Called to Serve in the Philippines Quezon City Mission
Speaking the Tagalog language
January 2013 to July 2014

Monday, February 17, 2014

The people that I am serving among at this time are the "Pioneers of the Philippines".

Email 02/17/14 
 
I loved the pictures and the descriptions of your experiences in the new Gilbert Temple, it looks absolutely gorgeous.  I can't wait to see it in person:) I got teary-eyed hearing about you and especially the girls feeling the spirit as they walked through each room.  Temples are so amazing, and we are so blessed to have so many that are close to us in Mesa. 

This week has been so great, i've recieved revelation for myself on how I can make the most of my time left here in my mission.  We had Stake Conference and there was so many wonderful talks that were so uplifting.  President Revillo was there for both adult sessions and gave some great talks and I really felt the spirit.  The first session on Saturday was kind of like a testimony meeting, President Revillo, and Elder Pajaro and his wife (member of the seventy) shared with us the stories of their conversion.  The great thing about the members in the Philippines right now, is that most of them are converts to the church, everyone has a great story of the missionaries coming to their house and teaching them the gospel.  52 years ago President Gordon B. Hinckley came to the Philippines and opened it up for missionary work. The people that I am serving among at this time are the "pioneers of the Philippines".  So many of them joined the church against family wishes and have been disowned from their families, here, tradition is HUGE.  Basically whatever religion your parents are is what you will be till you die.  The members here have given up much to join the The Church of Jesus Christ.  Elder Pajaro cried through his story of joining the church and how he will never forget the missionaries who taught him.  And I just sat their with my eyes brimmed with tears as each person bore their testimonies about missionaries and just thanked Heavenly Father in my heart that I get to be part of this great work in the Philippines.  The church is growing rapidly here and I get to be a small part of it...wow:)  
The Stake Conference was just what I needed, I have been feeling a little discouraged lately with some of our investigators so it made me feel better and gave me the pick-me-up that I needed.  We just don't have many progressing investigators right now and i've been getting a little frustrated.  I try so hard to be patient and I feel the spirit when we are teaching and I just pray that they are feeling it too and realize the precious knowledge that is right in front of them.  Sometimes I just want to grab them by the shoulders and be like "come on! you know it's true!" haha but that would not be something the Savior would do now would it. We do have Sister Marisel and she could be baptized today she is so prepared, we are just working on getting her married to her live in partner. They are so close! They just need money to get a valid I.D. for one of them for paperwork purposes, they had the money but a month ago Marisel got this huge lump on her throat the size of a tennis ball and had to use the money to go get medication to get rid of it.  So now it's almost gone and they are starting to save up again.  So it's a slow process....but she goes to church every Sunday and is over half way done with the Book of Mormon...She's so awesome!
This week we have zone conferences with 4 other zones so half of the mission will be there and Me and sister Maagad were asked to give an hour workshop during it.  Oi haha thats about 100 missionaries! So we've been preparing for that and i'm actually super excited, it's about Tips to overcoming companionship differences (aka: marriage prep class hehe!) joke! I think it will go well, but pray for us anyways! We are also the musical number as well,  Me sister Maagad and another sister in our zone will be singing Consider the Lilies with a sister from another zone playing the piano for us.  Hopefuly it all goes well:)
well times up I gotta go! love you guys so much!
till next week, mahal na mahal ko kayo!
love, Sister Ammah jones

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