Area: San Marcelino
Companion: Sister Rowley
Trainer and Sister Training
Leader
Monday,
December 16, 2013
Okay so I don't even know
where to begin about this week, SO MUCH has happened.
I'll start with the
randoms of the week. So being that it is Christmas times and the little kids
here populate just about as quickly as the stray dogs, there are little kids
caroling on EVERY corner when it becomes night. They will go stand in front of
houses with little soda bottles and rocks banging them to make music and
singing christmas songs in tagalog. Of course it's super cute, these little
kids are adorable, plus they're singing, even cuter. Yeah well Sister Rowley
and I spoke too soon. Turns out one night they decided to follow us....and
follow us...and continue to follow us. As if we don't stand out enough we have
these little kids banging ghetto "instruments", here come the sister
missionaries! ha, turns out the trick is you have to pay them, go figure!
Everyone we walk by just points and laughs at us, worst part about this trick
to get them to go away, we aren't allowed to pay them! Turns out we were the
entertainment of the night, yeah yeah jokes on us hahah.
This week we were teaching
the word of wisdom to this group of kids that we have recently started
teaching. We figured word of wisdom would be a super easy one, I mean the kids
range from 3 to 12 years old...yeah turns out these kids have more word of
wisdom problems than some of our adult investigators! How does that even
happen, we were asking a five year old if he has a problem with any of the word
of wisdom things and he said no, then the girl next to him goes "liar! you
were drunk yesterday!" I seriously could've cried...bubble popped.
Well you know you live in
Asia when the Elders call saying they have an emergency, turns out they ran out
of rice and the world stopped there. It was Sunday so they couldn't go buy any
so they HAD to come over and take some of ours, haha crack up. Speaking of
Elders...now that four Elders are in San Marcelino, some of the people call us
Elders now instead of Sisters..not sure where that got mixed up! Awkward haha.
You also know you're in Asia when a man just walks out of the cuts with a huge
machete in his hand and I don't even think twice about it..not normal, yet that
is the normal here. yikes.
So I got a call Monday
night, it was the zone leaders asking me to give a spiritual instruction at the
zone meeting on Tuesday..yeah for anyone that knows me, you know I need like
three weeks notice to plan something like that, I mean come on my farewell talk
took me like a month to write! Perfectionist problems. Anyways of course I had
to say yes, there's not option there. So I agreed and then the stress began.
Nevertheless, I presented it Tuesday morning and this is what I got.
I started out with a quote
by Jeffrey R. Holland "Brethren the Spirit of the work is URGENCY. We must
imbue our missionaries and members with the Spirit now. NOW. We are not just
waiting for natural slow growth. We must move rapidly. We must take things up a
notch. If we have to call down miracles or angels then call them down. The
drama is unfolding and we must do whatever it takes to ratchet up the work. I
feel an incredible burden of urgency..I feel a sense of urgency in my chest, I
can hardly breathe. Every dispensation begins with a vision. We must have a
vision. We are the church that dreams dreams. We are the church that has
visions. We must believe in miracles. We must believe and build on what our
forefathers have done. Are we just going to putter along, be average until we
wind up to the level when our heart is up in our throat and if we open our eyes
we would expect to see angels? If this is God's work and he still lives, then
miracles and angels are still there. We must live up to our potential, God will
bless us with whatever we need. God wants us to see what he sees and know what
he knows. He wants to ratchet up the vision. god is easy to please and hard to
satisfy. This is not convenient easy work. We have got to take things to the edge.
We have to move into the realm of miraculous. We have to live in such a way
that we cannot do it alone anymore--where we will resort to the Lord, where we
will cry, "without thy help I will fail, help me fly." Go to the edge
where miracles will happen. Move into the realm of miraculous. Have full faith.
Believe in Angels."
