Week 72: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hey everyone!! It is sooooo christmas-y here in the Philippines! I was really feeling the Christmas spirit yesterday.. after our work was done it started raining pretty hard and this strong cool wind came across the ocean and cooled down all of Sipalay! We were actually COLD!!! We didn't use our electric fans! We just wrapped ourselves up in blankets and drank some hot chocolate my mom sent me. It was probably only like 70ish degrees but we were so cold. All the filipinos here were wearing big coats haha. It's really Christmas time! 

Because of the "cold" weather a lot of people were in their homes this week so we got to teach a lot. Trisha is doing good as usual, she just turned 18 and we're going to celebrate with her later tonight. She really is the best and continues to fellowship all her friends. She progresses slowly but surely! 

Mark is doing great. His wife is totally supportive of his baptism and we have committed him for this Saturday. He has such strong faith and after being an investigator for 10 years, we are really encouraging him so he can be prepared for this Saturday. It would be such a miracle!

Also in the Philippines like every store here is a guard that watches outside, including 7/11, and one of the guards there is like reeaallly progressing! We invited him to church and he went, he's been twice now! We extended baptism to him and he said "I think this is what I really need to change", he's so awesome! We're really excited to see how he continues to progress. 

We also had another beautiful p-day at a place called sugar beach, we barbecued pork on the beach and played frisbee. I serve in literal paradise!!!

But I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and find a way to show Christ's love to someone this season. I love being a missionary and I'm so grateful I get to serve Him for another Christmas. 

Thank you all for the love and support, you guys are the best! 

Sister Pope 

Week 71: DASIG ANG TION!!

Hey everyone!! So today was sad because a lot of my mission friends went home today but I'm so happy for all of them and they all will return with honor :) So Sister Fawcett and Sister Ducado is going home.. so sad. It really feels like Sister Fawcett and I just got here and were going out on exchanges straight up struggling on speaking the language and I just said goodbye to her earlier both speaking fluent ilonggo... time is sooo fast!! (dasig gid ang tion!!)

This week was fun because we had zone conference and received trainings from our mission leaders. We really think it has helped our zone and we made it extra fun with a gift exchange at the end of it. Our zone has bonded so well and we're all going to cry on transfer day (which is on the 1st of January).. a lot of missionaries are going to be transferred! 

Our investigators are continuing to progress well, Trisha is progressing slowly but surely. She really shows her faith through church attendance and prayer but really has to work on losing her vices. She is so committed though and seriously teaches her friends the gospel and commits them to keep commitments she's the best.

We have a baptismal date for Mark! We're soooo hoping it will all work out and the stars will align haha. We also got a referral from a member of this guard that works at 7/11, his name is Francis and is amazing! He already has so much desire to change and has a good group of fellowshippers. We're so excited to see all their progress!

So.. I have officially eaten balut!! Haha, it was actually pretty good! It kind of was hard swallowing down the chicken fetus though.. but mostly it just tastes like chicken soup. 

Also! The Semillano family from Magsungay, my second area, came to Sipalay for vacation and I saw them!!! We were so surprised that we saw each other haha, they're so strong in the church and I'm so grateful I was able to meet them.

Well thank you all for the love and support and hope you all enjoy your Christmas season, I'll enjoy mine in the 80+ degree weather in grass huts. I love the Philippines!!!

Sister Pope

1) Me and sister Bartolome at a meeting :)

2) BALUT!!! mmMMmmMm 

Week 70: ZONE CONFERENCE

Hey everyone! This week went by REALLY fast.. in fact the weeks have been starting to blur by! Which is really scary I don't want the time to go by fast haha. 

This week was good, on Tuesday we went to the city for zone conference which was good, we were combined with the other zones in the mission so it was fun to see some familiar faces there, especially the ones that are going home in two weeks! Which are TWO of my companions!! Bye bye Sister Fawcett and Sister Ducado :( I'll miss them a lot!

