Such a busy and fast week!
On Monday my comp went to Manila to get fingerprinted. She truly is leaving me soon. But she returned with some Krisy Kreme- so that was masarap!
Tuesday we had leadership training. It was sooo good. President Guanzon is truly the best. Such an inspired man. He talked a lot about being exactly obedient and giving our mission our very best effort so that it is sweet when we leave instead of bitter. We have 18 months or 2 years to serve and the rest of our lives to reflect on how we served. Kinda scary to think about. That is why we need to not waste a single day.
On Thursday we had exchanges. I worked with Sister Hafoka in her area. So of course we had a great time. Ate some buko and taught some awesome lessons. My favorite lesson was our last with Ian and Kath, our neighbors. They both have been adopted and so don't live with their real families. They are both about 20 and really need the gospel in their lives. They committed to come to church and ended up going!
On Friday we had interviews with President and district meeting with the best district (going on 9 months in the Guinobatan 1 district). President Guanzon gave me some good advice on how to get more investigators to church. Hopefully we can get lots of investigators to come this Sunday. It is all about getting the members to help us out.
We had a lot of great lessons this week, even though we had barely any time to work.
The funniest was with Yanora. She is older and has dementia and completely forgot us haha and I am sure she won't remember us next time either. I think we will just focus on her kids and grandkids haha. She was a little freaked out when we knew her name and her family haha.
Rosemarie is doing so awesome! She want to be baptized so bad. I know it will happen! We just have to somehow get through to her kids. She faithfully comes to church each week and our lesson are so powerful with her. I love her so much.
We were finally able to teach our ward mission leaders wife who is inactive. That is something missionaries have been trying to do for a long time. The spirit was so strong and she was so sweet to us (despite all the time she has hidden from us). She knows she needs to come back to church, I think it will just take some time.
We are still teaching the Oxamena and Bonot couples. They are my favorites. Brother Oxamena needs the gospel so badly. He doesn't realize how much God loves him and how much He is there for him. We focused on prayer and trusting in God. He feels like he is just a bad person and can't change. I know that as he keeps accepting the gospel that he will change. It will be such a miracle for their family. They are so sweet and so thankful for the lessons that we teach them. The Bonot couple is so sweet too! We taught them about prophets and brother had so many questions about Thomas S. Monson. They are really interested and are already keeping their commitments. I can't wait to go back and teach them and all the other awesome people that we have found.
Sunday was really good! BENSON came to church. Enough said. Amalia (our investigator came too). I was shocked when I saw her. She always says she will try to come and never makes it. Her husband even picked her up! Which was a miracle because he used to not want her to go to church. In our last lesson with her she told us that she wanted to be baptized and said that she would talk to her husband about it. Also, during relief society they talked about the temple and family history work and now she can't wait for us to teach her all about the temple. She is someone that has been an investigator for over a year and just now is starting to progress! Never lose hope!
This week I felt the weight of the less actives in our area. It is so sad how many there are. Most of them won't even face us. That is one of my goals before I leave Guinobatan. To rescue the less active members here. It makes me so sad to think that at one point they had a testimony of the fullness of the gospel and that they lived it. They need to find that joy and peace again.
This morning I got the news that Rogie spoke at a baptism in Camalig and did an AMAZING job! I guess he told his whole conversion story and it was super powerful. Makes me so happy to hear!
I hope you all have a great week! I'll just be here waiting for the Mayon to erupt and trying to imitate my comp's Australian accent.
I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!
-Sister Gardner
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