Hello Family and Friends,
Wow another week has gone by. It has been great. The weather has
finally decided to warm up,so it is back to its warm self. Everyone
is getting ready for the hot season coming up. So I am super excited
for that. I love this area, it is so great. I love this branch and I
love all the branch missionaries here. I keep on praying that I won't
have to leave this area when transfers announcements come next week.
On Friday, President Guanzon came down for zone interviews. It was so
inspiring. President Guanzon is so great. He is so humble and I
learn so much from him. After the interviews he talked to us about
faith in setting goals. He said of course we need to set goals with
names in mind, but always remember the standard of excellence and even
if you don't have a name it back it up with set your goals with the
standard of excellence in mind and have the faith that the Lord will
lead you to those extras.
Rodel is doing so great. He is such a golden investigator. He was
truly searching for the truth, but just didn't know where to find it.
He is so excited for his baptism next week and he also really wants to
serve a mission in a year from now. So that is just great. Rodel is
really funny when we teach him, because he hates commitment
invitations. We will teach him about a commandment and then commit him
to live it and he gives us this look and is like of course I will live
it, that is why you are teaching me right. It is really funny.
Rodel is the best thing to happen for Christian. He just needed a
little extra push from a friend. He is so great. Yesterday he gave
us a referral and we taught her at his house and he bore his testimony
about the book of mormon and the restoration. He was so funny, he was
like here is the book of mormon, let me tell you what I learned from
it his week and then he told the story about the tree of life. It was
so great for him to testify. I remember when I first got to this area
and Christian was still struggling to get a testimony and it seemed
that he was one of those eternal investigators, but now look at him,
he is doing so great and is testifying how he knows it is true.
We also had a couple new investigators, Bro Nazer. Bro Nazer was just
a crazy store we met him and invited him to come to church and HE
CAME. That was like the first. He was kind of confused, but he had a
good experience and came and played basketball with us this morning.
One of the greatest things that I love in the phlippines is that when
we teach everyone just surrounds us so a lot of people join lessons
and it is a great way to find new investigators. We see so many
miracles and the Lord's hand his in this work.
We also taught a couple of workers that have been doing some work on
our chapel. They are from manilia, but are working here because they
are part of a contracted thing and they will go back in a couple
weeks. Renaldo actually had a baptismal date with the missionaries in
Manila, but left to come here for work. We taught him a couple times
and invited him to come to church. It was exciting and he was so
great. It is so cool to feel the love for these people, even when we
were not the missionaries who taught him, but just to see his faith
and testimony. He kind of has a crazy story because he is always
moving around to different areas for work, but he always seems to
manage to find the missionaries. He was talking about all the
missionaries that have taught him. He will hopefully get baptized
when he gets back home.
-Sister Richins
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
January 20
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow yet another week gone by, it is so crazy how fast this week went. It was an exciting week. We taught a lot and a lot of investigators came to church which was great.
The other sisters in the branch had a baptism on Saturday, and then afterwards there was an area broadcast where they announced the Philippines goals for the year. There goals are to strengthen families, rescue the one, share the gospel, develop the church and save the rising generation.
I am always just in awe of how the Lord's hand is in this work. I see it everyday. Rodel and his two cousins came to church on Sunday it was so cool. He was just so happy. He also came to the baptism on Saturday and the Area Broadcast that followed. He is so great and has such a strong testimony. We taught him about the prophet on Thursday night. It was a really weird night. For some reason both Sister Flake and I were really struggling teaching in Tagalog, and he started speaking to us in English. Turns out he is super good at English, but has just been to shy to speak it with us. He was really excited when we showed him all the 12 apostles and gave him an Liahona to read about what the prophets have said. He is actually a huge huge strength to Christian who testimony isn't quite as strong. Speaking of Christian he is doing great. Sister Flake and I put a picture of Jesus Christ on his Pedjack so that he could always see it when he was driving to remind him of his commitment.
We had exchanges this week with Sister Papica and Sister Eracho. I went with Sister Eracho again. So it was so much fun to be companions again for a day.
