Week 65 continued

This little girl's family  recently joined the church. We bought her a cake to celebrate her fourth birthday.

We had a bad storm this week that blew our tree over. We weren't able to go to work until 4:00 when the wind and rain stopped.

 I made pancit! It was delicious!

Hot week 65

Well last week I think I just turned my brain off during my emails. It hit me really hard last week how fast time is going! My brain was not working correctly. So I forgot to tell you last week we had a crazy storm on Friday that blew over the tree in our front yard and we couldn't work until  4 because the wind and rain were going crazy!! But there wasn't any other damage done, just lots of leaves in the streets.

As for this week, it has been really good!! We get punted like crazy everyday from 12-3, but we've had consistently 4-6 lessons after those hours. It is really hard during those times because it is SO hot, and everyone is home sleeping. We just do our best to go contact OYM's or to find some of the unordained elders from the lists we have. But we really find a lot of success after the hot part of the day.

 I think I got heat stroke on Saturday  because we were out in the heat all day and around 4, we went back to the church to help the other sister's get ready for their baptism (which was SO good!! Their investigator is the cutest lady ever!!).During the baptism,  I just felt awful and had the worst headache.  After the baptism, I told sister Moimoi I didn't feel good, so we went home and I went to bed early with a fever. By the time I woke up, my fever was gone, but I've had a headache since then and last night my fever got up to 38.3, so I just took some medicine and am feeling better today, so we are just hoping the fever doesn't come back later. 

As for our work this week, a lot of the people we've talked to just want to fight or bible bash with us, but in the end, we just bare our testimonies to them, and those are the times when my testimony gets so much stronger. I don't have any doubts about this church, because I know that all the doctrines of this church are God's doctrines. 

If these people could just read the Book of Mormon, it would answer every question and concern that they have.  We also are having troubles with those being deceived by Satan. I know we have done our best to teach the true doctrines and help resolve their concerns, and they are even reading the book of Mormon, but for some reason, they say that they are not ready for the church and not ready to let go of old habits or beliefs. It really is sad. But despite these challenges and set backs, we have done our best to be diligent in sharing the gospel, and Heavenly Father has blessed us with 7 new investigators this week and we have 4 investigators now who are referrals from Members and the members are always there when we teach!! It is a huge blessing!!

June, one of those referrals, has a baptismal goal date for October 18 and we are really really seeing the progress  and growth with him. Each visit, we always follow up on their book of Mormon reading and their prayer and mostly their testimony. And each time we ask him if he believes the Book of Mormon is true and if he believes Joseph Smith, he usually just answers a very simple yes, but you can feel the Spirit every time he answers. it is such a blessing!

Even though We don't have the most baptisms in this area and only a couple investigators come to church, I know that Heavenly father is looking out for us and we are being blessed in different aspects of our work.

One funny story this week- Dave our 9yr old we're teaching said the funniest things yesterday. We gave him a book of Mormon stories book so he'll understand the stories more and he read Lehi's vision, so we asked him if the fruit Lehi ate was good. He said (in tagalog), "I don't know! I haven't eaten it!" hahah we were dying! And then we reviewed the Restoration with him. In the pamphlet it has a scripture in Amos 8:11-12 talking about the world would be hungry, but not for food or water, but the word of god. So when we asked Dave what happened during the apostasy, he said "walang pagkain" (no food) and we all were laughing again, so we asked again and he said "walang ulam" (no ulam, which is what you call the stuff you put on rice).  And we all just were laughing again. It was pretty cute:)

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love,Sister Mecham

Some of the members and us after church.

"Ganda" means beautiful, ha so of course I had to buy it.

We rode the coolest trike ever!!!

We took a picture of it from every angle. The driver was so embarrassed!

The Smith's. They go home in November.

sister MoiMoi and I taking a water break trying to avoid heat stroke!

One of the little streets here in Canlubang.

Alma 13 Week 64

This week in Canlubang has been great. We've actually been punted a TON but it gives us a lot more time to talk to people and meet new people, so we're going to be busy going back to contact people. 

Heavenly Father is testing us though for sure and we keep getting hit with people who are SO hard hearted and hard to teach, but I have been able to share some of the most powerful but simple testimonies to them, and it just makes those testimonies even stronger.

 It's like exercising. If you don't add pressure or opposition to your muscles, they don't get stronger, just like testimonies. If they are questioned or if you don't share it, it will never grow. 

I am so glad we as missionaries can share our testimony MANY times everyday. It is such a wonderful feeling. 

