Weekly Happening in Puerto

This week has been great. It started off really great with Zone Conference, and just went up. President Stucki asked a question that really stuck with me, "Does everyone that sees you know that you love what you are doing?" I mean I smile a lot, but does everyone know? Can they feel the love I have for this gospel? I hope so, so that has been something I strive for every day I wake up- HAPPINESS! 

Also MOM! Thanks for the valentines package-Ah you are seriously the best, I got it at the church and I'm still working on my patience so I couldn't wait to open it. So me and all the other missionaries ate the candy. 

And I'm happy to hear Lex is home and safe - girls got some knees of iron! 

And she was able to share the gospel with a Filipino! And then I just got an email from Dad saying he met some other Filipinos interested in the church! 

What!? Talaga miracle naman (Serious miracle) Haha but really that just brought the biggest smile to my face! 

Oh and I dont know if I wrote this already, but I got Marilyns package too! Like the best-I grew up surrounded with the coolest people. The hand warmers were probably my favorite, excited to find a reason to use those :)  

Things have been great here, last week Sister Slade and I taught Peter - he is from Italy. Haha random, so our lesson was in english- weird. I kept thinking of things to say and then I was like wait no that tagalog. But it was an awesome experience to teach a lesson in my native language! We are going back this week so Im excited about that. 

We also met a wonderful family, they run a bakery close to where we live- so you might guess how we met them. Hahaha yep because we are always eating there! Eating with a purpose I'd say. 

We also have been visiting the Gaite family a less active part member family who I just love! Sister pea-wee is my favorite she is hilarious and always super welcoming. The spirit is always really strong there. One day last week just sister was home so we were just going to share a scripture thought, but she ended up sharing with us in doctrine and covenants 35:22

"And now I say unto you, tarry with him, and he shall journey with you.." 

I LOVE THAT. I love that if we labor in the Lords work, he will always journey right beside us. 

All my love, 

Sister Mahe

Cloudy and Perfect

To describe the weather here this week our recent convert said "its like a girl..moody" And it is so true! Some days it is so horribly hot and humid and then some it is like torrential down pour. But my favorite are cloudy days

We were walking and it was sooo hot and then it got windy and cloudy and me and Slade both agree this was our favorite kind of weather. Sorry tourist. 

Anyways this week was amazing. We had zone meeting and when we left I just felt so uplifted, I was like ahh lets just go teach all our Puerto Princessa, and then all of Palawan! But it was like almost 9 so we had to go home..haha. But dont worry I havent forgotten the goals I made, because whats the point of meetings if you dont take what you learn and apply them!? 

The Elders in our ward had a baptism this week, so we went with our investigator Stacey who is 13 and  we had a lesson with her at the church and some of the other young women came to teach with us. Right in the middle of teaching the plan of salvation the power went out, haha but we kept going and just used our phone flash light. The power was still out and right before the baptism happened the generator kicked in and it came on! Oh how the Lord works in mysterious ways. 

Scripture thought for the day: 

Alma 57:25 

"..there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds." 

The story of Helamans warriors in the Book of Mormon. It is maybe one of my favorite, but then again it is like impossible to choose. Anyways I love its relevance to me, to you, to all people. Life is hard sometimes, lots of times but we are promised the Lords help when we follow him. Just as these warriors we can come out triumphant, which does not mean we will come out perfect without any trials. We will all receive our so called wounds in life, but we will never perish if we remain faithful. 

In a talk by Gene R Cook he reiterates how, 

The Lord will NEVER tempt us, but he will ALWAYS TRY us. 

Many times people we teach loose faith when trials come, but that is not the time to loose faith! It is the time to DOUBLE your faith! It is my favorite to hear our investigators or less actives talk about a struggle and then follow up with but I know I can keep going..cause Im like I KNOW IT TOO! As we say over here KAYA MO YEN! 

And of course our Heavenly Father knows we can overcome our trials, he always has and he is waiting and willing to help us grow and learn through them. 

