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
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