My Own Princess Pammy

Written 11/9/14

**Disclaimer/Just an explanation from Megan: Princess Pammy is the title of a series of made-up stories that Grandma tells to the grandchildren in our family. This would be the reason for the subject of this email.

Once upon a time there was an 80 year old man who bought Sister Luke and Sister Santos ice cream when they tried to talk to him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he told them all about his multiple girlfriends in many lands, and Sister Luke shared with him the Law of Chastity.

Once upon a time Sister Santos and Sister Luke were walking in the mountains when they heard what sounded like a really sad kitten. Little did they know it was actually the call of a bright yellow frog, being eaten by a green snake.

Once upon a time, Sister Luke's batchmate and BEST friend in the Bacolod mission, Sister Char, became her new STL. Sister Luke felt like Alma when his strength was exhausted because of his happiness. Then Sister Luke got to listen to Sister Char give a wonderful training on Friday.

Once upon a time Sister Luke found out that her recent convert, T., became the young men's president in Bacolod 2nd ward. Her joy was again, so much that her strength was exhausted.

Once upon a time, Sister Luke started her 11th transfer in the mission field.....

So that was some of my week. My past companions THINK they can die here in the mission. Sister De Castro is now officially an RM, and Sister Fitz and Sister Foote are next to die. Also, my past companions all THINK they can become companions! Sister Fitz and Sister Oquias are together and I'm SO happy. Plus with Sister Char here.... Life doesn't get too much better.

The area is finally seeing success. It feels so good to see the hand of the Lord blessing this area. J.P., the brother of a recent convert was baptized on Saturday, and this week C. surprised us by setting her own baptismal date on the 15th! Her husband is home now (he was working up north up till now) and he accepted a baptismal date for December 6th. We’re so excited for this little family. Brother M. is so receptive and willing to learn and supportive of C.

This week Sister R. showed up to church in a new skirt and bringing her four kids with her. She asked for a priesthood blessing for her oldest boy who had a raging fever, and it was amazing to see her faith. She’s already in Mosiah in her reading. M. is on track to be baptized on the 22nd with R.

Brother L., a husband of our RC, Sister B., actually took a book of Mormon this week! He always sits and listens skeptically to our lessons while he sews and we teach Sister B., but this past while he’s started asking questions and this week he asked, “Who’s Alma and why isn’t he in the Bible?” and other questions like that. We gave a brief explanation and Sister Santos bravely offered him a copy for himself. He took it, and said he’d read it in his spare time. I know the Spirit is not limited… It can work on anyone.

We had 10 investigators at church on Sunday and our mom investigators are all bringing their kids to church... Hopefully soon the husbands will folllow. That's our current project. Project Husband. Okay, that sounds bad for a missionary to say.... You know what I mean. I promise I'm focused on my purpose...

Speaking of, I studied about my purpose and the doctrine of Christ this week, and it blew my mind all over again. The way is really so straight. But in that, we really see the love of our Lord. If it was zig-zag and looping, the path would be much harder and more exhausting to follow. Because the Lord loves us, He made the way straight. I want to close with one of my favorite scriptures from 2 Nephi,

"O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the  keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he  employeth no servant there; and there is none other way    save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.

I thank the Lord that the keeper of the gate is Christ. I know that if we live this gospel to the fullest, we will have what we need to be able to pass through that gate, and to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, to gain eternal life, and to sit down in His kingdom, to be crowned and glorified. Then we call all run up and down the stairs with Aunt Laura. I know she's just waiting for us :)

Hope your Once upon a time is as great as mine is right now.
 Love you all. Be good.

Love,
Sister Luke

1. Reunited. Sister Char.

2.  Wicked sunset
 

3. Cute J.P. or "Polpol"
 

4.  A piece of sugar cane. A question mark. A piece of art.
 

5. The feet of the missionaries...
 

6. Our addiction is getting out of control.
 

7. Sweet.
 

8. My new best friend the nun.
 

9. I'm a one cow woman. :)
 

10. "First you take a plastic bag, then you put it on your head..."
 

