September 28th Pictures...Baptisms and Frogs

Baptism of Jhonny and Angelo Ladon

                                         Baptism of Jomar DelRosario

WE CAUGHT FROGS AND ATE THEM!!!!

                                                                    This is my friend Marilou. 

 

And this is us getting our frog catching gear ready. Which means using a hard piece of grass and basically sewing worms together to make a ring to go fishing for frogs.

you see what i mean

now we're ready to go ahuntin' 

Sister Altea..catching frogs with grace and poise

 

two little frogs sitting on a log.

now the fun begins! 

don't worry they're just chopping off the heads so that peeling off the skin is easier :) 

                                                            now we're all getting in on the action

Sis Altea.

                                                            and the thing is...it was so yummy!!! :) 

September 28th-Another Wonderful Week!!

This has been the most wonderful week! Jhonny, Angelo, and Jomar were baptized this week and Sister Aurora is prepared for her baptism this coming Saturday. This area is white and already to harvest. Every area is! And I'm so grateful to be a part of the hastening of the Work.  And  Sister Altea is showing me how I can serve the Lord with ALL of my heart, might, mind and strength. 

This week one of our investigators turned 58 years old and we stopped by to wish him happy birthday. To our surprise, half of the ward was already there! The Elder's Quorum President told us that Tatay Bugarin used to hide whenever any "Mormons"  or missionaries came over to the house. Now he had a house-full of Mormons and he even looked pretty happy about it. I asked Tatay what changed. His simple reply was that he was just ready now to accept the gospel and follow Jesus Christ. He told me it was one of the only birthday parties he's had with no alcohol. That made my heart happy. But what made me even happier is on our way out I leaned over to his wife and asked if his other birthdays had been like this one. She said "Only this one, Sister." I testify of the power in missionary work when members are working shoulder-to-shoulder with the full-time missionaries. I don't know why now is the time for Tatay to accept the gospel and prepare to enter the waters of baptism, but I do know that if the members weren't there supporting and fellowshipping him it would be a lot harder--if not impossible. Our Elder Quorum President even asked us when we were going to teach Tatay again so that he could be there in the lesson.  It was awesome!

I love being a missionary! 

Sister Larson

September 21

This week Tatay Bugarin really prayed for the first time. And it was beautiful. He is so  special. He didn't really want anything to do with the missionaries before, even though all of his family are members.  He wouldn't come out and listen to them before, at least that's what our bishop told us. The first time we met him he refused to pray. So then the next week we helped him in his fields. We cut the weeds and the grass. And then he still wouldn't pray. But as we have continued to visit him and just be loving to him, I have seen a change. And when he prayed...it was the coolest feeling ever. It was probably one of the most sincere prayers that I've heard. He told Heavenly Father that he knew it had been a long time since he had talked to Him and that he wanted to change and try to be better. Oh! Prayer is so real and the gospel is true! And I love being a missionary. 

Greggy was baptized this week! He asked one of the elders also serving in our ward to baptize him. He was really sad that his older sister couldn't come but he bore a very sincere and humble testimony after his baptism that he knew that Joseph Smith really restored the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. And then he thanked the ward members for their support. His family is supportive of his decision, but none of them are members. He was especially grateful for our bishop. And when our bishop got up to welcome Greggy to the ward he ended with his famous saying..."Welcome to the club." Bishop says that at every baptism. It's kind of funny, and true. When you are part of the club you have a responsibility to one another no matter what. At least that's how Bishop related it to the Church. :) 

I just love being a missionary. I'm learning a lot but every once in a while I'll stop and think..Ugh! Am I perfect yet?? And that's how I know I'm far from it :) Don't worry as much rain as you are getting over there..we are getting triple. Apparently storm season might last until January this year..we'll see. 

Sister Larson

Sister Altea got a free ride this week...thanks to some nice kids on the street. When I get home I want to make one of those bicycle things. They're actually really cool..and a lot cheaper than a car.

What are the shoes doing there Sister Larson???haha i didn't even notice the shoes. it's a game that the kids play here. they line up their shoes and then use the other one to try and hit the other shoes. they throw their  flip flops like skipping rocks and its fun i guess :) 

Also we went to San Francisco!!  :) It's one of the neighborhoods (barangay) in our area. But it's still pretty cool.

So we have been teaching Greggy since we got here in Sta. Ignacia and it has been amazing to see his growth. He is 17 and already talking about when he goes on his mission :) 

September 14-Awesome Week!!

