Hello!
This was a long week. I don't know exactly why it seemed so long but I feel like last pday was forever ago!
An update on our investigators, one has his baptism this Saturday at 6pm. We taught him yesterday and when we asked him what he read he nearly ran to go get his scriptures. He is reading in 2 Nephi 2. He even has a picture of the scriptures as the background for his phone to remind him to read. He is so excited for Saturday! Another investigator we have we found her a long time ago but we had to drop her because she was never home. Turns out she was in the province because her house flooded but we have returned to teaching her and she asks really good questions. She is a Jehovah Witness but she doesn't really like that church. She introduced us to her sister who is a born again and so we started teaching her as well, and she has tons of questions as well. It is difficult to keep up with what they want to know! Even our 17 year old investigator, her 18th birthday is November 30 and her due date is on December 16, wants to get married and baptized between the time she turns 18 and the baby arrives. She is so excited and is willing to do anything. She even asked how she can help with the splitting of the wards and what is a stake, and how can I get a calling (explanation for that later in this letter). She is so excited! But she can't get baptized until she is married and she can't get married until she is 18. So she is learning all she can now to prepare.
Our finding has improved the last half of this week. We have been receiving referrals from our investigators and other missionaries and even members now (They got chastised this week by the stake for not providing referrals). We have been talking to tons of people on the street. One of our finding efforts was really interesting a few weeks ago, we asked someone "Do you know any Mormons around here?" Usually they just answer no, and we ask them what religion they are and ask if we can give a prayer for them and PtP from there. But this time the man we were talking to said yes they live over there, and pointed us over. He made it very clear that he wanted us to go to them so we did. We started walking and then a boy carrying water saw us and pointed us to the house and said the Mormons are over there. So we went in and found a less active member family. We taught them a few times and got some members over to visit them. But our finding this week is going well too. We have found several investigators with great potential and some have even been taught by the missionaries before. Funny experience, we were finding yesterday and we came across a group of people playing cards and talking and so we said hi and asked them about what they were doing. They were having a birthday party for their grandmother who was 90 years old yesterday. They invited us in and gave us food and we shared with them. Some of them have been taught by the missionaries a long long time ago but they were willing to listen to us yesterday. As we left they told everyone that passed on the street Pasok! (Enter! come in) they were having a great time.
My spiritual experience this week is just being able to feel the spirit as we teach the lessons to our investigators. Seeing the joy in their eyes as they hear the answer to a question. And seeing the eagerness that they have to hear the gospel and learn of Christ. Being able to share with people the importance of doing what the Lord asks of them and seeing them try their hardest.
As to how my companions and I are doing, we are improving every day. We find spots that we are a little rough at but we are trying to work them out. The topic earlier this week was teaching with unity. It has been difficult this week because we have all been feeling just a little bit off. Sister Sadueste was sick and now Sister Wootton is sick. Just a cold nothing to worry about but it is throwing off our mindsets. When we realize that we aren't on track we stop and assess and try to find a solution. We also had yesterday without Sister Sadueste as she was in Manila for her Visa Interview. We missed her so much but we tried very hard to do our work that she had planned for us (it was her day to plan yesterday) and I think the result would make her happy. We really will miss her when she leaves for Peru. She passed her interview for the Visa and I think she leaves on October 16th. She misses the mission tour of our area 70 but she is here for the deep clean of our apartment scheduled for the week before! She is going to do great in Peru.
As for me, overall it was a good week. We got work done and we got new goals from the Stake. They have some pretty big goals! Our mission goal is only 2 baptisms per companionship per month. The stake has asked each ward to have 20 baptisms a month. So that they can split the wards and create a new stake. So our goal to finish off this year is to keep up with the stakes expectations and try to get 20 baptisms a month. The Ward is even required to give us referrals so that will help a ton. Their goal is to have the new stake by November 2018. I can't wait to see how it turns out.