Dear Friends and Family,
So this week has been interesting
but the good news is we are done with the holidays and I am ready for people to
be home and not eating a bunch of food.
I want to share one experience that I
will never forget about how quiet the spirit is when he talks to us. on Friday
we went out at 1 and we had no appointments and planned to go finding. I
hate finding sometimes but as we walked out the gate I said ok heavenly father
where should we go find. and immediately I thought of a road that i had never
been down the whole time i have been here and that i have been really wanting
to check out so we went to that road. as we started walking i then saw
this other road and said "hey why not". as we walked down the
road i prayed again that heavenly father would put people in our path that
wanted to be taught. as we walked down the path there wasn't a lot of
people more on the kids side and then some random guy came out of his house and
said "who are you looking for?" so I said alright let's try and say
we are looking for someone using a fake name. basically we lied and said
we are looking for a Rita Reyes (who we know lives in Panilao :))he heh.
at first they thought there was a girl there with that name and of course
I panic but then he said something and went back into his house. I looked
at sister Baui and said what is going on? she said "he is a
member" we were invited into his house as he tried to look for his
temple recommend THIS GUY IS ENDOWED! WHAT!!?he used to go to the Balanga
stake but went abroad and then his wife whom he was sealed to decided to leave
him and his life fell apart. it has been a very long time since he has
gone to church or worn garments but he said that the night before he had prayed
that he could find a way to return back to our heavenly father and there we
were. he just cried and we invited him to start now with the new year.
he didn't come to church unfortunately but as i thought about the
experience i knew there was no denying the quiet whisperings of the spirit as
he told me where to go and what time. that was not a quiescence.
crazy right?!
on Sunday we had a lot of less
actives come to church and some of our investigators all of whom are not our goals
but one of them whose name is Babi said that he felt the spirit so strong he
cried. this guy has been through a lot in his life with gang troubles in
manila and some story about how he got his throat and stomach cut open but he
is still living. this is the guy where is wife is pregnant and she is
about 40 . he told our branch mission leader that he wants to be baptized
so I am so excited to see how far he progresses.
well I have been here in my first
area for 5 months now and I love it. I love the people here and I don't
want to leave but transfer day is coming up and I can't help but think that
things are going to change. as much as I would love to stay with these
people and this branch and keep growing I feel like I need to grow in different
ways. the potter is switching directions because I have learned and grown
all I can here in Pilar. I don't want to leave. all you that know
me know I hate change. ha-ha but I know that there needs to be a
different missionary to come here and help the work progress. of course I have
a week left and I am going to work my hardest to help these people get
established in the church and not in the missionaries. i want them to be
strong members not missionary members.
well that is all i have for this
week. my new year's consisted of us sleeping because we were all so sick
and tired. did you know that if you have a water fight in the middle of
the day in the Philippines you will get a cough sore throat and a stuffy nose.
it has something to do with humidity or something but we had an epic
water fight on Monday with Cris Ann Samson. she is so sweet and we love when
she works with us. well I love you all and I hope all is going well at
home. I wish you all the best on this new year!
Love,
Sister Snow
B-I wanted to tell you about an
experience I had last week on Sunday. I was listening to the speaker and
then all of the sudden one of the members yelled "INA"
which means mom. he moms 1 year death anniversary was on the 22nd
of December and she suffers from depression. she lives in a house by
herself and is not married. she lives close to family but things are
hard. from what I understand between her sister talking on the stand,
talking about her mom to the lady sitting next to here and being grateful for
all that she had she just went into shock or something and yelled that. I
immediately felt grandma and her mom close to me and I had a feeling that there
were angels in the room around us. I wanted to cry of course when I know
that grandma is near but it was a neat experience that I let rest in my heart
to know that she was there and that she is helping not only me but the people
here in the Philippines. kind of weird to think about but that was
something I will never forget.
Well I love you hope all is well and
I am glad to hear about the photo and that is cool about our weight we were
meant to be. ah miss you so much and I love you.
