Week 41: MOTHER'S DAY

Hey everyone, Happy Mother's day! This is all I'll send this week, just wanted you all to know that I love you all and I love my mom! This week was really good and Magsungay is awesome as usual. Thank you all for your love and support!

Sister Pope

family skype :)

Week 40: BROWN OUT

Hey everyone!! Another really good week :)

Sherwin came to church! And Ernesto helped a lot of the people we're teaching come to church too! They really enjoyed it and even participated a lot in gospel principles. Afterwards when we taught them they made all of this food because Sherwin said it was the first time he had ever been to church when someone wasn't forcing him to. I don't know why he wanted to celebrate but we were happy to participate in the celebration. We've really seen his understanding change and he's really interested in learning more. Yey!

I had my first MLC this week! We learned a lot from the trainings and ate lots of food and ice cream. It was a good experience but by the end of it Sister Bernolo and I were itching to get back to our area. We just love all of our investigators right now!! 

We're focusing on finding a few investigators that have fallen under the radar or just haven't had the time to go to so we'll be busy busy busy. 

Oh yeah! When we came home on Friday there was a brown-out in our whole barangay so we had to walk home in the total dark and Sister Bernolo was sooo scared. I kept telling her that the "white lady" was behind her ("white lady" is like some kind of monster here that's in a lot of movies). She was running home because she was so scared hahaha. We had to do accounting and updating by candelight though since it took two and a half hours for the power to come back on. You never realize how much you need and electrical fan until the power goes out...

It's been another good week though and I love the work. Love you all!! Salamat gid sa inyo pagpalangga sakun, palangga ko gid kamu tanan :) 

Sister Pope

1) Sister Ducado my follow-up trainer at MLC!!! I missed her so much

2) Sister Bernolo is teaching me how to play the guitar. this picture is just really funny because we knew only like a second before that it was being taken haha

3) Combined district meeting! because no more zone training haha

4) Coming home after the brown-out

Week 39: SHERWIN

Hey everyone!! This week was soooo good, there were so many miracles and we met a lot of really cool people :)

We've had a lot of members working with us lately and it just makes such a difference in teaching and helps the investigators sooo much more. We had members working with us every day this week! Every member a missionary people. 

We're teaching this little girl named Lublub and her family and she's soooo cute. She loves it when we come over and wants to go to teaching with us so we told her if she read a chapter in 1 Nephi and explain it to us she could come. She did AND explained it perfectly. She's just a kid and wants to be a missionary so bad haha. Her mother Dalia is super sweet and her dad is too, we're really hoping they progress in the next couple of weeks :) 

We met SUCH a cool investigator last week! His name is Sherwin and he was a referral from Ernesto. We went over to his house randomly and he let us in and gave us juice and bread and had soo many questions. When we taught about prophets he was so surprised and really wanted to know what the prophet is teaching in our day. And then when we taught him about the Book of Mormon he was so excited to read it! We gave him an assignment to just read the introduction and we always write a question down for them to think about as they read and he wrote his answer down on a piece of paper!! He's so cool and is super pumped to go to church on Sunday. He's 25 years old though and at home for the summer, he just finished his schooling to be a Seaman. We're really excited to teach him again since he has so many cool questions.

Taught a lot of doctrine this week from the Bible about how we can eat blood now and that Jesus Christ created the Earth and saw a lot of changes of heart. A lot of people here are a part of this religion where they think they can't eat blood so it was cool to see people get answers to their questions through the scriptures. 

Other than that, life is great here. We're talking to so many people and are just really busy. I love all the families we're teaching right now and I really hope they progress! Although I'm really scared I'll be transferred in three weeks.. we're just working hard and planting planting planting. 

Thank you all for your love and support, it means the world :)

Sister Pope

1) This is Lub2x, she's sooo freakin cute

2) We found Mark and Kenjie with a bunch of their friends playing football in the middle of a potato field so we stayed there for a couple minutes to cheer them on haha

3) Mark and Elmer came to work with us!! Such great members

4) The Esturco family, recent converts from Christmas. It was their baby Mia's birthday so we went over to celebrate. I love this family sooo much and they're so excited to go to the temple one day!

4) Elder Young and Elder Balledos, the elders in our ward and the AP's. They're the sweetest :)

5) Lub2x tried to give me this bird in the middle of a lesson... it's her "baby" 

6) This is mango that hasn't ripened yet with soy sauce and salt. It's really popular here and super gross. SOOO sour and super duper spicy with the soy sauce they use. Members always buy it for me because they think my face looks so funny when I eat it haha it's so sour!

Week 38: JED

Another good week!!! Lots of miracles as usual and lots of nice people we've met :)

We really got to work and have 43 new investigators for this week!! They're all so cool and we're excited to come back to them. Teaching here really is such a blessing, especially with how kind everyone is and how receptive they all are, hopefully we'll be able to touch some hearts :)

We got chased by a guy doing drugs on Thursday! We were on our way home and we always have to commute by taking jeepneys so we were crossing through central market and this guy was doing drugs and started following us. Sister Bernolo came in to the rescue, she grabbed my arm and we literally sprinted the whole way to the Mansilingan jeepney to take us home haha. Adventures!!!! 

One of Raniel's cousins, Bless, hasn't been allowed to come to church or listen to us for the longest time but she has wanted to be taught and go to church for sooo long and her mom finally let her go on Sunday!! She didn't tell us, she just showed up to church wearing a pink dress and came with Raniel's sister Jana. We were so surprised and happy!! Her mother's heart is starting to be softened :)

Ernesto received the priesthood on Sunday! Ahmed said he can't yet because he dyed his hair and is so embarrassed by the color that he doesn't want the bishop and counselors to put their hands on his head haha. We visited him after church though and is trying to get the dye out. Oh Ahmed.

Last thing I'll talk about is Jed. He works for our landlord and is really nice. I've only lived in one apartment the whole time I've been in the Philippines so I've known Jed for almost eight months!! We don't have a lot of time to talk to him since he's always busy doing land work but we talked to him the other day and finally invited him to listen to the missionaries. He says he'd love to and he wants to go to church! Talk about that long-time BRT. We're excited for him though. He's in the boundary of my first area though so I'll just give updates every now and then haha.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a good week!! I love being a missionary and I love all the people I've met out here. Thanks as always to you all for you love and support :)

Sister Pope

1) Sister Bernolo and I after district meeting

2) Esturco kids, I love them sooooo much :)

3) This may look gross but it's what I eat like everyday and it's soooo good. Spam, corned beef and noodles. (of course, with rice)

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