Dear family and friends,
Well is is the end of the transfers and it is time for transfers. On Saturday we got the message that I will be transferring. It is sad because I have really grown to love the people here. But it is also exciting to start in a new area. I don't know where yet, I will find out tomorrow morning.
It is kind of sad because I will miss Jared's Baptism next week. Jared is a Part Member Family. He is 9 years old. It is sometimes a challenge to teach him, because his mom always likes to ask a lot of deep doctrine questions about the Plan of Salvation or other kinds, but it is good. For me it is so rewarding to teach people to pray here. Because in school they are taught to pray as a recitation. It is so exciting for people to know that they can speak the feelings of their hear to God. Every one is a little shy at first, but once they do it the first time it is easy.
The other family that will be hard to leave is the Lobrin Family. They are someone that we found while brother was washing clothes. Brother Lobrin is someone that has to study out everything, but he says he has enjoyed reading The Book of Mormon and hopefully he will be able to come to church. I know that Sister Pareja and her new companion will be able to help them.
In the phlippines investigators have to come to church 4 weeks in a row before they can be baptized because the philippines needs converts that understand the importance of church attendance are are willing to make sacrifices.
I know that this area is in good hands and that the people that I have come to love and serve will continue to progress. I may not be able to see the fruits of my work here, but I hope that I have made a difference and the ward has been strengthened and all the people that we have taught.
Well wish me luck tomorrow. Change always brings growth!
-Sister Richins
PS Happy Beginning of Christmas Season on September 1!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
August 19
Dear Family and Friends,
This week has been interesting, but exciting. This week was the Catholic's festival week. Which has to do with the catholic idols that they have here. So that was interesting. It basically meant everything was closed and no one was home. It was okay though we still were able to teach a few lessons and did a lot of tracking.
On thing that we have starting to really focusing on this week is to bear testimony when we first meet people on the street. In Preach my gospel it says to bear testimony of the Restoration, in the first contact. It is so effective because you can see how all of this people's lives can relate to our doctrine and you can share it with them with the spirit. As much as I hate the attention, people get really excited when I start talking to them in Tagalog and a lot of the time they will stop and talk to me. It is funny because Sister Pareje always has me initiate conversation with people. People are always amazed how well I know Tagalog and are eager to talk to me in Tagalog. I always tell them that it a gift and blessing from God to be able so that I can share our message with them.
We were able to teach this one lady that it was a miracle that we were even able to teach her, because she told us she was catholic and was going to die catholic. Her first question for us was why we don't believe in idols. We explained that it was because the scriptures tell us that we shouldn't, we ended up talking to her about prayer and how we believe that we can talk directly with God. It was really cool to see how the spirit guided the lesson and she was at a lost of words. I don't know if she will allow us to come back, but at least we boldly through the spirit shared our message with her.
Yesterday we taught Danny who we talked to one the street on Tuesday we wanted to teach him on Tuesday when we first met him because he had so many questions about why there were so many churches and about the bible. We, however, couldn't teach him on Tuesday because we didn't have another sister with us. But we came back yesterday and we were able to teach him. He said he was really busy, but we asked for just 10 minutes. We bore testimony about the Restoration and the next question he asked was what his purpose was in life. He is great because he really wants to read and think about everything. We told him also to pray.
Today for P-day we went to Lauyin Hills for our district activity. Which is basically a big hike and you can look out and see the Mayon Valcano and at the bottom there is a zoo. It was fun to see all the different animals native to the Philippines. It makes me look really adventurous to see all the animals that I saw. Tigers, Giant snakes, native birds, I even found Rudolph's brother Dasher-looks like he got lost last Christmas!
This week is the last week in the transfer so we will see what happens next transfer. I really have loved this transfer with Sister Paraje, I have learned a lot from her-especially Tagalog.
-Sister Richins
Also cool experience this week, we went to this lady's house and she asked me to give the prayer in English. It was a weirdest thing because it was so hard for me to do and I caught myself speaking Tagalog in the middle of it. I guess Tagalog is coming! President Blisner said that after 3 transfers you would be comfortable in Conversation, and after 4 you would be able to talk easily! Well I will keep on working on it.