Sister Santos got a little sick this week so we weren't able to be out long, her back is really sore. We got a doctor to look at her, but being assigned in the most mountainous part of my mission the doctor was kind of a funny sight. He had this crazy hair, glasses that had one missing lens, and his t-shirt that he was wearing had at least more than ten sizable holes in it. He seemed pretty smart though and Sister Santos has been getting a little better with the pain medication she's taking. Let's just say I'm glad that I'm not the one that got sick haha.

Trisha is doing great! She really has a difficult past but she is so willing to change and is so kind and open to everything! She's also fellowshipping everyone that lives by her and she's already committed like three people to come to church with her next Sunday. She's so great! 

Anyways we're really excited to get back to the work this week now that my companion has been able to recover a little. Thanks everyone for the love and support!

Sister Pope

Sorry no pictures :( actually I think my SD card got a virus... maybe all my pictures got deleted haha that would really be a bummer

Week 69: NEW PEOPLE

Hey everyone, another really cool week this week, lots of miracles :)

So first I'm mostly excited to share about the referral the elders gave us, I think I mentioned her last week in my email. She is awesome!! We visited her on Tuesday and she's already telling all her friends that she's going to be "mormon" haha. She's 17 years old, she lives here in Sipalay with her aunt and she actually just had a baby two weeks ago. She has been through a. LOT. of trials in her life and she's so ready to leave them behind her and change. It will be a long change process for her but she has a strong desire. She was sooo excited to go to church she brought her aunt and her next door neighbors with her and during sacrament meeting, she asked us if she becomes a member if she can be a speaker too. She's so amazing! We're so excited to see how she progresses. 

Mark is doing really well too! He kind of struggles when his wife isn't here to support him to go to church but we shared to him the blessings of church attendance and he came on Sunday! We were so surprised and happy. We're sooo excited for him!

Annddd, another really fun p-day haha. Brother Gerald, the older brother of Jay, brought us to this place with a HUGE cave and it was sooooo cool! The center of the cave has this big river and it's super pitch black on the inside and we only had one flashlight so.. it was kind of a struggle haha but really fun! 

Tomorrow we're traveling up to the city for a meeting with our mission president since we don't have mission tour so we're excited to receive some new council from our leaders. 

Thank you all for the love and support! It means the world :)

Sister Pope

I'll send pictures next week of Trisha and our p-day :) this computer shop is sketch lol

Week 68: MIRACLES!!

Hey everyone!! We witnessed a few miracles this week that I'm excited to share with you all :)

SO Brother Mark has finally decided to be baptized! His wife went to Manila but she's coming back in December so he'll be baptized on the same day as his son, JM. We're soooo happy and so excited for his commitment to follow the Savior :)

Then we found a lot of new investigators this week, and one of them has actually been going to church for the past two months and we didn't know, he's the younger brother of a part-member family and his name is John Paul, so we make a fun match. Do you guys get it? haha, anyways we finally got to teach him this week and he has a really sweet heart, we're excited to see how he progresses!

THEN the elders met this cool girl a couple days ago.. so the elders live in our area so they talk to a lot of people here because they like live here and one night they were on their way home from proselyting and this girl yelled at them "hey, are you guys mormons" and they were like "yeah" and she was like "I want to join your church. Do you guys have a baptism or something so I can join your church?" We totally thought it was a joke when they told us but it's real, and we're meeting with her on Tuesday. Hopefully it goes well! 

Anyways, p-day was also really fun again, we went to this beach resort called Campomanes Bay and it was soooo fun! We're all recharged for another week of work :) I love being a missionary and I love Sipalay! 

Thank you all for the love and support :)

Sister Pope

1) my upper arm is so white haha.. 

2) campomanes bay !

3) The fish the elders caught

4) we sat in these little bamboo things on the ocean

5-7) Jay's baptismal pictures :)

Week 67: JAY!

