Training Meetings and Firesides

So this week we ran around telling people about the fireside that we had in our branch on Saturday. It was about getting married and striving for a temple marriage and not just living with each other. It was good. We had 10 people there so that is 5 couples, I was so happy! Because they came! We had a couple missionary teach about temple marriage, and then we had a Filipino couple bare testimony and then the requirements to getting civilly married  and sister Marbelyn (our recent convert ) testify about how she likes being married to her husband and her strive to go to the temple. It was sooooooo good! I love sister Marbelyn she is strengthening her husband and her sisters (they were all there).

The sister training meeting was really good. They talked about how even though we are different we don't need to look down on each other or fight, because we have one purpose and our time to serve is super short so even if we don't like our companion it is only a second of our life. So we need to do all we can to serve the people with love and have enough charity to give each other the benefit of the doubt and after that we will see each other’s strengths and celebrate our differences. It was about not focusing on the negative, because in the end that won't matter. Also striving in being the best we can be with our different talents and not feeling incompetent because we have Divine Help. Also about to love Jesus more than your fears and doubts and your hurt feelings and your sleep. Can you do that? Let go of your fears and just go forward with trust? we are all here to help each other go back to heaven can you help Our Heavenly Father by letting go of insecurities and just helping your other brothers and sisters? Don't be a wimpy woman; make Choices and Decisions based on the Fact that you are A Child of GOD. Don’t dilly dally. BE a Heroine for others. For your Faith, for Jesus (onward Christian Soldiers) hahah it was cool. You have good to do every day, so go out and do it.

When you are Selfish you can't be who God intended you to be because selfishness suffocates spiritual senses. If you have problems you have to ask yourself how you can change that then go and do it. 

If you have virtuous thoughts you can be confident in every other aspect, because you will have the spirit to be with you to guide you. Be fearlessly different, have the Courage and Commitment.....(I can’t read my handwriting) to be positive? Anyways those are my notes I loved it. But then we got stuck in Cauayan and couldn't go home until 7 hahah. There were no buses and we were not going to take a van. (They cram people into vans and everyone closes the windows so it gets hooooooot.)

Other highlights. We have 7 less active teen girls that are all batch mates, they all use to pull each other to church and activities but it died. So we visited them and gave the scripture 2 Nephi 1:30-32 about best friends and how to be a best friend you need to bring your friends closer to Christ and bring each other to church. One had called the other and it was cool. We whispered to her "you are being an awesome Nephi” it was cool. I was happy. 

Also our RC, Leo was ordained a Priest and he prayed for the first time for the sacrament. It was good.

Cool sky

Sisters in our mission family...

me and sister diola (our nanay), and sister perlas (my older sister) sister K (my niece) sister Frame (my oldest niece), and My anak (my kid sister pavino) 

our batchmates. 

A Visit to the Hospital

Sooooooooooo I went to the hospital this week, story time. 

So my anak had a bump on her thigh. We thought it was nothing maybe a bad mosquito bite and continued to work but then it hurt and got worse. We looked at it, a nanay saw it and said put chili leaves on it so we did and saw it was like a pimple and so we tried to pop it, that is when it gets worse. then it starts to ooze blood and puss for the next couple of days, and my anak can hardly walk, a nanay tells us that is normal. Then it got really pussy and white and purple and then we went to Cauayan mission home. We went to the hospital. Come to find out it was a boil that got really infected. They laid her down on a table and cut it out, without numbing it (MY ANAK IS SUPER TOUGH! SHE HARDLY CRIED!)   Cleaned it and then shove gaze in it. The next day they clean out the wound again and tell me that I have to do that for the next two weeks until it heals and so it doesn't get infected again. It also can't get wet. Then we got to ride in a car with the AP's all the way home. 

My anak has a hole in her thigh. It looks like a bullet wound! I have to take a syringe (like the one that we used to feed peg and al when they were sick.) and spray it with Peroxide and sodium chloride and wipe it out with gaze then put betadine over it. Then put gaze over it every day in the morning. Then we work until the pain meds wear off then we go home and plan and eat, rest and read and talk. I think that Heavenly Father is blessing me with strength to clean out my anak's wound because even though it is something that I wouldn't do voluntarily. I know that my anak (kid in tagalog) needs me to do it. I just keep thinking of how cool of scar she will have to show off, instead of thinking "oh man my finger is inside her leg." 

