Barugo Week 5

Hi my family!

Our Branch Mission Leader is looking for a wife, so he keeps teasing me. It's worse though because Sister Sacayanan teases me too now. But she told me that he did the same thing to Sister Garcia, who was her companion before I got here.

I saw a 4 year old smoking a cigarette last week! That was HEARTBREAKING. All his little friends were laughing at him. Hehee cigarelyo! Sister Sacayanan and I just looked at each other with open mouths.

Mark was baptised! :) Mark is 16 year old young man who really wants to do whats right. He was found by Sister Sacayanan and Sister Garcia last transfer. Before he met the missionaries, he would drink and smoke with his friends. But not anymore! Whenever we ask him a question while we're teaching him, he looks down and holds his head with one hand and makes little noises like he's thinking REALLY HARD. hehe. Whenever we would ask him how he feels about his baptism he would say... I'M EXCITED! So of course, I was so sad when I thought that he wasn't going to be there on Saturday. Someone told us that his dad was making him work and he was going to miss his baptism! But he showed up! (apparently disobeying his dad) So I started thinking, what's better to do, disobey your parents by being rebellious and drinking or disobeying your parents by going to church? o_O

We currently have about 12 people that have agreed to be baptized. The hard thing is that most of them don't have transportation to church. We didn't have any investigators at church on Sunday, including Mark! AHHH. HE HASN'T BEEN CONFIRMED A MEMBER YET!! But I'm mostly scared that his dad might not have let him come to church.

We gave Laura her Book of Mormon! She was excited that we found one in German for her. (It was hardbound too!) She asked how much it costs, and we said: It's free. o.O She just sort of looked at us for a second not really believing us. haha. So we said that we hand it out because even poor people who don't have money deserve to be able to read it. We gave her 3rd Nephi 11 as her assignment, so when we went back to teach her, we were a little surprised at what she said. "I read what you told me to read. It was kind of negative." "Huh?" "It was talking about how... if you do this, bad things will happen." So I asked her where she read, and it was page 66-69. But her assignment was actually 566-569. So she started laughing. She actually read the end of 1st Nephi and the beginning of 2nd Nephi, where Nephi is exhorting his disobedient brothers to keep the commandments of God or they'd be cast off. So we just all started laughing. We read the beginning of 3rd Nephi 11 with her, and it was a really nice experience. In the part where Christ invites all the people to touch the wounds in his hands and feet, I asked her how she would feel if SHE was being invited by Christ personally to touch his hands to know that he died for us. She said: "Wow. I can't really describe that." It's really weird teaching in English. hehe. When we read the BoM together, she reads her German book and we read our English books and follow along with each other. :)

We also taught a VERY active 7th day adventist church member named Abraham. He and his family are basically the reason why there is a 7th day adventist church in Barugo. His relative in America gave them the money to build it. So in other words, YEA they are active. Our second visit, he basically told us when we got there: "I don't think there's a point in us continuing, because this is not the gospel that's found in the Bible." I thought: "MY GOODNESS, all he's read is the Restoration pamplet!" He was very advent about not accepting the Book of Mormon, because he says the Bible is perfect, in terms of doctrine. We spent almost the whole hour just trying to use scriptures to help him see that the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER WITNESS. It felt like going against a wall for a short time. Sister Sacayanan turned to me and said: "Gahi siya" (meaning, he's hard [not accepting]) My only worry though was if he was WILLING to read the Book of Mormon or not. So I did my best to just TESTIFY and ask him to read it. He said he would. Wheeeeew.

We also taught a woman named Jenny, who told that she's a member. It turns out though that she is not all there in her head. It seems like she has the mental capacity of a 5 year old or something. But she says her grandma is a member in Tacloban, so it's likely that their family are members. Anyway, near the end of the lesson, the following conversation happened:

"Does your husband have time, so he can join in on the lessons?"

*She shakes her head no*

"Oh, he's always busy then?"

"We don't have a clock."

Yea, they don't have time because they don't have a clock. hahah. It was just really funny. :)

I love you! I think about you all alot! Maybe too much. Agoy! Miss you. I will get to hear you in December! Yay!

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~the end~

Barugo Week 4

I wanted to send pictures this week, but the internet cafe has
restrictions on uploading pictures here. :( Looks like I'll just have
to try next time.

