Week 37: CALLINGS

Hey everyone!!! It's been a really good week, lots of good things happened and we just had fun with the work :)

We had two FHE's this week with a big investigator family and another one at a member's house and Ernesto, Ahmed, and their friends came to join. They were both so much fun and definitely helped with their testimonies. Most importantly they both involved lots of good food (spaghetti, nachos, fried chicken...) Love FHE's though, we're trying to have one every week so hopefully we'll be able to keep that up!

Sunday was such an awesome day! I'm just thankful for the members in their participation in helping the RC's feel welcomed. Raniel gave the invocation in church AND Elmer received a calling!! He's the 2nd counselor of the Young Men and we're soooo excited for him to have a calling and make new friends. He's already so excited! Also two of our investigators, Mark and Kenji, came to church on Sunday! We were so surprised because they're usually so obnoxious in the lessons but they came wearing nice clothes! They really enjoyed it though and said they wanted to come back next week. They're super sweet though and we teach them with their best friend, Ivan, who is a member of a family we're teaching right now. Hopefully they'll all be able to go next Sunday!

Other than that, it's been a pretty normal week. I'm really excited for this transfer and see what Sister Bernolo and I can accomplish in the time that we're given. Thanks everyone for your love and support :) Talk to you all next week!

Sister Pope

1) FHE at the members house with Ernesto and his friends. So fun!!

2) Mark and Kenji at church!!! We were so surprised

3) This is just Daniel being aborable. I love this kid so much!!

4) A member gave us this when we came to teach.. it was a mixture of oatmeal, rice, brown sugar, potatoes and these colored ball things. It was actually alright

5) Elmer just hanging out in the Clerk office after their YM presidency meeting... we're sooo proud of him

Week 36: CONFERENCE

Maayong hapon sa inyo tanan :)) This was a really amazing week -- we saw lots of miracles and really saw the Lord's hand in helping our RC's and investigators come nearer to Him. I'll just get right to it:

Update: I'm completely recovered from whatever sickness I got last week, but apparently I gave it to two other missionaries in my district. Whoops! Those handshakes will get ya. I was happy to help them know what medicines would help and what they should do when they felt a certain sickness. 

Teaching this week was just fun. There's this family we're teaching and we just love them and going over to teach them and they love us too. They always give us snacks and juice and the mom makes everyone in the family come into their small living space to listen to us. They're progressing really slowly, but progressing. They tell all their friends that come over that they're planning on joining the church so we've figured that's a good sign. We have FHE with them tomorrow with the Elders and we're excited to spend some time with them since the dad will be able to come too (he usually has work and isn't there during the day). Should be fun!

Ernesto and Ahmed were baptized this week and it was just a really awesome experience. We've really seen the blessings from the missionary trainings we've received from the First Presidency about investigators for those two. The First Presidency has really been focusing on repentance and how it's the center of all of our teachings and they were the first ones we tried a new angle on teaching with trying to center all the lessons on the aspect of repentance. Seriously we saw the great effect it had on them as people as they began to keep commitments and make big changes in their lives. They haven't smoked in over a month and come to church extra early so they make sure they'll partake of the sacrament. It's just been such a blessing to see how Heavenly Father has changed their lives into lives that love Him and are willing to follow Him and we're excited to see how they grow in the church!

Conference was on Saturday and Sunday (we get it a week later than you guys) and it was super amazing. Loved the talks about missionary work, especially the member of the Seventy who was a convert and his change of heart to join the church. Elmer and Raniel really liked that talk too and really enjoyed all of conference. I was actually reeeaally impressed with how much they understood because seriously I've known these guys for three months and they really cannot understand English on TV or when I speak but they really understood the messages given in conference. It's called the Spirit!! It's so real and has really helped build their testimonies. I really enjoyed the talk from Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a line he said really stuck to me. I'm just paraphrasing, but it was something like Heavenly Father doesn't want us to just change our behavior, but our nature. This life isn't an accumulation of the rights and wrongs we've done but it's more of who we've become through Christ's sacrifice and love. 

