Zone Conference Week 39

There is so much I want to say.So I will just narrow it down the best I can... I definitely wish you could be here with me sometimes to experience all these things.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday night at our chapel (here in San Pablo) and It was perfect! We have inspired leaders in this church!

 We are really talking about the Sabbath day as a mission and how to get investigators to church. President gave a workshop about it in the morning, but he got sick. Literally during the middle of it. He had to sit down for a while and the whole chapel was absolutely silent. He had told us that he wasn't feeling well, but towards the end, he just lost it. Luckily he had brought a bowl to show how the Savior washed the feet of his disciples, but it ended up catching his breakfast. It was really sad. They were getting ready to just close the meeting, but he said "No. I still have things I need to say". He went on to talk about the humility we need to have each Sunday when we take the sacrament and realize that when we eat the bread and drink the water, we are literally taking Christ into ourselves. We aren't eating him, but we are letting him come into us so that we can become more like him. It was very powerful.

Then they closed the meeting and we went and ate. President came around to the tables and just said that he needed to go home and rest. He is a very good man.

The rest of the conference was really amazing too. The health guy for the Philippines talked to us and the family history missionaries. They called familysearch.org, "Facebook for the Dead" haha it was good.

Plus I got to see all my favorite missionaries from my first area. They are doing great and I got to meet my apu! (grandchild).

On Wednesday we were a little slow getting out but Sister Mann didn't seem stressed about it, so I just tried to relax a little. We grabbed our bags and said a prayer. We didn't even get off our front step and the woman who washes our neighbors clothes was outside hanging stuff up. I barely got the door shut and she was pretty much just waiting there to talk to us. Sister Mann and I talked to her. She is SO kind. She gave us her information very quickly and was so excited to have talked to us. We are planning to go visit her tomorrow. 

After we talked and actually got off our front step and started down the street to go to work, I almost started crying because I was almost in shock that Heavenly Father put her in our path before we were even out of our apartment!! We are seeing miracles here!

The rest of this week has been really good. We are working hard. We are doing our best to always be on time. We try our best during study time, and when we go out we talk to everyone. The more we are talking and teaching people, the more and more people Heavenly Father continues to put people in our path who want this gospel. This week alone we had 9 new investigators.

We will get to watch conference a week after all of you and this weekend we will get to see the women's conference. 

President also told us when we take the sacrament on Sunday to be more humble as we take it. I grabbed my piece of bread, but I didn't just plop it in my mouth like we sometimes do, but I held it in my hand and said a prayer to myself, then ate the bread. I felt the spirit so strongly and it was such a divine experience I had yesterday. I am so grateful for the sacrament and for the opportunity to renew my covenants with Heavenly Father and for the opportunity each week to make new goals and repent of my weaknesses.

I love you all and hope you have another good week, and spend some extra time in the air conditioning for me :)

Love,

Sister Mecham

Cute family that are members of the church

I Have the best companion! Sister Mann.

Sister Mann in the rice field.

Ew! Yes, she did pick up a squished frog!

My mom's favorite kind of frog! Squished!!!

Trolley rides on the riles(railroad) to get to a church members house.

We love rice fields!

Sister Mann!

Strolling through the rice fields on a hot afternoon!

Zone conference.
Sister's Lorente,Wilkes, Mecham, McKinney,and Baird

Sister Mecham and Sister Mann

Sister Wilkes and Sister Mecham

Fruit Loops Week 38

It's a rainy day here in San Pablo and I am SO grateful for it. There have been some super hot days and I am just really not looking forward to the heat. It is nice to be able to sleep without the fan on full blast.

This week has been great. Of course full of ups and downs, but Sister Mann and I worked really hard this week and the effects of that were amazing. We had GREAT numbers this week and we just worked as hard as we could. We were able to find 8 new investigators(people interested in hearing about our church)  and 70 OYMs (open your mouths),and18 lessons. It was such a good week. Sister Mann seriously is exactly what I needed and what this area needed. We are going to have a great transfer.

The members love us too. We don't have to come up to them any more to try to get an appointment. They come up to us and say they want to feed us or they have someone they want us to teach. It is a pure miracle. I know it is 100% because WE gave our 101% to the work this week and it feels great.

Our investigators are being converted to. They are reading Ang Aklat ni Mormon and are praying and we got Julie Ann AND Vincent to church this week and I think they had another great time. 

We have another sweet lady we are teaching too. Her name is May Ang and she is the one that is from my first area. She definitely trusts us a lot and felt like she could open up about some of the problems she is having with her husband. We were able to just do our best to give her some scriptures to read and really just be someone she could talk to. We have been really praying for her. She is so amazing and we really hope the best for her. She also told us she really wants to come to church with us next week!!!!

I love being a missionary. Last night while I was trying to fall a sleep my shirt felt weird, and I realized that it was because my name tag wasn't on. I thought about putting it on because it did feel really weird without it, but then I fell asleep like 2 minutes after. That was a weird ramble, but it makes me very grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary and to wear Christ's name everyday.