We also have a new investigator Brother Renatto. He came to church on Sunday. We see a lot of potential in him. We are honestly so busy now, especially at nights we don't have time to visit all of them. Right now we are working to keep on finding new investigators so that we will avoid the elevator effect from happening. I really really really don't want to leave this area. I just want to see all our investigators get more involved and be given assignments in the branch. I know that Rodel and Christian and Ceriel are going to be so great for this branch.
I love our branch so much we played basketball with some members from the branch earlier. It was a lot of fun. I have so many wonderful memories here.
So I don't know if I talked about Hartzell, but he is an investigator that we have only taught a couple times. He is 16 and his mom is a less active member. Sometimes okay all the time he usually tries to hide from us. But I have a lot of faith in him because I had a dream in which he was getting baptized and had a really strong testimony of the book of Mormon and was preparing to go on a mission. So even though my companion thought that we should give up. I am determined to help my dream come true. On Saturday my dream was starting to come true. He finally read. We gave him an the story about Alma the Younger to read, and he finally did. He told us what happened and loved it! And then he actually told us what time we could come back. He didn't come to church because he is shy to go because he has no friends there, but hopefully this week we can get the young men to invite him to come to church with him. After that lesson my companion finally said, I can see what you saw in him. So this week he will hopefully come to church.
We still need to be diligent in finding new investigators this week especially ones that we can teach in the Mornings and in the early afternoon. It is crazy our nights are super packed, but our mornings afternoons are really bare.
Well love you guys all so much!
-Sister Richins
Wow yet another week gone by, it is so crazy how fast this week went. It was an exciting week. We taught a lot and a lot of investigators came to church which was great.
The other sisters in the branch had a baptism on Saturday, and then afterwards there was an area broadcast where they announced the Philippines goals for the year. There goals are to strengthen families, rescue the one, share the gospel, develop the church and save the rising generation.
I am always just in awe of how the Lord's hand is in this work. I see it everyday. Rodel and his two cousins came to church on Sunday it was so cool. He was just so happy. He also came to the baptism on Saturday and the Area Broadcast that followed. He is so great and has such a strong testimony. We taught him about the prophet on Thursday night. It was a really weird night. For some reason both Sister Flake and I were really struggling teaching in Tagalog, and he started speaking to us in English. Turns out he is super good at English, but has just been to shy to speak it with us. He was really excited when we showed him all the 12 apostles and gave him an Liahona to read about what the prophets have said. He is actually a huge huge strength to Christian who testimony isn't quite as strong. Speaking of Christian he is doing great. Sister Flake and I put a picture of Jesus Christ on his Pedjack so that he could always see it when he was driving to remind him of his commitment.
We had exchanges this week with Sister Papica and Sister Eracho. I went with Sister Eracho again. So it was so much fun to be companions again for a day.
We also have a new investigator Brother Renatto. He came to church on Sunday. We see a lot of potential in him. We are honestly so busy now, especially at nights we don't have time to visit all of them. Right now we are working to keep on finding new investigators so that we will avoid the elevator effect from happening. I really really really don't want to leave this area. I just want to see all our investigators get more involved and be given assignments in the branch. I know that Rodel and Christian and Ceriel are going to be so great for this branch.
I love our branch so much we played basketball with some members from the branch earlier. It was a lot of fun. I have so many wonderful memories here.
So I don't know if I talked about Hartzell, but he is an investigator that we have only taught a couple times. He is 16 and his mom is a less active member. Sometimes okay all the time he usually tries to hide from us. But I have a lot of faith in him because I had a dream in which he was getting baptized and had a really strong testimony of the book of Mormon and was preparing to go on a mission. So even though my companion thought that we should give up. I am determined to help my dream come true. On Saturday my dream was starting to come true. He finally read. We gave him an the story about Alma the Younger to read, and he finally did. He told us what happened and loved it! And then he actually told us what time we could come back. He didn't come to church because he is shy to go because he has no friends there, but hopefully this week we can get the young men to invite him to come to church with him. After that lesson my companion finally said, I can see what you saw in him. So this week he will hopefully come to church.
We still need to be diligent in finding new investigators this week especially ones that we can teach in the Mornings and in the early afternoon. It is crazy our nights are super packed, but our mornings afternoons are really bare.
Well love you guys all so much!
