Lots of love from your little missionary in Asia!

Hello! Well, the rainy season is starting to kick in now! I like it. I love Caba. Tagalog is coming great. and I'm picking up a little Ilocano, which is fun!

This week, Sister Dollente and I taught a workshop about "Companionship Unity," which was a lot of fun. I enjoy working with Sister Dollente.

We extended a baptismal invitation to Sister Ruby. She believes it's true, but she really wants to wait until her whole family can join the church with her. So we are working on finding a time to be able to teach them all. Yay! She mentioned how impressed she is with the doctrines we are teaching her. She says that she doesn't feel content listening to any other religions because she doesn't understand their doctrine, but that every question that she raises, we are able to answer to her contentment, using the Book of Mormon. When she offered the prayer at the close of our lesson, it was cute to hear her tell Heavenly Father, "Nagpapasalamat po ako na contentong-contento ako sa mga bagay na itinuturo ng mga missionaries" (I am grateful that I am very content with the things that the missionaries are teaching). I love sister Ruby. She is a sweet humble lady.

One thing that is neat is that many of the people we teach, when we ask them how they feel when they read the Book of Mormon, they answer on a similar theme: it gives them a "light" feeling as if their burdens are being lifted and all problems dissolving. There's something about being a missionary that really gives you the desire to know the Book of Mormon like the back of your hand. The Book of Mormon has an answer for everything! It is the most powerful resource for teaching. One of our investigators, Reynante (16 years old - whom we set a baptismal date with this week) said that as he is reading the Book of Mormon, he is finding out "what God is like."

Some adventures of this week: we found 2 dead rats in our apartment, got drenched in the rain, had to shout while teaching (because the rain was so loud) and poor sister Dollente - all of her photos from way back to the beginning of her mission (she's been out 10 months) were deleted (when she lended her camera to a ward member). She is taking it very well however. I really admire her optimism, forgiveness, sense of humor, and eternal perspective. What a gal!

I found out that the Sudiacals (a family of 7 that I started teaching in Dagupan) are finally getting baptized on June 19th! The whole family. It makes me so happy! Also, Christine, another of my investigators from Dagupan, got baptized on Saturday!

We found a very sweet old lady this week: Lolita, 87 years old. After teaching, she asked how much the Book of Mormon cost, and when we gave it to her, she cried. How sweet. It was funny when we taught them the steps of prayer, because we wrote it out for her but she didn't realize that it was just a pattern, and so she simply said, "Heavenly Father, we thank thee.... we ask thee......in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. So we taught her that she could use her own words and add what she was thankful for and what blessing she desired, instead of just reading it.

Got to go! Time's up! I love you very much! The church is true! Lots of hugs and kisses!
Love, Rebecca