11. Our new pet. For Aubree.

Suman Overload

Written 11/2/14

No transfers for Sister Santos and I! Still here in the sticks of the sticks. And loving it :)

Also.

No one sent me pictures of my nieces and nephews in their Halloween costumes. I'm trying not to be miffed.

I know Dad and Krista's birthdays passed, but I need to add my bit on "Things I love about Dad" and "Things I love about Krista" since I wasn't there around the dinner table when this was discussed.

Dad: My favorite thing about dad is that he be's my bud, even when I'm 7,000 + miles away, he still emails me and says sweet things about Mom. Also that Dad has always magnified his calling in the church and as a father. Being here on the mission has taught me to appreciate that.

Krista: My favorite things about Krista is that she is a good supporter. She looks for ways to serve always, and is not wrapped up in herself. She's a good example of missionary work, and is good at laughing at herself and her mistakes, which I admire a lot.

I love you both! Did you eat German chocolate cake for me?

This week we celebrated "Kalag Kalag" the Filipino version of Halloween. Except it's on November 1. We go in the graveyards and proselyte and talk to the people there, which always makes for some good times. And some pretty awkward conversations, as you can imagine. I mean, we basically walk up to people sitting at the graves of their loved ones and say... "So... Who died?" I'm so tactful. I would not suggest this as a conversation starter.

We met a sister outside the other day that asked Sister Santos, "Pwede ko siya hicapan?" Or, "Can I touch her?" talking about me. I stuck out my hand to shake hands with her, but she wasn't satisfied, so she pinched my arm and my nose and got really excited and then walked away.

Another adventure was when Sister Santos and I were wading through the small stream on the way back from one of our areas and washing the mud off our feet. We were nearly finished when we heard a strange sound, and turned to look upstream to see a Carabao (Is that a water buffalo in america? I don't know) peeing, like, gallons of pee into the very water we've been cleaning our feet in. Sister and I ran away barely containing our giggles for fear of offending the owner of the Carabao. Ahaha.

Also, because of Kalag Kalag we were fed 5 TIMES... This sticky rice called Suman that every single family in the Pines makes on November 1, with coconut and coconut milk... It's delicious, but you get sick of it fast. And it's the heaviest food ever invented and by the end of Saturday I just wanted to throw up the 5 (filipino sized) (meaning HUGE) servings of suman with all the pancit and noodles and sprite that everyone else had forced us to eat.

Sorry, this isn't a very spiritual email. Let me see if I can do better.

On Sunday our baptismal candidate, J.P., passed his baptismal interview for his baptism on the 8th of November . He’s the younger brother of one of our recent converts and has been coming to church for a couple months now. We’re excited to see him baptized! On Sunday, Sister R. leaned over to me in gospel principles class as someone mentioned baptism and said to me, “I’m going to be baptized here. So...When?” M., our investigator around 50 years old is still working with us and the Lord on losing her coffee addiction, but she loves church and her faith is really growing. We had 7 investigators again at church and I really testify that even though things don't always work out during the weeks like we plan, the Lord steps in and makes up the difference.

This weekend with graveyard proselyting, we started out a little rough with some people that weren't interested at all in talking with us, but after a while they seemed to warm up. We ran into a mom named J., around 40 years old with 6 kids. She had met the missionaries a couple months ago when they talked to her outside her house, but must have never returned. She was really excited about the pamphlet we gave her and let us sing for her before we left and told us to come and teach her family. I love meeting receptive OYM’s. It’s really encouraging after other people run away and hide from us.

Don't have much more to say, except I know that my Redeemer lives, that He directs this work, and that this is His restored, true gospel here on the earth. One of my favorite lyrics I came across a few months ago about the Savior say this:

No creature is so lowly,
No sinner so depraved,
But feels thy presence holy
And thru thy love is saved.
Tho craven friends betray thee,
They feel thy love's embrace;
The very foes who slay thee
Have access to thy grace.

If Christ loved even those who mocked and spit upon Him, how much more is he able to love us, even in our sinful humanness, when we are willing to come to Him through repentance,acknowledge our weaknesses before Him, and work hand in hand with Him to overcome them. I know His grace is accessible to all, and because of His infinite Atonement and love, we can return to be with Him, and be like Him.

