Hey Everyone!I totally forgot to tell you last week that we have a really easy address. Are you ready? Here it is:
Sister Jennie Adams
P.O. Box 43
Iloilo City 5000
Philippines
I know, it's REALLY hard... I hope no one is confused. ;)
President said to encourage the use of this because they pay a fee to the Post Office to maintain it. Everything can be sent there: packages and letters. The only thing you can't send there is a door-to-door service (like UPS?) Anyway, mostly, use this one. :D Thanks! (it will get to me if you send to the other one, but President said that this one is better.)
Well, this week, God reminded me that He is in charge of everything. And He also let me know that I really am doing some good. You see, all week we had appointment after appointment fall through. We taught lessons, but I was feeling a little down because no one seemed to be a progressing investigator. And none of the "returning members" (no more "less actives") seemed to say that they would come to church. Actually the entire time I've been in Roxas, I've struggled with the fact that not very many of those returning members that I've visited seem to want to return to church. I also found out on Saturday that one of our investigators won't listen to me because I'm American. And he won't listen to anyone who is American. (he's only 10, and his parents are members). I still have to figure out why he hates me... And in the middle of that day someone decided to try and teach me about their church. He was one of those people who are out to prove the rightness of them and the wrongness of you. He seemed nice, but I knew he just wanted to convince me that I was wrong. We are not to debate, it is neither missionary-like, or Christ-like. So I just told him to have a nice day and walked away. But I was really down at this point. By the time we got home and I texted the Zone Leaders to inform them so, I put a little smiley face at the end of the message (we're home now :-) ) He replied and said, I'm glad you're happy! Haha, I was only happy the day was over.
Well, Sunday was the day God decided to show me His power. In short, there were 4 recent converts (still going strong!), 3 investigators, 6 returning members (one that I've been visiting for 6 months, and hasn't come to church till yesterday), and 1 referral were at church. When the last one came in to the chapel, I cried. Then I said a little prayer of thanks.
I know that this is not MY work. This is God's work. And it is my privilege to be a part of it. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the lives of these wonderful people, and especially to be a part of bringing the gospel to them, and them to the gospel. I know that I am not alone in my efforts to bring others to Christ. Thank you for all your prayers and support.
Love Always,
Sister Jennie Adams
Well, I debated about whether I should comment or not, since I don't know Jennie, but then I figured why not? My name is Kristen, and I'll soon be a missionary in the Philippines Iloilo Mission as well (I report at the end of October). I'm really excited. I found Jennie's blog when I was trying to find pictures of sister missionaries for examples of what kind of clothing I should buy (I know they tell you in the book, but I'm more of a visual person, and the pictures in the book didn't have too many short sleeve examples). Anyways, I wasn't really getting any results by typing "Sister Missionaries" into Google, so for the heck of it I typed in "Sister Missionaries Iloilo." And voila! I stumbled upon this blog. I have to say that it's been so fun to read it these last couple of days. It's really making me look forward to serving a mission there, even more than I already was! I enjoy reading about the struggles she has, as well as the joys, because I know that those will also be my struggles and joys. I can also tell that she's a great missionary and I hope to be just as good as she is by the time I've been out that long. Anyways, that's all. I hope this wasn't too weird. If it was, feel free to delete it :). Thanks for sharing this blog though.
ReplyDelete