Anyways, thank you all for your love and support! I really do feel it and am grateful for my opportunity to be here. I love the Philippines :)

Sister Pope

1) a couple kids swimming in the ocean near an investigators house. They LOVED that I was taking pictures of them haha

2) We just walked by this, it was drawn onto the side of a house and I thought it was cute

3) These are the people Sister Ducado and I taught in Bacolod 2nd!!! They came to General Conference and were so reverent. It was so good to see them again! Love the Basketball Boys

4) Ernesto and Ahmed :) not sure if I ever explained but Ernesto is Ahmed's uncle so it was a cute family moment at their baptism. Ernesto takes really good care of Ahmed and we're so proud of the example he's become for Ahmed and his other neices and nephews 

Week 35: SICK

Hey everyone! Here's the latest update of the Sister Pope-getting-sick-with-a-mystery-disease. I got sick last p-day and had to stay in most of the week since I had a fever for a while but I'm all healed now! It's really interesting, it's never as fun as you think it might be to be sick on the mission staying home. Instead you just go crazy thinking about your investigators and how you should be out teaching them. I was able to get out and work this week though!

Ernesto and Ahmed are great. They came to church earlier than most of the members on Sunday and are super excited for their baptism this week. I was worried since we hadn't been able to teach them at all that week that maybe they'd change their minds or something haha but they're all good and ready as usual. So proud of them!

Not much else happened this week but I'm grateful for the investigators that act on their testimonies and try to find answers for themselves. I've been thinking about how precious our time is here and how we can't waste any time with the work we've been given since there are people out there searching for answers. Transfers are next week so I reeeaaallly hope I get to stay in Magsungay for another transfer! I love everyone here so much and have learned so much. 

Anyways, thanks to you all for your love and support, it means the world! Hope you all enjoyed conference, I'll still wait another week to watch it :) Love you all! 

Sister Pope

1)​​ Me and Sister Bernolo with Christian, Ernesto and Ahmed

2) FHE at a members house! 

3) Christian, Ernesto and Ahmed... it literally took like five minutes for them to take their hands off their faces and stop being shy and this was the best picture I could get of them

Week 34: INIT GID

Hey everyone!!! This week has been SO HOT. The aircon in the computer shop is broken... It's just so dang hot. The fan is just not cutting it anymore and I wake up in the middle of the night from how hot it is and just put my face right in front of the fan until I feel sleepy again. Pray that I won't get a boil again... they come from hot weather like this haha

This week was really good and fun, I did exchanges to Bacolod 2nd, my first area!!! Man it was sooo much fun being back. I didn't want to be annoying and visit investigators from when I was there but Sister Harsh who's assigned there right now surprised me at the end by going to Laurel and visiting the Basketball Boys!!!!! Man it was literally like a family reunion and they were all like "POPE!!!". I really love them so much!! And they're doing so great with everything, they were so proud to tell me how they're still reading the Libro Ni Mormon and going to church.. they're just really special. Mom gave us food (of course) and we said goodbye again.. probably until I go home. Man I'll miss them a lot!

We met a lot of new people this week and our investigators are doing well. Ernesto and Ahmed are set for April 8th to be baptized and are soo excited and ready. They have totally stopped smoking and the little kids tell us if they have or not and they've been clean for sooo long now! They just really want to change :) We're so excited for them!

That was pretty much the whole week, I can't believe how fast the transfer is going! Hopefully I have another transfer in Magsungay, I just love it so much here. Anyways thank you all for your love and support! It means the world :)

Sister Pope

1) Basketball Boys!!!! 

2) These crazy kids always join at the beginning of lessons with Ernesto and his friends

3-4) FHE with the Esturco family! Bro. Ibao, a member, Beverly, and Raniel joined us 

5) Daniel.. I love this kid so much!!! He put his little hair into a bun on the top of his head like Elmer haha

Week 33: SAKO GID

Hey everyone!! Today was a good week but now that I'm sitting here I really can't put into words every small thing that happened.. but I'll try:

We've been SO busy lately. We've really done some finding and have so many investigators right now that we have a hard time getting all of them in a week and getting home before 9.30, which is really awesome. We've meet so many cool people and so many weird people, it's all good fun. Update on water mom: her husband isn't letting her go to church but she sent her children to go since he technically didn't say they couldn't go haha. She really wants to come to church! Hopefully her husband's heart will be softened. 