Hey everybody! It's been a week of ups and downs but mostly ups :) Sister Santos is a lot of fun though and we had a lot of good progress this week with the work.

So we're at a point in the area where everyone we're teaching is new (except brother Mark) so they're all about at the same progress as of right now. Soo it's really just us against time deciding who we need to go to and who's progressing! We're teaching two really cool families right now that we really hope progress, they just need a little help strengthening their faith.

Jay was baptized on Sunday morning! It was such a good service and he's changed soooo much. He's a part-member family and they returned coming back to church in September. He's older brother, Gerald, actually served a mission and we're so happy to see him regularly come to church now with his small family. But back to Jay, he used to be really annoying, would never pray, and really disobedient. And WOW he has changed so much! Of course, the elders know him since they're in the same ward as him and our district leader that interviewed him, Elder Tabligan, was soo shocked at his change. Even though he's only 10, kids an experience a change of heart too. 

Anyways, just another week! Talk to you all next week :) Thank you and love you all!

Sister Pope

Week 66: SIPALAY GIYAPON!

Hey everyone! Did I send an email last week? I can't remember.. anyways, this was another good week, and we have transfers! Sister Esteban will be leaving our trisome so now it will just be me and Sister Santos :( We'll miss her! 

Our investigators seem to be stuck right now in their progress right now, especially Mark. We're just really trying to build his faith right now. But Jay is getting baptized this Saturday and we're so excited! His less-active family has returned and we're so excited for him to follow their example in baptism. 

Honestly there hasn't been a lot that has happened and I'm reeeeally tired right now from traveling all the way from Sipalay to Bacolod for transfer day, but just know that I love you all and am grateful I'm staying here in Sipalay!

Sister Pope

1) beautiful sipalay

2) sister bartolome!!! saw her at a meeting this week :)) miss her so much!

3) Janelle and Althea, the elder's recent converts. they're soooo sweet and always have us over for lunch/dinner

Week 65: FISH BONE

Hey everyone!! Another crazy week in Sipalay, lots of fun and good things that happened.

But also one thing that is really not great.. which is I ate some dried fish on friday and got a fish bone stuck reallllllly deep in my mouth. So, I get to go to the city today to get it pulled out! I don't need to worry though because this literally happens all the time here in the Philippines. I'll update you next week about it! 

Anyways brother Mark continues strong, we're really just trying to give him enough encouragement and space to progress well, and he is. I know by the end of this year he will be baptized!

Also this less-active family we've been visiting has almost returned! They've been to church threetimes now since I've been here and one of them, Gerald, brings his younger brother Jay who we're hoping will be baptized on the 11th. We're so excited! The work continues on :) 

Annnd the good news from Magsungay just keeps coming! I'm not sure if you guys remember but Sister Bernolo and I taught two of Elmer's and Raniel's cousins that always went to church but never got permission to be baptized.. well they finally got permission and got baptized on Saturday!! Seriously it's amazing how this area brings me so much joy even after I've left it for months now haha, I'm so blessed to have met these people!

Anyways, thanks for all the love and support! You guys are the best :)

Sister Pope

Week 64: BAGIUO

hey everyone!! There was a bagiuo or big storm this week, loooots of rain and since we're by the beach, it all seems more crazy of a storm because the waves get reeeeally huge, you can hear them from our house! The wind was also really crazy and we saw some devastation from the storm. one of our areas, nauhang, had a lot of palm trees fall on houses and their school collapsed in the storm. Luckily, nobody was hurt and the kids have break from school right now so there will be time to build their school again.

Brother Mark is doing great, he's gone through a lot of hard stuff this week so we really thought he might not come to church, and then he was one of the first ones there on Sunday. He's so awesome! We still need to finalize things with his wife who is currently out of town, but as soon as she comes home we're giving Mark a date!

