Nanay Batugal's baptism - look at that tiny little lady, so cute!!
Frog legs instead of turkey legs for thanksgiving
Hi everyone!
Sadly we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving here in the Philippines, and I will be missing the apple pie and stuffing, but that's okay. The missionary work goes on! :)
This week we had interviews with president, and a training from sister barrientos. It was the best! Mom and Dad and the funniest people in the world. My interview with Dad consisted of laughing and joking the whole time. So of course I enjoyed it. Man I love people with a sense of humor. :) Speaking of humor, it is humorous to say that I ate frog the other day! Our ward mission leader fed it to us. It tastes just like chicken. But gosh, the thought of eating a frog is just too weird. Enjoy the pics! Oh yeah another funny thing. Remember the story of the screaming kid and all the naked kids swimming last week? Well this week we were in La Paz again and taught people close to the same place. All the little kids saw us there and immediately ran and took their clothes off and jumped in the water. Started climbing on rocks and jumping off them and yelling "AMERICANA AMERICANA!" They wanted us to take pictures of them hahaha. We didn't, but I was laughing so hard.
The highlight of the week though was Nanay Batugal's baptism. Let me just tell you all htat we had been looking forward to this day for the longest time. Since I got here pretty much. We got to the church and she wasn't there yet. Her and Joey finally rolled up in a tricy, and we immediately took her to put her white clothes on. When she walked out of the bathroom in her little white jumpsuit I about died. Yes that is a youth size jumpsuit and the bottoms still had to be rolled up a ton. So cute. Little Louie who is in the ward also was getting baptized, he is 8 years old. The program begun and the Spirit was so strong. The other sister missionaries sang kailangan ko kayo, and then a sister mae joy who is preparing for a misson gave a talk on baptism. The Spirit was more strong at this baptism than in any other that I had been to here. After the program we went downstairs to the baptismal font. Joey (her grandson) was baptizing her. Nanay is so old and fragile, so she had so much faith. They got in the water and Joey baptized her, and it was absolutely perfect. After she came up from the water, she hugged and held on to joey tighter than anyone I have seen. It was the most tender moment EVER! The Spirit was so strong, and of course I shed a tear or two. Joey baptized little Louie as well. He did such an amazing job. We were so proud of him and we know Heavenly Father was too! It was an amazing baptism. How happy I am to be able to be the instrument in the Lord's hands and help Nanay come closer to our savior.
One of my favorite lessons we taught this week was to Tatay Fermin and his son Brian (20). Their family isn't yet sealed in the temple so we taught about eternal marriage. It was such a powerful lesson. There is just so much power in the temple! We talked with them about why you need to get married in the temple, and showed them a bunch of pictures of the temple and pictures of our siblings that have been married in the temple. You could feel the Spirit so strong during it. Showed them how happy they are because of it. They have a goal to go to the temple and I want to help them get there so bad. I know that if we always keep our sight on the temple, we will be able to go there. I am so excited for one day to be able to go to the temple and be married there. Definitely will be like the greatest day of my life. :)
We got a referral a while ago for a less active family in La Paz. Other missionaries had run in to them in the Centro or something and had written their name down. We had it for a while until the other day i remembered it, so while we were in la paz we went looking for them. Somehow we happened to find someone who were family with this Agacir family, so they led us right there. When we were walking up to their house, they came outside. I have never seen a family so happy to see us missionaries in my life!!! They kept saying pasok pasok (come in, come in!) over and over. So yes of course we went inside. We sat down and they preceeded to tell us that they had been waiting for us. They had been waiting for the missionaries to come because they wanted to go back to church so badlly. SUpposedly they moved to La Paz from san nicholas so didn't really know the wards or anything. (i mean that is no excuse). But We were an answer to their prayers! We found out that the mom and dad are members, and they have 4 kids all over the age of 9 that aren't members. So we are so excited to start teaching the whole family. After finding the Agacir family it just made me think of all of the other people who are just waiting to be found and rescued. Whether they are less active, or not members yet. I just want to encourage you all to find a less active memeber. Find someone who needs the gospel. And friendship them and invite them to go back to church. Heavenly Father wants all of His children back in the fold of the Gospel, and it is our job to help Him. I know that your life will be blessed, but most importantly the lives of the people you touch!
I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! It's the greatest time of the year! :)
Love,
Sister Wood
P.S. Will someone PLEASE keep me updated on the NCAA tournament? It's not like my team is playing in it or anything... :) haha.
P.S.S. it is so funny because in tagalog you can change any noun or anything into a verb. I was laughing so hard the other day when i heard someone used "freak." Magfrfreak siya. She will freak out. Hahaha. Life is more fun in Tagalog, i promise!
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