July 20 Letter-Week of answered prayers

This has been the most wonderful week! This was a week of answered prayers. Not only for us, but for our investigators. Our investigator's little two year old baby was sick. So she knelt down and prayed. And her baby got better. His fever went away almost immediately and she was shocked. It was a great faith building experience for her and a great teaching opportunity for us. We had a great discussion about faith and the power of prayer and at the end she asked us what she needed to do in order to be baptized. Her faith strengthens mine. She told us that even if her house is burning down, she'll still come to church. I hope her house never burns down, but I do hope that she keeps coming to church. We have another investigator that lives in the middle of the rice fields. Their house is far from the highway which makes it very difficult to find transportation to church. We hadn't been able to really reach a solution, but she committed to pray everyday (starting on Tuesday until Saturday) and ask God to help her find a way to come to church.  We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 and promised her that if she would sincerely pray, and if she sincerely wanted to come to church God would absolutely give her a way. He did! She came to church. She was about 45 mins late...but she was able to come! Sister Esirom and I also had our fair share of answered prayers this week. One night we were waiting for a jeepney and after about 15 minutes of no jeepneys we were getting desperate. We had another appointment that we really needed to get to and we were running out of time before curfew. I had prayed and Sister Esirom had prayed. But the thought came to me that we needed to pray together. So we did and about 2 minutes after our prayer a member of our ward drove up on his tricycle and offered us a ride. It was a miracle. I love looking for the little miracles everyday because I know that God is involved in the details of our lives and if we look we will see the tender mercies and little miracles in every day. 

This week we visited two families: one welcoming a new baby, and one saying goodbye to a new baby. The Dizon family welcomed a new baby into their life on Monday. We got to see that little piece of heaven only 4 days into his mortal journey here. The Spirit was so strong. It was refreshing to my soul to get to see such new life.  Two days later we visited the Duenas family.  Sister Duenas had her baby on Tuesday, he lived all through Wednesday, but her little boy past away on Thursday.  It was hard to see that little baby in his tiny casket with a half of a bottle of milk sitting nearby. It was a heavy contrast to see firsthand. But it was also a great testimony builder about the Plan of Salvation. When things like death and birth happen it strikes something within me and I have such a great desire for EVERYONE to know about Heavenly Father's plan for them. I feel the urgency in the Work. I don't want anyone to have to go through something like losing a child and not know about the Plan of Happiness.  I loved that Brother and Sister Duenas didn't wear black at the funeral. They wore white. They understand that they will see their child again and have the chance to raise him in the Millennium. I know that this life is not the end and that God does indeed has a beautiful plan for each of us.