Week 44: ika tatlo nga area, kag trio gihapon (3rd area, and still in a trio)

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Mayong hapon friends and fam! 

[My new companions!]

So yeah sorry gid nga last week I wasn't able to send pics last week but I will definitely send some right now so that there's double the fun from last last weeks pics and last weeks pics as well!

This will probably be one of the shortest emails ever but i'll make it up with pics because we have a really busy p-day today sorry! this week was pretty crazy, a lot happened!

But just some random updates:

Remember Sister Salan and Sister Quinton? So we got a call on Wednesday that we would all part ways (transfer) *tear tear*... okay lang! It was awesome and such a privilege to be with them for a transfer! So it was actually pretty funny because we made a bunch of theories about what would happen this upcoming transfer and we were 99% sure that Sister Salan would stay in the area because she was new and Sister Quinton and I would both transfer but it turns out Sister Salan and I both ended up transferring! We were 99.9% sure I was going to transfer too, so that was no surprise. But so yeah it's actually so crazy because Sister Salan was transferred to my 1st area and she's training! Which means she would see my converts from my 1st area! I know she'll take great care of them 😊

And so I was told that I would be transferring to [my 3rd area] as an STL (Sister Training Leader). And the greatest news of all was that Sister Quinton would stay in the area and TRAIN! Aww I'm so proud of my bata (child) and I'm so happy I have a mission apo (grand-child) already! I'll really miss them both but it was just such an awesome transfer!

And so on Thursday (Thanksgiving!) I transferred to [my new area] a.k.a. the seafood capital of the entire Philippines! It's been so nami gid here already and I just love my companions (Sister Green and Sister Gonzales). Here...it's so different compared to my previous area! It kind of reminds me of like a mix of San Pedro and San Diego, California! It's really modern here and love it here already! The people as always are so nice, my companions are awesome, and the area has a beach! I've been waiting for so long to be assigned to a beach area and Heavenly Father really answered my prayers!

But yeah it's been just an amazing experience already. Honestly it's not easy to transfer especially when you get used to an area, companions, and especially investigators. It's hard because you want to be there every step of the way for your investigators that you have worked so hard to help, but my purpose is still always the same - no matter where I am or who I am with! I really miss my previous area but I know that the Lord sent me here...for a reason. I know it'll be a journey but I'll figure it out along the way what lost soul I need to meet and help just like I've done with my previous investigators! And I feel prompted to share this verse right now because I know this is what God has in mind for all of us when we're in a new situation:

88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

So sorry for the short update but hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and ate a lot of food!

PICTURES:

11/14 -

11/16 -

11/17 -

11/18 -

11/20 -

11/21 -

11/22 -

11/23 -

11/24 -

11/26 -

'Til next week!

Halong kamo pirme, 

Sister Ventura

Philippines Iloilo Mission (Jan 2018 - July 2019)

--

Send an e-mail: 

elza.ventura@myldsmail.net 

Written letters and packages: 

Sister Elza Ventura 

Philippines Iloilo Mission 

Osmeña Street, 

Arevalo, Iloilo City, 

5000 Iloilo 

Philippines

*Some names have been changed or omitted to protect the privacy of individuals.

Week 43: There can be miracles... if you believe :)

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Maayong aga everyone! 

Thanks for all the concerned emails about my foot, I'm all good! Not limping anymore 😊 And also it's been healing pretty quickly and doesn't seem to be infected, so that's good!

Quick update of this week:

Last Monday - 

We followed up with our investigator that I talked about last week that relapsed and he basically shared with us what happened and he expressed to us how napuno gid siya (sorry i forgot how to explain that in English) but yeah he couldn't take it anymore. We just listened to him and showed him our concern and love, just like what Jesus Christ would do!

Tuesday - 

We visited him again and he totally opened up to us for about 2+ HOURS, it was crazy how much he was keeping inside for so long. As a companionship even though it's sad that he had to grow through this, but we were thinking about how probably he needed to go through all of this before he got baptized so that he can feel completely free from the burdens of the past. It can be hard sometimes for all of us to go through challenges in life, but just like Joseph of Egypt (which we shared with him during our lesson), we have to think of the bigger picture of how and why everything happens! God truly has a perfect plan for each and every one of us 😊

Wednesday - 

Just a random highlight, I had a dream that my mom was speaking Ilonggo.. WITH THE TONE AND EVERYTHING. I was like "no way this is real!" Haha.