This week has been interesting, but exciting. This week was the Catholic's festival week. Which has to do with the catholic idols that they have here. So that was interesting. It basically meant everything was closed and no one was home. It was okay though we still were able to teach a few lessons and did a lot of tracking.
On thing that we have starting to really focusing on this week is to bear testimony when we first meet people on the street. In Preach my gospel it says to bear testimony of the Restoration, in the first contact. It is so effective because you can see how all of this people's lives can relate to our doctrine and you can share it with them with the spirit. As much as I hate the attention, people get really excited when I start talking to them in Tagalog and a lot of the time they will stop and talk to me. It is funny because Sister Pareje always has me initiate conversation with people. People are always amazed how well I know Tagalog and are eager to talk to me in Tagalog. I always tell them that it a gift and blessing from God to be able so that I can share our message with them.
We were able to teach this one lady that it was a miracle that we were even able to teach her, because she told us she was catholic and was going to die catholic. Her first question for us was why we don't believe in idols. We explained that it was because the scriptures tell us that we shouldn't, we ended up talking to her about prayer and how we believe that we can talk directly with God. It was really cool to see how the spirit guided the lesson and she was at a lost of words. I don't know if she will allow us to come back, but at least we boldly through the spirit shared our message with her.
Yesterday we taught Danny who we talked to one the street on Tuesday we wanted to teach him on Tuesday when we first met him because he had so many questions about why there were so many churches and about the bible. We, however, couldn't teach him on Tuesday because we didn't have another sister with us. But we came back yesterday and we were able to teach him. He said he was really busy, but we asked for just 10 minutes. We bore testimony about the Restoration and the next question he asked was what his purpose was in life. He is great because he really wants to read and think about everything. We told him also to pray.
Today for P-day we went to Lauyin Hills for our district activity. Which is basically a big hike and you can look out and see the Mayon Valcano and at the bottom there is a zoo. It was fun to see all the different animals native to the Philippines. It makes me look really adventurous to see all the animals that I saw. Tigers, Giant snakes, native birds, I even found Rudolph's brother Dasher-looks like he got lost last Christmas!
This week is the last week in the transfer so we will see what happens next transfer. I really have loved this transfer with Sister Paraje, I have learned a lot from her-especially Tagalog.
-Sister Richins
Also cool experience this week, we went to this lady's house and she asked me to give the prayer in English. It was a weirdest thing because it was so hard for me to do and I caught myself speaking Tagalog in the middle of it. I guess Tagalog is coming! President Blisner said that after 3 transfers you would be comfortable in Conversation, and after 4 you would be able to talk easily! Well I will keep on working on it.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
August 12
Dearest Family and Friends,
I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to email today because there was a typhoon that was suppose to be here today, but it looks like it changed directions. So I am happy about that.
This week was really great. We had a great zone conference about effective planning and we were able to apply everything to make our planning sessions more effective. The Legazpi Stake is working with the area presidency to become a model stake for the Philippines in regard to missionary work. So the leaders are continuing to get excited about missionary work. We had a member of the bishopbric work with us yesterday and it was wonderful to have his support because he was able to identify people that could up us for each investigator.
Yesterday we visited this one part member/less active family. Brother Owel's records are not here because he moved here about a year ago. We found him because he approached the other sisters in Guinobaton and told them that he was a member. We set up an appointment with him to visit his family. It was great because yesterday we had the bishopbric working with us and they were able to fellowship him. Also his 10 year old daughter is not a member. So we are now able to teach her.
Yesterday we were also finally able to teach Raquel, who we have been trying and trying to set up an appointment with, but she keeps on canceling. She was a former investigator. After we taught about the restoration she said she wanted to learn more. She says that she always feels so good when we teach her. Hopefully we will continue to find time to meet with us. We also found out the Book of Mormon she had she let her neighbor borrow last week because she was interested. So we went to that house and set up a return appointment too!
