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