I Stole A Child's Basketball

Sun, Mar 16, 2014 at 11:38 PM

So there is this RC in my area who is about nine years old and he
never reads his Book of Mormon, so we have been threatening to take
his basketball away if he does not read. This week when we went to go
teach him, he was playing basketball, so I went over and used the
advantage of my height--yes, I am tall here, also he is nine--to take
the ball so he would listen to our lesson. Then at the end, we asked
his mom if we could take the ball because he had been misbehaving in
other areas as well and she was like "sure, that is fine with me" we
told the little boy that we would return the ball the next day and we
walked away. He threw such a big fit that his mom came running after
us asking if she could have the basketball back. Epic fail. Next time
I am going to take it and drop kick it into the ocean.

This week was a little rough, we had to drop a lot of our baptismal
dates for various reasons, and some of our investigators have dropped
us. Sigh. But we are not letting it get us down! We will just have to
do a lot of finding this week, but its a challenge we are willing to
take to find those who are really prepared for us.

Sta Clara: They keep coming to church and brother Melchor was on time
this week so he is progressing again! Yay! Also, I think that Alexis
will be baptized this coming week, we just need to finish her lessons.
She comes into Centro for school every day, so we are going to set up
three lessons this week for her so we can polish her all up for her
interview on Saturday.

We had a nanay, maybe 65, run away from us this week. Literally run.
We were laughing pretty hard at her and decided that next time we are
going to run after her because we are younger and faster. Name that
movie D! (I think the movie is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe)

We have had some really amazing lessons this week. We had a meeting
all about teaching the doctrine of the missionary lessons at Zone
Training, and it was something I had been praying for so badly. I have
been feeling like my teaching was really not effective and that I was
just spinning my wheels, but that training really opened my eyes to
what I was doing wrong. We have not been really teaching the doctrine.
So the past two weeks, Sis. D and I have been really trying to teach
these people the revealed truth, God has a body, you don't go to heaven
or hell after you die etc. etc. and we have really noticed the
difference. The Spirit has been more present in our lessons and it
shows in the understanding of our investigators. We have this one
investigator, Maryjane, she is so prepared. Every time we walk out of
a lesson with her, we are like, "wow, she just gets it, doesn't she?"
Now we just need to get her to church, which is always the hardest
part.

I have been reading in Ether this week, and when you get past all the
war and usurpation of power, there is some really good stuff in there.
Like in Ether 4:13 it says "come unto me...and I will show unto you
the greater things..." I read that and I thought of how many of the
greater things in life I have come to know because of the gospel.
Families can be eternal, this life is not the end, trials are for our
benefit, faith brings knowledge, I could go on. But it really is true,
that if we come unto the Lord, he opens things to us that we never
would have know before.

Next week is Zone Conference and that means I will see Sister Smith!
And Elder Leifi is now in my district again. Things in the Philippines
are just so masaya. I love it here more than I can say!

Megan & Elder Leifi
(Elder Leifi sent this photo to Grandma Karen. The two of them have been corresponding.)

Cheers,
Sis Bet

Teaching Filipinos Slang

Sun, Mar 9, 2014 at 11:33 PM

So we had a zone activity today, we went to the beach and it was awesome. We played this Filipino game that is hard to describe, but is really fun and I can teach it to yall when I get home. We will have all the fun! But after we all went to eat at this super delicious pizza place--I don't want to hear it Italy--and this one elder kept asking all the Americans to teach him slang. It was hard to come up with a lot after so long in the Philippines. I kept thinking things like 'ano ba iyan' and 'talaga' and 'lagarod'....not English. But we did manage to pull out 'n00b' 'fresh' 'dank' 'fly' 'ballin' 'sick' and several others. If you think of more, send them to me, thanks!

Megan's view everyday!

So we have this recent convert who has not been confirmed because right after her baptism, she had to go to Manila for a family emergency and she came to church last week, but for some reason they did not confirm her and this week she did not come to church. It was the worst feeling, sitting in sacrament meeting praying that we would see Emy run around the corner into the church. But alas, twas not so. We went to go visit her and she said she did not come because she had no money to pay for a ride. I just pray that she will be able to come to church this coming Sunday.

Sta Clara: Alexis just keeps coming to church, dressed in her Sunday best, on time and she has friends, she goes to the right classes and she will probably be baptized on the 29th if we can finish her lessons. Melchor has been late to church twice, so we have to start him back over before he can be baptized, but he walks into church like he is a member. Some people even think that he is a member. I didnt know them before, but you can just see how the gospel has changed them and changed the way they live their lives.

