Well the week has been busy as usual. James is looking forward to his baptism on Saturday! I am so excited for him, he is so ready. He reads the Book of Mormon every night and always has questions for us. He basically taught us the Word of Wisdom and the 10 commandments. I am really excited for him. Actually he the same age as Kevin (13 years old), just a few months older.
Also Michelle and her 4 kids came to church yesterday! The kids loved church. Michelle told us that after they left church, her kids asked if they could come back every week. She is doing really well and I am really excited for her.
We haven't been able to teach Jenny who we taught with James last week because she has been out of town, but hopefully this week we will be able to meet with her.
We also had a really great lesson with Ricky. Ricky is an returned missionary that hasn't been to church in 1-2 years because he was offended. The Branch President said that the elders would always go to his house, but they would never get in. We decided we would just try. We got there right when he was coming home and were able to talk to him. We talked to him about his mission and those that he baptized. He said that one family that he baptized and their son just got home from a mission. By the time we finished he was nearly in tears and he said he would come back to church.
We also met with the branch presidency and set up a branch mission plan. We are really striving to help strengthen families-making sure they have family scripture study, family prayer and FHE. We really need strong families that will be able to help converts.
So it is really hard to find apartments here. you can't just go on the internet and find an apartment and the newspaper doesn't have any. So we just walk along the street and say " alam mo ba kung may bahay pwede upahan" Do you know if there is an house for rent? Actually they postponed the opening of the 2nd sisters in bulan because we were not able to find an apartment in time. They will open it up in November. We did find a couple apartments, but we have to wait for President Guanzon to approve them and then they have to install the water filter and everything. It takes a while to get everything fixed. So anyway that makes us wonder what will happen next transfer. Who will stay, and who will go?
Ingat!
-Sister Heather Richins
Monday, September 23, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Field is White!
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow what a week! It has been really busy but really rewarding! The Lord is truly hastening his work here!
So on Wednesday we had a special zone conference with the area President of the philippines, Elder Nielson. It was really good he talked about the atonement and how we can all change because of the atonement. He talked about the Enabling power of the atonement and how it can help us during our missions and missionaries and our investigators. He also talked about mission calls and when they are assigned he said that sometimes it is more about the mission president that you are assigned to. He said that we should be looking to what we can learn from our mission president and why the Lord assigned you to work in the mission with Pres. Guanzon.
On Sunday we had district conference here with our mission president. It was really great because 6 investigators attended! It was really cool they talked about missionary work and reactivation and the vision that this district will one day become at Bulan Stake. They urged the members to work with us. President Guanzon has a really amazing conversion story and it was inspiring to hear it again. It was really inspiring and yesterday we had relief society sisters work with us!!! It was great because we could visit the brothers that we have been trying to teach! The branch members are beginning to catch the wave!
So we have been teaching this 14 year old boy named James. He lives with his aunt who is a member. He came to church last week and we started teaching him this week. He is great! He always wants to learn more and has started to attend seminary too. We invited him to pray to Heavenly father for an answer to his prayers about Joseph Smith. On of my favorite things being a missionary is when people describe how they felt when God answers there prayers. Because they always have such a hard time describing it, but you can just tell that they know. It is so cool to be part of that.
We also had an cool experience when we were teaching James because we went to his house, but his aunt wasn't there so we couldn't teach him because there was no sister, but we asked their neighbor to come and join us in the lesson. It was really cool because the neighbor was so eager to learn more and asked us when we were coming back. Blessings come by being obedient!
We also have been teaching this one sister named Michelle. She was taught 6 months ago by Elders, but was never able to come to church because her husband didn't let her. But she told us yesterday that her prayers had been answered and that she would be able to come to church next week!
This morning when we were at the LCC (the grocery store) the security guard came up to us and started asking us all these questions. He had been given a restoration pamphlet a while ago and wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith and what time our church was. It was great we got his number and will visit him tomorrow.
So we have a busy week ahead of us. A lot to do trying to visit all these investigators and also find a new apartment for the sisters that will be coming next transfer.
Well have a great week!
-Sister Richins
Wow what a week! It has been really busy but really rewarding! The Lord is truly hastening his work here!
So on Wednesday we had a special zone conference with the area President of the philippines, Elder Nielson. It was really good he talked about the atonement and how we can all change because of the atonement. He talked about the Enabling power of the atonement and how it can help us during our missions and missionaries and our investigators. He also talked about mission calls and when they are assigned he said that sometimes it is more about the mission president that you are assigned to. He said that we should be looking to what we can learn from our mission president and why the Lord assigned you to work in the mission with Pres. Guanzon.
