Hello Fam,
Ether 12:6 stood out to me last night as I was reflecting on this past week. I mentioned last week that no one came to church that we visited last sunday and it was quite disappointing to say the least. But, this week I learned a lot about what it means to "receive the witness after the trial of your faith." We didn't give up and we worked so stinking hard this week! On Monday we went to the Maunes family for family scripture study and prayer...Brother Maones just started talking and we just listened for a long time. (He was a past counselor in the branch presidency, but got offended by the branch president...long story/ really bad situation...) It was a direct answer to our pleading prayers. He said Sunday night he prayed all night long until morning. He said Heavenly Father told him to let go and forget what happened because he needs to focus on his family. His family is more important than the wrong that happened to him personally. He finally understood that his role as father and husband was crucial for the salvation of his family and he was not fulfilling his responsibilities and his family was suffering. I know that Heavenly Father had Sister Ghouri and me focus on the family and family scripture study with this family in particular because that is the only thing that would bring this man back. He had a truly life changing experience as he poured out his soul to God and God answered him exactly how he needed. It was so incredible! And later that week another man, Brother Maones friend, was at their home for family scripture study. This man is also a member and was offended and has stopped coming to church. Brother Maones was able to share his experience and said, 'lets just go back. together, this sunday." WAS I SERIOUSLY HEARING THIS!?!? WOW. Miracle! Brother Maones was completely different than the first time I met him 3-4 weeks ago. I love the gospel and I love family scripture study and prayer! We have gone to his house every night and they have 5 boys. They are 4 months to 9 years old and they read with us and kneel in prayer. ITs adorable. There entire family came to church yesterday. And so did his friend.
In fact, it was a great sunday. The sunday I got here the attendance was 67. Yesterday it was 110! :) We were so happy to see many of the less actives we have visited and a whole group of members from a very far away barangay came. As they entered the church it was just like seeing one miracle after another, one by one. So awesome.
On Saturday we went party hopping (not planned!). It seemed that most of the people we visited that day were celebrating something so we got to benefit from that. Delicious Filipino food. and free! We had to attend a wedding at the church as well. Weird feelings about that, but still good.
So yesterday was a wonderful Sunday and everyone at church was smiling and happy. The talks were about charity, the atonement, and a high councilor gave an excellent talk about the importance of member ship in the church. The chapel was full and everyone was happy to be there...There really is strength in numbers, I think.
WEll, This week will go by very fast I'm sure. We got to Tacloban for 2 days and we have our last interviews with President Malit.
Here's to a new great week. Love you all and thank you so much for your emails, love, and support.
Love, your missionary,
Sister B.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
6.13.11
hey fam!
So, my subject of the email is my new phrase of this "final phase" of the mission. Daily this is me, " HELLO WORLD! HELLO COMPANION. HELLO APARTMENT MATES. I KNOW, I KNOW, "I LOOK LIKE I JUST FELL OUT OF A TRAIN!" Come talk to me. I'm a representative of Jesus Christ! Yeah! "
Don't get me wrong. I love life! I love Hilongos. I love my companion and i love the other sisters I am living with. I am stressed and worried all the time and thats FINE WITH ME. It is not however, fine with my physical body, i guess. I seriously look like I fell out of a train. ALL. THE. TIME. I didn't, don't worry. I just look like I did. I emailed mom earlier and said sorry if your daughter comes home a fat, zit faced, ugly, swollen eyed, crippled, hunchback RM! You are my family so you still have to love me, right??????? I don't know whats wrong with me, but despite it all, we just keep pluggin along. Needless to say my testimony of ENDURING TO THE END has grown. :)
We worked hard this week. We pleaded in prayer. We fasted. We sacrificed. We taught great lessons guided by the Spirit. We gave it our all. It was a great week of doing the Lord's work. My companion and I are learning a lot about love and charity. I can honestly say that I know my Savior better because I have loved my brother's and sisters here as He does. It's awesome and exhausting.
None of the less actives we visited, and read the scriptures, and felt the spirit with came to church yesterday.