This week! WAS. AWESOME. This is the miracle area. We had 15 investigators at church and we didn't even pick up a single one of them. They almost all came with members. Have I mentioned how much I love the miracles that come from member-missionary work. And there are serious miracles in this area! The work in this area is exploding BECAUSE of the members. We had a great missionary fireside this week. Members from the Youth, Relief Society, and Elders Quorum were all in attendance. We talked about the teaching cycle, the importance of How to Begin Teaching and inviting the Spirit into lessons and then we went out and worked! We all split up and some of the groups that didn't have a missionary with them were led by some of our ward missionaries. They came back and were excited to tell us about the people they had "OYM"ed and the miracles that had come from Opening Their Mouths. We received 15 referrals from that activity. We also had a Zone Conference this week were we recieved instruction from President and Sister Clark and the Assistants. It was great! There is more but I'l have to wait until next week... 

The weeks fly by so fast! I can't belive it's been one year. It's been the fastest year of my life! 

I love being a missionary! 

Sister Larson 

                                          HAPPY ONE YEAR TO ME!

  this is sister kaufusi she's from new zealand 

and she is one of the sisters that we live with and new zealand is cool

Teaching the little kids about the 10 commandments. we taught them hand signs to help them remember

the little bamboo bridge with my little filipina sista! this is sister lamera. she is tiny and 25 years old and AWESOME. this is on one of our exchanges 

September 7- What a Wonderful Week!!

This has been the most wonderful week! It has been a very hard week for me but also a week of blessings. Sister Altea and I are complete opposites. However, I am beginning to see how her strengths are some of my weaknesses and my strengths are some of her weaknesses. We balance each other out well. But Satan is trying his best to weasel his way into our companionship and one day this week he succeeded. I made a comment without thinking about how it would make Sister Altea feel and she didn't understand what I meant and anyways, that put some stress on our companionship.  I am feeling very inadequate in this new calling as a Sister Training Leader and especially because I find myself comparing myself to Sister Altea. She is so hard working. She is really serving the Lord with all her heart, might, mind, and strength. And sometimes...I just get tired. Sometimes I feel like "Can't we just take a break? Can't we just take a second and have some fun?" But Sister Altea is go-go-go! At the end of the day we were able to talk things out and understand where each other was coming from. And what I learned is that I am very makasarili. Selfish. That day that we just happened to have a discord in our companionship was also Sister Altea's dad's birthday and just a few days's after the one year mark of his death. That day was really difficult for me but not for the same reasons it was difficult for Sister Altea. I've been studying Alma Chapter 5 for the past couple of days and it has been very timely. Alma asks, "Are ye stripped of pride?" Um....no. Sister Larson still has a heavty amount of that. And then Alma follows up with the bold statement that "if ye are not (stripped of pride) ye are not prepared to meet God." Yikes. So needless to say, that is what Sister Larson is focusing on right now. I know that pride is one of Satan's favorite tools and that if we do not have open communication in our companionships he will succeed in slowing down the work of the Lord. He cannot stop it from rolling forth, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing", but he sure is trying his hardest to slow it down. 

But like I said it was also a week of blessings. One of the young men in our ward who is preparing for his mission brought one of the investigators that we had taught earlier this week, to church with him. I had joked about him going to pick up this investigator, but we hadn't seriously asked him to. It was sure a great example of members being missionaries. That same young man bore a very powerful testimony. He opened up about some of the struggles his family was facing at the moment. Sometimes they don't have money to buy food. And yet they find a way to help us with missionary work almost every day. They are the strongest family involved in missionary work and yet they are stuggling so much. Sister Altea and I had been looking for someone deserving that we could ask to do our laundry. After that young man's testimony we just looked at each other and both felt that we had to find someway to help them. So his mom is our new laundry nanay!  Also the father of one of the part member families that we are working with right now refuses to pray. But when we were on exchanges he finally prayed!!! Well he just repeated the prayer that his daughter prayed, but still it was great progress. And he also came to church! This area is on fire because of the member-missionary work and Sister Altea and I are just trying to do our best to keep it going.  

I wish I could tell you ALL of the miracles and trials and just everything but alas...there's only so much time. Just know that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. And I LOVE YOU!!!!

Sister Larson

                                                            a beautiful sunset in the bukid.! 

the chubbiest little filipino girl in the world