-Sister Richins
Friday, January 17, 2014
January 13
Dear family and friends,
Wow I can't believe that 10 months ago today I entered the MTC! That is so crazy how the time flies! This week like always has been really great. There is currently a low pressure system over the Bulan right now, which actually has made it slightly cold. I know that is crazy, but yes I am cold here. I think that I am just too used to the warm weather for 10 months. My companion says I am crazy because she is still roasting in the heat and here is Sister Richins shivering in the cold just like the philippinos. Actually, I pulled out my cardigans from the MTC yesterday and was like wow this is weird. I really want to know what the temperature is because I am sure that it is not very cold. Also I had to buy a blanket because I was getting cold at night. I am pretty sure I am going to die in the states, so I might as well stay here forever.
Anyway though, this week has been really great. Of course Christian is still progressing. He is so great. When we visited him this week he was waiting for us and we had all the chairs set up he had a sister their so that we could teach him and told us about all the new things he had learned from the BOM. He is great, I think I mentioned last week that Rodel and Christian both came to church last week and they both knew each other outside of church. We asked Christian how he knew Rodel and he started laughing and said that they met each other one night when they were drinking. We started laughing so hard. We asked Rodel and he said that they are now changing together. It is great. And actually there baptism date is set for the same day, so hopefully everything will work out and they will be baptized together.
Ceriel is also doing great. He came to church again and when we taught him about the word of wisdom said that he would stop right then. He is so sweet when he prays it is something that he has really been working on. He is always so nervous, but you can tell it is coming from the heart. Pray is so important and it is so cool when people realize that they can literally just say anything they want to our Heavenly Father.
Brother Rodrigo has also really been working on his prayers he was so nervous to pray in front of us, but finally did and it was so great. He is so funny when we come to visit. He loves it when we come, and I am started to understand his bicol more, so it is good. He is such a different person than when we started teaching him. He is slowly working his way off tobacco and he believes that he can do it.
We also found a few new investigators this week, so it will be exciting to see how they all enfold. The work is going forth. And the Lord is in this week. We started teaching the aunt and uncle of brother Rodel this week, they have a really sweet family and the kids are really exciting to read the book of Mormon. We taught his one new investigator, Jinkie, whose uncle is a member, she is 16 and really wasn't interested as we were teaching, until we got to Joseph Smith and then something changed in her and her eyes were like glued on us. I am excited to continue to teach her.
My companion and I were noticing that almost all of our investigators are boys and we were like that is weird,but we need good solid priesthood holders to help build up this branch and become a ward one day.
Well this is the life. I love this so so much, I would never ever trade this experience for anything in the world. The things I have learned, the people that I love, and the lives that I have seen change are the most precious things in my life. I know that God answers prayers and that he hears every one of his children.
-Sister Richins
Wow I can't believe that 10 months ago today I entered the MTC! That is so crazy how the time flies! This week like always has been really great. There is currently a low pressure system over the Bulan right now, which actually has made it slightly cold. I know that is crazy, but yes I am cold here. I think that I am just too used to the warm weather for 10 months. My companion says I am crazy because she is still roasting in the heat and here is Sister Richins shivering in the cold just like the philippinos. Actually, I pulled out my cardigans from the MTC yesterday and was like wow this is weird. I really want to know what the temperature is because I am sure that it is not very cold. Also I had to buy a blanket because I was getting cold at night. I am pretty sure I am going to die in the states, so I might as well stay here forever.
Anyway though, this week has been really great. Of course Christian is still progressing. He is so great. When we visited him this week he was waiting for us and we had all the chairs set up he had a sister their so that we could teach him and told us about all the new things he had learned from the BOM. He is great, I think I mentioned last week that Rodel and Christian both came to church last week and they both knew each other outside of church. We asked Christian how he knew Rodel and he started laughing and said that they met each other one night when they were drinking. We started laughing so hard. We asked Rodel and he said that they are now changing together. It is great. And actually there baptism date is set for the same day, so hopefully everything will work out and they will be baptized together.
Ceriel is also doing great. He came to church again and when we taught him about the word of wisdom said that he would stop right then. He is so sweet when he prays it is something that he has really been working on. He is always so nervous, but you can tell it is coming from the heart. Pray is so important and it is so cool when people realize that they can literally just say anything they want to our Heavenly Father.
