I love you all and am so grateful for your many prayers on my behalf Ill let you know that I truly feel of your love and support even as far as i am! I can not express that enough to you all because you truly are all so amazing and I thank my Heavenly Father for you all and this life he gave us all in order to "succeed gloriously" :)
So first a few events of the past week. Last week I forgot to mention the 2 earthquakes we had haha. dont freak out they were samll but cool. The first during the confernce in Laoag and the sencond during our studies that one actually moved our house it was pretty cool experience. Btw all the crazy storms you hear about arent anywhere near us here in Ilocos norte kasi its way down in the south philippines where sister padillo is from, but her family is ok too.
Another interesting thing in the philippines is there superstitious beliefs. They have a ton. Like you dont want to wash your face when your tired or youll go blind and you cant wash your feet if they are tired bc youll get those veins that pop out also they believe in werewolves and witches oh my ha. Serisouly though there were 2 werewolves here in San Lorenzo and everyones mother saw them so... :) tapos (then) there was a witch in town too so everyone that saw us procelyting at night was really concerned and would let us come in (and teach them booyah) so we were safe :) haha
Lets see also ive been doing lots of singing on my mission strangely enough haha. Ive been blessed with two comps who love to sing. Sister Padillo is amazing and we sing hymns as we walk its so fun and beautiful especially at night if we are in a far area its comforting :). We usaually start our lessons with a hymn too and its so ppowerful. Sister andelin our stl in our house too she is a piano and musical genius and actually was called by pres Anrada and wrote our mission song which is incredible ill send you the lyrics next week or soon. But us four sisters in our apartment created a medley with How Great thou Art and Nearer My God To Thee and we sang it at ZTM with Pres Andrada and then at a funeral yesterady. Its so beautiful and I really have felt the power of music here. We are now preparing for a muscial fireside for our stake its of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music. I am pretty excited.
Did I tell you yet how much I love sister padillo and how she is the greatest ever. We have become best friends this transfer and are having a hard time thinking shell prob be leaving :( but for now we are grateful to work so hard together. It makes all the difference when you are both so motivated and workig hard to lose yourself in the Lords work. everything seems to slide into place and together our desires are for the people and the work grows anmiracles happen!!!!!!! :)
How grateful i am to be here in the Philippines. The sacrifice is the blessing its the joy of the mission life. It's refreshing to wake up everyday and know i get to bring people back to their father. Families, brothers and sisters moms and dads. This week we saw a miracle of Hope. On thurs we had ZTM and President was there. As we started to set goals for the coming month President gave some great advice. We were all sitting in silence when our zone leader elder tanner from oklahoma asked 'so how do you feel about the 4 baptized converts for each companionship?" Of course I want to say yes lets do it but here in the philippines our investigators have to come church for 4 consecutive Sundays to be baptized so we already all knew who our prospective bapts were for feb bc we have those goal dates alreay. For sister and I we only had 1 potential baptism who had come to church thus far for Feb 13. Well president shared an amazing story about a man in Elder Hollands ward back when who payed his tithing above that which he earned. When Elder Holland asked the brother why, he humbly responded that he was paying his tithing according to what he Desired to earn by the end of the year. SO... this inspired us all. We thought we dont know whose out there only the lord lets set the goal of our righteous desires and lets work hard and do this with the Lord. Seriosuly if we hope for these rightouse deisres and work for them seeking first for the kingdom of God, All things work out for our good.
So can i tell you how many potential baptisms we now have... We have 6 baptisms for the month of February. Brother Alvin, Daniel, Renz, Raffy, Estrella, and Donna. It is nothing short of a miracle from thurs morning thinking well hopefully next month we'll do better, to totally changing our attitudes and hoping for a brighter tomorrow by working so hard today and the Lord helped us find these people and they are coming to church and we are preparing them for baptism and many more for march and Hopefully more for February too. :) This is the Lords work lets not lean on our own understanding but lets look to him and put our hope in Him acting by faith now in things we cant see in order to accomplish the Great and Marvelous work He has for us to do. :)
I have to say it all starts on our knees. All of our success in this life will come more easily if we will humble ourselves before our Savior and pray to him with all the energy of our hearts each day to forgive us and keep us unspotted from the world. The atonement isnt necessarily to wash us clean everyday I realized but it is to keep us clean everyday. Dont get bogged down by little mistakes along the way be humble submissive and find strength and great Joy as promised in the infinite and eternal sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Chirst!
I hope the JOY of the Everlasting Gopspel of Jesus Christ fills all your lives with HOPE and happiness in the coming week! I hope youll do all you can to share wuch Joy with all those around you. Pray for the spirit take the p[romise so literally that He may infact be your constant companion each day :). Live with the Saviors name always upon your lips so that you might always be ready to testify of Him.
I love Presdient Monson last address in GC for us to let our lights shine (3N12:16)as we are examples of the believers (1Tim 4:12). May you fin miracles iun this coming week as you hope for a bright future and follow His words. I love you all. Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa inyo lahat!!!!!!! :)
Hanggang sa darating lingo!
Sister Owen :)
Hope that was a good make up for the small letter last week ;) haha pasensya ang dami! (sorry its a lot)
"Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people... Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ." - President Gordon B. Hinkley
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