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Alright English na lang.
How is everyone?
I'm great over here in the Philippines. You know that statement that says, "It's more fun in the Philippines."? Well if you didn't know that well now you do and it's definitely true.
This week has been a lot of fun.
Monday was a normal p-day. Got everything done and got back to the house, cleaned and then went out to work. We went and visited a recent convert who right now is living as a single parent because her husband (who is also a recent convert) is working abroad. We shared a scripture verse with her and then she just opened up and told us all about the many problems in her life. Apparently she's having a really hard time with her youngest son.... We could only encourage her to keep praying and having faith.
Then we went and visited a husband and wife who are members and they've been members for a while. That was a fun lesson too. They're both pretty old but the dad's a big joker.
Tuesday was MLC or Mission Leadership Counsel. So I got to go to the mission home. And I got to see Sister Lo and Sister Le and Sister P and Sister Ja and all my friends that are also ZLs and STLs right now. And it was super fun. I learned so much, and after that I actually felt like I might be able to do this STL thing.
And then we went and visited Brother D who is my favorite investigator right now. He's 23 years old and he reminds me a lot of Brother R over in Lubao. He plays the guitar and used to be part of a band and so we had a jam session :) That was super super fun. And then we shared a scripture verse with him and committed him to ask God if Joseph Smith was a true prophet.
Wednesday was my first Zone Meeting here in Botolan Zone. Our Zone Leaders are Elder C and Elder E. They're both awesome. If I was going to use one word to describe Elder C that would be "intense". He loves missionary work and he is a very, very hard worker so of course he expects all of us to be that way too. Elder E is just kind of quiet but he's also a very good ZL. Their workshop was all about finding because they want to make sure that we're prepared for next month too. And then they challenged us all to find at least one new investigator every single day. And then it was time for me Spiritual Instruction (that's what STLs usually do in zone meetings). My SI was on improving yourself everyday and pushing yourself. My favorite quote (that I forgot to share) is, "The only person you should be better than is that person that you were yesterday." And then I compared missionary work with Cross Country hahaha yup, I actually did. I think it was good... but I'm not exactly sure because the only person I asked for an opinion from was Sister L and because she's my companion... She's kind of biased haha but oh well.
Wedneday was the start of the finding game. The ZLs texted us and told us that we had from 2pm to 9pm that night to find at least one new investigator and then to text them the names of them right after we get out of the appointment (I hope that makes sense... my English grammar is so bad right now). And then once they knew who had investigators they would send a mass text to everyone so that we would push each other to keep finding. It actually worked out really well.
So we went out and taught a lot of people and everyone we saw we would talk to and so we got two new investigators and a bunch of return appointments :) Woohoo! "It's fun to find, it's fun to find, it's fun to find."
Thursday, this was a good day too and yes, the finding game did continue. We headed straight out to visit the M family who lives really, really far away. They live about a 25-30 minute tricycle ride away. But they're awesome. But the sad thing was that we got there and Tatay told us that Nanay wasn't there. She was at a funeral... Darn. We taught Tatay anyways. We just resolved his concerns again and he said he was 99.9% sure that he was ready to be baptized. YAY! But because we spent so much time there resolving his concerns, we didn't get back in time to do some actual finding because it was dark by then. We went and taught Brother J who is going to be baptized on the 28th and that was fun because he's a 15 year old kid that's really quiet but has his own way of joking. Filippinos loooooove joking so I fit in perfectly here haha After the lesson for J, we got to teach Brother D again. We asked him if he prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet and after the prayer he said he heard a really loud "Oo" (oh-oh) in his head which is Tagalog for "yes." It said it scared him really bad hahaha So he knows that Joseph is a true prophet of God. We then proceeded to teach him about the Book of Mormon and it was a really good lesson too. Then we committed him to be baptized on March 8th and he accepted :) yeehee.
Friday was a lot of fun because somehow we ended up with four members to work with us. All young men. The young men here in San Agustin Branch are craaaaaazy. There was Brother W, Brother Du, Brother B (one of our returning less-actives), and Brother Je. They are a hilarious group of boys. We got two new investigators on Friday too. One of them, Sister M, has a lot of potential and we're really excited to teach her again. The other, Brother A, probably won't progress very much but at least he listened. He told us straight up that he wouldn't go to church at our church because when he does go to church it's only at the Catholic church. Well, we'll see about that.
Saturday, we went and visited a lot of less-actives. And that was fun and at the same time not so fun. Sometimes less-actives are really hard to teach because they are members that already know that gospel. So sometimes it feels like running head first into a brick wall.... But oh well. At least we keep trying. We went back and taught Brother D again and had another jam session. We shared a scripture verse and he had invited his two cousins to listen. It was a good lesson too.
Sunday, church time! And we had 6 investigators come. And they all have baptism dates :) Looks promising. Work after church wasn't as good as it was on the other day. We were so punted. There was no one home. But we still went and taught Le and De who are two little kids that are gonna be baptized too. They're super funny and I love teaching them. They're 13 and 11 years old and they've got a lot of spunk.
After teaching them we went and visited our Methodist friend, Sister Z. It was a very interesting lesson.
So yeah. That was my week. Everything's good. And it was all fun. Gotta go now.
Love you all. Thank you for all your love and support. Until next week. Mahal ko kayo!
-Sister Hess
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