Dear Family and Friends,
Well another week it sounds like everyone is enjoying their Halloween Festivities over there. They do actually celebrate Halloween over here, but not in the same way- I mean their is no trick or treating. I am not actually sure how, but I guess I will find out. They do celebrate All souls day where they go to the cemetery. All it means for us though is that we have an early curfew on Oct 31 and Nov 1. We also have an early curfew tonight because it is the local election day. It is really hard to give up those precious evenings because that is when we do most of our teaching. But safety is important too.
We had a really interesting week. Our dear beloved District President, President Edward Roman, passed away from a heart attack this week while jogging. It is quite an emotional week for the branch, district, and family. We were at his house on Tuesday because we are teaching his two nephews that live in his house, when sister Roman was talking on the phone with the hospital is Legazbi and found out the news. President Roman was a engineer for the church and was always going back of forth between Bulan, Legazpi, and Naga for work. I think the hardest thing was their youngest son is on a mission in Manilla, he was able to come home for the funeral this week. I am sure that is just so hard for him. But it reminds you that there is a Plan of Salvation and it just makes so appreciate the knowledge of that plan. So in the Philippines they do funerals a little different. After the death they bring the body to the house in the casket for 9 days so that family and friends in far places have time to come for the funeral. Then they have a funeral and everyone wears white. So President Roman passed away on Tuesday so his funeral on 31 this week.
It really made me think because there were a couple less active members that were offended by Pres. and stopped coming to church because of it. And it made me think how much we need to forgive people because how bad would you feel if you never got the chance to forgive those people in this life. Life is so short, but the plan of salvation is real and so is the Jesus Christ's Atonement is so real. It has the power to heal broken hearts give support to those that anguish.
Anyway on a brighter note, we had a wonderful baptism of Sister Michelle, Emil Bryan, and Jerome on Saturday. She was so excited and her kids too, it was a really special experience. We taught her about the temple on Sunday and how it should be her goal after a year and she was really excited for that next step. We helped them all fill out their pedigree charts. Now we just need to work on her spouse. Her spouse is working in Manilla and only comes home one or two times a year, but Michelle always tells him everything that she learns. Hopefully we can get some type of address so we can forward it to the missionaries in Manilla.
We also are looking forward to another baptism this Saturday of the Tamboong Family. It is just be there 4 kids this week and the parents will follow on Nov 16. Brother Tamboong was still struggling with a few things, but he didn't want to hold his kids back from baptism. His kids are so ready they read the Book of Mormon and are so excited about learning more and more.
Our biggest challenge still though is finding new investigators. They always say find them that will receive and sometimes that is hard to do. (But we don't use the word hard in this mission.) So what I mean to say is we will just have to work harder to find those people that are prepared. I know that there are people waiting and searching and we just need to find those people.
Well take care everyone have a wonderful week. I love you all!
-Sister Richins
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
October 21
Dear Family and Friends,
Another week has gone by in Bulan. I love it! I know everyone heard about the big earthquake in the Philippines. We did not feel anything here though. We are fine here, so that is good. The earthquake was in Cebu which is really far away from here.
Anyway thought, Michelle Benches and her kids are doing great. They are really excited about their baptism on Saturday! I am so excited for them. They are so ready for Saturday. Michelle is really great and she invites all her neighbors to hear the gospel. We are teaching some of her friends too. It is so true the fruit of being converted to the gospel is sharing it with your family and friends!
The Taboong family is doing good too. They all came to church except brother Taboong because he was sick. There baptismal date is November 2, so hopefully they will continue to progress and come to church next week.
Okay so the word in Tagalog for conversion is "Pagbabalik-loob" the root words "balik" means to return and the other root word "loob" means inside. So essentially Pagbabalik-loob means "bring back that which was inside." I just think that is so cool. When we teach we are bring back something that was already inside a person.
