Called to Serve: CONFERENCE AND CHICKEN FEET

HELLO HELLO HELLO.

Well, Conference was amazing. I loved every single second of it! It was re-broadcasted at our chapel here in Cogeo on Saturday and Sunday. It was kind of weird to see so many white people. Haha.

There were so many amazing talks. Each one of them had something in it for me. I have been so spiritually fed. One of my favorite talks was the one by Wilford W. Andersen about hearing the music and not just learning the dance steps. It was a beautiful talk! Also Elder Bednar's talk about overcoming fear was a message that really helped me. I just love Conference. As I was listening, I just had an overwhelming feeling of security. The Church is truly a refuge and a beacon in this fallen world. And Christ is at the helm. How reassuring that was to me yesterday.

So I ate chicken feet this week.

Yeah, up to this point I hadn't eaten it, because I see the chickens here every day and the nasty stuff they walk through...so why on earth would I eat their feet??

But Sister Wiradi cooked it this week, so I had to try it... Haha it was okay.

So if I could have one word to describe missionary work...it would probably be... TIRED.

Ha, joke, that honestly doesn't sum up every beautiful thing about being a missionary. But it is 100% true. Missionary work is the most tiring work that you will ever do. If you're doing it right, that is. But every day, I am just SO. T I R E D. We have amazing, miracle-filled days, and also those days where everything just seems to go wrong, and no one will listen to you...but through the ups and downs, the goods and bads, the laughs and cries....I am just always TIRED. I feel like my body is slowly starting to break down after almost 15 months of being a missionary.

15 MONTHS???!!!! I just had to count on my fingers to figure out how long I've been on my mission and the realization just HIT ME!!! Oh my gosh.

This is not okay, time goes way too fast. I haven't hit it yet though...i'm still 14 months pa..

Well, lately our mission has been focusing on finding investigators in the upper/middle class parts of our areas. Because usually, the people we are baptizing are the humble people living in the squatters. Because it's honestly so easy to find people willing to listen when we go there. But we need to establish the church. And it's sad, but true that these humble people who sometimes don't have the means to even feed their own children, are not going to be able to be the leaders to establish the church more fully here in the Philippines. So we've been focusing on finding in the more middle-class parts of our areas.

So, we've been doing a lot of tracting this week. I am just blown away at the difference in receptiveness when people happen to make a little more money. It's sad to me.

During one of our exchanges this week as well, I was working with Sister Sauni, and I was helping her to learn how to tract in their middle-class part of their area. Hahaha. That was a fun exchanges. We ran into some of the most bitter people!!

One lady, when she answered the door, said something in the english equivalent of, "Only members of Iglesia ni Cristo will be saved!" And walked back in her house. Sister Sauni and I just looked at each other and laughed. Oh the joys of tracting.

On a different exchange the next day, I just was a witness to the vast contrast, as we were walking back home for lunch through a really poor area. We walked by this young pregnant woman and greeted her, and she immediately said, "Tuloy kayo." (Come in!) I asked the Sister I was on exchanges with if she knew her and she said no with a surprised look on her face. We entered into her tiny home.... probably a bit bigger than the size of your bathroom...a dirt floor, and bamboo walls. Two small children were clutching at her legs, crying. Her name was Cristine. We began talking to her and discovered that they literally had absolutely no food. No money. Nothing. Her kids were crying with hunger and she was crying because she had nothing to give them. She was about 8 months pregnant too, and looked completely drained. Her husband had left to try to find some sort of work because he had no job. My heart just broke with her. As she cried, I cried with her. I wished so badly that I could give her money but it's not allowed as missionaries. (which I completely understand). We asked if we could share with her and she said yes.

The lesson we had with her was simple. Our message is simple. But it is the most brilliant beacon of truth that we have to offer every individual no matter what their situation is. We couldn't give her money, or fund her for food, or buy her a house... but we gave her something deeper. And I watched it enter her eyes as we bore testimony of our Savior and His gospel.

We gave her hope.

Something I don't think she had before we stepped through her door that morning.

When we got back to the apartment for lunch. I couldn't eat. With Cristine and her crying kids echoing in my mind, I couldn't eat lunch for myself. But I knew in the back of my mind that our Father in Heaven is mindful of her. He is deeply aware of all of us. And when bad things happen in our lives, it does not mean that he loves us any less or that we aren't as valiant as somebody else. All things are done in the wisdom of He who created us. And our lives are prepared in a way to sculpt us and refine us into the potential being He sees inside us. Sometimes those refiner's fire just appear differently in different people's lives. But through it all He is there. And He always will be. Christ's Atonement is infinite and eternal.

I know this is true. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church on the earth today. And it's not just a church. It is the place that we will find the way to real peace and happiness in this life...and in the life to come. It is the only place where we can do what is necessary to allow us to enter back into our Loving Father's presence, in His glory, to live happily eternally.

This is not a casual membership. Being LDS doesn't mean anything if we don't truly "live what we believe" like was said in conference.

I hope we can all live our religion out loud. By truly doing what we claim to believe from the deepness of our hearts, we will see our hearts begin to change. We will gain a deeper understanding and a broader view of life that stretches farther than we can now comprehend.

I love you all so very much! Always remember that :)

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO!

Sister Oyler