Mandaluyong- week 11.......a longer email than usual... enjoy :)

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails! I appreciate them. This week has been great. I've learned so many lessons and I'm very appreciative of what God is teaching me. I love the Philippines. I really must be part Filipina... and I'm actually about the average height for a female here so I'm really not much of a giant but I do still feel tall... all my companions have been the extremely, short ones so that's why I probably look really tall.... but anyways... :) So since everyone loves to comment how "long" my emails are.... I thought I would write a longer one to you all. Usually, I don't have time so sorry about that but now we'll see how this goes... not to mention you probably don't know much about them because I haven't really said that much... but here it is :)

It's been a week full of God's miracles. On Saturday was our baptism with Arnel. It was a very spiritual experience. His whole family came to see him get baptized. His wife is a less-active but we're working with her. Anyways, after he was baptized, the time came for his testimony. He could hardly speak. He was crying so hard because he was so happy... and his wife, Nolita was crying hard too. It was such a spiritual event. The spirit was strong. Arnel said that it was now time for us to teach his daughter (they only have one child) because before he didn't want the missionaries to teach her until he got baptized first so he could set a good example for his daughter and her "husband". He said that it was now her turn. God is really helping us out a lot! We also had four baptismal interviews after the baptism so we literally spent the whole day with our district leader... but it was exciting. :)  This coming Saturday there will be four more people getting baptized. God is blessing us with people who are ready to receive the gospel, especially among the less-active. The four people who are getting baptized are Teresa and Elyza Soleno, Kristina and Romel Prado... I'm so excited for these baptisms. Teresa is the wife of Brother Soleno who just became fully active again yesterday! So this Saturday the Soleno family will be complete! God is really helping the work out! During the interview with the District Leader, Sister Soleno told him that she didn't know how we convinced her to get baptized on our first visit/meeting with her because other missionaries (all elders) had taught them previously but she always said no... but then she said yes with us and it's been incredible to hear her story and how God really does prepare people... and missionaries and members just need to go out and find them. Brother Romel is a 29 year old who is also truly prepared. His girlfriend is a member but he started this search on his own and he has a testimony that is great. God is great. This week we also met Jose Soleno for the first time. (Joseph's older brother, they have about 9 siblings). Yes, he's less active and his family are not members. But we met them and the wife is really excited to listen to the message. She's great... she even committed the whole entire family (they only have one child) to come to church! Sadly, vacation started for her on Saturday but they're ready to hear the gospel. It's amazing. Robert Soleno (another older brother of Joseph and yes, all three live right next door to each other... we just walk three or four steps and we're at their home) and his whole entire family (they're also not members) came to church on Sunday! We've only visited them once and then on that Sunday only Robert came... but we couldn't visit them this past week but on Sunday Robert, his wife and all of his children were there at church! It's amazing... During the week, when we visited Joseph Soleno's family, Robert's wife was happy to see us as we walked by! I learned so much that visiting teaching and home teaching are so important. Robert Soleno started to come back because we visited them... if only visiting teachers and home teachers realized the power they have in bringing back less-actives and retaining them... God is truly great. One of our investigators is Jovan Calvo, he's 26 years old. His mom and sister are recent converts (Nanay Josephine is the mom and she was baptized in December). So it's a part-member family and we're teaching Jovan and another sibling of his... This is the third transfer with him and he's finally progressing. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and just during the week, he was pondering to himself and decided that he would pray about it (we hadn't committed him or asked him to) and God gave him an answer. It was a vision! And Jovan is ready for his baptism on April 21, he just needs to continue to not drink :S  He's amazing. He's reading every day and I'm excited for him. God is really helping that family out. God is continually blessing us with miracles... for example. On Tuesday, we were about to teach Romel at the church and we needed a member present but there really were no people there... but then out of a blue a member (an S.A.) came up to the church and walked over to the three of us and said hello and then he stayed for Romel's lesson and it was perfect because it was about the Sabbath Day and the member had a strong testimony about the Sabbath Day... it was inspired. Apparently, he just came to the church to see if it was open... talk about divine inspiration :) It was great. I'm learning so much every day and I love the lessons God is teaching me! Sorry it's not too long but I tried. There's just so many people and experiences that happen every day and there's not enough time... but hopefully you all enjoyed this one :D  I love this work and thanks again for the emails!

Mahal ko Kayo,

Sister Mohrman

Mandaluyong- week 10........whoa! a flood of emails :)

