This week was SO good! It's been so fun, just applying
all the things that I've learned to this new area. We are really starting
basically from scratch. There are a lot of members living in our area which we
have to go find, but as far as investigators, we have none.
It's different having so many missionaries in one ward.
We meet at the same time as ward 2 which has 4 sister missionaries, so there are
10 of us sister missionaries in one building at the same time. I really feel
like I blend in and it's a little harder to get to know all the members. At
least... it's harder for them to remember me... So the other Sisters in our ward
are actually assigned in Jaro, really close to the church which we go to. They
were assigned there before and we became the bonus missionaries. We live pretty
far from the church, which makes it very difficult for members and investigators
to get to church. We are hoping that pretty soon we will be able to help this
area progress enough that we could get a branch out here in Pavia. It would
help a lot of people. I'm trying to encourage the same thing which we did in
Roxas, my first area so long ago. We opened a temporary group there in Panay for
the same reason and over time the less actives came back and now there are 60+
people going to church there every Sunday in that little tent thing at a house
there. If we did the same thing here, we might have similar results. :D In the
meantime, we have to travel quite often in Jeepneys and in Tricycles and in
Trisikads.. we get every form of transportation in this area. It's even farther
to go to District Meetings every week. It's a good thing I like traveling.
:D
This week was pretty fun, we did a whole lot of door to
door tracting... I have to say that Sister Karaponga and I are getting pretty
good at it. :D It is actually super fun! Especially trying to see if we can
get the rich people to open their gates and let us in. :D We have several new
investigators who are super rich. Actually, our new investigator Brother Nestor
has the biggest house I've ever been in here in the Philippines... and I'm
pretty sure it's even bigger than any house I've been in in the States. He's
super nice. We rang their doorbell and talked to his wife and I'm pretty sure
she wanted to say no, but we worked our magic and just were as friendly as we
possibly could and she agreed that we could come back another time when she
wasn't busy... that sounded a lot better than nothing... :D Then later, while
we were waiting for Sister Aquino to come work with us, someone informed us that
the man at that house wanted us to go back and he was all ready to let us in and
he has TONS of questions. He's not ready to accept anything we say... but at
least he let us in! And we have a return appointment. He reminds me a lot of
Brother Romeo from Oton, hehe... and he was baptized. :D
Another family we met we are also super excited to go
back to and teach. He's
an African American from Virginia. His wife is Filipina and they have 4 kids
ages 11-17 or something like that. We haven't taught them yet but they were
super excited to see us and we are scheduled to go back to them this next
Saturday. I wish it could be sooner, but that's their availability. The Dad and
kids only speak English, so I'm going to have some fun trying to teach the
lessons in English for the first time, hehe. I'm excited though. :D It seems
like most all our investigators right now are rich. It's great! :D
We
found another man who is super nice. He's not rich, but his family is SO nice.
And we taught them all about the Restoration and they already believe. The poor
are so much more prepared to accept what we share. They can't afford to come to
church... but they are very humble and loving and I know they will find a way
once we help them build their faith a little bit more. We love teaching every
type of person. Right now my goal is to just talk to as many people as I
possibly can and make a difference in the lives of every person I meet, although
we really are trying to focus on the rich right now. Everyone needs the gospel!
And I'm running out of time to tell everyone in my area about this wonderful
plan of happiness! hehe. :D
So...
I NEVER in a thousand years... would have thought that I would actually enjoy
going door to door, talking to strangers. But I have actually been having fun!
And at the beginning of my mission I remember being terrified of people asking
me questions or something.. afraid I wouldn't know the answer or be able to
understand them because of the language barrier... but now I absolutely love it!
I welcome any question... and when I don't know the answer, that gives me
something to research in my personal study the next day. I love people. I
really do a whole lot. We are all brothers and sisters on this earth and we can
gain something from everyone that we meet. I am so grateful for this experience
that I am having here. I continue to learn new things daily. I've never felt
so happy. :D Even though I probably won't be getting any more baptisms (because
investigators need to go to church several times before they can be baptized and
I only have a few sundays left...)... I know that I am planting dozens of seeds.
:D
Oh and about the storm... I heard about it... and we
have had some super strong rain in the past week... but I don't know if that's
the storm you all heard about, haha. It didn't really affect our work... I just
got a little wet... :D And I once again don't have an umbrella, haha. I gave
it to a woman and her baby... theirs broke, haha. But it's okay, my companion
and I can share for a few weeks :D
Love you all! Continue to Lift where you Stand! :D
Sister McClellan
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