This week was transfer week, sis l left us and became an stl with my old kasama sis m in Daet! There's one more angel in heaven, one more star in the sky!! And so her replacement is sister K- an American whos sooo tall and is awesome! She went to byui and is just about to hit her 6 months in the mission! shes so cool! i love her! we have so much fun in our house all talking and laughing. It's weird being the oldest one though. when did this happen? sis s might be going to her real mission in Australia soon, NO!! i cant say goodbye again!! i know i say i love everyone and all of my kabahays but i really really love sis s!! Don't take her! I feel like shes my step-aki cause she came the same time as sis j and so i feel like I've partly raised her too. Gosh I hate saying goodbye so much and wish I could just always tie the people I love to me with a really long string.
we oym-ed this lady the other day, then she said she had to go home so we started walking with her. we walked and got to know her and her background, she's had a rough life. we were walking a long ways with her down the streets of Naga and talking about the church and stuff, then I realized she was leading us right down the road with the mission home. sure enough, we went right in front of it, then she had to go, and so we got her number and all but then were left looking like lazy missionaries wanting to come inside and feel the air con. and as our luck would have it, right at that time all the departing missionaries came out and the pizza man pulled up and sis Reeder came out. we looked like total moochers because sis Reeder gave us a slice and all the departures I'm sure think we are not doing our work as they shook their heads at us. HEY! blessings of being in Naga and blessings of oym-ing! I plead the 5th! we were just doing our job :)
After that we walked to the B's house. Oh sister Jane. We were teaching her and listening to her concerns. she has a looooottt of concerns. As in, a lot of them. Its as if her doubts are chipping away at her faith. Its so sad, i don't know what else i can do to help her. the last last lesson she expressed her concern about where we go after we die and plan of salvation stuff, so i made her a teaching record full of scriptures from every point of Lesson 2 and a map of the Plan of Salvation. I gave it to her and sat with her and showed her the front, all the lessons an investigator must receive before baptism and I told her how this is it- this is the extent of things she needs to know before she gets baptized. She wants to fully research and read everything and know absolutely everything there is to know before she gets baptized, which is great, but it comes to a point where she knows enough. She comes to church every Sunday and always reads her scriptures. She just has a problem with taking the next step, she said that she's scared she can't see everything in front of her and might fall into a deep hole. We do our best to assure her there is no deep hole, there is nothing like that in front of her and to just take steps. Just have faith and take steps!
Ah man. I love this family so much, especially Sister Jane. I pray for her and our other people everyday and fast for them too. My study journal is full of "answer to question of sis jane" or "for jane" or who ever else as i read my scriptures and come across things that will help. i really really love these people. we were going to have our next lesson that week with our stake RS pres as a member present, but sis Jane's kids' visa just came in and so they are in manila fixing things. I thought it was going to be pretty quick, but on Sunday Tatay (bro b) said that its indefinite and might be up to 3 months that she's there. That's a bigggg kick in the gut. Her baptism was supposed to be this July.... Sis Reeder was going to work with us too....anyways, I will find a way to work it out. Just complications! Not to worry!
Bishop B worked with us this week too! wow talk about pressure/stress. we were hopefully going to go teach the SJ family- the ones who came to church once but then the Iglesia missionary snatched them- and sure enough when we went all the way to their house, only Sis Neda was there. Bro June was going to church at Iglesia with our favorite missionary. Blast it all! but we had a good lesson still with sis neda- we talked with her and bishop worked his magic :) we read 2 Nephi 31 and got out some of her feelings and concerns about baptism. HEY: if anyone is reading this who will serve in the ppines- do yourself a favor now and practice a non-offensive way how you can tell someone their baptism wasn't correct if there was no priesthood authority. You're going to become an expert on teaching apostasy/restoration especially in relation to the priesthood. Trying to tip toe around their feelings and also be bold and tell them the truth is quite a tight-rope walk.
Hm...this week i found myself being very super-mom. It was a little freaky. I cooked everybody food then washed all their dishes and cleaned up, then my thought process was "great we can use this bucket of soapy water to mop real quick!" Killing 5 cockroaches like its nothing with my shoe, telling people to get showering, get things going, picking up after people constantly, even during our opening hymn of comp study I was singing and simultaneously texting people to see if they could come work at our appts later that day. AH! what has happened to me!! I'm such a mom!! there really is no course better than a mission for mommy prep 101.
Haha i have a funny story in my journal about "Lourdes the witch doctor" that you should ask me to read someday. One of our investigator's little girls told us what happens when they go to visit Lourdes. haha its so funny how some people go to their local witch doctor as their first line of medical care. also a little freaky...
4th of july!! it was also Sis Hoopes bday and so we got an invite to her lunch. it was awesome there were burgers and hot dogs and chips! woah! also chocolate cupcakes!! The Reeders were there and all the office elders. we are so lucky! half way through eating i realized it was fast Sunday the next day and so stuffed myself even more for winter. 4 cupcakes no prob! So that's what we did for the 4th. oh ya also we sang America the beautiful for our comp study, but then i also made us sing bayang magiliw to represent my 2 countries :) SA DIBDIB MO'Y BUHAY!!
This week I read Jacob 5 in my personal study. Its so beautiful! and sad! as i read it was like everything was applying so perfectly to missionary work and it was so real to life. I started to cry when i read "what more could i have done for my vineyard?" and all of the faces of dropped investigators I've loved came to my mind. Not the ones that don't really care, but the ones who honestly have felt the Spirit, who I have prayed and worked hard and done all I could to help, but they would not. Why will ye die? Agency is the hardest thing. Anyways i wrote a lot more about that in my journal but i will spare you the details. Point is- I feel a real urgency these days. a real urgency to do ALL I can, to do my best and to go the extra mile and do everything I can for my vineyard, or my little slice of planet earth here in Naga 3b. No slackin, no average, no no no we will have none of that. There's no excuse, I've got to be my best! Time is a ticking and I'm not going to waste a single drop.
That's about all I've got this week. thanks for the emails and pictures you sent! everything looks well and good in the life of the Mcgraths :) P.S. its my Bday this week and I very cleverly dropped that info on Sunday when the richest fellow in our ward was near, so I think things are going to be covered and I will be taken care of :) he he he I'm so sneaky.
JOY to the fishies in the deep blue sea! Joy to you and me!!!! Love you all and have a joyful wonderful week! save me some cake in the freezer! Hhaaaa not
Love sis mcgrath
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