Grandma Edy sent me a letter! It was a really nice letter, but she
told me that she hasn't gotten to read any of the emails I've sent! :(
Sooo... who's going to convince Jesse that he should print off the
emails for her? :)

I'm trying to figure out what to do for Turkey Day. I want Sister
Sacayanan to have a good experience. :P Haha. I think I'll have to
wait until next week though, because then we can buy mashed potatoes
and other things in Tacloban supermarket. The grocery store here is
so small, so the selection is kind of limited.

You don't have to worry about me sending things home mom. Sending
stuff home is expensive, so I'm not really going to send presents for
Christmas. You can all wait until I get home so I can give you some
neat stuff. :) I'm probably going to just leave a bunch of stuff
behind when the time comes for me to leave (like certain clothes and
my towels and stuff), just so I don't have to freak out about weight
restrictions. But I'm still going to have a lot of neat souvenirs!

We found a German Book of Mormon for Sister Laura! I think I might
have mentioned that already. haha. We're going to teach her on
Tuesday night.

I got my hair done again! (Permanently straightened) So now I won't
have to worry about it for another 6 months! woo! In the salon, they
started playing some Japanese songs I used to listen to. I thought to
myself, YAY! I didn't forget Japanese! I just had to hear some words
again and now I remember what they are. :) Last night, Sis Sacayanan
was asking me what some words in Japanese are and I couldn't remember
some! It made me so sad. Cebuano really kicked a lot of things out
of my head.

How was Harry Potter?! Haha.

We had an investigator come to church on Sunday, Sister Merlita Avila!
She's accepted everything we've taught so far, she reads her
assignments, and she's agreed to prepare for baptism on Dec 18! And
then SHE CAME TO CHURCH! OHHHH. She's visited the church before when
she worked in Manila, because her boss was a member. We actually met
her by talking to her daughter on the street, who is named Glyzia.
She went home and told her mom that she has an American friend now.
Of course, her mom had no idea what she was talking about. And then
she told her mom that the American wanted to interview her. Sis
Merlita thought that might mean we were from Census. haha! Until she
actually met us, then she knew what it was all about. She told us
that when Jehovah's Witness missionaries would go to her house, she
would always tell them she's too busy. She said she doesn't know why,
but she didn't do that to us. She just let us in.

We have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday! His name is Mark
Anthony and he's 16. Whenever we ask him a question while teaching
him, he always grabs his head and makes a little noise as he's
thinking. It makes it look like it's really tiring to think. Because
he's a young man, I was pretty sure that at some point he's going to
get ridicule from his friends for getting baptized and following the
word of wisdom or law of chastity. So I shared with him how I have
friends back home that tease me about word of wisdom. But when it
comes down to it, they know I don't, so they don't even try or offer
me coffee or alcohol anymore. Mark looked at me and said:
"Eventually they understand?" Yes, Mark. Yes!

We went on splits last Tuesday. The Elders didn't really tell us
about the splits until the last minute. Bah. I guess I just like
knowing beforehand. We went finding for two hours, by asking a member
family all the names of their neighbors and then walking around with a
member. "Soo... Who do you know that lives on this street?" We
taught one Tatay that is really working towards getting baptized.
He's been off his cigarettes and drinking for at least 2 weeks. He
has a hard time hearing, so we had to be loud when teaching him. Sis
Quimson is really cute. It was good having splits with her. :)

How's your Book of Mormon reading? I'm in the part where Jesus Christ
is quoting Isaiah. Isaiah really makes me sleepy.

I miss you! I pray for you. Love you all.
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~the end~

Barugo Week 3

Grandma Edy~

I got your letter today!! But I haven't had a chance to read it yet! :) I'll write you a little note too!

Mom, Dad & Emily~

I love you!!

