BAPTISMS NILA LA AND ALEX!!

ANG HULING EMAIL....

Hello, everyone. I can't believe this is it. 

This is my very last email. 

It has come so fast, it just has hit me like a train.

I don't have much time because I'm currently visiting all my areas to say goodbye to all these wonderful people that have become such a huge part of my life. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that He has given me to serve. 

Since I won't be able to update again next week, I'll announce now the baptisms of LA and Alexandrea!! They are both getting baptized this Saturday! They are stoked :) And I am stoked for them. It's so rewarding to see the Atonement of Jesus Christ working in the lives of those you teach. It is such a sweet experience to see the light and joy they feel as they change their lives and follow His plan. Both LA and Alex were brought to tears as they have been preparing to make this covenant with Him. They know this is true. And they want with all their hearts to follow Him. I love them so much! I'm so grateful I get the chance to witness their baptisms just a few days before I leave. I have been so blessed by a Loving Father. :) 

Also, Salve is doing so great! Her and her kids came to the ward night and also came to church for the first time on Sunday!! They are AMAZING! Her son, Patrick, who is 14, even washed his own clothes on Saturday and ironed them all to get ready to go to church the next day!! He's such a sweet kid.  Tapos after church, her other son, Kyle, who is only 9 turned to his mom and said, "Mom, let's switch religions. I feel happy here."  Salve cried because she already knew it was true. Her prayer was answered through a miraculous dream! And now they are preparing to be baptized on the 15th of August. I'm sad that I will be gone.. But I'm more happy that they are beginning their conversion and coming closer to Him. 

It's hard to leave. It's especially hard when everything here is on fire. Miracles are happening every day. But I know this work will go on. :) Because this is His work. He doesn't need me. He loves me enough to let me take part.

The Lord didn't send me on a mission for me to change other people's lives. No, He doesn't need me here. 

The Lord send me on a mission to change me. 

Because I need Him. :)

I know this is His true church-- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that our Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love us more than we can comprehend. 

I know that this mission never ends.

This is only the beginning. 

I have been changed. There is no going back. I will forever be His disciple, where ever He calls me to go. How great is this calling!

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO!

Always,

Sister Oyler                                  

BAPTISM WEEK :)

MAGANDANG BUHAY!

Hello, everyone! How was your week?? 

Our week was so good!! We had the beautiful opportunity to witness the baptism of Romel and his son, Cyrus! It was such a beautiful baptism :) And now their goal for their family is the temple! To be sealed for all eternity. Oh how I will help them do everything they can to get there!! :) They all mean so much to me. 

 

 

I want to also share about one of our new investigators, Salve. We just found her on our own and she is SO PREPARED! I have never taught somebody before with as much excitement in her eyes as Salve does! She almost sits on the edge of her seat as we are teaching, her eyes just open wide soaking everything in! After our first lesson with her, she just placed her hand over her heart and told us she knew what we had shared was true. She has 7 kids! And they are all so cute! 

Well, this week, we invited her to come attend the baptism of Romel and Cyrus. She said that she would come! The night before, she texted us and told us that she felt kind of embarrassed because she was EXCITED to come to the baptism and witness this sacred ordinance. When she came, it was just a miracle. We already informed some of the members about her and so when she came, they welcomed her with open arms! She was really impressed and felt loved and accepted. 

As we were walking her out after the service. She just turned to us and said, "Sisters...this is beautiful."

That night, she texted us and told us that on her way home she had bought 2 skirts so she could come to church the next day!! She said that she hasn't worn a skirt since she was a little girl, but she feels something so different and she can't stop talking about it to her kids and now her kids are excited too!!

The only sad thing is her youngest son woke up the next day with a fever. So they weren't able to come to church yesterday.. Salve was devastated :( She texted us and told us even her kids were so excited, they had already gotten all dressed up ready to come to church!! But next week for sure they will come :) 

Ahhhhhh.....I wish so badly that I could be here to witness their baptism...

I don't want to leave.

I haven't mentioned it until now, because I honestly just keep pushing it out of my mind. But the time is getting closer and closer that I have to leave this beautiful place, these beautiful people, and I have to be released from being a full-time missionary and servant of the Lord. 

It brings me to tears even now. I will never be ready to leave this. 

