Birthdays, Stake Conference and Frogs! week 17

It has been another mabalis week here in the Philippines! I really can't even believe how fast time flies here. We have had some really great lessons this week with Jocelyn, Marites and Gregorio, and Napoleon. Plus we have found some other really really great new investigators!!

This last week we had our new training check up meeting on Thursday by San Pablo and it was SO good to be able to get some advice from president and just another reassurance of this work. Plus I got to see Sis. Wilkes and Sis Smart again, so that is always a plus!!

 Saturday was one of the little girls birthday we are teaching, so we bought a coloring book and some colored pencils and some hair clips for her hair. It was so fun! When we went to visit, we were planning on just reading the Book of Mormon with them, because they still hadn't, but when we asked them where they were, they were in 2 NEPHI CHAPTER 2!!!!! We about died!!!! None of my investigators have ever read that much!!! We were so proud of them. Their tv doesn't work, so they said that after they eat every night, they all sit down and read together. I just love them! 

Sunday we had a wonderful time in Lucina for Stake Conference! President and Sister Peterson spoke about the importance of missionary work along with the area 70, Elder Echo Hawk, and he did SUCH a good job!! I am always impressed at how strong the spirit is with worthy priesthood holders. Elder Echo Hawk and President Peterson just radiate the spirit and Christ like attributes. It made me so happy knowing that everyone at home is being taken care of by dad. I think that is why I look up to these priesthood leaders so much, because they remind me of dad:) I am very blessed to have the power of the priesthood in my life.

So all the other emails I get from my friends on missions always have fun facts. I decided I would share some fun facts from the Philippines. (and that is a tongue twister):

-Our next door neighbors, so lovingly bought a rooster and decided it would be a good idea to put its cage literally 8 feet from our window. So we wake up at 5 am every morning to a huge 'cock-a-doodle-dew' EVERY MORNING! We have had to start closing one of our windows every night to try to block the noise a little...

- Also the same neighbors have a dog who sounds like Cujo.  And that dog barks ALL the time!

-Since I don't have a straightener or a curling iron, sometimes I just let my hair do it's own thing (well everyday) and I definitely feel like Hermione Granger with the poof and friz I have everyday.

-I have lost a lot of weight, but now it is all creeping up to my face. I'm not sure how to prevent that.... -_-

-A couple nights ago we didn't have to have our fan on us while we slept AND I even needed to have my sheet. it was really weird to wake up kinda cold...

-Filipino's LOVE Celine Dion. It is SO hard not to listen to it.

-I ate frog on Wednesday at District meeting! And surprisingly it wasn't bad...kinda tasted like KFC. Our District leader fried it then brought some for us. Hahaha I am sure mom just died!

Anyway. Life is just rolling a long here and I am definitely loving this work more and more everyday! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know it can change any ones life if they just read it.

Love,

Sister Mecham

Sister Lorente and I at zone p-day

This just may be my favorite family!

Bad hair day!?

New Food!?

Kumusta po kayo! Week 16 Philippines

Well. Another week here in the Philippines and it has been quite great! We had zone interviews Tuesday in Lucena and it was perfect. We are really focusing on using the book of Mormon more in our teaching and really helping the people understand the importance of it, so it was good to learn some other ways of sharing it. Plus we got to see President again and it was SO good to be able to talk with him for a few minutes. At the end of the interview he gave me another hug, and it just was nice. I definitely notice the difference of not having a priesthood holder in our house.

On Thursday we had our Sister Training Leaders come again and help us in our area. I worked with Sis. Harris and Sis. Lorente worked with Sis. Umiten and between the 4 of us, we had 9 lessons! It was so great, and 4 of our lessons were to members. it is definitely good. Friday and Saturday were good too and we got lots of work done and Sunday is a good recharge for the week.

Plus we have SIX investigators with a baptismal goal date so we are really focusing on them this week!! We have had some really good lessons with all of them this week too and we had an investigator at church! Her name is Jocelyn and I love her. She told us that she knows the book of Mormon is true and we watched the restoration dvd with her and the spirit was so strong!! She is SO prepared for this message and is really just thirsting to know the truth. She said that after we taught her the plan of salvation this week, she had a dream that she needed to keep reading the book of Mormon to know everything it contains!! And so she has been! I feel so humble to be able to work with her and teach her about this gospel. 

