No Effort is Wasted

Hellooooo my lovely friends and family! Admittedly, this week was a tough one. Persecutions may rage, and mobs may combine, but no unhallowed hand can stop the work! haha I learned a lot about being positive and being forgiving this week. It's hard when the harder you work, the more criticism you get. But it's okay because not everyone is going to like how you do things and people are going to criticize the things you do, but it's important that we do things not to please other people, we do things to please our Father in Heaven. I've learned that my accountability is to the Lord and no one else. And that it's important to forgive 70 times 7! In the scriptures Christ says that those who do things to be praised of man have their reward - the praise of man. But for those who do things for their Father in Heaven, their reward is in Heaven. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have the latter!

SOOO guess what people?? You know when you sit back and think about where you were a few months ago and you realize you're so different. That happened to me with the language. I realized that if need be, I could teach a whole lesson by myself. I really have progressed so much. There's still a lot I don't understand, but man has the Lord blessed me! I can do this! haha

A huge blessing this week was as follows: so our biggest struggle is getting our investigators to actually attend Sacrament meeting. It's like once they attend they always want to attend again and again and it leads to baptism. So our first step is getting them to church. We've only had one or two investigators attend church at a time since I've been here, but this week we had... wait for iiiitttt... FIVE! Oh my heck I was SO SO happy. Fasting works, man! One of which is named Rosalio and he was a referral from a less active member. He's 9 years old. We taught him a few times this week and he attended church and LOVED it! He had so much fun in primary and kept telling me all about it. The Gospel equals pure joy, people. I'm so excited for him and he's excited to be baptized!

On Saturday we attended Tatay Tanada's 83rd Birthday Party. Basically a Filipino birthday party is just eating the entire time. SOO much food, man. But I absolutely adore the Tanada family. Nanay is so strong in the Gospel and she's been singlehandedly reactivating all of her children and grandchildren. She's so loving and Christlike. She reminds me a lot of my mom, so that's probably why I love her so much. Tatay is getting old and can't really function very well anymore but every time I shake his hand he smiles and says "thank you, sister" and then he smiles at his use of English. haha I LOVE these people.

SO today we went to Sobang Park, and there will be pictures to follow. Basically I live in paridise and It's SOSO pretty here. Why is there no ocean in Utah? haha

Welp, that's all folks! I love you! Diyos Mabalos!

P.S. That's 5 weeks in a row with 50 lessons! Hard work pays off, people!

Sister Wilkins

Re: Week 15 Pictures

We didn't have the right size of baptismal clothes for her.. haha

Week 15?? My lucky number!

Well, well, well another week gone. I can't even. So on Wednesday I went on my second exchanges. With Sister Sebia this time. Her area is right next to ours and I already knew a lot of the members. It was great! One of the members gave us avacadoes and yes, they're better in the Philippines. We made some killer guacamole!

On Saturday was April's baptism! AH! It was amazing and I cried. I also cried when she was confirmed on Sunday in Sacrament Meeting. I LOVE THE GOSPEL. It makes me so happy! They were definitely happy tears!

So we had committed so many investigators to come to church this last Sunday, but they all texted and backed out right before the meeting so we were all sad. Sacrament meeting ended, then we find out that Sister Molina came! Sister Tarantan had texted her as an after thought and invited her. She hadn't been responding to our texts so we haven't been able to teach her at all. She was taught by the previous missionaries. BUT SHE CAME! and I sat next to her in Gospel Principles and SHE CRIED when a Nanay bore her testimony. AND THEN she was asking the lady next to her about baptism. Yeah. So we went to her house and taught her that night with her husband. They've been investigating the church for a while and have a close friend who's a member and who's taught them. Basically they know it's true but they've been persecuted a lot by their neighbors and her family. So we'll be able to teach them more now and I'm so excited!

I was reading Jesus the Christ this week and I found a really awesome quote that I thought I'd share with y'all: "true, the Father knows our need before we ask, but by asking we acknowledge Him as the Giver, and are made humble, grateful, contrite, and reliant by the request." When I was younger I used to wonder why we prayed if God's will was God's will and we couldn't change it. But I came to realize then as I was reading the scriptures one night, and I came to realize it again as I read that quote, that we don't pray to change God's will, we pray to change ourselves. God's plan is perfect. He knows what we need and when we need it, we just need to change the way we look at things and align our will with His, because He is perfect and sees the beginning to the end. I'm so grateful that we have prayer as a communication with our Heavenly Father.

Anyways, I love you all! Keep in touch!

Love Sister Wilkins

Re: Pictures Week 13 (Tatlo)

Also please note my weirdly curly hair. That is all.

Fwd: Week 9 :)

Legazpi Mission Rising Up

Sige po! So this week was another incredible week! I'm seriously loving life. It's not easy, that's for sure, especially as a missionary, but it's SO worth it. This Saturday will be the baptism of April Joy and boy am I excited! She's the first investigator that I actually found. I've been there since the beginning. She's 9 years old and she's the cutest. She and her cousin Realyn really want to be friends with Jayda. I've shown them pictures of her and told them about her and they want to meet her! She's SO excited to be baptized and she can hardly contain herself every time we mention it. Ah. So cute.

So this week we had Zone Training and we had our third week with 50 lessons (yay for consistency) and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting with way better Tagalog than before and basically life is speeding by but I'm loving it.

We started teaching Sofia and Sunshine, two sisters that are about my age. We tracted their house when we were on exchanges and we met their mom (who spoke English!!). When I went back with Sister Tarantan we taught their Lola. The third time back we met them and they're super interested and progressing! They didn't come to church yesterday though because their mom is recovering from something with her eye and they were taking care of her. But there's always next week! haha agency man. We've had to drop a few investigators this week because they just weren't progressing and keeping their commitments. That's always the hardest. Especially when you've grown to love them.

Ok this is the shortest email so sorry. But I love you all and I love hearing from you even if I don't have time to respond. I love my life and I love being a missionary! The church is true! Mahal na mahal kita!

P.S. I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of owning rainboots. They were like $3 US equivalent. THey are a necessity though because man, it's been flooding. okbye.

Sister Wilkins

Fwd: Week 8 weekly photos