November 4

Dear Family and Friends,

I really don't have much time today, but I wanted to tell you about my last week.  First off we had a great baptism on Saturday.  The Tamboong kids.  I love this family so much! They are great and they already have a great support system because their neighbor is a member and the two families are best friends.  So Jomar, Roselyn, Mary-Jane and Margert were baptized on Saturday.  They are all the kids in the family.  Brother and sister will follow on November 16.  Jimmy, the dad, is so great.  I remember when we first met him, he said he couldn't read because reading hurts his eyes, but we kept using the Book of Mormon and he decided that he really wanted to read it.  He bought some eyeglasses and started reading.  Now he always has questions for us and says that when he starts reading, he just wants to read the entire thing.  It is so great! Jomar is 15 and will be 16 next week.  He was so funny when he bore his testimony after the baptism.  He said that at first we would ask him how his reading was and he would say that he read, but he really hadn't.  Of course we knew this so we would read it with him, and eventually he understood and started reading on his own.  He has a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon and was so excited to receive the priesthood and he will be able to baptize his parents so that will be really special for him.  All the kids are really great and I am so excited for the day when they will be sealed as a family together forever.

So we were really busy today because Bulan Zone won the Zone Activity for the month.  We went to a lake and played games and ate with President and Sister Guanzon.  It was a lot of fun, I really do love President and Sister Guanzon I learn so much from them.

So on Thursday was President Roman's Funeral service.  I was kind of wishing that I still didn't understand what they were saying because, I was crying along with them.  Anyway though it was really touching.  The Mission President of the Philippines Cauyan Mission, President Bolcasco, got special permission to come to the funeral of his best friend.  Pres Bolcasco is from Bulan and the formerly the Distrct
 President before Pres. Roman.  And President Bolcasco was the one who introduced the church to Pres. Roman.  Pres. Bolcaco gave Pres. Roman a Book of Mormon and Pres. Roman read it and within 4 days knew it was true and wanted to be baptized.  He was the first in his family and eventually his entire family joined the church.  All of his kids have served missions and the youngest is currently serving in the Quezon City mission.  It is so crazy to think how one small act can make such a huge difference.  So the youngest son was able to leave his mission to come to the funeral.  It was really touching to hear his testimony about the plan of salvation and how much his dad meant to him.

So it is interesting here after the funeral service everyone that attended the funeral service walks behinds the funeral car until they get to the cemmentary.

They also celebrated All souls day on November 1.  It really is a lot like Memorial day, every goes to the cementary and clean and decorate the graves and eat food at the cementary.

So we are doing okay we still have our struggles, but hopefully we can continue to find people to teach.  We did have some new investigators this week we just have to work hard to help them progress and continue to find more.

Anyway I love this Branch and I love this work! I have learned so much from this people!

Anyway everyone I hope you all have great weeks.

-Sister Richins