There
is a bagyo (typhoon) on its way to us later today, so hopefully I can
get all this put together before we lose power. The mission has been
working really hard to ensure that we are all prepared should a disaster
ever hit ("72 hour kits" that could probably feed us for about a
month--or just our whole ward for a day), so I am actually not concerned
about the storm, just about getting all our errands done before stores
start closing and trike drivers take cover. :P
So, as you may have realized from my lack of email
yesterday, it is another transfer week already. I am thankfully not
being dragged away from Antipolo (I love it here! For sure my
Philippines hometown), but I do have to say goodbye to my beloved
companion, Sister Rimano. I am sad, because I have really grown to love
her in the six short weeks we have been together, and I have learned
more from her than any other companion so far, I think. Especially as
far as Christlike attributes go. She is amazing, and I know she will
continue to be an incredible STL for the sisters in Quezon City (she is
transferring to Cubao--which means she will have to be working in the
office, doing favors for Sister Revillo, which she's not excited about).
She is going to be companions with Sister Sanders (if you remember her
from my MTC stories), and Sister Sanders' previous companion (my MTC
companion) Sister Cutia is COMING HERE TO ANTIPOLO! Haha the Zone
Leaders called last night to tell us transfer announcements and they
wouldn't tell Sister Rimano who my new companion was until I came to the
phone. In a super delayed and dramatic fashion (not out of character
for our beloved zone leader, Elder Romney), he said "your new companion
is a female....she is a Filipina." Thinking it was a new sister, I asked
if I knew her, but I don't think he was listening. "Well, she's only
kind of Filipina." "Is it Sister Cutia?!" "Yes." "Wait. What? For real?!
Is that really true?" "Yes." Let's just say I was super excited. I
still can hardly believe it.
The most ironic thing is that, every time I've seen Sister Cutia at
mission gatherings, we always talk about how we should be companions
again now that we kind of know what we are doing. When she became STL, I
was super excited, because I thought I would at least get the chance to
work with her sometime--then she was assigned super far away from my
area and that hope died. But now it's legitll happening. I'm a little
nervous, because I know she is super magaling and I'm still trying to
figure things out, but I am trying to ignore all that and just remember
how great it was and how much I learned from her in MTC and how much
more I will get to learn from her now that I've figured out more how to
be humble and teachable and get the most out of our time together. :) SO
EXCITED FOR THIS TRANSFER!
Other than that, this week has been the most
productive, fulfilling last-week-of-the-transfer I have had my whole
mission. Even though Sister Rimano had to have her wisdom teeth out last
Monday so we missed work on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, we were
super punted (as in, every single lesson we had planned fell through),
but we were able to make it up with the appointments we missed on
Tuesday and it was still a great day. Thursday, we went to go contact a
referral (that was our only plan for the two hours of work in the
morning), and found out that she actually moved back to the province.
Since we knew we would need to do some finding in the morning anyway, I
had already put myself in the mindset for it, so we weren't thrown off.
Her mother-in-law was the one who told us that she had moved, and so we
asked if we could teach her instead. She accepted and we had a good
lesson. She was pretty upset about them going back to the province, and I
think that might have distracted her a little from what we were trying
to help her understand about the power of the Atonement, but at least
she recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ and trusted us
enough to open up about her life and feelings and struggles.
After lunch, we had lots more appointments set up but they also
fell through, 100%. We tried to make up for them by making back-up plans
of less actives and other investigators we hadn't seen for a while. In
my heart, though, I somehow knew that all that was useless, that we were
supposed to be finding that day. Since we have had so many exchanges
and days we haven't been able to work, I kept telling myself that we
should take care of the investigators we have before adding more, but of
course that isn't the Lord's way. Thankfully, we didn't fight the
promptings too much, and we did get to OYM and teach two sets of new
investigators. After, Sister Rimano and I were talking and she shared
that she had been having the same feeling I was (that we should be
finding instead of trying to teach people we already know) and we both
felt bad that we hadn't embraced that prompting. We were still able to
reach our zone goal of 6 new investigators (weekly, but we found them
all in one day), but I am pretty sure we could have found even more if
we hadn't been so prideful and hardheaded. Blah. The Natural Man in us
is so obnoxious sometimes! But still, I consider our day a success. :)
We also got to have another Temple Tour on Saturday
with our ward. Most of the investigators from our area ended up
cancelling or not being able to come (i.e. overslept :P), but it was
still so worth it because of the ONE investigator who did come! James,
the boyfriend of one of our ward missionaries, has been doing so well in
keeping commitments. He reads everything we ask him to, the only hard
thing is getting him to come to church regularly (he comes like every
two weeks), because his parents are super active in their church and
still not super sold on him being "Mormon." He has been working on it
though, and Saturday seemed to be a breaking point, or at least
significant for us in realizing his sincerity, because he came to the
temple tour all by himself, even though his girlfriend had to work and
wasn't able to come with him. Thankfully, there was another ward
missionary (Gladys, the one who takes all the pix) who was able to come
and she fellowshipped him for the tour until she had to leave for work.
