27 October 2013 - 6 months down.

This week we did some amazing work! Ok, opening my mouth is not a strength of mine. But I realized at the beginning of last week that I don't have many strengths right now.... HELLO Sister Ralph you have to work at it! Silly Sister! So we spent hours on Tuesday just opening our mouths and getting names and return appt.s and sharing our message with literally everyone. It felt so so good. I felt soo proud of who I am and who I represent. I felt like we really were on a mission to save souls and so we would not be ashamed or silent. We invited everyone to listen to our message and we got quite a few return appt's and investigators. I felt like.... like we really were speaking with a trump and it was a beautiful feeling. We blew our key indicators out of the water this week! We worked so hard! I love it! Sister Agreda is my anak (my child) but really she is training me, haha. I'm serious. She is so in tuned with the spirit, so understanding of my weaknesses and I just love her to death. She is a huge, huge blessing to me! I really, really hope we stay together over Christmas- I am learning a lot from her.


Ward reactivation- we take bread and put that noodle (pancin) inside and just eat.

    Can you believe I hit my 6 month mark??? AHHH!!! Of course... I celebrated with ice cream... of course, haha, what else would I do? I have to keep reminding myself that it's still only been 4 and half months in the Philippines to make me feel better about my lack of understanding skills. Don't worry... I know... it will come little by little.
   OH GUESS WHAT!! RAUL came to church! WOOT! WOOT! We stopped teaching him because he was not keeping his commitments and I think he really just likes talking to us, but I continued to (through txt) invite him to church and play ball with us on P-days. And he CAME! AND on top of that our 1st counselor in the bishopric who is inactive came to church and turns out He and Raul are old time friends! BAM!! Instant fellow-shipper... so we are using our missionary strategy skills by teaching Raul at Brothers house... so they both can be edified and Man am I excited for that.
   Jessica - she is another investigator. Uyab (girlfriend) to a member in the ward and we started teaching her this week. She is GOLDEN! She is sooo willing to learn and try. She is reading like crazy and loved church and wants to go to the RS activities.... man! I feel so blessed right now. Leslie is continuing to progress too. Every time we teach there are tears and the spirit is so strong. I love her soo much. She has not been able to come to church because she has been out of town.. but for sure things are going smoothly.
   OK... how weird is this? I had the most vivid dream ever that I was training Jennifer Lopez to be a missionary here in the Philippines. It was crazy. I woke up and honestly felt like it was true... I had to take a few minutes to remember where I was and who my companion was... oh the random little joys of life.
   Mary Pierce is a (RC) recent convert in our ward and she has been off and on coming to church but in these last few months she has just changed soo much. I keep close tabs on her and she worked with us a ton this week. She is wonderful- 16years old and her family is really struggling (she is the only member) but she has become such a good friend to me and she makes me feel like I am home. I love that she loves being with us, I know she is learning and feeling the spirit more in her life and that makes me so happy!
   Soo one experience that I had this week that kind of opened my eyes.... We randomly decided to go visit the Alecha family this week. They are one of the few complete active families in our ward- strong and just great people all in all. Well when we showed up we just were visiting with the mother and grandmother and we asked them how they were and they were silent for a while and then grandma broke down in tears. Mama Alecha was right behind her. They expressed their problem ..... they have no food. They have 6 kids and no food. .... I also followed and just broke down with them. I honestly had no idea what to say in the moment, all I could do is cry with them. It was so so tempting to offer them the money in my bag, but I knew that was not what the Lord would want. That is a lack of faith. We testified to them of the reality of our Savior and that he Always keeps His promises and pleaded with them to rely on those promises and continue doing their best. It was yet another eye opener for me. I think I got stuck in thinking that even though they have little food they are always happy. These people are always smiling, always laughing so it's so easy for me to forget that behind all the laughter and smiles--- life is so, so hard. There are still pains and experiences in their lives that I cannot relate to. Oh how grateful I am that I can tell them there is someone who can help and who understands. It is not me. It is our Savior and Redeemer. I had to renew my own faith after that experience and self evaluate. Prayer is always the answer. Prayer and Work.

Me and my companion this morning just spending time talking with ward missionaries after bball

   I love you all so much. Thank you for your incredible examples. I honestly feel that my testimony of eternal families is one of the strongest things I have to testify because I know that I am part of one. I know the gospel is the reason we are so happy and we know where to find peace. I love you and am soo grateful for you both! So grateful, words really can't express it. Give Samuel and Beka a huge for me and tell them I love them.
   LOVE YOU ALL!!
 Sister Ralph