SAGAY Week 4 12/16/2018 Maayong Hapon! It has been another grabe week diri sa Sagay. Sister Schenk and I have been working so hard, and everyday is an adventure. Pero (on the other hand), we're so sad because there are only 2 weeks left of the transfer and then Sister Schenk will probably be moved. I'm not so sure how I feel about leading the area. Hadlock gid ako. Monday siempre, was Pday. Sister Schenk and I were bored, so we got crafty, please look at the pics. Mom I hope you're proud. Hahah. That night we went to the balay ni John and Jenifer. They fed us bananas, bread with sweetened condensed milk, and mineral water, in our brand new cups. lol. We taught about the Law of Chastity, and the temple. It was nami. They are so ready. John kept saying over and over how he will never miss church because he knows that he needs to be spiritually fed every week. As we talked about the Temple, they got SO excited, and they kept saying, "Sisters! We want to go! When can we go there?!!" Then John got really quiet. We asked him what was wrong,and he said they can't get married there because he isn't divorced from his first wife. Divorce here in the Philippines is next to impossible. It's a really long, hard and crazy expensive process. So after people get married and want to split up, that's all they can do. Pero, If they have lived together for more than 5 years and plan on being together forever, they can get baptized. Only because there really is nothing else they can do. John and Jenifer can get baptized they just can't get sealed until they have a divorce, or John's Ex dies. Please pray for them. Their Baptism is Dec 29. Tuesday we had district council. After council, we drew names for Christmas gifts. After council we saw Jerry, a recent convert. We have started to teach his sister, JudyAnn, she's 13. That night, we taught the Berden fam about CPR, church, pray, read, it was awesome, and they committed to come to church next Sunday!!! At the lesson they showed us that they had stalked our mom's fb accounts and had the most funny throwback pictures ever of us. hahah. We had dinner with the Dizon's again, but this time they gave us chicken adobo, pork adobo, rice, soda, donuts, ta-ho, and veggies. Once again we were served WAY. TOO. MUCH. On the way home I may or may not have almost been in tears once again. When we got home we both collapsed to the floor, exhausted and stuffed. We slept really good that night despite all the dogs barking, the heat, and the lizards chirping in our house. Haha that's the Philippines life in a nutshell. The next day We saw Maravik. She is a little missionary herself. When we visited we found out that she had given the pamphlet to her daughter in law, Enday, who had read the whole thing and then shared it with her neighbors and husband, Who are now all being taught as well. Seriously so cool. She said she loved the story of Joseph Smith. We taught about the Restoration and they all loved it. Then we went to this super layot (far) place called mataki. Apparently missionaries haven't gone there in over 8 years so it was much needed. We found 6 super solid new people to teach! Koolie, Nonoy, Judy, Jude, Willie, and Rapila. Then we triked and hiked to Cabalawan and taught cute cute Barbie! She is the best! She is so excited to be baptized on December 22! That same night once we got home, we got a call from a very worried Elder Delicana, our district leader. He said the new rule for baptism is that a child cannot be baptized when their parents are not members. So he called to tell us that Barbie can't be baptized. Man did we fight that one. Barbie is so prepared, ready and has such a desire to be baptized even before she met us and learned more. We told him then called the zone leaders and told them how strong she is. We told them her next-door neighbors which are her aunt and uncle (President Villaneweva in the Stake Presidency) are strong, members and she has her parents support. We convinced them to talk to President Sumagpao. That was a long night and a long next morning. Around 10:30 am the next morning we got a call saying she could be baptized only if her uncle and aunt promise to become her church guardians and help her and support her. YAY!!! That night we saw her aunt and uncle and told them what had happened, and how they had to promise to help her. They cried, and were so happy. Wednesday we did lots of finding and lessons. We've been working with like 15 