Week 63 - Can't control the uncontrollable

Hello family!

Well the same lady I was talking about last week that thought that Jesus Christ was a bird, asked us this week "Is Jesus Christ a tree?" So I'll keep y'all updated for the next episode of "I Thought Jesus Christ Was A Fairytale" hahahha she's so crazy.

We worked really hard this week and had a lot of little, cool miracles happen to us. We had a lot of people commit and promise to come to church and a lot of people have really awesome lessons. And then it got to Sunday and everything just kind of fell apart haha. We always send out a text on Saturday night reminding people to come to church and inviting those that are in our contact list especially those who promised to come to church. Then come Sunday, and we received FIVE texts literally in a row right after each other, from five different people, saying why they aren't going to come to church. And mind you, these are the people that literally PROMISED to come to church. One of them said she had an important place to go and we asked where and then she accidentally sent us a message that was not for us, which was her forwarding our message to someone else saying "this is what they said." So we feel like she was lying to us but it's all good we will figure that all out this week. And then others said they were out of town. And then one said "Yeah I am just not gonna come to church again there because I'm catholic"so that's awesome. Hahah we had a roughSunday morning.

Then I went to sacrament and I felt a lot of peace knowing people had their agency to choose. We had one guy show up to church which was good and we were happy for him. I felt the spirit in sacrament and was feelign good the entire time I was at church. We spent the second hour watching the video tha came out by the first presidency about the new Youth and Children program that they are doing to help families grow closer. I love it! Then Sister Baczuk and I got back to the house, and it all just kind of hit me. I just felt an overwhelming heaviness weigh on my shoulders that we had worked so hard throughout the week spending the entire time inviting people to come to church and having them agree to, and then come Sunday, and almost every single person falling through. Satan got to my head and I was pretty down for the rest of the day. And then the whole day of working time, we got super rejected and no one was home and no one ould invite us in. So the whole day was kind of hard, but at the end of the day I just kept remembering the section in Preach my Gospel that talks about people's agency. It says some people will not receive the gospel due to their own agency. Some people will choose to reject the message EVEN though they have received a spiritual witness that it is true.

So I picked my head up and remembered that I should not be worrying about things that are out of my control. Sister Baczuk did all we could last week to invite people to come unto Christ, and then at the end of the week, people still had their agency, and that just needed to be okay with us. They aren't rejecting me when they say no, they are rejecting Jesus Christ. Sometimes it is easy to take it so personally but it's their responsibility not ours to get themselves to church and to keep their commitments. Our job is just to invite them and to help them as much as we can to understand the importance of keeping commitments. I always remember something one of my highschool teachers said to me my sernior year, "If it won't matter in 5 years, don't spend more than 5 minutes worrying about it." I won't remember this feeling in 5 years. All I will remember is how much I love the people in the Philippines and I will remember the amazing relationships I have developed here and all the people that DID come unto Christ through my efforts. So I have spent my 5 minutes, so now it's time to spend my time being happy that I have the best calling in the world!!

This next week will be superrr busy for us. We have Mission Leadership Conference and Zone Conference and Exchanges all in one week, so it'll be crazy and we won't get to work to our fullest, but I know Heavenly Father will take care of everything because He has a perfect plan for us!!! I hope daddy's birthday was the best! I was thinking about him all Saturday! I love you all and hope this week is a joyous one for y'all.

Sister Robertson

there was this really cute place in hinigaran that we ate at right before exchanges!

my comp(:

family week was this week and we all got shirts and got permission to wear them with skirts!

this is cute tatay rodolfo when it started raining hahha

Week 62 - Is Jesus a Bird?

Maayong gabi pamilya!

This week was a great week, yet again full of a lot of miracles. Some really really cool things have happened to us this week. Sister Baczuk are really focusing on finding the elect and trying to be led spiritually to those people who God has prepared for us. One of the craziest stories happened this last week, it was actually on Monday almost right after I emailed back home...