Have a blessed week,

Sister Luke

1. Gorgeous. This is a banana tree. 

2. Our Halloween Costumes and candy. We trick o' treated to each other. (I had to teach Sister about Trick or Treat general practices.)

3. The niece of one of our Recent converts. She loves my scripture case :)

 

4. The OKC fans here don't know how to spell Oklahoma.

 5. 3 of my favorite tots.

My New Best Friend

Written 10/26/14

I'm doing away with greetings at the beginning of my emails. I'm just not clever enough each week to think of a new one.

Happy Halloween! They don't have Halloween here. But it's one of my favorite holidays. They DO have a holiday called Kalag Kalag on November 1 and 2, which is basically all the Filipinos gathering in their cemeteries to eat on the graves of their loved ones. We get to go to the graveyards this week and proselyte while everyone is doing Catholic prayers, so this should be pretty fun. :) Weird to think I was new here in the Pines with Sister Fitzgerald this time, last year.

Happy Birthday to Laila, Dad, and Krista! In ilonggo they don't have a way of saying happy birthday. They just use English. Kind of disappointing, right?

I'd like you all to meet my next door neighbor, my new best friend- in the first picture attached to this email. Don't worry mom, when I took this he had just finished eating a live duck, so it was very safe. :)

This week we had Zone Conference in Sipalay and it was amazing. Bacolod Mission baptized 590 souls in the month of September. Is the work hastening or what?? Seriously. I was astounded. I feel like Edna from the Incredibles: "Fight! WIN!" complete with the crazy eyes and fist pumps. That's totally what it feels like to invite people to be baptized every day.

Our mission is working on submitting pedigree charts for all our recent converts in the branches and wards here, and I've really enjoyed it, even though it's crazy and chaos to try and get people to remember dates, names and places. It's so fun to see them run into their house, search for marriage certificates, birth certificates, pictures and the like as they look for their ancestors dates and names. It really brings a great spirit and unifies the families we've taught. They start to discuss old memories and get excited about doing work for the dead. Except in our recent convert's house... R. (about 20 years old) was helping us fill out his pedigree chart, but he couldn't remember too many details. He kept returning into his house to ask his mom names, dates, etc, and apparently she was a little exasperated with his endless questions. It went like this: we'd send him inside to get a birthdate, hear the ensuing shouts from his mom, R. would come out, tell us the answer, and reluctantly head back in with more questions. Ahaha. Louder shouts would follow. This escalated until all their family records were committed into our hands and the mom told us to leave her in peace. Ahaha. What a rousing Spirit of Elijah.

We've had an investigator named M. who has come to church for the past two weeks. She's been taught for a couple months but only now have we seen major signs of progression. She told us she knows now that Sunday is a holy day, and will never work on Sunday again so she can go to church. She's working towards baptism in November, and told us in a lesson "I just want to know everything about your church so I can be a part of it." She loves Gospel Principles class and is always early for church. She stops her work anytime we pass by so we can teach her, and in our lesson yesterday about the Word of Wisdom, she told us she will stop drinking coffee, no questions asked. She is wonderful! She even invites our less active members to go with her to church.

We had a really nice experience this week with an investigator named P. referred by a member a couple months ago. The past month we've tried to visit we've found no one home, but this time was different. We were in a tricycle on our way to that area where she lives, and instead of stopping by her house first, just happened to go past her house and visit a less active instead. We stopped by some other appointments in that area, and then finally decided to head back down towards P.'s house. As we got there, we found some opportunity to give service, and it was a good way to introduce ourselves, as we hadn't previously met her. Just as we started the lesson, the member who originally gave the referral, Maricel, showed up randomly at the house. She told us she was washing clothes and suddenly felt the need to go faster so she could come visit Sister P. She arrived at the perfect time and gave a beautiful testimony of the power of prayer and the Book of Mormon. I have no doubt the Spirit knew where she needed to be, and I'm so grateful she was listening and worthy to receive the promptings of the Spirit.

