27 March 2017 letter
Hello my loves! This week
seemed really long for some reason, but it was really so good and full of
countless miracles! Sister Sumaribos is so awesome. She is teaching me so many
great things. One thing that she and her old companion did differently was pray
a lot more. At first I was worried about how much time it was taking, but then
I realized that Heavenly Father is the only one who knows where our time will
be most beneficial and what each individual needs to hear so we need to be
involving Him in our days as much as possible. It is His work! I really believe
that it is the source of all our miracles this week!
The most exciting thing is
that we have three new investigators who we found on a potential investigators
list. It is a family who is super nice and open. The parents, Cane and Kayla
are both really young and they have three cute kids. Mia is 8 and super
outspoken and talkative haha; she will tell you anything on her mind. Then they
have two adorable toddlers named Curtis and Lexi. We first met Kayla, who was
happy to have us back. The second time we came, we met Cane, he and his buddy
were smoking weed or something on their front porch. He doesn't really believe
in God but he is also really open to listen and interested. The daughter Mia,
is the one who is most excited about us coming. A lot of primary schools in
Australia have bible classes and she loves hers. My favorite quote of our first
lesson with them: when Sis Sumaribos and Cane were talking about a famous
Filipino boxer, "are we going to talk about boxing, or are we going to
talk about JESUS!" Another time she asks us how old we are. Sister
Sumaribos says she is 26 and I say I am 19. "Oh, so you're only a
teenager." Instantly shot down lol. Anyway, they are a strong little
family and the gospel would bless their family so much! Please keep them in
your prayers and pray that Sis Sumaribos and I can be adequate teachers
and help them to understand. Mia's Friends that live next door, Madelyn and
Jacob came over for the lessons too!
My first Sunday was an
interesting experience. They definitely put us to work in a branch! In
sacrament, I bore my testimony, then we taught three crazy boys in primary,
then in the 2nd hour of primary, we did singing time with them. It was all so
fun though! We have to work a lot more with the branch members in this area
because basically the only way of finding people to teach is door knocking,
which is not the most effective. We visit them every day. There are so many
great members! A lot of old adorable couples. On Sunday, the numbers were low
so there were probably only less than 40 there, but usually they get 50-70. I
received such a warm welcome though! There are just one other set of Elders in
the branch, Elders Tovi and Crowten. Elder Tovi was also just transferred in as
well. We work a lot with them.
I love getting to meet so
many cool people from all over the world every day, and be in such a beautiful
area. There are so many reasons to be happy every day, especially when I am
doing the work of the Lord. I hope you are all doing well and happy and
healthy! Have a great week!
Sister Pace
Photos: a cool Filipino brother and sister that we met at the car dealership, waiting for our car to be serviced this morning. Sister Sumaribos takes pictures with all the Filipino's we meet.
April 2nd Letter:
Well, it has been another
great week in the Mittagong Branch. I'm trying to remember what even happened.
The Ragg Family, the
ones I told about last week, said they will be at church this Sunday! We
forgot that it is general conference, but that will be even better. Hopefully
Mia, the 8 year old, will be willing to sit and listen to some of the talks.
(Oh yeah I forgot to mention that we see conference the week after
because we are a day ahead of when it happens in Salt Lake). We had a great
lesson with the Raggs on Thursday. Turns out, Cane, the father, started
reading the Book of Mormon! When we asked, he started recapping the whole
introduction and he had lots of questions, Some that we didn't even know the
answer to! We were so shocked and happy! We are excited to finish teaching them
the restoration so he can start putting it all together. They are so great! All
of their neighbors are always in and out of their house (they are friends with
everyone!) so sometimes it’s hard to get everyone settled down for a
lesson, but it always ends up working out, usually with multiple neighbor kids
listening in as well.
Every week has countless
miracles! One that happened on Monday night was after our plans had fallen
through (when miracles usually happen). We decided to go visit a less
active member Natalie, who has some mental disabilities. She was so sweet and
we had a productive visit with her. Then we were knocking doors around her
house. It was getting late, but we decided to knock on one more door. Then we
met an older woman named Barbara. She and each of her family members have all
different faiths. The whole time we were talking to her, she looked like she
was trying to decide. Then, she realized that she had met with
missionaries before, around 6-8 years ago, but had lost contact with them over
time. We helped her remember that she felt the Holy Ghost when they taught her.
Finally, she decided that yes, we could come back the next day!
Unfortunately she has been sick all week so we haven't met with her yet,
but hopefully tonight. I know that the Holy Ghost was guiding what we said to
her. I am so grateful for those elders who planted that seed of faith in her
heart years ago! I have realized that that is most of our work, planting seeds.
Seeds take time to grow, and we might not always see the harvest, but we can be
confident and happy with our work as long as we are being obedient and doing
our best.
Other miracles have involved
having really good visits with a few less active ladies in the ward. One
of them has been going through an extremely difficult time and is losing her
faith. I was able to feel heavenly Father's love for her so strongly, I was
having trouble keeping it together. We mostly just testified to her of God's
plan of happiness for us because nothing we could have said would have made it
better. It is so cool how we can always just testify of the things we know and have
felt, and we can never be wrong!
I am really enjoying the work
more and more every day! Sister Sumaribos is still so great and we are doing
well. Having the guidance of the Holy Ghost in our lives is so important,
especially on a mission. I have been able to see Him guide us throughout each
day, it is incredible.
I love you all So so much!
Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Pace
April 1st was both Brother Magick's and Sister Roger's birthdays. The Lake where we had the party:
Good Eats! Sister Sumaribos likes to cook for us! #blessed
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