How was everyone's week? I hope you are enjoying Spring back at home! ...it's Spring there now, right? It's still summer and HOT here in the Philippines. But I love my little bundok area :)
Well, for us, this week was....CRAZY.
Ha. We had exchanges this week in Morong again!! The beautiful province area! I was able to work with Sister Bergonia one day and also Sister Dolino the next day. They are both amazing sisters :) I love exchanges! We spent two nights there and then we had to leave early the next morning in order to travel 2 hours straight to the Mission Office for an STL meeting so we could put together a workshop for this week's Zone Conferences. After that, we traveled all the way home to Cogeo. We looked like little homeless girls everywhere we traveled, haha carrying little mattress pads and pillows and bags. #STLlife
We were exhausted, but excited to finally have a day in our area the next morning. But then we got a call that the Morong sisters were having some problems....so Sister Panis and I had to travel all the way back out to help the sisters. We were just wrapping up with them at around 5:30...when we got a call that our kabahay had just collapsed and needed to be taken to the hospital and her companion called us needing help. So we booked it, hopping jeepneys all the way back to Cogeo and then helped them...we got a taxi to take us all the way to Ortigas so we could get her to a decent hospital. After we got them into the Emergency Room and got her settled, we went to go buy them some dinner. We left the hospital and got home at around 10pm. SO DEAD.
The next day (Sunday), was the only day we had in our area, so we worked as hard as we could to help our investigators we hadn't seen all week. Last night was the tired-est I have ever felt. Tapos today... The sisters had come home and were resting, so it was just Sister Panis and I to clean the whole apartment. I scrubbed everything down! But our bahay looks so good now :) The sisters had left to go buy some medicine and we were just getting ready to leave to come email, when we got a call that Sister Wiradi had collapsed again! So we went and helped carry her back to the apartment, and get her lying down with a fan on her. As of now, everything is okay. But that's the reason why we are just now getting to email.
Tomorrow, Sister Panis and I have to give a workshop for our District Meeting...but as you can see, we haven't had much time to prepare.
Overall.... I AM JUST SO EXHAUSTED!!!!!!
I have just kind of felt like I'm drowning in my To-Do list this week. And feeling like I don't have the energy to even start to do it all. But it's a miracle that I'm still going. I can almost feel the divine helping hands pushing me along. This week has been a trial and a blessing. So many things learned.
I just want to share a bit from one of my exchanges this week. The sister I was working with was awesome. I noticed though, that she was a bit shy as a missionary. She is only on her second transfer, and still learning teaching skills. I noticed that she was scared of silence during a lesson. I talked with her it and about the "power of pause". About how we really need to rely on the Spirit and not on ourselves. And about how especially during the quiet moments of the lesson, the Spirit will speak to the investigator's heart. In our very next lesson, I helped her apply it. And it was an amazing, spiritual lesson. We were visiting a inactive sister. The minute I was introduced to her I could discern just by her eyes, that she was struggling. After Sister Dolino followed-up with her about everything, the inactive sister gave the usual excuses and answers. But I knew that there was a deeper, hidden concern beneath her surface. Before Sister Dolino moved on, I asked her some more questions, really trying to listen to the Spirit. I could tell at first that Sister Dolino was uncomfortable with the silence, but I felt her relax, as we felt the Spirit enter the room. After asking a question, we waited for a minute or so before the inactive sister responded. When she finally spoke, tears were in her eyes and she opened up about everything. We turned the sister to the scriptures and bore powerful testimony. I was really touched with the experience that Sister Dolino shared. She got emotional as well as she shared and bore testimony from her heart. The less-active sister was especially touched. It was one of the most powerful lessons I've been in. I know both Sister Dolino and I learned a lot that day. It was such a great exchange.
I'm so grateful for all these opportunities that I get to learn and grow here in my mission. It is an amazing, amazing work. I am just at a loss of words for it all.
I'm out of time, but I just want to wish you all a great week this week!
MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO!
Sister Oyler
(I left my little book at our apartment with all the pictures and included captions.. ha so
I'll send the captions next week. LOVE YOU!)
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