We went to one of our areas that is really progressing right now because almost all of our recent converts are from there and they are really awesome as fellowshippers to those around them because they are constantly inviting people to come to church or to listen to the discussions from us missionaries. We have been visiting this one older lady who had heard the conversion story of Nanay Letty and was inspired and ever since then has been wanting to come to church. She kept having hard things happening to her that got in the way of her getting to church. So we went back to her and were sad she hadn't been able to gone to church so of course we asked her why she didn't and for the first time she couldn't give a good excuse. She basically said she just didn't. We were sad for her and then we saw one of her daughters hiding in the back so we kept inviting her to come join the lesson. She kept coming out then would go right back to the back of the kitchen to cook.

Finally she sat down kind of far away from us and we just worked on building trust with her as we got to know her. Then she asked us a question of why people call us Mormons when that is not the name of our church. So I offered that we prayed before I answered her question then she got all excited and came and finally sat close to us in the living area. Anyway, we had a really good lesson and found out that a while ago, she was actually 2 weeks from getting baptized then she moved to IloIlo and lost contact with the church. We were super excited about that news and she agreed to go to church and we walked away super happy. BUT that wasn't even the crazy part. We go to our next appointment and not even 10 minutes after we taught tat lesson to that single mom, we get this text from a member and it says "Sister when is the next time you are going to Remedios because you need to go soon so you can teach Mary Vic who wants to lisen to y'all" and THAT WAS LITERALLY THE WOMAN WE HAD JUST FOUND AND TAUGHT. So we literally received a referral for someone we had JUST met and TAUGHT. Sister Baczuk and I were so shocked that that had happened. It just showed us that our following up on that one older woman brought miracles and that God was looking our for us and helping us to find those people that he prepared for us!!! She apparently had just been talking to that member earlier that day and the member told her if missionaries come to her house-listen. And then we had showed up not even an hour later! I love this work ITS SO TRUE!

Sorry that was a really long story. There was one other day that we kept getting rejected and appointments were just falling through one after the other. Then at the very end of the day we found some new people to teach that had been taught by missionaries a bit ago and that was a really neat experience and THEN there is one of the people we teach hat is a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo that truly believes that if she reads anything like the bible she will not be able to go to heaven because she doesn't hold the "authority" to read it cause that's what they teach there. So it has ben months that we have been going back and she always gave us a ton of excuses why she didn't;t read so I just became really bold with her last week that if sh DOESN'T read, she can't enter into the Kingdom of God. We came back at the end of that long day of being rejected and SHE HAD READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! I coudn't contain my joy I felt at that time. It was such a happy feeling. That book has so much power and that lesson was so strong as we focused on her testimony of Joseph Smith and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That was a happy miracle we witnessed that day. God is so good if you ask me.

Other than that, I got to go on exchanges with a Tongan which was a lot of fun and she taught me a lot of things and I also saw a lot of miracles of that. I honestly thought I was going to step down as a Sister Training Leader to train and I didn't quite understand why I didn't and why President didn't let me train a new missionary again, but this week, when heavy things started happening in her companionship, I was the only one she felt comfortable enough to open up to and she basically told me that if it wasn't for me, she would have gone home by now and I am an angel in her life that saved her. No, I did not deserve that compliment, but it just goes to show how perfect God;s plan is. He knew that I needed to stay a Sister Training Leader so I could help this one missionary to stay on her mission and to overcome her challenges. She helped me understand that God knows what he is doing and it was the most amazing tender mercy ever. God is real. God is good. God is love.

And then one funny thing happened to me this week. Sister Baczuk and I did a lot of tracting which just means we went around and tried to talk to anyone we could to see if there were any people interested in our gospel message. We started "Tagbalay'ing" which is the equivalent of knocking on doors in America but there are no doors to knock on here so you just yell "Tagbalay" really loud until someone comes out. Anyway, you meet some FUNNY people when you're tracting and you get some FUNNY excuses why they don't have time for you. Sister Baczuk and I were laughing pretty hard by the end of it. We got rejected with the funniest excuses. But anyway, there was one lady we taught that she was found just by "OYM" (open your mouth) and we taught her the first lesson which is about the Godhead and about families. And she was kind of a strange lady from the get go as her first question was if Jesus Christ was a fairytale. But then we resolved that concern then randomly halfway throughout the lesson she stopped us to ask "Jesus Christ is a bird right" hahahahha I mean I have heard a lot of crazy things on my mission but that was definitely the best one. We weren't even 100% sure how to answer that without laughing but we somehow did and laugh about it all the time now. Oh man, missions are great. Lots of fun and lots of awesomeness all in 18 months. I love it here. We had a few people that came to church that were totally miracles!! We were excited about that and we know we will continue to see miracles throughout the week!!!

