This week has been full of ups and downs again (as usual), but the more I hear about this mess in the Tacloban mission, the more grateful I am that I am here and our biggest problems are trying to get investigators to read the Book of Mormon and find people to teach.

I have absolutely loved this week though!!! It has been great! We did have some more miracles this week! Every day is a miracle though.One of my favorites this week is that we have a new investigator," Z." She just married a member of the church and they are both like 21-22ish. We started to teach her this past week and she is progressing SO much!!! Her goal date is December 7th. Yesterday our bishop talked to her and her husband. He said that her husband can prepare to baptize her!! It will be our first completed family and my first baptism!!!!

They live in his parents house. The parents are active members as well as all of his sisters. "Z" will have plenty of support. She doesn't really know much about Christ, so we decided that we will take these next few weeks and really teach her about Christ and help her to gain a strong testimony of Him!

I am so excited and I can't wait to see her progress. She has been coming to church for a few weeks now.We will still wait a few more to make sure she is really ready to be baptized.

BUT! To get to their house, you literally have to cross a large-ish river ON ROCKS! Then walk through the jungle for like 5 minutes to get to their house. Hahah but in all honesty, I would go there every day. IT IS SO PRETTY!!!!!!! (I'll send pictures next time)

Our second miracle happened yesterday. We were able to meet with more members and give them a family mission plan.We also meet with our bishop again, and it FINALLY feels like we are really gaining their trust and it feels SO good!

We got a surprise text on Saturday night from bishop saying he needed two speakers for the next day, so Sister Lorente and I had to speak. I was super nervous, but the topic was Trust and Be Strong. I think it turned out OK because a lot of the members told me I did a good job and they all complemented me on my Tagalog.

On Thursday and Friday I was in Tayabas for exchanges with Sister Harris. A lot of the people there were really impressed with my Tagalog! I seriously can't believe it! It feels SO good to be able to talk to people fairly easily. I still have a hard time understanding a lot, but I know that will get better too.

We may be dropping some investigators this week.We want to find new ones who will progress.

Our investigator who came to church last week," N", told us Saturday that he wasn't going to come again because he only wanted to go once to see if he felt an answer. Well I guess he didn't really feel an answer, so he didn't come to church again. He just can't get an answer and we have not been able to help him get one. I really don't know what else we can do. I think we have shared every scripture in the Book of Mormon that talks about getting an answer from God, but nothing has helped him. I know he has changed a lot from reading the Book of Mormon, but I don't know if he can really see it in himself. We will go back again on Tuesday and try to get him some more help, if not, we may drop him for a while.

Any way. Life is just rolling a long here. I can't believe it has almost been 6 months!!!!! WHERE DOES THE TIME GO!?!?!? I am so grateful though for the progress I have made and I absolultely love that I am getting better at Tagalog. I know that the gift of tongues is a real thing and I know that I have been blessed with it to be able to help the members and investigators here in Candelaria and for sure for the rest of my mission!!

Mahal na mahal ko kayo, at ingat po palagi!!!

Love,

Sister Mecham