Brother Rodrigo has also really been working on his prayers he was so nervous to pray in front of us, but finally did and it was so great. He is so funny when we come to visit. He loves it when we come, and I am started to understand his bicol more, so it is good. He is such a different person than when we started teaching him. He is slowly working his way off tobacco and he believes that he can do it.
We also found a few new investigators this week, so it will be exciting to see how they all enfold. The work is going forth. And the Lord is in this week. We started teaching the aunt and uncle of brother Rodel this week, they have a really sweet family and the kids are really exciting to read the book of Mormon. We taught his one new investigator, Jinkie, whose uncle is a member, she is 16 and really wasn't interested as we were teaching, until we got to Joseph Smith and then something changed in her and her eyes were like glued on us. I am excited to continue to teach her.
My companion and I were noticing that almost all of our investigators are boys and we were like that is weird,but we need good solid priesthood holders to help build up this branch and become a ward one day.
Well this is the life. I love this so so much, I would never ever trade this experience for anything in the world. The things I have learned, the people that I love, and the lives that I have seen change are the most precious things in my life. I know that God answers prayers and that he hears every one of his children.
-Sister Richins
Januray 6
Dear Family and Friends!
Happy New Year! I hope you guys all had a great New Year! It was interesting here. It was kind of weird it turns out New Years is a really big deal here. It is bigger than Christmas here. For Christmas all the stores and stuff were open, but on New Year everything was closed. We still had early curfews for two days, but it was a great week. I always tell sister Flake to remember back to our first weekly planning session together when we had just a handful of investigators and now look at our weekly planning last week and there has been so many miracles. You can really see the Lord's hand in this work.
Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes. My birthday was really interesting. It turns out birthdays are a really really big deal here. So this is what happened: Sister Phillips and Sister Eracho were at a member's house on Saturday night and they were talking about how old all the missionaries were in the branch and they just mentioned that Sister Richins would be 22 on Sunday. Of course the member got so excited and decided to tell everyone and then she got the brilliant idea to tell the branch president so he could announce it over the pulpit. So there we were on Sunday and Brother Bontigao who is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency was conducting and he went and announced that it was my birthday. Then after he bore his testimony he asked if I would bear my testimony because it was my birthday. Then afterwards before they closed the meeting he wished me a Happy Birthday again. I think that he could tell he was really annoyed because I was glaring at him really bad and he just kept on laughing to himself.
Church was really great yesterday though despite the fact that I was a little annoyed that everyone knew it was my birthday. But anyway it was a really exciting yesterday. Brother Rodel came to Church! and brother Ceriel and Brother Rodrigo! It was really exciting! I don't know if I have talked about brother Rodrigo, but we found him last transfer. We were tracting and he said oh my son, Ryan is a member. We started teaching Rodrigo and it was always an interesting experience because I would speak in Tagalog and then he would answer in Tagalog mixed with Bicol and Visanan. I have to listen so intently to understand him. I can usually understand most of it, but we always have to have a member with us to teach him because I can't understand everything. So we started teaching him and then he came to church last week. He said he had a good experience, but said it was just like going to church in another church, but he said it felt good so he said he would come back every week. So yesterday he came back to church. And then he got up during fast and testimony meeting to bear his testimony. It was kind of intense. President Bontigao was making eye contact with me and was like "what is going on" I we were exchanging glances for a few intense seconds. What was he going to say? Well he got up and said that he had only been to this church twice, but he really felt that he had really found the Lord finally. He had been to a lot of churches, but this one was different and he said he hoped this was the true church. It was really a neat experience. After church we went to his house and he said that he had been reading the book of mormon and just felt good. He said he wanted to be baptized, but he figured he better give up smoking and drinking first (we hadn't even brought up the word of wisdom yet). Then he started to get a little nervous, he said he had been smoking since he was 8 years old and didn't know if he could stop. He said he would just go to church, but he couldn't get baptized because he couldn't stop smoking. We had a great member with us that told him that everyone at the church was there to help him and if he was a strong desire with the help of the Lord he could do it because the Lord can work miracles! It was a really strong lesson even if I couldn't understand every thing he said in his half bicol, half tagalog. The Spirit is what matters most!
