May 25th Letter

Maayong Gabii ang akong pamilia ug mga sangkay!

Sorry this email is a day late. It's tuesday here and we are in Naval.
Yesterday instead of taking our pday we did a half pday and cleaned
and did laundry and then went out and worked so that today we could
have our district meeting and then travel to naval because tomorrow is
zone conference! My second zone conference, what?!
So in my last interview with president malit he requested that i sing
at "every zone conference" sooo... tomorrow sister lemmon and i are
singing, "Did you think to pray." WE haven't had much time to practice
unfortunately, so hopefully all goes well.

This past week has been....a bit rough, but wondeful of course. We
taught some great lessons and i had some great days with the language.
Everyone wants to know how my language is and honestly i am improving
(very) little by (very) little, and some days are better than others,
and even some lessons are better than others. But it is a good process
to go through i think. I hear that this next month i will really be
able to understand people--so who is excited for that?! I sure am...
haha.

Well, my studies were a bit disrupted this week b/c Wednesday morning
i woke up and felt a bit sick. The sickness made it so I couldn't
study and we couldn't go out in the morning. The elders came and gave
me a blessing as well. I was really hoping to feel okay by our 3pm
appointment and tried to convince sister lemmon i was fine...but she
followed the spirit and wouldn't let us go out. The people we were
supposed to visit have a 1 month old baby and she said i wouldn't want
to get the baby a bug,right...so i agreed. Well, good thing b/c i
proceeded to get worse and ended up having a 101.1 fever and couldn't
move. I was a bit delirious and couldn't eat a thing. Anyways, long
story short, the sicknesses kept me down for two days. "Flat tire for
2 days!" is what we would tell people here. Sister lemmon couldn't go
get load or get me bananas either (sister malit made me go on the BRAT
diet--bananas, rice, apples, toast) so the members were kind enough to
bring us bananas and rice porridge. But i'm alive now and still
battling a few symptoms but i think i am good to go. Thanks for all
your prayers!

Saturday we attended a the elder's baptism-- and it was really
exciting. My first baptism is this saturday--abigail! It is going to
be so wonderful. She is so smart and so wanting to do what is right.
Her grandma is her guardian b/c her dad is no where to be found and
her mom died a long time ago. Sad situation but she is so happy! I
just love her.

Raymond: This past sunday was his last time working in the bukid so he
should be back to church and on track for baptism before sister lemmon
goes home! We had two great lessons with him. He is so funny and he is
so genuine. We talked about the importance of church and we also
taught a lesson on scripture study. He got really involved with the
2000 stripling warriors story and it was really fun to teach him about
scripture study. I love that kid.

Mona: We met mona through Jay Ann. She is 21 and has twin girls who
will be two, today! She is so smart and has so many questions. I loved
teaching her this week and completely felt the gift of tongues as i
listened to her--i actually understood what she was saying; like, all
of it..! I remember pleading pretty hard earlier that morning for
specific things with this language and i definitly saw it in that
lesson. Remarkable! We also taught her the plan of salvation and she
really loved taht and had studied the pamphlet we had given her
previously. She is awesome and is excited to get baptized. She really
has studied this out and knows its true. She will get baptized after
she goes to church 4times--so in june sometime.

Mary Jane--Mary jane we also met through jay Ann. She is actually a
less active member. She came to church last week, but has a hard
situation b/c her sister in law is a pastor at the born again church
and now is talking bad about her. She didn't got to church this week
and is torn as to what to do. We visited her and shared a message on
the fly and i was able to really bear my testimony about faith and
trusting god. This lady is so wonderful. I have so much love for her.
I was testifying of prayer and the spirit was so strong. Just the
night before i had been really in need of some peace and as a prayed i
definitely felt it and had a clear vision as to what i needed to do
and my prayer was totally and completely answered. It was great to be
able to share that with her.

Yesterday, after we taught mona and mary jane was also there at the
lesson we went down the road to the tindahan. All of a sudden there
was a great commotion and a little girl had been hit by a motor! We
found out that it was Mary Jane's little girl! WE couldn't believe it
and they rushed the girl to cabucgayan (20 min away) where they waited
for the ambulance to take them to naval (1 hr away)...We don't know
the condition of her or anything b/c we had to leave today. Keep mary
jane and her family in your prayers if you can!