I want you to think of a
firefighter, the urgency and responsibility of the job that they have. Now I
want you to imagine how things in the fire house go as soon as they get that call
and the bell stars ringing--I imagine that they all quickly spring into action,
slipping on their suits, sliding down that pole, jumping into the truck and
they are off within minutes. I find it hard to imagine that you would see them
running to the bathroom, or walking back into the house because they forgot
their water bottle or are hungry and want a snack. No. Their thoughts are not
on themselves, but are on those souls that they are called to save. They
understand the urgency of their calling. I can't imagine how they would feel
had they wasted even a splitsecond of their time, leading to the result of not
getting to the family upstairs in the burning building fast enough. Elders and
Sister we must liken this sense of urgency unto ourselves. We too are in the
soul saving business. The Lord is Hastening His work rapidly and we volunteered
to step up to the plate. Let us remind ourselves each day that every second we
are given in the mission field counts. Had we wasted a split second, we might
miss the opportunity to save the souls of a family that walked by the gate of
our house two seconds earlier. Elders and Sisters we have 18/24 months to
serves our missions and the rest of our lives to remember it. May we give it
everything that we have. As it says in Hebrews 4:11 "Let us labour
therefore to enter into that rest." Our calling is urgent, may we labor
with all that we have, that someday we will enter into that rest after our
missions, knowing we made every second count I humbly pray in the name of Jesus
Christ, Amen.
This weekend was the
baptism of Nanay Sevillaga, and oh how the devil knows how to work on families
when they are getting so close to making covenants with the Lord that will
change their lives forever. Saturday morning we saw Nanay at the pelenke and
she was happy as can be and very excited for her baptism. Later that afternoon
Sister Rowley and I made treats for the baptism, filled up the font, set up the
chairs, and were printing out her baptism program when we got a text from
Nanay's daughter Jenny saying the baptism couldn't continue. Sister Rowley and
I immediately dropped to our knees and said the deepest prayer we could, asking
for help, and literally for a miracle. We then speed walked over the Sevillaga
home, said another prayer outside before we went in to know what we could say
or do to help the situation. We go in and quickly Nanay begins to explain that
earlier that morning she got into an argument with her sister about their
washing machine. One thing led to the next and all of a sudden her kids started
mocking her, saying how can you be baptized later today if you are still being
the same you? You haven't changed, then Nanay starts thinking about it
realizing she doesn't feel worthy to be baptized, maybe her kids were right, how
could she do this? I let her sit there and rant and get everything out, she
said she wanted to follow her kids into baptism, she didn't want to be first,
they needed to change first. I let her finish, and then quietly told her how
much I look up to my own mother. How she is my hero, and I hope to someday be
half the mother she is to me. I told her that I didn't always show my mom all
the love that I should have growing up, I was a teenager too, but I told her
that the best thing she could do to help her children change, is for her to
change first, to be the example. The conversation continued and eventually she
said, okay sister, lets go to the church. Well Tatay Freddie had walked out of
the house before we had even gotten there and wasn't planning on coming home
anytime soon and had no cell phone to get ahold of him. All the kids were in
bad moods now and were not planning on coming to her baptism. While Nanay
showered and got her things together we went in and talked to the kids, I told
them they really need to put aside all of their differences and support their
mother, they are family, and they would regret this. Baptisms should be a happy
moment, and Nanay needs them more now than ever before. We then left and went
to the church, I had a prayer in my heart the whole day. Eventually one by one
the kids showed up in their church clothes, there to support Nanay. The baptism
ended up being the most spiritual baptism I have experienced yet. Sister
Rowley, the Sevillaga boys and I sang "be still my soul" in Tagalog,
two beautiful talks were given, and many tears were shed. When Nanay stepped
into that water she gasped, she was overcome with the Spirit. She was baptized,
she did it! When she got out of the water and walked up the steps I was
standing there and she looked into my eyes, she was absolutely glowing, we
embraced eachother for a good minute, I told her how much I loved her, she said
"Mahal kita rin ang anak ko" I love you too my child. No words can
explain the moment. I am so proud of her, despite all the trials she is going
through, the difficulty of the life she leads, and the fact that her own
husband wasn't there, she was baptized, she knew it was what was next for her
in life. She now just absolutely radiates, she was confirmed in church the following
Sunday and now is the newest member in the San Marcelino Branch.
No words can describe the
happiness that a missionary feels when seeing someone that they absolutely love
step into the waters of baptism. Moments like this is what makes everything worth
it. I love my mission!
I know the church is true,
I'm grateful to be serving here in the Philippines Olongapo Mission. I love you
all, be safe, and Merry Christmas!
Sister Pilkington
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