Kittens and Captains

Dear Friends and family,

Greetings from Barbie here.  That is officially what everyone here in the Philippines calls me here and i am taking it as a compliment ha-ha.

well, this week started off really interesting.  on P-day we were punted our first lesson so we started to walk to our next appointment and then this guy waved Hi to us.  he lives right next door to our compound and so I decided to go over and BRT and maybe teach him.  as we were talking and then we started to teach him I pulled out the pamphlet and he said "oh I have one of those"  he comes out with the first pamphlet and then one on the law of chastity.  He had found them in the trash and was reading them for a while.  WEIRD but awesome.  so we taught him and for the first time in my whole missionary experience I gave someone a BGD on the first lesson.  since them we have taught him multiple times and given him a book of Mormon now we just need him to come to church.  I really feel like he is super potential.

Then on Tuesday I had to rescue two baby kittens who had been abandon in our roof and had fallen. yep that is normal here. so that was an adventure.  for those of you asking if we kept them......um....... OF COURSE NOT! we had to leave them in a field somewhere and pray they didn't get ran over or eat.  Kawa naman-poor cats.

Then on Thursday it was all saints day and so basically we had no work.  all saints day is when everyone goes to the cemetery and parties with the dead so we basically walked around and then hung out at the 7-11 for a little while.  sadly they don't have slurpees there. 

As far as training goes I am not really training she is training me.  I am learning more tagalog or I guess fixing my tagalog because it sucks and is always wrong and then I am improving my teachings constantly  which is good.  the only thing that is hard sometimes is that I want to build a relationship with the people and am not really bold when I need to be.  she is bold all the time and sometimes it is overbearing so hopefully that will even itself out soon.

As for investigators, we were really hoping brother Edgardo would come to church and . . . . .he didn't. so that was a hard blow and then we had no one else show up except  . . . . one.  so here is the story.  since i have gotten a new companion we have lost every investigator and a lot have said they will just listen only but they don't want to act.  AY! so we have been looking for new ones and as we were teaching our Recent convert sister Carina Marquez about missionary work she referred us to a girl age 12 that wanted to hear our message.  so we went to her parents house near Nanay Nora so you can imagine what it looks like.  when we got there I saw an empty liquor bottle on the ground and when the dad came out he look haggared talaga. he was also smoking and had no shirt on.  he eyes were beet read and he has this rice pot belly.  we BRTed for a little bit and then told him why we were there.  the wife came out soon after and they said it was fine for us to teach them.  we shared about the restoration and he listened and said we could come back if he had time which is always the excuse.  Honestly I was so scared because I don't know it always scares me when I know that people are drunk because they are unpredictable but the lesson went well and she was the one who came to church.  it just goes to show how important members are in this work especially here in the Philippines when traveling cost so much for them.  I suggested in ward council that we do a service project for sister Carina because her house is broken and they sleep on a slant so I hope by so doing it will give our church a good name over in Wawa and open the hearts of our investigators there that say they will only listen.

Well that is all I have for the week and  real quick I want to share how important prayer is and being grateful for all you blessings and for everyday life because I have had to be with all the changes lately.  I am finding a different sister snow, a different Brittny here and I am growing everyday although it is hard.  i know that I am here for a reason.

Oh speaking of.  .mom don't freak out!  we were walking to landing and literally had left the house only 2 minutes when this guys in an army suit comes over on his motor bike and stops us.  at first I thought it was because we were going to get arrested but then he started talking and said.  there are a lot of @#$% in this place, a lot of jerks basically.  you shouldn't be walking you need to have a baragay captain with you always. you Pilipino you need to make sure you have a barangay captain with you.  then we said that we are missionaries and the we know that god will help us to be safe.  he said that he was taught before by the missionaries but he knows it is not true and that we shouldn't believe in our god or our prayers because they don't work.  then with my hands shaking and on the verge of tears I was so scared I said in the worst tagalog possible that I knew that I was called of god and that I knew that although it was scary here that I needed to be here.  I knew that!!  he then gave me pepper spray and told me to be careful then he flagged down a jeepny and we rode to landing.  well that was a one of a kind experience.  so now I have pepper spray.  goodness at least they care about the foreigners here.

Well with that I love you all and I can't wait to tell you how next week goes. Thanks for your support and I will talk to you soon.

Take care-ingat

Sister Snow

She gave us an update on Nanay Nora, they have moved further from her area and so they don't see her as much, there has been a little upset between the two girls they converted and Nanay Nora.  Time will have to heal that relationship for now.  She has learned so much patience, her attitude is realistic and gives everything else over to the Lord.