We are also able to teach Patrick again (the former investigator that we met last week). He is doing great, but is just shy to us because we are sisters. He said that we went to the church house last week to come to church, but was scared to enter because he didn't know anyone there. That was so sad to hear. So hopefully we can get some brothers to work with us week to help fellowship him and come with him to church next week.
Yesterday I was talking to my companion about the school system here and it really made me appreciate what we have in America. They school system here is based off the catholic religion and school starts and ends with a memorized prayer. They also are required to attend Mass once a week or they have to pay a penalty fine. My companion said how hard it was to be a Mormon in school. It just made me really appreciate the freedom of religion that we have in America.
Everyone here is getting excited for the Christmas Season! I know, dad, that is hard to believe, but Christmas season starts here in September, so it is pretty close. I am excited to see how they celebrate Christmas here!
Well hope everything continues to go well- enjoy the last bit of summer..
-Sister Richins
I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to email today because there was a typhoon that was suppose to be here today, but it looks like it changed directions. So I am happy about that.
This week was really great. We had a great zone conference about effective planning and we were able to apply everything to make our planning sessions more effective. The Legazpi Stake is working with the area presidency to become a model stake for the Philippines in regard to missionary work. So the leaders are continuing to get excited about missionary work. We had a member of the bishopbric work with us yesterday and it was wonderful to have his support because he was able to identify people that could up us for each investigator.
Yesterday we visited this one part member/less active family. Brother Owel's records are not here because he moved here about a year ago. We found him because he approached the other sisters in Guinobaton and told them that he was a member. We set up an appointment with him to visit his family. It was great because yesterday we had the bishopbric working with us and they were able to fellowship him. Also his 10 year old daughter is not a member. So we are now able to teach her.
Yesterday we were also finally able to teach Raquel, who we have been trying and trying to set up an appointment with, but she keeps on canceling. She was a former investigator. After we taught about the restoration she said she wanted to learn more. She says that she always feels so good when we teach her. Hopefully we will continue to find time to meet with us. We also found out the Book of Mormon she had she let her neighbor borrow last week because she was interested. So we went to that house and set up a return appointment too!
We are also able to teach Patrick again (the former investigator that we met last week). He is doing great, but is just shy to us because we are sisters. He said that we went to the church house last week to come to church, but was scared to enter because he didn't know anyone there. That was so sad to hear. So hopefully we can get some brothers to work with us week to help fellowship him and come with him to church next week.
Yesterday I was talking to my companion about the school system here and it really made me appreciate what we have in America. They school system here is based off the catholic religion and school starts and ends with a memorized prayer. They also are required to attend Mass once a week or they have to pay a penalty fine. My companion said how hard it was to be a Mormon in school. It just made me really appreciate the freedom of religion that we have in America.
Everyone here is getting excited for the Christmas Season! I know, dad, that is hard to believe, but Christmas season starts here in September, so it is pretty close. I am excited to see how they celebrate Christmas here!
Well hope everything continues to go well- enjoy the last bit of summer..
-Sister Richins
Monday, August 5, 2013
August 5, 2013 " Miracles happen in the Morning"
Dearest Family and Friends,
Wow another week has gone by. We had exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leader. The Sister Training Leader is a new position that they implemented in all the missions and they go on exchanges every transfer. I went on splits with Sister Feinga from Tonga. It was really great and I learned a lot from her. It was nice to have an experienced missionary give me some help on what I can do to improve. On thing that is always a struggle here is morning work. Everyone is always really busy in the Morning and we never have appointments in the morning. And it is usually really discouraging, but of course we are preach my gospel missionaries and go out in the morning. Sister Fienga reminded me that "Miracles happen in the morning." As we strive to be exactly obedient the Lord blesses us.
On Tuesday morning we went to try to find a former investigator named Patrick. We were walking and then a guy asked us who we were looking for. I replied "Patrick Romunlo" and he said "that's me." We were able to teach him a lesson and he said the reason he stopped investigating the church 3 years ago was because he went to Manila to work. It was so great. Next we went to a member's to confirm plans for them to work with us and Sheena was there. We taught a lesson to the family, but were really hesitant with Sheena, but after we were about to leave Sheena asked us when we could come back and teach her! I was so excited... and she came to church this week.