Eva~

I remember when Elizabeth would scream because she hated baths as an infant! Now she loves showers? Haha. :)

Jessie~

Cafe Rio is in Lakewood now? Haha... Now you don't have to move to Utah! ;)

I got my "trunkie" letter. The letter that tells me I have to get all my information together because I'm going home in 6 months. Wowie! I need the Stake President's name, contact number and email address. I also need to know Mom's phone number. I'm not sure if I remember it anymore haha. My release date from the mission is on my birthday! Haha! How cool is that? ;) I also need to know what your plans are. Are you planning on coming to pick me up? Or am I just headed straight home? I know that Jessie was thinking they might come. I need to turn this form in in the beginning of January. So... start thinking about it, k? :)

Yesterday was the Pacquiao fight. You probably don't know who Pacquiao is. He is a Filipino Boxer. The people here are really proud of him. Sis Sacayanan told me that there wouldn't be any trikes to take us back to Barugo after church because everyone would be watching the fight. Haha. She said the TV stations would be showing replays of it for the rest of the day, and the other networks would be broadcasting it all today too. The only thing I can think of that would compare to that is the Rose Parade. That's an all day thing too.

We had almost NO ONE to teach when I first got to Barugo. Sister Garcia was sick for a week before she transferred, so they missed all their appointments and didn't make new ones. So I felt a little O_o. We ran around that week and found 25 new investigators by teaching everyone we could come in contact with! We've been blessed with a lot of people to teach now. :)

There have actually been 2 people that have approached us this week asking if they could have one of our pamplets! One of them was a really old man riding his bicycle that speaks REALLY good English. The other was a man that lives near our apartment (His mom told us to not come back! Agoy!) But we still have to follow them up.

One such family is named the Baquiran family. We came from a member's house where we had just taught her niece and we saw some teenage girls sitting around their house outside. So we talked to them and found out that their families were taught before. So we made an appointment with Hazel to go to her house (which is just next door, haha). We met her mom and dad the next time. They all just immediately gathered around to listen. Sister started off by making sure that we knew that they were Catholic. "That's okay Sister. We teach everyone, including Catholics!" So we taught them the Message of the Restoration (MR) and made an appointment for next time.

President Malit had promised me that if we committed our investigators to be baptized as soon as we felt the spirit, that would we have a lot of baptisms. haha. Well anyway, when we first taught them the MR I was feeling the spirit and I TOTALLY wanted to commit them to be baptized when we were teaching the second principle! But I had NO idea how, so I just ended up waiting. The morning of our next appointment, Sis Sacayanan and I spent our companionship study time by thinking up of ways to connect each principle of the MR to baptism. When we came back to this family, Brother Benedicto had completely read the MR pamplet and he said: "Joseph Smith was given the Priesthood by Peter, James and John, the original apostles!" Sis Sacayanan and I were almost shocked with happiness! WHAT a thing to remember from reading! So we talked a little bit about how the Priesthood is used in TEMPLES and families can be together forever! And we taught the Book of Mormon because we wanted to give them one and read it for next time. :) We committed them to be baptized. They said they weren't sure yet. But they are totally excited for us to come back and WE are totally excited to go back tonight! :D

Laura came to church with us yesterday! The girl who is from Germany. I sat next to her and did my best to translate everything. She speaks good conversational English so a lot of the members who know some English were estatic to talk to her. ESPECIALLY some of our returned missionaries from here who are looking for girlfriends! (Like our BML) haha. I just hope they didn't scare her away. She says she wants to do some research about the church because she had never heard of it before until we met her.

Remembering these good experiences make it all worth it! I love teaching someone and then feeling like the Apostles in the New Testament where they "went away rejoicing."

I love you all! I'll see you soon enough. :)
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~the end~

Barugo Week 2

Thanks for the recipes everyone, but I'm not really sure how I can use some of them here. Haha. The ingredients are so different here! Dairy is available, but it's kind of expensive. We always buy 2 liters of milk for the week, but it's expensive (imported from New Zealand). And the cheese here is not really CHEESE. It's like some processed yellow thing. We do have peanut butter available, the expensive imported kind from America, and Peanut butter from the Philippines (way cheaper), but its got way less sugar so it tastes different. We don't have a crock pot. We have a rice cooker, but I'm not sure how well that would substitute... o.O The bread here is a super white bread. My first area was the only one that had wheat bread available. Haaaa...

