Week 21

Hey!
It's been a good, busy week!  We have a lot of new investigators with
baptismal dates.  The main test is whether or not they come to church
which a lot of them have problems with for financial or other reasons.
 If they aren't coming to church, they can't be baptized, so it's a
difficult situation.  But we have a lot of hope for these people.  We
are planning on starting a sacrament meeting in Panay in just a couple
weeks so I'm hoping that once we have that established, many members
will come back and the church will grow so fast there... my dream :)
Yesterday, we had 6 investigators at church though, which was super
exciting!  I hope they continue to come every week!  Church attendance
is SO important!

So to clarify from last week about the woman who died from our ward,
She stayed in the chapel for several weeks and I'm not sure why, but
they had a funeral service for her every evening for a week... one for
each ward I think.  We went to the one for our ward on Friday, the one
for ward 3 on Wednesday and the one for everyone on Saturday.  The
burial was finally on Saturday too.  I hope that makes sense.

That's so exciting that you guys were able to attend the Brigham City
Temple dedication!  I remember the one for the Newport Beach Temple,
but no others.  I was sad that I missed the Kansas City dedication.
It was just cool to be able to help out with the open house there at
least.

So, our recent convert Karla is doing so well!  She's worked it out so
she can come to church every Sunday and she just received a calling as
young women secretary which she is super excited about.  I am so happy
for her!  We just showed her how to pay her tithing this last Sunday
too and she is so willing and happy to start doing that as well.  It's
so great!  And Aillene and Rodolfo are doing really well too.  They
are still super active and attending other activities as well.
Rodolfo is preparing to receive the priesthood and become a deacon!

I never know what to write about...
Good news, I no longer have a problem eating coconuts... I think...
but I'm still not a big fan.
We have to travel everywhere in our area.  It takes about 45 pesos to
get from our apartment to the area where we go the most often.  And
another 45 back.  I think our support goes down a lot faster than
other missionaries here in the Philippines.  Sometimes we make that
trip a couple times in one day if people's schedules don't work out
any other way.  It also takes a lot of time.  But I really don't mind.
 I love driving past all the fields and watching all the people.

Oh, hey, I still haven't seen a picture of Everett!  I want to see him!!!
Anyways, that's all for now.  My time is running low.  I am so
grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve.  I am learning new
and important things every day.  I am so glad I made the decision to
serve.  I think it's the best decision of my life so far.  There are
so many lessons I didn't even realize I needed to learn and here I am,
learning them. :)
Love you all!
Sister McClellan