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
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
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
Sunday, April 20, 2014
April 7
Dear Family and Friends,
It sounds like conference was great, everyone's email is talking about it. I am excited to watch it this week. The branch president isn't sure if we will be able to watch it in our little meetinghouse or not. Hopefully we will be able to, if not we will go to the Sorsogon District Center and watch it. So I am looking forward to that later this week.
So we had a great week. On Tuesday was MLC so Sister Natividad the other STL in Sorsogon went to Legazbi. It was a great meeting. I just love learning from President Guanzon. It is always so inspiring. President and the Assistants did a workshop about finding and particularly the faith to find. It was really great. They talked about acting in faith to find-staying out until the very last minute of the day finding. It was really inspiring.
The rest of the week went great. We were able to find a lot of investigators. On Wednesday we were walking to an appointment and we stopped to talk to this lady outside her house. We got to talking and she said how she was the cousin of President Roman. (Remember president roman was the district President in Bulan that died and we went to his funeral). She said that she had been taught by the missionaries before, but she would lose contact because sometimes she would go to manila to work. We came back on Saturday and were able to teach her whole family and give them a baptismal date.
Well more great weeks to come.
-Sister Richins
It sounds like conference was great, everyone's email is talking about it. I am excited to watch it this week. The branch president isn't sure if we will be able to watch it in our little meetinghouse or not. Hopefully we will be able to, if not we will go to the Sorsogon District Center and watch it. So I am looking forward to that later this week.
So we had a great week. On Tuesday was MLC so Sister Natividad the other STL in Sorsogon went to Legazbi. It was a great meeting. I just love learning from President Guanzon. It is always so inspiring. President and the Assistants did a workshop about finding and particularly the faith to find. It was really great. They talked about acting in faith to find-staying out until the very last minute of the day finding. It was really inspiring.
The rest of the week went great. We were able to find a lot of investigators. On Wednesday we were walking to an appointment and we stopped to talk to this lady outside her house. We got to talking and she said how she was the cousin of President Roman. (Remember president roman was the district President in Bulan that died and we went to his funeral). She said that she had been taught by the missionaries before, but she would lose contact because sometimes she would go to manila to work. We came back on Saturday and were able to teach her whole family and give them a baptismal date.
Well more great weeks to come.
-Sister Richins
March 31
Dear family and Friends,
Well it is the last day of March, Where has the time gone? April
starts tomorrow! It is the summer season here, we are feeling the heat
and everyone is out of school! We are working to contact more people,
now that everyone is less busy. Last week all the schools had
graduation so we had a lot of dinner appointments which was a change
because we never have dinner appointments. Whenever there is an
occasion here, they always have a big dinner and invite all their
friends and family. It is actually a good finding activity, so that
was fun, and lots of yummy philippino food.
We had one investigator an women named Chona that we met tracting on
my first day in this area finally come to church! It was so great.
She said that she had somewhere to go after sacrament meeting, but she
just didn't want to leave, so she stayed for the whole three hours.
Hopefully now she will really start to progress. And her husband
will come next week. Of course we continue to teach the Corrido
family, and they are excited for their baptism next month.
We also have some other investigators that we are working with. We
have had to contact all the investigators that we found last week and
teach them again. We also have a lot of less actives that we teach in
this area. Less actives are a huge challenge. I have heard so many
stories of why they can't come to church. It's too hot, It was
raining, but there is always a deeper reason. It is different to
teach less actives, but it is all the same purpose we are inviting
them to come back unto Christ. They know these things they just need
to increase their faith and testimony.
You have to take a look at this (the article I attached here from the
May 2012 issue of the Liahona entitled Funds help members to the
temple), I have told you that Sister Iqbal is from Pakistan right? She
showed me this article from the liahona earlier to day. It is her
cousin that introduced her family to the church. It is about his
experience of going to the temple. The closest temple for them is the
Manilia temple, which is really far away. I just can't even imagine
that. It makes me think a lot of how blessed we are that we have
temples so close. We have 2 temples in our city. That is so crazy.
There are some members that wait a lifetime to enter the temple.
Also this week we went to Legazbi to the Patriarch's house so that
Sister Iqbal could receive her Patriachtical blessing. It was a
really special experience for her. She is actually really cool. She
has been through so much. She has only been a member for 2 years. It
is really interesting to learn about what life is like there in the
church.
Well this week should be exciting we are working to keep the energy
and enthusiasm high and find, find, find, teach, teach, teach.
Have a great week!
-Sister Richins
Well it is the last day of March, Where has the time gone? April
starts tomorrow! It is the summer season here, we are feeling the heat
and everyone is out of school! We are working to contact more people,
now that everyone is less busy. Last week all the schools had
graduation so we had a lot of dinner appointments which was a change
because we never have dinner appointments. Whenever there is an
occasion here, they always have a big dinner and invite all their
friends and family. It is actually a good finding activity, so that
was fun, and lots of yummy philippino food.
We had one investigator an women named Chona that we met tracting on
my first day in this area finally come to church! It was so great.
She said that she had somewhere to go after sacrament meeting, but she
just didn't want to leave, so she stayed for the whole three hours.
Hopefully now she will really start to progress. And her husband
will come next week. Of course we continue to teach the Corrido
family, and they are excited for their baptism next month.
We also have some other investigators that we are working with. We
have had to contact all the investigators that we found last week and
teach them again. We also have a lot of less actives that we teach in
this area. Less actives are a huge challenge. I have heard so many
stories of why they can't come to church. It's too hot, It was
raining, but there is always a deeper reason. It is different to
teach less actives, but it is all the same purpose we are inviting
them to come back unto Christ. They know these things they just need
to increase their faith and testimony.
