Wedding, baptism and Jehovah witness

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

Mission Party and advancing Investigators

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, there is crazy stuff happening in the orion zone.  Last monday we had a huge mission get together and had water fights, played some outside games and had a great time.  we watch 17 miracles and then by 5 we left and we were all so exhausted and sunburned it was so much fun to see everyone and to relax again. we achieved our standard of excellence 188 but i want us to get 200 next month and then we get another party.  this is just the drive that we all need to really give our best and i see how it has pushed me to more effectively help our investigators to progress.  we have one family (who i sent you pictures of) who we have taught her everything and we are just waiting for her to get married but it seemed like it was never going to happen because she was being slow in a sense.  we when we were doing our goal setting i kept thinking about her and so that night we went to her and we asked her if she knew that this is the true church and if joseph smith was a true prophet and i knew she knows it is true. so then we asked her if she could be ready to be baptized by april 26?  since then she has gotten really gun ho about getting everything ready and within a day she is no longer drinking coffee.  i am seeing miracles here.  we went to her last night and she felt something was wrong.  she asked me if  i wasnt telling her something and i immediatly thought "she knows that transfer day is coming up"  i told her so that she could mentally calm down and she cried.  she doesn't want anyone of us to transfer because she loves us and honestly i love her so much. she is like my second family.  i want to see her married and her and her child gregory baptized in this church.  it is funny because she told me a long time ago that her and her husband are so busy they don't talk.  well right now he is seeing changes in her and has started being cute again with her.  he says sweet little comments and i think it is because he wants the light he sees in her.  so we will see what happens but in know that if he gives us time to teach him (because he runs a jersey shop) that he can feel the same happiness she feels. ah families!!

So i want to tell you about and experience that i had yesterday.  we went to sacrament and we had 8 investigators come to church.  i think that is the highest i have had on my whole mission.  we had one of our investigators Nora dizon get up and bare her testimony.  this was her first time coming to church and this is what she said (background: she has like 5 kids and the oldest doesn't want to go to school or have anything to do with religion, he husband is an excommunicated inglesia ni cristo (they are crazy too) and she is catholic but really wants to know the truth she is the one who let us in her house when we went finding) she got up there and told us how she had prayed that morning that the lord would help her feel the truth and as she was coming to the church she got lost and entered into this other church.  immediatly she knew that it was wrong and left.  she wanted to go home she didn't know where to go or what to do.  she said a prayer and then asked a priest where the mormon church was and he pointed right across the street.  i felt the spirit so strong and i  knew that she knew that this was the true chruch on the earth and she felt it.  even though she was only an investigator oh my goodness i knew that heavenly father was crying with here and was holding her up at that stand.  i felt it.  

we have 7 baptisms planned for this month and so far i think we will achieve 6 because one didn't come to church yesterday but we will see why.  i am so excited for this area and to see how it is improving so quickly.  i love it.  i love the poeple i love the area i love my companion i love the work.  i am seeing how heavenly father is molding me in my knowledge and my actions to be better and he is pushing me to push myself to push this area. i love being a missionary and i would never trade this experience for the world.  i know that my heavenly father loves me because i have felt it so many times in the last couple days.  he is aware of us and the needs of other and i know that although changes and trials are hard they shape us and make us who we are so we can grow.  thank you all for your support and I love you.  talk to you next week!

Sister Snow

Umbrellas

At least that is how I feel things are going crazy over here and I thought it was a good name.

So...........It is officially hot season and the sweat never ends!! I wake up and i have started to sweat until the end of the day and then I take another shower before going to bed because I smell so bad.  defiantly see why the Filipinos carry payongs everywhere (umbrellas).  FEELING IT!! well at least I will get skinny and still be able to eat as much food as I want.  ok now I will be serious.

So, we have had a challenging week full of people being dropped and in a sense being made fun of.  we had some people who really just think that this is all a joke but it’s not.  earlier this morning we had one of our investigators laying literally ON THE FLOOR and we were tao poing (calling tao po or people) and he wouldn't move and we knew he was faking it and then we had some lady try to sell us her child today as a joke but she really didn't want to hear our message so she was trying to get us to go away.  basically it was really hard to walk around with an amazing message that if people just open their heart and let us in their entire life will be changed and I hate to walk away from those people but if they don't want it then that is up to them. it hurts!

Well on the bright side one of our investigators the Abanes family, si sister Ely she finally accepted a BGD and I am so excited.  I literally love this family with all my life and I love going to their house and talking with her and being with her kids ooooo they are so cute!! I am always so happy there and I was more happy to see the look on her face and know that she knew that this is the true church.  she literally feeds on the book of Mormon and loves it and she is just glowing.  SHE IS GOING TO COME TO CHURCH TOMORROW AND I CANT WAIT!! I wish I could write you on Monday so you would all know for sure but it’s ok! FYI :we have a mission activity on Monday which is why I am writing this on Saturday, at least here in the Philippines because we almost achieved 200 baptisms this month I think we were 1 short and that is the highest in the whole world (according to sister miller who would like to give a shout out to her mom from my email ahaha) love that sister we have some good times in the apartment. I know it is the highest for the mission so we have a huge party and we are going to play sports. .. .. . . . . yea pretty darn excited!