Last week I asked for toaster oven recipes (because we have a toaster oven) or rice pudding (cuz we have lots of rice), or the no-bake cookies that we love to make, so I can make them for my companion. :)

Sis Sacayanan and I had the craziest day on Saturday! We were just talking to EVERYONE and teaching them a 10 minute lesson and making return appointments. The requirement for a new investigator is they are taught 1 lesson and they agree to a return appointment. Well, we got a lot of return appointments with them, so they all were new investigators! A total of 20! (That's the standard of excellence by the way for 1 week) So we found 20 new investigators in 1 day, plus 5 from other days of the week, for a total of 25! Now the real question is: Who will actually be there at the return appointment!? Finding people is sooooo important. Nothing happens in missionary work until you keep finding new people to teach. Even if you've been teaching the same people for 6 months, you still need to keep looking for those who are ripe for harvest, right?
A couple times, we've asked people where we can find somebody when we knock on their door. We tried using it as a tracting technique for getting people out of their houses. But it really feels like it works best when we're not actually trying to change the topic into the fact that we're missionaries. We met three 7th day adventists in a row in one day! We get a lot of return appointments cuz we're real persuasive! ;) What time are you available so we can come back? Afternoon or night? "Oh I'm busy" Oh, but you get back from work before night, right? "Yea." Oh okay! So would you like us to come back at 6 or at 7 at night on Tuesday?

Elder Tenney, our District leader was telling us some of the experiences he's had with people. It is really true that people are generally more nicer to women than men. Just as an example, in the Philippines, you might see an American man every 5,000 people. I've seen a couple American men in every area I've been in. But American women? I dunno, maybe 1 in 100,000? I am a rare species here. :P But Laura is here too! (Even though she's from Germany, they would still call her Americana.)

We were able to set up another appointment with Laura, the girl from Germany because we didn't see her last week at the appointed time. But at least we know where she lives now! She's Protestant, but she said that there's no Protestant church in Barugo, so she just attends Catholic church. So of course, we invited her to come and visit the church. ;) She is really sweet, we're excited for our appointment with her tomorrow.

I got Dad's letter, so don't worry. :)
I love you all! I include you in my prayers

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~the end~

Barugo Week 1 - 11/1/2010

Request: please send me some simple recipes that I might be able to cook here. Of some cookies or american food, like french toast! ;P Toaster oven recipes or rice pudding. Is thanksgiving the 3rd or 4th Thursday of the month?

So you might have noticed that my title that I'm at a different place now! Oh my!!

It was a pretty interesting transfer day actually. They tell us on Wednesday morning if there is a transfer, because there is a transfer meeting in Tacloban on Friday. So we got the call and the Zone leaders told us that we were not transferring! So I thought: okay, got some more time in Palompon now!~ And we spent the rest of the day teaching people etc. And then Thursday morning, we had weekly planning. So we planned everything we would teach and what we would do and we had companionship inventory. Spent the rest of the day teaching people. Then on Friday, we were all finished with our studies and about to go teach our investigator (Lolong Pajaron) about priesthood authority (cuz he doesn't really believe it) and I was all excited because we made a great lesson plan, when I looked at the phone before we walked out the door and I saw that there were 14 missed calls and 1 text. I thought: oh my. They were from the ZLs. The text said: "Sisters! Call us, It's an emergency!" Soooo we called them back and E. Stringham was like: Sister! You are transferring!!

So we just dropped everything so I could go and pack and we could get a companion for S. Christianson while I'm leaving, and I was just a little freaked out. I left as soon as I could to get to my new zone, Carigara! Which is Waray by the way. We spent the night in Carigara because there were no more trikes available in the evening. My new area is called Barugo. It's only a 10 peso ride from Carigara, so it's fairly close.

The members in Barugo actually go to church in Carigara. Which can have some problems. Relatively, it's far for investigators to come to church, and almost impossible for families (at 10 pesos each, a family could easily cost 60 pesos one way). We have very few members in Barugo compared to Carigara. It's literally on the border of missionary work! Not even a branch yet. haha. o_O So, there's a lot of work a head of us here. haha. We didn't have any set appointments when I got here because Sis Garcia was sick for a whole week before she transferred. So I felt a little bit like we're opening the area. But Sis Sacayanan knows where things are. haha.

Sis Sacayanan is so cute! :) She always has this little smile on her face when she looks at me. I'll try to get some pictures for next week. the suffix -an in the language means: location, or place. Sakay means to ride, Sakayan means vehicle, and so when I saw her name, Sacayanan, I figured out it must mean terminal or bus stop! :D She's from Mindenaw, (sp) So Cebuano is her native langugage.