We have another investigator. His name is Napoleon. He kinda gives me stress sometimes. He is 67 and it has taken us a lot of time to build trust with him but FINALLY we have it!!! He has had a stroke so it is hard for him to feel that God loves him, but he has been reading the book of Mormon as well and I KNOW his heart is changing!!!! We also watched the restoration with him and he was crying. and again I just can't believe Heavenly Father is giving me the responsibility to help these people, but also the opportunity to get to know them as well. I am so lucky.

Our cute family is still just adorable. We have been having the kids give the prayers for the lessons and just help them give them, and it is a little piece of heaven. They are angels. They have been praying as a family too! I want them to be married so bad so that they can be baptized then go to the temple in a year. They wanted to go to church on Sunday, but they don't have the money for it. We are going to talk to a member this week and see if he could bring them on his tricycle in a couple weeks because we have stake conference this week. And they have also been reading. It makes me SO happy! Plus they really enjoyed some of the M&M's mom sent. 

And today was perfect. We had zone pday in Lucban. and it was gorgeous. It is about 2 1/2 hours away from us and it is up in the mountains, so it felt wonderful! There is a place there called Kamay Ni Cristo healing garden or something and it has all these statues of priests and Christ and on this mountain side, there is like the life of Christ and when he was crucified  in statue form and at the very top there is a HUGE statue of Christ. It was SO COOL!!!!!

Any way. Know I love you all and I love being here. I am definitely loving my life right now and I love that I am a missionary.

Love,

Sister Mecham

Bus Ride!

I ate this fruit. It is gross. It smells really really bad and then it has this weird membrane on it and looks like a brain. and then when you bite into it, it like oozes and is weird. I finished it though. It is called Durian.

Going to Zone Interviews!

I have the cutest Kasama!

This was our zone p-day!It was amazing!

Sister Lorente and I

Sister Wilkes and I at zone training

View from the top of the mountain!

Kamay Ni Cristo (Hand of Christ). I love zone p-days!

Sister Lorente and I. (each display on the hill is a scene from Christs' life)

 

 

 

Conference Weekend! Week 15

This week has seriously been amazing. Conference may be the greatest thing ever and I just feel totally ready to just teach everyone here in Candelari!. I definitely know this is not possible, but that's how I feel. I wish everyone could just know the wonderful things and the counsel we received this weekend!.

Our work this week hasn't been the greatest though and we got punted a lot, but the cute family I told you about last week, we had a really really good lesson with them this week. Their names are Marites and Gregorio and they have 4 kids; JM (6), Aleah (5), Liyka (3), and Krissie (5 months) (I think) and seriously they are the cutest little family ever.  They aren't married and so we had planned to bring that up with them.They need to be married to be baptized. Sis. Lorente and I were super nervous to bring it up.

 

 That day we were able to work with some members though who just got married in the temple  2 weeks after I first got here. Before the lessons we told them that we were going to bring up marriage and then asked if they would be willing to share their experience during the lesson.

 

During the lesson I was kind of procrastinating bringing up marriage. Finally I did. A whole lot of Tagalog followed that I did not understand! The couple and Sis. Lorente all discussed the different needs and costs for the marriage and I was just super lost. Then after a few minutes of them discussing marriage, Sis. Lorente just looks at me and says "we can help them".  After that we had thecouple share their experience in the temple.They had a little picture of the Manila Temple so we showed them that too.

 

 It was just SO perfect to have them there to share their experience! The spirit was so strong at that lesson and I know everyone could feel it. The family is willing to work on saving money to get married and then we want to have their baptism later that night. Our goal date for them is November 30. 

 

We are really doing all we can to help them gain their testimonies so that they will be ready for their baptisms. I am still so happy we found them! It really is a testimony builder to me every time we teach them that Heavenly Father is preparing His children.

They are really our only real progressing investigators, the rest either punt us or don't keep their commitments, so that has been really hard. But we keep trying!

Conference really was so great though. We watched the Sat. sessions at our church building with the members then Sunday we went to Lucena for the Sunday sessions. They were all in English. I really have never had such a spiritual experience at conference before. I was so filled with the spirit and this time, everything just seemed so urgent! I loved every minute of it. And I loved even more that so much of it was just centered on missionary work, the Atonement, and preparing ourselves for these "perilous times". We are so lucky to have a living prophet and to have these leaders who are so close to Heavenly Father and are able to receive these revelations for our protection.

This week I also finished the Book of Mormon and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to read it and think about faith. Faith is everything! I have never read the Book of Mormon this fast in my entire life and I can't wait to start reading it again. 

