11.08.10

Hello Family,

Wow. This week has sure been full of fun experiences! I'll try and answer all the questions I got this past week.
Sister Brinton is awesome. We became fast friends. We live with Sister Farnworth and sister Schnieder, but only until December 1 when the Senior Couple, The Daniels go home after a 22 year mission. We will be moving into their little house in Dagami which will be very nice b/c the travel is pretty unpredictable. This week was great. Sister Brinton is a quick learner and doing really really well. We have a lot of fun together. Reopening this area definitely has it's challenges and we are trying to get the ward mission process going again, pec and mcm, etc. Everyone is really realizing the blessing of having missionaries back in their ward so they are trying to be helpful. On Sunday we got 35 referrals! So this week will be busy contacting them. We do have some investigators actually. The Daniels have been doing the best they can to teach some people, so we have taken over what they started. We actually have TWO baptisms this Saturday!!! One is a girl who her family all thought she was a member, but I guess the record was wrong and she got baptized when she was 6--obviously does not count...so she has to get baptized again. The other is a legit investigator that started coming to church 3 weeks ago but only got two of the lessons...we've been teaching her a lot and making sure she feels ready and not rushed, but she said she is okay with her decision to get baptized on Saturday. WE still have to teach her about word of wisdom, law of chastity, tithing and prep her for her interview, get her interviewed..etc. But she was committed to Nov. 13 and she wants to get baptized then so thats what we are doing! Its awesome. She is 16 years old and her family listened at first to the Daniels, but haven't been at any other lesson. Blanca is her name...She had a rough week last week and kept saying that she needed more info before she could get baptized, but she feels more comfortable now. She has received persecution from friends and she said her grades have gone down...weird. Anyways, we spent a long time with her on saturday answering all of her questions and texted her saturday night to remind her to read and pray. We saw her at church and taught her more about the sacrament. She texted us this morning and said God answered her prayer and her friends apoligized to her for making fun of her. Cool , eh??

Mildred-- Mildred is a single mom with two boys. 8 and 9 . She has worked sooo hard to build her own house and live on her own. The Daniels have been trying to get her to come to church since the beginning of october but the ONLY day she can work is market day, sunday, so she could not. We taught her twice this week and they were good lessons. Her life is sooo tough its unbelievable. She said she talked to her boys and asked them if it was okay if she didn't go to work, and they said mom but then we won't ahve any rice .....She started crying and said she didn't care if she starved but her boys were just little and they need food....Ohhhhh kay, so what is a missionary to do??? I promised her in the name of Jesus Christ that if she went to church this sunday and put her trust in God FIRST, he would then provide a way for them to have rice. I read 3 Nephi 13:31-34..... (I seriously was asking her to starve her children!?!?!? ) Ah, it was tough. But, after a while, the scripture really hit her and she said, okay. We fasted and prayed for her this week. I prayed and pleaded and explained to heavenly father that I had promised her blessings as his missionary and if she took this huge leap of faith and trusted him first, pleaseee provide a way....

Sunday morning rolls around...and mildred and her two little boys come to church!!!! I almost started crying. She told me she cried the whole way to church not knowing how she was going to feed her boys this week.... Me too.
I guess the Daniels have been talking to a member in a different baraguy about getting her a different job buying and selling certain items, but they were told to wait two weeks before she could be trained...But last night they got a text saying she could start her training today!! MIRACLE! Please keep her in your prayers.

We have other investigators that are great and a lot of new investigators we found contacting.
WE had some funny experiences this week.
Yesterday a brand new investigator was saying the closing prayer and i thought she said jesus christ , amen...so i said AMEN really loud!!! And she was not done....(and then i said oh! dili pa..) Which means, oh not yet! embarrassing. After the pray i looked at sister brinton and said we'll laugh about that later...

Tuesday we saw a tricycle/motor crash. The two men went flying. We ran to see if they needed help. Started hauling cement bags out of the trailor while the whole town stared at us...cool.
Epic adventures going from baraguy to baraguy...our area IS HUMUNGUS.
Sunday i scheduled 6 appointments not realizing we would need to each lunch, especially cause we had been fasting....
so my poor comp was starving and weak alll day long..plus still tired from jet lag.! I felt so bad! What does she think of her trainer?!

We seriously are having a blast together though! Lots and lots and lots to do, but we are just doing the best we can.
Waray waray is hard. Last night i struggled really bad and plus we were exhausted and hadn't eaten. Learning new things every day thought!!! I always tell sister brinton that we are in this together and its true. Haha. We are doing great but definitely could use alll the prayers in the world! there's always new challenges that come up, but that's mission life/ life in general!

The church is true , so what else matters!?!?! Loving life here! Hope all is well!

didn't have a chance to write any letters these past two weeks but thanks to:
Jeff Gardner
Lindz Andersen
Haylee Griffin
Mossy Mags
Mama Nat Nat--when do you enter teh MTC!! she's going to the marshall islands?!?!?

Love you all lots!
your missionary,
sister blonquist
p.s. urs for christmas--eye drops for allergies. did i ever tell you my eyes swelled up realyl bad for like two days??? like they did when i was in 7th grade... dresses./bright skirts! i have lots of dark colors. ...have you seen the new guidelines for sister missionaries! way cute!! small flashlight would be good. tissues. . . thats alll! love you !!!