April 4, 2011

Its April...

My companion and i are asking ourselves when Easter is... no one has talked about it and they dont have too much to celebrate it really so we have no idea.... WEIRD!

So last week it was still raining profusely last week but this week, luckily, it has slowed up. The whole one payong thing isnt working to well cause we both just end up half dry and half drenched. Or i where my rain jacket which doesnt keep rain out after so long of rain :)

We met lots of new friends these last two weeks! Mainly kids. They just love us so we love them! We have a whole little crew that follow us around. Some even come up behind you and just hold your hand as you walk down the street. Its really tender. They are such cute little children of God. We have fun teaching them with pictures and stories. Since missionary's thing is extending commitments, last week i committed them to do service for their parents (like clean or wash dishes, etc.)

Had a neat experience teaching the Restoration in candle light. I guess there is a world wide energy conservation hour done every year... didnt know about that the first 21 years of my life oops... but the Philippines is big on doing it. It was last Saturday (March 26). We taught a family during that hour... really neat and spiritual experience.

This week Sister Blonquist and I were able to invite two different companionship to come work with us in our area. This allows us to better train and learn with the other sisters in the mission. Its so fun! We love getting to know all the sisters and learn from them. We may be the ones with the calling to be the leaders and do the training but it always seems that in those types of positions you are the one that does the learning and you grow tremendously! I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity that Heavenly Father has given to me to learn and be a better missionary.

So this week was April Fools Day... awesome... the elders, not gonna lie, got us so good. They had us for about 20 minutes thinking that Elder Bednar was her in Tacloban.... There is much more to the story but only a few choice will here that so just remind me after the mission sometime and ill tell you... maybe. Touche to the Elders!

We had a really really great week. First... Joey received baptism! His original baptism date since the first time we taught him was April 2 Then the member he is close with would be out of town on the 2nd so we moved it to the 1st two weeks ago. But then last week he had an unexpected seminary that he had to drive his boss to so we were going to have to push it to the 9th. We prayed all week that his seminar would be canceled! All week when we visited he said it was still on... then on Friday when we visited he told us that it got canceled! And That Sister Millama (the member friend) wasnt going to leave until the 3rd! I wish you could have seen our bright faces and how quickly we pulled out our cell phone to call our ward mission leader. Luckily 2 elders in the ward also had a baptism so all worked out perfectly! We have been focusing on EXPECTING MIRACLES! And look!... A miracle happened.
Second reason that it was a great week was that a less active family came back to church after 2 years. We both felt very impressed to visit them one night and we did.They realized then how much they needed to come back. Theirs' is a VERY difficult situation but they exercised their faith and it was amazing! They invited us to come pick them up so we did. We showed up at 8 and everyone was about ready. At 830 we got into their multicab which wasnt starting. The clock was ticking and things werent looking up. We all bowed our heads and offered a vocal prayer. We were then able to find another multicab and get to church. We were 10 min late but were able to all sit and partake in the sacrament still (thanks to all the confirmations which took up time at the start :) ). Im so glad to be a missionary and be a part of this great and marvelous work!

I cant even believe its April and ill be home in 3 months! Like thats absolutely insane! Agi Daw!! PasPas an panahon. Damo nga nahibaroan ngan damo pa nga moabut ha ak ha tulo ka ulanhing mga bulan nga anaa pa ak ha misyon. Napapasalmat po ak ha gugma ngan pasensya ha Diyos. Magilub ak hasta ka hasta!

Scripture of the week.... Helaman 5:1-12... REMEMBER!

Gugma,
Sister Carissa Jones