HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to miss Paigeyyy, Kasha, and Emily Cole! Love each of you and hope you have an amazing birthday <3.
Hands down of the most interesting weeks of my mission so far...no words can even explain, but for a lack of better words..only in the Philippines. Haha
The work is continuing to press along here in Mandama. Unfortunately although Sister Lim and
I do TONS of tracting and are averaging about 15 new investigators or more a week, we have
not been able to get these people progressing which can be discouraging. However, we are still
working hard and praying even harder to find those people that Heavenly Father has prepared for
us.
We had 11 less actives come to church on Sunday which was awesome. We have been getting lots of less actives coming to church this past month, so now we are starting to focus on getting our investigators progressing. President Dahle has encouraged us to keep teaching our investigators and less actives more about the saving ordinances and the temples. It has been amazing to see the change in the people that we teach as we talk to them about being sealed as a family. The Ocampo family now has a date for September 2015 to be sealed. We are also working with the Ramirez Family (less active) to set a goal date hopefully before the end of the year.
We had an awesome family home evening at Nancy Sanchez' home with her family and the Ocampo family. Sister Gemma taught an awesome lesson about the importance of members shining their light for all to see, that we may be an example to our friends and family members. As we do say, they will be attracted to that light, the gospel, and have a desire to know why we are always so happy. We then played a ton of games, well I thought I was competitive, but I think Nancy might have outdone me. During one of the games she was standing up jumping up and down screaming because she was so excited and didn't want to lose. Everyone was screaming so loud that all of a sudden a bunch of men ran to the house with concerned looks on their faces. Turns out the neighbors thought there was a fight going on because we were so loud and they ran to come break it up. Then they saw a bunch of kids and families playing games and were glad they had guessed wrong. We then invited them to join in on our fun haha.
We had Mission President Interviews on Wednesday in Balanga. Interviews are always awesome. I always can so strongly feel the genuine love that President and Sister Dahle have for us. The chat with the two of them was just awesome. I felt like I was just sitting and talking with my aunt and uncle, it was great. I really want to pick their brains a little more though so next time I'm going to prepare some questions, haha. President is continuing to really expand his vision for our mission, and it is INCREDIBLE. I am soo excited to see where the establishment of the church is at when his three years are done.
Being that I only have eight weeks left as a missionary I am really trying to give this last homeward stretch all that I have. I want to work hard and preach repentance to all. Some of our investigators have been asking us not to come back and it has been really hard. Sometimes I wonder what more we need to do in order to let these people understand that this gospel is true. That waiting right in front of them is the best blessing they could ever accept into their life. But yet sometimes, they just don't see it. But then I remembered one of my favorite quotes from Elder Neil A. Anderson. It is simple, beautiful, and true. "Challenges will come to you, but as you trust in God they will strengthen your Faith." This set back has only made my testimony that much more sure and strong. I know that this church is true, and will continue to spread this message for the rest of my life and even on into the eternities.
I love you all. Have a great week.
Sister Pilkington
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