This week we really need to work on finding new investigators and really focusing on reaching the standards that the mission president set for us. They one thing that our leaders are worried about is an elevators vs an escalator effect. Too many times you work to bring one family to baptism only to find that after their baptism you don't have any progressing investigators. We need to be constantly finding and helping investigators progress so that we can steadily bring people to Christ.
Anyway I love my companion, I love this branch, I love these people!
-Sister Richins
Another week has gone by in Bulan. I love it! I know everyone heard about the big earthquake in the Philippines. We did not feel anything here though. We are fine here, so that is good. The earthquake was in Cebu which is really far away from here.
Anyway thought, Michelle Benches and her kids are doing great. They are really excited about their baptism on Saturday! I am so excited for them. They are so ready for Saturday. Michelle is really great and she invites all her neighbors to hear the gospel. We are teaching some of her friends too. It is so true the fruit of being converted to the gospel is sharing it with your family and friends!
The Taboong family is doing good too. They all came to church except brother Taboong because he was sick. There baptismal date is November 2, so hopefully they will continue to progress and come to church next week.
Okay so the word in Tagalog for conversion is "Pagbabalik-loob" the root words "balik" means to return and the other root word "loob" means inside. So essentially Pagbabalik-loob means "bring back that which was inside." I just think that is so cool. When we teach we are bring back something that was already inside a person.
This week we really need to work on finding new investigators and really focusing on reaching the standards that the mission president set for us. They one thing that our leaders are worried about is an elevators vs an escalator effect. Too many times you work to bring one family to baptism only to find that after their baptism you don't have any progressing investigators. We need to be constantly finding and helping investigators progress so that we can steadily bring people to Christ.
Anyway I love my companion, I love this branch, I love these people!
-Sister Richins
Sunday, October 20, 2013
October 14
Family and Friends,
As always this has been a busy week and we finished it up with conference. It was really nice to watch conference-it was a little weird to see so many white faces. Anyway being here for conference really made you realize just how world wide the church is. You always hear them say that they welcome all those participating world wide in their own language. It was a little different watching in Tagalog because you couldn't here the voice expressions. Of course my area offered English too, so that was nice. It was really neat though because we had so many investigators come on Sunday Morning! It is neat because then they could listen to the words of the prophet. It was really inspiring to listen to all their words. I really enjoyed all the talks about missionary work and also about women in the church.
Yesterday was really cool for me. So we always have a lot of appointments on Sunday and we usually split with ward members on that day. Yesterday it was really cool because I went with on the single adults in the ward to the Taboong family. It had been a little bit since we were able to teach the whole family together. We taught them about faith and baptism and then committed the whole family to baptism. Brother Taboong who for the most part in every teaching appointment had been really quite, starting to speak. He said that they should have been baptized a while ago, but he knows that there is a difference in our church that he doesn't feel in the catholic church of his church. He says he wants this so bad for his family to be able to go to church every week together. It was such a spiritual lesson and you could tell that everyone could feel the love that God has for each one of us. I am so excited for them.
Brother Rodger is doing good too, he wasn't able to come to church this week, but his 21 year old son came to conference. He was going to go home after the sunday morning session, but we told him there was more to come so he stayed.
Jenny also came to conference, I was really excited for her. She doesn't say too much in the lessons, but enough to know that she gets really excited about reading the Book of Mormon.
Michelle and her kids are continuing to do good, she is always so excited when we come and says there is always a special spirit in her home when we come and visit. Her kids are excited to read the Book of Mormon! They will be baptized on October 26.
Wow, this gospel is amazing! I love it! I love being a missionary. I get to be apart of this great work.
-Sister Richins
As always this has been a busy week and we finished it up with conference. It was really nice to watch conference-it was a little weird to see so many white faces. Anyway being here for conference really made you realize just how world wide the church is. You always hear them say that they welcome all those participating world wide in their own language. It was a little different watching in Tagalog because you couldn't here the voice expressions. Of course my area offered English too, so that was nice. It was really neat though because we had so many investigators come on Sunday Morning! It is neat because then they could listen to the words of the prophet. It was really inspiring to listen to all their words. I really enjoyed all the talks about missionary work and also about women in the church.
