Faith Precedes the Miracle

Hello Pamilya

I'm a little nervous for the coming transfer on April 10, partially because that means that I'll be completely responsible for my area for a couple of weeks, until my companion starts shouldering the responsibility, and partially because I'll have a new companion. Sister Montemayor is being transferred and I have absolutely no clue as to who my new companion is and how well they can speak Tagalog or English. Our mission president keeps the companionships as close to foreigner-native, but not all Filipinos naturally speak Tagalog...they speak their area's dialect...so this could be interesting.

I think pretty much all the baptisms that I'll have here are going to have some sort of interesting story behind it. For Carleslyto, we had asked the Branch President if he could go to the chapel in the morning to prepare the font for us since we had a really busy schedule that morning and no time to make up for it later in the day. So, in the afternoon we went to the chapel, where the relief society had just finished the RS anniversary celebration, said hi to one of our investigators who had gone to it (fist pump), and then we saw our Branch president walk out of the building...my head was saying "uh-oh" at this point. Walking into the baptism room confirmed my fear, the President had turned the water to the font on about twenty minutes before we got there. The font takes about two hours to fill up and it was about twenty minutes before we were supposed to start the baptism....about another ten minutes later, the water stopped and the building had no power....brown out (scheduled black out to repair power lines and whatnot)...and the generator wasn't working...by this time, Carleslyto and his mother, who is Less Active, had just arrived. Being the awesome

missionaries we are, we went into another room and prayed for the power and water we would need to have Carleslyto's baptism. Walking out of the room, there still wasn't any power, but faith needs to precede the miracle. So, we had Carleslyto and the baptizer put on the baptismal clothing and by the time they were dressed, the generator kicked in and the font was filled very quickly...and was still filling throughout the meeting...(oops), but it didn't overflow at least. And the generator even lasted long enough for our branch to have it's planned FHE that followed pretty much right after the baptism.

Faith always precedes the miracle, we just sometimes need to show a bit more

when things still look doubtful. Take Nephi in the Book of Mormon, he and his brothers had been chased out of Jerusalem by 50 armed men after they had been robbed of their property they had used to try to buy the brass plates, the scriptures, from Laban, to just walk right back through the front gate pretty much meant death and Laman and Lemuel had both given up. Nephi, on the other hand, went back into the city "not knowing beforehand" what was going to happen or what he was going to do, but the Lord provided a way for him to obtain the scriptures for his family.

Mahal ko Kayo

Sister Jones  

p.s.  We don't get to watch general conference or the general womens conference until a couple of weeks afterwards (April 5, 12, 13 respectively). I'm bracing myself for Tagalog blabber and am most likely going to download the English to my mp3 when I get the chance. thank goodness for modern technology.

Slippery English

Hello Pamilya

So I officially have a really hard time writing in English and my grammar is starting to slip a bit...I'm using spell check a lot more often now than I have in the past. The language is doing ok...people keep saying that it's really good, improved a lot at least....at the same time I think that there are some specific people whose English has improved almost as dramatically...I don't know.

This week wasn't much different than many of the other weeks. We went out, taught a lot of people, felt the Spirit a lot. The only difference is now it is almost unbearably hot. April is the summer month here in the Philippines so I'm bracing for 100s plus humidity. 

We also had a CSP at one of the Elders apartments. Camiling is a flood zone during the rainy months of the year and this specific apartment will flood about three feet and the water coming in has been described as a "river going through." It was kind of gross. There were nasty mud stains on the walls on there was one room where you couldn't even see the true color of the concrete because of the dirt caked on the ground...needless to say the Senior Couple of our area has been trying to find a new apartment for the Elders for a while...that one just had to be cleaned. So, almost our whole zone threw out all the belongings of the current residents and filled buckets of water, grabbed scrub brushes, cleaning solution and started scrubbing everything. Ususally missionaries use time on preparation day to do some more of the deep cleaning around an apartment, but the amount of work we got done as a zone (aka everything) would have taken about a month and a half worth of WHOLE P-days (so no grocery shopping, personal study, companion study, and zone activities) for a companionship to clean that bahay(Tagalog for "home"). Thankfully, everything is now cleaner than when we got there. 

One of our Sisters, Sister James, got to return to Tacloban. She had been serving there until the typhoon last November and then was temporarily reassigned here in the Angeles mission. She is just this little sweetheart from Pakastain (forgive the spelling) and it was hard for all of us to see her go, and it was also bitter-sweet for her. Missionaries have been trickling back to Tacloban, so things are looking up there. The only problem now is that our mission president has to be prepared for making emergency transfers and requesting some missionaries to work with ward missionaries until the next transfer.

We have a baptism this Saturday, Carleslyto Samio. He's 12 and his parents are less active, but very kind towards the church. Hopefully filling the font won't be as interesting as last time.

I'm so excited for General Conference coming up! To hear the council of living prophets fills my soul with joy, a joy that I hope that I share with my brothers and sisters here in the Philippines with my broken Tagalog. I hope you're all just as excited as I am, for they truely speak the words of God and give us the guidance and enlightenment we need to follow the commandments of God and to keep our covenants. 

Mahal ko kayo

Sister Jones

 (answers to mom's questions)

I actually haven't been doing much cooking...the members love us...a lot...so we're fed pretty much every day of the week... 