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails, I really appreciate it! Things have been great! God is really helping this work along and I love it. I really love the lessons I'm learning every day.... they're very helpful :)  It rained the other day and it was great. It's also pretty funny asking when the rainy season begins to the Filipinos because they all have different answers. Some say it's in May, others in June, Others in August. so it's pretty interesting... I'll guess I'll find out for myself :)  Anyways, a lot has happened this past week and I really appreciate the help from God. Some of the less-actives have been returning to church so they're called "returning members" and I'm really happy about that. One of the returning less-actives is a family. The Soleno family. The dad (brother joseph) is a member but his wife and child are not members. But a few weeks ago they had their child blessed during Sacrament and that's where we met them. Brother Joseph's brother-in-law is an American (who lives in Arizona) and he is the one who blessed their baby. Joseph's sister wanted us to teach his daughter (she's eleven) but we were curious to know who her parents were. So we met them and set an appointment with them. Now, the wife and daughter both have baptismal dates for March 31... and it's exciting. God truly led us to this family and when we found them. We also found more of the Soleno families. Brother Joseph has 8 other siblings and only two or three are active in the church. It's kind of funny. But there are three houses right in a row... Brother Joseph is on one end. His sibling Jose is in the Middle and His other sibling, Robert, is on the other end. They're all part-members and less actives and it's pretty ironic that they're all right next to each other. :)  Robert also came to church yesterday and it's a start for him! It's pretty exciting (for me, but probably confusing to the reader) :)  haha.  This work is moving along and it's great. God is great. Thanks again for everything! 

Mahal ko Kayo!

Sister Mohrman

Mandaluyong- week 9...... God's work is great :)

Kumusta!

Thanks for the emails! I appreciate them!. This has been yet another great week! God is helping this work out so much! He is great! We go to the prison many times during the week and it's been pretty funny. We've been talking with the guards and then they become our new investigators! It's fun... :)  I was also just reading in Omni about the People of Zarahemla (PoZ for short) and Mosiah. (this is going to be a really short, simple summary about a part of it) The PoZ were so excited to see that Mosiah had scriptures with them but they couldn't understand each other because of the communication barrier.... so Mosiah teaches them how to read and speak in their language and then they can read the scriptures and all is well. Anyways, one of our investigators is Vincent. He's 15 years old and he doesn't know how to read very much (he doesn't have much schooling). His grandfather and aunts are less-actives who are now slowly returning to church :).  So the grandpa has been reading every night with Vincent from the Book of Mormon. It's amazing to see the change. Vincent is now more confident in reading out loud to us and is knowing to read much better.... and all of that comes from the Book of Mormon. It's incredible to see! There is great power in the Book of Mormon and from reading it together as families. Because that family (well, one of the aunts, the grandpa, and Vincent) came to church!. God is truly blessing us and as we've been finding the less-actives we find a lot of new investigators. There's this less-active family the Soleno family. We found them (the dad is the only member) and now the wife and daughter have a baptismal date and they've come to church twice. So we're praying that they'll have a real testimony and desire. God is really blessing us over here. It was also a great week because of the Teaching Assistant's exchange with my companionship. It was my first time with them (and only my second time in my mission so far). I got to work with Sister Bautista and she's amazing. I learned so much and she said the things I really needed to hear. She helped me out a lot! It was a marvelous day! She's a great example to me of what a missionary is and I can see why God called her to be one of the Teaching Assistants... I'm so grateful for that and for the many lessons I'm learning from God every day. Thanks again for the emails! Sorry this is short... but I'm sure you all will survive... :) Eventually, they'll be longer (maybe...depending on time) :)  Oh yeah... my vocabulary list in Vasaya is picking up. It seems everyone speaks it in this area and they're excited to teach me this language... so it's been interesting. but it's pretty funny going to the homes and then saying the few words I know and they're surprised and happy that I'm trying to speak their native language to them... :)  Yeah...it's a long, long, long ways to go before I can speak it because my focus is on Tagalog first... then the others can come.... but I enjoy it :D  

Mahal ko Kayo!

Sister Mohrman

Mandaluyong- week 8.... hello summer

Kumusta!

Maraming salamat for the emails! I appreciate it very much. Things are going good here. God is great and He is helping this work out so much! I guess that this technically begins the summer season over here.... so it should be interesting. Hopefully, it still rains some.... but if not, I do like the sun! No more being a ghost! haha  :)  Anyways, this has been a great week. There's lots to tell and not enough time, so I'll just tell a little bit.. (pretty nice, I know)   My companion and I decided that we would extend baptismal invites in the majority of our lessons, something that every missionary should be doing but we hadn't and so we decided we would. About two weeks ago, we extended a baptismal invite to Venilou and it helped us. For some reason, she just thought missionaries were there to have a bible study with her. When we extended the invitation it changed her. She started to hide from us... (it was pretty amusing watching her hiding in the bathroom with her kids giggling at her because they told us where she was) and so this past week, we had the "do or die" lesson. Sister Venilou didn't want to meet with us anymore and so we dropped her... so we realized even more that when we extend the invites early we find those who are actually ready. For example, we were walking into a prison and the guard stopped us and we started to talk. He asked us what our purpose here in the Philippines was and so we told him.... Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, etc... essentially, we told him that we're here to baptize people into the true church and then we got a return appointment with him... it's been pretty great. These are just two small examples but there are lots more. God has blessed us so much! Things are great and I love it here. I love all these lessons I'm learning. It was also pretty amusing this past week. One reason is that here in the Philippines there are these massive amounts of children here, especially in my area (well, really all my areas)... and so every day we have swarms of children following us... and so  around Thursday we were walking down the street and we literally had group after group of children following us and surrounding us and so my companion turned around and said to them, "do you have a question, good... go away" It was hilarious. She even did the hand motions with it! It had to be one of the funniest things I've seen! Well I need to go... thanks again for the emails!

Mahal ko Kayo!

Sister Mohrman