It was a lonely Sunday, though our attendance was better than normal. My heart hurt. You give and you give and you give.....You have faith in these people...You love them soo much...You serve them... You sacrifice for them....You support them and listen to them...... and their fear still overwhelms their faith.
But, we keep going strong. We have another great week ahead of us and there is no way we are giving up on them. This is not the time for spiritual weaklings. This is the time to be strong! And that is only possible through the restored gospel of our savior jesus christ. It does not matter what others have done to you....what does matter is what Christ has done for you. So, that is our purpose and focus. Helping others REMEMBER HIM.
We focused a lot on family scripture study and prayer this week. And we will continue for the rest of my time here. I have such a testimony of this. Thank you noel and urs for doing this in our home. I promise you all that that is the best thing mom and dad ever did for me. I testify of that every single day here in Hilongos as well.
There are two families: Maunes and Cinco family that we literally go to every single night for family scripture study and prayer. Please keep them in your prayers.
Well, i love you all! I love being the Lord's missionary! (even if my physical body doesn't seem to be in agreement with all this stress...)
love, sister b! :)
So, my subject of the email is my new phrase of this "final phase" of the mission. Daily this is me, " HELLO WORLD! HELLO COMPANION. HELLO APARTMENT MATES. I KNOW, I KNOW, "I LOOK LIKE I JUST FELL OUT OF A TRAIN!" Come talk to me. I'm a representative of Jesus Christ! Yeah! "
Don't get me wrong. I love life! I love Hilongos. I love my companion and i love the other sisters I am living with. I am stressed and worried all the time and thats FINE WITH ME. It is not however, fine with my physical body, i guess. I seriously look like I fell out of a train. ALL. THE. TIME. I didn't, don't worry. I just look like I did. I emailed mom earlier and said sorry if your daughter comes home a fat, zit faced, ugly, swollen eyed, crippled, hunchback RM! You are my family so you still have to love me, right??????? I don't know whats wrong with me, but despite it all, we just keep pluggin along. Needless to say my testimony of ENDURING TO THE END has grown. :)
We worked hard this week. We pleaded in prayer. We fasted. We sacrificed. We taught great lessons guided by the Spirit. We gave it our all. It was a great week of doing the Lord's work. My companion and I are learning a lot about love and charity. I can honestly say that I know my Savior better because I have loved my brother's and sisters here as He does. It's awesome and exhausting.
None of the less actives we visited, and read the scriptures, and felt the spirit with came to church yesterday.
It was a lonely Sunday, though our attendance was better than normal. My heart hurt. You give and you give and you give.....You have faith in these people...You love them soo much...You serve them... You sacrifice for them....You support them and listen to them...... and their fear still overwhelms their faith.
But, we keep going strong. We have another great week ahead of us and there is no way we are giving up on them. This is not the time for spiritual weaklings. This is the time to be strong! And that is only possible through the restored gospel of our savior jesus christ. It does not matter what others have done to you....what does matter is what Christ has done for you. So, that is our purpose and focus. Helping others REMEMBER HIM.
We focused a lot on family scripture study and prayer this week. And we will continue for the rest of my time here. I have such a testimony of this. Thank you noel and urs for doing this in our home. I promise you all that that is the best thing mom and dad ever did for me. I testify of that every single day here in Hilongos as well.
There are two families: Maunes and Cinco family that we literally go to every single night for family scripture study and prayer. Please keep them in your prayers.
Well, i love you all! I love being the Lord's missionary! (even if my physical body doesn't seem to be in agreement with all this stress...)
love, sister b! :)
Monday, June 6, 2011
6.6.11
Hello Family!
