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

Week 52: SUM-AG

This week was CRAZY. So many things happened! I don't even know how to explain all of it! 

So first things first.. the sisters in our neighboring area, Sum-ag, were pulled out last minute from their area. The sister was with a short-term so the sister just got transferred and then we were with her short-term, Sister Bernades, for two days. TWO DAYS to learn their area!!!!! They just came to our house and dropped her off then President Barredo called us telling us that Sister Fawcett and I were now in charge of two areas! Tangub is already a very large area but with Sum-ag it reaches both borders of two different zones. It's crazy! We're not really sure why but now we have to go to church twice in one Sunday haha. It all works though because Sum-ag's sacrament meeting is at 9am and Tangub's is at 11am. We have a LOT of work to do!

I locked our keys in the house on Tuesday. We didn't have a spare. The owner of the house didn't have a spare. We decided to just figure it out later in the day since we just wanted to work. An AMAZING recent convert named Jayco came to work with us and theeennnn there was a typhoon! Even our umbrellas couldn't protect us so then we were soaking wet and the roads flooded SUPER deep and then we remembered we couldn't get into our house! We called the office elders and they said they had a key to our house but when they got there it was the wrong key. Great! What they ended us doing is they literally broke the door down and we had to sleep with a couch barrier against the door so nobody could get in haha. Great day! 

Anthony's doing amazing. We taught him Word of Wisdom on Saturday and he has a lot of vices but wants to stop them all. We're moving his baptismal date to the end of August but we're really hopeful it will go through. 

Also we met these two amazing girls, Maryjane and Maryjoy, in Sum-ag area. They're progressing really well! We'll continue to visit them as well this coming week. 

Although this week was CRAZY stressful... especially learning an entire area in only two days but I read a really cool part in the Old Testament that I felt applied to me in Joshua. Moses had just passed away (translated) and Joshua was called to fill his place. I can only imagine how overwhelmed he felt to take care of all the children of Israel, be the one to lead them into Canaan, and lead them all in war. The Lord spoke to him words of comfort in Joshua 1:9, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." So.. even though our area is really big now I felt the words of comfort that were also given to Joshua... that is to "be strong and of a good courage." I know He is with us every step of the way in this work and will take care of us and the people in these areas!

I love you all and thank you all for your support :)

Sister Pope

no pictures this week sorry the computer is hecka sketchy

Week 51: MIRACLES

Man this week was great! We definitely saw the work move forward and are excited for August. 

Jenelyn and Gosel's marriage papers are expired! They have to do everything all over again! It seems like more and more things are happening to keep them from being baptized. We actually found out this week that they've been planning on being baptized since 2014 but something would always happen to get in the way. We're really setting up a way to help them though and praying SO hard that Gosel will get a day off. Jenelyn is still going to church and reading the Book of Mormon. This couple has such a desire! I really hope we can help them.

Anthony's foot is all better! Although we've faced a few problems with him too. He feels really pressured to join the church because of the family he's living with which are also members but then he came to church on Sunday with his Book of Mormon and two "teachings of the prophets" manuals. We don't even know where he got them but he says he's reading them. So that was cool! He's set for Aug 12th and really hoping he gets a strong desire. 

The big miracle this week was a mom and her two kids randomly coming to church. Her name is Novelyn and she brought her three kids, Arnold (13), Harold (11) and May Ann (4). We've only taught her like three times and she just went! And she loved it and had sooo many questions! She really wasn't progressing at all and we were actually considering dropping her next month but we're so happy that she's randomly progressed! Hopefully she'll continue well! 

Other than that it's been a really good week and we're seeing the progress of some of our new investigators finally! Thanks to everyone for the love :)

Sister Pope

1-2) I'm cooking really filipino food now! Laswa (a vegetable thing) and Bangrus (milk fish)... it tasted pretty good! We gave the leftovers to Anthony and the Tabanyag family and they said I cooked it well! 

3) We were teaching this lady we found and her husband comes in with this random assortment of seafood he had literally just pulled out of the ocean. there's fish, shrimp and tons of crab and then they fed us after! nothing like fresh seafood

4) We're teaching this group of people near our house that we'd see a lot all the time outside their house but just started teaching them. we taught them Book of Mormon on Saturday aaaand they have the 80's version of "Ang Libro Ni Mormon".. this thing is an antique haha. Turns out they were taught by the Elders when they were little kids. 

5-7) John Lloyd and Jessibell, two child of records, were baptized on Saturday and they are sooo cute and already doing missionary work. they brought their neighbor and our investigator, Turkey, to their baptism so he could support and it was a really cool experience for him. Also Turkey has no vices and wants us to teach him! Anyone can be a missionary!!

Week 50: DAMU KORING (LOTS OF CATS)

Hello everyone!! This was another great week in Tangub.. very humbling too. I have to say I was a little intimidated when I first got to this area but we're really starting to see the work move forward. We're so excited! 

Jenelyn and Gosel are doing well, although we've faced an issue with their progression. Brother Gosel lost his job last week as a security guard because one of the guards on duty was caught sleeping so all of them that were on shift that night got fired. He was able to find new work pretty soon but he now works every single day from 8am-8pm. We committed him to find a way to make it to church that Sunday but when Sunday came only Jenelyn came to church. We're very thankful though that she showed her faith! Hopefully he'll be able to figure out things with work.

Anthony, Jade and Janine are also doing really good! Anthony wasn't able to come to church yesterday though because he stepped on a nail.. AND it was hecka rusty and gross so it's gotten really infected. Dang it Satan! But he's doing great as usual :) 

We met this lady today who LOVES us because we're white. We were out finding and we started talking to her and she could not get over that we were talking to her in ilonggo she loved it so much. She invited us in but is really not interested in us teaching her but she made us eat the inside of two young coconuts and it's milk (which is a LOT of food) and literally made us both eat a half a loaf of bread. I literally thought she was trying to kill us with food haha. She said she'll text us though whenever she cooks food so we can try filipino food... hopefully she'll become receptive! haha

That was pretty much all for the week, our investigators are cool and Heavenly Father is working a lot of miracles. It's amazing to experience! Thanks all for the love :) love you all!

Sister Pope

1-2) I got to see Sister Bernolo and Sister Ducado at MLC <3 <3 LOVE THEM!!

3) Sister Fawcett was cleaning out our trashcan outside and left the door open then like ten minutes later we were sitting at our desk eating breakfast and we hear a meow in our kitchen. A cat literally somehow got all the way through the front door of our house to the back with the kitchen. (all the little black things are dead cockroaches we killed the night before.... don't judge us #philippinesbacolodmission)

4) We had been home for literally fifteen minutes and Sister Fawcett passed out on the wall HAHA 

5) Just at an appointment with an investigator.. one of their kittens literally fell asleep in my shoe. For any of you who know me, you know this is huge. It's SO CUTE

6) Tangub!