Monday, May 28, 2012

A slight chance of rain...

Hello Family and Friends,

I didn't think the Philippines could get any greener, but you would be amazed what a little (hahaha) bit of rain each day can do for the greenery. And we are not even in the rainy rainy season. Now that I have done my weekly weather report.... 

So the exciting news for this week (there is actually a lot of exciting news) is the we had Elder Russel M. Nelson come and speak to our mission. He came to rededicate the MTC here, and do a bunch of firesides. I got to shake his hand! Cool huh!?! Do you remember that talk that he gave where he showed the pictures of his daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter? And those intense blue eyes they all had? Well, they inherited it from him. He has the most intense, piercing blue eyes ever! It was a cool experience. Instead of giving us a talk, he had missionaries come up and practice teaching him, from the very beginning. And he gave us tips and ideas of how to do things better. Can you imagine teaching an apostle about the first vision? I wasn't brave enough to volunteer. But it was still good, and of course he had really awesome ideas and insights. 

Because we have so many Less Active families in our area, Sister Afu and I decided to block out a whole afternoon for finding less active families. Now you have to understand in the Philippines they don't have addresses. And only once in a while does a street have a name. So you just have to ask... everyone. So we did. Puwede po ba magtanong? I am getting really good at that phrase. We were having no success. We were finding the houses but there were either no people or they were not, how should i put it, interested. Finally we decided to move on to the next closest area. The first family we ask about. Boom home. Boom interested. Boom there were offended along time ago, but know the church is true and want us to come back. Yeah! They are a great family and with a lot of love and work will come back. We set up a return appointment, at which they fed us (here that means you are family). We moved on to the next family on the list Manalo. Turns out every one in that Baringay has that last name, and i mean everyone. We had the WHOLE Baringay trying to help us find this person. It was like a circus. We had about 40 people trying to help us at once. People would just find the closest Manalo they could find and pull them over to us. Once they realized they were not the right Manalo, they would go find another Manalo, and this process just kept going and going. We were all laughing so hard. But there was one lady, that had the most beautiful smile, and I was like, "I want to talk to her." when she came up to us, and said that she used to be a member. She was not the one we were looking for but she said we could come back (she of course had married a Manalo... so that will be fun trying to find her again). It was just a cool experience. And someone said I sounded like a Filipino, which of course made my day. But then I realized he asked me one question and I answered it. Boo, oh, well. 

Tatay Godofredo, is so excited to get the Priesthood. And he payed his tithing yesterday. He didn't think anyone was watching, but it was so cute to see him struggle to fill out the form. And he was basically glowing, when he handed it to the Branch President. And his tie was tied wrong. But one of the members helped him, it was just so fun. 

Irene Tutol has returned! She was the one that didn't go to church, so her mom would go. She is active now, and is even one of our fellowshippers for the new family we found last week. She sat by her in Relief Society and everything. I basically did a happy dance! 

RJ has been working with the Elders twice a week now. He loves it! The Elders say he is one of the best people they have worked with. He shares scriptures to answer the peoples questions and introduces and explains the scriptures like a missionary. The Elders said at one point they didn't know what to say to this one investigator, and RJ just jumped in with a scripture that shot the mans argument right our the window. He is going to be baptized next week, and it will be so exciting. 

It's festival again, which means fireworks and radio trucks all night long. And parades. 

It is such a good feeling when the members say that they want this to be my only area on my mission. Aww, they love me. I really do have a Filipino family here. But don't worry, I still love you all, and I might come home some time...

Loves, 
Sister Lyons

PS So mom, I live next to these really funny, crazy Elders, and one of them is obsessed with pink ties. He only has pink ties. And he is sure that you will send him one if I only ask. He thinks that you love him or something. Anyway, I had to included this, because he did something for me, and in return I promised to ask you. There, I asked. Random, I know, but you have to remember who my neighbors are. :)

No comments:

Post a Comment