So this week has been great as always because we are sharing the gospel with the people her in Pakil. So I feel like a lot of our investigators aren’t progressing and it makes me so sad. We just dropped one of our investigators who I thought was ready for the gospel but she said, "God is first.....but right now I need to finish my house so that is first." We offered to give her help and she said she didn’t need it so I don’t know. She said she knows that our message is true but I just think that she is not ready to change. She said that she doesn’t think that going to church should be mandatory and that people should be able to go whenever they wanted to. Then I thought about all the Ten Commandments what if they were all like that thou shalt not kill only applies whenever you want it to, yeah that wouldn’t be good! Then the Liahona article that I was reading had one of those pictures with the quote that said, “they are Ten Commandments not ten suggestions”. Wow I loved it. But there is no telling that to our investigator every time anyone testifies and you can feel the spirit you can tell she doesn’t want to hear it and I know it is because she can feel the power that comes from pure testimony. So I think some other missionaries will just have to come back and try again. It makes me so sad. However we are teaching Jovelyn again and I’m so happy because she is back! She was so excited about the church before and she would go to all the activities and she was just amazing! Then all of the sudden she stopped coming to church and readying and we weren’t able to teach her for a while. but we started teaching her again and then a couple weeks ago she came to us and pulled each of us aside and she started to cry and told us she was so sorry because she was at her house when we came to teach her and she had her grandpa say that no one was home :( she started crying and said I need to repent I’m so sorry!!! She is so cute and so sweet we talked about it and she felt much better and I know that it was simple for us but I know that for her it was a step closer to our Savior and making the right choices to prepare her for baptism which I love! By the way her baptism is this Saturday! We are also teaching a young woman named Maricar and she is the daughter of one of the families that is on the list of families to focus on for reactivation! They have been to church three times now and she is really excited about the lessons, we just taught about Joseph Smith and she committed to be baptized! Yeah! then we are teaching this boy named Robby, well his real name is Roberto but I call him Robby :) he is supper cute he is 12 years old and he is the cousin of Andrew the brother of Maryann the cute little girl that I have a picture with. They were supposed to have their baptism a couple weeks ago but they missed church and they have to come 4 times in a row for baptism. But now Maryann is in Manila until May :( so I don’t think I will see her again, I was so sad I love her so much! But I’m still excited because I know that as we continue teaching her brother and cousin when she comes back she will get baptized because she has a desire! Yeah! So Robby and Andrew. Andrew told us after a lesson that his cousin wanted to listen and so we planed to meet with him the next time. Then he came up as we were leaving so they both walked us to the place were we waited for a jeep. As we were walking Andrew was telling Robby the church is so cool, he is 10, he said primary is awesome and he said you can go there with me but then I explained that he would go to young men and Andrew said that’s cool too because the church is great. So cute then he started telling him about Joseph Smith and was so excited! Robby really understands the lessons and he reads the Book of Mormon all the time. The first time we gave him a reading assignment it was one chapter but he said can I keep reading if I finish this chapter! Awesome! Of course we told him yes. We are going to go to his house next visit so that we can teach his whole family :) last week we taught up to the restoration how the true church was taken from the earth and that is the reason we have so many churches but how do we know what one is true and were the authority is. So sister Macabenta asked "what church is the true church of Jesus Christ" usually people say I don’t know. Robby said "Mormons!" ha-ha. It was so cute and so innocent! He is ready and I’m excited. The last lesson we taught was the restoration and he was so excited! After the lesson we were talking with the Adovas family and the kids were there and they were all reading from and talking about the Book of Mormon! They were all boys and I could just see them all preparing for missions! Ahhhh! I love it. We have a lot of work to do with our investigators. We commit them for baptism and they say oh I don’t want to be a member but you can still teach me. So we need to help them understand it isn’t just a nice story it is the truth and help them gain a testimony of it. Work work work that is the secret :).
So experiences on the mission, we went to an investigators house to teach them and they weren’t home but he husband was and he told us that he wants to listen to our message too which was really exciting! Then the investigators who don’t want to commit just listened but when he said that he wanted to listen to our message I felt that he was the way to get the whole family to commit and to progress to developing a testimony! I was so excited. Oh I almost forgot! Annabel, I forgot her last name but she is the mom of Aerol. One of the baptisms we had before. She would never listen to us. But lately she has been excited to listen and reads every assignment that we give to her even though it is hard because she has a lot of little kids and she is not very educated yet she does so well and she really has a desire. I think she is shy about church because they are poor and she always wants to look good for church but it is hard with so many kids. So we just tell her that she doesn’t have to look amazing just have a desire to come closer to Jesus Christ. She has been to church three times now and she just committed to baptism. The only hard part is her husband is a member. Why is that hard you might ask? He doesn’t go to church and he smokes and drinks. We are trying to help him understand and teach him the lessons again with his wife but he just says he will try. So I am hoping he will understand the atonement So we just have to work with him and over come the obstacles! But I love the quote in preach my gospel that all that is unfair about life will be made right through the atonement. I really feel like one day they can be a forever family even if they can’t obtain the covenants in this life because of the laws of the land. So I love teaching the gospel and the hope that it brings to people. I love the kids here and sometimes it makes me miss the kids and I can’t believe that Abby is baptized and that Lizzy is 2! Tell her happy birthday! And give her a kiss. Sorry that I didn’t say happy birthday Heather! I love you and hope that you had a great birthday. Back to missing the family even though I think of you and miss you it just gives me extra drive to share the gospel. In the MTC a worker had a quote at her desk that said, “Missionary: someone who leaves their family for two years (a year and a half) so that others can be with theirs for eternity”! I'm so glad I can help people experience the joy that comes from having an eternal family! I love you all so so much!!!!! I did get your package thank you so so much! It was a great Easter present. I'm so excited for conference and even though it isn’t on Easter Sunday here I will still be happy to watch it and I’m sure a lot of the talks will be about the Savior and the resurrection! I'm so excited! You’re always in my heart! I love you all so much! Thank you for being my inspiration and my example to be the missionary I am :) I love you so much!!!!!!
Love, Sister AndreasenP.S. the earthquake, Elder French said he felt it but I actually had no idea. We could have been walking or in a jeep or tric.
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