No one thing really stuck out this week, it was just a good week. Oh, transfers happened and I am staying in Gonzaga with dear, sweet Sister Dollete. It was an answer to a quite prayer. I really do love her, she is so funny and fun to work with and my Tagalog is improving so much with her. We are both excited to see some baptisms this transfer!

Also, update from Vigan: Melchor Santiago baptized his wife, Sandrei and he is getting the Melchezedic Priesthood so he can bless their baby Theo AND they told Sister Abelhouzen that they are getting ready to go to the temple. Squeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, the Vincent and Mark Balta got baptized.  After so long with no baptisms in that area, it was so great to hear about those three. I am so sad I was not there to see it, but I know it was a special day for all of them. Three more in the fold!

Mahal Kita!  Sis Bet                   

In Megan's words: "My companion getting all artsy on me!"

"Don't Take a Picture of It!" "NO! I'm Going To Get a Flashlight To See It Better!"

Monday, MARCH 3, 2014

Sisters Dollete & Bettilyon

So the other day, and by the other day, I mean yesterday, I had the most pleasant experience of cleaning up a horde of maggots out of our trash. Hooray life. Shout out to Gma for sending the rubber gloves. So here is how the story goes: we made fish soup the other day. We did not eat all the fish soup. We threw some of it away and trash day is not until Monday. Que gross. Sunday, we come home, and our apartment is rank. Like truly awful. So I finally decide to put on my big girl pants and do something about it. I go over to the trash and there are all these foaming, white maggots. Sigh. So I go put on a pair of rubber gloves and start taking care of things because something must be done. Enter the other two Sisters. Sister Keith comes over, looks at the mess and says "oh my gosh, I think I am going to throw up, how are you not gagging right now?" I say "I really need you to not throw up and help me, sometimes you just have to put your big girl pants on and clean the maggots." So that is what I did. Cleaned maggots.

Moving on. We had this really amazing lesson with one of our investigators Mindarose. She is 25, but she has a leg deformity, so she is only about three feet tall. She has not been progressing, but she always likes to listen to us, and she understands a lot. We went into the lesson without a plan really because we just wanted to talk to her about whatever it is that her concern is. So we start talking and we ask her what questions she has for God. She says that sometimes she wonders why she was born the way she is and she said that she still sometimes cries about it. We testified to her that God loves her and that he has a plan for her. We shared 3 Nephi 19:28-29 and told her that God loves her no matter what and that we need to trust in his plan for us. One of her big problems is that she is not reading the Book of Mormon, so we told her that she can know what God's plan for her is by reading the book. Her face was in a shadow because we were teaching her outside at night, but when we committed her to read the Book of Mormon, she took a second before she said yes, and I think she was crying. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson, and I know that God really does love all of us, no matter the trials he sends our way, its all a part of the plan.

I also taught an English class this week, and by I taught, I mean I struggled for about ten minutes and Sister Dollete swooped in to save the day. We taught it for the Sta. Clara people because we cannot teach in their area anymore. The class will get better, I just need to be more confidant and less aka-awkward. Kaya ko iayn. But the Sta. Clara people. They just are awesome. They come all the way to centro for us to teach them on Saturday, then come all the way back on Sunday for church. They could be baptized, but we have not been able to teach them all the lessons yet. Such faith and such patience. The people in Cagayan are really different. They are so humble and so willing to do what God wants. It makes any of the excuses I make for myself totally invalid.

 Missionaries and Filipino Friends

So the other day, aka yesterday, we went to a members house and the district president was there, and he had this issue of the Liahona that is all about temples, it is really so beautiful. Sister Cagahasian has one, and Sis D and I were talking about how we could order one, but it would be really difficult and take forever, but President Bote had TWO extra copies and he gave them to us. We basically floated home. #youknowyoureamissionarywhen. But temples y'all. I really did not appreciate them nearly enough before. You really do not know what you have until its gone. They are really the House of the Lord and how lucky are we that we have a place on this imperfect Earth where we can go and commune and be in God's presence. Being a missionary and seeing others lack for things that I took for granted in the gospel makes me appreciate my home, ward, stake and temple so much more. The gospel is true anywhere, but we have it pretty great in Salt Lake. If you can, go to the temple. For me. Thanks!

Mahal Kita!

Sis Bet