Week 41 in the Philippines - "salamat gid!"

I love you all so much. Thank you sooo very much for emailing me! I have no idea what happened and why I didn't get your emails that you sent last week! That's the first time I've had that happen with my account, at least that I know of. I really really appreciate all of your emails. I didn't mean to make you feel bad:( sorry. I feel so blessed to have such an incredibly supportive family! You are all so amazing. It's fun to hear all the exciting things going on with all of you! Happy Summer! Woohoo!

Summer break here just ended and now the kids are back in school, which means we have to change our schedule around. The moms we teach go with their kids to school to hang out with other moms haha and all the kids/teens/college students can only be taught in the late afternoons/evenings. We're working it out! With summer break ending, guess what is also ending...MANGO SEASON! It's the saddest thing of my life. I already miss having mangoes available to us pretty much 24-7. I think I gotta figure out a way to grow mango trees back home...

Well, this week we taught some of the coolest people ever. It all starts with faith! I've been learning lots about faith lately. Pres Lopez gave us this awesome quote about faith, "There is another kind of faith: more powerful, less known, infrequently observed. This faith in God compounds our ability to accomplish our righteous desires. It is creative, and a generative kind of faith. This is the faith, save for the exercise of, which things would not happen. This is the great causative force in human lives. This is the faith that moves mountains." -A. Theodore Tuttle

We have to have this kind of faith, and exercise it in order to see miracles in our area. We have to help everyone we teach develop and exercise this faith so that they will have the means of coming to church and things like that. We've been struggling a lot with having investigators that are actually progressing towards baptism, especially getting people to church. But we are gradually seeing blessings coming from our efforts. 

We met this brother, Nelson, and taught him this week and he is so golden! We are so excited to keep teaching him. He told us right off the bat that he wants to change and wants to know how to return to God. He loves his family so much and does everything he can to make sure they will stay together as one family. he even told us right away that they don't have any addictions, like drinking and smoking:) That's rare. We felt the Spirit so strongly with him. He has such a sweet spirit and such righteous desires. Every time we see him, it just warms our heart!

We also had a member take us to a referral they had for us yesterday. It's a family and they asked us during our first visit if it's okay for them to come observe our church next Sunday!!!! This was right after church where we only had one investigator attend. What an incredible blessing. Heavenly Father loves us so much:) This family is so funny. They asked us questions, like are we allowed to listen to music and do you have to pay a penalty if you do not show up at church one week. It's interesting to learn about the ways in other churches!  

This week I read the talk from last general conference called "Your Four Minutes". It is soooo good! You should all read it! It reminded me how precious our time on earth is, how precious everyday on my mission is. We prepared for many many years before coming to earth, for this time and the things Heavenly Father would have us do to move forward His work while on earth. This is our time to perform! We are so blessed to know God's plan for us and be able to share it with others-- help them understand how precious our time on earth is and what we need to be doing to make the most of every day! Don't procrastinate the day of your repentance:) We never know when our four minutes is up.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do for me, your examples to everyone around you and just for who your are!

Love, Sis Malyon