Santiago, Bea Mallari, and Rodel Yambao.
Best part about the baptism: Their faces as they
walked out of the water. Priceless. {Pure Smile}
This week was really one of the hardest weeks of my mission. I've also
gotten 2 more boils since I've last updated you on my boils. I got
sick last week and felt awful, and got a fever for the first time
since I was a child. Last friday was such a weird night. Because of my
fever, I felt freezing and wore socks for maybe the second time on my
mission. I was bundled in a bunch of blankets and then decided to take
a quick shower which chased the heat out and my 102 degree fever went
back down to normal in a couple of hours. THANK GOODNESS. I'm still
not feeling 100%, but I'm working, so I'm doing okay.
Last monday, we met an interesting woman, named Yda who is from the
Philippines but works in Singapore. She came home to vacation here and
so we only met with her one time. She's been attending a baptist
church in Singapore for about 3 years. Anyways, she gave the closing
prayer and Sister Ticzon and I were graced by one of the most
interesting prayers I've heard on my mission. She gave 2 prayers. The
first one was for her mother to accept Jesus Christ 'as her personal
savior and redeemer.' She had her mother at her side, repeat what she
was saying as she prayed. It felt actually a little coercive and
unnatural to me and I feel like it's easy to say those things about
Jesus Christ, but much harder to live and apply. The prayer felt a
little meaningless to me. We thought she was finished but then she
told us that she was going to pray again for us, and so we let her.
She asked God to give us supernatural wisdom and supernatural
strength.(wow!) I was grateful for the sentiment and the several
'Hallelujahs' that were uttered. (How funny it would be to just let
out a few 'Hallelujahs' during a sacrament meeting at an LDS church.)
Last Tuesday, our investigator, Ian talked about his experience at
church. He really enjoyed church. Ian then asked us if he could be
baptized. My jaw dropped slightly and silence filled the room. I
looked at Sister Ticzon and nothing but a smile filled her face. Ian
said that he wants to serve a mission to share with other people the
things that we've shared with him. We were really just surprised. I am
really surprised at his sincerity and how fully he wants to embrace
the gospel. It's incredible.
We had snails last Tuesday which was great and was also a first for
me. We were also given some clams from a member which were yummy. The
problem for Sister Ticzon was that they weren't that yummy when she
was vomiting them back up last Wednesday morning. :s
Okay. I'll leave you with that, and a whole lot of loooove.
-Sister DV
Photos:
Baptism! Our investigators that got baptized were the 2
on the left and then the little girl in the front.
Clams-This is actually before Sister Ticzon vomited, in case you
couldn't tell. Clams seem to look a little scary.
Mahjong- This is a form of chinese gambling that is so bizarre and
entrancing. After watching for a few minutes, I still had no idea what
was going on. I snuck this picture. Sorry it's not very informative...
Bicycle- one of the forms of transportation in a couple of
neighborhoods in Sta. Rita (Our area covers GuaGua and the
neighborhood town of Sta. Rita.) We don't usually use this, but
decided to use it one day to get a picture. I may have laughed the
whole ride. : )
Corpse-got your Dear Elder. you're da best.