May 19

Dear Family and Friends,

 Well this was just a fantastic week.  We started off with MLC on Tuesday and ended with the Brother and Sister Carrido's baptism on Saturday.  We are still on the big summer heat wave, even with the sun, we keep on moving forward.  The fan is a forever friend these days.  But maybe in June everything will cool down when school starts again.  That is crazy school will start here when everyone is getting out over there.  

So MLC of course was just so great, we always learn so much.  The assistants had a workshop about lesson planning and making our lesson planning more effective, but focusing on the baptismal interview questions and teaching to commitments.  It was really helpful. Lesson planning is so important because the spirit works with us when we have a carefully planned lesson.

On Saturday we had a great baptism.  It was a lot different than other baptisms that I have been to here in the Philippines. Other baptisms were great too, but none have been as spiritual as this one.     It was truly a spiritual experience for them. We were all in a tricycle coming home and sister Alma was next to me and was so happy, she was like wow it feels so good to be baptized. Everyone in the room could feel the spirit bear witness of this scared ordinance.  The best part for me was when Alma and Ronnie bore their testimonies.  That family means so much to me, they are so special.  They have such strong testimonies. We are working to teach their two kids that were not baptized with them to that they can be complete and next year can enter the temple as a family to be sealed.

On Sunday President Guanzon came to church in Bacon.  It was really exciting for all the members.  It has been something that President Guanzon has been trying to do in all the branches in the mission.  He comes to church and then does a missionary fireside afterwards.  It was really great.  He spoke in Sacrament meeting and was impressed, he even though the meeting house was humble by the world's standard, it was full of the spirit.  He talked about the simple commandment of obedience and particularly tithing. After the block, he gave a great fireside.  He focused on hastening the work of salvation by members and missionaries working together.  He had put together some numbers and showed to the members that if they had the same goals as the missionaries than they could be a ward in one year and in 7 years a stake! It got them really exciting and hopefully it will really help our area here.

During the fireside President Guanzon talked about 1. Retention, 2. Activation, 3. Conversion. When he was talking about activation President Guanzon gave the statistics of Bacon Branch,  there are 200 members and the sacrament attendance is usually around 50.  That means there are 150 that are lost and need to be rescued.  It was then that the newly baptized and confirmed brother Ronnie Carrido asked, but why do they leave? I have really pondered that question yesterday and today.  Why do they leave?

The answer to that question is something that I have pondered my whole mission.  Some say they are offended, some say that the church is too far, the reasons could go on and on.  But the ultimate is that they didn't have enough faith.  They testimonies were not strong enough when trials came.  Brother Ronnie could not understand how anyone could leave the joy that they had found and hopefully that made him make up his mind that he is never going to leave.

The rest of the week was great too.  We were able to find a lot of new investigators.  One new investigator Sister Janice, we gave a book of moron to her the first visit and when we came back she was already in 1 Nephi 15 and wanted to know more. We also have another new investigator Brother Nilo, who when we taught him was talking about all these things that he felt were wrong in his church.  He was like they don't do things like Jesus Christ.  It was like the perfect questions, and powerful when we shared the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.  We also have many more new investigators with a unique story.  The Lord is hastening his work and I am so thankful to be a part of this.

Of course don't think that everything is just perfect here, missionary work has a lot of challenges too, but days like Saturday make it all worth it!

Well it should be another great week! Here are some pictures from the baptism.

-Sister Richins

May 12

Dear Family and Friends,

Things are going great in Bacon. It is a new transfer, my new companion is Sister Amato, from Wellington, New Zealand.  We are now both the Sister Training Leaders for Sorsogon Zone.   She is great.  It is exciting to get new eyes on an area.

We are doing great.  We are continuing to find and find.  So that was exciting.  We do have one Brother Freddie that we have been teaching on and off because a lot of times we don't have a sister present, but he came to church on Sunday so that is exciting.  We also have this really great investigator, Ann Rose, who was a referral from sister Carrido.  She told us this week about her experience with the book of Mormon and how she felt when she prayed. She was like it is probably feels great to go to church too, but didn't know if she was going to be able to make it.  But than we asked if we could pick her up for church and she completely changed.  She was happy to go to church with us.  It is just goes to show that it is really important to pick up investigators to come to church so that they don't feel shy.

So we are starting to harvest some of those seeds we planted the past two transfers.   As always it is an exciting to be a missionary at this time. I am learning so much.  Tomorrow we go to Legazbi for MLC so as always that is an exciting time to learn from President Guanzon.

-Sister Richins

May 5

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to the month of MAY! Time continues to fly by.  

 Well this week finished up the transfer, and Sister Iqbal will be transferring. I am really sad to have her go.  She means so much to me.  I love you her so so much and I feel really close to her.  It is always hard to get a new companion after you understand them so well.  Well that is the way that missions go.  It is now a time to learn and grow even more.  I am so thankful for the past three months we had together.  

