Wala pang 5 minutes

Hello there.

Long week. 

Hard times.

We had a Trainer and New Missionary Workshop this week in Naga. My comp was a bit excited to see her batchmates. It was good, we got to spend time with other missionaries, learn, grow, all that fun stuff. I left the meeting with a renewed energy and motivation to try harder in my companionship.  I have come to realize that if you are not unified in your companionship, you aint gon get nothin done. 

Scripture of the week Joshua 1:9-

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good   courage;be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

My goal: stay strong. stay positive. push forward. trust in God. serve my comp. and pray like there is no tomorrow. 

In other (more happy) news: The Genorga family is getting baptized on Saturday at 9am! :) Yay! We are so happy for them! It was a miracle to meet them and now another miracle that they are getting baptized! They are an example of truly converted people. Pictures to come next week. 

Funny story: last night we were teaching a lesson and the little daughter's candy fell from her mouth to the dirt floor in which she quickly jumped down, picked it up, and threw it back into her mouth. Naturally it wasn't a big deal to me because I still do that...but one of the adults there looked at me as if I wouldn't approve and simply said "Wala pang 5 minutes! Okay lang!" Meaning, it's okay, it hasn't been 5 minutes yet so the candy is still good...I died laughing! Wala pang 5 minutes?? haha like the 5 second rule, but 5 minutes..man you go ahead with your bad self. That is hilarious. 

Anywho, love you all! Talk you soon!

Mahal Kita!

-Sister Roderick

Oh Holy Week

This week is Holy Week. Did ya know that? Welp, it is a big stinkin deal here in the Philippines. As in the biggest of the bigs. Lots of parties, drunkards, parades, and other festivities...sit tight, I will get to some of those lovely festivities later on in my letter..

Monday night the lovely Sister Pal and Sister Webster-our local sister training leaders-came to sleep over/check our apartment for cleanliness/get ready for exchanges the next day. We had a brown out all night Monday and all day Tuesday so it was quite the sleepover. While they were doing the cleaning checks, they checked our water filter and it turns out I have been drinking unfiltered water for the past 3 months. AH! So, we are supposed to change the filters every 3 or so months but since our apartment is brand new, the Elders set up our apartment and told us everything was all set to go and to change the filters in 3 months...welp, I guess they forgot to actually put in the filters..so yeah, I kinda wanted to throw up. That is disgusting. What the biyaya (blessing) that I have not gotten sick! Man. Anywho, on Wednesday we had Zone Conference and Sister Reeder gave us both a worm pill to kill anything that might be in our tummies from that gross unfiltered water. Bleh. Still get the heebie-geebies when I think about what is in that water/what I have been drinking. Oh well, I am alive and well and we now have filters! haha 

Tuesday- exchanges with Sister Pal in Nabua. It is amazing how attached I am to Baao. I missed it so much and couldn't wait to come home. I love this place. :)

Wednesday- we were in Iriga all day for Zone Conference. We talked lots about perosnal revelation and in particular about receiving personal revelation for big life decisions-mission, career, marriage, children, like that. It was good. Definitely helpful. 

Alrighty and now to the good stuff..Holy Week. Multiple times this week, we looked out our window to see men dressed like Jesus Christ, with crowns of thorns on their head, being pulled by a rope around their neck with a cross on their back, as other men dressed like soldiers beat them with bundles of sticks and pushed them around...these men volunteer to portray different parts of Christ's life, in particular His persecutions and crucifixion. It is there way of suffering for Him and showing their respect and faith in Him. It was terrible to watch. They cut themselves, have others beat them, carry the cross all through the town, fall on their face, and in the end are placed up on the cross-some by nails and others just tied by rope. Definitely an interesting experience for me. Thousands of people stood out on the streets to watch as these men did this, then as the men left to go to the next street, all the people walked away, back to their houses as if nothing even happened. For the past couple days, I have seen group after group of little kids re-enacting the actions of these men. It makes me so sad! These little kids are beating up their friends as he carries a little cross, just because they dont know any better. That is their way to "play." 

