starting to grow and it just makes me so happy :). 

 #2:  I went to a lady's funeral the very first day I got to this area. The poor husband is just heart broken. We’ve taught him a few times, but 9 times out of 10 he’s so drunk we can’t teach. So we finally caught him on a day when he wasn’t drunk. We taught him about the temple. He knows what the temple is, but he doesn’t know what it’s really about.  We taught about family sealing. He keeps asking why he is still alive. We told him  “This is why. Your wife is waiting for you to go to the temple so you can be together forever.”  He just said okay. How do I do that? We’ll be teaching the word of wisdom next time :)   

#3:  You all know one of my favs here, Jeyar. I swear I knew this kid in the pre-existance. He's practically a bestie here in Tandang Sora. Let me just paint a little picture for you. So we were teaching him up on top of his roof, it was about sunset at this point. And we're just doing a follow up, how's work, how's your reading, prayers, etc. And he goes, guess what? What? and he says, "I'm getting my patriarchal blessing tomorrow". About 3 weeks ago we taught about patriarchal blessings and challenged him to talk to bishop and work on getting his blessing, and yesterday he got his patriarchal blessing. As we were just sitting up there on his roof, it was a good thing it was dark because I may have shed a tear or two. I've just seen him grow from step one, I've been here the whole way. And now he has a patriarchal blessing and going to apply for a mission by September. I can't even describe how happy it makes me. It's honestly hard to explain.

The best part about all of this is these are people I’ve known for 5 months now and have been teaching, and going to church with, and helping for so long and so I've seen their growth and how much they're changing their lives and how much happier they are! Sometimes you don't get that lucky. You get to an area, and you start working, and then you get transferred before you ever get to see the results of what you're doing. But I've gotten to see the results. Even if they're still small changes right now. I just love it. 

Well, I'm out of time. I hope you're all enjoying the snow....it's getting summer time here....I think I might just melt. Haha. But I love you all and I'll talk to you next week! Ingat kayo diyen!