Thursday - 

Had zone district meeting again! I learned a lot from my Zone Leaders and it was really inspiring because we received a lot of help from Elder Teh of how to improve our mission. I'm excited to apply all that I learned and be the missionary that the Lord would want me to be and expects me to be!

Friday - 

Today was really cool because we had a member and missionary training at church about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I'll add some pictures and videos so you can all see what we did. It was such a success and I know we helped our members here feel more excited and confident to do missionary work. Because just like President David O. McKay said "Every member a missionary!" And it was also even more fun because one of my investigators came and it really strengthened his testimony of what we teach as he heard the testimonies of other members!

Saturday - 

BEST DAY OF WORK EVER. We visited one of our investigators who keeps promising us she'll go to church but she has only gone once 😕 But at the end we committed her again and she seems to really want to go to church (pero spoiler alert - she didn't go 😕 haha okay lang!) After we met a little boy who was just so cute so we asked him if his mom was home and he took us sa balay nila (to their home) and when we met his mom, she was so sweet, pero SHE ONLY SPEAKS TAGALOG. She can barley understand Ilonggo. Out of all the missionaries here sa Panay it was so funny to me that Sister Quinton, Sister Salan, and I are assigned here because we all don't know Tagalog too well (Sister Salan is Cebuana and Sister Quinton and are American), because most missionaries here know Tagalog. Sister Salan and I really struggled but we were able to be understandable enough. It really forced me to try to speak Tagalog, which is good! It was a really good experience because the mom was so understanding (not of the language, but of the situation!) I'm excited to continue teaching her but we're going to need to bring someone who can speak Tagalog.

Also later in the day we looked for someone we [contacted] because she said we can come over sa balay niya (to her home), but the thing is we didn't know where her house was. So we went to the barangay (district/village) that she said and walked for about 10 minutes until we reached a huge grass field and it totally reminded me of my 1st area! So we walked through and ended up at a bamboo bridge that was really high off the ground and after a couple minutes, we got to another area of houses and I was wondering if she actually lived there because it was really far from the highway, but to my surprise, we ACTUALLY found her! After, we went back towards the main highway and as we were passing through the big grass field, we saw some people so we approached them and talked with them and within minutes, it seemed like the entire barangay came out and we talked to so many of them! It was overwhelming but so much fun to see a new area filled with people we can share the Gospel to 😊At night, we celebrated Sister Quinton's 12-week graduation! And we had a totally American dinner! Aww my bata grows up so fast 😂

Sunday -

Renewed my covenant to the Lord. I'm grateful for the Sacrament each Sunday! Also not too much happened because we got punted 8 times! It's honestly really tiring to get punted 😩 Pero wa'ay kaso!

This week was a miracle because we were able to have a full week of work even though I had just gotten stabbed last week! It's amazing to me that I was able to work as hard as I can despite my foot. But so yeah we had such a good week, I love my comp.'s. Shout out to you Sister Quinton and Sister Salan, love you two!

Hope you all had a good week! Sorry but I don't think I could upload pics and videos this week because the connection is so bad 😩 So sorry but I think it should be good next week!

Hope you're all doing well 😊!

Halong kamo pirme, 

Sister Ventura

Philippines Iloilo Mission (Jan 2018 - July 2019)

--

Send an e-mail: 

elza.ventura@myldsmail.net 

Written letters and packages: 

Sister Elza Ventura 

Philippines Iloilo Mission 

Osmeña Street, 

Arevalo, Iloilo City, 

5000 Iloilo 

Philippines

*Some names have been changed or omitted to protect the privacy of individuals.

Week 42: Natuslok yung tiil ko sang kahoy (My foot got stabbed with a piece of wood

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Maayong aga friends and family! 

[I love this family 😊]

I had a pretty crazy/eventful week! I guess I can say this'll be unforgettable for me.