Waray is actually NOT as hard as I thought it would be. They have some words that are similar, just pronounced differently, and they have

other words that are completely different, but the foundation is the same. So I think that I'll be able to transition well.:)

My companions so far:

S Holden (trainer!) 1 transfer - Hilongos

S Taunan (first native companion!) 1 transfer - Hilongos

S Malicdem (first companion for 2 transfers instead of 1!) 2 transfers - Hilongos

S Farnworth (first junior companion!) 2 transfers - Palompon

S Christianson (my trainee!) 1 transfer - Palompon

S Sacayanan (my companion now!) We will see how many transfers! - Barugo

I'm not counting my companions in the MTC, but I did have 4 of them! oh my. That would make 6 so far in the mission field, and 10 total, hahah. I still have 4 transfers left too, so i dunno what will happen! Maybe I'll be with S. Sacayanan for the rest of my mission. haha.

Last Saturday night/Sunday morning, it was about 4 am and this Catholic group of people were just marching down the street or something singing a song about Maria in a microphone. I don't think that group was very considerate of those who might be sleeping! Sis Sacayanan said they do that every Sunday.

We met a girl named Lauran who is volunteering here from GERMANY when we were riding home from Carigara yesterday. The members riding with us were pretty excited, another person to speak English with. haha. We actually set an appointment with her for tonight at 8 oclock. This would be the second person I would be able to teach in English. :) I'm excited.

Filipinos don't really do anything for Halloween, Oct 31. There was a disco going on last night thought, which was pretty loud. Some people dress up aparently, but not alot. There's also Nov 1 and 2, which is pretty big here. It's called Kalag Kalag (soul soul) or in English, All souls day. Everyone goes to the cemetary to clean the tombstone and area of their deceased family. Alot of families come together for it. It also has a Catholic base though, apparently they do some praying that their family will go to heaven too.

I love you!! But the hours up. Hahah

I'll see you next week
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~the end~

Palompon Week 18

Mom~
Have you put any fans in the bathroom so that the paint can dry? o_O We always end up putting a fan on our clothes if they are heavier because otherwise they would take days to dry.

~
I don't remember what it feels like to be 'normal'.

I was looking at our white board we have for writing our investigators on and I noticed that we have more people committed to baptism now than I've ever had on my mission. So that's awesome! But the really weird thing is that even if we commit people to baptism on the first or second lesson, they still end up falling through! We teach them once or twice, commit them to baptism, and then a couple of them we barely ever see again and they tell us they're too busy. The only thing I can think of is that Satan is working really hard on them once we help them decide to do a good thing. More people will agree to baptism than actually come to church or even READ. x_X

We don't live with anyone. It's actually (bawal) not allowed to have anyone else in the apartment except for Sister missionaries. It must be nice to actually live with someone.~

One of our investigators, Risa, is living with her boyfriend who is an in-active member right now. She wants to get baptized and she's come to church twice. She has something of a hard time understanding what we are teaching though. So the last time we went to go visit her this week, she had "Book of Mormon Stories" on her lap. She said the actual Book of Mormon was difficult for her to understand, so she borrowed the member's copy of "Book of Mormon stories"!! Hahaha. She's been reading it and praying a lot, but didn't come to church the past two weeks. We're really excited to still be teaching her. She was able to tell us the whole story that Nephi went to go get the plates and Zoram ended up accompanying him. It's amazing to think how the Spirit will really help people remember and understand when they do their part.

We have a long-time investigator family named the Pitugo family that lives near the Branch President's house. They have been visited by missionaries for over 1 year now and they are still investigators. Brother is working on trying to be able to get Sunday off of work and to get rid of his problems with the Word of Wisdom. We've been following up his cigarettes this week so he knows we're going to ask how he's doing. He's gone from 10 cigarettes a day to 1 cigarette, because right now he's working on eating a lollipop anytime he gets a cigarette craving. Haha. But we saw him drinking last night with his friends. We need to talk to him again x_X Sister just needs to make sure she finishes all of her work on Saturday night so that she can come to church the next day. And her mom is very very opposed to them becoming Mormons. (Her dad is a Catholic pastor, and doesn't have a problem with it. haha) We haven't met those two personally, but maybe someday. They are one of the few few investigators who actually do read. They're in 1 Nep 18 or so right now. :)

