Week 37 n the Philippines - "truth"

Dear lovely family!

How are you all doing? I hope you're loving life and despite the hard times, seeing the hand of God:) That is what I need to work more on too! I'm so so glad that Grandad is okay, but I will for sure have him in my prayers. I love you all so much and just have to trust that Heavenly Father is taking care of you all. It was fun hearing about the adventures Jare, Jaim and Josh are having in Ecuador! That sounds like so much fun!!!! 

We had the craziest rain storm this week! It came out of nowhere. I guess it's starting to be the transition between hot hot hot season to rainy season, which means it is constantly extremely humid, more so than I've been used to and super hot, but then we randomly one evening had this HUGE rainstorm. We were in a meeting with bishop discussing missionary work when we heard it start. We could hear the thunder and rain and then the power went out. SO we ended our meeting in the dark, bishop passed out a black garbage bag to each of us (us and the elders) for protection haha and then was so sweet and gave us all a ride home in the rainstorm. The rain was so heavy that even after like 15-20 minutes, the roads were all flooded. Sister Moser said it was the closest she's felt to boating, riding through the floods with water spraying up all around, since being on her mission:) We didn't have power again until the next night, so it was difficult sleeping without fans;) Fun times! It was actually really nice to have rain! but crazy at the same time.

A few things I learned this week:

1. The Lord blesses you when you work towards your goals and vision.

2. I would not rather be anywhere else

3. Super powers are real

4. Kelsey Mack's not the only one I can die laughing on the floor with:)

1. So after our training, we've been working really hard on finding, teaching and establishing families. President told us to focus on the fathers/husbands. So we went out to teach Gerald, 16 year old getting baptized this Saturday! And his family was all there. They were watching basketball on TV (Filipinos fave thing to do) but we invited them all to join the lesson. First his mom and sister joined, but we kept waiting and finally the dad joined and brought over his other sons. It was so awesome. We had the whole family together and taught Lesson 1 about the restoration. It was seriously one of the most incredible lessons I have ever been in. When we taught about prophets and how we have a living prophet today, just like Moses, one daughter looked at us and said "Tuod?" meaning "Really?" They all thought that was the coolest thing they had ever heard! They asked all these questions about Pres. Monson and it was so awesome. The whole lesson they were all listening so closely and the Spirit really seemed to guiding it and it was so powerful. We are so excited to keep teaching this incredible family!

2. We had the most amazing baptism this week. We had one candidate, Brother Rodel, 12 year old whose dad is a member. Then the sister-in-law and parents of a recent convert in our ward got baptized (the elders taught them). Actually cool tangent-Elder Wilstead was serving in Maoo, which is a group that was recently started in our ward, and his parents got in on Saturday to pick him up from his mission. They came in the morning of Elder WIlstead's last baptism before going home, so they got to be there for it. Then the sisters in ward 2, had a whole family that got baptized! It was so incredible. The whole baptism was sooooo beautiful. Sister Moser and Elder Wilstead performed a beautiful musical number, really good talks were given, it was all so sacred and beautiful. The spirit was so strong! It was so neat to witness all the baptisms:) I was sitting there in the chapel during the closing remarks and just thought to myself that there was nowhere in the whole world I would rather be. It was such an incredible way to end this week. We actually had a really rough week with teaching, but ended so wonderfully!

Also, when we went to pick up Rodel before his baptism, he was all ready to go and had on his best clothing and was so excited and had done his hair and everything. It was the cutest thing ever, especially because that's not like him at all haha.

3. We found out this week, well, our district leader found out during the interview, that Brother Rodel, who got baptized, had a super power. seriously. My whole world was turned upside down this week. He can move things with his mind. It's like Matilda!!! The crazy part is that it is real! I didn't believe it at first either. He opened the door from across the room and things like that. Apparently his grandma is a voodoo doctor of some sort. I really don't know much about it, but all I know is that super powers are real! and it's a lot more normal to Filipinos than to us Americans haha. 

4. We had the funniest FHE this week of my life. While waiting for the parents of this recent convert family, the Zapanta's, to arrive, we played a bunch games with their three kids. They are like 10, 9 and 7 or something like that. They were so loud and so hilarious. We played the funniest games and would all get so into it and were all just dying laughing. 

I'm so grateful to be here! I love the gospel and missionary work so much! I love each of you with all my heart and care and pray about you! We had a rough week, but still saw so many tender mercies and miracles happen. It's so amazing how merciful and loving our Father in Heaven is. We are so important to Him. Each one of you is sooo incredibly precious to Him. He wants so much for you to become like Him and will help you do so if you let Him. and in order to become like Him, we have to be tested and tried. 

I love you all!!! Never lose hope:) You are all so beautiful!

Love, Sister Malyon 

Week 36 in the Philippines - "my amazing, beautiful fam!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!! I hope you all helped her feel sooo special! Love you mom!

I have so much to write about this week! I don't know where to start! But before me, how are all of you cutie pies????? It was soooooo good to see your adorable smiling faces last week:) and some crazy faces as well...haha model pots haha. Wow, I can't believe jare, jaim and josh are all in Ecuador! Thanks for forwarding me their emails so I can see what they've been up to. I'm excited to read about their adventures! We probably have the coolest family in the world. so says my companion:)

wow...I just wrote you a really long email all about my week and then the connection was lost and it didn't save and I lost the email. I'm so sorry.

To some it up, we had a miracle happen this week where we ran into one of our investigators who we thought was going to be out of town for a really long time, but came back already! We were so excited to see her! She didn't have time for us to teach her, but we invited her to church and she came the next day for her first time! It was such a miracle.