What a wonderful week it has been! It was hard to leave Sogod, but I know that there is purpose for me here in Hilongos and I started to see that a lot this week. My companion is really doing the best she can and I love her for that so much. We have had some pretty hilarious moments together. Like just now actually, walking through the market in the rain we had to cross a little canal/trench thing across this bridge made from wooden slabs and guess who broke the bridge and fell in the trench?! Yours truly. I smell really good right now and i'm all scraped up and a bit bloody. Sureeeeeee. No problem! After much laughter I started singing without realizing it... "Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!" My comp just stared at me and laughed so hard. This is my life. And i love it. She has a fever too since yesterday. But we just continue on. :)
This week we had some wonderful lessons with our progressing investigators. I was so excited and texted President about our new investigators as well (he's requested us to update him when we get new investigators and what day they have committed to baptism). And then tuesday morning we received a text from him requesting me and Sister Ghouri to only focus on REACTIVATION AND RETENTION. what? ... I thought we are supposed to find , teach , baptize.... WEll, He has assigned 8 sisters to this assignment this transfer. Interesting, eh? Sister Jones has this assignment up in Samar somewhere and then in Carigara and us two here. He is inspired for sure b/c the more I am here the more I am realizing how bad the situation is with the less actives. I realized that the branch here is wonderful and so supportive of missionary work, but they are not as supportive of the less actives. The member ship here is around 300, but the attendance is 67.....yeahhhh. Its a big area we cover though and a lot of different reasons for the less actives...a lot of it being, offended sila. So, we had some epic lessons this week guided by the spirit. The people we visited in a far away baragay all came to church! And our investigators did. (well, they are now the other sisters investigators, but we taught them this week.) Sister Alma and CArlito will be married and baptized july 2. They are wonderful and have such a strong testimony. Sister Alma bore her testimony on sunday about the power of the book of mormon and all the miracles she has seen since they started listening to the missionaries and started reading the book of mormon... Her husband has stopped smoking and drinking, took out his earring, and they are kind to eachother and not fighting. her testimony was so sweet and awesome.
We had another investigator, norberto that i was really excited about. We taught him and his family and they were progressing as well. But then on friday he told us he had to go to manila for work..school was starting and he had no money for his children. Sister Ghouri and I were sad, but there was also a weird, dark feeling about his decision to go to Manila. We could not shake it. So we told him this. He has heard from the missionaries before and then had to go to manila and that stopped his progression towards baptism... Sister ghouri told him not to go to manila b/c it was not gods plan and that there were no coincidences. god is giving him another opportunity to learn truth and he can't ignore it. I can't describe the weirdness of that lesson other than that...it was sooo weird. It felt so wrong for him to go to manila. His wife was ticked too. We urged him to pray about his decision and read his assignment from 3 nephi 13...We followed up the next day... but he was gone. :(
So, we focus on the less actives. Please pray for the Maones family and for Nanay Cinco. There is some serious issues here and it is quite the struggle, but we had some great spiritual experiences praying and fasting and studying for these families.
I love you all and I am doing well. Love, your missionary,
Sister B .
ps. crispin ( in sogod) had a hard week last week and broke down and smoked... but he seems to be doing better and watched the joseph smith movie and really enjoyed that and gave the best prayer ever according to sister schneider. please continue to keep him in your prayers. Salamat!
What a wonderful week it has been! It was hard to leave Sogod, but I know that there is purpose for me here in Hilongos and I started to see that a lot this week. My companion is really doing the best she can and I love her for that so much. We have had some pretty hilarious moments together. Like just now actually, walking through the market in the rain we had to cross a little canal/trench thing across this bridge made from wooden slabs and guess who broke the bridge and fell in the trench?! Yours truly. I smell really good right now and i'm all scraped up and a bit bloody. Sureeeeeee. No problem! After much laughter I started singing without realizing it... "Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!" My comp just stared at me and laughed so hard. This is my life. And i love it. She has a fever too since yesterday. But we just continue on. :)
This week we had some wonderful lessons with our progressing investigators. I was so excited and texted President about our new investigators as well (he's requested us to update him when we get new investigators and what day they have committed to baptism). And then tuesday morning we received a text from him requesting me and Sister Ghouri to only focus on REACTIVATION AND RETENTION. what? ... I thought we are supposed to find , teach , baptize.... WEll, He has assigned 8 sisters to this assignment this transfer. Interesting, eh? Sister Jones has this assignment up in Samar somewhere and then in Carigara and us two here. He is inspired for sure b/c the more I am here the more I am realizing how bad the situation is with the less actives. I realized that the branch here is wonderful and so supportive of missionary work, but they are not as supportive of the less actives. The member ship here is around 300, but the attendance is 67.....yeahhhh. Its a big area we cover though and a lot of different reasons for the less actives...a lot of it being, offended sila. So, we had some epic lessons this week guided by the spirit. The people we visited in a far away baragay all came to church! And our investigators did. (well, they are now the other sisters investigators, but we taught them this week.) Sister Alma and CArlito will be married and baptized july 2. They are wonderful and have such a strong testimony. Sister Alma bore her testimony on sunday about the power of the book of mormon and all the miracles she has seen since they started listening to the missionaries and started reading the book of mormon... Her husband has stopped smoking and drinking, took out his earring, and they are kind to eachother and not fighting. her testimony was so sweet and awesome.