little girls in one area. They are super cute and come running for us whenever we are in the area. They love when we share with them. We talked about Prophets and they taught us a song about Noah in Ilonggo, while they played with my hair. People here seem to always be touching my blonde hair. Afterwards, Sister Schenk noticed some of the little girls picking stuff out of each others hair. Sister Schenk and I are just a little freaked out that we may have lice now. Palagpat. Not only that, but while we were with them I biffed it hard. May I add, that it rained, a lot, and it was super muddy. I was covered. So the mga bata (kids) all grabbed me and led me to this well where I could clean up. Joy, the member who works with us a lot, Sister Schenk and I were DYING. ahahahhaa! 7:30 Wednesday night we got like 50000 texts from members asking where we were and told us to come to a funeral of a member, so we had to sprint there. People here are super bad at giving directions so we had no idea where we were going. It was so different then what I'm used to as far as funerals go. Apparently they wanted us to speak but because we were late Bishop took over. We were both grateful because we would have had no clue what to share in the moment. Friday was supposed to be a normal work day but then we got a text from the STL's who wanted to do exchanges. We hopped on a bus to Cadiez. Sister Schenk stayed there and Sister Kefu and I rode all the way back to Sagay again. Sister Kefu is from Australia and finishes her mission in a couple weeks. It was really good and she helped me to gain more confidence in my language skills. Even though it was only a day and a half I missed Sister Schenk so much! Please pray for us when we are no longer together ahahhaha.
Last night was the longest night ever. 20 minutes into sleeping there was a Brown out where the power shuts off, so there went our precious fans. We were drenched in sweat and were in and out of sleep for the next 4 hours until it came on again because it was so init gid .hahah palagpat sa amon. Sunday Barbie, John, Jenifer, Syrine and Rogiene came to church. I spoke on Acts of Kindness in Sacrament meeting. I centered my talk on Jesus Christ. Even though it looks nothing like what my Christmas usually looks like, I'm so grateful for this season to really remember our Savior and be more like him. We were also able to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and it was so good! I loved what President Nelson said about the 4 Gifts we can receive from Jesus Christ. 1) An unlimited capacity to love 2) The ability to forgive 3) Repentance 4) The promise of Life Everlasting These things will bring us unspeakable joy. His Atonement is what allows all His other gifts to be ours. I'm so beyond grateful for our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I know he lives and stands ready with arms outreached, ready to save us from all our sorrows of this life. I could not do this without him. I take comfort in His promise that "Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Go light the world, and make room in your heart for Him. Love you all and Merry Christmas!
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Sister Emily Adams
Philippines Bacolod Mission April 18, 2018-October 2019 Mailing Address
Sister Emily Adams
Philippines Bacolod Mission Galo St. between Lacson & Mabini Brgy.22, Bacolod City 6100 Negros Occidental Philippines Archives
January 2020
Companions Provo, Utah MTC
#1 Sister Anna Wilde From Dallas, Texas Taylor, Arizona
#2 Sister Jamie Stuart (trainer) Pleasant Grove, Utah & #3 Sister Kendall Richards Idaho Falls, Idaho Show Low, Arizona
#4 Sister Brooke Casebolt Roy, Utah Manila, Philippine's
#5 Sister Perry Serving in the Iloilo mission from Fiji Sagay, Philippines
#6 Sister Lauren Schenk (Trainer) Syracuse, Utah Sagay, Philippines
#7 Sister Ashley Ellis Highland, Utah Pulupandan, Philippines
#8 Sister Andrea Camille Sales Isabela, Philippines Hinigarin, Philippines
#9 Sister Castillo Sta. Cruz Zambalis, Philippines. Hinigarin, Philippines
#10 Sister Natalie Miner Pleasant Grove, Utah Cadiz, Philippines
#11 Sister Kate Blakeslee Meridian, Idaho Bacolod, Philippines
#12 Sister Kalyx Christensen San Diego, California Bacolod, Philippines
#13 Sister Stephanie Garcia Pangisan, Philippines Bacolod, Philippines
#14 Sister Santa Barbara Marikina, Manila, Philippines Bacolod, Phililppines
#15 Sister Eliza Clark Corvallis, Oregon |