Dear Family and Friends,
Another week has gone by in Bulan. I love it! I know everyone heard about the big earthquake in the Philippines. We did not feel anything here though. We are fine here, so that is good. The earthquake was in Cebu which is really far away from here.
Anyway thought, Michelle Benches and her kids are doing great. They are really excited about their baptism on Saturday! I am so excited for them. They are so ready for Saturday. Michelle is really great and she invites all her neighbors to hear the gospel. We are teaching some of her friends too. It is so true the fruit of being converted to the gospel is sharing it with your family and friends!
The Taboong family is doing good too. They all came to church except brother Taboong because he was sick. There baptismal date is November 2, so hopefully they will continue to progress and come to church next week.
Okay so the word in Tagalog for conversion is "Pagbabalik-loob" the root words "balik" means to return and the other root word "loob" means inside. So essentially Pagbabalik-loob means "bring back that which was inside." I just think that is so cool. When we teach we are bring back something that was already inside a person.
This week we really need to work on finding new investigators and really focusing on reaching the standards that the mission president set for us. They one thing that our leaders are worried about is an elevators vs an escalator effect. Too many times you work to bring one family to baptism only to find that after their baptism you don't have any progressing investigators. We need to be constantly finding and helping investigators progress so that we can steadily bring people to Christ.
Anyway I love my companion, I love this branch, I love these people!
-Sister Richins
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
October 14
Family and Friends,
As always this has been a busy week and we finished it up with conference. It was really nice to watch conference-it was a little weird to see so many white faces. Anyway being here for conference really made you realize just how world wide the church is. You always hear them say that they welcome all those participating world wide in their own language. It was a little different watching in Tagalog because you couldn't here the voice expressions. Of course my area offered English too, so that was nice. It was really neat though because we had so many investigators come on Sunday Morning! It is neat because then they could listen to the words of the prophet. It was really inspiring to listen to all their words. I really enjoyed all the talks about missionary work and also about women in the church.
Yesterday was really cool for me. So we always have a lot of appointments on Sunday and we usually split with ward members on that day. Yesterday it was really cool because I went with on the single adults in the ward to the Taboong family. It had been a little bit since we were able to teach the whole family together. We taught them about faith and baptism and then committed the whole family to baptism. Brother Taboong who for the most part in every teaching appointment had been really quite, starting to speak. He said that they should have been baptized a while ago, but he knows that there is a difference in our church that he doesn't feel in the catholic church of his church. He says he wants this so bad for his family to be able to go to church every week together. It was such a spiritual lesson and you could tell that everyone could feel the love that God has for each one of us. I am so excited for them.
Brother Rodger is doing good too, he wasn't able to come to church this week, but his 21 year old son came to conference. He was going to go home after the sunday morning session, but we told him there was more to come so he stayed.
Jenny also came to conference, I was really excited for her. She doesn't say too much in the lessons, but enough to know that she gets really excited about reading the Book of Mormon.
Michelle and her kids are continuing to do good, she is always so excited when we come and says there is always a special spirit in her home when we come and visit. Her kids are excited to read the Book of Mormon! They will be baptized on October 26.
Wow, this gospel is amazing! I love it! I love being a missionary. I get to be apart of this great work.
-Sister Richins
As always this has been a busy week and we finished it up with conference. It was really nice to watch conference-it was a little weird to see so many white faces. Anyway being here for conference really made you realize just how world wide the church is. You always hear them say that they welcome all those participating world wide in their own language. It was a little different watching in Tagalog because you couldn't here the voice expressions. Of course my area offered English too, so that was nice. It was really neat though because we had so many investigators come on Sunday Morning! It is neat because then they could listen to the words of the prophet. It was really inspiring to listen to all their words. I really enjoyed all the talks about missionary work and also about women in the church.
Yesterday was really cool for me. So we always have a lot of appointments on Sunday and we usually split with ward members on that day. Yesterday it was really cool because I went with on the single adults in the ward to the Taboong family. It had been a little bit since we were able to teach the whole family together. We taught them about faith and baptism and then committed the whole family to baptism. Brother Taboong who for the most part in every teaching appointment had been really quite, starting to speak. He said that they should have been baptized a while ago, but he knows that there is a difference in our church that he doesn't feel in the catholic church of his church. He says he wants this so bad for his family to be able to go to church every week together. It was such a spiritual lesson and you could tell that everyone could feel the love that God has for each one of us. I am so excited for them.
Brother Rodger is doing good too, he wasn't able to come to church this week, but his 21 year old son came to conference. He was going to go home after the sunday morning session, but we told him there was more to come so he stayed.
Jenny also came to conference, I was really excited for her. She doesn't say too much in the lessons, but enough to know that she gets really excited about reading the Book of Mormon.
Michelle and her kids are continuing to do good, she is always so excited when we come and says there is always a special spirit in her home when we come and visit. Her kids are excited to read the Book of Mormon! They will be baptized on October 26.
Wow, this gospel is amazing! I love it! I love being a missionary. I get to be apart of this great work.
-Sister Richins
Monday, October 7, 2013
October 7
Dear Family and Friends,
Well the transfer announcement came and Sister Eracho and I are staying together for another transfer!!! We were both so excited because we didn't want to leave this area. So we have another transfer to help this area!
It makes me so excited to hear about conference. We will get to watch it this weekend!
We had zone tranining on Friday and President gave us some really good instruction. President Gaunzon is truely and inspired man. He changed the standard of Excellence for the mission. They standard of Excellence for total lessons taught is 30, received and contacted refferals is now 5, the biggest change though was the New Investigators is now 10! Truely things we need to reach for, but with faith we can achieve these new goals. It made us really think about how we can find those new investigators and how we can help the members share the gospel with their friends.