We had another investigator, norberto that i was really excited about. We taught him and his family and they were progressing as well. But then on friday he told us he had to go to manila for work..school was starting and he had no money for his children. Sister Ghouri and I were sad, but there was also a weird, dark feeling about his decision to go to Manila. We could not shake it. So we told him this. He has heard from the missionaries before and then had to go to manila and that stopped his progression towards baptism... Sister ghouri told him not to go to manila b/c it was not gods plan and that there were no coincidences. god is giving him another opportunity to learn truth and he can't ignore it. I can't describe the weirdness of that lesson other than that...it was sooo weird. It felt so wrong for him to go to manila. His wife was ticked too. We urged him to pray about his decision and read his assignment from 3 nephi 13...We followed up the next day... but he was gone. :(
So, we focus on the less actives. Please pray for the Maones family and for Nanay Cinco. There is some serious issues here and it is quite the struggle, but we had some great spiritual experiences praying and fasting and studying for these families.
I love you all and I am doing well. Love, your missionary,
Sister B .
ps. crispin ( in sogod) had a hard week last week and broke down and smoked... but he seems to be doing better and watched the joseph smith movie and really enjoyed that and gave the best prayer ever according to sister schneider. please continue to keep him in your prayers. Salamat!
Monday, May 30, 2011
TRANSFERRED!
Hello Family!
Well, I have been transferred.
Shocked??
I was.
I am now in Hilongos, Maasin zone. It is in Southern Leyte as well and the zone next to my last zone in Sogod. This was the hardest transfer I've had (and my last)...
I wasn't ready to leave. I just went straight to this new area. I didn't get to go to transfer meeting in Tacloban this time b/c I came straight here kay it's close- ish. It was sad to leave Sogod. Sister Schneider and I were a team and we were best friends. We dealt with so much in Sogod. It was the hardest transfer of my mission for sure. I felt like we had to break down the area and now this is the phase to build it back up the way the Lord wants it...and I got transferred out. We both struggled a bit with this decision. We found out wednesday night and then walked up the mountain in the pouring rain to tell Crispin. We had told him not to worry about transfers earlier that day especially b/c i had one transfer left and we definitely didn't think that either of us would be transferred. He started crying and it was awful.
Anyways, my new companion is Sister Ghouri...she is from pakistan. She is the one that President talked to me about back in December. I think he always felt like i should be her companion and after I visited Hilongos I always thought I would come back here...after I got transferred to sogod, i thought I wouldn't anymore, but here i am! Sister Lemmon was assigned here and she loved it.
I've met a lot of great people and the branch is really supportive of missionary work. I know that God sends us where we are supposed to be so I am happy to be here. There is a lot to do and I am starting to see my purpose here in Hilongos. Its going to be a great transfer. We now have 4 sisters in Hilongos and its a lot of fun. We are the international apartment...One FIlipina, One sister from Hong Kong, One from Pakistan, One American. Its a lot of fun.
Well, lots and lots to do! Life is good. Please continue to pray for Crispin Basan. I'm so worried about him.
we have great investigators in Hilongos and their goal date for marriage and baptism is June 25.
We have a youngish member couple here, Nikki and Fanzo Beslig that I love. They remind me a lot of my siblings and I feel like I am hanging out with all of you again. They worked with us all afternoon yesterday with their little boy, Tristan (he's 1.5years old). Fanzo was Sister Lemmons investigator.. She sang at Nikki and Fanzo's wedding. Fanzo reminds me of eric chock actually. . He is tall for a filipino (6 feet) and is a basketball star here. I seriously love them. Its a cool connection b/c Sister lemmon was the missionary that taught him and then they got married and he got baptized... The are so strong and going to the temple this month to get sealed.
