Week 45: SIOMIT

Maayong hapon everyone :) this was another really good and busy week. 

First, school has started again which means we have to change the way we proselyte. Before we didn't have to set any appointments and we'd just go over to investigator's houses but now so many people are busy with school and work that we're having to set up like every appointment. We're trying to get on top of that time management. BUT our investigators are doing great.

Sherwin is really excited for his baptism this Saturday. We had a conference at the Stake center which is kind of far away but Sherwin and Ernesto all came as usual. They're awesome! Small point about Ernesto: he has not missed a Sunday since Sister Bernolo came to Magsungay. He's so awesome and is such an example to his friends. They're great! This week should be cool.

Sister Jessivelle and her family are doing awesome too. She said she dreamed the other day that someone told her to go to where she is happy. She told is she prays every night if she should be baptized and she said after she dreamed that., she thought of Sister Bernolo and I. THEN she went to sleep again AND DREAMED THE SAME EXACT THING!! I don't know about you but that sounds like an answer to me. We've set a date for them in July and are really hoping they progress well!

MLC was this week and we learned a lot of cool things and ate a lot of good food. Obedience was the main focus and we talked about how obedience shows that we know the gospel is true and that we love Christ. Which is true! We won't break the commandments is we have a strong testimony and love Christ. 

Anyways that's all for this week, thanks everyone for the love :) means the world! palangga gid ko kamu tanan :)

Sister Pope

1) The awkward batch picture at MLC where I'm the only sister in our batch there and have to stand awkwardly in the front... 

2) Elder Prangan and Sister Fawcett!! My two favorite people that transferred out of the zone :((

3-4) Sister Ramiro and I did exchanges on Wednesday to plan for zone training and we just went to Magsungay when we were done and taught Sherwin and friends. The second picture is with Sherwin's mom who we're also teaching, they're all just so awesome!

5) This was at an investigators house. We'd never been inside before but he let us is that day since it was raining out really hard and he raises beta fish for a living! He has seriously hundreds of glass gatorade bottles with one beta fish in each bottle. I'll try to get a better picture next time because it's SO COOL

6) Stake conference with Sherwin and Ernesto and friends!! 

7) THE BASKETBALL BOYS!!!!! They were at conference too and I literally almost cried seeing all of them. They're still progressing so well :'))

Week 44: POWER OF READING

Hey everyone :)) There were soo many miracles this week I don't know where to start.. I just want to say that the Book of Mormon has such great power to change lives.

First, lets start with Sherwin. He's had a rough time receiving an answer to his prayers about Joseph Smith and started doubting if he'd ever receive an answer so we asked him to read 3 Nephi 11 that night and pray to know if what he read was true. When we came back the next day he said he read it and felt something he hadn't felt before and really felt as though what he read actually happened. We then assigned him that next night to read Alma 32 and he read it again!! We didn't see him until church that Sunday and he told us in sacrament meeting he wanted to bare his testimony because he finally knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet because he knows the Book of Mormon is true. We're so happy for him and have extended him baptism again for June 17th and he's accepted. We know he's qualified himself and he's so ready :) 

Miracle number two was with one of the families we've been teaching for over three months now. They love the lessons and have a desire to be baptized but have never been to church UNTIL yesterday!! The mom, Jessivelle, came with her two daughters and Mark and Kenjie came too! Kenjie has been going out teaching with us just to see what missionary work is like and it's really changed him.. they all enjoyed church on Sunday and are making plans to go to church again. The mom's sister lives with her in their house and was to shy to go to church with them but she's reading the Book of Mormon every day. She told us that she was to shy to go because earlier that morning she was reading the Book of Mormon and one of their neighbors walked by their house and made fun of her for even listening to us. That lesson we taught about the tree of life and the how the people in the great and spacious building laughed at those who partook of the fruit, and we can choose to either follow them or follow Christ. Needless to say, she said she chooses Christ and will continue to read :) We know that their whole family will make it to church one day!

Other than that, a lot of amazing little things have happened this week that I couldn't possibly write everything but I just know for a certainty that God answers prayers and can answer them through the Book of Mormon. I know this gospel is the gospel that Christ established and we are so blessed to live in this dispensation. The Book of Mormon has the power to soften hearts and answer prayers and contains the fullness of the gospel. Just an amazing week and we're looking forward to these next couple weeks :) Thank you everyone for the love and support! 