In other festivities, a couple nights this week, there was a "procession" where literally hundreds of thousands of people walk throughout the streets of the town in a parade of floats with life-sized saints and depictions of Christ's sufferings. Really an interesting holiday. 

One of our investigators asked us where it talks about saints and processions and holy week in the Book of Mormon and the Bible...good question Brother, it isn't there. 

It has shown me this week just how confused some people are. They are just following after the traditions of their fathers before them and don't know any better. What a great motivation this week has been for me to work harder and to help relieve these people from their wicked traditions and to help bring them to the full truth! 

I love my Savior and His gospel. I know that it is true. I know that He did suffer and die for each of us and that He did rise the third day and lives today. Happy Easter to you all! :)

Mahal Kita!

-Sister Roderick

Back on Track

Marami akong natutunan ngayon linggo. 

(Sana that is correct, or else this would be awkward for all those filipinos reading this; don't judge!)

Anywho. Hi there. This week. Oh boy, where to begin? 

The family from last week, that drank so we moved their baptismal date, yeah them, they are doing fantastic! As in, back on track, never going off again. :) They accepted May 3 as their new date and we are pushing forward with that. They told us this week that they are "truly committed now." Good. 

They even went to Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, we were so proud of and happy for them! They really loved it daw. Unfortunately, conference is in English here so a lot of the people don't understand what is being said or can only pick up on bits an pieces of it. BUT the family told us that even though they didn't understand it completely, they felt the Spirit so strong! Sister even said that she felt like she was right there, sitting in front of the prophet listening to his words. :) I love conference. I love President Monson. I love our other church leaders. I love the word of God and it's amazing, timely guidance in my life and I am so glad that my investigators were likewise able to experience a piece of that too. 

Oh, did you notice, the lovely asian lady in Mo Tab got a haircut? Tricky lady, I almost didn't see her!

We are now teaching lots of Tatays!!! (fathers) many of whom are part-member families! We have seen such progress in these loving fathers as they have started trusting us more and allowing the gospel to work in their lives. 

2 of these fathers (both 'devout' catholics) came to conference on Sunday with their families! If only you could have seen my smile when those 2 families walked through the church gate. Pure joy folks, pure joy and love for these people. :)

If you are a Dad, get your act together and be a good example for you family. (sorry that sounded kind of mean and a bit bolder than I meant) BUT It is true! I have seen such a difference in the many families here when the father participates in lessons, reads his scriptures, goes to church, prays aloud, and leads his family in righteousness. You have a grand responsibility and calling to lead and protect your family in righteousness, now go and do it. 

Oh I almost forgot, my comp and I had a lovely little (2 hour) companionship inventory Friday in which many feelings, thoughts, concerns, challenges, annoyances, problems, questions, lahat, were expressed. It was good and terrible all at the same time. This whole training thing is definitely proving quite difficult but I am learning and growing tremendously in the process. Anyways, comp inventory, it'll get ya. 

Too many things to share about conference, I loved it all, but I will put in a lovely plug here to go back and read the conference talks again! Read them, ponder them, search them, break them apart, put them back together again, apply them to your life, set goals and make plans to put the words of these inspired church leaders into your life. 

Even when life gets challenging, never give up. That was something that rang out very clearly to me during conference, the many, many, many resources we have to get help, direction, and comfort in our lives. If a negative thought comes into your head or discouragement seems to be taking over, do what Elder Stevenson said, "Stop thinking that and NEVER think that again." We are all imperfect people and we will have some rough days, but we are surrounded by God's love always. He has given us so much to help us in this life and along this journey back to Him. Don't give up. On that note, like our beloved prophet instructed us, "May we resolve to do a little better than we have in the past." Everyday, let's try harder to be more kind, more loving, more patient, more Christ-like.

I love you all! Until next week! Take care! :)

Mahal Kita!

-Sister Roderick

Naging Branch Kami!

