Last week's letter

Maayong Hapon ang akong pamilya!

So! Sorry about all that stress with no emailing....turns out President Malit called us and he decided that since this is Sister Lemmon's last transfer she needs to be in contact weekly with her parents so that they can all plan for her homecoming/life after the mission, etc. This means that he gave sister lemmon and me special permission to travel to naval on Mondays still. SO, until June 24th i can email weekly! Also, we didn't get transferred! YEah!

So, last week's email was a bit short, but i feel like it got the point across. . . We are doing well here in balaquid and we have some pretty stellar investigators. We taught 32 lessons last week...this past week was a bit more rough with lessons...rumor has it that 'transfer' week always makes it more difficult, i'm not sure why. But we are plugging along and doing the best we can.

Tis the Season....to move to Manila for work...LAME. A few of our investigators and some of the members are leaving their homes and families to go to Manila to work. When they leave, no one is sure when they will come back. So needless to say, that puts a damper on the 'progressing' part of progressing investigator. BUT, it's been neat to teach Jay Ann and Lodylynn while we could and teaching them led us to teaching new investigators ,which has been a great tender mercy.

Last night we taught the Plan of Salvation to 13 people. We asked them if we could return on friday and they said ,"duggay na" thats a long time....so instead we suggested , 'buwas' or tomorrow and they said, 'puede!' It's always a good sign when the investigator wants you to come back the next day. They are a great family and they have a lot of questions. We also met a couple (who are actually legally married , yeah!) with a newborn baby. The husband's name is rodrique, and the wifes name is nila and their new son's name is ...nilrikson....Creative eh?( Kinda like andru and marilee=annalee.) WEll, they are awesome! They asked a lot about why their are so many interpretations of the bible and they were a bit moawod about praying b/c they had never prayed out loud before. IT was a really great lesson and the spirit was so strong. I am excited to go back to teach them.

WEll, our dear friend raymond has been working in the bukid and we have not seen him lately. Unfortunately, if he doesn't go to church this sunday he won't be able to get baptized before sister lemmon goes home. However, we will be have a baptism in two saturdays--abigail-- and then two more in a few weeks after that if we can get the sumayan family to church!

AS of late: its been so so so hot. I am eating tons of filipino food and loving it. we have great investigators and i am really starting to understand charity and love for god's children in a different way than i've experienced before--bringing souls unto christ. Missionary work is so unique; i'm not sure one can relate to it unless you've been through it. I love being here and I've really appreciated all of your support and prayers for me personally and the work here in balaquid.

I have been in the field for almost 7 weeks--a whole transfer! WHOA. Time flies! I took some time this week to reflect on this past transfer and i was able to see that i have progressed little by little. What a relief! I was a bit nervous about that b/c i never feel that i am making progress.

RAndom story: WE got locked out of our house. ....we left the keys inside and realized it the second we had locked and shut the door. IT was going ot be dark soon so we knew we had to get the keys now rather than later....but we really needed to go and teach jay ann. So we tried to maguyver (spelling?) it....and whipped out a bobby pin. Nothing. We kept trying and could not figure out what to do. BReak the door down? yeah right... So as i am trying to break in (we had just locked the bottom) i prayed and pleaded that we wouldn't break the door and that we could get in and get the key and be on our way b/c this was the last lesson before jay ann went to manila......literally THE second after i prayed, the door clicked open!! Okay, tender mercy....

prayers are answered.

Another random story:

I am a sound sleeper. I sleep soundly. I can sleep anywhere. I sleep deeply. Things don't wake me up. Turns out; it is still true here on the mission. Well, this week (wednesday i believe) at around one am this is what happened according to sister lemmon:

sister blonquist says loudly/yells not very nicely and sits up: HEY, you ARE in here!

Sister lemmon is confused thinking sister blonquist is talking to her: sister?

Sister blonquist : HEY! There's a kid in here!

(i can see out our bedroom door into the hall, sister lemmon can't...)

Poor sister lemmon is petrified and starts panicking.." NO THERE'S NOT SISTER!!!!"

Sister lemmon is so scared at this point in time.....

Sister Blonquist goes down on her elbow and responds: "WEll, thats DUMB and WIERD. " and then lays down and starts humming and is fast asleep....

Poor sister lemmon slams our bedroom door and locks it and can't sleep the rest of the night thinking' there is a kid here.'

WELL, there wasn't. I was just talking in my sleep!! Poor sister lemmon!

OH the life of a missionary....

This week I got to teach about faith a lot as we were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. IT made me really dig deep about my understanding about faith and I was able to read in the Liahona from 2009 General Conference on faith. What a humbling topic.

One thing PResident Malit mentioned in my interview has stuck with me, gihapon. He said,"your attitude will bring you to the correct altitude." I'd like to relate that to faith. Having faith, believing and trusting God and having that mindset corresponds directly to our attitude and optimism about life. That attitude will help get us to where we hope to be, where we need to be, and where the lord wants us to be--the right altitude. . .President Monson said something to the effect that , "our future is as bright as our faith." I know that through faith we will see our lives improve as we see our desires become the will of the lord. I know that through faith we can overcome trials and find joy despite the large spectrum of circumstances we find ourselves in. Faith is the first principle of the gospel of jesus christ--and I believe it is first for a reason. We need this faith as a foundation if we are to progress and move forward in any aspect. Faith leads us to action and sincere repentence gihapon and it also helps us stay steady and sure, when all around us seems to befailing, falling, or unstable. So we move forward with faith in our god, our savior , and his plan of happiness for us. We will return to him, because that is his will, if we remain faithful.

ALso, I had a great opportunity to read this quick parable about the anti-nephi-lehi's. Its a quick read ( i read it on pday for hour or two...) entitled, "Burying Our Swords." (____ hinckley wrote it) I really enjoyed it b/c Sister lemmon and I had discussed this past week alma 22. 23. 24, 25 and this book helped deepen my study about why these people buried their weapons of war and how i can relate that to my life now. I really would love my family to read it ( and who ever else reads my letters...). There are great analogies in it that i think we all can relate to. Please get a copy of it and let me know what you think: noel, urs, aaron, andru, jarrett, katie, kiera, josh, luke, marilee, kerry....etc. :)

WEll, in conclusion--this is long now! This life is the time for men to prepare to meet god. What are we doing right now to prepare to meet our maker?! What did we do today? What are our holy habits? Not just our good habits; but our holy ones?

WEll, i love you all very much. God's plan, his gospel, is all about love. So let us remember that as we deal with frustrations and difficult situations or difficult people every day. It's all about love. :)

Here are a few quotes i read daily:

"How can I fear when the same hands that created the heavens and the earth, created me?"

and...

"Sometimes we don't see the fruit of our labors; but the point is , that we labored. "

THANK you so much for your prayers, support, and love. I feel your love and support daily, and i need it, daily too.

Email me! I'll be here next week to read them. Have a great week everyone!

love,

sister b.