TATLO NA KAMI!!!!!

    Hello my amazing family and friends!

 I hope this week finds you all healthy and happy :) It has been such a special and beautiful week. Every week here is wonderful. But... guess what! I got ANOTHER COMPANION this week!!!! So we are a TRISOME!!!! :) Yeah Yeah!!! :) Sister Yunack is from the Island of Vanuatu! It is a small island near Fiji in the pacific ocean! She is so sweet and humble, and her testimony is so powerful. When she speaks, it comes right from her heart!

 

 She is a native speaker of Vishlama and French! But she speaks English pretty well and we are working on Tagalog together. She is also new to the mission, she came in 6 weeks after Sister Andres and I. It is a lot of fun, and humbling! I am trying to remember all the French songs I sang in high school to speak to her... hahaha :) 

     New foods this week... I ate pork intestine, barbequed chicken intestine, barbequed pork fat and raw fish! The members and investigators are so good to us ;) It is really not too bad as long as you don't think about what you are eating.

    This week was fantastic! I am seeing over and over how short and insignificant the harder moments are, how they are so outweighed by the joyful and happy happy moments. This work is such a joyful work!!!

     I am seeing that we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith. I see that we really can't give up because God has prepared people waiting for us. As we are worthy, seeking to follow the Spirit and having faith in Christ's ability to help us, we will see miracles daily. We met a special group of people, 4 boarders and their neighbor. They are the sweetest girls, and they had so many questions about our church! God led us to them. I had a feeling to go a different route and then a feeling... "Don't pass that street!" It is hard to describe what it feels like. I knew the words, but I didn't hear them.  When we saw them on the street, I knew who it was I needed to talk to. This is evidence of how much God loves them. 

      Brother J is really progressing! He is going to be baptized this Saturday, and we are so excited for him, and his mother, who hopes to soon follow. I can see the Spirit teaching him and "bringing all things to his remembrance" especially since he is still young. 

     D is doing great! We are seeing the power of God in helping him get over his addiction to smoking! We had a lesson about what things he would miss if he continued, and tried to think of ways to help him stop. When we invited him to stop by a certain date about a week later, he said "I am going to stop today! I just won't smoke tomorrow!" We were SO excited and even more excited when we returned and he hadn't smoked for 2 days straight! The gospel has power to change people. 

       And the Restoration, I have such a testimony about the Restoration here in the Philippines. It is a blessing to be in such a Christian nation, but there are so many churches here. Sometimes I feel like I am in Joseph Smiths time, just a different country. The people we meet are always saying that it doesn't matter what church you are in, because we all have the same God. We had a very special lesson with the husband of a Recent convert. He is a little shy but a good man. His prayer after the lesson was one of the most beautiful I have heard. He said.. " I thank you that I realized it matters what church you join. And I ask that you will help me have the opportunity and time to go to this church so I can know if its true." I almost cried. Anyways... it was a great week! 

           I love this work and I really have never been so happy.  Every week is filled with joy and learning experiences.  I know the Lord's power and help is always available to each one of us.

       Thank you for all your support and prayers!!!! I love you all and hope your lives are also filled with joy :) My invitation of the week.... study the Restoration. It is the most beautiful and unique message, as PMG puts it, the "Foundation of our Faith." 

       Ayayaten da kayo!

            Sister Andelin

 

 

March 1, 2015

 

Happy Monday everyone! 

 I hope this lovely beginning of March finds you all in good spirits. I can hardly believe it is March now! Time is so fast, no matter what country you're in.
     We have had some beautiful experiences this week. I tried balut for the first time, the partially formed duck in an egg. It is not a beautiful sight. See for yourself :) But I was happy to accomplish it.

 

Do you see the duck? Yum :)

 And our faces :)

 Tuesday we had exchanges, Man it was eye-opening! I went with Sister Baguio, one of our special STL's.  We found a lot of great new investigators this week, ones with promise! Sister Zeny had been coming to church and she wasn't even a member! We taught her and she has a baptismal date now! Sister J, we met her and SHE asked us to share a message to her, and gave her friends and roomates as referrals! I see prepared hearts, all of this we as missionaries have nothing to do with.
       Our investigators are doing well. . A couple of our investigators are struggling with the Word of Wisdom. One of them is only doing one cigarette daily, one is doing great.
        It was special this week because we found two sweet older lady investigators that had been taught by previous missionaries and were waiting and waiting for missionaries to come back. The Lord led us to their house and they were so overjoyed. We asked "Can we come back on Tuesday?" and they said "You can come back even every day! Would you like to stay for lunch?" Haha it is amazing to see how God works and the joy that people feel when they see that God remembers them.
        We had two experiences, very similar to each other this week. We were walking along and a man on a motorcycle slows down next to us and is reading our name tags. We feel to talk to him, and it turns out he is a less active, has been for 8 years! He said he misses the missionaries, none have been coming to his house. Later in the week, a husband wife and child on a motorcycle slow down next to us and ask us if we know a different set of Sister missionaries. It turns out they are less active as well and they miss missionaries coming to their house. They want to come to church but they have work on Sunday mornings. We invited them to our ward, which is in the afternoon. In both of these cases I saw that they really weren't missing the missionaries, they were missing the Spirit. I saw that Heavenly Father works on peoples hearts. How grateful I am that He is intricately involved in each one of our lives! No matter how many people there are on this earth, He is truly aware of and loves each one. I am so grateful to be able to see and be a part of his work. I love it so much and I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only True and Living Church. I pray that we will all strive to be instruments in God's hands and see the needs and ways to serve and reach those wandering.
        Have a fantastic week, Piliin ang Tama!
              Sister Andelin