April 21, 2014 Baptism :)

Hello Pamilya!

So...baptism. Anne texted us on Tuesday and said that she no longer had permission to be baptized. She had her interview, parent permission/signiture, testimony, everything, and then a big fat NO from her mom....we're all a little sad (really sad) about that. Christine on the other hand was able to be baptized and confirmed this past weekend. The interesting baptism story this time was the building was locked when we got there. The font was full already, but then they locked the doors after they were done filling it and so we had to wait an awkward 15 minutes as our ward mission leader called the member with the keys and then waiting for him to show up...anyway. It was a good baptism, her grandfather and non-member cousin came,

and at the very end, we invited her grandpa to bear his testimony, it's there, he just needs to exercise his faith a little more and go to church again...

I love working with Sister Foukimoana! She is so happy all the time and since she looks and kind of acts like a Filipino, the people are fairly comfortable with us talking to them and sharing with them. (not my fault that I still stick out like a sore thumb and make people automatically think that I only speak English). We had a lot of lessons this week and a lot of referrals and a lot of new investigators, even though we had to stay home most of the day on Tuesday because she wasn't feeling good. She loves to work and she likes to have fun while she's working. There have been a couple of interesting things that have happened...like how the ditch that we usually cross to get to a certain investigator's home had water in it...there was a narrow muddy patch without any water that she felt we could cross...so we started going down...I slipped...and almost fell into everyone's kitchen and toilet water and garbage...thankfully, the only parts of me that were muddy were my hands and one of my knees...yeah, or how we were walking back to our apartment on Saturday and I was using my flashlight to help direct us, since it was dark, when a decent sized frog jumped right in front of her and she screamed and almost knocked me over when she jumped to the side...did I mention she hates frogs?

The Lord has really blessed us this week, with many people that we found and people to find, thanks to the referrals of people here. He even blessed us to see the Rodillas sisters again this week. Donita got a job the week after she was baptized in Angeles and has been over there, trying to find a church building to attend on Sunday, but has been making sure that she spiritual experiences by really studying her scriptures and singing hymns she knows on Sunday. Her younger sisters have been at the market with their parents for the most part since school's out now, so it's been hard to visit them, too, but we taught them on Saturday and they were able to go to church on Sunday! There are just so many miracles going on here. I REALLY love being a missionary!

Mahal ko kayo

Sister Jones