Monday, January 20, 2014

Nanay, Merienda Does Not Qualify As An Emergency

JANUARY 5, 2014

So it is in the middle of weekly planning and we get this text from a nanay who lives in our area and her text read something like this "my children, please please please come now I have an emergency please please hurry something something something in Tagalog that I dont understand but I know is about babysitting kids blah blah" and I am like, "nanay, we are sorry, but we cant babysit your kids for you, but how else can we help" and she keeps texting, "please please please come now come now I am waiting please come now" so we go into panic/problem fixing mode and go text the Branch Pres and his wife and go to our land lady (RC) and ask if she can go to nanay's and help. Much to our disappointment, she is really lethargic about doing anything and is like "oh poor me, I cant, do I have to?" so I am all "okay, laters nanay, we have things to fix" and we end up calling the President Barrientos, and turns out there was a house fire behind our house, so while all of this is happening, there are fire trucks, fire men (who are just regular dudes in regular clothing that just happen to drive a giant, red, tank esque truck) and news people and yeah. So we talk to Pres. B and he says to go to nanay's and see what is going on because this entire time she is sending us text after text after text all very desperate and hurry hurry hurry. So we pack up, head out, walk 10 feet from our house and get a text from nanay that says "I made merienda for you, please come so I can go babysit my grand kids" in English. So a merienda is a snack. Yeah. All this for a snack. Filipinos take snack time too seriously.

So in other news, I hit six months this week, what the holy cow really?! I cant even believe it. Next thing you know I am going to be half way through, then I will be home and it all is happening so fast. Too fast. And happy New Year! My new years resolution is to learn Tagalog and Ilocano. Kaya ko iyan!

In other other news, Sis. A and I went on exchanges this week and learned so much about how we can improve our work. Like, we came back together and were like "BAPTIZE ALL THE PEEPS!" so this week should be exciting because we are implementing a lot of changes and pushing for fellow shippers and families and getting people to actually take some time to listen.

Holy, wait a second, Jojo Real, the Baptist preacher guy? Yeah, while I was on exchanges, Sis. A and Sis. Roselle invited him to be baptized and HE SAID YES. And his entire family. I came home, heard the news and almost died of excitement. This man has been so tough, we have taught him the restoration and invited him to pray for months and to no avail, but Sis. R was going to be a preacher too before she converted and she was just the push he needed to accept. We went to get him and his family to church yesterday and he was not there, so we are not totally out of the woods yet, but his family is so ready, he might be the last one to prepare, but oh my gosh I cant even really tell you all my emotions or details about this but just trust me that it is awessssssooooooommmmmmeeeee!

So Mac, the random guy that we found? Well he is basically great, but he is going back to Manila this week and we wont be able to teach him, but we watched the Restoration video with him and boy is that stuff powerful. He is just so willing to listen and read and learn. Great first steps. I hope the missionaries in Manila find him fast. Hello referral!

We taught a lesson to this less active couple who are just less active because Tatay cant come to church because he has had three strokes and cant really walk, it is so sad because you can just see how helpless he feels and Nanay works so hard to take care of them and they just love each other and The Lord and it is just really sweet and sad at the same time. But we taught them a lesson and asked them how we can help them and they asked us to come an keep trying to teach their less active grand son and as Nanay was saying the closing prayer, she and Tatay just started to break down and sob and you could just feel how earnest they were in pleading with The Lord for help. Tatay couldnt stop sobbing and, my heart just broke for him. But the beautiful thing is, is that Christ knows exactly what they need, what they feel and the prayers of earnest and obedient people are so powerful.

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet

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