What a blessing it is that we have two weeks and then transfers.  I am most likely to leave so it needs to be healed so she can take over the area with a new companion.  

it was nice to stay in the mission home (air con, American food, and a celestial bathroom with hot water, and a washing machine and dryer), and it was good that we got the boil cut out before it could infect her bones or she got another one. Also I got to see my nanay (here on the mission) sister Diola. At the mission home she is an sister training leader in Cayauan zone, so they dropped by. It was fun. Also we found out that 3 weeks bfore we go home we have to get our picture taken and finger prints taken for our visa. They did that like 5 cycles back but the company that did it is not recognized by the government anymore. but that is ok we get a day in Manilla before we go home. 

Visited a blind dude that plays the organ, piano, Spanish guitar, like a John Denver like guitar songs, and can sing in English and Tagalog and improv and was the first to get baptized here in this town. He has the town memorized so he just walks around, it is just amazing! He is now less active because they don't have a Braille book of Mormon in Tagalog, but a different religion had a bible in Tagalog Braille so he goes to them. He is so sweet and makes up songs about the missionaries and about families being forever. We talked to him about his promise to God and how he needs to keep that promise by taking the sacrament every Sunday because when others make promises to him and don't keep it it makes him disappointed. Just like Heavenly Father is when you don't take the sacrament. 

For pday, we had an activity with our branch missionaries at the river. We didn't swim but we did get splashed thanks to our branch missionaries. (don't worry, we plastic wrapped sister pavino's leg) 

It was cold!

Echage branch!

We saw Sister Diola in the mission home

Testimony of the Savior

We have been kind of slow this week. My anak has been kind of sick and everyone has been preparing for the festival of the corn harvest. The BACAO Festival here in Echage is the only place in the world that speaks Yogad so BACAO is Corn in Yogad. In Tagalog it is the same as Spanish. mias. Also there is a lot of corn here but also rice. During the harvest seasons in Isabella (the highest rice producing Provence of the Philippines) they put up scarecrows everywhere on the streets. 

Highlights; Got Tatay Jarmillo to open up to us about why he doesn't go to church. A lot of people are shy of what others think, but in the end it doesn't matter. We shared with him 2Nephi 8:7-8 about only caring what God thinks. He liked it and asked us for help to get his family go back to church. 

Gave nanay Marifel a Book of Mormon and she Cried so hard. Her church sells the bible for so much and she could never afford it. She just wanted it to teach her kids. We give out the word of God for free WHAT! ya we are cool. It was so sweet though. 

Mark Bambalan, only drinks when there is a party and others are, but he had a little too much for one party and so he went to the doctor and the doctor told him no more coffee no more alcohol. hhahahah then we came and told him that’s ok because that is a commandment from God, though Joseph Smith (a prophet that he has a big testimony of, he really relates)  and a commandment from your Doctor. So will you follow it? hahah 

Saturday: the RS party that we were invited to we came watched them perform and ate the food and watched the fashion show. It was fun. (I don't think we will watch that broadcast for RS, I haven't heard anything really about it.)

Sunday: no one in church BACAO Festival. There was a parade and shows and performances. We got punted but it was still good. We got 3 lessons. 

Today: woke up, watched the parade of the BACAO Festival and some of the street dances but then had to leave. We watched our Recent Convert Dance it was fun. 

Testimony of the Savior. Tagapaglitas natin. He is our Kuyah (older brother). I think of him like the older brother that has to help us with our math homework when our parents are on a date or vacation. He knows all the answers because he has had that class already and now it is up to us to ask for his help (he won't force us to use his Atonement). And when we do he helps us learn and doesn't just give us all the answers. But he is always there and when we just need to throw down the pencil and cry "this math is so freakin' hard!" he is there to help, to encourage, and if we continue we learn and get an A in our Math Test.  Our parents are super happy with us. But if we don't ask for his help we don't learn that much, get a bad grade and even though our Parents will always love us. We might not want to be in their presence because we know we disappointed them. And we are mad at ourselves because we didn't use the help that was there for us the whole time. So use the Atonement, make mistakes and learn from them and remember that you always have help. And in the end you will look at Heavenly Father and say 'yes I tried my hardest to do all that you wanted me to do." 

Relief Society Birthday Party

It was a Hawaiian theme.

Yay!  Hawaii in the Philippines!