We worked our tails off this week to reach our goals and saw so many miracles every day. On Sunday, we had 7 investigators at church, and even Sister R. came. We lost contact with her for about a week but started teaching her again and she stayed for all 3 hours of church with her kids and seemed to really enjoy it. My planner is now full of purple marker, compliments of her 5 year old daughter J. :) That's the real purpose of missionary planners.. To keep the small children entertained while we teach the parents.

Last of all, I had an epiphany this week I'd like to share with all of you.

 Gratitude is the antidote for comparison.

Lately I've become more fully aware of how awesome my life is. How many amazing people are in my life right now and what they have done for me and being here in the mission with the everyday miracles that are happening... How can I not be grateful? And I've realized in the journey to be full of gratitude, I've thought a lot less about myself and how I compare to others. I can overcome comparison because I'm focusing on what the Lord has done for me, instead of focusing on what I see that might be missing. Think about it... Comparisons, thinking "Man, I'm not as beautiful or talented or patient or [insert personal concern here] as so-and-so" is just another way of disregarding completely the things the Lord HAS blessed us with. How ungrateful and prideful of us. But this past month I've really felt the healing power of gratitude.

That seems to be about all, folks. The work is working. If this isn't hastening, I don't know what is. You better join quick, or you'll get left behind like the pooper-scoopers in the 4th of July parade.

Love you!

Sister Luke

1. Our friendly neighborhood python

2. If there's ever been any doubt that I'm a cat lady...

3. This is our addiction. Chuckie chocolate milk.

4 & 5. I'm just not good enough at teaching to keep the kids awake. 

6. This is called a c-cad. Only 7 pesos for a ride! :)
 

7 & 8.  Our birthday glowstick celebration for sister Santos.

Green is My Favorite Color

Written 10/19/14

This week I met Aragog's pregnant wife. Pictures attached. Sister and I agonized a full half hour before achieving his murder. He was right next to my bed. The Lord loves those whom He tests...

This week a child was following his older sister in what he should say in his prayer... We ended up with this: "Bendision mo ang mga Sisters sa.... Ano? Sa pagpabunyag... uh, sa pagpanglupot nila...." Which eloquently translates to "Bless the Sisters in their.. what? In their baptism.. Um, I mean, in their diarrhea.." Ahaha. Bless us in all that.

We went to teach a recent convert at his house on Saturday and to our shock and dismay found his drunk, 60 year old father in a pair of very brief briefs, standing right in front of us talking as if there was nothing amiss.... To quote Mulan, "I never want to see a naked man again."

This week we have seen the hand of the Lord. I have no question that He directs this work because of the tender mercies and small miracles we see every day. I know I say this all the time, but God is so in charge. Lots of "right place, right time" experiences this week. This work is picking up speed and the members can feel it. We had 3 members this week come up to us out of the blue and say, “Sisters, we have a referral for you!”

We helped Sister De Asis (a member) talk to her referral, Sister V., a young mother with 6 kids. V. had her latest baby 2 weeks ago, and hours after she gave birth, went right back to washing clothes so they could have rice to eat that night. She is tirelessly hard working, and receptive to the gospel. Sister De Asis was so bold in sharing her testimony and in inviting Sister V. to church. I love the members here so much. It’s inspiring to see their desire to share what has blessed their lives.

I was delving into the old area book in our apartment and found the teaching record of our Recent Convert, Sister B. She almost completely rejected the missionaries before, only grudgingly accepted the commitments the missionaries offered, and she never kept them. She hid from the Elders and never came to church. I compared it to the B. I know now, and I have no doubt in the power of the Spirit. Right now, B. can’t wait for us to visit each night, and we often come to her house and find her reading. She even read to her husband and his friends while they drank, reading in Jacob about what will happen to the sinners. Ahaha. So brave, and unapologetic about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

C. is so ready to be baptized, but she told us her husband won’t be home until November 5, and he wants to be baptized with her. So she's on hold for a sec. But still progressing.

We had 5 of our investigators at church. We were excited to see them exercising their faith, especially our 50 year old investigator M. who specifically got work off to come to church. R. got sick Saturday night and wasn’t able to attend… meaning we had to change his date in November, but he’s completely quit smoking and is reading the Book of Mormon every day.

