Nanay Mecham! Week 13

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Nanay Mecham 1 message

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	Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 12:36 AM
I am officially a NANAY (mom)!! Sister Begontes found out on Tuesday that she was transferring to Santa Rosa and so that meant I would be staying here in Candelaria.  We had a not so great week of work and got punted over and over and over and over. It was really rough. Plus with all this rain, people just are not outside, so it was really hard to find anyone to teach or even talk to. On Thursday it was kind of a nice break to be able to go to San Pablo for transfer day. I said goodbye to Sis. Begontes and went into the chapel by the mission home to wait for Transfer Meeting to start. There were about 3 rows of Americans and only 1 row of Filipino sisters, so I just really felt like I would get an American. Well Heavenly Father was definitely looking out for me. My new companion is Sister Lorente from Baler, Aurora (Philippines) and is totally fluent in Tagalog and has really good English too. I am seriously the luckiest. Not to mention she is the kindest person ever. I really feel so blessed. Sis. Wilkes is also training a Filipina, and Sis. Smart is training an American. Both of their companions looked super nice too! So after Transfer meeting, we all ate lunch together and then headed back to Candelaria. I seriously had no idea what I was doing (still don't actually...) and so we had our companionship study and I showed her the area book and explained some of the basics and then we went out to work. And guess what. The first house we decided to OYM (Open Your Mouth)  let us in and we taught them a lesson!!! Ha it was kinda crazy. But Sis. Lorente didn't want to say anything (I totally don't blame her though. I don't think I said a word my first 2 weeks during lessons). I taught the whole lesson!  After we left I had chills all over because somehow I had just taught a lesson in pure Tagalog and the Spirit had even been there! It really was a testimony to me that this work is real. And the power of the Atonement is real. Friday and Saturday were full of punts though and finally last night we had 1 lesson. I really don't know why we have been punted so much, but I really hope that changes because it is not very fun and walking all day is really hard. But I know there has to be someone here that is ready for us to teach them. We just have to keep trying our best to find them. Yesterday I was a little bummed though because Bro. Avilino wasn't at church and none of our other investigators we had invited were there. I really am at a loss at what we can do to really help these people understand why these things are important, but we are doing our best and it is really just up to them to choose to accept it or not. Another sad story though. On Wednesday we had to drop another investigator. His name is Justin and he is 12 and Sister Nabus and I actually had taught him and his mom a long time ago, but his mom wasn't interested. We started going back to them again and seriously that little boy is just amazing! He wants to know everything he can and he knows how important it is. He reads the book of Mormon and he has come to church by himself.  We had to drop him Wednesday because his mom doesn't want to be taught. We know that if he was baptized, he would eventually go less active because he doesn't have support at home (plus we also have to get written consent from the parents for him to be baptized and I don't think they would give it to him). It pretty much broke my heart to have to tell him that we would have the missionaries come back in 1 year to see how he was doing.  When we got home that night, I went in our room and just plead with Heavenly Father to not forget about Justin and to let him find the missionaries again when he is 17 so he can be baptized. He could then go on mission when he is 18. He is only 12 but really he is so smart and knows that these things are true. I really really pray that one day he is baptized because he would be such a great missionary!  That is pretty much life here. Getting punted all day, dropping people who aren't interested, and walking and walking and walking, and trying to find people who are ready for this gospel. On a brighter not though, on Saturday we OYMed some people and they asked me how long I had been here and I held up 3 fingers and was about to say "3 months lang" (just 3 months) but the person kinda interrupted and said "3 years?!" and I said no months and he was SO shocked! Ha he was really impressed with my Tagalog. It felt really good!  I know that Heavenly Father keeps His promises and I know that that is why I have been able to pick this language up faster. I can talk to people and teach them lessons, but understanding what they say back to me is definitely the challenge now. But I know it will just take more time. This past week I have been reading in 3 Nephi when Jesus came to the America's and I have just loved it. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it was written to help us is these last days. I love it so much!I love that I get to study it everyday and tell people about it every day. Being a missionary is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. but I know I am growing so much everyday! Love, Sister Mecham Sister Begontes's last Sunday in Candelaria Sister Lorente's first Sunday in Candelaria Sister Wilkes with her new Kasama (companion). Me with Sister Lorente. My new Kasama! Me with Sister Pitman and Sister Harris at Zone Conference. They are Amazing! Zander , Justin ( middle) and Me!

Trainer! week 12

As of yesterday, I am officially done with my 12 week training and am "ready" to be able to train a new missionary. Ha that's really scary!

 Today or tomorrow we'll also find out if I am transferring or if Sister Begontes is. I hope it's her, because if I have to, that means I will have to get to know a completely new area and ward, and have to train someone new, and that really just is scary as well.