Love y'all lots and can't wait to talk to you all!!! Happy Sabbath to you all over there in America!!

Sister Robertson

Week 61 - RJ got Baptized!

This week did not go as I was expecting but it was a happy week nonetheless. My keyboard that I type on broke so I need to retype everything so it may not be as detailed as it was at first:( Sorry.

Sister Baczuk and I have witnessed a lot of miracles in our one week together. There was this one guy that literally came up to us and asked "I want to become a member of your church how can I do that?" And we were like well we know the answer to that! He already has started reading the book of mormon and even said "I think this book is somehow going to help me get rid of my smoking habit." And we were like yes!! And then we have found some other people that seem really prepared for this gospel. We have this really cute couple we are teaching that when we taught about families and temples to them they said they are going to come to church on Sunday so that one day they can go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity to their family. They are awesome. We love them!

This week was different than we thought it would go for a couple reasons. One, because Sister Baczuk got some weird food poisoning we think and she was out of work for a few days, so that left me to clean the whole house, write a lot of letters, do some laundry, and study a lot hahha. But it felt nice to get those things done. It was also weird because she ate all the same things I did and I didn't get anything. And then the second reason is it started storming super bad and there's apparently a typhoon right now and it got crazy these past few days especially on Sunday morning- the only time us missionaries pray that it won't rain. So yeah barely anyone showed up to church, members and nonmembers alike. Filipinos are so scared of getting wet and getting sick so rain is a huge interference in the work here. If it is raining, the work is really slow. So yeah I got pretty down yesterday because I am the one leading the area and I felt a bit like a failure.

Butttt the BEST thing happened also yesterday! All of the Alegria Boys with Haziel CAME TO VISIT ME from Bago!!! All of them!! All 6 of them!! I was literally crying when they showed up because I was so sad and then they showed up and I have never felt so happy to see anyone on my mission. It felt like God was literally saying "Look, I know you and I love you so here's my way to show that." It was so happy. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time at church. They all expressed how much they miss me and how they are all either preparing to serve a mission or to go to the temple in November. My missionary heart was FILLED. I love them will all my heart.

And then to add to my happiness, RJ got baptized on Saturday!!! It was the most spiritual baptism I have yet to attend on my whole mission. Our branch president was AWESOME too. We got to the church early that morning on Saturday and our branch president was already there and had set everything up and started filling the font. That was the first time in my whole mission it wasn't the missionaries setting everything up. He already coordinated the program and we really didn't need to worry about everything and I think that made the spirit so much stronger. I will include RJ's conversion story:

Rex John (RJ) Catin is such a sweet soul that changed his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He grew up in the baptist church and stayed coming to church because he had people paying for his school from the baptist church so that was his motivation to keep going to church. But once he got old enough where they stopped paying for his school, he stopped going to church and has been just hanging around his house for a few years. We got to know RJ when we would be teaching his parents and he would come in and out of the house sometimes just doing this and that. He was very shy and would follow what his parents told him to do but never really paid attention to us. And then one day, Sister Regacho and I showed up and his parents were like "RJ wants to come to church and he asked if he could" and we were like yes!! So he came to church and has come every Sunday since then even though one Sunday he could barely walk because he had a huge pain in his leg that he couldn't figure out what it was. Every sunday he would invite a new friend of his to come to church. He is a great missionary already!