Something I've especially noticed and felt this week is expressed well in a quote from President Uchtdorf from the General Women's meeting:

"You are loved. You are dear to your heavenly parents. The infinite and eternal Creator of light and life knows you! He is mindful of you.Yes, God loves you this very day and always. He is not waiting to love you until you have overcome your weaknesses and bad habits. He loves you today with a full understanding of your struggles. He is aware that you reach up to Him in heartfelt and hopeful prayer. He knows of the times you have held onto the fading light and believed—even in the midst of growing darkness. He knows of your sufferings. He knows of your remorse for the times you have fallen short or failed. And still He loves you.

"And God knows of your successes; though they may seem small to you, He acknowledges and cherishes each one of them.He loves you for extending yourself to others. He loves you for reaching out and helping others bear their heavy burdens—even when you are struggling with your own.
He knows everything about you. He sees you clearly—He knows you as you really are. And He loves you—today and always!"

Hope you've all had a wonderful week. I have. I testify that God's love is there for us when we fail, when we fall, when we are weak, and even when we are forgetful. His love doesn't excuse us of repentance, but on the contrary, it motivates us to do everything we can to be able to feel that love eternally when we return to live in His presence. I know the true miracle of the Atonement is not only that we can live eternally with God, but that we can live comfortably in the presence of our Creator. Because we have been washed clean in the blood of the Holy One of Israel. Aubree shared a couple weeks ago a quote from Elder Scott- that we must remember always that the Lord sees weaknesses differently than he does rebellion. "Whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will always bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy."

Let's not be too hard on ourselves. Let us give all our effort to living the gospel and trust in the grace of God to make up the difference.
Love, Sister Luke

1. Aragog's Mrs.

2. Fun in the sun.

3. It's Fall here too!

4. Glorious rice fields. Green is my favorite color.

5. This is not a drill. Real bird.

6. Crystal clear.

7. Not filipino candy like I thought. Frog eggs.

8. Beauty queens.

 

9. For Fun...

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

Written 10/12/14

Okay. So much happened this week so hopefully my fingers are fast enough to type everything. Hold on to your hats, folks.

I thought the Philippines was going to turn into a raisin this week for all the rain. The storm was pretty good, over the course of like 3 days. I think it's name was Ompong? Anyway. We experienced flooding in Sipalay for Zone Training on Thursday and I've got some sweet pictures to show you that. We waded through floods on the streets up to our knees. Sweet. On our bus ride home, only 10 minutes from Inayauan our bus was stopped because of a huge tree that fell in the middle of the highway and had to wait till everyone got their machetes and started hacking away. #FilipinoProbs

Also, I have to share an experience out of my pride. On Friday, the rain was still going strong, and the rice field going to our investigators house was flooded. But we had to teach this investigator. So. I, Sister Luke, tromped through a flooded rice field full of huge, swimming spiders, to get to our investigator, in the pouring rain, sopping wet and trying not to scream in horror. Ahaha. I can do hard things. And I had to laugh.

An investigator rejected our baptismal invitation this week on account of her birth certificate having "Catholic" printed on it. Ahaha.

This week was a lot of tender mercies. We went back to a young mother, Sister R., who we've felt prompted to visit again, but hadn't been able to recontact yet. We met her a couple weeks ago when she sat in a lesson with our investigator, Sister Ch., but hadn't been able to teach her since. But on Wednesday, we went back and taught her, and she was golden. SO receptive of the message and seemed to really be feeling the Spirit. We extended a baptismal date to her this week for November 15 and she sat in silence thinking about 5 seconds, and then looked at us and said, "Yes." Her husband is supportive of it too. Even just after our first lesson with her, she said, "Can you come back on Friday at 2 so you can meet my husband and teach him, too?"

We found out from Sister C. this past week that her husband wants to watch her baptism, and that he wants to be baptized too! Which obviously is sweet. But the only problem is that he isn't sure WHEN he'll be home this month, because he's working in Baguio right now... so she isn't sure about October 25. We're praying really hard for her baptism to go through on the 25th. She could use your prayers!