Fun facts:

- This week we had a tri-some with one of the sisters going back to Tacloban. She worked with us on Wednesday because their plans changed so they left on Thursday instead of Wednesday. She is a Filipina, so it was SO nice to have a native speaker with us. She was darling.

- The next morning we dropped her off at the mission home and got to eat breakfast there. Yes. I had Fruit Loops and real milk! They live large at the mission home. Plus we got to hang out with president for a few minutes after. Sister Mann and I then headed back home. I felt spoiled.

 - We were walking down the road and this younger boy sees me and starts singing "You're sexy and you know it". Hahahaha I couldn't hold in my laughter. It was priceless.

- Our ward mission leader taught the investigators class yesterday in church and one of the other ward members went to it with us. The WML(ward mission leader) asked him something along the line of "what is one of the commandments that we need to follow to use the atonement in our lives?" The ward member (he is almost 30 I think and not married yet, so every one always gives him a hard time about it) says, "magbasa", which means "to read". The WML turns to write it on the board but instead of writing "magbasa", he wrote "mag-asawa" which means "to marry". ha ha! We all just died laughing. It was seriously the funniest thing.

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Mecham

Enjoying some coke at a little tindahan

They don't really use plastic bottles here.They have glass pop bottles so they pour it into these plastic bags so you can take it with you.

Sister Mann and I

Transfer Day!

Sister Mann and I

Sisters, Mann, Flores,and Mecham

"She's the Mann" Week 37

Well last Thursday was transfer day. The AP's called us Tuesday night and told us Sister Vaipou was getting transferred to Los Banos and my new companion would be Sister Mann.  Wednesday we had Zone meeting. Then we had lunch, did studies, and visited some of the people she wanted to see before she got transferred. Her new companion spent the night at our house because she came from Minduro, one of the islands. So Thursday morning we had a huge task of getting 4 huge suitcases onto a jeepney. Ha it was exciting, but we survived.

We went to the Mission home to get my new companion. Then sister Vaipou and her companion got a ride to their new area. It was really fun to hang out at the Mission home again. I got to see a lot of my friends from other areas and Sister Lorente!!! Plus I will get to see a lot of them again next week for zone conference and I can't wait!! 

So my new companion is Sister Mann, from Samoa. And yes. She is the Man. Haha she has the craziest personality and is just happy always. Plus she is incredibly diligent and is so ready to just get to work here and baptize everyone. I love her. She is 28 and the youngest child of 11 and just so incredibly humble and really just so happy to be a missionary. Her mom passed away last year and she had been taking care of her for like 10 years. I think her mom had a stroke and her dad is 81. She took care of them for a long time.I am incredibly humbled to be her companion. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have now to learn from her. She is 3 months behind me in the mission, but it feels like she is the senior companion.She lived with the STL's in her last area and has really learned a lot from them.  I am glad that I can now learn from her.

Our area needs some help. We just really need more interested people to teach. I think we will be very successful. We did get Marissa confirmed yesterday and she was SO happy! It was a really good day yesterday. We taught Julie Ann and Vincent yesterday and Vincent really has a hard time opening his heart, plus he couldn't go to church again, but I think we were able to help him feel the spirit, and he said he will come to church next week. 

This week, we again taught some really amazing women who really want the gospel in their lives, but their husbands kind of have hard hearts. We spend a lot of time on our knees for their husbands and pray that their wives will be good influences on them.

Well I think that is pretty much it from here. Life is good. No spiders this week or weird food, so we'll see what happens this week!!

Love you all,

Sister Mecham

P.S. I will send pictures next week. My card reader decided to stop working and I am running short on time....

Philippines Week 36

Magandang hapon po!

Well this week has been full of ups and downs again, but it all payed off. Last night we had a perfect baptism for Marissa!! We had the baptismal service after church because it was the time that worked out best for everyone and it was SO perfect. I was definitely feeling discouraged this week because of how low our numbers were, but last night's baptism definitely made up for it. There were SO many people that stayed and attended the baptism. It was very humbling to see all of them there in support of her. We even were able to have our Relief Society President give one of the talks. Plus Marissa gave a beautiful testimony. It really has been so amazing to be able to see the change in her life. It was a reminder for me that I am not the worst missionary in the world and that Heavenly Father loves me.

 I think the theme I could have for my mission (and probably for the rest of my life) is "...for ye receive not witness until after the trial of your faith." (Ether 12:6).The happiest moments I have had here on my mission have been after a lot of trials and a lot of tears Heavenly Father comes in and gives me huge miracles.

I really am so grateful for this ward and just this area. Members really are the key to helping people get baptized, so we are really trying to work a lot more with the  ward members and help more people stay in the church.

This week has been kind of weird though other than that. We got punted a ton and had a hard time tracting. We walked around for pretty much two days trying to find people to teach. It was rough. But we were able to find a few so hopefully we can go back to them this week. We also started teaching a lady who is from Candelaria!!! And her aunt is one of the members there! It is so cool to be able to talk about my old area again and for someone to know what I am talking about. Her name is May Ang and she is actually married and has 2 cute little kids. I think we could have a lot of success with her!

