Feb 17

Dear Family and Friends,

Well transfers happened this week, I am now in Bacon.  Now I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking of the food, but that is not how you say it.  It is like Ba as in what a sheep says and then con like an ice cream cone.  And no they are not famous for their bacon here, but actually well known for their fish.

My new companion is Sister Iqbal she is from Pakistan.  She actually came out here the same time as me.  I think she is still just really frustrated because she still doesn't know how to speak Tagalog very well.  She is so diligent though.  It actually is kind of hard because she doesn't understand me when I speak Tagalog so I speak it in English and she still doesn't understand me.  So it is just some of the challenges that we have.

 Also I am sure you may know that they have the position of Sister Training Leader in the missions now, it is like a zone leader, but for sisters.  Sister Natividad and I were made new STL for Sorsogon zone.  Usually in most missions the Sister Training Leaders are suppose to be companions, just like zone leaders, but because the mission is still growing and things, and  Language barrier in  a few zones like sorsogon it is not that way.  So Sister Natividad is companions with sister Flake and then I am with Sister Iqbal.   We get to go on exchanges with all the sisters in the zone.

It was different coming into an area that was already opened.  I am however, the first American Sister this branch has.  Everyone still thinks I am so beautiful. They call me an actor here.  So I am in Bacon Branch, there are not very many members and actually they don't even have a chapel.  They only have a rented meeting house.  I remember when the Stake President told me when I was set apart not to worry about the circumstances that investigators come to church, but just remember that the spirit is the teacher.  How true that is.  Even though the circumstances are super humble the spirit is so strong in this branch.  On Sunday there were 53 people in attendance.  They say when they reach 60 consistently they can petition for a chapel.

I feel that I have already learned so much from this branch.  They are so humble, and so so loving.  This are probably the friendliest people I have met.  And they have great leadership.  We went to the Ward council meeting on Saturday night and it was so cool to see the humble branch president that really understands the use of council.  They started talking about some of the less actives and why they stopped coming to church and how it all starts when they stopped reading the scriptures, and he asked everyone if they had any experiences with scripture reading and how it helps them in their life.   It was a really spiritually edifying meeting.

So I forget how hard it is to transfer. It was hard this week.  I just loved all the people in Bulan so much and it was hard not to always think about them.  But I am starting to love this area.  I keep on praying that I will love this area as much as I loved the dear people in Bulan.  I know that I will, it is just hard when you don't see it yet.  But I have a lot of faith that he Lord's hand will be able to help this area continue to progress.  The teaching pool is really small here, but we are making sure we were obedient and using our time well and we have found quite a few new investigators.  We are still working to get our area up to the standard of Excellence, but I know that the Lord will help us reach our goals.

Bacon is kind of a mountain town it is right up in the mountains, next to the beach.  It is a lot different than Bulan.  Our area is a lot of rice fields and we hike a lot- lots of hills.  It is really super pretty, and the people are super sweet.  So I get a lot of exercise. It was a little rough to adapt to the accent of the people here. Also I don't understand the Bicol here because it is a different dialect of bicol.  So now I have to work on learning Bacon Bicol.  Of course all the people know Tagalog, but it is a 2nd language for them, so it is good if at least I understand it.  It's good though because the kids love to help me.

I hope everything is going well at home. Have a great week everyone.

-Sister Richins

Feb 10 TRANSFERS

Dear Family and Friends,

Well the Transfer Announcements are here and due to a few complications, it has been decided that both Sister Flake and I will be transferred.  It kind of made it a bittersweet moment for the both of us. Also this is going to be a really short Email this week because we have a lot to do today.

We had a great baptismal service on Saturday of Brother Rodel and Brother Ceirel.  They are both so prepared and I am so excited for them.  Rodel is so great last week he worked with us and we are now teaching all his friends.  He knows so many people.  He was so prepared by the Lord and I am so happy that he is so strong.  Brother Ceriel is great too.  He was also so prepared by the Lord.

I am really going to miss this area so much.  I have been here for 6 months and I have learned so much from the members.  I love all of the investigators here and I am going to miss them so much.  Please pray for this area because we are both getting transferred so there will be two new missionaries here.  We are relying a lot on the Branch Mission Leader and the members to help this area progress.  I just hope that the new missionaries will love this area as much as we do.

It will be exciting to know what happens tomorrow, where I am going and who will be my new companion. Change always brings about much growth.  As much as it is hard to say goodbye I know that the Lord is preparing other souls in my next area for the gospel.

Love you all,

-Sister Richins

February 3

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow looks it is February! I think the Groundhog must not have seen its shadow here yesterday because it is super hot now.  It is okay though, I think I have just been a little spoiled lately in the colder weather.  This morning we had a zone activity with President and Sister Guanzon. It was crazy that is the second time in a row that Bulan zone has won.  I just love being around President and Sister Guanzon.  They are so great!

So of course we had a crazy week this past week.  I love sister Flake so much, she has such a strong testimony and passion for the gospel.  She is great.  It will be interesting to see what happens next week with transfers.

So this whole transfer we have been teaching the Casals Family, they probably let us into their house at first because we were two white Americans, but they kept on letting us back.  It is always so crazy when we go there.  When we first started teaching them.  They were okay, not super receptive, just amazed that we could speak Tagalog. They never really progressed very much until finally this week, when they started to read and pray as a family.  Sister Dolores finally said that she read on her own and prayed.  She is still waiting for an answer, but she says she will continue to pray.   The kids on Sunday came to church. Slowly, but surely they will come to understand that this gospel can bring greater blessings than anything else in the world.  Winston and Dolores still haven't come to church, but they are starting to understand, so hopefully the branch can fellowship them and help them come to church.

So I don't know if I won't about it but we have been teaching brother Renatto who was a street contact that we had.  He is seriously so prepared by the Lord.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he starting reading it.  Even though he is super super busy with school, he still makes time to read the Book of Mormon every morning after he wakes up before school.  He is a college student, studying criminology.  It was so crazy on Wednesday we taught him about the Word of Widsom and it was so crazy because he had no problems.  Almost every single college ages lalaki here has a problem with something in the Word of Wisdom.  Brother Bunso, our Branch Mission Leader, was working with us and was shaking his head the whole time-like he couldn't even believe it.  Rennatto was truly prepared by the Lord and it is so great that we were able to find him.

Well this week should be exciting Brother Rodel and Brother Ceriel have their baptism on Saturday.  Brother Christian was suppose to be baptized too, pero he is still struggling with a few thing so we postponed it, but it should be good because now Brother Rodel, his best friend, will be able to baptize him in two weeks.  He was a little disappointed, but he is still excited.

Also crazy thing, we taught a lesson in complete English on Saturday.  It was a weirdest thing.  Because here the upper class doesn't use Tagalog, they use English.  We had a refferal from a member of a rich teacher.  We we got to the house she was speaking to all her kids in English and she said she preferred English so we taught it English.  It was so hard to speak so much English. I don't know if we will get to go back, but at least we got to talk to her.

Well it is the start of a new week.  Have a great week.

-Sister Richins