Heavenly Father really isn't letting me 'skip to the finish line' of my mission. President Mangum said that he was sure Heavenly Father would make sure I was sprinting to the end. And I am sprinting and literally losing myself in the work. I feel such an urgency to get the gospel to everyone and to find everyone that we've talked to before and contact them. So all Friday we tracted and tracted and tracted. It was SO hard, but we got 17 OYM's that day and 1 new investigator and it felt SO GOOD! 

I love being a missionary so much. As I have been doing my personal studies and feeling the joy of sharing the gospel with people here, my mind is being opened up more and more to the work that I need to do when I get home, in helping people I know at home understand the joy of the gospel.

I am so grateful for the hardships we are facing right now. We kind of feel like our ward is falling apart and just very rude to each other and it's hard to feel the support and help we need from the members. Plus our investigator pool continues to grow and decrease over and over. But yesterday we had a ward council and I was able to express my feelings and express to the ward that if we all just increase our faith a little and realize that we are actually part of Jesus Christ's church, we could really do so much more. I think it got their attention, so this week we are going to be following up with the auxiliary leaders and continuing to provide encouragement for them as well as ourselves.

 I would really love to finish my mission in this area and continue to work and strengthen the members here.

We have one investigator who we are really hoping will be ready for baptism, June. He has come to church a few times now. We can tell that he is now coming to church because he wants to. He can feel different here.He is not just coming because his friend who referred him wants him to come. I am so excited for him! I have seen the difference in him. His goal date for baptism is October 18th and we are really excited for him!!

One funny story this week, we have an investigator who's 58 and has had a stroke, so she's just home a lot because it's hard for her to walk. She's a very sweet lady. Last week we taught her the Word of Wisdom and the very first picture in the pamphlet is of Joseph Smith. I about died laughing though because when she opened the pamphlet she goes, "OH. Pogi naman!" (which pretty much means "oh wow. He's pretty good lookin") ahahahaha oh my gosh. It was hilarious!

Another funny story, the sisters have an investigator getting baptized this week, another older lady too, and whenever she prays she says "magandang hapon po" then starts the prayer, but its pretty much is like greeting Heavenly Father before she starts to pray. Ha it is super cute. 

I love the people here. I am just loving the work here, even though it is really hard sometimes, we are still able to see so many miracles!

I read Alma 13 this week and it says in verse 10 that the priests chose "to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish". And that really just stood out to me. Those are really the only choices in life and the only way for us to live with Heavenly Father again.

I hope this week we'll all repent and work righteousness, so we don't have to perish.

I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Mecham

Zone outing at Rizal Park. He is a national hero.

This little cutie was having fun eating at the ward Family Home Evening.

Canlubang 1a Week 63

I am so happy! JOSH IS GOING TO BE A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!

 It took FOREVER for my email to load today, and when it did and I saw all these pictures on it and stuff, I started to freak out and pushed the email like crazy trying to open it and screaming at it to load. Ha ha it was intense. But I am so happy right now! 

Our area is doing good and we are ready to keep working and to work harder to see more miracles here.

 We were able to work with members a lot this week, and most of our member present lessons were Ideal Situations!! It was really really cool. We have 1 investigator, Dave, who's grandma is a member and the missionaries just baptized his sister last year, so now we are teaching him because he'll turn 9 in October! He is a funny little kid and we have a great time teaching him. His grandma is so great to help him and his sister remember to read every night and pray. He wasn't at church though, so we need to remind him that it is important to go.

Our other investigator we are teaching is June. His friend referred him and now he is progressing. 

He also wasn't at church though because he had to work. Last Friday  we were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation and he had TONS of questions about the spirit world because his dad passed away a few years ago. We gave him a few assignments to read in Alma, so we'll follow up with him on Wednesday to see how it went for him. He accepted a baptismal goal date on October 18.

Other than that, we are working on some new investigators that we found last week and this week, and really checking for their progress. I am seeing the changes in a lot of these people and the more sister Moimoi and I just keep working and talking to people, we see the miracles. Yesterday I just felt that overwhelming joy of sharing the gospel. It was such a good feeling because church had been really stressful because none of our investigators showed up, but once we got out and starting talking with as many people as we could and teaching lessons, I just felt SO much joy!  

I really hope that I will stay here for my last transfer. Last week the Senior couple came to our ward and I got to translate for them, and every person that got up to bear their testimony. It hit me just how wonderful this ward really is and I am SO happy to be here. I love these people so much!

Love,

Sister Mecham

P.S. I haven't put my fingers into any more fans:)

Banana cue that sister Miranda cooked. Sister Moimoi added the cheeto's. Healthy? No!

My thumb looks better!

Rambutan. The red spiky stuff is the outside.

You pinch open the rambutan and then eat this white fruit from inside.

Zone Training

The AP's

Church yesterday

The view from our house!