Monday, December 1, 2014

Week 64 in the Philippines - "Merry Christmas!"

I totally forgot to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving last week! How was it? Sounds like everyone is still all spread out! Crazy. I wonder when the next time will be that we all get to all be together again as one crazy happy family:) And no, I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving this year, but I wished Sister Lazan "Happy Thanksgiving" Thursday morning, so at least I still remembered the holiday in my heart haha. 

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!! You lucky duck daddy poo! One year older and wiser too! Happy birthday to you!:) What are your plans to celebrate the incredible, life-changing event of your birth??? I'm sure grateful for your birth! I hope you have a fabulous day and everyone makes you feel and know how loved you are. 

Well, this week I went on exchanges with Sister Rosario in Binalbagan. It was so neat because before going out to work, we set a specific special goal for the day, which was to find a new family to teach. And guess what? We did! I have such a testimony of goals, faith and miracles! 

We tried going to a few appointments, but they weren't home, so then we were walking and decided to OYM (open your mouth) a home that we were approaching. A couple with their son were sitting outside their house, so we approached them and started talking to them. Sister Rosario asked them if they knew where the Lopez family lives (making up a name just as an excuse to talk to them...) and they started explaining to us how to get there. So then we asked them if we could offer a prayer for them before we moved on. They happily agreed, let us in and then we got to offer a quick message to them. 

They are this cute couple with one little boy and they were so interested! It was awesome too because the father has relatives who are members, so they have connections and support! They asked us what makes our religion different than others, so we left them with a Restoration pamphlet and they agreed for us to come back:) It was such a testimony builder to me that there are so many of God's children prepared all around us and we just need to open our mouths in order to find them. 

Also this week Sister Lazan and I had a neat experience. So the past few weeks we've been struggling to figure out how to best organize our time in this area. Our area is sooo big and we spend a lot of time traveling and have a hard time focusing on people to help them progress because we're so spread out. We decided to have a companionship fast to seek for guidance as to how to move forward. And guess what? We received our answer last night. 

We had just finished planning and had been discussing this past week and how we both feel like we need to be doing things different. We then decided, from reflecting on the different progress from different parts of our area, that we need to focus on Sua and the area close to the chapel. We need to stop trying to cover this whole huge area and instead focus on the progressing areas for now. 

And then, we got a call from President Lopez who was addressing some of our questions that we had for him and he gave us the same answer about our area! He told us that to be more effective we should focus on certain areas. It was a blessing to receive such direct guidance that confirmed our thoughts and made us feel so much more at ease about moving forward in this area. 

I'm so grateful for God's involvement in our lives, personal revelation, the people He sends to help us and all the resources He has given us to receive His guidance---fasting, prayer, studying the scriptures, leaders, companions, friends, family, patriarchal blessing...etc 

Speaking of patriarchal blessing, has Jonny gotten his yet?

Well, one little story from yesterday...So we had Branch Conference yesterday, which was awesome because everyone and their dog showed up haha, and I was the piano player. The power went out during the last speaker and I noticed it but didn't make the connection that the piano wouldn't work. The piano is electric. So it was time for the closing hymn and when I hit the keys, no sound came out. I was frantically trying to push buttons and replug in the chord to get it to work when the brother kindly goes "Sister Malyon, may brown out subong" or the power is out hahahaha Oh yeah...forgot... 
Well, there goes for off-in-space Sister Malyon:)

I love you all so much! Keep being strong! Hold on to the iron rod and don't let go!:) I hope you're all staying warm hahaha. Happy December! Woohoo! Christmas spirit!

Love you tons and tons, 

Sister Malyon   

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