01/26/2015

I like this picture because inside the tricycle, we noticed that little sign down at the bottom... it means, "Strive to observe... Not allowed to fart here" 

She's crazy.

This was our family home evening last night. I'm in disbelief that we fit so many people in this itty bitty living space with so few chairs. There are several people here you can't even see because they're hidden from view

Hello,

Is everyone still alive? All is quiet on the western front... Believe it or not, I still care about the boring details of everyone's lives. 

We've had tons of success this week in our area. President Bertin has made fantastic goals for the mission this year and to help, he has made giant maps of our areas for each apartment and given us stickers to mark each member with a number according to the CMIS as well as investigators so we can see the location of our members, investigators and less actives. This will help in planning, fellowshipping and tracting. 

This ward is the most hardworking and best fellowshipping ward I've ever been in. They're giving us at least 5 referrals per week so baptizing is going to be a ton easier. This week was the highest number of lessons I've ever taught in 1 week and I can see how the members really and truly make the difference. Each day we have 2 or 3 sisters working with us and friendships are forming quickly with our investigators. Along with the help of the ward, I know these great things are happening because of our commitment to be exactly obedient. We have been practicing it each day and I don't even have to think about teaching anymore, it just comes. The spirit literally drops thoughts into my brain and I finally understand the feeling of being "simply an instrument." It's a miracle and I'm amazed. President Bertin always promises us, "If you're being exactly obedient, you have the right to expect miracles." We've been teaching like mad and we've found 14 new less active members this week. I know it's inspired that we have been assigned in this ward because the sisters told us, "We've been waiting for sisters to come here so we could visit the people with the missionaries. Before, we were never allowed to work with missionaries because we only had elders." There is a cesspool of less active members in our farthest area who have been overlooked for the longest time. Now that we've found them we're going to work on them. A good number of them even showed up at church yesterday, and one of them has, since our lesson, begun the process of becoming worthy to be endowed. I'm so excited for her. 

Pope Francis came and visited the Philippines this past week and it's really putting a cramp in our style. "I <3 Pope Francis" t-shirts and mugs and banners and his red carpet event that everyone was watching on TV has caused a revival of Catholic pride in the hearts of the people. We've had to make a special focus on priesthood and prophets in our lessons because people really don't understand how prophets are called by revelation. 

My daughter ate balut from a street vendor the other night! I'm so proud of her. She did it in 2 big bites and didn't say anything about it except, "I'm sorry little bird, don't tell your mum!" Haha, she's fearless. We were walking down the street the other day and this guy has a gigantic snake wrapped around his body and he asks us if we want to hold it. She immediately held out her arms to take it and says, "Oh yeahhh, she's a beautyy!" as it hisses emphatically in our direction. It's been super fun being her comp, you don't have to worry about safety when you're always with a rugby player. 

Sa aking pag-aaral sa linggo na ito, mas napansin ko kung gaano kahalaga ang pagbabayad-sala ni Jesucristo. Buhay talaga po siya at nakakita ko na kung ang mga tao ay tatanggapin ang sakripisyo niya para sa kanila, mas magiging matatag sila sa simbahan at sa pananampalataya nila. Anuman ang mga problema natin sa buhay (sa pamilya man o hindi), lahat ay pwedeng maging maayos sa pamamagitan niya. Mahal ko kayong lahat. Paki isipin po ninyo ang kahalagaan ng pagbabayad-sala sa buhay ninyo at gamitin ninyo siya. Alam ko na babasbasan niya kayo. 

Sister Wilson