Yesterday was really cool for me. So we always have a lot of appointments on Sunday and we usually split with ward members on that day. Yesterday it was really cool because I went with on the single adults in the ward to the Taboong family. It had been a little bit since we were able to teach the whole family together. We taught them about faith and baptism and then committed the whole family to baptism. Brother Taboong who for the most part in every teaching appointment had been really quite, starting to speak. He said that they should have been baptized a while ago, but he knows that there is a difference in our church that he doesn't feel in the catholic church of his church. He says he wants this so bad for his family to be able to go to church every week together. It was such a spiritual lesson and you could tell that everyone could feel the love that God has for each one of us. I am so excited for them.
Brother Rodger is doing good too, he wasn't able to come to church this week, but his 21 year old son came to conference. He was going to go home after the sunday morning session, but we told him there was more to come so he stayed.
Jenny also came to conference, I was really excited for her. She doesn't say too much in the lessons, but enough to know that she gets really excited about reading the Book of Mormon.
Michelle and her kids are continuing to do good, she is always so excited when we come and says there is always a special spirit in her home when we come and visit. Her kids are excited to read the Book of Mormon! They will be baptized on October 26.
Wow, this gospel is amazing! I love it! I love being a missionary. I get to be apart of this great work.
-Sister Richins
Monday, October 7, 2013
October 7
Dear Family and Friends,
Well the transfer announcement came and Sister Eracho and I are staying together for another transfer!!! We were both so excited because we didn't want to leave this area. So we have another transfer to help this area!
It makes me so excited to hear about conference. We will get to watch it this weekend!
We had zone tranining on Friday and President gave us some really good instruction. President Gaunzon is truely and inspired man. He changed the standard of Excellence for the mission. They standard of Excellence for total lessons taught is 30, received and contacted refferals is now 5, the biggest change though was the New Investigators is now 10! Truely things we need to reach for, but with faith we can achieve these new goals. It made us really think about how we can find those new investigators and how we can help the members share the gospel with their friends.
President also gave us a great workshop about how to extend invitations to members to work with us. By really sincerly praying about who should fellowship each investigator. It was really exactly what we needed right now in the mission. Truely inspired. We talked about how we need to make a spiritual missionary experience for the members that work with us. He also told us that the words "Mahirap"- hard, Trunky, or punted are "bawal"-forbidden in this mission.
We once again were pretty busy this week. We were able to split for a couple of days with ward members so that we could cover more teaching appointments in one day.
Michelle and her kids are doing good they always are so eager to come to church and really become involved in everything. They will be baptized of the 26 of this month!
The branch is really progressing, when we first got here there were hardley anyone, but slowly, but surely the seats are filling up. Hopefully one day the branch will become a ward!
Well that is about all for right now!
-Sister Richins
Well the transfer announcement came and Sister Eracho and I are staying together for another transfer!!! We were both so excited because we didn't want to leave this area. So we have another transfer to help this area!
It makes me so excited to hear about conference. We will get to watch it this weekend!
We had zone tranining on Friday and President gave us some really good instruction. President Gaunzon is truely and inspired man. He changed the standard of Excellence for the mission. They standard of Excellence for total lessons taught is 30, received and contacted refferals is now 5, the biggest change though was the New Investigators is now 10! Truely things we need to reach for, but with faith we can achieve these new goals. It made us really think about how we can find those new investigators and how we can help the members share the gospel with their friends.
President also gave us a great workshop about how to extend invitations to members to work with us. By really sincerly praying about who should fellowship each investigator. It was really exactly what we needed right now in the mission. Truely inspired. We talked about how we need to make a spiritual missionary experience for the members that work with us. He also told us that the words "Mahirap"- hard, Trunky, or punted are "bawal"-forbidden in this mission.
