Hey ya’ll! :)
Kumusta po kayo? My English is so broken now… I think I’ll just have to stay here forever now, because I can’t speak English anymore. I just won’t come home, is that ok? :) Good. Email na lang tayo hahaha.
But no, this week was awesome. It went really fast. Brother Ariel was baptized this Friday! It was a really nice baptism and they’re so excited. There was also a small miracle because his boss is a member, and we thought he’d be the one to baptize Brother Ariel, but he showed up and had no idea that’s what was going on and didn’t plan on bringing extra clothes! But turns out they had just come home from swimming and had extra clothes and a towel so it all worked out :) it was nice and we’re so happy for Brother Ariel and his wife, Sheryl. It was a long time coming.
Sister Elen’s doing awesome too. Her baptism was scheduled for April 2 but we moved it to April 23. This is part of my email to President Clark- I’ll just include it here. This is how it all happened :
We’re seeing miracles all the time, quiet ones, big ones. One special, special thing that happened this week was on Saturday. On Friday, we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with one of our investigators, Sister Elen. She’s really really excited for her baptism on April 2, but as we talked, you could tell she just wasn’t ready. She’s on her way, but not there yet…it was a struggle honestly. But we just kept saying “well we feel you’re ready! It’ll all be ok!” But deep inside…nope. We left and talked about it afterwards, and Sister Rudd said she felt ok with it, and so I thought maybe I was just being a doubter. I kept praying and thinking about it all night though, until personal study the next morning. I read one of President Eyring’s talks, that said to qualify for the Lord’s help in the work, we need to pray and then be absolutely willing to do WHATEVER the Lord tells us to. We had also read the other day about prayer- that real intent means that we ask with the intention that we’ll do whatever the answer may be. And so I prayed and asked God, and He said “Move the baptism to April 23”. And so I said ‘ok’ and the greatest feeling of peace and assurance and warmth came over me. I knew it was what we needed to do. I told Sister Rudd and even though she seemed a little disappointed and apprehensive, she said she’d support that. So we went over to Elen’s house, and I wasn’t nervous at all. I didn’t know exactly what we would say, but I knew that what we had received was revelation from God, so it was the right thing to do. We got to her house and she was surprised to see us and asked why we were there. We prayed and then just started talking and just said straight out what we were feeling. We weren’t even finished when Elen burst out “yes! That’s fine! That’s what I want to.” She said she hadn’t been able to sleep last night because she didn’t feel quite ready and wanted to understand the gospel a little bit better and just didn’t know how to bring it up to us. She said “I feel so happy because that’s what I wanted to tell you but you said it first! God is so good.” (except it sounds better when she said it in Tagalog). The Spirit was so strong and we all felt such peace because we knew we were working with the Lord, and He was working with us…we weren’t just trying to do our own thing. I love serving a mission. I know that God loves His children and that the heavens are open. Maybe this doesn’t make a lot of sense…why would we be happy that a baptism is pushed back, but I know this isn’t about numbers. This is about God’s children preparing to make sacred covenants, and He will guide us to it.
So anyways, that was Saturday, and it was honestly one of my favorite days on the mission. I guess you’d just have to be there to understand. But I love the Spirit and I’m grateful for the courage and faith that God gives us to obey what He says. On Sunday, Sister Elen came to church…WITH HER HUSBAND!! Her husband used to do drugs and until now drinks and smokes, but we’ve been seeing little changes over the last couple weeks, and finally he came to church with her and loved it! They looked so cute there together and Sister Elen was so so happy. After that we talked about eternal families, and as we talked about family prayer and family study, I realized that these are things we do not just to check it off a ‘spiritual checklist’ but to really build our families for eternity. They have 4 adult children and even the kids have seen a lot of changes in Sister Elen and are very supportive of her. I know there will come the time when they will all be baptized and be sealed in the temple. I still remember the first night we taught them…the Spirit was so strong and I didn’t understand why because it seemed like they weren’t interested, but God works in miracles and this family is one of them. I love them all so so much.
Sister Myrna is also getting baptized this Wednesday. She’s so excited and is so prepared. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and has some really great insights about what she reads- like even when things are hard or easy we need to follow the commandments. Her prayers are so sweet as well- they’re my favorite part of the lesson. And she closes her tindahan every lesson now, so there are no distractions. Yesterday, her husband closed it for her! Her husband, Brother Boy, is really gruff and always grumbles and offers us coffee whenever we invite him to listen, but deep inside we know he’s so supportive of Sister Myrna and I know that one day as well, they will enter the temple together :)
I love being a missionary! I know this is God’s work…to prepare us for ETERNITY, not just for numbers or anything like that. This truly is a marvelous work and a wonder :)
Love you all!!
