23 March 2014 -- What's a little rejection?

So, I hate to break this news to everyone who was getting so excited but this week was a bit rough. Hahaha YES!! We love missionary life (= There was lots of punting and rejection involved to sum it up. But we continue on being happy and doing our best to fulfill our purpose despite the temptation to throw a HUGE pity party.

   My friend that played soccer with me before on the beach. R.Ohiljo

           The second picture makes me laugh because you know in America where you can't go anywhere near construction or else someone yells at you or what not... well here in the Philippines we touch the machines all the time. This was late one night and the driver was sleeping and so I wanted a picture in the huge Bobcat. A guy with a helmet started saying something to me and at first I thought I was actually getting in trouble... turns out he just wanted a picture, hahahahha, love the Philippines.
  

 11 month mark today AHHH!!!

  

 Well..... we are pretty much back to zero here. Our investigators are dropping like flies. I honestly don't know what it is. We go and the spirit is sooo strong and they know it's true, they have this huge desire to be baptized, we set a date and THEN.........nothing. Let's see if I can list a few of the reasons.... They were born catholic and their whole family, their husbands won't allow them, they are drunk all the time, they don't like the members..... it goes on. Sooo... Satan is being quite the stinker, but we will not STOP! Haha. 

       

This is a ward missionary activity in the rain on the beach

   

   No more soccer, I moved on to football, hahah. I didn't make promises about that- but I accidentally demolished one of our branch missionaries. He is sooo small! But he obviously is ok with it because he has worked with us TWICE since I smashed him. 

   Noema got baptized!! That was the highlight of this week! She is incredible!!! She felt the spirit so strong and her testimony was so pure and it touched all of us. She is going to contribute to this ward sooo much! We are so blessed to have been a part of her life.
   So my sassy side started coming out way more this week. I don't know why but it just did. We met with a less active family that ..... let's just say they "know" everything is true, the church etc., but because of members they refuse with a capital R to come back to church until they move. It was such an eye opener for me. They had no understanding of forgiveness, they could not see the impact their decision was making on their life and it just broke our hearts. But I am a firm believer that if we truly love people we fulfill our purpose and NO sugar coating is needed. After they listed a ton of things they "understood" I asked them straight forward... Do you understand that this choice means that you will go to hell?..... that got them thinking. Obviously it did not change their decision (yet) but it got them thinking. EVERY single decision we make leads to eternal life or eternal death. If we continue to choose wrong, we are going to Hell. It sounds terrible, but it's also the truth. I think Heavenly Father would be upset if we treated this fact lightly. So we warned them of the consequences of their choices and we continue. There is nothing else that would have touched their conscience... we walked out and just had to laugh to keep from crying because they are .... BY FAR the worst I have ever talked to. Well.... I don't know how to describe the experience without my own thoughts included... the "YOU IDIOTS" part ..... sooooo maybe next time I'll say a little more. I have a feeling it will continue. Our ward is ..... our leaders, I should say, are huge stumbling blocks so this area is not going to progress super fast. Ok la!! We got this ! (= Truth is sometimes missionary work has its ugly sides that we got to experience, too, haha. But we are happy and just want to do the Lord's work.
   BUT!! on the positive side....I love my companion. And we have people working with us sometimes and I am healthy and I felt the spirit so much this week and I have been focusing on improving my prayers and I feel EVEN closer to my Father in Heaven than before. We are just... happy to be missionaries (=
   Don't worry though, prayers are the reason ( I KNOW this through the spirit) that we are still able to be soo happy through all these trials that just seemed to slap us in the face! Happy and happy to be here!

ALL My Love!!
Sister Ralph