We had zone training week and they talked about the mission wide problem of investigators attending sacrament meeting. We talked about using the members to bring investigators to church and making sure they have someone to sit next to. It was really good and gave us some ideas to more effectively invite people to come to church.
-Sister Richins
Wow another week has gone by. We had exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leader. The Sister Training Leader is a new position that they implemented in all the missions and they go on exchanges every transfer. I went on splits with Sister Feinga from Tonga. It was really great and I learned a lot from her. It was nice to have an experienced missionary give me some help on what I can do to improve. On thing that is always a struggle here is morning work. Everyone is always really busy in the Morning and we never have appointments in the morning. And it is usually really discouraging, but of course we are preach my gospel missionaries and go out in the morning. Sister Fienga reminded me that "Miracles happen in the morning." As we strive to be exactly obedient the Lord blesses us.
On Tuesday morning we went to try to find a former investigator named Patrick. We were walking and then a guy asked us who we were looking for. I replied "Patrick Romunlo" and he said "that's me." We were able to teach him a lesson and he said the reason he stopped investigating the church 3 years ago was because he went to Manila to work. It was so great. Next we went to a member's to confirm plans for them to work with us and Sheena was there. We taught a lesson to the family, but were really hesitant with Sheena, but after we were about to leave Sheena asked us when we could come back and teach her! I was so excited... and she came to church this week.
We had zone training week and they talked about the mission wide problem of investigators attending sacrament meeting. We talked about using the members to bring investigators to church and making sure they have someone to sit next to. It was really good and gave us some ideas to more effectively invite people to come to church.
-Sister Richins
July 29
Dear Family and Friends,
I can't believe how fast the time is going. It is already the last week in July! This week has been really good. In district we had a workshop about teaching lesson 1 and how the brethren made preach my gospel so you would teach it in one lesson. Both my companion and I had trainers that taught us to split it up into 2 or 3 lessons. So we tried it, teaching the entire lesson and we saw a lot of great results. It is so great for our investigators to see our unique message quickly.
We had a baptism on Saturday of a sweet little 8 year old girl, named Arlyn. We have been working a lot over the past few months with her mom who is less active. Arlyn started to listen to our messages and we started to teach her with her mom. Thanks to their supportive neighbors she was been coming to church for 2 months now! I am excited for her and this excited step in her life and it is my hope that they stay active in the church.
Tomorrow we have splits with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Feinga. Sister Feinga is really great. Splits are good because we are able to do double the work in one day, but sometimes it is hard because then the next day schedule is empty. That's okay though, it just means that we have to have faith that the Lord will fill our schedule.
Unfortunately Mary Joy was not able to come to church yesterday because she was sick, but she told us next week for sure. Sometimes it can be really frustrating when investigators don't come to church, but its okay everyone has agency. We just have to keep on extending commitments.
-Sister Richins
I can't believe how fast the time is going. It is already the last week in July! This week has been really good. In district we had a workshop about teaching lesson 1 and how the brethren made preach my gospel so you would teach it in one lesson. Both my companion and I had trainers that taught us to split it up into 2 or 3 lessons. So we tried it, teaching the entire lesson and we saw a lot of great results. It is so great for our investigators to see our unique message quickly.
We had a baptism on Saturday of a sweet little 8 year old girl, named Arlyn. We have been working a lot over the past few months with her mom who is less active. Arlyn started to listen to our messages and we started to teach her with her mom. Thanks to their supportive neighbors she was been coming to church for 2 months now! I am excited for her and this excited step in her life and it is my hope that they stay active in the church.
Tomorrow we have splits with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Feinga. Sister Feinga is really great. Splits are good because we are able to do double the work in one day, but sometimes it is hard because then the next day schedule is empty. That's okay though, it just means that we have to have faith that the Lord will fill our schedule.
Unfortunately Mary Joy was not able to come to church yesterday because she was sick, but she told us next week for sure. Sometimes it can be really frustrating when investigators don't come to church, but its okay everyone has agency. We just have to keep on extending commitments.
