Invitations to be Baptized

It has been a good week this week. Had a lot more lessons, and invited a lot of people to prepare to be baptized. I know it will take a long time to get them there but if they have that desire and really prepare themselves it opens doors. This week we talked a lot about potential. We all kind of brag about our investigators and the smart kids that we get to meet, we figured that if you don't limit people they will soar. So that is why we give invitations to be baptized to show them that we know they can achieve it, we can't limit it by well I won't see them be baptized so why invite them. Don’t limit people by their problems they can overcome it if they rely on Christ. Trust in Christ to help them and invite. 

TUE: Last week we talked about how an investigator needs to get married to get baptized. Her "husband" overheard us and almost walked all the way back to Manila (far way from here.) to get his birth certificate fixed so that she could get married. Two factors that make Her Husband cool: He just lost his job but sacrificed anyways to go all the way to get his birth certificate and he started random jobs to pay his way back up.  After that it flooded so hard the street was a river and we just had to go home. Got soaked the trycie was having a hard time. Only had one umbrella. Our dinner appt. (next door to us) just came by and dropped it off then went back home. (They didn't want us to walk back out in the rain after getting home) 

Birthday of our on and off LA (less active). She has a hard life so we gave her a cake and she cried. It was cute. I love her. She sings to us and her oldest daughter is super cool. 

WED: Invited an investigator to be baptized and taught another investigator, but that lesson was hard because her brother was watching TV in the other room, and I could hear English so it makes it hard to speak Tagalog when English is going though your brain. SHE WENT TO CHURCH and participated in the Gospel principles class.

We were in our far area and our usually ride was drunk, so we walked and we were going to walk the river but it had rained really hard last night so I was a little iffy but right as we get to the dirt road that goes to the river a guy drives up and drives us all the way to our house  (we needed some things that we had left). Then we got a ride to our Bishops house (had a dinner appointment) by a trycie driver that was so high on weed. It was scary. But right then our Ward mission leader drives up on his motor and follows us all the way to bishop’s house and then he went home. He could smell it too. 

THUR: Had to push an investigator's baptismal date back again.... but this will be the last time  and it made the sister Justine realize that she needed something to do about her family, so they gathered their money up and moved out of the parents house, to snap brother back in to shape. It will be good to see them on their own and now brother won’t have his cousins to get him out of going to church with his wife. He is a member but LA and we want them to be strong so that they can be an eternal family in one year from now, but he has so many escape routes at home. 

Friday: Taught another investigator again because there was a mix up and we thought her parents didn't want us to teach her. So we stopped but she asked us to teach her again (showing desire) then we asked her parents they were ok with that and we gave her a baptismal date. 

SAT: Open house of the stake center all day long. We get there and they hand us a stack of invites and tell us to hand them to people and with our missionary powers we did it. Then there was a program and they had invited one of the government officials to give their thoughts and impressions about Mormons. We had a lunch and we did it again then the rest of the day people toured though and we handed out family history things. Then our Mission President came and we sat at the back of the primary room. We were there in case someone had a question the primary workers didn't know and then we welcomed people into the sacrament hall like we would if it was normal Sunday meeting. It was kind of like working at Staples. When there were no customers we would sit and talk and then a handful of people would come. 

Sunday: I just felt good on Sunday and I don't know why usually it is the hardest day. We visited an active member and talked about growing and bearing our testimonies until nothing can bring them down. It is good because he is a college student and there are a lot of non members that he can share with them. 

Also we visited a sick member.  She was sick this whole day and her niece was there to take care of her, so we shared a little bit. 

Meetings Meeings but it was fun.  after that the Bishop feed us for like a half way snack, and then we ate dinner with our Neighbor and all his siblings they are all members and like all in their 20's and early 30's and it was just fun to laugh and talk and eat and it was just like when our family gets all together and talk. 

What do RS ladies do?

We had an open house and this is how it was set up. Also the RS Pres keeps asking me what we do in our RS and I don't know because I never paid that much attention. Mostly painted things, made decorations, canned things, made jam. yen lang. 

She is 90 years old.  We see her every week.

Trices are nice to sleep in.

A friend.

A survival vehicle with a tiny driver.

Mango Float Recipe

Sister Perkins sent this recipe home and said she loves it.

Mango Float by Sister Gardoce

2 boxes Nestles All Purpose Cream

1 can Alaska Sweetened Condensed Milk (yellow label)

2 mangoes

2 packages of Graham Crackers

Mix cream and milk until well blended.  Shred the mango into the milk mixture.  Line the bottom of a pan with graham crackers.  Add a layer of the milk/cream/mango mixture.  Repeat layers ending with graham crackers.  Frost with whipped cream or left over milk/cream/mango mixture. Place in freezer until firm.  Serve icy cold.

Also, click here to see THIS POST from April if you'd like more Filipino recipes that Sister Perkins loves to eat on her mission.

Street Contacts and Sunsets

On Tuesday; it was Ramadan so everything was shut down. The government, the schools, even though it is an Islamic Holiday everyone gets it off, which is cool. No one was home though they all went to other places to use their time off and so we just street contacted EVERYONE there was a lot of people just walking around so we talked to them. 

WED: in our far area to have a cheaper ride we can cross the river on a boat it is only ten pesos, or we can walk it is free, by trycie it is 30 pesos. So after all our appointments we decided to cross the river but there was no boat man. So we walked and it was deeper than we thought. So we walked home wet up to our waist. Before it was just to our ankles. hahah 

THurs: We visited our Old ladies. We talked about one about the temple and how our bodies are temples and how we need to be clean and ready to return to the temple when we need to. She loves to share her testimony. She told a story she shared her testimony to an attorney because they were just sitting there in awkward silence in a car ride. I like everyone needs to have the courage of old ladies. They don't care they just speak their mind and no one can do anything about it. hahahah Another one I thought she was a 16 year old. She had on baggy shorts and a tank top and was chilling under a tree looking at her garden that she just planted and then she ran to open her gate for us and sat in her window to listen to us share. SHE IS 77 Years OLD but can do everything. We shared about how faith is like her Garden. She is like God knows plants, that makes me happy. 

Friday: Visited an investigator and she went to CHURCH! and she shared about all the things she learned in first Nephi because now she is on second Nephi!!!!!!!!   I love it. 

Then we visited some members that where sick. One was a little girl that only has a dad no mom. She was watching her Grandma cook and was ignoring her out going siblings. She is a tough kid. We asked if they needed anything from the Ward (we are like home teachers) but everything Changed when her dad walked in. she was about to cry. It was a tender moment because she knew her dad was there now to take care of her. Then we taught an investigator and then found out after that that her mom doesn't want us to teach her. :I 

We talked with the Patriarch of Cagayan providence. (There is one for every Providence I think... ) It was like talking with Dad. We talked about the how in the Salt Lake Temple is live and how cool it is. It was fun and it just made me realize how much spirit just radiates off of really faithful people. 

We had an investigator come to church that always wanted to and she always reads the Book of Mormon, and we picked her up but I think she had a good experience because her kid slept though the whole thing and it was testimony meeting and when I shared my testimony she Cried and she wanted to share her testimony of the Book of Mormon but she had a sleeping kid in her arms. That was good. 

I have a hammock!

Caribou

Pretty sunsets