Good day all!

It truly is a good day here in Baao!

Our cute little group of 30 people meeting under a roof is no more!

Yesterday, more than 100 of us met in our lovely little meetinghouse, accompanied by church leaders from Naga, including President Reeder, to organize the Baao Branch! Yep! We are now officially a branch and we could not be happier! This area is progressing SO FAST and I love it! We now have a Branch President with counselors and they are working on calling other people to serve as well to help get this Baao Branch goin'! Yesterday was a glorious day really. SO many people came to church and the Spirit just filled the room. It was beautiful. :)

The Baao Branch!

After church, we headed out to Iriga to prepare for a baptism..yep, didn't mention this baptism in last week's letter because it wasn't planned for this week ha. We have been planning for a big baptism on the 13th of April then Friday night we were teaching 2 of the people and they asked if they could get baptized early, on the 6th (in 2 days!!!) because it is Christ's birthday. What a cute, innocent desire so we said we would see what we could do but made no promises. After making some calls and rearranging some plans, we figured it out and got it to work. SO, sure enough, last night the 2 Panambo children were baptized! It was a simple, beautiful service. Their mother is a member but their father is not yet a member and as the mom and her children were walking away after the service, she turned around to us and said with pure joy in her voice and tears in her eyes, "Sisters! I have the Priesthood in my home! I now have someone who can hold the Priesthood!" What a wonderful woman. She is such a strong woman. This sister was inactive for the past 11 years of her life and one day in February she happened to meet another inactive sister at the market and asked her if she would contact the missionaries and send them to her home again to teach her family. Ever since we started teaching them, that mother and her 6 children have gone to church and made every effort she can to help her family live the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is amazing and I truly look up to her. Slowly but surely, we are praying that Papa will join too. :) 

As for the 4 other baptisms that were supposed to occur next week, we taught them as well Friday night, but something a bit different happened..They told us that they all drank on Wednesday night as their "final drink" before being baptized..well after talking to some of our church leaders, it became determined that we would need to postpone their baptism to give them time to get some things figured out and make sure they were truly converted. That was the most uncomfortable lesson I have taught. After they realized what they had done would keep them from getting baptized on the 13th as planned before, they could not focus. We would try to continue but nothing we said mattered. The guilt and shame was so apparent in their faces. Every couple minutes they would grab their head or hold their face and just say over and over "I am so sorry" "What did we do!" "I am so so sorry!" That is something I never want to experience again. It literally tore me apart inside as I had to sit and watch them suffer. I learned many things from that night. I felt a piece of what our Savior feels for each of us. He is so proud of us and feels true joy when we do what is right and likewise, when we disobey God's commands and sin, they feel sorrow and suffer with us. I know that the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and can help ALL come clean and become worthy again. We all make mistakes but we don't have to dwell on those mistakes forever. When we are sincere and have a true, honest desire to be made clean, we can repent and be forgiven of our wrongs. It has been a hard couple days for me but I know that their time will come when they will be completely ready and worthy to be baptized and to make covenants with our Father in Heaven. They too have shown such a strong example for me this week. Although they made a mistake, they have a greater desire now to try harder to follow all of God's commandments and to stand strong, even in the face of temptation.

One more thing, our new Branch President was talking to my comp and I the other day about the newly forming Branch and the leaders and he said, "you know, I went the other day to meet with the man I was going to ask to be my 1st counselor and upon my asking him, do you know what he said to me?..He said, 'Wow, an opportunity for me to serve? Of course!'" I thought that was such a wonderful example of Christlike love and service. When we are focused on Christ and are striving every single day to be more like Him, that is how we will react to all situations in life, "An opportunity for me to serve? Of course!" Always remember to place Jesus Christ at the center of your life and I know that you will find greater happiness in this life, and a greater desire to serve others. 

Thanks for all your love and support! Keep smiling always and look for ways to be more like Christ every single day! Love you all!

Mahal Kita!

-Sister Roderick

My new companion, Sister Araja