Sister Rachael Larson's Mission Blog: January 11-A great and funny week

Hello! How is things? Things over here are still great. Everyone thinks that Sister Davis and I are sisters..even though we look nothing alike. It's a Filipino thing, if you are white, you're all the same in their eyes. But it makes us happy. This week was great. and funny. A lot of little funny things happened this week. Like a goat following us up and down the street. And when we were teaching Roger about the Law of Chastity and I said, "Our ____ need to always be clean" while pointing to my mouth and Rayu (that little boy I told you about on skype) screaming "TEETH!" Yes, Rayu teeth...and also our words. :) And just a bunch of other little things. It's been a fun time.

Lemme tell you a story...

A few months ago one of our less-active members that we were teaching asked us to help put together a funeral service for one of his employees. We talked to the Bishopric about it and they felt that this would be a great opportunity to help. So we, along with the elders in our ward, and the 1st Counselor held a little funeral service for a young couple whose 4 month old baby had passed away. We really, really wanted to teach that couple about the Plan of Salvation, but they didn't live in our area. But then a few months ago they moved to our area! But...we didn't go into the neighborhood where they lived because it was so far away from the church. Then at the beginning of December they moved right into our focus area! So of course, we started teaching them. The husband is somewhat alcoholic, but the wife is so golden. She doesn't even know it! She helped clean the church on Saturday (even though there was only one other relief society sister there helping) and then went to visit her mom about 3 hours away. She didn't think she would be able to come to church but to our great surprise she came! Then after church she tried to pay tithing. We had to explain to her that she's not a member and tithing isn't yet applicable for her so we helped her pay a "fast offering" instead. We asked her if she had fasted, but she said not yet. (She's planning on fasting on the day she has her interview for baptism.) It wasn't until later that night when we stopped by her house that we figured out where that money came from. She doesn't have a job. She told us that her husband had given her money to go buy some things at the market. She came back with only handkerchiefs for him. Her husband asked where the alcohol was, she replied there wasn't any. We have a pretty good idea where that 20 pesos for her "tithing" came from. :)

I love being a missionary!

Sister Larson