Called to Serve: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HELLO FAMILY! Maligayang Pasko!! (Merry Christmas!)

Haha, it is now the "ber" months and that means that here in the Philippines, the Christmas celebrations have begun!! Haha, so crazy. They celebrate Christmas from September through December. Mom would love it.

This week has been pretty busy though! I have a beautiful, new anak! I am training Sister Felipe! The cutest 4-foot-something Filipina ever! She's 22 years old, from General Santos, Mindanao...the south part of the Philippines. I have been having so much fun training her so far. Magaling siya! When we trainers went to the mission home to pick them up, we all got to go to the American Cemetary again, so that was fun. It reminded me of my first few days in the field!

They also spoke to us about our calling as trainers. They said that President chooses his trainers before he chooses any other calling in the mission. They said that the calling of a trainer is the most important calling and those who get called as trainers are considered the best in the mission. Ah, it made me feel so inadequate as I realized the great responsibility I have been given. I am still fairly new in the field and I wondered if I can really train a brand new missionary well. I know though, that I have The Best Help on my side throughout it all. I'm looking forward to this next transfer.

So actually, my anak hasn't been endowed yet because the Manila temple has been closed this last month, so lucky me, tomorrow, I get to be her escort as she goes through the temple for the first time! I am so excited for her! I love the temple.

Now this will be the 3rd companion I've had that speaks Ilongo. Haha so I'm pretty much learning Hiligaynon and not Tagalog. haha...

Actually speaking of the language though, it's coming along better than I thought. It always seems like I'm barely progressing in the language...but everything is just so line upon line, it's hard to notice. The other day a guy asked me, "Lumika ka ba sa Philippines?" (Did you grow up in the Philippines?) When I told him I'd only been here for a little over 5 months, his face was just so surprised....and then he didn't believe me. And the other day, when I was still with Sister Acostan, we were talking to this lady inside a store and she complimented me on my Tagalog. She told me that my Tagalog was better than Sister Acostan's! I was like, huh?? And she said that Sister Acostan has an obvious accent that she's from Bacolod, but I sound like I've lived here my whole life. Hah, good grief. I know that I am being so blessed. I am FAR from fluent in this language, but I want to thank you all for your prayers. I know this is a gift given to me.

So, to be honest, this week has been exhausting. The beginning of new transfers are always kind of a little rough for me, but especially now as I'm training. I feel like as soon as I got my anak, everything started to go wrong and I had to shoulder and support it all. We went to one of our investigators, Amy... She was doing really well when we first met her, really just seeking and wanting to find the truth--she was listening to a lot of different missionaries from different religions. These past few weeks, she seemed to be withdrawing a little bit, but by the end of our lessons, she was always touched by the Spirit and wanting us to come back and share more.

However, this week, me and my anak went to her... Usually our greetings are joyful and she's always happy to see us..."Nanay! Kamusta po kayo??" But then I stopped suddenly as she gave me the dirtiest glare I have ever seen. ....what was wrong?

There was a guy sitting with her sizing me up with a hard look too. And the first words out of her mouth, "There is no Joseph Smith in the Bible...." Oh, no...

I slowly sat down, not sure where to begin...

"Sorry, Sister Oyler, There is no religion that can save me...I have all I need right here," she patted her Bible, "So I'm going to have to tell you to not come back." (That's basically the equivalent English to what she said.)

In my head, I was just thinking no, no, no, no.

She introduced me to the man sitting with her, he was a Born-Again and had been talking with her recently. Suddenly he cut in and started going off at me! Just quoting this, reading that, blaming this, pointing at that, talking down on me like I never have been talked to before. I have never felt so ridiculed and misunderstood.... My first instinct and feeling inside was to jump right up and tell him right out what he was wrong in. Cut him off and tell him he did obviously not know or understand our religion. I wanted to show him how everything he was saying was wrong and show him what was the truth.

But I held my tongue.