This week was exciting.  We were finally able to teach this less active that is always hiding from us when we go and visit her.  She has a strong testimony, she was just offended and doesn't want to come back to the church.  Hopefully we will be able to continue to visit her and help her come back to church.  

We also have been teaching this Part Member family, the wife is a member, but the father, Don, is not.  It is interesting to teach him because he is really versed in the bible.  He studied to be a priest in the catholic church.  He is really interested in the Book of Mormon and loves to read it-in English! Slowly slowly with a lot of prayer he will understand.  I see so much potential in him, he could become such a power leader in the church.  

On Sunday, it was fast Sunday, and Brother Romy and Alma both bore their testimony about how much their life has been changed, and how they want their teenage daughters to join the church too.  It is like they are already are member.  They are doing so well and after a lot they are finally able to abstain from word and wisdom and will be baptized in May! 

Well anyway this week will be a week of change and growth! I look forward to talking to you all next week.  

-Sister Richins

April 28

Dear Family and Friends,

Well we had a great District activity at this beautiful beach.  I will try to send you pictures next week.  But things are going great.  I am loving it here in Bacon.  The branch is really starting to support the missionary work here.  

This week was we had exchanges with the Gubat Sisters on Wednesday.  I went to Gubat with Sister Atienza.  She was so sweet to me.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a great day.  We did a lot of tracting and tracting, but still managed to teach 7 lessons.  So there your a lot of miracles. We taught one of their great Recent Converts.  He was so cute.  He is 61 years old.  The sisters were talking to his wife one day while she was walking.  When she came home.  Brother Carilito asked who she had talked to that day.  And she said she had talked to the Mormon sister Missionaries.   He said that he knew that she had talked to someone special that day because he had a dream about it.  He was so excited and is a golden recent convert.  He wants to go to the temple and be sealed to his wife and family. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel.  It is so much fun to go on exchanges and meet all these great people and work with all these great sisters. 

We continue to teach the Carrido family and brother is trying so hard to give up word of wisdom problems.  It was a really powerful lesson this week.  He said it had been years since the bible was shut in their house, but they are so grateful that it has been opened again in such a glorious way. 

I realized though on exchanges how much I love my Bacon, as much as you can love another's area for one day, I really love me beloved Bacon and the people here and my wonderful, sweet, companion.

Well we are finishing up the transfer this week, we will see what happens here.   

-Sister Richins

April 21

Dear Family and Friends,

What a great week. So first off it was holy week so everyone was really really busy. On Thursday they had a Parade depicting Christ's death.  Easter here is pretty non existent.  All the Catholics here will get up at 3:00 in the morning and walk down the street as symbolism of the Resurrection of Christ on Sunday morning.  

Our work this week has been great.  We went on exchanges on Wednesday.  I was with Sister Abasanta from Cebu City, Philippines.  She lives 30 minutes away from the Cebu temple.  She has 17 kids in her family! They are all members and 9 have served missions and 3 are currently serving! Isn't that just crazy.  Anyway though she is just super sweet and so happy.  We worked in my area.  We had come back from one of our far areas and had about an hour before 9:00 so we went tracting close to our apartment.  Of course we had already tracted this many times before, but we both had a prayer in our heart that we would be able to teach one more lesson before the night was over. Finally, after being turned down a lot of times, we started talking to a lady on the street.   She was saying that she had finished her dinner early because she felt that she would have a visitor that night.  She let us in and we taught her about our message. She told us about her life and when she lost her youngest daughter.  There was almost tears in her eyes as she talked about how she was mad at God, but she was so happy to talk to us. We testified of God's love and his perfect plan for us. Miracles happen all the time.  

On Thursday we had interviews with Preisdent.  It is always so great to learn from him.  He is so great.  He talked about how he wants us to knock on every door within 1 km of the church house. Of course the gospel he said is for everyone, but we don't want to baptism into inactivity, we went people to be able to walk to church.  He gave the example of my beloved Bulan how we walked everyday and everyone was so close that they could walk to church.  He was really impressed at the work that we did there.  In my interview we talked a lot about Bulan and how we could help all areas become like Bulan.  Where the people have so much respect for the missionaries and the people know the missionaries schedule.  

Other big thing president talked about was giving a baptismal date in the first lesson.  He even challenged us to give a baptismal date while we are talking to people in the street.  He told us to get the conversation to talking about following Jesus and then invite them.  If we truly love these people we will not be scared of rejection. 

Inviting in the first lessons is so wonderful, because it shows people why we are there, we are not there to just study the bible we are there to bring them closer to Christ.  The spirit works and they accept.  I can see the difference in the investigators we invite in the first lesson usually are more serious and progress faster. 

We are still working to help Brother Romy gain enough faith to overcome problems with the Word of Wisdom.  It is so funny, he has so much desire to change, but doesn't want to lose his friends.  He has two mindsets.  That is sometimes the cost of discipleship, to stand up for beliefs.  I know that he will do it, it just will take a little time. 

Well have a great week!

-Sister Richins