Brother Rodel also came to church, and it turns out that Rodel and Christian are really good friends so they had a great time at the church together. Speaking of Christian, he is doing great! We did have to extend his baptismal date to next month so that he can overcome smoking, but he has a lot of desire and he is continuing to increase his testimony.
We also were able to find some new investigators this week hopefully we will help them understand how our church is different than other churches. I am always reminded of what it says in Preach my Gospel that a lot of the times the people won't recognize at first that they can find greater happiness here in our church. So we just have to keep on teaching them and eventually they will understand.
This week I have also reflected on what one of our AP said. He said that of course we can't reach the standard of excellence on our own, but if we do it the Lord's way then we can achieve that.
I am really so so thankful for this area! I love these people here so much. I don't ever want to leave Bulan. Our branch is so supportive and we have a great branch mission leader, brother Bunso-who just got back from his mission. He literally is the life the of branch and such an asset to us. I have seen so many miracles, and I just can't wait to see what else is in store.
-Sister Richins
Happy New Year! I hope you guys all had a great New Year! It was interesting here. It was kind of weird it turns out New Years is a really big deal here. It is bigger than Christmas here. For Christmas all the stores and stuff were open, but on New Year everything was closed. We still had early curfews for two days, but it was a great week. I always tell sister Flake to remember back to our first weekly planning session together when we had just a handful of investigators and now look at our weekly planning last week and there has been so many miracles. You can really see the Lord's hand in this work.
Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes. My birthday was really interesting. It turns out birthdays are a really really big deal here. So this is what happened: Sister Phillips and Sister Eracho were at a member's house on Saturday night and they were talking about how old all the missionaries were in the branch and they just mentioned that Sister Richins would be 22 on Sunday. Of course the member got so excited and decided to tell everyone and then she got the brilliant idea to tell the branch president so he could announce it over the pulpit. So there we were on Sunday and Brother Bontigao who is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency was conducting and he went and announced that it was my birthday. Then after he bore his testimony he asked if I would bear my testimony because it was my birthday. Then afterwards before they closed the meeting he wished me a Happy Birthday again. I think that he could tell he was really annoyed because I was glaring at him really bad and he just kept on laughing to himself.
Church was really great yesterday though despite the fact that I was a little annoyed that everyone knew it was my birthday. But anyway it was a really exciting yesterday. Brother Rodel came to Church! and brother Ceriel and Brother Rodrigo! It was really exciting! I don't know if I have talked about brother Rodrigo, but we found him last transfer. We were tracting and he said oh my son, Ryan is a member. We started teaching Rodrigo and it was always an interesting experience because I would speak in Tagalog and then he would answer in Tagalog mixed with Bicol and Visanan. I have to listen so intently to understand him. I can usually understand most of it, but we always have to have a member with us to teach him because I can't understand everything. So we started teaching him and then he came to church last week. He said he had a good experience, but said it was just like going to church in another church, but he said it felt good so he said he would come back every week. So yesterday he came back to church. And then he got up during fast and testimony meeting to bear his testimony. It was kind of intense. President Bontigao was making eye contact with me and was like "what is going on" I we were exchanging glances for a few intense seconds. What was he going to say? Well he got up and said that he had only been to this church twice, but he really felt that he had really found the Lord finally. He had been to a lot of churches, but this one was different and he said he hoped this was the true church. It was really a neat experience. After church we went to his house and he said that he had been reading the book of mormon and just felt good. He said he wanted to be baptized, but he figured he better give up smoking and drinking first (we hadn't even brought up the word of wisdom yet). Then he started to get a little nervous, he said he had been smoking since he was 8 years old and didn't know if he could stop. He said he would just go to church, but he couldn't get baptized because he couldn't stop smoking. We had a great member with us that told him that everyone at the church was there to help him and if he was a strong desire with the help of the Lord he could do it because the Lord can work miracles! It was a really strong lesson even if I couldn't understand every thing he said in his half bicol, half tagalog. The Spirit is what matters most!
Brother Rodel also came to church, and it turns out that Rodel and Christian are really good friends so they had a great time at the church together. Speaking of Christian, he is doing great! We did have to extend his baptismal date to next month so that he can overcome smoking, but he has a lot of desire and he is continuing to increase his testimony.
