Jan 25 2015

Bring it on Jacob!

 Man, it has been a busy week. 

The departing sisters are staying out our house for a few days and we have the new arrivals coming in on Wednesday night.We also had two exchanges and it is just a lot of requirements. ;) This week is TRANSFER WEEK... I don't have any idea what will happen to me... Sister Gerardo and I might stay, I might transfer, I really have no idea. But I really do love this area so much and it will be hard to leave. 

I got to go on exchanges this past Thursday with my ex, Sister Hamor! She was my companion in Mabalacat. :) We definitely had a #throwbackthrusday. Yes, I definitely just used a hashtag. It was a good time and I learned a lot from her. :) :) Yay, for exchanges. 

I had this Tatay ask me if he came to church if we could take a picture together so he could have a remembrance. I mean, it's not the best reason to come to church, but whatever works. ;) Too bad he didn't end up coming. :( haha

We had a cool experience this week that there was a brother who approached and and asked if we could teach me. Apparently, he came to church a couple a weeks agowith his girlfriend that's a member. It was just cool, because we are not just finding people to teach, but they are also finding us. :) 

The invesitgator I mentioned a few weeks ago is really progressing. . He is kind of struggling through a few things, but he really has a strong desire to overcome them and to be baptized. I laughed because he is reading in 2 Nephi (He reads like 20 pages a day) and he had to go to a different city and he told us he would be in Jacob by the time he got back. I think it's funnier in Tagalog, but he basically said "Jacob better get ready for me!" It's like saying Bring it on, Jacob. He's funny but I'm excited for him to be baptized in February!! 

Anyways, love you all! 

xoxoxo

Sister Holmes

I could be a Filipina

I had another really good week! We got a lot done and worked real hard this week... it's probably been one of the best weeks in my mision. We found a lot of new investigators this week and I'm just super excited and I can't wait to see what happens with them. We are actually finding a lot of families lately so it's pretty exctiing. 

We have been teaching this nanay for like a week and we visited her last night and her husband and three of her children were there. We started talking to her husband and he told us that he was worried about speaking English when he first saw me and while he was folding clothes he was thinking of what he could say. But he told me that I could be a Filipina. But sometimes I already feel like I am. :) Sorry I'm not American anymore. 

I got to go back to my old area in Ward 1 again. I was so happy to see some of the old people I taught. THey actuallly have two investigators being baptized that we just talked to before and it's exciting because my anak and I just planted seeds and I'm just excited. . Speaking of my anak, I've realized that it's such a privilege to train a new missionary. I learned soooooo much when I was training her and I'm grateful I get to learn from the sisters now on our exchanges. Heavenly Father has given me so many opportunities to grow while I've been here, and I really have grown so much. 

Anyways, I love you all. By the way, something awkward happened to me this week. We were teaching some of our investigators and they were taking pictures of my companion and I during the lesson and one of them said he was going to post it on Facebook and tell everyone that I'm his girlfriend... So that happened., 

Anyways. . til next week! Love you all!

xoxo 

Sister Ho

January 11,2015

 Sister Neilson, Sister Rose 

 New Years Pizza

 Cool Nativity at night the purple lights light up.

 Sister Castroverde , Sister Davis going to the Zone Activity

 Current Companion

 Elders From her Batch ( sat next to them on the Airplane to the Philippines

And that is why we just use Sister

This week was real good! We had a meeting at the Mission Home. The Spirit was really strong and I learned a lot from President and Sister Clark. We learned all about the importance of the Atonement and applying in our lives. :) Plus, we had some real good food so that's always a bonus. :) 

I got a real cool lesson this week. So we had exchanges on Thursday, we traveled to Concepcion (which is about 40-60 minutes away from our apartment) and did our weekly planning. Then we went home. . So that day we had 8 lessons which is pretty good work, and found some new investigators. I had been feeling kind of dizzy and when we got home I found out that I had a 38 degree temperature. I'm sorry i don't know what that is in Fahrenheit. Even though I was sick, I couldn't believe that we still had 8 lessons! I think... I know that that was definitely the enabling power of the Atonement. There's no way I could have done that on my own... Although I was miserable for a few days,  think I learned a really important lesson.

Speaking of which. I heard a good analogy this week. :) When a child is starting to learn how to walk, we all know that they can't reach one end of the room to the other in just one try. Normally, The baby will walk three steps and fall down. But one thing I like about that, is that even though the baby can't make it the whole way, his parents will cheer and are happy that he could make it even three steps. They don't yell at the baby and ask why he can't do it yet. That's the same with our Heavenly Father. He doesn't yell at us when we are quite there yet. He is able with every bit of progress we make. Now, that does not mean that we should stop doing our best, but we need to do our part. 

Anyway. I had a good week this week and hope you guys did too! Mahal ko kayo!! 

xoxo

Kapatid na Babae Holmes (And that's why we just use Sister) :)

Christmas Conference 2014

REAL GROWTH

HAPPY NEW YEARS! Sorry I haven't been able to email yet this year...

New years in the Philippines is real fun. We had to be inside our houses by 6pm because they are so many fireworks and probably it's real dangerous! :) But we had a really good time inside our house and stuff. It's weird/cool to think I spent my whole 2014 here in the Philippines! 

That investigator I talked about last week... SUPER PROGRESSING. He came to church again yesterday, and he even wanted to work with us even though he is not a member yet. He had a lip ring and an earring and he took it out... and he completely stopped with all of his Word of Wisdom problems and it's so exciting to see him progressing. We might be able to move his baptism up before transfer day! ( not that we know what will happen) It's seriously such a cool thing to be able to be a part of somebody's conversion process. 

We also had interviews this week with President and Sister Clark! Yay. We talked about the new theme for this year of REAL GROWTH, especially about the enabling power we have to change and to become better through the Atonement! The gospel really amazes me sometimes. It's so perfect even though we are so imperfect. I hope each one of us, instead of setting 'new years resolutions' that we will never look at again, but really think about in which ways we can experience real groth this year to become more like the Savior. 

Love you all!

xoxoxo

Sister Holmes