More good news from Magsungay! More members of their family have entered into the waters of baptism, including the little girl that Sister Bernolo and I first found that led us to that beautiful family, Yara. We were looking for investigators one day in March this year and found this girl sitting all by herself during school time so we went up and talked to her. She said we could come to her house to teach her family but when we came back the second time, her family wasn't home but their next door neighbors, the Semillano family, was. And the rest is history! But we all owe thanks to that first interaction with Yara and we're so happy she's finally decided to be baptized with her cousin, Mia. :)

Anyways, that's all for this week. I'm so thankful for all the beautiful people I've met here in the Philippines! They'll be in my heart forever. :)

Sister Pope

1) P-day! Frisbee on the beach :)

2) Our zone

3) I'm only half smiling in this picture but we got permission to go to this resort called "the hidden sea", it was super beautiful!

Week 63: BARANGAY 4

Hey everyone!  Sorry this email is a day late, the email website wasn't working for us yesterday and Sister Santos got sick so we just stayed home. But it's been a pretty good week!

The area has been a really needing more people to teach so we just went finding a lot this week and opened a new area, Barangay 4. It's our furthest area and the people there are really nice! All of them immediately let us into their house and accepted a return appointment. Filipinos are so dang nice! We're excited to come back though and keep teaching them. They live such humble lives!

Mark is doing well, he went to church on Sunday again and has completely stopped drinking coffee, but his wife STILL doesn't want him to be baptized. Which is confusing because she's an active member haha. We're going to try and focus more on families and set his baptism for sometime in November. He's sooo ready and has such a strong desire to be baptized that we know one day he will be. 

Our other focus is just a brand new family we met. Soo they might not be our focus in the next couple of weeks haha but they're really cool, the Breones family. They're really kind and the father, Felix, is really searching and loves to read so we're excited to see where he gets to in the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they progress!

Anyways that's all for this week, until next week again :) Love you all! 

Sister Pope

1) Transfer day three weeks ago with a member from Magsungay and Sister Bernolo <3 <3 <3

Week 62: BEACHES AND SUNSETS

Hey everyone! Everything's normal as usual in paradise :)

So this week was really crazy because we had MLC, then zone training, then exchanges, then conference!! We did so much so the week went by really fast. It was weird because the meetings were held in the main city on the island, where I spent 14 months of my mission! We passed by four of my areas on the way to the city haha. 

We're still working hard on finding, the problem is a lot of people here are hard workers, working in the rice fields or fishing in the ocean, so they are really tired when they get home and only want us to teach their children. We're trying to figure out a good time to catch the dads so they will listen! 

Conference was super amazing and I really learned a lot, because I'm assigned to a really small branch though, on Sunday it was literally us three sisters, the two elders, and the branch President that attended. I really enjoyed all the talks though and can't wait to apply the teachings of the living prophets in our teachings.

Earlier today we spent our p-day on a beach a bit further down the island and played frisbee.. seriously so much fun! I love the beauty of my area! 

Anyways thank you all so much for your love and support, it means so much :) Sorry I can't send pictures anymore because the computer shops here are dangerous to use our SD cards with, only if I go to Bacolod City. So I'll send pictures again in three weeks! 

Sister Pope

Week 61: :)

Hey everyone!! WOW what an awesome week! I'm serving in the most beautiful place in the world :) Sipalay lives up more to what the hype is -- it truly is beautiful and so are the people.

So I our ward has elders too, Elder Steffen and Elder Tabligan. And my two companions are Sister Santos and Sister Esteban, we're in a tri-panionship! Sister Santos was in my group of missionaries getting to the Philippines and Sister Esteban got here in October. They are so fun and I'm so excited to serve with them!

It's hard to write everything that happened this week, but even though our area is beautiful there is a LOT of work to do here, we really need to find a lot more people to teach! And it won't be a problem because there are so many awesome people here! Our focus right now is Mark, a part-member that always goes to church but his wife won't let him be baptized, we just got to do our teaching skills to find out why. He's awesome! 

