This first week of the transfer has been great. I forgot to mention last week that our area has switched zones. So the area I'm in is still the same-- Pateros. But dati, we were in Taguig Zone, however with this last transfer they switched up some of the areas and now we are a part of Pasig Zone. So we'll meet our new district and zone tomorrow. I'll miss all the Taguig missionaries :( Actually, more than half of our area is in Taguig City and rumor is that they are taking that part of our area from us...but we are confused because that would leave us with hardly anything as part of our area...ha but anyway, we'll see how it all works out. So Sister Sione left our kabahay :( But we just got a new kabahay, Sister Ika from Tonga! She's great!
So, I have another IPIS (cockroach) story!! Naku!.....So this week, we went to go teach one of our investigators, Wendy. She lives in a Barungay called Lungos...well apparently the city had sprayed the area for cockroaches....oh my gosh.
There were cockroaches EVERYWHERE!!!!!! I walked down in the alleyway and saw them scrambling and some on their bags wiggling as they died. I stopped and almost died too. ahhhhhhhh. But we kept going to teach Wendy. When we got inside her house, there were cockroaches running around everywhere...on the floor, climbing up the walls... We taught her anyway...but as I was sitting on the chair (luckily she had chairs..most of our investigators we just sit on their floor)....I lifted my feet off the floor and had them suspended in the air for the entire lesson! Like 45 minutes! haha talk about an ab work out. But suddenly during the lesson....mga ipis started falling from the ceiling!!! and they were huge!! I drew in my journal how big..I wish I could draw on an email haha but I'd say like....
I was shaking so bad as I was teaching...haha kawawa naman. I was holding the pamphlet and it was shaking because my hands were shaking. I was SO SCARED! But the lesson actually went rather well aside from that. ha.
Well, I talked about Aida in my last email....I am still amazed at her. She is incredible...This week has been a huge trial for her too. Her dad left...(I'm still confused, I'm not exactly sure where he went). And things were getting scary with Allan on drugs. So it got to the point where she took the kids and ran. (ages 8, 6,4, 2). Somehow she has a friend I think in C6 (a name of a place) and they found them a little..."house" to stay in. It is a little cement place...5 feet by 5 feet..a little door, and a hole cut out for a window. oh, and no roof.
Well, we went to go visit her and found the house in Ususan abandoned....so we got scared and went to Sister Millare who was a fellowshipper and friend for her to ask about her. She knew where she went, but couldn't really help her much because the Millares don't have money to give. But she told us of her situation and how they have nothing. Just their clothes. and we looked at the sky with rain clouds coming...so since it's bawal to give money or buy things for people as missionaries... Sister Soliven and I ran back to the apartment and started putting our food in grocery bags to give to her. Kawawa kasi apostasy kami. We're reaching the end of our support so we didn't have much to give either but I pretty much gave my entire 72-hour kit to them. and we went around and found some cardboard and a tarp to try and help them make a roof from the rain...and we went to go find her. Well...we figured out that C6 is actually not in our area....so it is bawal for us missionaries to go there. We're not allowed to go out of our area..I was so sad...but we loaded up Sister Millare with all of the stuff to bring to them and off she went.
Well, Sunday came...and guess who was at church? Aida. with all of their kids. and what amazed me even more was as she was struggling to quiet her youngest while in relief society she asked me where the tithing slips were. I guess she had gone back to the house in Ususan and had taken the electric fan and other things and had sold them for some money and now she wanted to pay tithing on the money she had received. I went and got her a tithing slip and just watched in admiration as she filled it out and put her tithing in it and gave it to the bishop. She is so strong. Her faith is amazing. I can't even believe the things she is going through and still remains so strong.
Also...Sister Soliven and I joke that we're doing all the missionary work for everyone else's area..ha as I've said before, it's been hard because there hasn't been much progression in our area and our investigators aren't really doing much. And over these past few weeks, we keep meeting new people who are golden...they hear our message and feel the Spirit, are touched and ask for more...and then we realize that they don't live in our area.. We've given about 2 or 3 referrals to Manila mission. It's happy, but sad too. We wish we could teach them! I'll just share about one person in particular.
So one of our investigators is Esteban Moloboco. He's actually great, it's just challenging because he forgets things easy and it's hard for him to understand, so we're taking the lessons very slow with him. But last time we went to teach him, one of his friends was there at the station place. Joey. It was his old cosecurity guard and he had come to visit him. When we got there we found Joey reading through the restoration pamphlet. He was very interested. And we had brought the restoration DVD about Jospeh Smith to watch with Esteban. Joey watched it too, and got even more interested, and during the movie--he was watching and also looking through Esteban's Book of Mormon. After we bore testimony about Joseph Smith and the church, Joey spoke up. He said that he doesn't really know how to explain it but he feels something...something different. He likes what we are saying, and he thinks what he is feeling is God's way of telling him that it is right. We were so excited! We talked about the Spirit that he was feeling and the role of it in testifying of the truth. We answered some of his questions and then he asked if we could teach him...Well we figured out he lives kind of far away in Manila mission. :( But we happily told him that there are missionaries in his area too. He was so excited. He asked for a Book of Mormon for himself. So we went back to the apartment and grabbed one for him. Ah I wanted to badly to teach him! And after seeing him, I'm realizing how really un-progressing our investigators are. Since this is my first area, it's really all I've seen. But now that I've witnessed Joey and the effect of the message on him--the light in his eyes, the excitement and eagerness in his voice, the way he described how the Spirit was touching him...that's truly the people that are ready and that want to receive the gospel and be baptized. I want to teach them!! But I have been reminded that this is not my work. This is the Lord's work. He works in His ways and in His time. I am just grateful to be used in the way He wants to use me.
Well, sorry I am out of time. But I love you all so very much!
Mahal ko kayo!
Sister Oyler
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