Because Jesus didn't do it

Another week na naman... ang bilis talaga ng oras!! :) ( Again time flies by so fast)

This week... we had something going on almost ever day so we've stayed pretty busy. 

We taught our investigator family about temples and eternal marriage. We told them after one year after thy are baptized that they can got to the temple and be sealed. They asked if Sister Gerardo and would come when they are sealed. Sister Gerardo said she would do her vry best and I told them I wasn't sure but maybe.. Brother then said something like "How much is it anyway, I'll pay for you.." And then in english he said "You come here for our buklodation" . . So Buklod is the root word for seal in tagalog.... Sister Gerardo and I laughed and laughed, and ten when we got home, were still laughing about it. It was also a really awesome experience though because they are so excited to be sealed ! :) 

We also asked one of our really hyper investigators (He's a part member 14 yar old) when the last time he read was, and he told us "tomorrow"... After that we reviewed with him about the Word of Wisdom and we asked him why it is important and he told "Well, because Jesus never smoke, and he didn't drink. Well, actually only a little bit, but he just tried it."  I mean, I guess he has a good point . . 

The work was SO good this week... probably one of the best weeks of my missions. It's all about diligence and obedience... If we are striving to be obedience and doing our best to be diligent in following the commandments, there are miracles! 

It's Holy Week... so that means no sleep! There's this thing called Pabasa. .  They sing to statues all day and believe that their sins will be forgiven . . But mostly it just sounds like something you can't understand/ chanting of some sort. I don't know. It just makes me feel blessed that we have a correct understanding of the Atonement. 

We are just ending our three month study of "Real Growth through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." How Grateful I am for the knowledge of a Savior who loves each and everyone of us enough to atone for our sins and that He showed us the perfect example. I truly have grown as I have applied the doctrines of the Atonement in my life. As Easter is approaching, let us not only remember that Christ dies for us, but that He also lived for us :) 

I love you all! 

xoxoxo

Sister Holmes

J issues Really.... or is her english that bad?

SIDE NOTE:  We had talked about fixing all the "J" issues, but we found it so funny we left it in... I hope you all enjoy it.

Pambihira.. Thisj "J" on the keyboardj is broken so good luck. Wjjell seehow it goes. Another jjjquirk of the interenet shops here in the Philippines :) 

We movejdj thisj week so that wasj fun. We jjjjgot pretty much everything moved out on tuesday. We were busy from 7am- and got mostly settled in around 5pm. It was a good day and we got all organized. I was gonna send pictures of the new place but I forgojt . . I'll just send some next week. . hopefully. It is kinda weird adjuststingj to the new place jbut it's jgood. .It's a little bit bigger than the old one, but more people will fit in it. . I think it's my favorite apartment of my whole mission. The problem with the moving business. . j jjj is I didn't do my laundry for like a week... so thatj jwasj a fun experience this morning. It TOOK SO LONG. jjjBut I'm glad I know how to do my laundry by hand now :) 

I also got my x-ray jdone last week. . thatj was weird. jBecause first of all, I had to go into the xray room alone.. and I felt weird that I had no companion. . And it wasj a brother who did the x-ray that made it even more weird.  And on top of all of that, i hadj to take off my nametag :( jWhich jjjjjjjwas kind of the sad, surreal, I don't know what kind of experience. Man. . . 

This jjjweek was aparently busy for me because I also went to Manila to get some fingerprinting and stuff taken care of for my exit visa. . (huhuhu :'(. . .) 

But it wasjfun because I was with my batch. There were so MANY jforeingers there though and I talked to this one guy from Pennsylvania and I jtried to explain about the Restoration jand stuff... man he jjust jjdid not gjet it and it wjas not because of him, but I literally couldn't jjjjjfigure out how to explain it well in English. So that jwjasj one big jstressful ejxperience. Then wej went jand jate ajt this place called army navyj thatjj hasj burritos and hamburgersj and other American food. . JAt that place though, if jyour orderj was ready they would just call your name. . they said "ma'am holmes" JWje all jgot a good laugh. 

