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
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