Sister Franks in the Philippines – May 11, 2014

Hello! So this is short and not that exciting, because I don’t have much time. Here’s a little taste of my week though. More next time!!

This week has been another great week! As you know, I just pretty much love my life as a missionary. This has been a good week for the saving of souls. We had two baptisms we got to witness, but only one actually in my area here in Taytay. Saturday morning, we got to go to Morong to the baptism of this sweet old Tatay we taught for a long time there (as in, he investigated for a year and a half, I just caught the end part where he really started progressing), a husband of a new member (now a member for over a year). Nanay was so happy, and the two of them were so cute! They are so wonderful, and I am so happy that Tatay finally decided to take this step, even though it has been hard for him to get to the point of being ready/prepared. I am so happy that they are continuing on the path that they need to follow in order to be sealed for time and all eternity in the temple of the Lord.
On the other end of the scale, we also had a baptism here in Taytay on Saturday night for the son of a less-active family that we have been helping to return to activity. John Paul is turning 10 and is so magaling. He is so sincere in his desire to follow the Savior and keep the commandments. He was so excited to finally be able to be baptized. Hopefully this will be a great help to his family, as well, and they will be able to keep coming back to church and stay active so he can fulfill his desires of growing in the church and eventually serving a mission. We are still working on getting member fellowshippers for the family. The ward is really great though, and are so good about helping us when we need it. I’m still working on learning everyone’s names though and trying to get to know the members here better…

Our investigators are honestly so great!! There are so many promising and progressing ones. We have a few relatively new ones who have shown a lot of good potential. One, the one I mentioned last week, I think, is a member referral and so open to our message. Sister Edith. We taught her last week and were able to follow up on her prayer. She prayed about Joseph Smith and felt good daw after her prayer. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and committed her to read and pray about it as well (we felt impressed to wait to invite again to baptism/set a date until both her and her husband were there). She said she was more than willing to read and would read whenever she had free time (she has 5 kids, so that’s not always, but she’s really sincere about it). Then she said “the only problem is, I don’t have a Book of Mormon…what should I do?” We gladly explained that we were there to give her one. 🙂 I just love her so much!
Another of our investigators, Jhey (who will be baptized on the 24th), is progressing so well too!!! He, without any prompting or direction from us, decided to go buy himself a white shirt so that when he is a priesthood holder he can match their “uniform.” He wore it to church on Sunday (instead of the black coat he usually wears) and looked so good! He even came to church by himself, because his fellowshipper (an RC who referred him) wasn’t able to come. We are SO excited for his baptism!
Basically, I am just coming to realize how much I LOVE being a missionary. Regardless of where or whom I am serving and teaching (I was able to do splits a couple of times in the past two weeks because Sister Morrell and Sister Welling have both been really sick), the spirit of this work is just so strong and so powerful, and it is amazing how, the longer I am out, the easier it is to see people for their potential and not just where they are right now. This work is so true, and we are so blessed to be a part of it! 🙂

Hope you all have a great week!!! I love you all!
Love always,

Sister Franks