Week Tatlumpu't-Anim: The Scientific Method

You know, I've taken way too many science classes in my life for someone who loves writing. And I've retained little from these classes over the years except little random facts; like "acro" means limb or if you get a certain sulfuric chemical on your hand it turns yellow and black. Despite the many science classes I've taken and the "in one ear and out the other" attitude of my left brain, one foundational lesson always strikes a chord of familiarity with me - it being the first lesson is any science class and the first chapter of any Biology book.

The Scientific Method.

Now, I'm not about to pretend I know a ton about this since like I said, I'm useless in science. But from what I understand and remember about the Scientific Method is that it's a series of steps you must follow to conduct a successful experiment. 

Sister Sanchez and I conducted such an experiment this week. Yesterday, in fact. This week was rather tough for us - we feel like we are working well together and that we are prepared, but our area isn't progressing as I'd like it to be. Rejections were high. We understand that we're being humbled, and it's not like we don't have work at all, but we want so much for the area to progress. To move forward and not just be parked on the corner of hard heads and closed hearts, adjacent to "Sorry Sisters, I'm busy" avenue. But no matter how hard we tried this week to do better than just good, we found ourselves stuck.

So after transfer announcements Saturday night, finding that we're still blissfully together, we wrote down our transfer goals. Among these include things like "exactly obedient", "teach by the spirit", and "be bold, but loving". We felt so good about our new goals that we decided to put them to the test. Our hypothesis was that if we were exactly obedient, we'd be able to achieve the Standard of Excellence the next day. We were ten lessons away, and that many on a Sunday? Close to impossible, given that the usual average is four of six. But we were determined. We had our past data that concluded that obedience (perhaps not always exact) brought blessings, but mediocre work and a stagnant area. Our independent variable was our obedience - following exactly. Our dependent variable was the guidance and help of the spirit. Our control was same area, same route, same branch missionaries. 

Our experiment on Sunday began perfectly. Up at 6:30am, no lounging. Stretch. A focused and very spiritual companionship study. An amazing District Conference in Tabaco where we got to hear a broadcast with speakers Elder Quentin L. Cook, Carol McConkie, Bishop Dean Davies, and Elder Michael Teh. Came home, lunch, then we left to work. At this point, my confidence wavered. Ten lessons seems big, and it was ultra hot outside. I had holes in my shoes and we weren't moving very fast. But we had faith, kept going, and continued.

We taught some amazing lessons. One of which, we were teaching the mother of a 16 year old progressing investigator of ours. Her parents don't want her to be baptized, so we were trying to soften her heart a little. I just started testifying about how thankful I was for the gospel in my family and how blessed I was because of my father's choice to convert to the gospel and my parents' decision to raise us up in the church. Sister Sanchez spoke of her family's conversion too, and I could actually for once feel the spirit talking through me. I wasn't worried about Tagalog, I just spoke, and it came. I told her the truth - that people change their hearts through the gospel and that her daughter was trying to take that step. I told her that I'm not here on a vacation, but to help her family have eternal life. We even invited the nanay to be baptized. No bite yet, but the spirit testified that she felt the influence of the Holy Ghost and she committed to pray about it.

Most of our lessons were like that. The spirit was with us all afternoon, and because of that, we made a lot more commitments and bold statements of love. No baptismal commitments yet but we're close with a few, and it never hurts to extend! We worked hard till after 8pm, ending on a superb, small lesson with an investigator that wasn't interested at first but who is now responding a little more to our concern and love for her.

And you know what we got? That's right. The Standard of Excellence. 10 lessons on a Sunday, equaling a lovely perfect 35. Ultimate punch of victory! We were walking on sunshine last night! 

Experiment Conclusion: We have proved our hypothesis to be correct. Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. 

Hopefully this continues, our transfer goals will be achieved, and we are able to continue and see this beautiful area progress. Watch out! These missionaries are onto the secret now! This week was tough, but with the help of the Lord, we ended on a good note, as always. 

I possibly just had more success with the Scientific Method this week than I have in any of those science classes. Someone buy me a lab coat to celebrate. Loving life over here! So hard, but so rewarding. Just have to keep it up now! Hot hot hot, but nothing like missionary life to make a heart change and to realize the Lord's hand in your life. I feel better than I have in a long time. This gospel really does change people. I thought so before...but now I'm living proof. 

