Rescue Mission

So, random Tuesday Pday last week and random Monday Pday today. Actually, it's really not that random. Last week we have an area 70 visit us so we changed Pday's and this week we have our Christmas conference on Pday. So next week should (hopefully) be a regular pday! 

First off, I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I was super bummed because your birthday was on Sunday and it's Monday here but I forgot about how you are all a day after us! Wow! Lagas na huh? Ug gwapo pa! Mahimo ka mas gwapo kada adlow! Really though, Dad, I love you so much! I know I wouldn't be here serving a mission without you and mom's excellent example for me. You have truly been a light in my life(: I hope your cold is getting better! 

So this week has been really great!  We had a really great seminar last week taught by President and Sister Tanner, and Elder and Sister Echo Hawk, the area 70. They taught a lot of important things. Sister Echo Hawk talked about how she really didn't know the difference between God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost and how truly important that is to clarify for them. So this week we back tracked and made sure everyone who we have been teaching knew that. Not one of them knew exactly the fact that they are three distinct beings, and some of them have been being taught by the 

missionaries for a really long time. It just shows how important it is to really listen to the investigators and REALLY make sure they know what's going on. It's cool because we have been applying that and there has been a completely different spirit in our lessons. We are focusing on the investigator now instead of who gets to talk next. 

So a really cool story! There is this RM in our ward, Jason. He is really great! S. Lolesi asked him if he knows anyone we can teach. He told us about his housemaid and his two inactive sisters. The only problem was that the sisters didn't want the missionaries to come because they don't like questions and the maid was really shy. But he invited us for dinner na lang. So we went there and just did what we do best as a companionship, which is love them. And we do. They're so incredible! So we just have visited the once but we ran into one of the sisters on Saturday and were so excited to see her. Out of nowhere, she was like Yeah, we will have dinner tomorrow night and I will bring my baby girl to church tomorrow! Those were her exact words (she speaks English to us) "And I'll bring my baby girl to church."

And she came to church! Along with the other sister! They were such a beautiful sight to see. And that night, we had an FHE along with dinner. At the end of it, the whole family bore their testimony and the sister told us how we inspired them to come to church again. It was such an incredible testimony to me that even though we can't necessarily teach everyone, they will be touched by our presence if we are striving to be like Jesus Christ. I know it definitely made a difference to them! 

So about skype mom, I think it's a pwede. That same family I just talked about offered us to use their computers which will be good because I think that any internet cafes here would be so so slow. But because my companions are both foreigners I will probably be skyping you on Christmas Eve for you guys in the evening. Which will still be good! I'm so excited to see your gwapo and gwapa faces! And Kaitlyn, that is one gwapo fella of yours. Hopefully that's not awkward to write in an email; the Philippines made me forget what's awkward or not, not that I ever knew before haha (: So I'm excited to meet him too. 

Mom, please tell Marcy thanks so much and Grandma also! That is so so kind of them. I have pretty much gotten what I need. Thank you for sending another package too even though you didn't have to. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Nanay. (P.s, mom and dad, my kids are going to speak Cebuano, so be prepared to be called Lolo and Lola (; ) 

I love you all more than my heart can even explain. AND I LOVE MY MISSION AND I LOVE THE GOSPEL! I am understanding more and more why it's called the best two years! (18 months haha) 

Have such a wonderful week! 

Welcome to the Cebu East Mission and Temple!

Soo.. I LOVE my companions. This is the coolest companionship I've ever had! Sister Lolesi and Sister T are the best! It's really weird because we're all batch and none of us have had a follow up trainer but we are all learning together and doing super well .I wish you could meet them!! I guess maybe you will? I don't know. Depends on if we will be skyping. But we just all love eachother a lot and we have so much fun because of it. We have our six weeks together for sure so we planned "cycle birthdays" for each of us and mine was today! We had the elders over and we must have made a million pancakes and eggs and hot dogs and rice (siempre, it's the Philippines!) We brought our table outside and we ate out there and it was so fun! Our elders in our ward are super nice also.

So we had a cool experience yesterday. We went to teach a family but they weren't available. So we kept walking a little bit and we saw a few people washing dishes and one lady was getting water to wash her pigs. Sister T just went and grabbed her bucket. I learned from her that you don't ask people if they want help; you just do it. So while she and Sister Lolesi did that, I helped this lady do her dishes. She kept saying ako na lang (only me, not you) and ulow  ko (I'm shy) and basa imong sayal (your skirt is all wet.) But I just said ay basa na so okna man! Ayaw kabalaka (It's already wet so it's all good. Don't worry! ) And I know she appreciated it even though it is hard to ask for help. After I was finished, I noticed that a few people had come out of their houses and were watching. This lady had a 2 week old baby with her. She asked me if we do bible study. I told her we just want to help people bisan unsa (even if it's with temporal work, etc.) . I said we teach people and asked if they would be interested and she said she was. I gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and told her that it would help her know how her family could be together forever. 

That was a really cool experience because I know that if we hadn't stopped to help people with their stuff we wouldn't have had a chance to find this girl who was obviously prepared for us by our Heavenly Father. It was so cool because I wasn't even afraid to ask her if we could return to her when I normally might be. I knew that I had help in that moment. I wasn't worried because I knew that this is Jesus's work and he isn't going to let me screw it up if I have the right intent, because this is His little sister and He really cares about her. 

Also for the weird part. My first pday we hadn't picked Sister Lolesi up yet and we went shopping in this Uki uki (DI in the Philipines) and this Baptist pastor asked us if we had the King James version of the bible and we said yes to he wanted to do bible study. I thought it was just because they had a different version of the bible or something so they wanted to look at the differences and we could just get a quick message in after ward so we agreed. As soon as we sat down they went off on this lengthy sermon and they wouldn't let us ask questions or talk! They just said unya unya (later  later) We were in there for about 2 hours when I finally told them that we had an appointment and we needed to go. It was scary to do that but we need to be using our time wisely as missionaries and teaching to those who will hear our message. So they made us stay for five minutes longer to finish. They don't believe that we need works to be saved, so they asked us something along the lines of "will you accept Jesus Christ and be saved?" So then it was our turn. We just smiled and told them that we already have. They asked if we know what happens after death and if we are ready. We smiled and gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.  They asked if we could return and we told them that our purpose is to help others come to Christ so we could return only if they would let us share with them also. They said they would. I am not sure about returning back there but my companions want to so I guess we will go back one time and guage from there. 

It was just kind of cool because I have always been afraid to learn about other religions because I was scared that maybe my faith isn't strong enough to withstand. What I didn't know was that learning about other religions would just make my faith even stronger! As soon as they started talking there was no spirit there. Now I understand what it means about not having the complete gospel. There was a lot that was correct but there was just a lot of lacking. They made up for the lacking with the doctrines of men. My faith in the Restoration is just a lot stronger now. I know even more how true our gospel is. Okay so that's all for this week! Love you all so much!! 

Sister Sprouse