Just some of the stuff that happened:

MISSION TOUR - 

AKA best day of my mission life ever. Elder Teh came and I had such an inspirational and spiritual experience. Just some things I'd like to share that he said were that "faith means learning to take a few steps in the dark, not entirely walking in the light right away." Also Sister Teh shared "Heavenly Father is so patient in teaching us lessons that He wants us to figure out." I feel like this is exactly what I needed for my halfway point in my mission to help me continue to be an effective representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

[After mission tour 😊]

[This is a really creepy picture, 

S. Quinton's halloween costume.. joke lang!]

PWD (Person with disability) - 

Joke lang not really. SO what had happened was that on Friday we had just finished teaching a new investigator and the lesson was really good and all and all of a sudden on the way out to the main road, there was a sharp piece of wood that I didn't see and I just felt something on my foot and when I looked down, the piece of wood was in my foot! It went in diagonally and not straight down to the bottom. I was so freaked out that I immediately took the piece of wood out and I threw it to the side and sat on the floor. And then I felt like I was about to faint (not because it hurt but because I really don't like blood). So while I was sitting on the ground I felt so light-headed and I couldn't carry myself so I laid on the ground. The investigator who we had just taught came out and kept apologizing. But after a few minutes I calmed a bit and was okay, but my foot hurt really bad. So later that night we went to the ER and they had my foot checked out right away and they x-rayed my foot to make sure there aren't anymore pieces of wood left in there. It's a pretty deep wound but I'm glad they gave me antibiotics. They told me to come back if anything happens but my foot seems to be healing just fine 😖

[My area is only missing a beach!]

Overall I didn't get to work this much this week because I've just been staying home healing my foot. But I know that the Lord knows this was going to happen, so that's why He put us in a trio! So that my other 2 companions can continue to work and continue following up with our investigators while I stay home and rest. Perks of the trio life 😁

[NBA 😁]

But honestly it has been a rough week but I know this is only a small dot of what the Savior has felt. He not only felt emotional and spiritual pain, but He also felt physical pain. It's kind of sad because if you all remember a couple weeks ago, I was talking about one investigator who hasn't drank in a while and was doing really well and on track to be baptized this Saturday. However yesterday while I stayed home with one of the Sister Training Leader's, S. Quinton and S. Salan went out to visit him and they saw that he was drunk. Like so drunk that he couldn't think straight and it was sad because I didn't find out until S. Salan and S. Quinton came home. It was totally unexpected because he said he was doing fine, but apparently there were a lot of stuff he was stressed about that he didn't tell us about... But in the end I know this happened for a reason, probably he wasn't ready to be baptized this Saturday and so this happened so that he can better prepare himself. It just makes me think about how Jesus Christ feels every time we sin or every time we make a mistake. I'm grateful for the opportunity to understand a small piece of how much the Savior loves us and wants the best for us. Because honestly I love this investigator so much and I've learned so much from him, and because of that, I want the best for him. And I know that means helping him through this relapse. 

But yeah sorry for the short email once again, it's kind of stressful to email! Haha but thanks for all your support as always!

Hope you're all doing well 😊!

Halong kamo pirme, 

Sister Ventura

Philippines Iloilo Mission (Jan 2018 - July 2019)

--

Send an e-mail: 

elza.ventura@myldsmail.net 

Written letters and packages: 

Sister Elza Ventura 

Philippines Iloilo Mission 

Osmeña Street, 

Arevalo, Iloilo City, 

5000 Iloilo 

Philippines

*Some names have been changed or omitted to protect the privacy of individuals.

Week 41: FLOODS AND EARTHQUAKES

*URL Links to scriptures and related material are enabled.

Maayong hapon friends and fam!

Thanks for all the emails! Sorry if I can't get to all of you right away! Our email time is 1 hour 😊

Anyways this past week was really interesting...

Here is an update once again of what went on:

Last Monday - 

After emailing we visited our investigator who got baptized on Saturday! She was so excited and also really nervous for the interview but to calm her nerves, we went over the questions that would be asked. After we had a Family Home Evening at Bishop's and it was fun to be with his family. He had no food at home so he took us to S&R (basically the international Costco!) and he treated us to pizza and fries! Namit namit gid ya!

[S&R = Costco!]

Tuesday - 

Happy 5 months to my anak (child), Sister Quinton! She grows up so fast! Anyways one again we visited our investigator who got baptized on Saturday and it's so amazing because she told us she read FOUR CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, from 1 Nephi 7-10 overnight. That made me so happy because it took her like 1 month+ to read 1 Nephi 1-6 and that really showed me how ready she is to be baptized. She was actually supposed to be baptized in August, but circumstances weren't in our favor and stuff even though she was ready. But now I know that she is even ready than she was before! After we visited another one of our investigators who's scheduled to be baptized on Nov. 17 and he's the best and is just progressing soooo well. We had an awesome lesson kay we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Tuesday I wasn't feeling too well but it was amazing what he said, he said "I'm thankful for the challenges and sicknesses we have because that lets me know I'm alive." He's the best and it's amazing that even though I am the missionary sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, there's sooo much to learn from our investigators as well!