Love all of you! Happy Father's Day to all the poppas!

Always,

Sister Green

Week Tatlumpu't-Lima: Still Small Voice

I hope all of you are doing splendidly! You all seem a little silent lately, so I hope you're all alive and well and stuff. I miss you!

For those of you concerned by my health, stop your worrying! I'm on the road to a full recovery, which we saw by our increase in numbers this week. 37 lessons! Over the Standard of Excellence, which is a relief. I was feeling so responsible for our decrease in numbers, it feels good to be up there again. Legazpi Mission rising up!

I don't have much to say this week since unfortunately, not much happened. But we did have a crazy experience that I didn't even realize was significant until I thought about it more. 

So we usually go to this one area named Binitayan three times a week, usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. So we planned as usual, but since we had exchanges on Wednesday, we were a little confused about where we would take the Sister Training Leaders since our plan had us going to all of our areas on Tuesday. We just sort of ignored it, figuring we'd just tract a lot. But later in the day, we both thought we should change our plan. No big deal, we selected one of the four areas we were going to and pushed it to the next day, Wednesday. We didn't think about it anymore.

Exchanges went well and I effectively proved my efficiency in leading the area. But the next day, Friday, when Sister Sanchez and I returned to Binitayan, we found the area and jungle road that we usually walk down oddly quiet. We went to our first house to teach a less active, and the Nanay came out and whispered to us that her husband wasn't here, he was farther down our route with some other men. We were super confused - she was whispering and looking around a lot. So we asked what was up and she explained that on Thursday, a wedding had been held along our usual jungle route. The guests drank too much, and a man was murdered - stabbed to death -  right on our usual road. The man who killed him still was hiding in the jungle. So we turned right around and left since it wasn't safe. He was caught the next day though.

We were just shocked to realize that if we hadn't changed our Binitayan plan, we would have probably been along that road at the precise moment the wedding and the fight happened. What seemed at the time like an innocent choice to shift our schedule turned out to be a prompting from the Holy Ghost that kept us out of harms way. It was incredible to realize how blessed and protected we are as missionaries. We hadn't even "felt" the Holy Ghost, but we just last minute decided to change plans. It reminded me of a David A. Bednar talk where he mentions that sometimes we receive promptings that we don't know is the Holy Ghost until later, sometimes years! I am so thankful that we listened to the still, small voice!

Today is my 8 month missionary anniversary. WHAT? Can we just take a minute to freak out that time is literally growing wings? *furiously flies out the door to teach more people*

But in all seriousness, I've discovered that most days I and other missionaries don't feel like we've accomplished much here in the mission. And I know this is discouragement telling me that, and that I shouldn't be comparing baptisms as accomplishments. So I was thinking about accomplishments in my mission, and I just really came up with the fact that some people love me now that didn't love me before. Even if I don't have twenty baptisms, I have new friends. There are new people looking into the church, feeling the spirit that weren't before. And then if we look at my life? That's changed most of all.

I want so much more for my life than I did before. I want to be so much more. I want to accomplish so much more. But I want all of this in the right way, and I want my life to be so much more close to what Heavenly Father wants. I want to do things now that weren't top priority before: temple service, family history, relief society, service, ward missionary work. I want me and my family to study the scriptures every night together! That's such a simple thing, and I look back to before my mission when my parents wanted to do it and we just didn't think it was that important. That could have helped me so much in the past and I missed that opportunity. So now I know that they only way my family is going to make it is if we stick close to the gospel. 

I was touched yesterday by something President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that I read in the April 2014 Priesthood Session of General Conference in his talk entitled "Are You Sleeping Through the Restoration?": 

"There is too much a stake for us as individuals, families, and as Christ's Church to give only a halfhearted effort to this sacred work."

I've got to give it my all here in the mission, baptisms or no baptisms. We have to give it our all every day to share and grow in the gospel. I understand this more than I ever have before. And I'm so excited that I'm finally in the process of becoming someone who can gladly say that I'm doing everything I can to follow God's plan for me and my family.

"The Church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball!"

Are you?

I LOVE YOU! Be safe, be smart! 

Love love love,

Sister Green

Week Tatlumpu't-Lima: Photographs

Well strange caribou...it appears...we are at an impasse!

