Haha, C and Chelsey are kinda sorta THE coolest people ever for putting that party together. Sounds like they're pretty good friends now too haha. I for sure was happy and almost even more surprised :)
Soooooo...... I've got some pretty big news...... sad news.... Sta. Maria isn't my last area...
I'M TRANSFERRING?! Crazy. I thought for sure I was done moving around and I'd get to finish my mish with all those awesome people out there. I was only in Sta. Maria for about a month and it's already pushing for my favorite area of the entire mission. I completely found that balance of being happy, having fun and being spiritual here. It's been a blast and a big blessing for me.
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| Studying hard in Sta. Maria. |
A big reason I'm transferring is that.... Elder C's training! :) He'll be training an American. I've had a blast here with him and I'm gonna miss constantly messing and joking around while working hard. Hopefully I'll be able to continue that with my new companion.
So have you guessed what my new area is yet?...... Did you guess MONTALBAN?! :D.......If you did, you guessed wrong hahaha :) I'm going to Malolos Zone... Which means that I have officially been assigned in every zone of the Quezon City North Mission EXCEPT for Montalban! WHA?!? Hahaha, pretty sad, ironic, and funny. I've been hopin for Montalban the whole mish but it seems it's not in Heavenly Father's plans for me and the people here. That's ok with me, at least I got to go see it last week right? :)
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| Sta. Maria Apartment |
My new companion is..... Elder R! Don't know who he is or anything about him except that he's Filipino haha. I was hoping that me and E. C could stay here in Sta. Maria until I was done but no worries, we'll have a blast in Malolos too.
We had a pretty amazing experience this last week in a lesson we taught to our investigator and her mother. Our investigator is C(We call her N:) V. She's C D C's 16 year-old cousin and is amazing. We call her our active non-member because she goes to church each week, is really good friends with all the Young Women, and knows the doctrine so well already that she pretty much teaches us when we go there to teach. Her older sister served a mission 2 years ago and her mother was baptized in 2000.
Sounds perfect. Just baptize her right? Problem is her mom, E, went back to the Catholic church a couple years after being baptized and is the equivalent of a Primary or Young Women's leader there. She claims the only reason she was baptized was that she was in a hard time of her life and became confused. She wants her whole family to remain Catholic, and wants N to follow her and not N's older sister. So N can't be baptized because she is underage and doesn't have permission. So we've been teaching N every Sunday my whole time here and she's been awesome. This Sunday we decided to go meet her mother and share with her. We had no idea what we would share with her but we decided to go in and meet her and let the Spirit show us what to do. When we got there she was very nice and she told us about her church and explained what happened when she became a member of ours. She was very respectful but firm in the fact that she wants to be Catholic now. We finished getting to know her and still weren't sure what to share. We decided to share a verse about faith but then as we were doing that it turned into teaching about Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life and how we can all receive salvation by following Christ and holding to the rod of iron. We reintroduced the Book of Mormon to her and asked her to read a chapter of it. Then we let C bear her testimony and the Spirit was SUPER strong and she was crying and inviting her aunt to come back. Then G(another Ward missionary) bore her testimony about being the only member in an all Catholic family. The last person on the row was N, who works with us on Sundays but had never bore any testimony before. She was crying the entire time and I'm gonna hafta admit that I nearly shed some manly tears :) She bore her testimony of the church and told her mom of her desire to be baptized and said that she will be baptized into this church even if she has to wait until she's 18. She said that she prayed to Heavenly Father to know if the church was true and received a strong answer that she could not deny. She said that she felt or saw (I couldn't quite understand through her sobs) a hand on her shoulder and heard a voice telling her that it's all true.
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| Face painting in the 'Pines! |
Wow. Pretty amazing. She hadn't told anybody, even C, about that yet. When she was done we were all silent for a bit and then asked her mom if she had anything to say. I could tell that she was moved as well. She was very careful with her words but expressed gratitude for our coming over and for teaching N and helping her follow Christ. She was still firm in what she had said earlier but we could tell that something in her changed or felt what had happened. I felt the Spirit tell me to ask N's mom to give the closing prayer and in the prayer she expressed to Heavenly Father that she felt joy that we visited. At the beginning we were a bit worried and had no idea what to do but the Spirit guided us as we are promised and it caused a big change in her. Hopefully as Elder C continues to visit them Nanay(the mom) will continue to open up more and more and N will be baptized. Wow :)
So yup, I'm pretty sad to leave here and it seems like the members and investigators are too, but Heavenly Father's plan is always better than ours. I'll try and get some good pics for y'all from Malolos next week. I'll be headed there tomorrow morning.
Soooooo....
Have a fantiddlyastic week!
Mahal kita at kita kitz in 44 DAYS!!!! :D
Elder Powell
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