Tuesday, February 26, 2013

February 18 – Zone Activity at the Beach

Hey family!

We had a zone activity this morning, which is why I am emailing late today. We went to the beach and cleaned up some garbage, and then we played ultimate frisbee, and then I helped some elders dig a mote around the salt lake temple they were building in the sand to protect it from the waves. It was really fun. I got quite sunburned. I also found a hermit crab while we were cleaning up garbage, and some of the elders wanted to name it "Shiz", you know, like from the book of Ether. Anyway, It was fun to go to the beach.

This is what I wrote to President Barrientos today:

"My spiritual highlight for this week happened on Sunday evening. We were teaching an investigator about faith, and she was telling us about how she didn't come to church because she has so many things she is doing, and Sunday is her only day off. I suddenly felt I should tell her about the prophet Elijah and the widow, whom he asked for food, but she only had enough to make one meal for her and her son and then they would die, but Elijah promised that if she would give him food, she would not run out, and she trusted him, and she didn't run out of food. I related that to giving our time to God first, and he will make it so we don't run out of time to do everything we need to. Sometimes I have things come to my mind that I should say, but that time, the prompting was really strong, like the feeling when I am sitting in testimony meeting and I feel prompted that I need to bear my testimony. I also noticed that when I am following the spirit, the gift of tongues is a lot more powerful--both in helping me to be able to put my thoughts into words clearly, and to be able to speak Tagalog."

This has been a pretty busy week. We moved to our new apartment on Tuesday. It's a lot nicer than our old one. It was pretty dirty when we moved in, so President let us take most of the day on Wednesday to clean. Now it looks pretty, and there are no more cobwebs in the CR (comfort room or bathroom). We have a shower, but it is really weak, and I still prefer to use the bucket anyway.

Also, Sister Cabato is training a new sister, Sister Deyro. She came early (transfers aren't until February 26, but she came last Thursday), and so we will be a threesome until transfer day. She is really nice. It's fun to be three in the apartment, instead of just two.

Oh, wanna hear something funny about Tatay A? Well, he's 68 years old, and he's still single, and this last week we needed to teach him about eternal marriage. We weren't exactly sure how to do that, but we decided to emphasize that eternal marriage is required for exaltation, but if we don't have the opportunity in this life, we will have it in the next life as long as we do everything we can and are faithful. After we taught that, Tatay told us he is determined to find a wife. He says he will go to Cagayan (another province in the mission) in May to look for one, and if she isn't a member, he'll have her be baptised first. He's so funny. Everything we tell him, he takes to heart.

Oh, did I tell you about Sister P? She is one of our new investigators. We have taught her 3 times, and I am so impressed with her. We gave her the restoration pamphlet to read after our second visit, and when we came back, she had not only read it, she had looked up the scriptures in the back and answered the questions that went with them. She is the only investigator I have ever had who has done that. And when we invited her to be baptized, she accepted right away. I am so pleased about her.

Oh, and we gave Sister M's daughter an illustrated Book of Mormon stories book for her birthday, and M said her dad has been reading it. It makes me smile. Maybe we will be able to teach him too.

Well, that's about all. Thank you so much for your emails every week. I look forward to them every Monday, and they brighten my day so much. I love you all. I'm so thankful for the gospel. I know with all my heart that it is true. there is nothing in this world that is more important. Poeple need to realize that so much. I am thankful to be here in the Philippines sharing the gospel.

Love, Sister Boekweg

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