[She's growing up so fast 😭]

Wednesday - 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Halloween isn't too big here. But wow we had such a trial this day. We once again visited our investigator to be baptized and she tells us that she won't be home on Thursday (which is supposed to be her interview) because they're going to visit her lolo's grave. November 1 is like Day of the Dead for the Philippines so we really couldn't do much. Everyone kept asking us if we were going to the graveyards to visit our dead family but we kept telling people "we don't have family here, we're not from here."😆 Pero anyways it was such a blessing because we were able to have her interviewed last minute.. AND SHE PASSED! Yay she was so nervous but I know she was so ready para sina. 

[Thank you to my Tito! Palangga ta gid ka!]

Thursday - 

Happy November! We stayed in today because Sister Salan and I were both sick 😷

Friday - 

So this day started of pretty interesting. We weren't able to shower in our apt. sa aga because our CR (bathroom) wasn't draining. So we told the maintenance people and they said they would check it out. So anyways we were just casually doing our Companionship Study and it was weird because we heard water dripping but we didn't see rain, so we didn't mind it. Tapos we're just talking and all of a sudden, Sister Salan goes out of the room and she screams and said our place is flooding. YES OUR APARTMENT FLOODED. Hahahah oh my gulay it was crazy! Our CR apparently flooded out to the rest of our apartment, except the room that we were in and so yeah that's the water we heard dripping! (We live on the 2nd floor). So yeah we spent the rest of the morning mopping out water, it was so funny. 

[THE FLOOD and the aftermath!]

Sa gabi, we visited one of our investigators who I talked about last week! She is so awesome but she's been feeling distant lately. So we decided as a companionship that we would try our best to figure out her concern. She's honestly really shy and we really wanted to find out her concern because as missionaries, that's how we can best help people and adjust our teaching to meet their concerns. We've been teaching her for about 3 weeks and we still didn't know what she needed or how we can best help her. But anyways, I know the Spirit really helped us that night because we had such a good lesson because we also talked about the Atonement with her (it's just always good when the lesson is about the Atonement 😄). And in the end we found out what was her challenge. It's such a privilege to be a missionary and to have people open up to us about their lives. I love this work so much!

[Barnuts are life!]

[A new family we're teaching 😊]

Saturday - 

BAPTISM DAY. Yay it was as perfect as it could be. I felt tingles all over when I saw the baptismal ordinance. I know that the Holy Ghost helped me to feel that to confirm the truthfulness of what I do as a missionary and how I help others to know about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how we can return to them! 

[This is the Sister that had to be re-baptized 

because she lost her records!]

Sunday - 

Yay Sabbath Day, a.k.a best day of the week. We had a good MCM (missionary correlation meeting) after church. The ward missionary couple in our ward both work in the call center and they brought up a cool idea. Kay at their work at the call center they say that there are no problems, and not to say problems, but to say they are just challenges. I think that's a good way to think of life! We visited one of our investigators who's kind of new and it was surprising honestly because we had only taught her 2 times and our invitation to her last time was to pray, and we didn't even ask if she read the Book of Mormon. It was only in the end of the lesson that she shared with us that she's been reading the Book of Mormon. Abaw, we didn't even ask her because we didn't expect that she did because we had only asked her to pray. I know there are truly people prepared by the Lord, we just need to be diligent about it!

[When it's the end of a long day and time to go to sleep 😊]

Monday (today) -

We got haircuts! #CompGoals 😁

Another thing is we were at home just cooking and doing laundry and then there was a small earthquake! It was so funny because everyone went outside and were the only ones who stayed in the apartment. We were just staring at everyone outside, haha!

[District sports 😊]

[We all got haircuts! I spy Sister Quinton 😆]

That's it for my week!

I'm excited for tomorrow because we have Mission Tour! Elder Teh is coming and I'm so excited to get inspired!

Tani maayo kamo tanan!

Palangga ko kamo!

Halong kamo pirme, 

Sister Ventura

Philippines Iloilo Mission (Jan 2018 - July 2019)

--

Send an e-mail: 

elza.ventura@myldsmail.net 

Written letters and packages: 

Sister Elza Ventura 

Philippines Iloilo Mission 

Osmeña Street, 

Arevalo, Iloilo City, 

5000 Iloilo 

Philippines

*Some names have been changed or omitted to protect the privacy of individuals.