On Sunday we had district conference here with our mission president. It was really great because 6 investigators attended! It was really cool they talked about missionary work and reactivation and the vision that this district will one day become at Bulan Stake. They urged the members to work with us. President Guanzon has a really amazing conversion story and it was inspiring to hear it again. It was really inspiring and yesterday we had relief society sisters work with us!!! It was great because we could visit the brothers that we have been trying to teach! The branch members are beginning to catch the wave!
So we have been teaching this 14 year old boy named James. He lives with his aunt who is a member. He came to church last week and we started teaching him this week. He is great! He always wants to learn more and has started to attend seminary too. We invited him to pray to Heavenly father for an answer to his prayers about Joseph Smith. On of my favorite things being a missionary is when people describe how they felt when God answers there prayers. Because they always have such a hard time describing it, but you can just tell that they know. It is so cool to be part of that.
We also had an cool experience when we were teaching James because we went to his house, but his aunt wasn't there so we couldn't teach him because there was no sister, but we asked their neighbor to come and join us in the lesson. It was really cool because the neighbor was so eager to learn more and asked us when we were coming back. Blessings come by being obedient!
We also have been teaching this one sister named Michelle. She was taught 6 months ago by Elders, but was never able to come to church because her husband didn't let her. But she told us yesterday that her prayers had been answered and that she would be able to come to church next week!
This morning when we were at the LCC (the grocery store) the security guard came up to us and started asking us all these questions. He had been given a restoration pamphlet a while ago and wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith and what time our church was. It was great we got his number and will visit him tomorrow.
So we have a busy week ahead of us. A lot to do trying to visit all these investigators and also find a new apartment for the sisters that will be coming next transfer.
Well have a great week!
-Sister Richins
September 9
Dear Family and Friends,
Well it's the second week in Bulan. It has been a busy, but good week. We continued to work with the branch leaders and get them excited about missionary work. One of the biggest challenges in this area is that there are not ward sisters to work with us. We have a lot of brothers that they elders taught before, but we can't teach them without a sister present. It is frustrated sometimes because there are a lot of RM brothers that want to work with us, but if we don't have sisters they can't help us. Of course there is power in following the rules and being exactly obedient. It used to be that we could teach males if we taught them outside, but President Blisner told us that we need to make sure there is always another sister present. It's okay there is power in obedience.
This week we were able to teach the Taboong Family. They were taught last year by the Elders, but then the first Elders that taught them got transferred and they next elders stopped teaching them for some reason. But they are a golden family. All the kids still read the Book of Mormon and they have family prayer each night. We had a family home evening with them. We also taught them last night and it was so great. It was so cool to see how happy the mom has and thanked us last night and I thought she was ready to cry! I am excited to continue to teach them.
We also find a lot of part member families that were really receptive to us and one even came to church on Sunday!
Sister Eracho is a great missionary. She is from Angles Philippines. She was a convert when she was 14 and she and her sister are the only members in her family- such an example of faith. I have learned so much from her. She is really good at relating the gospel to people and helping them see how it connects to their life. It has been a blessing that she is my companion now so that I can really develop those teaching skills now that I have a grasp on the language. Sister Eracho really likes to talk during the lesson because her last companion from pakistan didn't say very much in lessons. We have been working on it though and practicing teaching in unity and it is coming a long. We trade off leading each lesson and it has really helped.
Oh funny experience this week--- I saw all these little boys at a members house playing with empty match boxes. My companion said they were playing gagamba. I said oh how do you play thinking is was some kind of native game or something. Turns out the word for Spider in Tagalog is Gagamba. They little boys had spiders in their matchboxes. Lets just say I was really surprised when they pulled the spiders out of the boxes. haha! I guess I won't forget that word.
Well have a great week everyone!
-Sister Richins
Well it's the second week in Bulan. It has been a busy, but good week. We continued to work with the branch leaders and get them excited about missionary work. One of the biggest challenges in this area is that there are not ward sisters to work with us. We have a lot of brothers that they elders taught before, but we can't teach them without a sister present. It is frustrated sometimes because there are a lot of RM brothers that want to work with us, but if we don't have sisters they can't help us. Of course there is power in following the rules and being exactly obedient. It used to be that we could teach males if we taught them outside, but President Blisner told us that we need to make sure there is always another sister present. It's okay there is power in obedience.
This week we were able to teach the Taboong Family. They were taught last year by the Elders, but then the first Elders that taught them got transferred and they next elders stopped teaching them for some reason. But they are a golden family. All the kids still read the Book of Mormon and they have family prayer each night. We had a family home evening with them. We also taught them last night and it was so great. It was so cool to see how happy the mom has and thanked us last night and I thought she was ready to cry! I am excited to continue to teach them.
We also find a lot of part member families that were really receptive to us and one even came to church on Sunday!