Anyways I'll try to write more next week, also sorry to say this is my last email with pictures from my camera :( The computers in Sipalay are too dangerous to use with all the viruses and stuff so I'll try and find times to send pictures. Thank you so much for all your love and support!

Sister Pope

1-3) Our area!

4) This is a boat we have to take to get to one of our areas, these little 11 year old kids are in charge of them its so cute, they even let my paddle!

Week 60: SIPLAY

Hey everyone!! Well first things first, I've transferred from Sum-ag! After only six weeks in Tangub and six weeks in Sum-ag, I've already transferred again. And I transferred to Sipalay! For those of you who don't know, it's a pretty rugged part of the mission so I'll definitely be going through an adjustment. I've been in the same city though my whole mission and I'm excited to be assigned to other areas :)

This week was good, Regie is doing great. We scheduled his baptism for Oct.14 and progressing really well. We love him and his family so much! We also met this new investigator named Slash on Sunday, he just came to church because he was curious. He is sooo prepared! Sister Faiva will take good care of them :)

Anyways, that's everything for this week. We have to ride a big bus to Sipalay and leave here pretty soon so I'll update you all next week about my new area. Thank you all for the love and support!

Sister Pope

I have a lot more pictures but they're all on my usb which is packed in my suitcase so I'll just send them next time :)

1) The mountain in Sum-ag, it was sooo clear outside!  I absolutely love mountains 

2) This is called "butong", it's a soft, young coconut and a lot of people here eat it as snack food. You drink the coconut water on the inside then scoop out the white inside, it's super yummy

3) We ran out of gas on Sunday and luckily had charcoal in our apartment so we just cooked our food from charcoal, it's what like everybody does here. It was super fun and I feel like when I go on a camping trip in the future I could make some gourmet filipino camping meals

4) This cat always hangs out by our house and for any of you who know me, you know I feed it all the time. The other sisters don't like it though so I have to feed him secretly haha

Week 59: ULAN

Hello everyone!!! This week was pretty rainy. Rain in ilonggo = ulan. That's always rough since we hand wash our clothes and they need to air dry, sometimes we'll do our laundry and when it rains for a long time, it'll be three days and they haven't dried yet! To be fair I'm pretty sure nothing actually gets ~dry~ here in the tropical climate but the clothes are still to wet to wear. That's when we have to get creative and put our clothes on electric fans to dry. Fun stuff!

This week was a lot better since I wasn't sick anymore, we were able to work a lot and meet some cool people. We met this lady who really wants to be taught since she said she's scared of her religion. We later found out that she's a part of a cult! It was actually really creepy because she'd describe how their "church" went and we just taught about Jesus Christ and the Restoration and hope the spirit worked something in her. 

Jenelyn and Goselle from Tangub ward are getting married and baptized on Saturday! I'm soooo excited for them. It really is special being a missionary and being a part of their teaching. They're so amazing!

Other than that our focus right now is Regie and his family. He has a lot of friends at church so we're just really trying to get his family to come with him and his grandparents. He's so sweet though and is really attentive in lessons. We really hope him and his family will progress!

Well that's all for this week, thank you all for the love!!

Sister Pope

1) This is nanay Peralta's son Troy when he was baptized last week, he's so cute!

2) Our district leader, Elder Fernandez, and his companion, Elder Baldoza. His umbrella is so girly we were all dying laughing when we left district meeting

3) Sebastian! He's doing great. 

Week 57: TAGALOG

Kamusta kamu!! another week in sum-ag.

This week was really good, President Barredo gave special training to our zone about priorities in the mission and I learned a lot. We are so blessed to have such a guided President in our mission! He seriously loves all of us like his children. 

The week was alright, we didn't really find anyone cool haha but we received a ~lot~ of referrals from members last week that we'll be following up on this week! We're really excited. Also a lot of the old ladies in the ward love going up to me and holding my hand. A lot of them say I have really soft hands! 

