Called to Serve: Naga Philippines!: 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.