We had mission tour this week and received training from Elder Schmutz, the area presidency. He's really knowledgeable of the scriptures and I learned so much on how to more effectively teach. Repentance really is key to us preparing ourselves to make covenants with our Heavenly Father.  The training was extra awesome because I got to see my companion from the MTC, Sister Gonzales. Love her SO MUCH!!

Our other investigators have been progressing really well and we're really excited for this next week, we have members working with us every day! Which is not easy.. I had to bribe them with piaya but they will work! Every member a missionary..

That's all for this week though :) Thank you all for your love and support! 

Sister Pope

1) Elmer, Nanay Elma, and Raniel in their Sunday best... I literally almost cried when they walked up wearing polos and ties. 

2) Two members joined us teaching, Joel is the boy and he NEVER goes teaching so this was our photographic evidence to show to bishop that he came with us haha

3) Sister Gonzales and I at mission tour!

Week 32: WATER MOM

Hey everyone! This week was really good :) Sister Bernolo and I are teaching a lot of new people and really learning how great and prepared our area is! I'll get right to it:

We've tried this thing for finding that when we see somebody carrying water we offer to help them take it to their house. Most people here don't have running water in their house so they get all their water for showering/doing laundry from a well. Usually it's children who have to fetch these big buckets of water so they usually let us take them. Needless to say, my skirts have gotten soaked this week but we've found a lot of really cool people that want us to teach them from it! We met one and forgot her mom's name so our plan in our planner was "water mom" for about two days. Her name is Jennifer and is pretty cool, but we still write "water mom" in our planner for fun.

The group of boys we're teaching are doing really well, they enjoyed church this week and they like how we take the sacrament every week. There's a religion here that takes it only once a year but they said they feel the Spirit more through partaking the sacrament. They shared in gospel principles about the Book of Mormon too and are progressing really well. Ernesto and Ahmed stopped smoking yesterday too! They're doing great and have been really sincere :)

Other than that, things have been great. I've really felt my Ilonggo skills getting better and I can have conversations with people and really understand most of what they're saying. I've been working on my Ilonggo accent and it freaks some people out aha.. they're like "taga diin ka gid?? nagdaku ka ba sa pil ipinas??" which means like "where are you really from? did you grow up in the philippines?" haha. They're so nice and I've jut learned so much from these people. I'm really excited for the rest of the transfer and see how our investigators progress.

Thank you all for the love and support! It means the world. Missions are the best.

Sister Pope

1,2) This is Daniel. I love this kid so much! He showed up to church with his grandma wearing a tie way too big for him and this nametag. So cute!!

3) Raniel wore a polo to church which is a BIG deal.. he's way too shy to wear one to church but he just showed up with the polo and a tie. He's seriously so awesome! Bishop told him he'll pass the sacrament next Sunday :) 

4) A sweet potato field in our area. We love walking by it but hate it too because the ocean wind comes really strong across there and makes our skirts fly all over the place haha. It's not fun

Week 31: ELMER

Maayong hapon sa inyo :) This week was really awesome so I'll just get right to it:

Sister Bernolo is my new companion! She's really sweet and cool and I already love her. She's super patient with me and already loves our investigators. Also she is really good at speaking English but uses Ilonggo around me. We're also batch going home! So no matter what I'll get to hang out with her again when we go home :)

Elmer's baptism was awesome. He was so really prepared and cried when he bore his testimony (he says he didn't but he did) and Raniel, his half-brother, baptized him. After he was baptized, he came teaching with us and really shared a powerful testimony to one of our investigators that's struggling with word of wisdom and deciding if he should change now. He's just so cool.. both of them are already talking about serving a mission. They're awesome :)

We're teaching a big group of boys right now and they're all pretty cool, we've really seen their sincerity and they're having to make a LOT of changes in their life. Most of them are under the age of 20 and are all smoking, drinking and not in school but they really want to change and working really hard to stop their vices. They're so cool!

So time is just going really fast on the mission.. next transfer I'll only have nine months left of my mission. That's insane! I still feel like I just got here. Really trying to take advantage of my time here and doing everything we can to teach and find!! Missions really are such a blessing. Thanks everyone for your love and support! 

Sister Pope

1) Sister Bernolo and I!!

2,3,4) Elmer's baptism :) he's really so amazing. 

5) These kids join in our lessons with the boys we're teaching and they're all super cute and ALWAYS want to take pictures