Miracles in San Marcelino!

Area:  San Marcelino

Companion:  Sister Hynes

Monday, September 9, 2013

Friends and Family!

This week has been a great one! I just love it here, the people are so amazing, and I am finally starting to feel at home!

To start I have a couple of  funny stories:

So we had a branch family home evening, and we were playing do you love your neighbor.  Well everyone here has fake teeth, and someone asked this lady do you love your neighbor? and she goes, NO and while she's saying it her teeth fall out! It was soooooo funny we were all DYING laughing! Best thing ever. 

Another funny thing, we were teaching those little kids about obeying and honoring the law, we ask “Who’s the president?” (meaning the president of the country,) and the sweet little 3 year old says MOMMY! it was soo funny. 

So I have been receiving a lot of questions about what the area I am serving in is like, so I’m going to give you a little background information. I am serving in the area of San Marcelino. Half of my area is neighborhoods, no not the neighborhoods you would imagine in America, but just think third world country neighborhoods with dirt roads and some with cobblestone roads with potholes. Then the other half of our area is called the bukids, it’s straight up dirt pathways with rice fields on both sides, absolutely gorgeous, and tons of bugs and snakes too of course! The people are extremely extremely poor. The “nice” houses are made of cement, nobody has windows, they just have holes in the walls where a window would be but no glass to keep bugs from coming in. Then the majority of our investigators houses are made of bamboo, scraps of metal, and other materials that they could find. It’s an extremely poverty struck place, pretty much the whole Philippines is. All of the kids run around in little shirts, none of them are ever wearing diapers or pants because they can’t afford it. They rarely ever have shoes on either. Barely anyone has showers here, so they just go jump into the little rivers or creeks behind their houses to shower, but the still water is filled with leeches and all sorts of diseases, so pretty much every investigator always has some kind of rash, or lice, or leeches on them. It makes me so sad I just want to help them and give them everything that I have. There are ALL sorts of wild animals, chickens, frogs, pigs, callebows (water buffalo), cats, dogs, you name it, they are everywhere. I feel like I live on a little farm on a tropical island, it’s such a blast dodging all the wildlife every corner we turn. I’m surprised I haven’t been attacked by any animals yet! $10 American dollars is what people work an entire month for, they have no money. They live day to day off of what they earn at their jobs, it’s a struggle to put food on the table, and it’s rare that people have electricity. So there are all of these trials and struggles for the people here, yet they are so happy, and so humble and giving it’s incredible. Complete strangers always welcome us into their homes, offering us their only chairs and they sit on the dirt floor. They give us their food and ask us to eat all of it, and sit there smiling happily, even though inside they know they won’t be able to feed their family that night. It is so extremely humbling, and the best gift I can ever give these people is the gospel. I have seen miracles as I teach the people here and see them go from one spectrum to the other, drawing nearer to Christ and His gospel each day.

The branch that I am serving in is extremely small. My first week here we had 76 people at church, I’m used to 400-500 at least back home, so I was shocked when I saw our attendance. However, yesterday, we had 117 people at church. Our church attendance has increased by 41 people since I got here, SUCH  a miracle. Our mission president the whole three years he has been here has never seen the attendance so high in our area. He told us that we are literally making history here as we help this area to progress and grow. It is such an amazing feeling. The biggest miracle of the week happened on Sunday. We have been teaching the Sevillaga family.  They have been investigators for four months now.  Their dad Freddie was baptized right before I came out here. They have eight children, three of which have baptismal goal dates. One is getting baptized this Saturday. Their mom has always been extremely hard headed. She loves that her kids are getting involved in the church and thinks it is so good for them and loves to see the changes in them, but has never expressed a real desire to come to church. Yesterday, SHE CAME. We were singing the opening hymn during sacrament meeting, when all of a sudden she walks through the doors with her husband, her two sons John-Mark and Michael, her daughter Jenny and Jenny’s two sons. Sister Hynes and I turn to each other, and just start crying.  We couldn’t even sing the rest of the song because we were so happy. I can’t even put into words how big of a miracle that is. She didn’t go to work that day because she wanted to come to church, that doesn’t just happen. They live peso to peso to support their family, and she gave up that time to sell vegetables to come to church. I am SO HAPPY. I have so much hope for this family, and we are having family home evening with their entire family tonight, I am so excited to teach them all together! Miracles are happening every day here, both big and small. The Lord is hastening His work, faster than we can even imagine.

Another miracle this week was when we were teaching our investigator Marvin. We showed him the Joseph Smith movie, but his remote had no batteries so we couldn’t put it into Tagalog. I prayed that he would be able to understand the movie even though it was in English and be able to feel the Spirit. The movie finished and we began talking about what he felt and learned from the movie, when all of a sudden, it began to play in Tagalog! Sister Hynes and I were both freaked out at first, then we realized it was a tender mercy from the Lord. He then watched the movie in Tagalog, and by the end, Marvin was in tears. He said he had this warm feeling the whole time, and that he knew this church was true. It was one of the coolest moments ever. Just to see how far he has come, from the person he was when we first contacted him in the streets, a little hoodlum, to now, where he has such a strong testimony. He is always inviting His family or whatever friends are out in the street by his house to “come listen to the sisters!” He is changing so much, it’s truly a miracle.

I love it here! I love you all! And I can’t wait to talk to you all next week! John-Mark gets baptized Saturday, one more Sevillaga boy converted into the church, I couldn’t be happier!

 Have a great week!  Mahal Kita!  Sister Pilkington