Scarecrow Festival

Corn Festival

Less Active Lessons

So since we have been sick we have kind of let down the less actives because we need to go to investigators first to make sure they didn't forget our lessons. But a less active texted us and said where have you been? hhahah we visited him on Thursday, and had a great lesson with him. He really wants to marry a Mormon girl and have a stable family and he loves to feel the spirit. His only problem is his drinking and he even got into a crash last week. So he sees the bad effects. His leg looks like jesses when she biffed on her long board. We taught him about getting into the habit of going to church praying and reading his scriptures and if he does he will be with the girl of his dreams and have a stable family life; Because his family will be based on Christ and forgiveness, and if he does that he will get stronger in his faith and have the courage to stop drinking and then he won't crash on his trycy and then the Mormon girls will like him. 

Also another less active told us a story that her kid was buying cigars for the neighbor old man but she got really mad at the dude. Then the next week the kid tells the old man I can't buy cigars for you anymore or my mom will get mad again. hahah it was cute. 

We had a less active lesson. He is the kind of kid that is 25 and sits in his parent’s basement playing video games and on face book. So we were just talking with him and my Anak (sister Pavino) was totally just possessed by the HOLY GHOST, and it was amazing! She kept asking questions about how happy he was with his life. He said he wasn't very. So she asked him why that was. He said there was no purpose to the things he did every day. She asked him what he did. Woke at 12 ate checked face book, played some games, went to the store. Came back ate again, played more games. So she said you need to wake up earlier. Then I whipped out the D&C 88:127 about not sleeping in. and if he did that his mind would come up with ideas about what he could do differently and his day would have more purpose. It was cool. She spoke but I had the scripture. After that lesson, sister Pavino asked me all that she said because she couldn't remember like anything. ahah it was cool. I love that feeling. 

This week is ladies week in the PH so there are parades of ladies organizations all over. 

Sunday:  We met some more less actives.  They started going to the Baptist church just because it is closer. :I I shared with them the story of how a family came to church even though it was an hour away by tricy and they had a born again church right next to their house but they knew that this one was true. Plus they don't have a book of Mormon anywhere so I think a lot of things happened and they just kind of got baptized just cuz. But we will show them that this is super important and will bless there lives. 

Service - burning trash

The kids' pet spider

Binyag ni REXson

A Baptism and Pictures!

The Casco kids got BAPTIZED! wooo but they couldn’t get confirmed because it was district conference but they now have many friends in the youth that it is so good and I have pictures!!!!!!!!!!!  It was good the young men’s leader baptized them because he is close with bro. Leo. It was nice. After that they went to mutual. 

Tuesday was a hard working day, but then I got sick I had a fever Wednesday, we only had one lesson and no lessons on Thursday but we went to district meeting and met our new DL and new ZL. Our new ZL is really cool. 

Friday sick still but we worked and that was when the baptism was! wooo!

Saturday was district conference. It was the youth one and the district president talked about the way to happiness was getting a good education and making goals, then going on a mission or preparing like you were, to know the scriptures and to be worthy. I liked it a lot.  

Sunday there was a brown out in the middle of district conference so I couldn't hear all the messages. but there was one about how members need to work with the missionaries and it gave examples like with Alma and Amulek, and with Jesus how he sent some people that he had healed into the towns to show people what had happened.  Sunday was a good day. We got to teach the kids that are in the festival this week. They have practice on Sundays but they just got home so it was cool. We taught Zinida that had sat in one of our lessons with one of our investigators and just absorbed everything up and even borrowed our investigators BoM so she could read it. But we gave her her own. hahah 

We have a new investigator whose name is Philippina Jane COOLEST NAME EVER! 

We had a farewell party  for our ZL (zone leader) that was leaving (paraja the big philipino) with the ward on a sand bar in the middle of a river. it was a lunch appointment. But we were all dressed up to work so they had to drive us over. 

There is everyone

I really want to go swimming!

We are cute.

The Branch 2 Missionaries

We eat pizza when we are sick of ramen noodles. Trying to be creative without an oven.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors" with a twist - you can't fall down. Hahah it was fun while waiting for the baptismal font to fill up. 

Goofy kids, they thought the clothes where like kung fu clothes. I thought they were too when I was baptized. 

Baptism! 

First dinner appointment with our new ZL. The kid up front right has sad eyes but he is really happy on the inside hahah.