This week has been all over the place. We started teaching a new girl on Monday. She came up to us in Jollibee the other week and said that she had been taught by missionaries before and really liked the teachings but never got baptized because her parents wouldn't let her. Well now she lives away from her parents and works at Jollibee every day but Monday, so she has really good potential, but there are definitely a lot of obstacles. The main 2 are still probably her parents approval and also the fact that she works every single Sunday, so I don't know how she could get to church. It kinda stinks, but she really really wants us to teach her, and we really would like to help her.

Tuesday was divine. We had Zone Conference in Lucena and it was perfect!!! President Peterson really is so inspired. He talked to us again about claiming the grace of the atonement. He said that when we claim the atonement, we recieve empowerment. To be able to claim that empowerment, we have to be obedient and work hard to receive it. It was exactly what I needed to hear. He and  the AP's talked about using the Inspired Teaching Method, or using the spirit to guide the lessons.  President also shared some stories about when he served here on his mission and how he was able to claim the atonement. It was really really good.

 Earlier in the day we also had 2 other missionaries give talks, and one of the senior couple's talked a little bit as well. Then we had a delicious lunch. That was when president and the ap's spoke.  Then all the missionaries who will be leaving in the next few months bore their testimonies. It was such a good meeting. We didn't get home till 7 pm that night, and we still hadn't done our studies yet, so we weren't able to work that day. But I was just such a wonderful meeting and such a spiritual high.

The rest of the week, we just got punted. Over and over and over. It was kinda ridiculous. But we just had to laugh about it because there really wasn't anything we could do about it. Plus I am finally experiencing my first legit typhoon and so it's pretty much been pouring rain for the past 4 days with rather strong winds at night.

I love you all and I will send pictures of my new companion next week!!!

love,

Sister Mecham

Another week in the Philippines! week11

  Another week in the Philippines.

Well the time here is just flying! My time to have to train is approaching  WAY too quickly! It still definitely scares me that I will be responsible for someone who most likely will not be able to speak Tagalog...but I am sure we will be able to figure it out somehow. 

We had a training meeting for all the new trainers on Friday, so I got to see Sis. Wilkes and Sis. Smart again because they are both training as well. They are definitely just as stressed out and nervous as I am. Ha so I think we are all just in the same boat.

This has been a week full of ups and downs (just like every week ), but I know I am learning a lot everyday. 

On Tuesday I had another exchange with the Sister Training Leaders (STL's) and I worked with Sister Pittman. She is great! She goes home in a couple weeks. She really helped me not feel so nervous to teach people. The church has pamphlets for all the preach my gospel lessons. She said I should get really familiar with them and then if we ever (me and my anak (child)/ trainee) get stuck in lessons we can just read a pamphlet because it says everything very clearly. That really relieved my stress.

We had a pretty good day yesterday though. WE HAD AN INVESTIGATOR COME TO CHURCH!!!!!! Woot woot!! We have another investigator that comes to church every Sunday as well, but she is already living with members so it is easy for her. We are hoping she continues to progress as well so that she can be baptized soon!

The investigator that came yesterday is name is Avelino. He is just great. He is probably in his 60's and his wife has had a stroke,so she stays home all the time. He only has one leg and gets around on crutches. He is so amazing though. We invited him to be baptized on Oct. 26 and he totally accepted it! He gave us a referral to talk to his friend that lives next to him. 

We contacted his friend on Saturday and he came over and just listened to us. We couldn't teach the friend since there was no female present and we aren't allowed to only teach men alone. We invited both of them to come to church and after that Bro. Avelino said "Oh and my baptism is on October 26th right?". Ha I was  shocked!! When he came to church yesterday I was so thrilled! A lot of the members came up to him and talked to him too. It was so amazing. I really really really really hope he will continue to progress. 

When we were talking with him and his friend on Saturday, he really reminded me of my grandpa Walke and my uncle Nolan just because of their personalities. Also we have another investigator we are teaching that reminds me of my Aunt Penny. It really just helps me love them even more and really want to see them progress.

Well that is all from here!!! Thank you so much for all the words of wisdom and love and advice. I look forward to it every week!.

Love,

Sister Mecham

Took this picture of a Jeepney while stuck in traffic! This is how most people travel.

Training! week 10

Hello po!

Well it's true. I get to start training someone this next transfer-starting September 26th. I am kind of in a state of shock right now and I think my anxiety is just super maxed out right now!  I can't even really think about it. I got the email today saying I am training, so this Friday we'll go to the training meeting for the new trainers in San Pablo. Sister Begontes isn't training though, but she will still come with me. I am kind of excited though because it looks like a lot of my batch will also be training, so I will get to see all of them again!