 

I know that it is a true book. I know that it has the power to change lives. I know that it is the best way for us, as missionaries and especially members, to grow closer to Heavenly Father and strengthen our own lives. 

I love the Book of Mormon and I love sharing it with other people we meet and explaining that it was originally written on golden plates because the words are too precious to be written on anything else. 

 

I am so happy to be a missionary at this critical time of Heavenly Father's work and I know that the harder I work to help Him and to serve Him, I will gain a better understanding of who He is and who Jesus Christ is. 

 

I have also started reading Jesus the Christ because I have such a strong desire to know who Jesus Christ really is. I know His atonement is real and that it changes lives and has changed my own, but I want to know more about Jesus Christ Himself. We really are so lucky to be members of this church and have all these amazing resources!

I really hope that we will all take the prophets council to BE MISSIONARIES!! There are so many people who need to know about these things and there are so many lives we can bless! We have all these amazing promises for doing work, and I know that God will give us all the help we need!

Love,

Sister Mecham

Hello Po! Week 14

This last week has definitely been one of the greatest weeks yet! We have finally found some really interested investigators!! We had to drop a lot of people though and Bro. Avilino :( but it's ok because it gives us more time to be able to find people who are more interested in the listening and who will progress.
 

We have found some really great investigators too! One sister was SO happy to have us come and was just so grateful and said thank you over and over in her prayer at the end of the lesson. Her name is Helen and she is 55.She was also so happy to have a book of Mormon and wants to come to church and have her family come with her. She wasn't able to go yesterday though, so we are hoping she will be able to come to conference on Saturday. She said that in the 3 years they have lived in their house here (which is actually super close to the church) not one religious group has come to her house to share about God. We are the first!! I really really hope she progresses because she already has such a strong desire!
 

We also found a really really cute family and they were also so grateful we had found them. The only problem with them is that they aren't married and are very poor. We are trying to figure out when the best time would be to talk to them about living the law of chastity and telling them that the only way they can be baptized is if they are married. I am nervous to tell them though because we have only taught them twice. I know the sooner we tell them the better. But they really are the cutest little family. They have 4 kids and the oldest is in grade one. And every time we have taught them, they all sit and listen and just watch intently as we teach. It was SO rewarding to finally have these investigators who are just so willing to listen and so happy to have us come.

 

After the first lessons with each of these different people, Sister Lorente and I had chills all over and we were just so touched by them. I really know now that Heavenly Father prepares people to hear this gospel!

 

This last week really has been great and I am finally feeling more used to this culture and just how things work here. I still don't understand a lot of what people say to me.  I just pretend I do and say things like "oo" and "talaga?!" a lot. I also copy their facial expressions (they kinda do a pouty lip thing a lot). I have kinda started to do that too. I used to feel weird doing it, but not any more.  I just try to make the people feel special and act like I know what they're saying, when in all reality I have no clue. Sometimes if I really can't hear them, i say "ano" a lot (that means "what"). They also do this thing if you can't hear or didn't understand what someone said, you open your mouth and raise your eyebrows. Yes. picture that! Ha! So sometime I do that so I don't have to say ano so much and then they know to repeat it. Its kinda cool. Sometimes it scares me though that I still don't know what they are saying, but I know I am getting better at speaking everyday, and now teaching lessons (when we practice them) some times it's easier to do them in Tagalog. So at least I know I can teach them the doctrines.

 

The work is getting better and it feels so good! Sister Lorente is seriously just the sweetest little thing and I am definitely lucky I get to train her. Plus living with Sister Mckinney and Sister Finau is pretty great!

 

 At the end of this transfer Sis. Mckinney will most likely get transferred and it is definitely going to be really sad because all four of us are getting super close. Last night we had such an amazing little talk about  the second coming and just other really cool spiritual things.  It made me realize that I needed to come on this mission so that I could come and learn from these amazing people. I am so lucky to be here!

 

This is the true church. There is no doubt in my mind. These are the last days and we need to be ready for them. The Book of Mormon has all the answers we need. It has everything. I am now in Ether and I have learned SO much. I am so grateful for the chance I have to read it everyday and receive peace and revelation from it. Plus getting to share it everyday is such a blessing as well.

 

 This weekend we will get to watch conference and I can't wait! We are so lucky to know that there is a living prophet on the earth. I love Jesus Christ and I know that His Atonement has real power. Missionary work is so important for all of us and it is our job to share the gospel with everyone we know.

I love you!!!

Sister Mecham