I'm understanding more and mainly just talk Tagalog while teaching....since that's mostly what I study for, but I use as much Tagalog I know when talking to others

Um yeah about my clothes....a member washes them for me. She meets the qualifications our mission president sets for hiring someone to wash for us, and we pay her with our mission funds. It's kind of hard for people to get jobs here and too easy to go into debt so to be able to wash for us is a privilege and relief for those who do...and sister Marisa even does the ironing if the clothes need it. I don't like the fact that I'm not the one doing it, but at the same time I appreciate her service and how it allows me to have the time I need to do the things I need to as a missionary. (I've been assured that I will wash my own clothes sometime in the mission though)

Yeah, I've used the umbrella once for it's intended use and it works well...I just need to switch my bag to my front so it doesn't get wet (I got the mission bag, the other one was just too big. Did I tell you that?) I'm planning on getting a second one though since it is getting REALLY hot outside and being in the sun for long periods gives me a headache...combined with the headache I get from crouching into trikes every other day makes the work difficult sometimes....especially while communicating.

Baptisms and Alarms

Hello Pamillya,

This was a pretty good week. We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday. I received some letters while I was there, one Dear Elder, one from my back-door neighbor, and one from the Youth Conference (I think...it has something to do with the young women and a large group of them getting together). Anyway, I laughed when I read the letter from Brooklyn...it was so her. Thank you to those who wrote, I love getting emails, but it's not quite like having a tangible piece of evidence that people exist, and I don't have to wait until monday to read them again.

Sister Montemayor and I went to the chapel Saturday to fill the font for the baptism that day...and someone neglected to tell us that the church had an alarm....yeah, interesting thirty seconds of a blaring alarm and then a phone call to the zone leaders to get the code to turn the awkward thing off...it doesn't help that the chapel is downtown where everyone can here it going off. We then had to half hand drain the font since no one emptied it from the last baptism....kind of gross, but then again I can at least brag that I hand-drained a font for someone (for those who brag they hand-filled a font). Then the water wouldn't turn on...anywhere on church property...another call to the ZLs and then three minutes later we had the water going.

The Rodillas sisters got baptized this past Saturday! I'm so happy for them.

This past week, we started teaching a part member whose grandparents (she lives with them since her mom works abroad in Singapore) haven't been to church since thier 35 year old son died, church reminded them too much of him. I am so grateful for the plan of Salvation that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. 

It brings so much peace to us to know exactly where we go after this life and how we can get there. I am eternally grateful for the blessings that comes from the temple, (even though I know that I may not be able to participate in those blessings while I'm here in the field) I know that families can be together forever, I know that we can be reunited with those that we love who have passed on from this life, I know that our Father loves us so much.

Mahal ko Kayo

Sister Jones

Onions and Open Your Mouth

Hello Pamilya!

 So this last week, we had a CSP at a member's portion of an onion field. We got to help harvest (or better description would be preparing for sale in the market) the onions. Can I just say that it is so nice not to have to watch them cook in a microwave? I got a little burned, but the

members are saying that I look brown now...me? look brown? hmm...not quite sure about that one, but we'll see.

(a caribou and calf)

Really cool thing happened this week, we now have 6 new investigators! In one week, 6! That is huge in any mission, only two of them made it to sacrament meeting yesterday, but all the investigators total at sacrament meeting was 17, also a huge number in missionary work. The majority of those were because, at one point or another, someone OYM-ed them. I testify of the power of opening your mouth, even though I am terrible at times when it comes to opening my mouth, to invite someone. A person may not accept your invitation right away, but when you do, the Lord provides someone who will when you do get turned down. I can also testify of the power of family home evening. We invited one of our investigators, her son, and one of our new investigators this past week to the FHE of a member that we had been invited to. We also invited a couple of members who were around the ages of the son and new investigator. Guess who came to church on Sunday? And are excited to start holding a family home evening of their own? Yup.

Three of the Rodillas sisters are getting baptized this week. Donita and the twins, Dyren and Dairialyn. I'm so excited for them! They are so awesome and so sweet. I'll send pictures this coming week.

The Lord loves each one of us. Prayer, the covenants that we have made, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ empowers us to do all things. Just remember to have faith and be patient in all things. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Mahal ko kayo

Sister Jones

Ask and ye shall receive

Don't have much time to write this week.

We had transfers this week. I'm still in Camiling and will most likely still be here until May unless I start training next transfer...Oh goodness, that's a weird thought...I'm still a baby in the field...anyway, that would mean I'd most likely be here until June.

I have such a strong testimony of the power of prayer, when we have faith and ask God with that faith, He will give that to us. Not always the way we expect, but he does give what we need to us, EXACTLY what we need and WHEN we need it most. I also know of the power of fasting, especially when a group of people fast for a specific purpose. Our Zone held a specific fast last week for those who are getting baptized in March, that same day, as we were teaching some of our investigators who are not yet 18, but have a baptism date, we were devastated to learn that their mom no longer gave her permission for her children to be baptized. We still could teach them, but they would not be baptized...we were all upset about this news, but Sister Montemayor and I talked about faith, enduring to the end and assuring them that God was mindful of them and their desire to be baptized. The next day, after we ended our fast, we recieved a text from them, they had permission again. Needless to say, I got down on my knees as quickly as I could and offered a prayer of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for this miracle.

Always continually convert yourself to the Lord, keep your covenants. I would not be able to continue in this work without either of them.

Mahal ko Kayo.

Sister Jones