"Know who you are and act accordingl
This week has been really awesome. I've learned so much and realized a lot of things about myself and my role here in the mission and in this life. Hopefully, when you read this email you'll realize somethings too :) So I'm gonna give a short play-by-play of what happened this week and then I'll tell you what I've learned :)
monday: p-day. nothing huge happened. Just hung out at home and got ready for the rest of the week. And then we went out and had an FHE with S and L and M. It was super fun and I taught them the cup game :)
Tuesday: We got a lot done because the rest of the week was going to be super busy... So in the morning we went out and taught Tatay M and Nanay A. We found out that Nanay A had another faith testing experience. On Monday, when we didn't go up to their house, members from her old church came up the mountain and tried to convince her to come back to their old church. P A was there too but when he saw them coming, he knew what they were going to do and he didn't want to be a part of it so he went down the mountain and didn't come back up until they left (YES! That's my recent convert :)) And then the members of her old church stayed at their house from 10 am until 8 pm. They said they were waiting for us to show up so that they could let us know that Nanay A was not going to be coming back to the "Mormon" church. HA! You guys are funny. They also gave Nanay A a newspaper thingy for us to read to convince us that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are one person. Um good luck with that. That idea doesn't even make sense... So it turned out to be a good thing that we didn't go up that mountain on Monday. And Nay told us that she told them straight up that she wasn't going back to their church and that she just wanted them to respect her and to be friends. Apparently they didn't like that. And she told us that when they left she was so tired. Like she'd fought a war all by herself that day. But the good thing was, she was the winner :) She's so awesome.
In the afternoon, we climbed the mountain in Matain and shared with the C family. We got to teach J, the 20 year old little brother of J M C. He's awesome. He's so quiet but really smart. And we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he was going to read it.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, we went to Liozon for a leadership meeting with Elder Shayne M. Bowen. He's a general authority in case you didn't know and he's awesome. He taught us a lot about being leaders and I learned a lot. And then we all went home. Sister S and Sister D got to sleep over at our house and it was a lot of fun too. That's about all that happened.
Thursday: This was the day where all the cool learning of things happened. We went to Olongapo and got to be there for a zone conference with Elder Bowen again. He and Sister Bowen taught us and it was super inspirational and spiritual. And that is the stuff that I'll tell you once I'm done with all this weekly stuff. After the meeting, we went straight out and worked. We went back to the C family and shared with them about the Plan of Salvation. That was super cool and I realized that that is one of my favorite lessons to teach. Probably because their minds are blown every single time :) And then we went and taught S and L again and the P family.
Friday: We went out finding. We got to explore Matain, purok 5. We had never been down there before and we got to teach 4 new investigators, two families :) After that we went back and taught the C family again. We wanted to teach J but he had left. But they told us that he reads the Book of Mormon every night, even if his cell phone is low battery and he has to read by candlelight. That's what I'm talking about :)
Saturday: We got to participate in a one day mission with the branch. Me and Sister E split up and had members work with us. I got to realize how much I love having a companion. I had to teach two lessons to less actives all by myself... that wasn't fun. But it was nice to see the members get involved. After that we went to the office and found out that we had packages coming from America! WOOHOO! There was a can of hot cocoa and a package for me full of mac n cheese and red vines :) And then a package for the other sisters that they absolutely loved. Yay for my mom! We then went out to work and got a lot done. Sister Q, a member, worked with us and we got the teach Brother L again. He's awesome and gonna make a great member someday.
And then we went to a baptism. It was another good one and afterwards went home really quick to eat a box of mac n cheese :) (feeling American again) and went out to the P family.
Sunday: We had 8, count em, 8 investigators come to church :) The C family invited their whole family on the mountain to go to church and they all came :D Booyah! Recent Converts are the greatest! And then we went out and worked, even though it seemed like a typhoon had come in. It was raining really hard and really really windy. We were soaked in seconds. And we were using umbrellas.... But we climbed the mountain anyways and taught the C family. J now has a baptismal goal date :D We were going to go visit the L's at the top of the mountain but we got the stairs and I all of the sudden felt like we should go home. The wind was super duper strong and so we said a prayer on the stairs that lead to their house and asked if we should climb the mountain or go home. As soon as we said "amen" we felt three gusts of super strong wind, stronger than before, and so we decided that that was the answer and went home. As soon as we got home, we got a text from the zone leaders that there was a typhoon and we were supposed to work near our apartments. Cool :) Heavenly Father protects his missionaries.
So that was my week. Are you ready for the things that I learned?
So we learned a lot about the priesthood and how it is literally Heavenly Father's power. We are so blessed to have it here and the men that have it NEED to be worthy to use it all the time.
We also learned about who we are. We are literally children of God. We have a promise given to us by Heavenly Father that if we only obey him then we will be blessed. We are always in His debt but it's ok because he wants to give us everything. He want to bless us. And if we knew who we really are then obedience would not be a problem. Temptations would not be a problem. If we could look beyond the veil and see who we really are then every time satan tried to mess with us we would just say to him, " Um excuse me... Do you know who I am? Do you really think some little thing like that is going to stop me from doing my best to get my blessings?" We would be unstoppable. When we are obedient, exactly obedient, we become powerful. And Heavenly Father smiles down on us and says, "Sure, I'll give you everything you want and need because I love you and you are doing your best to be obedient." I know this is true. We tested it this week and that is why we had investigators at church and J accepted a baptismal goal date. And that is why I am very very happy today. I love my Heavenly Father and He loves all of us.
Thank you for all your prayers and support. Sorry, this email is really long but I hope it helps you :)
Mahal ko kayong lahat. Ingat kayo!
-Sister Hess :))))
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