Miracles, Tons of Wonderful People, and a Rock Solid Testimony

This week was wonderful!!!!!! It was full of miracles. Also it was

very sunny and warm! A lot of our investigators were not progressing

so we really needed to find some new ones. It was perfect

because we had divisions this week. Our STLs are sister gibberson and

sister sandholts. I went with sis giberson. It was great. We did alot

of finding and found a lot of Elect people. I really feel like the work

here is finally picking up :)

One of the people we found is Jorge, he has been inactive for 20

years. Since the time that he has been baptized he married Fernanda

and had 2 cute little girls names Daniela 11 and Ana 8. He is the only

one that is baptized in the family. We had a wonderful lesson with

them and I just know that they will be baptized. I hope I will be here

for it. I am so grateful that we found them!!!!

Also this week my recent convert Tereza finally let us talk to her

again. As we started talking to her she said that she feels like she

is alot more sad since she has stopped going to church. So she and her

son came to church this week!!! also 2 other less actives that we have

been working with came to church!!  I was sooooooooo happy!!!

Also we are teaching s members boy friend Jose. Its kinda funny

because they flirt durring our lessons. They are both like 60 or

something haha... But he is great and has a desire to be baptized.

Also this week we visited the Sosena family (family with all the girls

that were baptized recently) and Sona (the mom) has been trying to

find work but no one is hiring so what she does is she ties these

close tag things. She get paid 4.5 eros for every 1,000 that she does.

She makes so little money a hour. We helped her tie a few while talking

to them. This made me so grateful for the things that I have.

This Sunday I gave a talk. I talked about how to gain a ROCK SOLID

TESTIMONY :)! I  studied Alma ch 32 and these are the steps that I

found in the chapter....1 we need to be humble  2 we need to have

faith  3 we need to act on our faith 4 we need to look for the signs

that our testimonies are growing   5 we need to share our testimonies

6 we need to continue to do the things that will help our testimonies

grow. I know that it is so important to strengthen our testimonies

every day. I hope you all have a chance this week to strengthen your

testimonies and come closer to Christ and help share it with others!!

Investigator Update and Mother's day Pday

Ismel and Maria

So this week we focused  on our investigator Ismel. He is 17,

Catholic and from Brazil. He really wanted to see a baptism. So we

called to see who was going to have a baptism in our Zone so we could

go watch it with him. The closest was in Matizinhos. His parents

gave us a ride there and we were able to watch the sisters baptism.

Ismel liked it and says that he would like to be baptized but he would

like some more time to think about it. Matizinhos was really pretty.

It was really close to the ocean.

Also this week my recent convert Maria Concacao left to France. She

wont be back until July so I probably wont be here for when she is

back. She made us dinner. Bacalhau with Natas. She is so cute and I am going to miss her. I am so glad I was able to meet her and be part of her conversion to the gospel. She says I have to come back and visit her and go with her to France hah.

Mother’s Day and Pday

This week was mothers day in portugal. My comp and I went

around and visited our moms in portugal. We visited a lot of the ladies

that didnt have family close or their kids had all moved out. We gave

them little cards. I love them all! They were all so sweet and kept

giving us food. :)

Today we are going to go visit a monistary and a grave yard for pday so I will send you pics next week!

I hope you all have a great week!! I CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU ON MOTHERS DAY!! I LOVE YOU!!!

A Few Answers to Questions

My favorite snack is the Halo-Halos that they have here. it

is basically a snow cone with cream, jello type things, fruit, beans,

ice cream, ube, and anything else haha! at first i didn't like them

but now they are my favorite! They also have bread shops all over.

they sell small pieces of bread/ pasteries. We usually just leave our

shoes on because it is faster and we don't want to get a bunch of sand

is our socks/shoes. but yeah it is so tempting sometimes! i just want

to run and dive in sometimes. haha. our week was good. our investigators are alright wala sa

simbahan. we had to drop a couple because they are not progressing but

it was alright because it gave us an opportunity to find new

investigators.

A Typical Visit as a Missionary in the Phillipines

New Area and New People

Our new area is mostly along a long highway wich runs right next to the

sea! haha it is so pretty! we often walked on the beach to get to our

farthest area. it is both faster and less hot than walking on the

road. haha. I really like our new area. The members in our new branch

are really good. Our Branch Mission Leader is 19 and preparing to go

on a mission. he fellowshiped with us almost everyday this week. it

was great because he knew where all the RCs live and where most of the

investigators live. so even though elder felices and i were lost most

of the time he knew where to go. we still don't know all our

investigators very well but they all seem like they want to progress

and they seem to like us.

Typical Visits

I love teaching the investigators that are progressing

towards baptism. they are always super humble and willing to change. I

love seeing the way their lives change. a typical visit to a house

includes "tao po!" (people!) because no one has a door bell, then

depending on who we visit they either tell us to come in or they run

out the back.(this last week we went to go visit a rc we told her

little brother who was outside to go get her. we watched him go in and

yell her name. then we saw her run out of her room out the back door

and down the road to hide in a friends house!) haha or they tell us to

come in sit down and sometimes they get us marrienda. (a snack-

usually a soft drink and cookie from a tindahan(small store on the

side of some houses.)),then we teach. Right now it is summer. it is

soooo hot! the only times that i haven't been sweating is when i am

showering, in the church(theres air conditioning) or when right in

front of a fan at night! haha sometimes it is really gross. haha. I

can't wait for the rainy season!

The Blessings of Patriarchs

this last week in church we talked about patriarchal blessings.

because there are only districts in Cagayan there are no stakes. so there

are no Patriarchs. The closest stake is in Laoag i think 8 hours away. most

of the members don't have their blessings or dont get them until they go

on missions. you are so blessed to live in a ward and stake with the blessings

of Patriarchs. Tell Grandpa thanks again for my blessing! I love reading

it and always feel peace when i read it.