"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." (D&C 84:88)

Monday, December 29, 2014

CHRISTMAS, BAPTISM AND TRANSFERS!

Hello, everyone!! This week has been SO busy, but so good!!

Transfers are this week as well--tomorrow actually! And I have some crazy news.....

1- I'M BEING TRANSFERRED!
2- I'M BECOMING AN STL!!

Ah. President Revillo called me on Saturday morning to tell me that he was calling me as the new Sister Training Leader! I will be transferred to Cogeo tomorrow! They say Cogeo is in the mountains--it's a province-y area. So I'm excited to be in a province! But this is so SO hard to leave this area. I've been here for 6 months now, and I've grown to love these people so much. I don't want to leave them. It's so so hard.

But I know this is where the Lord needs me and I'm excited for the things ahead of me. I just figured out my anak, Sister Felipe got transferred into the same zone too, so she'll be in my route when I go on exchanges! I'll probably get to go on exchanges with her! Yay! :)

Christmas this week was a lot of fun! On Christmas Eve, we got to go caroling with our district in the subdivision of the mission home. Super huge, rich houses. We saw where the old president of the Philippines lived. It was a fun night. Christmas day was actually a normal missionary-schedule day for us. Except that everywhere we went, people just wanted to feed us. SO MUCH FOOD. ay naku. and lot's of people were just drunk out on the streets. so made for kind of a funny day. :)  In the evening we had an FHE at Maricel's house with her and Marge and the other sisters and also Jeyjey and Tanya and Thalia! It made it the happiest Christmas :) We played a game that involved putting baby powder on each others' faces....well because I'm already white, it didn't have that much of an effect on me, so they all decided to draw on my face with lipstick! Haha so you'll see pictures of that in the other email. It was a good night with a bunch of beautiful sisters!

I was so happy that I got to Skype the fam on the 26th! Still Christmas for you guys! It made me so so sos ososososoakhg HAPPY to see all of you! You have all grown up so much!! I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

Also, the baptism of Jeyjey was on Sunday after church!! It was such an amazing day! The Spirit was so beautiful and Jeyjey looked so beautiful! Especially the light beaming in her eyes! I am just fascinated as I watch a literal light come into people's eyes as they accept the gospel and come into the waters of baptism. I witness it over and over. It's not just a spiritual change, but the physical countenance of others change as they are converted unto Christ. I love this work.
 


 
I'm so sad to be leaving at this time because we are getting close to having so many investigators baptized!! I know Tanya, Jeyjey's little sister, is going to be baptized in January, and hopefully Thalia too! Also Jezerel and Sara are going to be baptized next month! And Noy is working to be baptized as well in January! And Charles really, really wants to be baptized! He is so ready, we just need to work on his mom.  Ahhh it makes me so sad that I won't be here to see them get baptized. But I am just happy that I could be used as a tool to prepare them to come unto Christ.

Actually, I am so amazed with Jezerel! He is 12 years old and the last lesson we had with them, he pulled out the pamphlet we had left with him to read and he had read through the extra study section in the back and filled out the lines with his study! I was so impressed! We didn't even mention anything about that to him, but he is just soaking it all up and studying so well.  I wish so so SO bad that I could be here to witness his baptism. 
 
(Jezerel's extra study. He's such an awesome kid!)



 
Goodbyes are so hard. As we visited Charles, I told him that he would be baptized. I know he would. I told him to just keep coming to church, and if his mom eventually didn't decide to be baptized, when he is 12 years old, he can be baptized. He told me that he would be baptized. Even if he had to wait until he is 12. I told him that I will never forget him.  Then gave him a hug before we left.  As we were leaving their house. He came out and ran up to me and embraced me in a big, tight hug and wouldn't let go. "Mamimis ko po kayo, Sister Oyler." ('I will miss you, Sister Oyler.") I had to keep myself from crying... But once we were out of sight, the tears came. I am not good at saying goodbye to people.

Well, I told you this on Skype too, but I wanted to email it again. What made my Christmas the best Christmas I've ever had was my experience with Nanay Delia. About a month or so ago, Delia had mentioned that she absolutely LOVES the game Scrabble. When she was younger, she had a Srabble game and she would play it all the time. Even up until I don't know how many years ago, she would always play because it was her absolute favorite thing. But when their house burned down, her Scrabble game burned with it. And she could never buy another one because she never had enough money to buy it. 

Well, I thought in my head as she was talking that I was going to find a Scrabble game for nanay. I searched EVERYWHERE. I don't know where she had received it before because I don't think they have Scrabble here. BUT. I found "Word-for-Word". Pretty much the same exact thing as Scrabble just a different brand. And I bought it for nanay and wrapped it all up. Then on Christmas morning, we went to nanay delia's house and surprised her with a present!

Her eyes just lit up with delight when she saw it! We sat down and she hugged the present to her chest with glee! It was like watching a little girl, she was just beaming :) I told her to open it. 

She said, "Ano ito?...damit...?" ('What is it?...clothes?") She carefully peeled back the pieces of tape as to not rip the paper.... and then took back the wrapping and revealed the game box.

I don't even know how to describe what happened next. Tears just started streaming down her face. "It's Scrabble!" 
She had a smile on her face that I will never, ever forget as she looked at me and cried. I began to cry too. Seeing her so happy filled me with an inexpressible joy! It was truly the greatest Christmas I will ever remember. 

Well, I am all out of time. 
But I just wanted to tell you all that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I hope your Christmas was great as well :) Have a Happy New Year! Wow. 2015! Time goes by so fast.

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO!

Sister Oyler
 
Sister Santa

Merry Christmas!
 
 
"Let's-draw-on-Sister-Oyler's-face FHE"
 


 
 


 
Tanya, Thalia, and Jeyjey!




Fruit salad. yummy yummy.
 
 


 
Walking home...
 
'
My companion is a monkey
Mia

Jezerel
 
Rose Marie and Cyrene

Sam
 
Sara
 



Anding
 

Charles and Charisse
 






Everyone loves my nose...



\
 

Goodbyes are hard  :(
 
 
'
JeyJey's baptism!

 
 
Tanya!

 



Kabahay feast with the Pauwi missionaries.