Heart, Might, Mind & Strength

Hello Dearests,

This week I've learned some important things: first, it is possible to take a shower with only a bucket of water and a ladle. Second, if you buy some very expensive American cereal and leave it in the cupboard, it will become infested with ants.... let's just say I keep my cereal in the fridge now haha. Third, the proper way to pick a papaya from the tree in your backyard involves standing on a chair, bending the tree over and shaking it with all your strength while hitting it with a mop.

It was a great week! I am loving the work and the people and the culture and the food and the Spirit that's here! It's great! We now have 4 investigators with baptismal dates: Sisters Rachel, Marlene, and Rebecca, and Brother Alex. Three of them are special cases so that's been a little tricky. Let me tell you about Sister Marlene. Mom, remember how I would always talk about the Filipino babies over the summer? Well, she has six of them :) Her husband works in Manila so her life is not easy in the least. She is the sweetest woman and has such a strong desire to do what's right. I just love her so much. She has some eggplant plants in her little yard and sometimes gives them to us. When I asked her to be baptized I look straight in her eyes and said, "susundan mo ba ang halimbawa ni Jesucristo sa pamamagitan pagpapabinyag?" and she said yes with the biggest smile on her face. The Spirit was definitely there! Her baptism is on December 7th :)

One of our other investigators, Sister Rachel is only 12. On Monday we were teaching her and her mom when her brother came home. drunk. The spirit just completely left as he started going off about how he hates going to church because all they do is tell him not to drink. He was stumbling around and hitting the dog. it was awful. You could see Rachel's mom was just so heartbroken and upset. I just wanted so badly to testify to him that the commandments are the only way to be happy- truly happy, but all I could do was sit there. Right after he finished his tirade he left and we tried to resume the lesson and bring back the Spirit. It's really hard to see people who are using their agency to make bad choices that affect the rest of the family. Rachel is so great though! I am so excited to see her making good choices and getting ready for her baptism on the 30th of November.

I love you all!!

Sister Gus :)