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