(My poor anak was just sitting in silence with a wide-eyed look on her face haha poor thing probably thought this is what she was going to deal with every day.)

I let him rattle off at me. And I just prayed. I pleaded for the Spirit. I didn't know what to say--I didn't know where to start. I just wanted to help these two individuals.

When he finally stopped talking....we sat.

And then I taught. I taught simply. Clear. I could feel the Spirit in me. I pretty much reviewed all of lesson one for Amy, clarifying about Joseph Smith and settling all the false accusations and assumptions they had thrown out.

It's almost as if someone else was speaking through me. I didn't say much, but what I said was powerful. I know they each felt something. I saw their faces change. They weren't glaring anymore..just thinking.

However, I could tell that they were not completely opening up their heart to my words. They were defensive, hardened. I knew that no matter what I was going to say, it wouldn't make a difference. Amy still expressed that she didn't want us to come back.

So, I just testified. Something in the air had changed. The atmosphere was different, it was quieter. I just left my living testimony and offered a prayer--blessing them and their home.

And we left.

It was spiritually draining. I just felt such a thick, heavy sorrow in my heart. I was so sad that they didn't understand. So sad that their hearts were so hardened. They didn't understand that what I had to offer them was something to help them. Not just something to help them, but the ONLY remedy to all their struggles and pains, the ONLY true fullness of the things their hearts were searching for. But they were blinded...they didn't want to hear. It was not their time.

I just prayed that in the future, Amy would have a chance again to open her heart to Christ's message. And the other guy too. Because I know how much our Savior has waiting for them. If they will just listen.

Well, yesterday, it was 5th Sunday, so we missionaries were scheduled to teach the 2nd hour. Last time, we taught the primary! This time, Sister Felipe and I were scheduled to teach the youth. However, it was a little crazy with the different schedule for the Sunday, so we ended up teaching a combined class of youth and Investigators! (We had 4 investigators at church, yesterday!) So that was a little curveball since our lesson was directed at members of the church, but we tweaked our lesson last minute and it went alright. Haha kind of a crazy Sunday. During the 3rd hour, there was a HUGE clap of thunder!! And it started POURING rain outside. During the rest of church we could just hear the storm outside--thunder, lightning, the whole works...we thought it was another bagyo again. haha but just a storm pala.

Anyway, a lot of the investigators and members hadn't brought umbrellas (it was perfectly sunny earlier). So my anak and I ended up going back and forth from the chapel to the tricycle line-up, escorting people with our umbrellas after church got out....I ended up pretty wet actually, trying to keep them dry, but that wasn't a problem for me as you all know ;) haha I love storms! it was kind of balikdad, my anak was kind of scared of the storm...but I was loving it. Haha.

Well, Ricky is doing AWESOME!! He has completely quit smoking!! I am so so so proud of him! He's just working on keeping himself clean and pushing through the withdrawals. I am amazed at his strength and dedication. I'm pretty sure he will be baptized on September 27th!

Nanay Delia is doing great, too! She's been doing well at not drinking coffee! I seriously love nanay Delia :) She is pretty much my Filipina lola (grandma). She is always giving me little hair ties and coin purses that she sews, and fixes my clothes when they rip or loose buttons. Sometimes, we'll buy clothes from an ukay-ukay that are too big and then nanay will just take it in for us. Haha she is taking good care of me here, mom :)

She has a baptismal date for September 27th too, the only thing is that she is just a little hesitant and scared about being baptized. I know she is ready, she just needs to feel for herself that she is ready. I know she'll be baptized. Hopefully soon :)

Anyway, I'm running out of time. I just want to tell you all how much I love you!! I'll be honest, it's hard being away from all of you, and this work here gets really hard sometimes. I am so grateful for all of your support though. I hit my 7-month mark in the mission the other day! This is crazy. Time goes by way too fast. It needs to start slowing down. I love the mission.

MAHAL KO KAYO!

Sister Oyler