Well, life is good! Every day is a new adventure! Hilongos is awesome and so I'm just moving forward with Faith and remembering that God is aware of me and His children here. There's purpose in all things so i'm excited to see how the Lord will use me here.
Love you all!
love, your missionary,
Sister B.
Monday, May 23, 2011
5.23.11
hello family.
I don't have much time to write b/c i need to write a lot to
president. I love my companion, i love our investigators, i love being
the lords missionary, even when it's hard. :)
madarana og smile.
That's our favorite phrase to say...all the time... with our
investigator Crispin. It means " Bring the Smile.." or "Just smile"
even when everything seems wrong and hard. So thats what we do!
I prayed before last transfers and asked heavenly father to transfer
me. I told him I wanted challenges i've never dealt with and I wanted
to push my self like never before and i wanted to learn and grow and
do everything I can to fulfill my purpose as His missionary. God
answers our prayers.
Please pray for Crispin Basan. For his safety and so he can be
baptized soon. Also, I was hoping that everyone could call his name
into the temples where you all live. Thanks,.
Please pray for the branch that they will be kind and loving and
accepting and humble. Please pray for us to be safe and healthy and be
able to figure out what exactly we must do in our area for these
people we love so much!
We were in tacloban last week and it was wonderful. I love that place
and we loved doing our training about following the Spirit.
Love you family and I am SO grateful for you.
Love, your missionary,
Sister b.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Pictures
*I just want to apologize for the pictures. I tried to go in and edit them, but it didn't work. I'll try again later! You can click on the picture to make it bigger...
5.16.11
Hello Family,
The internet is having some problems, so I couldn't read all you wrote, but life is good! Currently I am in Tacloban. We are having a Leadership Training Meeting tomorrow and we are doing a training along with the other assistants. We are focusing on needing the Spirit in Conversion. Our testimonies have grown so much with this as we have been in Sogod. We know that the Spirit has protected us and guided us and warned us over and over these last 5 weeks.
Oh how time is flying by! We had our last zone conference last thursday in Ormoc. I got to see my favorite elders and we also had a special training from Elder and Sister Aguillar-the Philippines Mental Health Doctors. They talked a lot about stress. She had us all take a special stress test and mine, my companions, Elder hawkes, elder cox, elder henry, elder bennet (our little clan of american missionaries at zone conference) all had 22+ on the stress level= high stress! She said that in tacloban the missionaries had moderate stress ranging mostly from 1-10 and that the only person that had 22+ was President Malit! Well, we replied with some comments, "What are they doing up there!? Do they go outside!? " Just kidding. Anyways, zone conference was one of the best.
President Malit's training was remarkable. I just sat there in awe and listened to what the Spirit was trying to teach me. He is such a man of power. When he talks everyone listens and there is this silence that over comes the room. The spirit is so strong andits like revelation is just being poured down upon us. I had a great interview with him and I realized how much the Lord trusts himj. That is why he is able to speak as he does and lead this great mission. He's incredible. I want the Lord to use me as he has used him, to help God's children....I know that there are many ways I can be better to earn His trust.
This week was wonderful. This morning we woke up at 3am and went hiking at 4am. Then we got back and we traveled to Tacloban. I am so Cebuano, its crazy to come back to waraywaray and try to talk to the people...but fun, of course. :)
Crispin is doing well. He will be baptized this Saturday. ! He is amazing. He shares his testimony and is teaching part of the lessons as we teach his family. His mom started crying during the lesson as she told us how much her son has changed. She cme to church on Sunday with Crispins siblings. He also attended the youth/young single adult conference and had a blast. The branch is starting to step up, but we have a long ways to go.
We had a meeting with our branch mission leader to discuss our vision for missionary work and especially for mcm. Our MCM yesterday was awesome! We had 30 people come from all different auxillaries and we trained them on the new trainings. It was really fun and productive and they are excited to work with us this week. FINALLY. :)
The 50 year jubilee celebration was great on Saturday. It was really special to be here for that and realize how the Lord's work has moved forward.
