Week 39 in the Philippines - "look up"

How are all of you doing? How are the South American travelers? How's the NYC cutie bum? How was Seminary graduation? I bet you're all still there cleaning up;)

Well, we had a pretty amazing week. We had some really difficult days, but in the end, the week was full of tender mercies and just lots of evidence of God's love for us and all of His children. We are so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father who is always concerned for our eternal welfare. He wants us to grow and to be happy.

My testimony this week was strengthened of the power of the Book of Mormon, of the truth that all good is from God and the importance of gratitude despite whatever circumstances you are in.

We really worked on emphasizing the Book of Mormon this week in lessons and it was so effective in bringing the Spirit! I read the awesome awesome talk by Elder Holland that I love sooo much called "Safety for the Soul". Remember when he gave that talk all about the Book of Mormon? I totally remember watching it and just how powerful it was. Reading it inspired me to truly immerse myself in the Book of Mormon, to truly focus on helping everyone, not just investigators but members as well, read and study and apply the Book of Mormon to their lives. 

I also read these quotes mom sent me about the blessings of scripture study and all of that together just really blessed me and the work this week.

Did I tell you about the Gonzales family before? I think so. So we introduced the Book of Mormon to them this week and it was so awesome.We had such a good lesson with them and the member with us bore a strong testimony of how the Book of Mormon really answered all of his questions when he was investigating the Church. We've actually seen such a change in this family lately. At first, they were kind of hostile to us (in terms of Filippinos haha), but now every time we show up, they gather everyone who's home and all sit around and listen! They love sending us home with Indian mangoes and our relationship with them has just grown so much. They feel comfortable asking questions and everything. We love their family so much! We gotta build their faith to take off work so they can come to church! 

One thing to add about the Book of Mormon. I love the quote by Elder Holland when he said, "God always provides safety for the soul. With the Book of Mormon, He has again done that." With times getting worse and worse and Satan working harder and harder, we need this safety net. Even the elect are going to fall in these last days, BUT we need not fear!:) Because we have the Book of Mormon. If we are studying and feasting upon the words of the BoM everyday, we seriously don't need to fear at all because that is how we keep building our lives upon the foundation of Christ that will be able to withstand anything. We are so so blessed to have this safety for the soul that if we hold fast on to, will lead us to the tree of life, to everlasting life in the kingdom of God. I wish I had been better about truly diving into the scriptures growing up and just want Jonny and Kypoo to know that if they start now truly searching the scriptures, they will have the strength they need to resist any temptations that come while in high school. High school is rough! And of course it goes for all of us:). I know with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God for each of us individually.

One day, we were on our way home for lunch, when I had the idea in my head to go visit this one LA even though they weren't in our plan. So we did. We found bishop Pineda outside in his chair. He used to be the bishop for many years, but now has a disease that makes it so that he is always shaking and he can't walk very well at all. As soon as we approached him, he told us that he had been praying for visitors! We got to just listen to him talk and then we sang for him and prayed for him. It was such a good feeling to know of God's love for Bishop Pineda for sending us to visit him and for His love for us, that He gave us the opportunity to talk to this sweet, sweet man who is so good. He loves God so much and wants so much to do all he can to serve Him and his family. Lesson learned-always act upon good ideas!:)

We watched this really awesome church movie called "Ephraim's Rescue" for our first Friday night movie night this week. It was actually a success and lots of people came! We're excited to use it as a finding activity. Anyway, the movie changed my life! It's so good! I had never seen it before, but it's about the Martin Harris handcart company. You need to all watch it! Ephraim is this incredible brother who exercises exact obedience. He really inspired me. All the pioneers just made me realize how important it is to ALWAYS be grateful. Whatever may be going on in our lives, it shouldn't depend on whether things are good or not, we should always have an attitude of gratitude.

I love you all so much! You are in my prayers because you all mean the world to me! Thanks so much for being you and for just being so amazing.

Love you lots and lots!

Sister Malyon