Dear Family and Friends,
So this week has been crazy let me
just tell you about trying to get married here in the Philippines!!
So transfer day came and went and I
am still here in the Orion zone and I am actually really ok with it I love it.
Why? because I get to see one of my favorite families married and
baptized and I am still companions with sister Pati-on and I love her I will
just be honest we are the best of friends and get along great.
So about marriage. marriage is
what brings us here together today!!! (couldn't help it) here in the Philippines
you need to get something called a CENOMAR and I am not sure what that is but
you need it and then you need to apply for a marriage certificate and again I
am not sure what that is but you need it and it takes 10 business day (business
being key word here) unfortunately it is also HOLY WEEK which is when all the Catholics
do the Crucifixion stuff and it is crazy out here so I am not really looking
forward to that but it is going to happen. that is a problem because that
is a holiday so that puts getting the CENOMAR until about April 29. we
want her to be baptized this month so what we might end up doing is having her
married on the 30 and then have her and her oldest son baptized that afternoon.
the best part though is she is so excited for everything that it is ok
and I know that lord told me to help her for a reason because he is going to
provide a way. I know that! we did get the CENOMAR through the mission
and president Querido brought it down to Orion for us so we should be good to
go.
we had a problem with one of our
investigators this week who is getting ready for baptism he said that he has
asked god if this is the true church but hasn't received an answer. I was
a little frustrated because I kind of knew why but I also knew it was something
deeper. he has been talking to his brother who is a Jehovah Witness and
that has really been messing with his head and he won't let go that the name of
god should be Jehovah as it says in the bible. a little frustrated with Jehovah
Witnesses let me tell you. well I sat there and prayed and prayed for him
during the week and when we went back yesterday we figured it out. he
actually hasn't prayed to know because he doesn't feel worthy to pray he is not
perfect or free of sin. well the spirit directed me to share this
analogy. if your child comes home and they are sad and they say they have
done something bad would you want them to tell you what they did? he said yes.
then i said how is our father in heaven different? the light bulb click on and
he realized that although he is not perfect he can still talk to god in fact
that is the time when it is most crucial to pray to our heavenly father.
I shared with him 1nephi 21:16 about the palms of my hands and he got his
light back in his eyes. I hope he will pray to know and I pray with all
my heart that he will feel god's love like I know that god loves me. that
is one thing that is so important for all of us most especially with
investigators. if we as missionaries feel god's love and the spirit then
we know that they are feeling it too and that is essential to conversion.
the spirit is so important!
we also had another experience where
we went finding in an area I have avoided because of a creeper but it's ok now.
as we were walking we discovered that it is really big. we saw a
cluster of houses and sister pati-on said to me "ok in that cluster of
houses we are going to find new investigators" sure enough we were let
into this person how to "meet them" and shared our message. the
spirit was strong and I am excited to go back and teach them again.
lastly I had a sad experience
this week again with doubt. that investigator I told you about that bore
her testimony in church told us the other day that she felt that our testimony
meeting was a waste of time and that she doesn't like to read the book of Mormon
it is not deep enough for her. my heart stopped as she said those
fleeting words and now I think of the talk in conference where they said you
might have to defend your faith. oh, I was going to defend it.
obviously Satan had taken the little faith and spirit that she had felt,
like Rueben(the story earlier), and twisted it. now she was doubting her
feelings or outright denying them. we will keep trying there because we cannot
let him win. he is getting stronger but we are much more stronger because
I know with all my heart that this is the true church and I know that god loves
all of us. I hope and pray that you all know that too and I hope you all
have a great week. I love you and will talk to you all next week.
Love,
Sister Snow
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