President also gave us a great workshop about how to extend invitations to members to work with us. By really sincerly praying about who should fellowship each investigator. It was really exactly what we needed right now in the mission. Truely inspired. We talked about how we need to make a spiritual missionary experience for the members that work with us. He also told us that the words "Mahirap"- hard, Trunky, or punted are "bawal"-forbidden in this mission.
We once again were pretty busy this week. We were able to split for a couple of days with ward members so that we could cover more teaching appointments in one day.
Michelle and her kids are doing good they always are so eager to come to church and really become involved in everything. They will be baptized of the 26 of this month!
The branch is really progressing, when we first got here there were hardley anyone, but slowly, but surely the seats are filling up. Hopefully one day the branch will become a ward!
Well that is about all for right now!
-Sister Richins
Well the transfer announcement came and Sister Eracho and I are staying together for another transfer!!! We were both so excited because we didn't want to leave this area. So we have another transfer to help this area!
It makes me so excited to hear about conference. We will get to watch it this weekend!
We had zone tranining on Friday and President gave us some really good instruction. President Gaunzon is truely and inspired man. He changed the standard of Excellence for the mission. They standard of Excellence for total lessons taught is 30, received and contacted refferals is now 5, the biggest change though was the New Investigators is now 10! Truely things we need to reach for, but with faith we can achieve these new goals. It made us really think about how we can find those new investigators and how we can help the members share the gospel with their friends.
President also gave us a great workshop about how to extend invitations to members to work with us. By really sincerly praying about who should fellowship each investigator. It was really exactly what we needed right now in the mission. Truely inspired. We talked about how we need to make a spiritual missionary experience for the members that work with us. He also told us that the words "Mahirap"- hard, Trunky, or punted are "bawal"-forbidden in this mission.
We once again were pretty busy this week. We were able to split for a couple of days with ward members so that we could cover more teaching appointments in one day.
Michelle and her kids are doing good they always are so eager to come to church and really become involved in everything. They will be baptized of the 26 of this month!
The branch is really progressing, when we first got here there were hardley anyone, but slowly, but surely the seats are filling up. Hopefully one day the branch will become a ward!
Well that is about all for right now!
-Sister Richins
September 30
Dear Family and Friends,
Well this has been a really busy week. We have been sooo busy. We literally cannot teach all of our investigators and less actives. Our schedule is so packed. Which of course is a real blessing. We did, however, this week finally have sisters to work with us. And we actually did splits with the relief society sisters so we could teach more appointments. I was a little nervous about doing splits because I wouldn't have Sister Eracho, but it worked out well and defiantly helped me. We also had exchanges with our Sister Training Leader on Thursday. It is always good to go on splits with other missionaries.
On Saturday we had a great baptism. He was really excited and it was a neat experience. Sister Michelle brought her 3 kids too and her kids were excited for their baptism in 2 weeks.
Also last night we had a really cool experience. So here in Bulan they don't have tricycles, but rather they have pedjacks. It is a bicycle with a side seat. But anyway it is a really good opportunity to talk to the bicycle driver. So last week we were riding a pedjack and talking to the driver and he said that Elders had taught him and his family 10 years ago, but then they moved. He said that we could come back to his house and teach his family. So yesterday night we were on splits with the relief society and we taught Roger and his family. It was really cool he says he knows the church and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I hope that they will continue to progress.
Well it will be interesting to see what happens with transfer. We had interviews with Pres. Guanzon last week and I told him that neither Sister Eracho and I want to transfer because we have only been here 6 weeks, hopefully we will get to stay together another transfer! I really don't want to leave this area so have so many progressing investigators and the branch is really progressing.
Of course this being the last p-day of the transfer, we had District activity. We went to Bulusan Lake. It was really pretty there was a nice little hike all the way around the lake.
Well I hope everything goes well for everyone back home!
-Sister Richins
Well this has been a really busy week. We have been sooo busy. We literally cannot teach all of our investigators and less actives. Our schedule is so packed. Which of course is a real blessing. We did, however, this week finally have sisters to work with us. And we actually did splits with the relief society sisters so we could teach more appointments. I was a little nervous about doing splits because I wouldn't have Sister Eracho, but it worked out well and defiantly helped me. We also had exchanges with our Sister Training Leader on Thursday. It is always good to go on splits with other missionaries.
On Saturday we had a great baptism. He was really excited and it was a neat experience. Sister Michelle brought her 3 kids too and her kids were excited for their baptism in 2 weeks.
Also last night we had a really cool experience. So here in Bulan they don't have tricycles, but rather they have pedjacks. It is a bicycle with a side seat. But anyway it is a really good opportunity to talk to the bicycle driver. So last week we were riding a pedjack and talking to the driver and he said that Elders had taught him and his family 10 years ago, but then they moved. He said that we could come back to his house and teach his family. So yesterday night we were on splits with the relief society and we taught Roger and his family. It was really cool he says he knows the church and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I hope that they will continue to progress.
Well it will be interesting to see what happens with transfer. We had interviews with Pres. Guanzon last week and I told him that neither Sister Eracho and I want to transfer because we have only been here 6 weeks, hopefully we will get to stay together another transfer! I really don't want to leave this area so have so many progressing investigators and the branch is really progressing.
Of course this being the last p-day of the transfer, we had District activity. We went to Bulusan Lake. It was really pretty there was a nice little hike all the way around the lake.
Well I hope everything goes well for everyone back home!
-Sister Richins
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