Gihapon, there is a family here that i just love--Nanay Helen. She is
married to an american, daddy bob. Well, her son oliver is married to
shirlene and they have two adorable babies--a 2 year old and almost 1
year old. Shirlene went to saudia arabia for two months to work for
the prince there (she had a two year contract) but came back b/c she
missed her family. We thought she had come back for good, but on
sunday we found out her employer had gotten her a roundtrip ticket and
wanted her to come back...She left yesterday. :( They had a farewell
dinner for her on sunday taht we attended. I just love her. She was
one of the few that totally and completely loved me and welcomed me
and made me feel comfortable and that i had a friend. She is gone now
and it is a really sad situation. She left her husband and her two
babies. :( and us... I guess she originally got the job to help her
mom out and to explore the world---but once she was there she
regretted leaving her family and told the prince she needed to go
home...but since she is in the contract he made her go back... Such a
strange situation. And so sad. She won't be able to go to church there
at all. :(

Anyways, we've had some great lessons and great experiences this week.
I feel guided and protected each day and I am grateful for the
opportunity to serve and live here in Balaquid and teach people
Christ's gospel. It's incredible to see people understand that they
are children of god , that there is one church on the earth and it is
led by a living prophet and taht is is the same church that christ
established!

Tomorrow is Zone conference and i am so excited. I love zone
conference and all the inspired words and challenges and speakers and
being with other missionaries and with president and sister malit.

Life is great here in the philippines. My companion is on her home
stretch here in balaquid...which is weird b/c i am just
beginning...but we are truly enjoying trucking up mountains and hills
to teach the truth!

Sidenote: i had another nightmare this week that involved me jumping
up and across the room--weird. My poor companion! Lets all pray that i
will sleep peacefully so my companion can get some sleep too...:)

WEll, thank you again for your love, support , and prayers. I need it all!

I know god lives and i know i am His daughter! I know he wants me here
in the the Phillipines TAcloban Mission and that he protects me,
guides me, and supports me every day. I am humbled and honored to be
his servent at this time.

Quickly, i wanted to mention repentence. .. Preach my gospel talks
about how repentence is an every day thing and not something to look
at negatively. What an opportunity to Repent and come unto our Savior
and our Maker EVERY single day! In the MTC they taught us that this is
why being a missionary is so incredible. We teach repentence so that
we all can become like Him and return to Him. And not only do we teach
repentence, but we live this principle DAILY. I never before have
applied this in my life like i am now--every single day. I am not
perfect--at alllllll, everyone reading this knows that! But, i can
repent every day and b/c of the atonement of jesus christ i can become
like Him. I always had the desire to be the exactly obedient
missionary and i am trying my hardest, but i think part of that is to
repent every day as well.

BAsta, I love you all. I truly hope you know this! I admire you and
miss you as well.
Love,
sister B.

p.s.
Leslie MIles--I got your letter finally! It was so wonderful to get
b/c i just think about you and all my african friends and was really
starting to wonder about if you all were still alive! THANK
YOU!!!!!!!!!! I pray for you every night! AND i got your dear elder as
well. you are the best.
MAggie Louise and BIANCS-- MTC TIME IS HERE!!!! Expect a letter from
me. URs will send it to you when she gets it. I am sooooo excited for
you! love it and live it up. I absolutely loved the mtc. You will too!
Sing in the choir as well. :) Take lots of notes, eat a lot, build
great relationships with your teachers and district, and do the
sisters only exercise class in the morning! I am praying for you and i
love you so much. God IS with you every second! LOVES

Mama Nat--I sent you an epically long letter this week! Be excited! I
miss you and love you lots.

Aaron--if you ever wanted to send me cds that would be cool--there is
one song i really love ; Garden Walls --its on the "especially for
missionaries" cd and mindy gledhill sings it. My comp has it on her
ipod but she leaves soon.... :)

Annalee-- thank you for your emails! my mission is good! I am
teaching lots of people the gospel here. And so far 5 have agreed to
get baptized. I am glad school is good. Are you excited for summer?!
How are your mom and dad? Haven't heard from them in a few weeks...
how's samuel and lauren? Love you!