R. didn't come to church yesterday because he went up the mountain to his family, but he's doing really well with Word of Wisdom. And we were excited on Sunday when Ch. came to the second session of conference even though she was sick.

I was inspired this week by B., our new recent convert (C.'s mother) and R.O. her sister (also a recent convert) came to 3 sessions of conference. 3. That's sort of unheard of here in the Pines unless you're the Branch President or the missionaries. I was touched by their faithfulness, coming to watch 3 sessions when they can understand like 5 words in English. But she was so determined to see the living prophet, and shared with us that she felt he was true. We saw miracles this week with B.'s husband, who normally refuses to listen to us, but when we brought out a pedigree chart for B., he sat and listened and even asked questions through the whole lesson. The Spirit of Elijah is real!

My favorites from conference were Elder Klebigat, Lynn G Robbins, Elder Holland, Bednar and Uchtdorf, and Elder Carlos A Godoy. So much goodness from General Conference.

Well, like the scriptures, I can't contain a hundreth of the happenings and doings of my week in one email, but hopefully you get a picture.

Apply all this goodness from general conference, peeps. What's the point if we are only "hearers" of the word, and not "doers" as James says? President said in his email today,
"We had a wonderful feasting on the words of our living prophets this weekend! It should have strengthened you to become a more powerful and dedicated servant of the Lord. Change in your missionary behavior and proselyting skills must meaningfully improve. Or else the Savior’s words would describe us: “They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” "

What wisdom. We live in the latter days where the Lord is not silent! He lives! He speaks! To all of us individually, and to us collectively through our living prophet, Thomas S. Monson, whom I sustain and love, with all my heart.

Happy Birthday to Spencer, in one week!

Mischief managed. For this week.

Yours,
Sister Luke

1. Probably my most favorite picture from my mission.

2. The tree that stopped the bus.

3. A miscommunication caused us to watch the Saturday session of conference in our apartment on our portable DVD player....

4. Happy 13 months!

5. In case you were wondering, oil is not a good substitute for butter, no matter how much you want it to be.

I Am My Mother's Daughter

Written 10/5/14

The terrible moment I realized I left my scratch paper of notes at the house. So. I don't know what I was going to tell you all.

I guess first of all, WELCOME to baby Chloe! You all think you can just have babies willy nilly while I'm here in another country and can't hold them... Just plain mean. That's okay though.

This has been a really long and really good week. I have met a lot of really hard headed people, but we've seen some miracles here too. Faith is something we need a large daily dose of. Probably twice a day. Or as often as needed.

I've learned a lot on my mission, and I've learned that most of this I SHOULD have learned at home, from my mom, before I even came here. Some things Mom taught me that I have seen here in the mission:

1. Everything looks better in the morning.

On Thursday, we had one of those days where it's 15 million hours long. Almost every one of our investigators refused to even pray. PRAYER. Possibly the easiest and quickest commitment and commandment. And we couldn't get ONE investigator to pray. In PMG we learn that "No one can learn of spiritual truths without prayer." And its true. None of our investigators that refuse to pray never progress. Even if they read or come to church, they cannot know until they ask. So. That was our day. And we got home and I was ready to pull out my hair and drop on the ground, but I was scared of spiders, so I didn't. BUT. God is good. The work doesn't stop because people refuse to pray. It goes on. And everything really does look better in the morning.

2. Patience is a virtue.

 If you know my mom, you probably also know that she is one of the most patient people you'll ever meet. I seriously don't know how she does it. I remember Elder Bednar once said, "Sometimes we pray for success, and we are blessed with more patience." It's true. The Atonement of Christ doesn't always just fix all our problems right away, but it enables us to do what we need to be able to endure. My patience was tested a lot this week, but I was able to see the Lord strengthening my ability to not yell and scream at my investigators when they didn't do the things I know would make them happy. And that there is a miracle.

3. Love changes you, and those whom you love.

My mom is the best at loving those who are hardest to love. And on the mission, almost everyone is hard to love for some reason or another. Yet how is it that missionaries come home and can't stop talking about those they love so much that they left in the mission field? This work changed my heart and my ability to love these crazy, hard headed, and beautiful people. And there's always room for one more. When we show our love to others, they see themselves for who they really are. They realize that we want the best for them, they become more patient with us, and their self esteem is raised. I testify that charity is an attribute that trumps all others. And it never fails.