-Sister Richins
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
July 22
Dear Family and Friends,
Well transfers were this last week. My new companion is Sister Paraje she is Philippino. She has only been out in the field for three months, just like me. It is good because we are able to really learn from each other. What we liked that our trainers did and what wasn't effective. It is good because we are really able to become Preach my Gospel missionaries. It is also really nice to have someone not going home and is eager and excited about missionary work. My new companion doesn't know English very well so it has been good for me to have to always use Tagalog. If I ask her something in English she won't respond until I ask in Tagalog. Sometimes it is a little frustrating, but it is good for me.
Also the weather has started to cool down a little bit which is really nice and by cool down I mean it is now 85 degrees instead of 92.
We have been teaching one investigator named Mary Joy. She is so sweet. Her husband is a less active in the ward and we went to find him and ended up teaching her instead. She has a lot of trials in her life and was really discouraged and she met us. It is so cool to see her faith grow. She has so much faith and she knows that our message is true and the Book of Mormon too. She says it touches her heart when she reads. Sadly she gets a lot of persecution from her neighbors and friends because she is listening to the Mormon missionaries when she was born catholic. Hopefully her faith will carry her. Ah she is just so sweet and I hope that her faith in Jesus Christ will carry her.
We also taught a less active/part member family. We were teaching about the plan of salvation and we taught them about the plan of salvation and one little boy who is 10 years old joined our lesson. He was so cute and as we were teaching them from the Book of Mormon he was looking at it and started reading while we were teaching. At the end of the lesson I asked him if he wanted his own copy of the Book of Mormon and he got so excited. These are the moments that make all the hardships and hard days worth it.
Ingat! Mahal Kita!
-Sister Richins
Well transfers were this last week. My new companion is Sister Paraje she is Philippino. She has only been out in the field for three months, just like me. It is good because we are able to really learn from each other. What we liked that our trainers did and what wasn't effective. It is good because we are really able to become Preach my Gospel missionaries. It is also really nice to have someone not going home and is eager and excited about missionary work. My new companion doesn't know English very well so it has been good for me to have to always use Tagalog. If I ask her something in English she won't respond until I ask in Tagalog. Sometimes it is a little frustrating, but it is good for me.
Also the weather has started to cool down a little bit which is really nice and by cool down I mean it is now 85 degrees instead of 92.
We have been teaching one investigator named Mary Joy. She is so sweet. Her husband is a less active in the ward and we went to find him and ended up teaching her instead. She has a lot of trials in her life and was really discouraged and she met us. It is so cool to see her faith grow. She has so much faith and she knows that our message is true and the Book of Mormon too. She says it touches her heart when she reads. Sadly she gets a lot of persecution from her neighbors and friends because she is listening to the Mormon missionaries when she was born catholic. Hopefully her faith will carry her. Ah she is just so sweet and I hope that her faith in Jesus Christ will carry her.
We also taught a less active/part member family. We were teaching about the plan of salvation and we taught them about the plan of salvation and one little boy who is 10 years old joined our lesson. He was so cute and as we were teaching them from the Book of Mormon he was looking at it and started reading while we were teaching. At the end of the lesson I asked him if he wanted his own copy of the Book of Mormon and he got so excited. These are the moments that make all the hardships and hard days worth it.
Ingat! Mahal Kita!
-Sister Richins
Sunday, July 14, 2013
July 8
Dear Family and Friends,
Looks like everyone had a great 4th of July! Sister Lang and I celebrated it here with a nice cake and spaghetti so that was fun. We even wore our blue skirts to celebrate. We are having a lot of fun here too after all if you aren't having fun, you are not doing it right!
It was really sad this week our investigator Sheena told us that we can't visit her any more because it is just too much for her to endure with her dad. Her dad hates the church and doesn't want her to get baptized. We told her that we will always love her and care about her. Sometimes it is just so hard, when they are so many negative feelings about the church. But hopefully someday she will have the faith and courage to come back.