We once again were pretty busy this week. We were able to split for a couple of days with ward members so that we could cover more teaching appointments in one day.
Michelle and her kids are doing good they always are so eager to come to church and really become involved in everything. They will be baptized of the 26 of this month!
The branch is really progressing, when we first got here there were hardley anyone, but slowly, but surely the seats are filling up. Hopefully one day the branch will become a ward!
Well that is about all for right now!
-Sister Richins
September 30
Dear Family and Friends,
Well this has been a really busy week. We have been sooo busy. We literally cannot teach all of our investigators and less actives. Our schedule is so packed. Which of course is a real blessing. We did, however, this week finally have sisters to work with us. And we actually did splits with the relief society sisters so we could teach more appointments. I was a little nervous about doing splits because I wouldn't have Sister Eracho, but it worked out well and defiantly helped me. We also had exchanges with our Sister Training Leader on Thursday. It is always good to go on splits with other missionaries.
On Saturday we had a great baptism. He was really excited and it was a neat experience. Sister Michelle brought her 3 kids too and her kids were excited for their baptism in 2 weeks.
Also last night we had a really cool experience. So here in Bulan they don't have tricycles, but rather they have pedjacks. It is a bicycle with a side seat. But anyway it is a really good opportunity to talk to the bicycle driver. So last week we were riding a pedjack and talking to the driver and he said that Elders had taught him and his family 10 years ago, but then they moved. He said that we could come back to his house and teach his family. So yesterday night we were on splits with the relief society and we taught Roger and his family. It was really cool he says he knows the church and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I hope that they will continue to progress.
Well it will be interesting to see what happens with transfer. We had interviews with Pres. Guanzon last week and I told him that neither Sister Eracho and I want to transfer because we have only been here 6 weeks, hopefully we will get to stay together another transfer! I really don't want to leave this area so have so many progressing investigators and the branch is really progressing.
Of course this being the last p-day of the transfer, we had District activity. We went to Bulusan Lake. It was really pretty there was a nice little hike all the way around the lake.
Well I hope everything goes well for everyone back home!
-Sister Richins
Well this has been a really busy week. We have been sooo busy. We literally cannot teach all of our investigators and less actives. Our schedule is so packed. Which of course is a real blessing. We did, however, this week finally have sisters to work with us. And we actually did splits with the relief society sisters so we could teach more appointments. I was a little nervous about doing splits because I wouldn't have Sister Eracho, but it worked out well and defiantly helped me. We also had exchanges with our Sister Training Leader on Thursday. It is always good to go on splits with other missionaries.
On Saturday we had a great baptism. He was really excited and it was a neat experience. Sister Michelle brought her 3 kids too and her kids were excited for their baptism in 2 weeks.
Also last night we had a really cool experience. So here in Bulan they don't have tricycles, but rather they have pedjacks. It is a bicycle with a side seat. But anyway it is a really good opportunity to talk to the bicycle driver. So last week we were riding a pedjack and talking to the driver and he said that Elders had taught him and his family 10 years ago, but then they moved. He said that we could come back to his house and teach his family. So yesterday night we were on splits with the relief society and we taught Roger and his family. It was really cool he says he knows the church and Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I hope that they will continue to progress.
Well it will be interesting to see what happens with transfer. We had interviews with Pres. Guanzon last week and I told him that neither Sister Eracho and I want to transfer because we have only been here 6 weeks, hopefully we will get to stay together another transfer! I really don't want to leave this area so have so many progressing investigators and the branch is really progressing.
Of course this being the last p-day of the transfer, we had District activity. We went to Bulusan Lake. It was really pretty there was a nice little hike all the way around the lake.
Well I hope everything goes well for everyone back home!
