Week 29: The Best week EVER

January 28, 2019

Well it's official I got a new brother over the weekend! It's so hard to miss my sister's wedding, but God definitely showed me so many blessings and miracles in our work this week! This week was probably the greatest week of my whole mission! So much happened!

We invited Sister MaryAnn to be baptized on March 2! shes been taught before by the missionaries, but couldn't be baptized because she had to work on Sundays and never had time to be taught by the missionaries. but shes had the month of January off of work and we have been able to teach her and address her concerns and when we invited her to be baptized this week I truly believe that we are inviting a convert to be baptized. She has so much more understanding why she needs to be baptized and we keep testifying to her through the Book of Mormon and our own testimonies that if she does her best in trying to get work off for Sunday and has faith, that God will provide a way for her! (1 Nephi 3:7) So we watched the restoration video with her, and the day before we said we had a movie to watch with her. and so when we showed up for her lesson, her and her boyfriend (hes a member) were waiting with coke and cookies ready to watch the movie!

So much happened with the Pua family this week! We had FHE with them and members, and their house is really small and with all the members we've had in their previous lessons and everyone wanting to come we were afraid we wouldn't fit, but we did and it was so much fun! The family loved the FHE and asked when we could have another one. Which a family in the ward invited them to one tonight at their house and they're so excited to go! We also showed them the restoration video this week and afterwards they said that it really helped them to understand what actually happened to Joseph Smith and how he became a prophet. After the video we shared D&C 20:37 and helped them to understand the qualifications of baptism and then we invited them to be baptized and they said YES!!! They came to church yesterday too and when we went to their house later that day they said that church was so good! Their baptism date is March 9. When we told them that we would have to teach them 3-4 times a week to prepare them for that date, the Dad, Brother Harold said why don't you come every day?! And we couldn't stop smiling and told them we would love to come every night to teach them. The dad also was drinking and smoking occasionally and drank coffee, but since we gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, we still haven't actually taught or committed him to follow the word of wisdom, but yesterday he said hes already stopped drinking coffee and slowly eliminating smoking and drinking. I could tell you so many other AMAZING things about this family and how prepared they are for the gospel in their life's, but this email would be too long.

The Simon girls are the nieces of the Pua family and they have been in every lesson with them and we also invited them to be baptized, but with new rules about kids ages 17 and under, that don't have a active member living in their house, so they have to attend church for an extended time before they can be baptized, but we hope we can talk with our mission president to make an exception for these 2 girls because they are so ready for baptism. And last night when we told them they would get baptized almost one month after the Pua family, Brother Harold (the dad) said that he wants to be baptized all together as a family and that these nieces are basically his children and they they raised them after their mom died! This week we were able to find their house and teach them there. when we got there their dad was drunk and the mom was in and out of the house. we found out that their step-mom is the sister of their dead mom (their mom who past away was actually a member too). There's just so many hard things about their life, and yet when we came to see them they told us that they had already been reading in the BOM since we gave it to them the night before, and now i believe they are past 1 nephi 10! Sister Che (17) Sister Joy (15) are already so mature for their age, and they actually sneaked out of work to be able to come to 1 hour of church yesterday and when they returned to their job the boss said, after they told them they were at church, that next week they can attend all 2 hours and to just pray for her while they're there! Sister Melinda Pua (their aunt) works at the same place and she just didn't go to work on Sunday so she could go to church and basically they are already keeping the Sabbathday holy. And yesterday when we came to teach them they were outside on the street waiting for us to come, and when we were walking towards them they just seemed different. More happy, and you can just tell that they are accepting and living the gospel in their life's! This family makes us so happy!

I talked to this random guy on the street this week that was working on his tricy, and when i asked him what fruit was on the tree above us he just walked away from us and got a stick at whacked the fruit and it landed on the roof and rolled down and i caught it and then he told us we could keep it! The fruit turned out to be a grapefruit! and it was good!

I had a golden moment again this week (stepping in dog poop) and oh man was it a fresh one too. And to make it even better a bunch of construction workers saw me do it and i almost slipped. Haha so they were laughing at me, but its fine i was laughing too and kinda crying because it was super gross!

We met this older man Ben Santiago because a member gave us his name and said he wife would like to be taught, but the member forgot the wife's name. but the member said that the husband doesn't like missionaries, and so we didn't know how to find the wife with only knowing the husbands name. But we already knew some Santiago's and so we asked them and they took us to his house and this man was asking how we knew his name and sister Sy lied and said we had a record of other missionaries that talked to him before and it turned out that he met some missionaries in Manila and he actually really liked them. Ben also only has one leg because he they had to cut off his leg due to diabetes, so hes stuck inside his house all day. But he has so many stories to tell us about his life and things hes done and he loves it when we come and visit him, but we cant teach him unless there's another girl present in the lesson, so were trying to go when his wife will be home!

There's also this 23 year old boy that we teach at his aunts house who is a member and this is how much I've adjusted to the Philippines because during the whole lesson there are coach roaches everywhere and they're flying everywhere too, but i cant react because that would distract from the lesson, and it's too much effort to react to them because we teach him at night and I'm exhausted at that point!

I could continue to go on and on about the people we are teaching right now and how awesome they are, but i might have lost a lot of you at this point because its a really long email, but I love these people so much and me and the work is oh so good. Me and my companion just keep comparing how our work is now that there are people who are progressing towards baptism and we're just so happy and tired after everyday of work! But it's so fulfilling when you invited someone to be baptized and they say yes, It's a type of joy you don't get from doing anything else! I love be a missionary and serving my God. I love you all and have the greatest week!

Love Sister Thayn

-Pua Family FHE