Week Tatulumpu't-Apat: Photographs

Putting on the "full armor of God"

Your favorite Maputi out in her element

Where's Waldo?

Week Tatulumpu't-Apat: Some Like it Hot

But I don't. It was very hot this week. I feel like my rubber shoes are melting to the pavement. Hopefully the rain comes back soon. We're supposed to be nearing the end of the "very hot" season. So I'm a happy puti over here. The only bright side of the heat is now I know Arizona heat will never bother me again.

This week went by quickly for once. I feel like since the transfer and since I've been under the weather, time has been positively slowing. Thankfully, it now seems to be picking up again. It's easier to focus on work when time seems fluid.

The email might be a little scattered since it was a particularly hectic one, but as Sister Sanchez said as we sat on boulders in a jungle to catch our breath, "Ah, mission life." Totoo iyan. If I'm not stressed, hot, or tired, something is wrong!

We had Zone Conference this week, which was just super great. I got to see some of my friends from a neighboring zone and got to eat fake Italian food. I was personally reminded of my privilege to be a missionary, and I really loved President Guanzon's thoughts about the importance of watching out for our companions. He just kept saying, "We are protectors." I love that guy. He's incredible and so inspiring.

We also had Branch Family Home Evening, which was really fun, especially since the branch is so small. Our investigator, May-Anne, came to the church for the first time and she just kept saying how much fun she had. Sister Sanchez and I gave the lesson about loving one another, despite whether or not we're friends. We really focused on gossip and excluding others. We shared the "Bullying - Stop it" Mormon Message, which I love and can't help but cry every time I watch it. This message is so dear to me, I relate to it so much, and I can't express how important it is for everyone to watch it. For those of you who are non-members, this is not just for Mormons, and it is not pointed toward that at all. It's a beautiful message about how we need to stop adding to the heartache in the world through our own ignorant actions. Everybody take ten minutes and watch this. Here's the link: http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3267475157001

As far as odd things this week, I had an interesting experience the other day. We were teaching an investigator in her little outside stand, sitting on bamboo benches and just teaching a short lesson while she had time. Squatting below us was an little woman, probably more than seventy years old. She was silent and possibly mentally challenged, given the way our investigator acted as if she was a mother to her. During the lesson, I took my foot partially out of my shoe to shake out some rocks. Immediately, the woman reached forward and poked my ankle. Now, this, I was rather used to; children run up and touch my skin all the time. But she didn't stop there. As Sister Sanchez testified, I watched this woman wrap both her hands around my ankle and rub them over my entire foot. Then she continued, her hands going up my leg, all the way to my knee. She did this several times, reaching over to do the same ritual to my other leg as I watched with confusion in silence. At some point, Sister Sanchez wondered why I wasn't saying anything, and she looked down as well. My companion just asked, "Uh...Nay?" But the woman didn't stop. She just looked up at me and then poked my arm a few times, then settled back into her squat. I don't know why I was so affected by this, but it was possibly one of the weirdest experiences of my life that somehow caused a lot of evaluation on how I look at the world and the people in it, and in turn how people see me. Like, what was the little old woman thinking as she did that? Just figured I should share. Maybe one of you has insights.

We had a really good experience this week with an investigator. This is the woman in the family that I mentioned last week that we met by chance. The lesson before our last one, we invited her to be baptized, and she declined because she's very family oriented and she said some of her children are against her changing her religion. This lesson, she brought up some of those same concerns, but we assured her that if her entire family listens to the message, they will all come to a knowledge of the truth. She said the closing prayer, and she started to sob. She thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to her and she said she accepted us with all her heart. After the prayer, she revealed to us that she knew our meeting wasn't by chance. We found her on a road when we met her. It was dark and we were just walking by. She was standing on the side of the road, she smiled, and so we talked to her. She invited us back to her house and that was all the story I knew - a really good chance meeting that God gave to us. But Bangai told us that she hadn't known why she was standing out there. Her house is far back away from the road, and she never takes that way to get to the road. But she was just standing there, and standing there for so long, and she said he hadn't known why. She said she had just felt like she was waiting for someone, but she hadn't known who it was. And then we came along. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for prompting her to stand out there for so long, waiting for us. I know God has a plan for all His children to hear the gospel!

Have a good week everyone! I love you!