-Sister Richins
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sept. 23, 2013
Well the week has been busy as usual. James is looking forward to his baptism on Saturday! I am so excited for him, he is so ready. He reads the Book of Mormon every night and always has questions for us. He basically taught us the Word of Wisdom and the 10 commandments. I am really excited for him. Actually he the same age as Kevin (13 years old), just a few months older.
Also Michelle and her 4 kids came to church yesterday! The kids loved church. Michelle told us that after they left church, her kids asked if they could come back every week. She is doing really well and I am really excited for her.
We haven't been able to teach Jenny who we taught with James last week because she has been out of town, but hopefully this week we will be able to meet with her.
We also had a really great lesson with Ricky. Ricky is an returned missionary that hasn't been to church in 1-2 years because he was offended. The Branch President said that the elders would always go to his house, but they would never get in. We decided we would just try. We got there right when he was coming home and were able to talk to him. We talked to him about his mission and those that he baptized. He said that one family that he baptized and their son just got home from a mission. By the time we finished he was nearly in tears and he said he would come back to church.
We also met with the branch presidency and set up a branch mission plan. We are really striving to help strengthen families-making sure they have family scripture study, family prayer and FHE. We really need strong families that will be able to help converts.
So it is really hard to find apartments here. you can't just go on the internet and find an apartment and the newspaper doesn't have any. So we just walk along the street and say " alam mo ba kung may bahay pwede upahan" Do you know if there is an house for rent? Actually they postponed the opening of the 2nd sisters in bulan because we were not able to find an apartment in time. They will open it up in November. We did find a couple apartments, but we have to wait for President Guanzon to approve them and then they have to install the water filter and everything. It takes a while to get everything fixed. So anyway that makes us wonder what will happen next transfer. Who will stay, and who will go?
Ingat!
-Sister Heather Richins
Also Michelle and her 4 kids came to church yesterday! The kids loved church. Michelle told us that after they left church, her kids asked if they could come back every week. She is doing really well and I am really excited for her.
We haven't been able to teach Jenny who we taught with James last week because she has been out of town, but hopefully this week we will be able to meet with her.
We also had a really great lesson with Ricky. Ricky is an returned missionary that hasn't been to church in 1-2 years because he was offended. The Branch President said that the elders would always go to his house, but they would never get in. We decided we would just try. We got there right when he was coming home and were able to talk to him. We talked to him about his mission and those that he baptized. He said that one family that he baptized and their son just got home from a mission. By the time we finished he was nearly in tears and he said he would come back to church.
We also met with the branch presidency and set up a branch mission plan. We are really striving to help strengthen families-making sure they have family scripture study, family prayer and FHE. We really need strong families that will be able to help converts.
So it is really hard to find apartments here. you can't just go on the internet and find an apartment and the newspaper doesn't have any. So we just walk along the street and say " alam mo ba kung may bahay pwede upahan" Do you know if there is an house for rent? Actually they postponed the opening of the 2nd sisters in bulan because we were not able to find an apartment in time. They will open it up in November. We did find a couple apartments, but we have to wait for President Guanzon to approve them and then they have to install the water filter and everything. It takes a while to get everything fixed. So anyway that makes us wonder what will happen next transfer. Who will stay, and who will go?
Ingat!
-Sister Heather Richins
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Field is White!
Dear Family and Friends,
Wow what a week! It has been really busy but really rewarding! The Lord is truly hastening his work here!
So on Wednesday we had a special zone conference with the area President of the philippines, Elder Nielson. It was really good he talked about the atonement and how we can all change because of the atonement. He talked about the Enabling power of the atonement and how it can help us during our missions and missionaries and our investigators. He also talked about mission calls and when they are assigned he said that sometimes it is more about the mission president that you are assigned to. He said that we should be looking to what we can learn from our mission president and why the Lord assigned you to work in the mission with Pres. Guanzon.