Sister Pope

1) This adorable little girl's name is Apple.. she lives next door to sister Jessivelle

2) This is Lub2x brother Dave.. he had this huge stick and was knocking down these things of cotton from the tree so he could make a pillow

3-4) Jessivelle, her daughters, and Mark and Kenije after church :)) They all went to all three hours!! love them so much

Week 43: POWER OF PRAYER

Hey everyone!!! 

Today was a reeeally cool week for our investigators.. I'll just get right to it;

We're teaching this guy named Nelson right now and he's super cool. He's a referral from a member and is stuck in a wheelchair since he got sick somehow when he was at work in Manila so now he's recovering in Bacolod. He met the missionaries in the 90's and was interested but then he moved and never followed up on it. But we've started teaching him again and he's soo cool. He's had a hard time lately and has been a little depressed but we shared the first part of lesson three with him about faith and it really affected him. He said he prayed later that night to know that Heavenly Father loved him and was taking care of him and then the next day in his therapy he stood for seven whole minutes!!! He could barely sit up in his wheelchair before and now he's already standing. He's progressing so well though and keeps saying how excited he is to go to church as soon as he "graduates" from his wheelchair. We love Nelson and know that Heavenly Father is helping him recover.

Sherwin is doing good too, he's really intrigued about prophets and apostles but has a hard time believing if Joseph Smith was really a prophet. We asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon or praying about it and he said no. We spent the whole lesson teaching that if we want answers to our questions we need to have action too and he seemed really inspired. He really is progressing well and enjoys church, he goes every Sunday with Ernesto. We're hoping he'll receive an answer to his prayer!

As for me, the rainy season is moving in and I don't own an umbrella but I'm definitely buying one later today. This week we were just walking in the pouring rain and the people here were freaking OUT that there was an American walking around the streets in the rain without an umbrella. needless to say  we had a lot of people offering me an umbrella and a lot of teaching opportunities came from it. on second thought maybe I won't buy a new umbrella haha.

Just a lot of good stuff happened this week. A lot of bad stuff happened too but all the good stuff makes it ok haha. We're just chugging along doing the work. Thanks everyone for the love, it means the world.

Sister Pope

if you can believe it I didn't take a single picture this week. pretty lame but next week I'll have some

Week 42: NO TRANSFERS

Hey everyone!!! Today is great because it's transfer day and I didn't transfer!!!! I get to stay in Magsungay!!! I'm sooo happy I get to stay here, I have a feeling that this will be my favorite area haha. 

This week was good, we met a lot of cool people and a lot of members brought new people to church so our teaching pool just keeps growing. Just so you all know, this is not how the whole mission is, Magsungay just has magic and is an amazing area. Also we taught these people earlier this week randomly and they came to church! It's this 14 year old named Kenny and his best friend Cor-cor. They came in their pajamas so they wouldn't be late haha. Love the people here.

Mother's Day was great and I loved being able to talk to my family, they have all grown up so much! Especially my nephews. Love my family!

That's pretty much all for this week, I'm so glad I have another 6 weeks in Magsungay and with Sister Bernolo, we're going to get so much done! Love you all :)

Sister Pope

1) Service project!! We cleaned up a elementary school in this little town and painted all their chalkboards

2) The street where our apartment is, we wait here everyday for a Mansilingan jeepney to go to our area

3) This adorable kid named Mac-mac! He has such long hair and punches people so much but is really cute

4) This is Terrance. Every time she sees us she asks for pamphlets. I might've talked about her before.. but this time we gave her a Book of Mormon haha. Maybe her parents are reading what we're giving her so we're planning on figuring out where they live someday

5) This cute little girl was staring at me from the table for a solid seven minutes in the middle of a lesson

6-8) Budel fight!!! Before, and then the aftermath. It's where you eat from a banana leaf with tons of people. This was our lunch on Sunday, so good! And so much fun. You really fight people to get rice and sud-an haha

9) Elmer does this alll the time, he'll put on my glasses and then talk in an old man voice haha it's annoying but funny too

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!