We also were able to find some new investigators this week hopefully we will help them understand how our church is different than other churches. I am always reminded of what it says in Preach my Gospel that a lot of the times the people won't recognize at first that they can find greater happiness here in our church. So we just have to keep on teaching them and eventually they will understand.
This week I have also reflected on what one of our AP said. He said that of course we can't reach the standard of excellence on our own, but if we do it the Lord's way then we can achieve that.
I am really so so thankful for this area! I love these people here so much. I don't ever want to leave Bulan. Our branch is so supportive and we have a great branch mission leader, brother Bunso-who just got back from his mission. He literally is the life the of branch and such an asset to us. I have seen so many miracles, and I just can't wait to see what else is in store.
-Sister Richins
Sunday, January 5, 2014
December 31
Dear Family and Friends,
It was so good to talk to you all on Christmas! Christmas is defiantly
different here. It is exciting though. Every one is out in the
street and wishing you a Merry Christmas. It was a lot of fun.
Actually it was a really good time to contact people. On Christmas
Eve, almost all of our appointments fell through so we were just
street contacting. It was really cool actually-people are so much
more receptive around Christmas time.
One kind of Christmas miracle is what I would call it happened too.
There was a whole bunch of little kids calling my name (because all
the kids know my name). We started talking to them and then we gave
then all a little pass a long card. I didn't even think much of it
until later that night when we got home and we got a text message. It
said in English Hello, my name is Cereal I want to join your church.
At first I was like it is probably one of the boys here that just love
the American Sisters, and I almost didn't text back, but the spirit
told me that maybe I should treat this seriously. So I texted back
and asked when we could visit him. It turns out he actually lives
really close to the church and was taught by the missionaries before,
but then went to manilla. He has a lot of desire and has always seen
the church and wanted to be part of it. We invited him to the
Christmas party and he came and had a great time. I am really excited
for him and hope that he will continue to progress.
We also started teaching some other new investigators this week that
we met on Christmas Eve. Truly some great miracles this week. That
is something that I am working on recognizing those miracles every
day. There are tender mercies in this work every day.
Another HUGE blessing this week is brother Bunso as they call him.
Bunso means youngest in Tagalog. And brother Bunso is the youngest
son of President Roman. He just returned back from his mission from
Quezon City mission and he has now been called as our Branch Mission
Leader. It is such a great to have someone fresh from the mission and
is so excited to help us and encourage the members to help us. We
actually had a real Branch coordination meeting yesterday.
On Friday we had a great Branch Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun
and all the investigators really enjoyed it. We had our roasted pig.
You can see my pictures on Sky drive!
So after Christmas is New Year and we have early curfews for the two
days again. But Happy New Year everyone! I love you all!
-Sister Richins
It was so good to talk to you all on Christmas! Christmas is defiantly
different here. It is exciting though. Every one is out in the
street and wishing you a Merry Christmas. It was a lot of fun.
Actually it was a really good time to contact people. On Christmas
Eve, almost all of our appointments fell through so we were just
street contacting. It was really cool actually-people are so much
more receptive around Christmas time.
One kind of Christmas miracle is what I would call it happened too.
There was a whole bunch of little kids calling my name (because all
the kids know my name). We started talking to them and then we gave
then all a little pass a long card. I didn't even think much of it
until later that night when we got home and we got a text message. It
said in English Hello, my name is Cereal I want to join your church.
At first I was like it is probably one of the boys here that just love
the American Sisters, and I almost didn't text back, but the spirit
told me that maybe I should treat this seriously. So I texted back
and asked when we could visit him. It turns out he actually lives
really close to the church and was taught by the missionaries before,
but then went to manilla. He has a lot of desire and has always seen
the church and wanted to be part of it. We invited him to the
Christmas party and he came and had a great time. I am really excited
for him and hope that he will continue to progress.
We also started teaching some other new investigators this week that
we met on Christmas Eve. Truly some great miracles this week. That
is something that I am working on recognizing those miracles every
day. There are tender mercies in this work every day.
Another HUGE blessing this week is brother Bunso as they call him.
Bunso means youngest in Tagalog. And brother Bunso is the youngest
son of President Roman. He just returned back from his mission from
Quezon City mission and he has now been called as our Branch Mission
Leader. It is such a great to have someone fresh from the mission and
is so excited to help us and encourage the members to help us. We
actually had a real Branch coordination meeting yesterday.