oh so I had this one experience where we were walking around this part of our area and literally just finding for 2 hours and then we were rejected and turned down and things were rough and then we just tao poed at this one house just because and a lady poked her head out we did our whole introduce thing and she let us in.  I was so thankful that we finally got to teach someone and it turns out that she is really struggling in life and I hope in some way we answered her prayers but the spirit was so strong and I am so excited to see where her progression goes.  She got really excited when we gave her a book of Mormon and has already started reading it.

then we got a referral from Tatay Dalisay it is his brother and it is so funny because Tatay Dalisay and his wife don't really talk but they do their old people fights where it is just petty words but they are seriously worried for him and don’t want him to die without accepting the gospel so we taught him.  It was a pretty spiritual lesson and although he can’t hear he understands and wants to be baptized. so we now have a baptism for April. 

Speaking of baptisms we had 3 lined up as our goal and then we dropped one but me and sister Pati-on knew that we would get another to make up the difference and that is brother =Rudy,

Tatay Dalisay's brother and I am so excited and then we got some others who are just working on their word of wisdom and I am seeing the lords hand in the work when we are faithful.  He does like to perform miracles sometime.

Well as for the spiritual to wrap up the crazy letter I have now just written because it is night time and my brain is about gone I would like to talk about a song that I will often turn to when I am getting stress and down, Be still my soul. I love the words to this song and I think of the scripture in Jacob 3:1-3  "But behold I, Jacob would speak unto you that are pure in heart.  look unto god with firmness of mind and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and we will console you in your afflictions, he will plead your cause and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction." now listen to the words of the song "be still my soul, the lord is on thy side, with patience bear thy cross of grief or pain, leave to thy god to order and provide, in every change he faithful will remain, be still my soul, thy best thy heavenly friend, thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

I have received a new love for this song and I hope you all can find one that helps you. thank you all for your support and I hope somewhere in this letter you laughed because that is exactly what I wanted for you.  I hope you all have a great week and know that I love you all.  I am so grateful for all you have done for me and I pray that you will be watched over in all you do.  Love,

Sister snow

Half way

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes i am fully aware that i hit halfway and i don't want to believe it so we won't talk about it.  haha well this week has been full of learning experiences.  we have really had an area switch and are loosing investigators like crazy but i am working within myself to keep going and not get down.  the most important thing is to be obedient and the lord will help us to find the people that are waiting.  we are doing some serious finding and it is not my specialty but i do  it and after our cooking demos on friday i really got some strength from grandma and the lord that it was time to step up my game and no more half ways.  

we went and explored a new area the other day that apparently the elders really had some progression going on so i am excited to see where it goes plus it is right by the ocean so it is just amazing.  we have some people that already have book of mormons and know it is true they are just struggling to rekindle that fire again. one of the investigators we found was in a different area and she has read the whole book of mormon and was taught by the elders but the first time she came to church a lady told her that she couldn't wear pants.  members have a HUGE  responsibility to help these people feel welcome and it makes missionary work hard when they are completely rude to these people that are trying to find the truth. 

our other investigators are alright, the llemado family is stunting their own progression because they wont read or wont come to church.  we feel it is because linos wife doesn't want it so she makes up excuses for lino not to come and it is just hurting them, not us.  so we really had to drill that with our investigators yesterday.  church is so important!

Well i want to tell you about one of our investigator families the Abanes family who we have been struggling to get to come to church.  finally last night she got it.  we gave her the reading assignment of 3 nephi 18 about the sacrament and she got this revelation that you need to right priesthood to preform that ordinance.  we said, EXACTLY!! we then reviewed with her the restoration and she got it that we are the only church that has that authority.  she feels there is something missing in the other churches and she knows that this has it all because she is doing the work to find out.  the only thing that is really holding her from knowing is by not coming to church.  she said that she feels really different the last two weeks and is quick to get angry and she figured out it is because she had been to our church, felt it was true, and then hasn't returned so satan is getting ahold of her.  she said that she finally understands why she needs to come to church because of the sacrament.  YES!! she is going to come to church this next week and i cant wait.   

so one thing i want to share with you all is about the sacrament.  as i was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday i had a question pop into my head about why we take the bread 1st and then the water when Christ suffered for our sins in the garden before he died on the cross.  a small thing but is has a huge significance.  so from my study in sacrament i found out that the bread is broken and like our physical man or natural man we need to break our bad imperfections that this mortal life gives us and become clean outwardly first.  then the water or the blood signifies the inward cleaning or the sanctifying of our spirits and renewing our covenant to follow Christ example and grow our Christ-like attributes.  this can also signify the cleaning of the body in the baptism and the sanctifying of the spirit with the holy ghost.  see how important the sacrament is and as we take the bread and water we need to really repent of our sins in the human form and resolve from within to do better to perfect our spirit.  it was a great sacrament meeting let me tell you.

Well that is all i have for this week i love you all so much and i am thankful for your support.  i hope your week goes well and i wish you all the best. love you!

love,

Sister Snow