I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of this week though... but some fun facts:

-we found some families to work with. They are hilarious. They are very loud and speak whatever is on their mind. They "love my accent" and just really want to tell us about their lives. I don't know if they really want to come back to church, but they really want us to come back to chat some more I think. Ha we'll see what happens.

-sister Vaipou says the funniest things. Whatever comes in her head she says it. Haha it is kind of like a little kid. If she sees a fat person, she'll tell them, or if she sees an Indian (bumbai) she'll tell me and just stare at them. I've had to tell her a couple times it's not really polite to stare or say things about people's appearances, especially in a negative, way...but oh well. We do get some good laughs during the day. 

-Everyone thinks she's also Filipina but they have NO idea where Samoa is, so she has just kind of starting telling people she's Filipina because she hates explaining where Samoa is.

-I have a large bite on the back of my arm. It is really hot as well and I think I scratch it while I'm asleep, so it gets bigger everyday. I showed it to Marissa yesterday and she told me, "that's a cockroach bite sister" and I said "great". I have killed a TON of large cockroaches in our house and it just gives me the creeps to think one may have been in my bed and bit me in my sleep. Thank you Philippines.

-I am not scared of small spiders any more. I have now encountered FOUR large spiders (the smallest was probably the size of my palm) and yesterday I saw a little one and it didn't even phase me. 

I think that's it from here. We should be getting transfer calls today or tomorrow, so I guess we'll see what happens. I think I'll probably be here another transfer though :)

Love,

Sister Mecham

Baptism pictures!

Balut! I just wanted a picture with it. I am not brave enough to eat it though...
Sister Cox ate it. She likes it! Sister Vaipou and I watched in disgust.

Pagkain! This is what I have been eating...
Adobo chicken feet and feet. 

I'm gonna be a lola, "Bakla" daw, nosebleeds, and muggings.

This week has been really up and down. And all within the same hour sometimes. I think I had a 'midlife crisis' here and I got a little lost with myself, but I have made some goals and I have been reading a lot more in the scriptures and I am just a lot better now. It's good. 

We got some really good news yesterday, Marissa is getting baptized next Sunday!! We have been teaching her since January, and she lives with some ward members as their housekeeper/nanny. The elders came and interviewed her yesterday and she passed! We are so excited for her. She has changed her life a lot and she tells us every time we visit her how grateful she is that she knows about the gospel and knows more about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father and how to pray to them. It is really so rewarding as a missionary! So we will have her baptism next Sunday after church. Her confirmation will be the next Sunday during sacrament!

The couple we are teaching is also doing really well. They are my proof that Heavenly Father answers prayers. They both came to church yesterday with their daughter and 2 neighbor girls, and it literally was a miracle to see the change in Vincent from last week to this week. You could just see the spirit working with him at church. He looked SO happy! His 'wife' (they aren't married yet) already has a testimony of the church. She has been reading the book of Mormon this past week and just loves it. Plus last night when we taught them, Vincent said he will read the book of Mormon! It was such an amazing experience. Plus we taught the plan of salvation (definitely my favorite to teach) and Vincent said to us that he is very grateful to have us teaching him the truth. I about died when he said that because the first couple times we taught them he didn't seem interested at all, more like he was being forced, but this week there really was a difference. It was the perfect ending to a kind of not the best week.

Fun facts...

-Sister Lorente emailed me and said she is training. This means I will be a grandma (or a lola)

-Sister Anderson and Sister Tua'one came and did exchanges on Tuesday. I was with Sister Anderson and we were tracting and there were some little kids playing basketball in the street and this little boy called us "Bakla's". A bakla is what they call the gay men who dress like women. We were offended. I think Sister Anderson wanted to punch the little kid and I did too...but we didn't. Ha she said "ano sinabi mo?!" (what did you say) and he got really scared. and then this other little kid said something along the lines of "dude, they understand you". So we scared the one kids friends, but as we were walking away he said, "pangit mga babae" or literally translated "ugly girls". What a poop.

-I got a nosebleed on Thursday morning. It's getting hot here and I don't think I've been drinking enough water. but Filipinos believe (actually more of a superstition) that if you try too hard to speak or understand another language your nose will bleed. The funny thing is I also got a really bad nosebleed at the MTC. I've decided to drink more water though.

-Sister Japus got mugged last night. They were walking home and she had her bag on her shoulder and a motorcycle with 2 teenage boys came up from behind them and just grabbed her bag right off her shoulder. She was SO upset. She had her camera, her scriptures, and her planner in there and like 5,000 pesos she had been able to save from her last area. She was really upset. 

-This morning one of the ward members called and said that a trash boy FOUND HER BAG in a trash can this morning!!!!! All her money was gone and the camera, but she was able to get her scriptures and planner back. It is really scary that happened. Sister Cox gave her her camera and she said she will just buy a new one. Sister Japus is still sad though because it has all her pictures from her first area on it. I feel really bad for her too though. I would die if my camera got lost or stolen. We are definitely going to be more careful about our bags now and getting rides home at night instead of walking.

So that's been life in the Philippines this week. We have transfers next week. I have no idea what will happen...Yay for surprises!

Ingat po kayo!

Love,

Sister Mecham