On Friday we had a great Branch Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun
and all the investigators really enjoyed it. We had our roasted pig.
You can see my pictures on Sky drive!
So after Christmas is New Year and we have early curfews for the two
days again. But Happy New Year everyone! I love you all!
-Sister Richins
December 23-Maligayang Pasko!
Dear Family and Friends,
Well Christmas is here. it is interesting all the kids here are out of school so Christmas and they all so caroling every night. Turns out caroling is a little different here. If someone goes caroling to your house you have to pay them. They have so many christmas lights and lots of nativities set up. The best is all the Christmas trees, and it is just so great also the people are not super busy here rushing and rushing, it is just really peaceful and enjoyable for everyone. And we set up appointments on Chirstmas because that is when everyone is home.
Well this has been an exciting week. We started off with our trainers/new missionary training, and then we had a great Christmas Zone Conference. Our Christmas Zone conference was with all the missionaries in the entire mission. It was a lot of fun. I didn't realize how many missionaries are in the Legazbi Mission. Anyway though we had a great conference, and of course Pres. Guanzon gave us all some great counsel. It was a little depressing because they showed us the charts of where we are at as a whole as a mission and where the standard of Excellence was and we all realized that there is work to do. But that is okay we just need to stretch and reach higher.
We all made it back to Bulan late Wednesday night, and then on Thursday morning was the wedding of Oliver and Jeann. Oliver was an investigator in my area before. His wife is a member, but they were not married before. So it was exciting to see them get married. It is really exciting. It was a really simple wedding, and the person that was suppose to sing so they assigned sister Flake to sing, then before you knew it we were both singing. There is a phlippino tradition that after the wedding the bride and groom dance and then people go and pin money on their clothes. So that was interesting. Once again though the music player didn't work so Sister Flake sang for the dance. It was really short and sweet ceromony, of course though, only for time only. I hope that soon it will be for time and all eternity.
On Friday we had exchanges with Sister Fonua and Sister Papica. Sister Papica is the Sister Training leader and she is Training Sister Fonua from California. It was a lot of fun. I was with Sister Fonua and we worked in her area. We taught one of their Recent converts, who was absolutely amazing. His name is Seven, and he is 13 years old. He knows the scriptures so well. He wakes up at 5 in the morning to study his scriptures and then he conducts a scripture study for all friends. He was baptized a few weeks ago, but he already has all the scripture mastery memorized and lots of other scriptures memorized too. He lives in a farily far area too. He teaches all his friends and we taught one of his friends Nicole about the plan of salvation and we started and she taught us the plan of salvation with scriptures and everything. I didn't even know what to say because she said everything. It was so crazy. Brother Seven is so great. He want to serve a mission so bad, I think he is an example to us all of member missionary work. Wow.
We also taught brother Jose. He is the sister of Sister Jonalyn who is preparing to go on a mission. Brother Jose is interesting. He is sometimes really hard to read. He is a joker and loves to joke about everything. Sometimes I don't know if he is serious or not, but he did come to church. I think that sometimes he doesn't want us to think he actually cares when we teach him, but I think deep inside he does. Even his sister said he always takes time for God. So that was exciting. It is funny because Sister Flake and I go jogging every morning. It is part of being exactly obedient and exercising everyday, there is a track close to our house that we walk to every morning and then jog. Of course Brother Jose also goes running every morning too. It was really funny when we saw him on Saturday. It was actually really funny because we were talking to him as we were running and giving commitments to come to church on sunday. I told my companion and that is why we run, so that we can contact all our investigators every day. Actually though it has been a really good tool. Everyone sees us jogging and they all think we are crazy because we go everyday. And everyone knows about it. We talk to people and they say ya you guys run everyday, don't you ever get tired? I don't know I just feel like it builds the trust of members and non members in our area.
Anyway so we had a good week. Slowly, but surely you can see the miracles that are happening in our area. I was noticed, wow we are starting to fill up our area book. I remember back at the first week of this transfer saying to my new companion, well we don't have any appointments so we need to so tracting and now our planners are becoming filled with appointments and things to do.