We also met our new mission President this week. He is super nice and his wife is so funny. I was worried that he wouldn't know English very well, but turns out he was really good. He is from Quezon City. His family is really sweet. They are two children that are still living with them. One is 18 and just got his mission call to Boise Idaho. The other daughter is 19 and is working of her mission papers. I was excited because the Mission President's wife said that she was planning on proselyting with the sisters 3 days a week if at all possible. That was exciting for me, it would be so great to have her strong testimony. President and Sister Guanzon are both converts to the church and have been members since 1981. They told us their touching conversion story on Friday. It is exciting time.
President gave us some great counsel as well. He said that there is about 700,000 members of the church in the Philippines and only about 150,000 that are activated. We talked about what happened to those people that were baptized, but are not active now- they were not completely converted. He emphasized teaching for understanding and teaching for conversion. He also said that the Philippines need more leaders so to seek after the middle class and in his words "Talk to those with cars, dress a little nicer, use English."
We were able to teach a lot of investigators this week and a lot of them are progressing. I still think it is such a miracle to see the change, we have so many people to teach now. After the missionary broadcast we have a lot of members wanting to work with us which is great! Our bishop is also all of the sudden really interesting in missionary work. Yesterday in Ward council and Ward coordination meeting we came up with a list of 15 names of less active members that the entire ward is going to work to reactive this year.
We have three investigators that are high school students. They are so sweet there names are Princess, Gema, and Michelle. We had a great lesson with them on Tuesday about Joseph Smith. Before we even got started she asked us, how she could know which of all the many churches were true. Wow it was a great lesson! She also lives really close to the church house! This week we have some YW coming with us to teach them! Astig!
This is Sister Oberia's last week and she is committed to work hard until the end! Transfer announcements are this Saturday!
-Sister Richins
Looks like everyone had a great 4th of July! Sister Lang and I celebrated it here with a nice cake and spaghetti so that was fun. We even wore our blue skirts to celebrate. We are having a lot of fun here too after all if you aren't having fun, you are not doing it right!
It was really sad this week our investigator Sheena told us that we can't visit her any more because it is just too much for her to endure with her dad. Her dad hates the church and doesn't want her to get baptized. We told her that we will always love her and care about her. Sometimes it is just so hard, when they are so many negative feelings about the church. But hopefully someday she will have the faith and courage to come back.
We also met our new mission President this week. He is super nice and his wife is so funny. I was worried that he wouldn't know English very well, but turns out he was really good. He is from Quezon City. His family is really sweet. They are two children that are still living with them. One is 18 and just got his mission call to Boise Idaho. The other daughter is 19 and is working of her mission papers. I was excited because the Mission President's wife said that she was planning on proselyting with the sisters 3 days a week if at all possible. That was exciting for me, it would be so great to have her strong testimony. President and Sister Guanzon are both converts to the church and have been members since 1981. They told us their touching conversion story on Friday. It is exciting time.
President gave us some great counsel as well. He said that there is about 700,000 members of the church in the Philippines and only about 150,000 that are activated. We talked about what happened to those people that were baptized, but are not active now- they were not completely converted. He emphasized teaching for understanding and teaching for conversion. He also said that the Philippines need more leaders so to seek after the middle class and in his words "Talk to those with cars, dress a little nicer, use English."
We were able to teach a lot of investigators this week and a lot of them are progressing. I still think it is such a miracle to see the change, we have so many people to teach now. After the missionary broadcast we have a lot of members wanting to work with us which is great! Our bishop is also all of the sudden really interesting in missionary work. Yesterday in Ward council and Ward coordination meeting we came up with a list of 15 names of less active members that the entire ward is going to work to reactive this year.
We have three investigators that are high school students. They are so sweet there names are Princess, Gema, and Michelle. We had a great lesson with them on Tuesday about Joseph Smith. Before we even got started she asked us, how she could know which of all the many churches were true. Wow it was a great lesson! She also lives really close to the church house! This week we have some YW coming with us to teach them! Astig!
This is Sister Oberia's last week and she is committed to work hard until the end! Transfer announcements are this Saturday!
-Sister Richins
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