week 51 in the Philippines - "prepare!"

Hello family!!!! 

Good luck everyone with school starting and all the craziness that comes along with that! (Seminary, sports, homework;), no sleep...all that good stuff. 

Well things are going great here in Alijis! We had 7 investigators at church yesterday, which was so exciting! We are excited to have some progress and growth in this area! We've been working hard to find the less-actives in our area, get to know members, and find new investigators, especially those whom God has prepared for the gospel at this time-who are ready. 

I love Sister de Leon so much! She is so positive and flexible. Even when we have days where we walk around in the pouring down rain/wind, she stays so positive! I love her so much:) So before we found out that I guess we're not really supposed to, we used to go running in the mornings at this track. It was the best thing ever to get out and run and see other cute Filippinos exercising, doing zumba, playing soccer, walking around the track. 

The best thing about it, is there's this brother who has coconuts and sells coconut water from the actual coconut with a straw. That would be so popular in the states! The coconut water straight from the fresh coconut is so much more delicious and amazing than the coconut water you buy that's so expensive back home. Speaking of food/water...we tried durian this week! Ever since I've been in the field, I've wanted to try durian because the Mackays told me all about it before coming on my mission. (I remember Sister Mackay telling me how badly it stinks:) Sister de Leon and I both wanted to try it, but we were trying to figure out how to buy it and taste it without bringing it home since it smells so bad. 

Well, lucky for us, a recent convert we visited this week, served us some! She was so excited that it was both of our first time trying it haha. Oh my goodness, let me tell you, it was quite the experience eating this fruit. First of all, it does smell awful, and then the taste is the weirdest thing you've ever tasted. It's like a garlicky/sweet taste and then the texture is kind of hard on the outside, mushy on the inside, kind of like a custard texture, but also stringy and sticky. My first taste, I was expecting it to be awful, so it wasn't so bad. But as I kept eating more, I started to feel kind of queezy. After we left their house, we both were so grossed out. We could not get the disgusting flavor/aftertaste out of our mouths! At least we tried it;) and we didn't have to buy it haha. 

We have this new investigator whose name is Daniel Cristales. We found him on our way to visit a less-active family. He was just sitting outside his house, doing nothing, so we talked to him. He seemed interested as far as we could tell, but he's the most unemotional person ever, so now we've been back a few times and are teaching him. He's about 50, lives alone, not married (when we first met him he told us he had a wife and then the next lesson we asked about her and he started laughing and said he had lied to us). hahaha He's kind of religious, but we taught him how to pray for the first time this week. It was like teaching a child. We had him repeat after us and then wrote down how to pray in really big letters for him, because he has a hard time seeing and hearing. He has a lot of health problems, but is so awesome and receptive and has such a desire to come closer to God. Every time we teach him, we feel so much love for him and the Spirit is so strong. He wasn't feeling well, so he didn't make it to church this week, but we're praying for him and hoping a member will come give him a priesthood blessing. Maybe you could keep him in your prayers:) Thanks a ton! 

We're so excited for Nanay Anita! She comes to church every week! The problem is getting all the lessons in before her baptism because we have to teach like one principle at a time. She loves to talk and we have to teach things over and over until she understands:) She's the cutest though. She always gets all dressed up for church, wearing her best! I'll try to get a picture to you next time. The computer here won't let me upload pictures:( 

Well, the work is moving forward! I was reading in Jacob 5:70-76ish earlier and was reminded of how incredibly important these last days are before the Second Coming of Christ. This is the last dispensation and the only dispensation that will succeed! All the others ended in apostasy, but ours won't. How awesome is that. We get to live at the most important, amazing time in history! 

I love you all so much! Keep building the kingdom of God in whatever way you can:) Heaven;y Father is involved in your lives and in His work. He loves each of you more than you know. We have so much potential to do good, to influence others to do good and to change the world for the better! Love you! Sister Malyon