Sister Eracho is a great missionary. She is from Angles Philippines. She was a convert when she was 14 and she and her sister are the only members in her family- such an example of faith. I have learned so much from her. She is really good at relating the gospel to people and helping them see how it connects to their life. It has been a blessing that she is my companion now so that I can really develop those teaching skills now that I have a grasp on the language. Sister Eracho really likes to talk during the lesson because her last companion from pakistan didn't say very much in lessons. We have been working on it though and practicing teaching in unity and it is coming a long. We trade off leading each lesson and it has really helped.
Oh funny experience this week--- I saw all these little boys at a members house playing with empty match boxes. My companion said they were playing gagamba. I said oh how do you play thinking is was some kind of native game or something. Turns out the word for Spider in Tagalog is Gagamba. They little boys had spiders in their matchboxes. Lets just say I was really surprised when they pulled the spiders out of the boxes. haha! I guess I won't forget that word.
Well have a great week everyone!
-Sister Richins
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Sept 2- New Area....Open Area in BULAN
Dear Family and Friends,
Well we made to through transfer day which basically means a lot of traveling. We left Guinobaton at 7 in the morning and then we went to Sorsogon where they read transfer announcements. And Sister Eracho and I are opening an area in Bulan! Bulan is about 3 hours away from Sorsogon by the time we got to our Area is was 5 pm. Our apartment is a new missionary apartment so we had to buy food and put together our table and everything. It was a pretty tiring day.
So Sister Eracho, if you remember, trainer of Sister Lang in our Guionobaton Apartment. So she was assigneed to Guinobaton ward 2 and I was in Guinobaton ward 1. So it was really funny when we found out we were companions because we had been joking that we would be companions after the transfer announcement was made.
So the area... We are opening an area here in Bulan Branch which is right next to the ocean. Literally some of the members houses are on the beach. It is a lot different than Guinobaton- the people are a lot poorer here, but super nice. The Branch is really small...the branch president said there are about 300 members in the records, but maybe 60 attend.
It has been somewhat challenging this week because of course both Sister Eracho and I are new to the area. The history of missionaries in this area isn't the best either. The Elders that were here got pulled out because of disobedience and now we have to fix the relationships between the Missionaries and Branch Leaders. But the branch is really excited about having sisters here. We were given the Elder's old area book only to find that it wasn't updated and it all the information was incomplete. But we are optimistic about the future and we were able to find a few of the Elder's old investigators. The members have been a huge blessing in giving us referrals and helping us out.
We also found out that next transfer 2 more sisters will be coming to Bulan Branch and we are in the process of looking for an apartment for them. So after this transfer we will probably split the area Sister Eracho and I will split and lead both areas.
Of course they are challenges, but it is nice that Sister Eracho and I already knew each other really well which has been really nice.
Well we are looking forward to this next week we are starting to get more familiar with the area. Of course I get a lot of attention here being white, but it is sometimes a benefit because the people get really excited when I start to speak Tagalog.
Well thanks for all your love and support!
-Sister Richins
Well we made to through transfer day which basically means a lot of traveling. We left Guinobaton at 7 in the morning and then we went to Sorsogon where they read transfer announcements. And Sister Eracho and I are opening an area in Bulan! Bulan is about 3 hours away from Sorsogon by the time we got to our Area is was 5 pm. Our apartment is a new missionary apartment so we had to buy food and put together our table and everything. It was a pretty tiring day.
So Sister Eracho, if you remember, trainer of Sister Lang in our Guionobaton Apartment. So she was assigneed to Guinobaton ward 2 and I was in Guinobaton ward 1. So it was really funny when we found out we were companions because we had been joking that we would be companions after the transfer announcement was made.
So the area... We are opening an area here in Bulan Branch which is right next to the ocean. Literally some of the members houses are on the beach. It is a lot different than Guinobaton- the people are a lot poorer here, but super nice. The Branch is really small...the branch president said there are about 300 members in the records, but maybe 60 attend.
It has been somewhat challenging this week because of course both Sister Eracho and I are new to the area. The history of missionaries in this area isn't the best either. The Elders that were here got pulled out because of disobedience and now we have to fix the relationships between the Missionaries and Branch Leaders. But the branch is really excited about having sisters here. We were given the Elder's old area book only to find that it wasn't updated and it all the information was incomplete. But we are optimistic about the future and we were able to find a few of the Elder's old investigators. The members have been a huge blessing in giving us referrals and helping us out.
We also found out that next transfer 2 more sisters will be coming to Bulan Branch and we are in the process of looking for an apartment for them. So after this transfer we will probably split the area Sister Eracho and I will split and lead both areas.
Of course they are challenges, but it is nice that Sister Eracho and I already knew each other really well which has been really nice.
Well we are looking forward to this next week we are starting to get more familiar with the area. Of course I get a lot of attention here being white, but it is sometimes a benefit because the people get really excited when I start to speak Tagalog.
Well thanks for all your love and support!
-Sister Richins
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