After the temple tour on Saturday we got to go to a
baptism for two investigators in Sister Tehei and Sister Tipasa's area,
as well as the grandson of one our returning members. It was a fun
baptism, and after we went out to try to teach some more lessons, but
ended up not being able to, so instead we just went around to people we
hadn't seen for a while and invited them to church. Another good day,
with the regular stress of missionary work and people not understanding
the eternal impact of their choices, but also the joy of seeing faith
being nurtured and sprouting and growing. :)
All the rewards of this unexpected week came on
Sunday though. First of all, we had SIX investigators that came to
church (only happened two other times my whole mission)! And they all
have fellowshippers!! (Sidenote about working through the members: DO
IT! We work so hard to help the people we have found on our own to come
to church, and it is so difficult! But the investigators that are found
through the members seem to automatically understand the blessings and
importance of coming to church). The best was Brother Peralta. Remember a
few weeks ago I mentioned a less-active returned missionary that we met
super by chance? Well we (mostly the ward leaders) have been working to
try to help him come back to church (he hasn't been to church for over
20 years because he said he didn't know where the church was here in
antipolo), but his work schedule changed to night-shift last weekend so
he finally had Sunday morning off and he said on Saturday night that he
would come to church on Sunday. I hate to admit that I was a
doubting-Thomas, but I wasn't actually surprised when we got to Church
on Sunday and he wasn't there. I WAS surprised, however, when I happened
to look out the window as the Sacrament was being passed and noticed
him waiting outside the Sacrament hall! I pointed him out to Sister
Rimano and when the Sacrament passing was over, we hurried out to
welcome him. We invited him to come in for the rest of Sacrament meeting
and I started to lead the way, he was hesitant to follow and I could
tell he felt awkward/unsure of himself and if he should, but just at
that moment, our ward mission leader Brother Wilfred happened to notice
us and caught sight of Brother Peralta (who he had met when he went to
visit them) and rushed over to welcome him, grabbed him in a handshake,
put his arm around Brother Peralta's shoulder and led him in to the
chapel in a way that said "what are you doing outside? you belong here!"
It was such a perfect, touching display of Christlike love, fellowship,
and true missionary spirit. We went and sat back in our pew and I just
put my face in my hands, ready to cry almost, and said a silent prayer
of gratitude. I honestly wish I could have videoed that scene with
Brother Wilfred though. It keeps playing over and over in my head and I
just keep thinking "This is what it is all about! This is the kind of
spirit/vision/whatever it is that every member needs to catch!" Just
reaching out to those who are lost and reminding them that THEY AREN'T
LOST TO US. They belong with us. They belong in the Church of Jesus
Christ, where we are all struggling to overcome problems and weaknesses
together, with the help of our Savior.
Like I said, this week was just amazing. There is
most I could say, but I still have to email President and Sister
Revillo. One last exciting thing: I got to talk to Sister Garcia last
week!! She is in Mindoro, which is under our STL route, and since we
didn't get to have exchanges there, we called to follow up with them and
see how things are going. It was so fun and so weird to talk to her!
For one thing, I didn't recognize her voice at first because she sounds
so much like a foreigner. She was already fluent in English when I was
with her, but her accent is basically gone now. She is still so adorable
though, and I can't wait to see her (eventually!).
No spiritual thoughts today, but I do just want to
say that I know that this Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ are SO TRUE.
and the promise that families can be together forever if we just follow
the process outlines by our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus
Christ is the most beautiful blessing I could ever imagine. It is so
incredible to testify of those truths every single day and see the power
of the Holy Ghost working in the lives of others, and within me as
well, grounding us in our faith in our Savior. This Gospel truly is for
everyone. :) Everyone one of us is a spirit child of our Heavenly Father
who chose to follow our Savior Jesus Christ before coming to earth, and
every one of us was planning on hearing His Gospel here on earth. All
we have to do is invite others to follow through on that promise they
made before birth. :)
I love you all! I hope you have a great week and
remember to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel. :) You are in my
prayers every day!
Love always,
Sister Emma Franks
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