You have to take a look at this (the article I attached here from the
May 2012 issue of the Liahona entitled Funds help members to the
temple), I have told you that Sister Iqbal is from Pakistan right? She
showed me this article from the liahona earlier to day. It is her
cousin that introduced her family to the church. It is about his
experience of going to the temple. The closest temple for them is the
Manilia temple, which is really far away. I just can't even imagine
that. It makes me think a lot of how blessed we are that we have
temples so close. We have 2 temples in our city. That is so crazy.
There are some members that wait a lifetime to enter the temple.
Also this week we went to Legazbi to the Patriarch's house so that
Sister Iqbal could receive her Patriachtical blessing. It was a
really special experience for her. She is actually really cool. She
has been through so much. She has only been a member for 2 years. It
is really interesting to learn about what life is like there in the
church.
Well this week should be exciting we are working to keep the energy
and enthusiasm high and find, find, find, teach, teach, teach.
Have a great week!
-Sister Richins
March 24
Dear Family and Friends,
Well it is another great week in Bacon. Transfer announcements came and Sister Iqbal and I will stay together for another transfer. I know that we were going stay together last week because President told me that he had never seen Sister Iqbal progress as much as she did this transfer.
Well weather here is starting to get really hot. In fact the this is last week of school for everyone. All the kids are getting ready for summer break. The school year is different here. Summer Break is from now until June. So all the kids are getting excited and all the college students have finals with week. I am excited because then it means that next week everyone will be home during the day. Also everyone is getting ready for holy week, apparently that is a really big deal here.
We had a really great week. We were super busy, but it was great. The best thing was that Brother Corrido finally came to church-with his whole family. He had been promising and promising, but finally he came to church! He said it was great. We taught the Corrido family on Wednesday night and it was a really great lesson it was really interesting. In Preach my gospel it says that no one can not the true gospel or truth without prayer. It was funny because I was studying that earlier that day and then we went to teach them that night. We were going to teach him the Word of Wisdom, but the first question he had was "If I am going to change religions, I want to make sure that I have no doubts in my heart." We testified about the power of prayer-that is how you know about the truth and there is no other way to know the truth of the gospel. I think that sometimes we just take prayer for granted, but it is really the only way to know. It was a really powerful lesson, with the Branch President there. We went back on Saturday night and he said he is still waiting for an answer, but says he felt that he needed to come to church too in order to know. So that is great! I love that family so much.
On Wednesday we had exchanges with the other sisters in Bacon Branch. I was with Sister Roroa from Kirabati. It brought make a lot of memories of training when Sister Oberia was my companion. It was great and I learned lots. It was a really great experience, because we had finished in our far area that we were at by 6:15 pm and we had a appointment with the Corrido family at 7:00. We had to quickly run to our apartment to pick up something and I was kind of tired and hungry and thought to myself lets just take a little snack break before our appointment. But I said no, we will go tracting. So we did and the second house we went to let us right in and we were able to teach a husband and wife and we have a return appointment with this week. The times when I don't feel like tracting is always the best time.
It is so great to see the miracles that the Lord puts in our path. So I am exciting to see how everything plays out this week. I can see our area book filling up with names and it is just wonderful to see all these little miracles everyday.
-Sister Richins
Well it is another great week in Bacon. Transfer announcements came and Sister Iqbal and I will stay together for another transfer. I know that we were going stay together last week because President told me that he had never seen Sister Iqbal progress as much as she did this transfer.
Well weather here is starting to get really hot. In fact the this is last week of school for everyone. All the kids are getting ready for summer break. The school year is different here. Summer Break is from now until June. So all the kids are getting excited and all the college students have finals with week. I am excited because then it means that next week everyone will be home during the day. Also everyone is getting ready for holy week, apparently that is a really big deal here.
We had a really great week. We were super busy, but it was great. The best thing was that Brother Corrido finally came to church-with his whole family. He had been promising and promising, but finally he came to church! He said it was great. We taught the Corrido family on Wednesday night and it was a really great lesson it was really interesting. In Preach my gospel it says that no one can not the true gospel or truth without prayer. It was funny because I was studying that earlier that day and then we went to teach them that night. We were going to teach him the Word of Wisdom, but the first question he had was "If I am going to change religions, I want to make sure that I have no doubts in my heart." We testified about the power of prayer-that is how you know about the truth and there is no other way to know the truth of the gospel. I think that sometimes we just take prayer for granted, but it is really the only way to know. It was a really powerful lesson, with the Branch President there. We went back on Saturday night and he said he is still waiting for an answer, but says he felt that he needed to come to church too in order to know. So that is great! I love that family so much.
On Wednesday we had exchanges with the other sisters in Bacon Branch. I was with Sister Roroa from Kirabati. It brought make a lot of memories of training when Sister Oberia was my companion. It was great and I learned lots. It was a really great experience, because we had finished in our far area that we were at by 6:15 pm and we had a appointment with the Corrido family at 7:00. We had to quickly run to our apartment to pick up something and I was kind of tired and hungry and thought to myself lets just take a little snack break before our appointment. But I said no, we will go tracting. So we did and the second house we went to let us right in and we were able to teach a husband and wife and we have a return appointment with this week. The times when I don't feel like tracting is always the best time.
It is so great to see the miracles that the Lord puts in our path. So I am exciting to see how everything plays out this week. I can see our area book filling up with names and it is just wonderful to see all these little miracles everyday.
-Sister Richins
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