So I am excited to talk to you guys on Wednesday. I hope that we will be able to use skype or google chat, mostly I hope that the internet connection will be fast enough because it is pretty slow here. But hopefully.
Well have a great Christmas Everyone!
-Sister Richins
Well Christmas is here. it is interesting all the kids here are out of school so Christmas and they all so caroling every night. Turns out caroling is a little different here. If someone goes caroling to your house you have to pay them. They have so many christmas lights and lots of nativities set up. The best is all the Christmas trees, and it is just so great also the people are not super busy here rushing and rushing, it is just really peaceful and enjoyable for everyone. And we set up appointments on Chirstmas because that is when everyone is home.
Well this has been an exciting week. We started off with our trainers/new missionary training, and then we had a great Christmas Zone Conference. Our Christmas Zone conference was with all the missionaries in the entire mission. It was a lot of fun. I didn't realize how many missionaries are in the Legazbi Mission. Anyway though we had a great conference, and of course Pres. Guanzon gave us all some great counsel. It was a little depressing because they showed us the charts of where we are at as a whole as a mission and where the standard of Excellence was and we all realized that there is work to do. But that is okay we just need to stretch and reach higher.
We all made it back to Bulan late Wednesday night, and then on Thursday morning was the wedding of Oliver and Jeann. Oliver was an investigator in my area before. His wife is a member, but they were not married before. So it was exciting to see them get married. It is really exciting. It was a really simple wedding, and the person that was suppose to sing so they assigned sister Flake to sing, then before you knew it we were both singing. There is a phlippino tradition that after the wedding the bride and groom dance and then people go and pin money on their clothes. So that was interesting. Once again though the music player didn't work so Sister Flake sang for the dance. It was really short and sweet ceromony, of course though, only for time only. I hope that soon it will be for time and all eternity.
On Friday we had exchanges with Sister Fonua and Sister Papica. Sister Papica is the Sister Training leader and she is Training Sister Fonua from California. It was a lot of fun. I was with Sister Fonua and we worked in her area. We taught one of their Recent converts, who was absolutely amazing. His name is Seven, and he is 13 years old. He knows the scriptures so well. He wakes up at 5 in the morning to study his scriptures and then he conducts a scripture study for all friends. He was baptized a few weeks ago, but he already has all the scripture mastery memorized and lots of other scriptures memorized too. He lives in a farily far area too. He teaches all his friends and we taught one of his friends Nicole about the plan of salvation and we started and she taught us the plan of salvation with scriptures and everything. I didn't even know what to say because she said everything. It was so crazy. Brother Seven is so great. He want to serve a mission so bad, I think he is an example to us all of member missionary work. Wow.
We also taught brother Jose. He is the sister of Sister Jonalyn who is preparing to go on a mission. Brother Jose is interesting. He is sometimes really hard to read. He is a joker and loves to joke about everything. Sometimes I don't know if he is serious or not, but he did come to church. I think that sometimes he doesn't want us to think he actually cares when we teach him, but I think deep inside he does. Even his sister said he always takes time for God. So that was exciting. It is funny because Sister Flake and I go jogging every morning. It is part of being exactly obedient and exercising everyday, there is a track close to our house that we walk to every morning and then jog. Of course Brother Jose also goes running every morning too. It was really funny when we saw him on Saturday. It was actually really funny because we were talking to him as we were running and giving commitments to come to church on sunday. I told my companion and that is why we run, so that we can contact all our investigators every day. Actually though it has been a really good tool. Everyone sees us jogging and they all think we are crazy because we go everyday. And everyone knows about it. We talk to people and they say ya you guys run everyday, don't you ever get tired? I don't know I just feel like it builds the trust of members and non members in our area.
Anyway so we had a good week. Slowly, but surely you can see the miracles that are happening in our area. I was noticed, wow we are starting to fill up our area book. I remember back at the first week of this transfer saying to my new companion, well we don't have any appointments so we need to so tracting and now our planners are becoming filled with appointments and things to do.
So I am excited to talk to you guys on Wednesday. I hope that we will be able to use skype or google chat, mostly I hope that the internet connection will be fast enough because it is pretty slow here. But hopefully.
Well have a great Christmas Everyone!
-Sister Richins
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