Man does not live by bread alone!‏

Written 12/29/13

Hellloo!!! (Mrs. Doubtfire style, anyone?)

Hey, guys. So... It was a pretty great week :) I got to see your shining faces, which was definitely the highlight of the week (if you'll excuse the pun. My humor has gotten so bad...). Our Christmas was AWESOME. We got to skype, we exchanged gifts, and it felt so Christmasy in our apartment. Sister Davis' mom sent her Christmas tree scents, so it even SMELLED like Christmas in the apartment. How fun :) We ate with Brother P. for Christmas lunch and that was pretty fun. It was a catered lunch! Ritzy. We're excited for the progress he's making... albeit slowly.

In regards to the subject line.... That was proven true this week. Man needs WATER to live. And we ran out. The past week the water in our apartment wasn't working, meaning we relied on the rain (typhoon) water outside in our big barrels to shower etc. It's not that bad, but we used the last of the Yolanda water on the day after Christmas to shower.. We were literally scraping the bottom of the barrel :) Ahaha. The water got pretty nasty.. We dumped out the last yucky dregs of it down our drain outside and cleaned out the barrels so they'd be ready for new, clean rainwater. But now we had zero water to wash dishes, ourselves, the apartment,and our clothes. (I never realized the necessity of water for all those things....) Our barrels outside were empty and waiting to be filled, though! So I suggested that we say a prayer together for rain to fill our buckets enough to have some water to shower the next day. Lo and behold, 20 minutes later, while in the middle of personal study, a downpour occurs :) All of us looked up from our desks as smiles crept onto our faces :) We raced outside to make sure we had as many buckets as possible catching water. God's so awesome, right? It rained for a couple hours, and by the time we got home that night, we had enough water to shower the next day :) 

Not only was this experience an awesome miracle, It made me think about us as individuals when we ask for blessings from God. Hopefully this makes sense, because it's easier in my head. We have barrels, if you will, in our minds or hearts, waiting to be filled with whatever we are asking from God. Help, guidance, comfort, knowledge, forgiveness. God wants to fill these, but first we have to be willing to dump out whatever yucky stuff may be inside; whatever may be filling them up currently, and disallowing us from filling them up with things of the Lord. Maybe it's our pride, maybe our desire to sin. Perhaps we have guilt, or we're harboring bad feelings against someone. Before the Lord can fill us up with what we're asking for, we must be willing to relinquish whatever gross stuff may be holding us back from becoming empty- in order to be filled. Often times people say things need to get worse before they get better. I've found the same thing. Sometimes it seems like the Lord is asking for so much from us. We're pouring out our soul for Him.. Only to find that he was drawing out the gunk from us.. Making us empty and clean in preparation for the blessings he has waiting for us. In essence, we must let go of sin before we can become vessels of the Lord. 

Hope that made sense.. It made more sense in my head, but that's how it normally goes with these things :) Hope you are all having a wonderful and lovely week. I love things here in the Philippines! Life is simply awesome. Missionary work is awesome. Happy New Year to everyone.. Write me and let me know your new years resolutions! It's a time for change, no? No better time than now. 

Sister and I have a baptism this week! Our cute little G. is being baptized on Saturday! :) She just turned 12, and her mom is a less active. We actually found her through OYM, and found out later that her mom is a less active. Amazing, how the Lord works! We've only been teaching her for about 3 weeks but she's definitely ready and excited to be baptized. I'll send pictures next week and tell you about it! Yay for saving souls. 

Love you all so much! Till next week,

Sister Luke

 

 1. They have the sweetest gates here in front of everyone's houses. This is one of my new favorites we found :)

 2. This is what happens when we run out of water.... This is us filtering the water before we shower. We take water out of the big blue one and run it through an old button up shirt into the bucket :) Voila! Ready-Rain-water. Try it at home! Just kidding, that's gross. :)

 3. The miracle rain filling the buckets!