We had a very intense lesson this week with Sister Babin and her husband. We followed the spirit and did what we knew was right, but it did not turn out as well as we hoped. We were blessed to have Crispin there and another fellowshipper, a worthy priesthood holder.
Please pray for Babin to receive an answer from God. And please pray for Brother Catubuoran that he will soften his heart and realize what he did was wrong...and come back to church.
here are some names/things to pray for:
Crispin Basan. (getting baptized this week....a lot of challenges)
Patrick.
Daughter of michelle.
Basan family.
Sogod Branch.
Okay, I love you all. Time is going by way to fast and I am loving every minute. My companion is awesome and the language is fun and we are loving our lives.
Love, your missionary,
Sister Blonquist
ps--happy birthday birthday aaron!
and happy wedding anniversary aaron and kerry yesterday!
The internet is having some problems, so I couldn't read all you wrote, but life is good! Currently I am in Tacloban. We are having a Leadership Training Meeting tomorrow and we are doing a training along with the other assistants. We are focusing on needing the Spirit in Conversion. Our testimonies have grown so much with this as we have been in Sogod. We know that the Spirit has protected us and guided us and warned us over and over these last 5 weeks.
Oh how time is flying by! We had our last zone conference last thursday in Ormoc. I got to see my favorite elders and we also had a special training from Elder and Sister Aguillar-the Philippines Mental Health Doctors. They talked a lot about stress. She had us all take a special stress test and mine, my companions, Elder hawkes, elder cox, elder henry, elder bennet (our little clan of american missionaries at zone conference) all had 22+ on the stress level= high stress! She said that in tacloban the missionaries had moderate stress ranging mostly from 1-10 and that the only person that had 22+ was President Malit! Well, we replied with some comments, "What are they doing up there!? Do they go outside!? " Just kidding. Anyways, zone conference was one of the best.
President Malit's training was remarkable. I just sat there in awe and listened to what the Spirit was trying to teach me. He is such a man of power. When he talks everyone listens and there is this silence that over comes the room. The spirit is so strong andits like revelation is just being poured down upon us. I had a great interview with him and I realized how much the Lord trusts himj. That is why he is able to speak as he does and lead this great mission. He's incredible. I want the Lord to use me as he has used him, to help God's children....I know that there are many ways I can be better to earn His trust.
This week was wonderful. This morning we woke up at 3am and went hiking at 4am. Then we got back and we traveled to Tacloban. I am so Cebuano, its crazy to come back to waraywaray and try to talk to the people...but fun, of course. :)
Crispin is doing well. He will be baptized this Saturday. ! He is amazing. He shares his testimony and is teaching part of the lessons as we teach his family. His mom started crying during the lesson as she told us how much her son has changed. She cme to church on Sunday with Crispins siblings. He also attended the youth/young single adult conference and had a blast. The branch is starting to step up, but we have a long ways to go.
We had a meeting with our branch mission leader to discuss our vision for missionary work and especially for mcm. Our MCM yesterday was awesome! We had 30 people come from all different auxillaries and we trained them on the new trainings. It was really fun and productive and they are excited to work with us this week. FINALLY. :)
The 50 year jubilee celebration was great on Saturday. It was really special to be here for that and realize how the Lord's work has moved forward.
We had a very intense lesson this week with Sister Babin and her husband. We followed the spirit and did what we knew was right, but it did not turn out as well as we hoped. We were blessed to have Crispin there and another fellowshipper, a worthy priesthood holder.
Please pray for Babin to receive an answer from God. And please pray for Brother Catubuoran that he will soften his heart and realize what he did was wrong...and come back to church.
here are some names/things to pray for:
Crispin Basan. (getting baptized this week....a lot of challenges)
Patrick.
Daughter of michelle.
Basan family.
Sogod Branch.
Okay, I love you all. Time is going by way to fast and I am loving every minute. My companion is awesome and the language is fun and we are loving our lives.
Love, your missionary,
Sister Blonquist
ps--happy birthday birthday aaron!
and happy wedding anniversary aaron and kerry yesterday!