(a cute drawing by Sister Allen)
Hello Po!
Here in the Philippines, schools out, summer's begun, and it is HOT. My hair is getting blonder and my skin is getting darker. It's a different hot than at home in Utah. It's so humid you can feel the air just sticking to you. Yesterday, we had a brown out - no power - and went all through church and our studies at the apartment without any fans. I was so sweaty! Did you know that the Philippines Cauayan mission is the hottest mission in the Philippines?
This week was a good week. It was a bit of a slower week, but we still had a lot of great lessons and talked to a lot of great people. On Tuesday, we had a "specialized training" at our district meeting. Instead of the district leader teaching at our meeting, our teachers were President and Sister Rahlf! It was a great meeting. They always have such inspiring thoughts. We talked a lot about becoming consecrated missionaries. A consecrated missionary is made up of four things: good attitude, work ethic, gospel knowledge, and obedience. We talked about how we can improve in each of these things and how we can all become more consecrated unto the Lord. It was a great meeting. I liked the part about good attitude a lot. I firmly believe that attitude is everything. Even though it's so hot, we're sweaty all the time, we have blisters on our feet, sometimes people don't want us to teach them, and all the other things that seem to go wrong, if we choose to have a good attitude about everything, all our troubles won't seem so hard. All the little wrongs in our life will be drowned out by all of the happy and good things. All we have to do is let the good in! Don't focus on the darkness, let the sunshine in! Life - and everything else - becomes so much better when we have a good attitude.
Our area is still doing well. We went to a new part of our area that I had never really gone to before, and we found a couple new investigators there that were so open and willing to hear our message. It made us so happy. We have decided to go back there and to find more people to teach this coming week. I am excited to see what we find there!
We had a good experience with one of our LA’s this week (less active). Her name is Edith and she is 52 year’s old. She was baptized a little over one year ago. She has such strong faith, and the only reason she’s LA is because she doesn’t have fare to ride a trycie to church. Their life is hard and money is tight, and they live far far away from the chapel. About a 100 peso ride round trip. We encouraged her to continue praying and acting in faith to come to church. On Sunday morning we got a call from one of our members. She told us that she would pick up Nanay Edith for church. We hurried and called Nanay Editha, hoping she wasn’t still asleep. She answered and we told her to hurry and get ready because she had a ride to church. Her answer touched my heart. She said, “Sister’s, I am already ready. I woke up this morning and got ready for church. I didn’t know why, but I felt that I will go to church today.” How amazing is that?!? She was able to come to church. Her prayers were answered, through the kindness of a member, and through the Spirit that said to her, “Get up and get ready. You’re going to church today.” I was so happy to see her at church. I was so happy that she had enough faith to follow the Spirit, even if her prompting seemed impossible. Yay!
Also....happy Easter! Easter is celebrated differently here in the Philippines. It's more like a celebration - or a mourning really - for the death of Jesus Christ. I am so happy to know and share to these people here that Christ lives! He lived for us, died for us, and then on the third day, He rose and lived again for us. And even now, He lives! I really love the Easter video from the church last year. I echo it's words: He lives. And if you call out, He will be there. All we have to do is seek Him. Find Him. I hope each of you take a little time to think about the Resurrection of Christ this Easter. I hope you each reach out to Him this Easter, and always. I know He will be there.
Here's a link to the video:
I love you all so much! I hope you have a great Easter week!
mahal kita and happy easter
xo Sister Anna Ray Allen
One of our recent concerts, Melanie.
She got baptized right before I got here.
She is so cute and I love her so much.
Me and my companions. :)
Floating house! They farm fish next to their house
in the lake for a living.
Our district in a jeepny. On our way to Magat Dam.
I thought the colorful boats were so cute.
We got to ride around the lake in one!
It was a little bit tippy, but fun!
A fire station! Not quite like dad's firestation.
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