Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Letter from Adrienne


How are you guys?! I heard the news about conference and the age change! That’s so crazy. I feel like the second coming is really close if they are trying to up the amount of missionaries! Exciting! I heard that it’s not really like a “you have to go when you’re 18” for boys, it’s just some boys are ready then, so now they can go if they want to. Is that true?
Thank you so much for sending the package! I can’t believe it’s all for me and I’m so excited to open it! I think that’s awesome that ya’ll are sending stuff for the kids. It is BADLY needed. I’m always a little depressed when I see the kids running around looking for trash to play with. I’m not even kidding. We were teaching this family and their kid was crying and the mom gave her a ripped piece of cardboard to play with. She has no toys but she also doesn’t know any different so she was perfectly content with the cardboard. It just makes you realize how even the really poor people in america have it really good.

So I’m doing pretty good.  Transfer day is not until November 1st but it feels close. I’m not ready for me and sister nobleza to split up yet! Especially cause who knows what my next companion will be like?! I have a feeling whoever she is it might be a challenge, just cause these last two transfers have been so nice. I had a funny dream the other night that I was in a lesson teaching this guy and my companion was an American with big 80’s hair. As we were teaching (in tagalog btw!) I was asking the guy about the priesthood and what he felt it meant. And before he could answer my companion starting laughing! Like super hard. I looked at her really shocked and embarrassed but the investigator acted like he didn’t hear and answered the question really seriously and it was a really good answer. And then my companion starting cracking up again. It was such a weird dream haha. But I think it might be a sign that my next companion is an American!

I had a cool experience yesterday! So it was fast Sunday for us and I fasted for a ton of things, but mostly that the Lord would help me have more faith. So we went to church and a TON of people came surprisingly. We had 16 less actives show up and 5 investigators! It was amazing. And one of the investigators we had only taught 3 times and she brought her neighbor who we had never taught. Haha I couldn’t believe it. So that was really exciting. And then every Sunday we go on splits with two of the members of our ward-they are single girls-32 and 30. They are super nice and always
willing to work with us. So  Ann, the 32 year old, RM, went with me and Ynna went with Sister Nobleza and we split up so we could cover more of our area than we usually could just us two.
So first, me and Ana went to Darrelyn, our for sure investigator who is 16 and super excited for her baptism on oct 20th. Which I am super excited for too! And then we tried to visit this lady that we taught just once before and we knocked on her door and said “tao po!” like a
million times (cause that’s what you say when you knock. It’s literally means “people!” haha. And nothing. So we thought maybe they were sleeping or no one was home. Then all of the sudden she turns the corner and comes running toward us, “here! I’m here!” hahaha. She goes, “ I had a feeling that you might be here so I thought I would come check”. It turns out that the place we had first met her was her sister in law’s home and where she worked. But her actual home was a couple of blocks away. So she led us to her actual house where all 4 of her kids were home. So me and ana met all of them-ages 16, 14, 12, and 7 and introduced ourselves and we all sat in a circle in their living room. The mom-her name is Malou-she said her husband is working abroad and they’re not sure when he’ll be able to come back but they are mostly really happy, she just wishes her kids had God in their
lives and helped out more around the house. But we asked her if she had any questions for us and she said that she wanted to know how mormonism started. I was like perfect! Segway into lesson 1.
So as I start teaching, this lady knocks on the door and she’s a friend of Malou-named Milet. So she comes in and we continue teaching. We ended up teaching the entire lesson one and I taught all of it
except for the apostasy part-which Ann taught and then I taught them how to pray and invited them to ask God if our message was true. Malou was teary eyed and said she felt so enlightened and we had answered a question that she’d had for a really long time-why there are so many
churches and different beliefs. And then when I asked her to give the closing prayer she starting crying so much she couldn’t speak. So I gave the closing prayer and then they said they will try to come to general conference. And Sister Milet told us that when she came over
she didn’t have a reason, she just felt like she should walk to Malou’s house. The spirit was so strong and I felt so grateful that I wasn’t nervous at all, I remembered everything and I said everything right in tagalog!! 

I know that the Lord was helping me and he led Malou and Milet to us through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Talk about answer to my fast. My faith was increased so much and I knew without a doubt that it wasn’t a coincidence. I’ve prayed how many times to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands and for the first time yesterday I felt like I really was. It’s the best feeling to know that somehow I am helping the Lord in his work and helping his children. I was so happy that for the first time on my mission I didn’t want to go to bed because I didn’t think I could go to sleep. And maybe the Lord is putting His trust in me that I can really do this!! Anyways, it was a cool experience and it made me realize that Heavenly Father really does answer all of our prayers. Sometimes we ask for
stuff and we just don’t open our eyes to see the answer. Why not get excited about the little miracles everyday? Missionary work-sharing the gospel should be the most exciting thing ever!- telling people the God still speaks to us and loves us and leads us through personal revelation and
a living prophet and has provided a way for us to return to him. It’s amazing and I feel totally humbled and honored to be a part of it. And somehow the Lord has qualified me for the work. It’s true what people say that missions are really hard and there are a ton of bad days. But it’s the good days, like yesterday, that make it all worth it.

So that’s my experience for the week. I hope you all are doing good and thank you for your emails and packages and prayers and love! I love you all so much!!!

Love, Age

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