We had a one day mission on Saturday! We had 21 members all dress up and we all went to San Miguel area, about 2 kilometers away from the church. There's no members there yet, and the Branch Presidency was thinking that maybe it would be good to "open" up the area over there. So we all got in a cab and headed over and started going from door-to-door. It was really awesome leaving one house and then seeing your fellow member missionaries next door talking to other people too. We got a lot of names of people that are interested, so next Saturday we're going to go work over there with some members so we know where the house is. I was a little frustrated at first though because we gave all the members "potential investigators" lists, which has slots for their names and addresses. But the addresses are different here in the Philippines. There's not really numbers for every house in the smaller barangays (communities). They just say they live in so-and-so barangay and then you have to ask around and figure out where they live. It can end up becoming dead ends. So the members just wrote that those potential investigators lived in San Miguel. So as I looked at it, I thought: This information is so unhelpful! >_< But yes, the members are going to come with us to find the houses again, so its all good I guess. :S People here are just so vague though. They don't give specific times or addresses. Most of our appointments aren't there half the time. They just always tell us: Oh, I had to go out for something. *Sigh* But we had an appointment! :(

I was thinking about something that our AP, E. Cerdhe, said last LTM) Are we drawing people to baptism or dragging them? So I sit here and think about my investigators and I think: It seems like most of them are just... standing there! Or at least, turning away their faces from it. I don't know what to do to draw them other than what we've been doing. It also reminds me of the recent article we had in our mission newsletter (The FIRST one I've had in my mission!) about how outstanding young people might have a hard time on a mission. And I think it's true. Some of our key indicators (like progressing investigators) are based on how OTHER people will use their agency, not on my characteristics. I feel like I have basically no control about things like that. Sigi lang. (Oh well)

It just seems like there are an awful lot of tares in comparison to the wheat.

Challenges will come, but I know I'm supposed to be here! Missions are hard, but I've already grown so much just as a person. I've still got a ways to go too.

See you next week my dear loved ones! <3
Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of my heart, that I might go froth and speak with the trump of God with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentence unto every people!
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~the end~

Palompon Week 17

We had JohnPaul's baptism this week. :) It was really nice when he gave us his testimony at the end of his baptism. He said that he's been to 3 different churches, but he didn't like the feeling he would get when they would debate. He said this is where he was able to feel peace. :)

President Malit has been recently focusing on not being hesitant to invite people to baptism on the FIRST LESSON! We've been inviting more and more people to baptism as a result. Right now we have 7 people who have agreed to be baptized. The hard part is helping them come to church and the lessons. But they've all said yes! and they have a specific date too. :)

We also spent the first 3 days of the week in Sogod again because we had another LTM (leadership trainers meeting). We had a small amount of training and then we just practiced role-playing a specific part of a lesson. We spent like 6 hours the first day just practicing and evaluating. Wheew.

Next week we also have a one day mission planned where all the members can come with us and we'll all go out and find people in this area called San Miguel. There are no members in that area, so the branch presidency was thinking we could try getting some investigators over there too.

We went to visit one investigator family called the Graciano family. We met them as we were going to someone else's house so we asked if we could teach them. I've been on and off visiting them for 3 months. The kids are mostly the ones who join in, the mom rarely comes. And so we were thinking of dropping them because they don't really progress and the parents aren't really involved in the lessons. So we were going to give them one more chance (again!) and their daughter, Israelita gave the opening prayer. In her prayer she said: I'm so glad that the Sisters come even if it rains or its hot. And I'm glad they come because I get to learn a lot. And I hope that they keep coming. Afterward the lesson, Sister Christianson and I talked to each other and we both said: OKAY! Is that a sign Heavenly Father that we're supposed to come back!? We just laughed at how that one turned out. I just hope Heavenly Father continues to guide us.

We've also been going around this week and making appointments with all the part member families that I can think of. Some of the recent converts, like Juliet, are really freaked out that we're going to be teaching their family! I just hope that it will all turn out well.

The Old Testament is kinda weird. haha.
Love you all! Miss you all! See you soon enough. ;)
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~the end~