We have a lot of progressing investigators right now but not a lot that are progressing quickly. They won't really commit themselves to a specific date for baptism but they are always going to church and reading the Book of Mormon. We're really hoping to see the Holy Ghost help them out here!

We're just keeping doing what we're doing and trying to be worthy of receiving miracles :) Thanks to you all for the love!! 

Sister Pope

1) Nanay Peralta invited us over and made me eat this entire plate of little cakes. She is making me gain weight!!!!

2) This is a cat that lives by one of our investigators, Brother Mitoy. I give this a cat a different name every time we're there, but right now it's "Sebastian" and it's seemed to start sticking

3-5) These are the people I love getting baptized :)) Sister Bernolo and Sister Fawcett sent me their pictures. The first is Mark and Kenjie, then sister Jessivelle, then Anthony. I'm so happy for them!!!

Week 58: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas everyone!!! It's already Christmas in the Philippines :) There are multiple people in we're teaching right now that already have Christmas lights up on their house and it's all on the radio. Tis the season!!

Actually this week was REALLY rough in terms of health haha.. On Tuesday night I got reeeeeally sick.. like I've never been sick like this before in my life. It was after this meeting with President and we finished in the mission office. I realized I was starting to get a fever but I didn't think much of it, but later on I had the feeling that I really needed to throw up. I couldn't ride the Tangub jeepney to get home so I just laid down on the couch while all the missionaries left to go home. The elders gave me a priesthood blessing and right at the end of the blessing, I got up and sprinted to the bathroom and threw up. And didn't stop until Thursday! I couldn't keep ANYTHING down, bread, rice, even water! I was throwing everything up and if I hadn't stopped when it did, I would've had to been admitted to the hospital. But it did stop! I did something to my stomach though from vomiting so much that I could only eat rice, and only very small amounts so I wasn't strong enough to walk. It was just a really frustrating week, we only worked on Saturday and Sunday. I'm happy to say though that I've recovered and I'm all better now. :) We don't know what the culprit was but the nurse is surprised it went away so fast. Blessings!

Anyways that was pretty much my week haha, next week will be more interesting :) Thanks every one for the love and support, it means the world!

Sister Pope

Week 56: NANAY PERALTA

Hello everyone!! Another week. haha.

So we saw a lot of good progress this week! We saw some efforts from the endless finding we did and have found three families to teach! One of them is the Enfectada family and they're super receptive and kind, they sell chicken joy in a not really busy place so we can go there to teach them whenever and they give us free fried chicken. Another is this part-member family, the Senarosa family, but only the dad is the member. We began teaching them again, they were taught by the missionaries a while ago but never progressed. One of the teenage daughters though says that she believes what we teach because she prayed about it and received an answer to her prayer! Hopefully they'll progress too. Last family is friends with this old nanay in our ward, nanay Semblante. We met them earlier this week and then one of the kids, Reygie, came to church with her on Sunday! The dad is really nice so hopefully we'll be able to return to them too. 

The bright side of this week has been Nanay Peralta. I love her so much. I call her mom haha. She lets us come over whenever and eat and she just loves the missionaries. 

In other good news in Tangub (my previous area) Anthony was baptized! And Jenelyn and Goselle are still set for September. And in great news in Magsungay, not sure if you remember them, but Cherry Mae, Mark and Kenjie were finally baptized! We taught them for such a long time and they finally made the commitment. They have made SOOO many changes in their lives and are so amazing. I'm so happy for all of them and their change :) 

Anyways thank you all for the love and support, I love you all! 

Sister Pope

1) This is what most of our area looks like.. we got really lost here haha

2) FHE with the Tangub sisters :) 

3) It was James (the one wearing the yellow) birthday on Friday so I made a kilo of spaghetti!! That's a lot fyi

4) Nanay Peralta and her husband... I love them SO MUCH!! 