In other news, we have been pretty busy. We get punted a lot - as in people are 'too busy' for us to teach them, or they aren't home, so we have been talking to tons of people. This week we got 71 OYM's. That means we talked to 71 different people and shared just briefly about the gospel with them and asked if we could come back and share more. So this week, there are quite a few people we need to go back and visit and hopefully we will be able to find some people who are really interested and will progress, because so far, I haven't really seen any of our investigators progress.

This week we have also dropped a few people so it is kind of discouraging, but being able to just talk with so many other different people has been fun, and I am definitely understanding more of the language. Still definitely not fluent and I am SUPER nervous to have to train because of the language barrier, but I know it needs to be done and Heavenly Father and President Peterson need me to train someone, so I will do my best with this language thing.

Not much has happened this week. There are still some weird things that happen everyday that just are totally not normal, but are normal for here and so I am still getting over this culture shock thing.  I am feeling a lot more comfortable with the area and I can find my way around easier, so that has definitely been a big blessing. 

We also don't have specific areas any more here, so all of us in Candelaria are free to go any where. We just have to make sure we aren't in the same area as the other sisters.

Here is a funny story. On Saturday we were going to an appointment and this little kid was in the street kind of far away from us, he just looks over at me, screams and then just books it back into his house, just screaming and crying. Hahahahaha!  It was pretty funny. We were going to go talk to his mom after, but we decided that might not have been the greatest idea...

I love you guys so much though and I can really feel your prayers everyday and it helps so much! Thank you for the emails too:)

Love,

Sister Mecham

Merry Christmas!!! Week 9 Philippines

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

So here in the Philippines, September 1st is officially the 1st day of Christmas. Yes. I am SO happy about that! This is definitely the reason why I got sent here. Joke lang! But really. Yesterday in church our Bishop wished everyone a Merry Christmas ha it was great. They celebrate Christmas in all the "Ber" months. So this means we will probably start to be hearing Christmas songs and seeing Christmas lights. I can't wait!

This last week has been pretty good though too. I still fight with anxiety and lots of stress every morning, but getting out of the house and getting to work and just being able to feel the spirit so strongly in the lessons helps me so much. I have really been trying to focus on the investigators and not be thinking about what I will say next, and I can always just feel that Heavenly Father needs them to know that they are SO loved. It is such a unique experience to feel so much love from Heavenly Father for these people I really don't know and  can't understand half the time. It really just reaffirms to me that this church is true. I love it. And it makes me so grateful I am a member of it.

We have been so lucky to be able to find so many people. Everyone here is so willing and so open to hearing our message. Some of the religions here are actually not allowed to listen to us or they can get excommunicated from their church, so they pretty much just run away from us, but the Catholic people are usually always willing to listen. We have found that talking about baptism by immersion really gets their attention and so we have been able to teach a few people and explain about how Jesus was baptized. It has been working pretty well.

We still don't really have any progressing investigators, but I know one day we will find someone who really wants to have these blessings in their life.

Last week I was able to work with one of the sister Training leaders- her name is Sister Harris and she is from Sandy. It was really fun to work with her and we did a LOT of talking to people that day. She has been out the same amount of time as Sister Begontes, so her Tagalog is pretty good. She said it took her a while to learn it too, but she gave me a lot of good study tips that helped her.

On Wednesday we had Zone Training again in Lucena. It was pretty fun and we have a really good zone. It is always good to have zone activities because we always get our letters and I get to see the other sisters. 

P.S. getting letters seriously is the greatest thing in the world. It just makes me so happy every time!!! 

Anyway...I want to tell you about the bus rides to get to Lucena. So there are like a ton of big tour buses here that just go all the time and that is their main transportation to get to far places. (also Jeepneys). But riding on the big buses TOTALLY reminds me of the bus on Harry Potter 3 that just weaves all over in and out of traffic and stops suddenly and then speeds up all the sudden and just swerves all over. It is probably the sketchiest thing ever...ha but we haven't crashed yet. Ha also they have air con so I don't complain.

Anyway. I really wish you could all see this place and just experience all these things with me, but I will have some really good stories for you when I get home.

I hope everything is going good at home! I love you guys so much and I am so grateful for all the support. Everyday is hard, but there are definitely miracles everyday and I am so grateful for all of them.

Solving spiritual problems people have is quite difficult and it is really hard to know how to help them. We have been dropping lots of people and just teaching basic lessons, so hopefully we can start teaching more of the other lessons too and really see some progress in this area.

Love,

Sister Mecham

New Companions! Sister Begontes, Me, Sister Finau and Sister McKinney