Keep the Faith Always! 

Sister Mahe

Pizza with Americans

A beautiful week! 

A lot of wonderful things happen this week....

like going over to one of our investigators house and as we walked up we saw him reading the Book of Mormon in his window..haha Boboy is great! He always ask great questions and really reads. He even told us when he sees his friends drinking and smoking now, he walks a different way so he doesnt have that temptation. WHAT!? Who does that..he does, baptism. 

Oh also like eating pizza with an American, we met Sister Robinson because she is on vacation here from her job in China. She was at church and took us out to dinner on Wednesday, it was weird to have an entire conversation in english. She served a mission too so it was great to get her insights! Yay I love pizza and America. 

Oh also our recent convert vanessa who is like my favorite person ever is still doing great! She is excited about the temple! And her fiance from california is coming next month and they are going to the temple so she can do baptisms for the dead for her lola (grandma). He enthusiasm is contagious! Also her fiance is cool and said he would send us kraft mac and cheese-which is like gold over here! I cant wait to meet him. I cant wait till they are sealed in the temple!!!! AHHHHHH 

We have been working a lot this week with less actives and our investigators that are really progressing and have baptism dates scheduled for march! There is so much work to be done and it is a blessing! 

In the work of salvation there is a clip and a mission president talks about How the Lord is busy hastening his work but he needs us to help in the work also he says this, 

" He uses us, so that he can create better versions of us in the process" 

The Lord will help us become the people he wants us to be!

I cannot testify enough of how true that is! So start your day with a smile and a prayer and get out and be anxiously engaged always in the missionary work, which is really just living a life that brings you and others closer to Christ. When we take care of the things that are important to the Lord he will take care of the things that are important to us! 

I hope this week brings happiness and chocolate from your valentines, 

Sister Mahe

THE CALL

Magandang Umaga Lahat

This week has been a little bit crazy over here. So here transfers are on Wednesday and no one in our house got a call from president stucki saying anyone would be leaving. It was Tuesday and we figured we were all safe since Im still in training. Then Sister Thompson got the call that she would be leaving Wednesday morning to be a Sister Training leader in metro manila! Which is awesome and she will be amazing! 

But then 10 seconds later we all just started crying. It was so unexpected and I have loved my time with Sister Thompson my mission mom and trainer! She is such a hard worker and lived by example. 

Things I learned from Sister T

-Sometimes its fun to talk in a British accent

-Dont ever give up on people

-Taco Bell should be universal

-Running is more fun when you run to the bakery

-Be happy and happiness will find you

-That I dont know how to cook, but a diet of eggs and oreos can be a balanced diet (right??) 

- And most importantly I learned to love being a missionary, to just go out and testify of the truth you know. Some will accept it, some wont. And some days it will be hard and awful, but mostly it will be wonderful and you always have the most important things with you if you have your testimony. 

I was also super nervous because I am horrible with directions and I would have to show someone else around our area. Haha so its kinda basically like shot gunning a new area..haha jk Im a little better than that. 

So Sister Slade from San Diego is my new follow up trainer and she is great too. We are still getting to know our area and meeting new people but the work has been great and people are super nice here. 

Funny moment of the week:

After Sister Thompson left during that day I was with Sister Limpin and Jones in their area and there is this one area where all the houses are on the ocean and to get out there you have to "walk the plank" cause literally there is two skinny planks of wood with no railing or anything and you just pray and walk out onto them. And it had been raining so it was super slippery. But we made it! Hahah we kept pretending like we were in a video game after each level...I think I get a gold star for dont falling in the water.

I know I am involved in the work of salvation and really its a work of happiness. We need not be shy or scared to share our testimonies with others. SERIOUSLY, people dont want to listen to us sometimes. But what does that even matter? We still have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and all we really can do is invite. Just Open your mouth and let the Spirit guide the rest. 

I hope you all are well and happy! 

Sister Mahe