I have been overwhelmingly blessed to be placed in this sacred position. To become the Hands of the Savior here on earth in the lifting, teaching, and blessing the children of God. I am grateful that He loves me enough to place His trust in me and has given me this sacred call. It is something that I will cherish for eternity.

But it is not the end.

I may have to leave here....but it is never the end. When we are called as witnesses of Jesus Christ, it was forever. When we took His name upon us, it was forever. Not just for a short period of time that I get to carry His name engraved upon a badge....but it's for a lifetime that I will carry His name forever engraved upon my heart. 

I will have to go home. 

But I will never go back. 

Ito ang gawain ng Panginoon. Alam ko na buhay Siya. Wala Siyang simula, di katapusan... Ang Kanyang gawain ay papatuloy, kahit ano ang darating sa mundong ito. Papatuloy ang perpektong plano ng Ating Diyos hanggang Siya mismo ang magsabi na "It is finished".

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO!!

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Oyler

 

 

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I HAVE NO TIME!!

KAMUSTA KAYONG LAHAT??

Pasensiya, I have no time today to email, the time ran out so fast. But this week has been full of....

- one-person 4th of July celebrations :) wooo!

- rain.

- rain.

- MORE RAIN!

- ...and it's still raining. :)

- trials

- miralces

- ups

- downs

We were actually super excited about the fruit in our area, like you might have read about last week. And we were excited for the opportunity to fast for all of these progressing individuals on sunday...

Long story short, we've been thrown into a time of trial and learning. Things have kind of spiraled and crashed. We were confused and dishearted yesterday, especially as we were fasting for everything. But we are learning so many lessons from our Father in Heaven. 

I am truly learning to humble myself and submit myself to His will, whatever that will may be. This is not my work, this is His. And even though, things are pretty tough and tiring, I feel happy!  How that is? I can't exactly explain or even completely understand myself. But I just know that this is truly His work. And I am so grateful to be a part of it. 

Again, I have no time, I'm so sorry. But I hope you all have a wonderful week this week!

MAHAL NA MAHAL KO KAYO! :)

Sister Oyler

 

We taught this girl who had approached us and after explaining about the Book of Mormon, she said, "...I think we have one." We were like, "Really??" she went inside and came back out with this! This is back when they didn't even have the full Book of Mormon translated in Tagalog! "Mga Pinili Mula Sa Aklat ni Mormon". Just some chosen chapters that they translated into Tagalog. I guess some missionaries had taught her dad briefly years ago! And this little girl had been reading this book! It was such a miracle. 

 

 

 

 

Those elders didn't realize the seeds they were planting :)

 

 

 

 

I made my anak try taho. muah ha ha ha.

 

 

This is how you pray when your skirt and legs are so wet from the monsoon rains...

Computer shop!

 

 

 

 

 

PRAYERS ANSWERED

MAGANDANG ARAW!

How is everyone's week?? I hear it's super hot back at home! Hope you are all surviving alright ;) Just be glad you have air con and don't have to rely on electric fans...

This week has been....AMAZING!!!!! The Lord has answered so many of our pleading prayers. :) I wish I had time to highlight it all. 

Romel is doing great!! His whole family has been coming to church for 2 weeks now :) He and his wife! And their two boys :) Cyrus is excited for his baptism as well! He is such a brilliant kid. And the very first thing he does when we walk in their home is start telling us about what he read in his Book of Mormon Stories book. Haha! Not even a "hello". It's just, "Ah! Nephi went back to Jerusalem! And...." Hahaha he cracks me up :) I love him. Romel and his son will be baptized on July 11 :)

We are also teaching a guy named Noel! He's doing great too!! His baptism will be on July 19th! If I had more time, I'd tell you about him too. 

What I want to highlight most is the powerful lesson we had last night...

First off, there are 2 recent converts. Brother Orly--the elders had just contacted him on the street (Orly is a trike driver). He was baptized back in January. Then he was able to help his wife accept visits from the missionaries and was baptized back in April. They really really want their 3 kids to be baptized, but they aren't really interested and are all going to church to different religions. We first contacted their youngest, Jet. He's 17 years old. But he was super shy. He said he would come to church that next week. Well...sunday came and Brother Orly and his wife had someone with them!! But it wasn't Jet... haha. It was Reymart, their nephew! He was really receptive, we went to their house that night and taught him. We thought he would come to church yesterday....but we were surprised to see that he wasn't there...but somebody ELSE was with Brother Orly and his wife!! Haha, their 2nd oldest son, LA! He is 19 and he also brought along his girlfriend, Alexandria! They were awesome! 