On Sunday we had district conference here with our mission president. It was really great because 6 investigators attended! It was really cool they talked about missionary work and reactivation and the vision that this district will one day become at Bulan Stake. They urged the members to work with us. President Guanzon has a really amazing conversion story and it was inspiring to hear it again. It was really inspiring and yesterday we had relief society sisters work with us!!! It was great because we could visit the brothers that we have been trying to teach! The branch members are beginning to catch the wave!
So we have been teaching this 14 year old boy named James. He lives with his aunt who is a member. He came to church last week and we started teaching him this week. He is great! He always wants to learn more and has started to attend seminary too. We invited him to pray to Heavenly father for an answer to his prayers about Joseph Smith. On of my favorite things being a missionary is when people describe how they felt when God answers there prayers. Because they always have such a hard time describing it, but you can just tell that they know. It is so cool to be part of that.
We also had an cool experience when we were teaching James because we went to his house, but his aunt wasn't there so we couldn't teach him because there was no sister, but we asked their neighbor to come and join us in the lesson. It was really cool because the neighbor was so eager to learn more and asked us when we were coming back. Blessings come by being obedient!
We also have been teaching this one sister named Michelle. She was taught 6 months ago by Elders, but was never able to come to church because her husband didn't let her. But she told us yesterday that her prayers had been answered and that she would be able to come to church next week!
This morning when we were at the LCC (the grocery store) the security guard came up to us and started asking us all these questions. He had been given a restoration pamphlet a while ago and wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith and what time our church was. It was great we got his number and will visit him tomorrow.
So we have a busy week ahead of us. A lot to do trying to visit all these investigators and also find a new apartment for the sisters that will be coming next transfer.
Well have a great week!
-Sister Richins
Wow what a week! It has been really busy but really rewarding! The Lord is truly hastening his work here!
So on Wednesday we had a special zone conference with the area President of the philippines, Elder Nielson. It was really good he talked about the atonement and how we can all change because of the atonement. He talked about the Enabling power of the atonement and how it can help us during our missions and missionaries and our investigators. He also talked about mission calls and when they are assigned he said that sometimes it is more about the mission president that you are assigned to. He said that we should be looking to what we can learn from our mission president and why the Lord assigned you to work in the mission with Pres. Guanzon.
On Sunday we had district conference here with our mission president. It was really great because 6 investigators attended! It was really cool they talked about missionary work and reactivation and the vision that this district will one day become at Bulan Stake. They urged the members to work with us. President Guanzon has a really amazing conversion story and it was inspiring to hear it again. It was really inspiring and yesterday we had relief society sisters work with us!!! It was great because we could visit the brothers that we have been trying to teach! The branch members are beginning to catch the wave!
So we have been teaching this 14 year old boy named James. He lives with his aunt who is a member. He came to church last week and we started teaching him this week. He is great! He always wants to learn more and has started to attend seminary too. We invited him to pray to Heavenly father for an answer to his prayers about Joseph Smith. On of my favorite things being a missionary is when people describe how they felt when God answers there prayers. Because they always have such a hard time describing it, but you can just tell that they know. It is so cool to be part of that.
We also had an cool experience when we were teaching James because we went to his house, but his aunt wasn't there so we couldn't teach him because there was no sister, but we asked their neighbor to come and join us in the lesson. It was really cool because the neighbor was so eager to learn more and asked us when we were coming back. Blessings come by being obedient!
We also have been teaching this one sister named Michelle. She was taught 6 months ago by Elders, but was never able to come to church because her husband didn't let her. But she told us yesterday that her prayers had been answered and that she would be able to come to church next week!
This morning when we were at the LCC (the grocery store) the security guard came up to us and started asking us all these questions. He had been given a restoration pamphlet a while ago and wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith and what time our church was. It was great we got his number and will visit him tomorrow.
So we have a busy week ahead of us. A lot to do trying to visit all these investigators and also find a new apartment for the sisters that will be coming next transfer.
Well have a great week!
-Sister Richins
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