I SURVIVED TYPHOON RUBY!!!:) And there are now 10 days till Christmas

Well everyone I survived.  Sad to say...or maybe happy for you guys but we didn’t feel much of the storm at all.  It was crazy and super-duper slow and changed direction about every 5 minutes.  But we just got a bit of rain and that’s about it. We stayed in all day long and made snowflakes and played games.  We played scum and slaps and ate sooo much food because when you’re a missionary there is nothing to do inside the house except eat.  I’ll send some pictures later so that you call all see how bored we were.  Our neighbors looked like they were ready for world war 3 because you couldn’t even tell anyone lived there.  They took down all their Christmas decorations and plants and brought them inside. haha I don’t think we saw them for 2 days which is funny because they’re always really loud.  We just stored water in a garbage can and filled our 72 hour kits with snacks haha it’s probably a good thing that nothing too bad happened to us.  You all prayed too hard haha.  joke lang.  Thank you all for being concerned about us over here.  

     But these last two weeks have of course flown by. Crazy crazy fast. We are feeling the Christmas now. I love it.  We didn’t have a tree in our apartment and so we didn’t really feel it but I wasn’t going to let Christmas pass without a tree so I got a little creative.  I took one of the boxes from my package and broke it down and then formed it into kind of a triangle cylinder thing and duct taped it together with my purple duct tape that I brought from home! (I knew there had to be a reason to bring duct tape on the mission and there was Yay Idaho! ) haha anyway then we took some of the green pine stuff that you usually wrap around the banister and we just wrapped it around the boxes.  It is really small and short and fat but it’s really cute and it made it all seem so much more like Christmas.  Then we found some lights in a closet and only half of them work but we put them up too and we play Christmas music once in a while and it’s just the best.  We have our mission Christmas party and ward Christmas party this week. I’m so excited!  But unfortunately here in the Philippines you have to perform at the parties. So the missionaries are signed up to perform at the ward party and were doing a skit at the mission party.  I have no idea what we are going to perform. I’m trying to get our ward missionary to teach me a Christmas song on the guitar and then everyone else will sing.  That’s the plan as of now. I’ll let you know how it goes hah. 

     As far as the work goes...this week has been amazing. Our numbers are low but so what.  We have found some amazing people and we have had some super spiritual lessons. I figure it doesn’t matter that we have a huge list of investigators that don’t progress.  It’s more important to help the ones that are really progressing now.  I think I’ve been saying this the whole time I’ve been here in Molino.  We don’t have a lot of investigators but the ones we do have are amazing and it is so great to be able to teach them and help them.  And that’s why it’s so hard when they don’t progress or aren’t able to continue...because we see so much good in each one of them.  But we’re keeping up the hope that we’ll have a baptism before I transfer.  I have to tell you one story about what happened this week.

   So before I tell the story I just have to say that my companion is amazing and really is great at listening and following the spirit.  She’s the best.  Ok so one day we were walking and it was finding time.  Were just walking and trying to figure out where to go.  And then Sister Raterta says that we need to go visit one of the members. I’ll be honest I thought she was a little bit crazy because she’s a member and we were supposed to be finding at that time but there are some nonmembers that live at her house so I decided to give it a try.  So we go there and she was showering so we had to wait outside for a bit.  And while we were there we saw a lady across the street that we both felt like we should talk to.  So we did. And we just chatted for a minute before the member came out of her house and came over to us.  Turns out that that lady was her friend and she had been wanting to refer her to us for several weeks but she didn’t think that she was ready yet. We invited her to listen and we went and taught her at the member’s house.  It was a really good lessons and she has so many questions.  Of course were not sure what is going to happen and were hoping for the best but it was an amazing experience.  The member just told us how she has been praying for her for so long that she will be willing to listen to the missionaries.  And I think that just is a huge testimony builder that God answers prayers. But even more than that I think we need to look at those of our friends and acquaintances that we are 'preparing' for the missionaries and notice that they might be ready now.  Trust the missionaries! :) Were pretty good people if I do say so myself haha and we LOVE referrals.  And when a member gives us a good referral we love you even more. MISSIONARIES ARE TRUE TEACHERS BUT MEMBERS ARE TRUE FINDERS!   I love that quote.  

   Some other missionary work highlights.  One of our less actives is now no longer less active!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is better than a baptism for me.  He’s great and now were really working on getting him to go on a mission. But I love teaching him and their family because you can see the difference from when we started teaching and now that they’re coming to church.  I promise that the church and the gospel brings light into people’s lives like nothing else can.   Also a highlight.. one of my very favorite investigators just overcame her concern of telling her family that she was listening to the missionaries.  And now this week we get to go to her house and teach her!!!! Before this we were just teaching her at the mission office.  I am soo excited and I’m just hoping so much that her family will be willing to listen to us as well.

    So that’s a quick rundown of what has happened these last two weeks. That’s the news for you all.  You’re all great and I miss you all.  Have an awesome week!  It’s almost Christmas!

Xoxo from Molino

--Sister Van Tassell