They actually really enjoyed church! The ward here is so great, they had friends welcoming them with open arms right away! We visited them as well after church. Well just LA. He said that he was impressed that it felt like one big family when he came to church.

We taught him Lesson 1. It was incredible :) I don't have the words to describe it. The Spirit was just so powerful! I literally don't know how to describe it. Everyone in the room was just smiling so big. We could all feel it! LA wanted to be baptized right away. We invited him to first pray to gain a witness from the Spirit about the message and the Book of Mormon. And we set a baptismal date for July 25!! We asked him to give the closing prayer. As he began to pray, he got emotional....It was a beautiful prayer. When we said, "Amen." All of us had tears streaming down our faces and smiles so wide. It is one of the sweetest moments that I will never forget. Natalie and Orly were especially emotional. Their long, patient prayers that their kids would join the church, have begun to be answered. :) This work is AMAZING!!

We are going back to teach LA and Alexandria tomorrow! They will probably both be baptized on July 25th!!    

M I R A C L E S!!!!!!!!!! I can't even describe how much I've seen the Lord's hand in our work. Yesterday, we had 8 investigators at church! We are just amazed at this fruit that He is unveiling in front of our eyes. 

I know this is true. :)  Our Father loves us so much. He DOES answer our prayers. In His own way, and in His own time. And it is always for our good, because He loves us that much. He is aware of us all. Every single one of us. Even you. Yes, you. The one reading this :) Don't ever forget that.  HE LOVES YOU.

I hope you all have incredible week. Take a little more time this week in your prayers to Him. Because He truly is listening. Are you? :)

MAHAL KO KAYO!!

Sister Oyler

FLOODWATERS

MAGANDANG ARAW!!

KAMUSTA!!

Congrats again, Harrison, for your mission call!!!!!!! I am so excited for you!! Ecuador won't be able to handle Elder Oyler, they'd better get ready! :)

We got to do a temple session this morning :) Hence, our P-day is on Wednesday. This week has been GREAT! I wish I had time to tell about everything. Ahh.

But I will tell you about the storm that hit.. Haha of course :) 

There was one evening we were walking between appointments when it started to drizzle a bit...so we got out our umbrellas...it started to pick up pretty quickly....and then...BOOM!!!!!

A huge clap of thunder right over our heads with a clap of lightning, and it was POURING buckets of rain!!!!!!!!!! HAHA! Okay, buckets is an understatement, it was pouring...SWIMMING POOLS, of rain!! Ha, it was honestly the heaviest rain I have ever seen in my life!! Our umbrellas were useless, even though we were using them, we were drenched from head to toe within a minute!!! I'm not even kidding! And then the road started flooding. It was literally that fast. Within 10 minutes, we were wading through floodwater up to our knees!! I'm not exaggerating!

Haha I felt so bad for my poor anak. She was almost close to tears with the huge claps of thunder and striking lightning. And I was just giggling with excitement!! Haha I know you can imagine it. :) Yep, Sister Oyler was grinning from ear to ear as we were trying to "run" through the water, literally in WAVES flooding through the streets. We were both screaming...but I think we were both experiencing opposite emotions. Hahaha. 

Although, we did get to one point, where the water was suddenly filled with hundreds of IPIS!!! (cockroaches) coming from the sewer.....yeah then I was close to crying too. The water is pretty nasty though. Deep black, with a bajillion who knows what diseases floating in it. (There are open sewers here...I'll just leave it at that).

ALL IN ALL, it was one of the funnest experiences :) We finally made it to the bigger main street and caught a jeepney and made it to our next appointment which was miraculously an appointment at the Bishop's house. Haha they helped us dry off and clean up. :) Haha but my anak told me she was glad I was just laughing the whole time, or she probably would have had a panic attack! Poor thing. 

Ah, so there was a brown out earlier in the computer shop while we were emailing. Good thing this email saved, we just hopped back on to just send these emails. So, I've got to go!! I have no more time.  But I just wanted to share a quick message with you all:

How true this is!! I encourage everyone reading this right now to look and find one way right now that you can make somebody happy. Just do it :)

MAHAL KO KAYO!! Have a great week, everyone!

Sister Oyler