May 20

Dear Family and Friends,

I am excited to hear from you all.  Things are going well here.  It sounds like everything is going all right at home and the weather is getting warmer.  It is super hot here.  On Saturday it was the hottest that it has been since I have been here and we also did a lot of walking that day.  I was dripping in sweat, so that was fun! It's okay though because everyone still tells me I am beautiful with sweat dripping down my face.  Everyone calls me doll and the little girls call me a real live barbie doll. I really don't like all the attention, but sometimes it is nice to hear.  

Anyway this week was an exciting week.  We finally were able to contact one of our refferals we got a few weeks ago   His name is Patrick he is 26 and he is married with a little baby boy.  We were not able to contact him before because he was never home or his father who does not like the Mormons was there and wouldn't let us come in.  On Tuesday, though, we were able to find Patrick at his house.  It was a really good lesson until his father came home and starting to say to say things against our church in Tagalog.  It was getting really heated, so Sister Maghanoy just stopped and bore her testimony and I did too. It was really crazy because he couldn't argue with that and he left.  We asked Patrick for a return appointment and he accepted.  We taught him again on Friday and  had a great lesson with him and when we left asked when we were going to be coming back! We extended an invitation to him to be baptized and he accepted. It was great I hope that we can continue to teach him and his family.

The other great thing this week is that we had almost all the the less-actives that we have been working with come to church! It was so great to see them all their and I was really happy.  It is really sad because when we ask these people why they stopped coming to church their reason is because they were offended, but we  were pretty bold this week in inviting them to come to church and they came.  It was nice to see our chapel a little fuller on Sunday.  

As far as the language goes, Sister Maghanoy says it is improving and I just need to have more confidence in myself.  I usually can communicate the lessons, but it's hard to have other conversations with them.  It's frustrating at times, but makes me rely on the Savior and have faith that it will come. Some days are better than others, but it will come with faith and diligence.   

I am looking forward to this up coming week we have a lot of appointments and I really hope that our new investigators continue to progress.

Mahal ko kayo!
Sister Heather Richins