(First, we see one of our brother friends who says Amiga! or Your nose is long. Or maybe we see a caribou pooping or the bread truck- like an ice cream truck, complete with annoying music, but bread, and not a truck- a little bike or something else of the "more fun in Philippines variety")
Me: "Oh dear." That's about all I can say, all the time. That, and laughing uncontrollably.
Sister Harris: "Nope, OH KANDING!"
If we haven't already been laughing, that's when it happens. Sibonga's a fun place.
This week, I'm grateful for you all! Always, but especially tomorrow. We're trying to figure out what will be happening for the two American girls in Sibonga- but definitely some thankful turkeys, and my surprise for Sister Harris will be nut cups. I wish some pies were happening, but we have no often. It's alright. I'm thankful gihapon. Maybe you can all say what you "pasalamat" for . like : Nagpasalamat ko para . .. ( I am thankful for . . .) That would be fun!
But even more so, it's been a week of miracles. We're starting our new transfer off right.
First: Sunday. It's always a little hit or miss, and waiting to see if Sacrament meeting will start on time is more tense than any movie I've ever seen. And next week, it will start on time. Hopefully. But we had a wonderful lesson by our Branch president, Pres. Torres. He's got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, but he's so competent. I love competent people. And his wife Cherly taught Relief Society. She reminds me of Mom. I'm not sure why- probably because she's the best and knows how to lead with love. She managed to commit all of our RS sisters to invite a less active to our activity on Saturday night. And after church, she came with us to find a less active who lives in the most bukid, out there area that I've been to yet.
We walked at a 60 degree angle- and that was on the switch backs. So crazy. I don't know how our 60 year old less active Lisa, or her many grandchildren get up there. They are the poorest famliy I've seen yet. They had no chairs or anything for us to sit on. The children were playing with some dirt and a stick. But Sister Harris gave them little monkeys and I have never seen happier children. Even though we were so tired, we turned around and saw those children, and then the view. A picture won't do it justice. Even me describing it. But it's what heaven looks like. Heavenly Father was just telling us to keep going.
That night, we taught some of my favorite less active families. They live so far away, but they come to church every week as long as they have food- they just shared with us their stories of reactivation and I got to see a little bit of my role here.
I'm working on that- seeing my self as God sees me. I've learned a little bit of that for other people through this service, but I need to see myself that way- then I can perfectly know what I need to work on, and what i've done well.
Then yesterday was crazy. We'd had a couple of days of dropped appointments. People were even home, they just didn't want to visit with us. But we kept walking and trying. Those prayers keep working. We were walking back from checking if maybe someone had gotten home in the time we'd been away- but in that day, it wasn't happening. We finally had to give up and just pray for what the Lord wanted us to be doing. We stopped by a little tindahan and faced the ocean and just prayed. We finished, started walking, and 10 steps later, the Spirit told us to go to this house. (Back story: we stopped at this house on our talk to everyone day! But they were busy, and I wrote down their name in a really strange place in my planner that I didn't find til the next week. And I wrote "Harry Davis" which is not a Filipino name, and I couldn't figure out who this was. Harry Davis has been our joke for the past two weeks.) We "ayo"ed and I realized that this is Harry Davis's house. And a lovely woman comes out and tells us to come in. Her name is Carrie Davis. Not Harry.
Carrie is amazing. She asked us to pray for her to have strength to know that her recently deceased husband is in a better place. Her one question for us was "Why are there things missing from the Bible? Why are there so many different interpretations?" And also about her husband. She's been searching for answers for so long, and she could not stop thanking me for my two sentences about the Apostasy. She prayed, and cried and promised to Heavenly Father that she can be strong with our help. I don't even know how, but I just thank Heavenly Father for our dear fried Carrie. Nagpasalamat ko para sa iya!
I love you all so much. The Spirit is the hugest blessing- don't let anything take away from that. I love this gospel- please follow his path as much as you can. I'm so grateful for all of you. I'm amazed everyday that I got such a loving, intelligent, charitable, concerned family and friend group.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Until next time in the life of Sister Tueller,
Love you all
Sister Josie Tueller
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