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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)
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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.