Palagi,

Sister Green

Week Tatlumpu-Tatlo: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I cut Sister Sanchez' hair this week. She wanted her hair cut because I told her it'd look cute and then she said, "Do you want to do it?" And I just blinked at her and said, "Sure." So I did, like four inches. Pictures below. I think I did pretty well, considering we cut it with a brush and kiddie scissors.

I'm doing sort of well, health wise. Some days are worse than others in regards to pain, but I'm taking my medicines and trying to follow the instructions of not pushing myself too hard. That's the hardest bit right there. I have to be working or else I feel like I'm wasting the Lord's time. So "taking it slow" is incredibly annoying for me sometimes. We have work to do and I want to go do it! Cut my kidneys out already! But alas, my dear Sister Sanchez is making me rest when I feel sick. Bless her heart.

This week was stressful to say the least. We had a lot of meetings and a lot of trip to Tabaco that put us in time crunches. We had some major disappointments with investigators, like a woman named Josefine who we were so excited about telling us not to come back out of the blue. We got made fun of a lot this week by people who though what we were teaching was stupid. Baptismal dates are being pushed back because commitments aren't kept, appointments falling through, members supposedly working with us and then cancelling. Thirteen and fourteen year old investigators addicted to cigarettes and alcohol. Enough to make the heart feel heavy, right?

So on Saturday, while riding in a jeepney, I was contemplating why everything was so hard lately, what was the lesson God wants us to learn. And I remembered a particularly favorite speech of mine by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". Here's the link if anyone wants to read the full talk. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=795

But anyway, in his speech, Holland points out that "it isn't over until it's over" and that "opposition so often comes after moments of revelation and an assurance we thought we would never lose". Now in that jeepney, I felt particularly enlightened by this thought. I'm sick, yet last week I made the decision to continually trust God, no matter my circumstance. Did I expect the adversary to just accept that and leave me alone? Of course not. Holland says, "we cannot sign on for a moment of eternal significance and everlasting consequence without knowing it will be a fight - a good fight and a winning fight, but a fight nevertheless." So I came to the conclusion in that bouncing jeep that everything seemed to be getting harder, and significantly more dreary because the adversary, that miserable being whose power cannot compare to the real think, wants us to believe that things are hard. I believe things seem tough now because we're on the right track and stupid face Satan doesn't want us to see it. Like, we had a good week too, when I really think about it, past the dreary fails. We tracted a woman named Evelyn and on her second lesson she committed to be baptized. We tracted a great family who we met by complete chance that is so willing to learn and listen. Little miracle happen that could be pushed aside if all we focus on is the bleak. Holland says it gorgeously, "How soon we forget". He then admonishes, "After you have gotten the message, after you have paid the price to feel his love and hear the word of the Lord, 'go forward'. Don't fear, don't vacillate, don't quibble, don't whine."

Yesterday, I was depressed, blaming myself and saying, "Because I'm sick we only got 33 lessons, two less than the Standard of Excellence, two less than the missionary I want to be," but now I'm looking at my week and saying, "Despite me being sick, despite the hardships, we persevered and got 33 lessons, which is beyond average and very commendable."

In Hebrews 10:35-36, and then 38-39 it says the focus of Elder Holland's speech and my musings this week:

"Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

...

...If any man draw back, my soul shall have no please in him...

...We are not of them who draw back unto perdition."

No matter if you're a missionary, the message is the same. Don't give up! Remember the good, don't falter. "Face your doubts. Master your fears...Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you." Of course it's going to get hard, but remember, you and I signed up for this with happy hearts. We are not those who give up. Sister Sanchez and I aren't giving up! We keep going. We keep fighting. 

We are all enlisted till the conflict is o'er;

Happy are we! Happy are we!

Soldiers in the army, there's a bright crown in store;

We shall win and wear it by and by.

Haste to the battle, quick to the field;

Truth is our helmet, buckler, and shield.

Stand by our colors; proudly they wave!

We're joyfully, joyfully marching to our home.

(We are All Enlisted, hymn 250)

Have a marvelous week everyone! I love you all very much. Email me, huh? I miss you! 

Love love love,

Sister Green

"Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!" (D&C128:22)

Week Tatlumpu-Tatlo: Photographs

The new Choco

STOP! Puppy time!

Weekly Mayon picture