A Cell Phone Miracle

So this has been the busiest week. We had 3 baptisms on Saturday! Yayyyy (: Their ages are 13, 11, and 9. I don't really want to share names on here just in case, but they are all so cute and it was an amazing service. We had an investigator come also! He is 18, and his friend, one of our less actives brought him two weeks ago to church and we have been teaching him every since. He asked this week "How many days until I can be baptized?" when we were teaching him about baptism, and we just smiled and said June 22nd could work. We have 4 investigators total planning to be baptized that day! So we are very excited for these investigators to take this step of baptism, and to fulfill this righteous covenant with the Lord.

The baptismal service was nice, we have not had much ward support, and no one but the family, Bishop, and the Ward mission leader were there, so we had 2 Elders in our district come to help us. Elder Manatiga baptized the children, and Sister Morales and Elder Westenskow gave the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. I was the chorister. We had a while to wait for the Elders because they were delayed (the jeepney they were on engines blew... i know what whats like haha) so we practiced singing hymns and sang songs they suggested. I felt the Spirit so strongly when we were singing and I really have a strong testimony that singing praises to the Lord can really bring the Spirit into a room.

I am so grateful for this experience at the baptism and the service was perfect.

Another really cool blessing we had yesterday... this one is quite funny actually... was I may or may not have lost..left... whatever we want to call it.. our cell phone on a tricee.. oops. There are hundreds of tricees in this area just so you know. No one has cars. So here is the story haha

We are suppose to rotate who has the phone, but Sister Morales always has it because I don't understand Tagalog for one, but Tagalog texting... its like all in slang and abbreviations lol. But yesterday she gave the phone to me to hold and I thought it would be easier to put in my skirt pocket... wrong. It fell out as I hoped out and we realized like 5 minutes later. He was gone. So we prayed and prayed, because we really do need out phone here to contact members, and hoped it somehow would be found or in good hands. So we walked through the rice fields, and forest.. more like jungle (I seriously feel like I am in the jungle at times... it is GOREGOUS.. sorry side tracked), and taught one less active family and 2 of our investigators, then walked back to centro. We had no one who could call it for us (calls are expensive here.... and they call it "loading" your phone with texts/calls) so we walked to our Bishops house, because we knew he had unlimited calls and called it... guess who answered?? The Goa 1st Ward sisters (the ones we live with, Sister Christensen and Sister Farnes) haha! They had texted us right after the time we had lost it and the tricee driver texted them back and told them what happened, and drove it to the church where they were at! Seriously such a nice guy! So we got our phone back and there was no need to worry. May have been my first time to have the phone, and the last (:

God answers our prayers, even when we are asking Him to help us find our cell phone (:

Another experience we had this week was actually quite saddening and really hard. This also happened yesterday... busiest day for sure! We have this couple who have been investigators for a while and we keep having to push back their baptismal date because they have had some word of wisdom problems (drinking, and cigarettes) and they didn't come to church this Sunday. We went to visit the after church and found out they are offended that we keep changing their date and don't understand why members can have word of wisdom problems and they can't be baptized. I wanted to say so much, but I am so limited in Tagalog! We tried giving them hope and teaching them that baptism is a sacred covenant and if we are serious about it all the commandments God asks of us are easier and that they make sense. Then something strange kind of happened. A pastor of another faith came and the Brother looked up, and said "Oh Pastor", excused himself and went into their home to talk with him. Uh pretty awkward. We didn't know what to do. We sat and continued talking with the wife and she started crying so much and sharing her concerns, life, and trials. They have not had money for food lately and she worries about feeding their 3 children. I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying, but I do know that I felt her pain. I was sobbing and I wanted to comfort her so badly. She is such a good mom and tries so hard. It makes me really realize how much I take for granted back home and the concerns so many people face around the world. So many parents are so thin here because they use all the food to feed their children. What an amazing example that is to me. It was so hard to see this those and I cannot wait until I am able to comfort mothers and help them feel Gods love through words here in the Philippines.

I have been reflecting on how much I have taken for granted.... we need to be grateful for the little things and appreciate what we do have. I am so blessed to not have to worry so much about what I am going to eat, but I have had some hard emotional trials I have gone through in life. Trials are meant to shape an mold us, and help us turn to the Lord. My trial with Tagalog has helped be humbly submit myself to the Lord and realize that all I do and all I should be doing is HIS will, and on HIS time. I love the Philippines and the lesson and things the people teach me here. Love the Lord, follow His commandments, and endure, and we will be blessed more than we can imagine (: I love this gospel and the light it brings to my life.
Until next week (: xooxoxx