We also had this awesome training at president's house this week. It was soo good! All about families! We were inspired to prepare for our future families, learned all about president's cute family and were inspired to focus on establishing and building up families here in the Philippines! It was soooo awesome! The spirit was seriously so strong and powerful talking about the most sacred institution of our Father in Heaven.

I feel so blessed to have the example of such incredible parents who raised our family built upon the gospel. I will forever be indebted to you. Thank you so much mom and dad! You love each other so much and work together in unity to make our home a piece of heaven on earth and our family a family that will help prepare the world for the second coming!

I'm going to forward you Sister Moser's email to her fam so you can hear more and I don't have to re-write everything...LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART!!!!! Keep spreading the love of Christ with every single person you meet:)

Love, Sister Malyon

Sis. Malyon's foreword to Sis. Moser's letter:

She really did an awesome job talking about the training from president, the earthquake, talking about families, my new strong desire to get married and have a family!, what we've been working on with doing a 40 day spiritual fast and everything.

Jaim! Remember the talk about love you sent me in the MTC??? I let Sister Moser read it and she referenced it in her email!:)

Love you all!

love sister Malyon...and Sister moser too!!!! she really does love you all too!

From Sis. Moser:

So good to hear from you my beaut. fam! That was so fun. I didn't even feel sad or homesick at all....just happy that I could catch up a little! 

Words cannot describe how amazing this week has been. It makes me want to cry thinking about how lucky I am to be here. 

We had an awesome family night with my favorite family here the Siasons. Talk about Christlike...they have nothing but give everything. Little Nicole...(the cutest girl on the planet...) taught me how to do the "woops kitty" dance haha. Look up the song in Tagalog it's hilarious. 

Then we went to President's for training Thursday night at the mission home (it's seriously like Christmas going there with air condition, a piano, AND ice cream.) 

I gave a musical # to I Believe In Christ. I love that song so much. I'm soooo thankful to Heavenly Father for the chance I've had to use music so much on my mission. Nothing helps me feel the spirit stronger and I LOVE being an instrument in helping other people feel it too...out of all the languages in the world...music is the most commonly known. 

Then Sis. Lopez stood up and was like "earthquake!" Hey what do you know??? True thing...the world was moving and quaking! It was pretty big and lasted a good 30 seconds. It was exciting and a relief to know it didn't cause any real damage to anyone. 

President's training was indescribably amazing. Half of me doesn't even want to try to write about it because it's just too awesome. But basically all of us came out with only one desire in our hearts....to get married and have a family. Ya ya you people can laugh all you want. Maybe I'm brainwashed...but really the people who are brainwashed are the people who think that we have to wait 400 years to get married and have kids. (kind of like I did before.) (Obviously in the Lord's timing.) I'm seriously a changed person. I received a lot of unexpected answers to a lot of prayers....nuff said.

It's been a really cool week to realize...we're not here for ourselves...we're here to strengthen families, because that is the source of all the bad in the world. One of my favorite quotes; "the greatest convert on your mission is you...but that's not what will happen if that's what you're trying to do." We've been doing a 40 day fast to let go of EVERY tiny little thing that sets us back from giving everything we have....and it's so funny that Satan has literally targeted both of our individual weaknesses this week. It's been so hard...but I've learned to have the eternal perspective and a lot of self-control. I'm starting to feel like a Jedi haha. I'm sorry this is so vague. I just made a crappy attempt to summarize this life changing week...fail.

In the end it comes down to how much our Heavenly Father loves us. He listens, he wants to talk back, we just have to talk and listen. Everything he does is out of his love for us, and if we study that love, and obtain it, and that's the answer to everything. His love is the light and the prism that splits it up into the rainbow shows us the elements that love is made out of...love is patience, it is faith, it is kindness, it is every good thing. Just love people. Just love! Love your family. Love your friends. Love your enemies. I love you all soo much!

Sister Moser

Week 35 in the Philippines - "love you all so much!"

Here are some pictures for you! 

We made crepes! It's so fun being with Sister Moser because we make guacamole and crepes and salsa and fun things like that. 

 I think I wrote about this family last week, this pic is from a FHE we had with them. Brother Ricky, Sister Era, their two boys Aaron and Eric and then the two girls are from next door- Sweet and Kay. We visited them yesterday and shared about the priesthood because we really want to help Brother Ricky prepare himself to hold the priesthood. He has some Word of Wisdom problems, addictions that came back after he got baptized. Their family has a goal to go to the temple and get sealed as a family, so we're going to really work on helping them prepare for that! I love when people have the desire to change because then they will change!

Sister Pederson, my MTC companion was one of the 6 that came to Manila with me! It was soooo fun to catch up and be with her again! We went to Wendy's in Manila hahaha. It was such a treat to get a nice cold frosty!

The beautiful Manila temple. It was so awesome to go to the temple while being on my mission. So much of what I have been studying and learning on my mission all came together. It was so incredible. I started crying the second we stepped inside the temple and did not want to leave the Celestial room. I came out with a renewed desire to help as many people as possible make it to the temple, whether that means getting them baptized first or if they are already a member. We are so blessed to get to experience those truly incredible blessings and the spiritual power that comes from the temple.

We had a really beautiful baptism yesterday for sweet Patricia. She is the cutest little girl in the whole world! Don't you think? She was sitting next to me after she got baptized and turned to me and asked "So when I get older, maybe like 15 or so, can I get baptized again?" So adorable. I love her sooo much! 







I love you all to pieces! Keep smiling! You're all amazing!

Love, Sister Malyon

Week 34 in the Philippines - "consecration"

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