Other than that, wthe jjwork went really well this week... That family that I talked about last week is really progressing.. they are not married but jwej arej working it out with the ward, and I think it can all mabe, possibly, most likely happen before i go home.  :) They are amazing though a nd incredibly prepared for the gospel. It is such a great experience tot each a family because you know that they will stayj together and will always have support. I mean, I have taught families before, but it's not like this family :) The gospel is for families and about families :) 

Anyway, I love you alll and hope jyou have a good jweek!! :) 

xoxoxo, Sistejrj jjHolmes

3-15-15

Forgiveness is an act of faith

I have a lot to say a little bit of time to say it :)

Sister Salvacion was baptized!! Half of the Relief Society showed up and the ward is just a great support to her. I really loved what Sister Salve said when she bore her testimony. She said that she feels like she finally found something she has been looking for for a very long time and that she finally feels, for the first time in her life that she belongs somewhere. It was just a wonderful experience to be able to help her help herself to change and to repent. she has changed so much and I'm grateful Heavenly Father really is preparing the hearts of His children. We sang "Now let us rejoice" For the closing hymn. I loved it when it said, "Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation" It really was Salvacion's day :) 

We also had a family come to church yesterday. We just met the father on Saturday and he brought his whole family to church the next day! Heavenly Father is not only preparing His children as individuals, but as families! :) Their goal date is April 18.... :) Maybe I am a little selfish. 
We also taught this Less Active Tatay that is deaf. I don't know if I talked about it before, but he's way awesome. He's pretty much only less active because he's 89 and has health problems. He lives alone and we visit him once a week, or sometimes every other week. We write to be able to communicate with him and then he responds, but mostly he just teaches us :) This week I learned a lesson from him. . He told us how his child was murdered and that the one who killed him was his next door neighbor. He told us he already forgave him a long time ago because he knows it will all work out. I learned that forgiving others is really an act of faith on our part, sometimes it's hard, but we put our trust in God and in the Atonement to make things right as we do so. 

In other news, last week was my last transfer announcement so that happened. 

Anyway love you all! Have a good week!!! 

Because of Him

This weekk..... has been SO busy. Sometimes it's hard living in Tarlac. We had extra people sleeping at our apartment almost every night this week.. We had MLC meeting and the sisters slept Monday and Tuesday and another group went to Manila, but they also stayed at our apartment... And now the departing missionaries! They are almost 20 of us in the house... so that's a little bit crazy. . 

One of investigators had their baptismal interview this week... She is super awesome and I'm excited for her. She just is so ready and was really prepared by heavenly Father. It's incredible the change people can bring about in their lives if they really want to. I have a cool video you should watch in connection to that. :) https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Also... everybody here in Tarlac knows how to speak Tagalog obviously.. but their dialect here is Kapampangan (which I know very little of). Sometimes I still don't know hwa'ts going on, although it has some similarities to Tagalog. But the is no letter 'H'. . .Which means the little kids call me Sister Olmes.

Anyway I've been thinking a lot about why we have weaknesses. I've realized that weaknesses are really blessings... that through our struggles we ind ways to come closer to God. I've realized how  weaknesses are sometimes strengths but can become weaknesses again. It is all to help us to learn to constantly rely on the Savior, not just when we are failing or struggling. For me, one of my weakneeses before was that I didn't want to speak Tagalog because I was afraid I would make a mistake and people would laugh and me, but that weakness is what pushed me to be diligent in learning the language. :) 

Anyway, just a thought but I love you all and hope you have a good week!! :) 

xoxoxo 

SIster Olmes

Greater capacity to understand-Line upon line

HAPPY MARCH :) I can't believe it! Like what the say, time flies when you're having fun! :) 

This week.. something awkward happened to me. I learned a lesson about listening. We ate at a restaurant and it was their re-opening or something... well I didn't quite hear them right and they told m they had free iced tea. . . and I was like "yeah, yeah that's cool" and then like five seconds later I realized what they said.... But it was too late. They delivered iced tea to our table and I didn't know what to do. haha. But don't worry I didn't break the Word of Wisdom. It just sat there, Sayang. 

We had a district zone activity. (We call it district zone because our district is big enough to be a zone.) We played Filipino games and also American games. It was way fun and stuff.

One of our investigators has her baptismal interview this week... but there are some things we still have to work out ::) I'm really excited for her though because she was really the one that asked us to teach her and she has really been trying hard to change. Even though she is really, really busy as a single mother, she makes time for the gospel in her life. :) 

Sister Gerardo and I are becoming much more consistent in our work and our productivity is getting a lot better in our area.. .although there are still improvements. We are working it all out, but I'm really happy with what is happening. We are seeing so many good things happen and I think this is some of the best work on my mission. But I know it's not just because of my own ability, but I know it's because we are studying the Atonement, especially the enabling power. I've studied it before on my mission, but I feel like I have a greater capacity to understand it now. It's just a line upon line thing.


Anyway.... LOVE you all. . Have a good week!
xoxoxo
Sister Holmes