Sister Allen
Kumusta po kayo? My English is so broken now… I think I’ll just have to stay here forever now, because I can’t speak English anymore. I just won’t come home, is that ok? :) Good. Email na lang tayo hahaha.
But no, this week was awesome. It went really fast. Brother Ariel was baptized this Friday! It was a really nice baptism and they’re so excited. There was also a small miracle because his boss is a member, and we thought he’d be the one to baptize Brother Ariel, but he showed up and had no idea that’s what was going on and didn’t plan on bringing extra clothes! But turns out they had just come home from swimming and had extra clothes and a towel so it all worked out :) it was nice and we’re so happy for Brother Ariel and his wife, Sheryl. It was a long time coming.
Sister Elen’s doing awesome too. Her baptism was scheduled for April 2 but we moved it to April 23. This is part of my email to President Clark- I’ll just include it here. This is how it all happened :
We’re seeing miracles all the time, quiet ones, big ones. One special, special thing that happened this week was on Saturday. On Friday, we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with one of our investigators, Sister Elen. She’s really really excited for her baptism on April 2, but as we talked, you could tell she just wasn’t ready. She’s on her way, but not there yet…it was a struggle honestly. But we just kept saying “well we feel you’re ready! It’ll all be ok!” But deep inside…nope. We left and talked about it afterwards, and Sister Rudd said she felt ok with it, and so I thought maybe I was just being a doubter. I kept praying and thinking about it all night though, until personal study the next morning. I read one of President Eyring’s talks, that said to qualify for the Lord’s help in the work, we need to pray and then be absolutely willing to do WHATEVER the Lord tells us to. We had also read the other day about prayer- that real intent means that we ask with the intention that we’ll do whatever the answer may be. And so I prayed and asked God, and He said “Move the baptism to April 23”. And so I said ‘ok’ and the greatest feeling of peace and assurance and warmth came over me. I knew it was what we needed to do. I told Sister Rudd and even though she seemed a little disappointed and apprehensive, she said she’d support that. So we went over to Elen’s house, and I wasn’t nervous at all. I didn’t know exactly what we would say, but I knew that what we had received was revelation from God, so it was the right thing to do. We got to her house and she was surprised to see us and asked why we were there. We prayed and then just started talking and just said straight out what we were feeling. We weren’t even finished when Elen burst out “yes! That’s fine! That’s what I want to.” She said she hadn’t been able to sleep last night because she didn’t feel quite ready and wanted to understand the gospel a little bit better and just didn’t know how to bring it up to us. She said “I feel so happy because that’s what I wanted to tell you but you said it first! God is so good.” (except it sounds better when she said it in Tagalog). The Spirit was so strong and we all felt such peace because we knew we were working with the Lord, and He was working with us…we weren’t just trying to do our own thing. I love serving a mission. I know that God loves His children and that the heavens are open. Maybe this doesn’t make a lot of sense…why would we be happy that a baptism is pushed back, but I know this isn’t about numbers. This is about God’s children preparing to make sacred covenants, and He will guide us to it.
So anyways, that was Saturday, and it was honestly one of my favorite days on the mission. I guess you’d just have to be there to understand. But I love the Spirit and I’m grateful for the courage and faith that God gives us to obey what He says. On Sunday, Sister Elen came to church…WITH HER HUSBAND!! Her husband used to do drugs and until now drinks and smokes, but we’ve been seeing little changes over the last couple weeks, and finally he came to church with her and loved it! They looked so cute there together and Sister Elen was so so happy. After that we talked about eternal families, and as we talked about family prayer and family study, I realized that these are things we do not just to check it off a ‘spiritual checklist’ but to really build our families for eternity. They have 4 adult children and even the kids have seen a lot of changes in Sister Elen and are very supportive of her. I know there will come the time when they will all be baptized and be sealed in the temple. I still remember the first night we taught them…the Spirit was so strong and I didn’t understand why because it seemed like they weren’t interested, but God works in miracles and this family is one of them. I love them all so so much.
Sister Myrna is also getting baptized this Wednesday. She’s so excited and is so prepared. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and has some really great insights about what she reads- like even when things are hard or easy we need to follow the commandments. Her prayers are so sweet as well- they’re my favorite part of the lesson. And she closes her tindahan every lesson now, so there are no distractions. Yesterday, her husband closed it for her! Her husband, Brother Boy, is really gruff and always grumbles and offers us coffee whenever we invite him to listen, but deep inside we know he’s so supportive of Sister Myrna and I know that one day as well, they will enter the temple together :)
I love being a missionary! I know this is God’s work…to prepare us for ETERNITY, not just for numbers or anything like that. This truly is a marvelous work and a wonder :)
Love you all!!
Sister Allen