How are all of you doing? It sounds like you had an awesome celebration for Granddad's birthday staying in the cabins! That sounds like such a blast. I'm trying not to feel sad for having missed it:) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDDAD! I hope he had the most enjoyable time out of everyone at the cabins:). Also Happy Birthday to Katelyn from last week and also Preston this week as well! Wow, everyone's getting older and wiser too!
Well, this week was really great. I learned so much. I seriously feel like the luckiest missionary in the world to be companions with Sister Moser. We both have the same goals and desires while on our mission, which makes it really convenient to both work on them together! Our companionship studies are so awesome because we always learn so much from each other, especially about how we can change, improve and become better people, better missionaries. We talked about consecration this week and how to consecrate our lives unto God and truly give over ourselves completely to Him. First, we decided we needed to work on some little obedience things and become more exactly obedient. The day we made that decision, we saw immediate blessings. That day, we went out to visit an investigator in kind of a farther area, who I had never taught before because every time we've tried visiting him, he has been gone. We prayed so hard that he would be there and with our new resolution to be more obedient, Heavenly Father placed him in our path! It was so awesome.
His name is Gerald and he's 16 and has a couple cousins that are members. He's been to church a few times before with them, so we really wanted to be able to teach him! Before I arrived here, Sister Moser taught him one time and so when we asked if he remembered what they taught him, he started reciting the first vision. He was like "Joseph Smith saw a pillar of light above his head, above the brightness of the sun." It was so funny. He's a super smart kid! We were able to set up a return appointment and at the next visit, his mom joined us! And he even came to church. He's so cute and so receptive, even though he's still a 16-year old kid who thinks he's pretty cool:) Lesson learned: blessings come from obedience!
Along with our studies about consecration, we watched this little video about the life of John Tanner. Oh my goodness, it made us both cry. He is one of my heroes! You all need to watch it! It's on the Doctrine and Covenants church CD set thing. He gave up EVERYTHING for the church. He went from being super wealthy, getting the church out of debt, to begging for food. Even so, he kept giving whatever he could, his money, his time, his efforts and work, himself, to building up the kingdom of God. It was so awesome to see an example in action of what it means to consecrate yourself unto the Lord.
I also saw this in one of the sweet, amazing sisters who works with us all the time. Her name is Sister Siasone and she's married and has a daughter and tons of household work to do, but still makes working with us a priority. She and her husband are the most giving, selfless people I have ever met. They live in a small little bamboo house with not very many material possessions and yet do things like give a member financial assistance so he can buy medicine. And we found out Sister Siasone brought over one of her skirts to give to one of our investigators so she would feel comfortable coming to church. Sister Siasone has also been giving us referrals, helping us find lots of new investigators and then fellowships every single one of our investigators that she meets. She is amazing. She is also one of my heroes:) This week she took us to visit a member who we had never met and who just had surgery and we arrived and the member told us we should teach his mom about the gospel! ok! She was all excited and ready for us to teach her!
That miracle happened the same day we decided to be exactly obedient too. I hope you don't feel like I'm being arrogant about us making these changes and being all obedient and stuff, I just want to share what I learned about the blessings and miracles that come from obedience because I know that it can apply to all of you too!
One funny thing---so remember when I talked to you about people showering at the bomba out in the open? This week, this boy we were going to teach but then his mom told us we can't (saddest thing of my life), started talking to us while he was showering as we were passing by. So we were talking to him and Sister Moser had some bread and offered some to him. As we were leaving Sister Moser goes, "Trying to feed a boy while he is showering #missionaryappropriate". welcome to the Philippines!
We also had a really great FHE this week with this awesome family.I think I told you about them-Era who got sick and then had the blessing and was healed. She's a super strong mom of two boys who are so cute and crazy and then her husband, Ricky is a recent convert. These two super cute neighbor girls joined us for the FHE as well. FHEs are super fun because it helps us build relationships with members and for them to feel closer as a family. They love playing games and everyone gets so into them. And we also did a talent portion where people could share a talent. One of the little girls sang this song from the movie "Frozen"-- apparently some new movie...but she sang it in English and she's maybe 5 or 6 years old. It was the cutest thing of my life. and then one of the boys who is maybe 10, got up and danced for us. It was the absolutely funniest thing of my life. He was doing like body rolls and just not ashamed at all. It is so funny to me how when it comes to things like singing and dancing here, people have no shame. Not like America haha. Brother Ricky has been less-active, but the whole family showed up together at church the next day!!!! They looked so cute all together at church and it made us so happy!
Sister Moser and I read this really awesome talk this week called "Face the Future with Faith and Hope" by Elder M. Russell Ballard. It is so interesting and I highly recommend you reading it! It makes you think about the future and preparing for the Second Coming differently and what's going to happen beforehand as it is approaching! We're so blessed to be on the earth at this exciting time!
Thank you so much for all of your support, for all your missionary efforts and for your love! I love you all soooo very much! I know that you will be blessed with the strength you need to keep pressing forward and move the work along!
Love you lots and lots!
Love, Sister Malyon
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