Week 55: FOREVER FINDING

Hey everyone!! This was the longest week of my life. Haha. So basically sister Faiva and I were white washed in Sum-ag (I was only there for two weeks before the transfer and did NOT learn the area) and when we got the area book: three sheets in the new and others section and two sheets in the former investigators section!!! So we're starting from scratch. We spent seven hours a day this week just finding. Aaand we pretty much found nothing! But it's okay, we're just keeping up the work and we'll know more with the follow up visits this next week.

Another problem is the members never worked with the missionaries so basically we have no clue where they've been visiting or where their investigators were. It's an adventure! We're teaching a lot of cool people right now though and hopefully we'll see some progression in them! 

Honestly really nothing happened this week except us walking for a long time and talking to the most random people ever but it was a rewarding week as usual because we were doing missionary work :) 

Thanks everyone for the love!! 

Sister Pope

1) Sister Faiva and I!

2) The river that splits our area

Week 54: TRANSFERS!!!

This has been crazy!! I got transferred!! I've been in Tangub for only one transfer but I've now been transferred to Sum-ag, which is the ward we've taken over. I had to leave Anthony, Jenelyn and Gosel and it's SOOO sad but I'm so excited to work here in Sum-ag, it's an amazing area! 

My new companions is Sister Faiva and she's an islander and SUPER nice, she's been in the mission for four transfers now and we're really excited to work together! Also I'll just be living in the same house as the Tangub sisters so I'll see Sister Fawcett every day anyways :) 

I'm really short on time but I'm excited to work 100% now in Sum-ag!!! Next week pictures.. I don't know how this computer works hahaha.

Sister Pope

Week 53: WEDDING PAPERS

I really can't believe I though last week was crazy. This week literally was SO INSANE trying to get around two areas!!! BUT it's been great! Lots of miracles this week.

So Sum-ag is a GOLDEN area. The sisters there have seven progressing investigators with baptismal dates! It's really amazing. And they were all at church on Sunday! They really have embraced the gospel and are really just waiting for us to teach the lessons to them. One of the investigators is Sabrina and she has been going to church continuously for a year now, the only problem is she needs to get married to her husband. They though for the longest time that they needed certain requirements for their marriage that they wouldn't be able to get and nobody ever really looked into it. BUT! I had a wedding in my first area and know alllll about that stuff! So in reality, they already have half the requirements and they're getting the rest of them this week. They're getting married on the 26th :) we're so excited for them! 

In Tangub, our investigators are doing well. Anthony's doing awesome! He's really trying to quit smoking and quit coffee and alcohol cold turkey. He was actually pretty disappointed when we told him we had to move his baptismal date but now he's really doing his best to qualify himself. He's awesome! And then Jenelyn and Gosel!!!! They both went to church on Sunday! Gosel's work schedule has changed!!! They can get married!! We're soooo excited for them :) Hopefully by the end of September everything will be put together for them. 

The biggest miracle this week was Maryjane and Maryjoy. We visited them last week and actually it turns out their baptismal date was for the 6th, so they entered the waters of baptism on Sunday! They are SO prepared. Apparently they've been going to church for two months now, they've wanted to be baptized for awhile but they said the sisters just stopped going to them, even though they were still reading the book of mormon and going to church. They're so golden! And then their father, Romero, has SUCH a desire to be baptized but he has a pretty bad past, he's working on the road to repentance so he can too one day make a covenant with God. He's stopped all his vices and doesn't talk to any of his old gang members but we're going to need permission from the First Presidency for him to be baptized :/ We'll work on it! 

Anyways we're trying to be positive all the time and not focus on the stress of taking on two areas because, in reality, this has been a huge blessing for us. The people here are so prepared and you can really see it's coming from their own desire to come closer to God. So blessed! 

Thank you all for the love :) 

Sister Pope

1) Maryjane and Maryrose with their father, Tatay Romero. They're all so amazing!

2) This is from last week when the Elders broke down our door... classic