4. Laughter is the best medicine.

Our hilarious part from this week: Sister Santos and I coming home one night this week to a spider as big as Aragog in Harry Potter, and our adventures trying to drown him in 2 types of bug spray, screaming in terror as we sprayed with all our might. Ahahah. I want to watch that part of my life on the omniscient YouTube that's surely in heaven.

If I could list everything I've learned from my mother,  it would fill several books, but for now, we'll leave it there.

C., our progressing investigator, is amazing. She brings all her little kids to church and makes comments in class and reads the Book of Mormon every day. She is on track to be baptized on October 25th (Sister Santos' birthday!) and we can't wait. :) Not too much else happening but we're kicking this area into gear with a lot of Faith in Christ and lots of hiking through these wicked sweet mountains.

Remember, my loved ones, the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say, "the work is done".

Halong gid,

Sister Luke

1. Flashbacks to Toy Story, where there's that short film, and the grandpa is playing chess with himself? This member is 99 years old. And still playing chess.

2. Me playing the banjo that 99 year old grandpa made :)

3. I grind rice for our less actives.

4. Cant really read it but... Inayauan :)

5. The paradise.

6. Our new friend in the house.This is for Hunter and Aiden. This is a Toko :)

Ain't Nothin Like a Southern Girl

Written 9/28/14

Hey y'all-

I've gone south for the winter! I got transferred last week (no big surprise, but still heartbreaking), and I'm now in the most southern zone, Sipalay. My new area is Inayauan. Figure out how to say that one :) I'm still struggling with the pronunciation, so don't ask me.

I'm torn between feeling like a southern belle and a mountain man. This place looks like everything you ever thought the Pines would be. If I look to my left, I have a huge, jungle-forested mountain. If I look to my right I have a glorious sand beach (where we proselyte every day) and if I look straight ahead I see rice fields for miles. My new favorite color is green. We trek daily through the mountains. It's wonderful.

Thanks for the package of letters from the Luke reunion, mom, you all kept me company on the 5 hour bus ride here from Bacolod :) I've seen plenty of.... insects here, being this far from the city. Don't ask me the details... "Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head...."

So, yes. It was really hard to leave Manapla. We all tried to be rational, but lets be honest, we cried a lot. But the Spirit is wonderful. It means so much to me to have his constant companionship. Speaking of companions, my new companion looks like a mix of Jasmine and Mulan. So... Gwapa :) Sister Santos is about 6 months into the mission, and so far we've really enjoyed ourselves together. She's from Quezon City in Manila and 21 years old.

Inayauan is not yet a ward, just a branch, but we really are looking forward to kicking things in gear. We had a wonderful District Conference in Sipalay (you might have seen pictures from that online) and President made me demo in front of everyone in Ilonggo how to place a pamphlet, so the members could get an idea. As I sat down, President said to the congregation, "Did you enjoy that? I did. She did not enjoy that." Ahahah. Talk about pressure.

I don't have much to say. The area is new, so it's all about getting to know the members, investigators, planning, and working things out. It's a good opportunity to exercise faith and rely on the Lord. This week Sister B. was baptized, a wonderful woman, around 50 and such big faith in the Lord. It's been so wonderful to teach her and see her example to her friends and family. There's also a 99 year old member here who still comes to church every week and has the strongest handshake ever. I have a feeling I'll like this branch :)

We are literally in the boonies, but I love it. I'm looking forward to getting down to business (sing it... to defeat the huns) and as hard as missionary work is, I know I am not alone. The Lord is at my back, He is at my front, and I've got my companion in my left and the Spirit on my right. And a book of Mormon in my hands and words of the restored gospel in my mouth. What more can a missionary ask for?

"And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it be so that you keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." 1 Nephi 17:13

Love you all. Carry on!

Love, Sister Luke

 

1. Just a taste. More of this to come.

 

2. Sister Santos. See I told you, Disney Princess

 

3. Sister B.

 

4. On to the Next Appointment!