We had been focusing on his parents because they were close to getting baptized but then once they got baptized, we had the chance to focus on RJ and his conversion. We taught him on exchanges one time and all of the sudden has asked "I have a plan to get baptized is that a possibility?" And of course we smiled and said a resounding, Yes!! And since then, he really has been progressing. He has understood everything we have taught him and reads multiple chapters in one day of the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of that book through his reading. He always expressed that he felt so happy and light and peaceful if he prayed about our church and about Joseph Smith and expressed that he knows it's true because of that. And then on the day of his baptism, he bore the sweetest testimony. He said that he has never been a person to like going to church consistently but as soon as he started coming here to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he started liking to come to church every sunday. He also said that he has been wanting to change his life for awhile and hasn't found the way how until he started listening to our lessons. He was always so willing to follow our commitments we gave him, everything from praying about our message to getting rid of the earrings he liked to wear. He was so touched by his baptismal service. The spirit was very strong and we got to do a musical number (6 of us sisters that are in La Carlota) and it turned out so good. We did a rendition (that I made up) of I Feel My Savior's Love in english and I Am A Child Of God in Hiligaynon. The spirit was literally so strong and RJ cried the entire time. I could see how he felt the spirit that was there and was more than happy with the decision he made. And he felt that same way on Sunday when he was able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We love RJ so much and are so happy that he has found the true church here on the earth. He is also excited to one day to go to the temple and be sealed with his family for eternity. RJ is the best!!

That's all for my week. Hopefully I didn't forget anything. I'm sad my keyboard broke but come what may and love it(:

LOVE YALL!!
Sister Robertson

sister baczuk and I!

us with RJ and the fam

RJ with his family and our branch president

MY FAMILY! my heart!

this is a personality pic if y'all want to know who rj is hahha

Week 60 - Funerals and Sicknesses

Hello wonderful family of mine!

This week was a very interesting one hahha. Not really the week I expected at all. But a good week nonetheless. Kind of a sad week as well. The week started off with Sister Regacho being really sick with the flu so we couldn't really work a ton for the first few days of the week, and then her sickness got passed around to our whole house so for the whole week, all 6 of us got some part of her sickness to some degree. Some got it worse than me, but I definitely got some of it. We couldn't afford not to work cause we hadn't worked because of Sister Regacho's sickness, so I sucked it up and worked and wore my body out hahha. Then we entered into a choir, even though I had basically lost my voice from my sickness, but all 6 of us entered into a choir to sing at the funeral of the mother-in-law of our district president. So we did a lot of singing which wore my voice out more but it was fun to be in the choir. I miss choir! And then come Saturday and we sang in TWO funerals in one day. It was really sad and a heavy day, and on top of that, we got transfer calls and found out Sister Regacho is transferring, which we did not expect, so the whole day on Saturday was just really sad and heavy. So on Sunday, we spent the whole day saying goodbyes and crying and being sad. Missions are hard. Transfer days are the worst!!!

So yeah, Sister Bazcuk (you say it like basic) is my new companion! She just got called to be a Sister Training Leader so that means I will be training her as an STL to know how to fulfill this calling, which makes me nervous and excited all at once. She is my second american companion whoop! So that'll always be fun. But I have gotten really used to having Philipino companions so it'll be weird to get used to. It's a totally different mission to have two americans be companions in the Philippines. But I am excited to see how things go and what kind of miracles we see this transfer! She may be my last companion- who knows! Still can never guess what President Sumagpao is planning cause he tells you one thing and then he does another hahha. He is so good at throwing curveballs! I sustain him and have seen how perfect God's plan is in everything so I am not worried, just excited to see where else my mission takes me!!

So yeah that was my week- sickness and funerals and sadness. But I did get to attend MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on Wednesday and that was a lot of fun. We learned a lot of new things and there was a good amount of things that changed so that's always exciting. I also got to see Sister Garcia which is always so fun and she told me a lot of people that her and I found got baptized which makes me soooo happy!! Almost all of those that her and I found right before I left have already gotten baptized. Even though I couldn't be there for them, I still feel happy in seeing the progress of that area. I love Bago and will always keep it so close to my heart. I also love La Carlota and am now hoping this is my last area so that I can continue to see the progress of those people that we are teaching right now and I can continue to get close with them and continue to love them!! I am also so excited for RJ because he passed his baptismal interview and is officially getting baptized on Saturday!! He is so excited and I have never seen him happier than when he came out of his interview knowing that he passed and will get baptized on Saturday. He was beaming with joy!! Oh how I love this work and I am so looking forward to all the amazing things I know will continue to happen in the Lord's vineyard!! Missions are the best ever!! Time is going wayyyyy too fast so I need, more than ever, to give my all and put everything on the sacrificial alter. I know through that, I will see miracles and I can go home without regrets!!

This week I studied how to be a more consecrated missionary because I don't know about everyone else but for me, in my experience, a mission is very up and down. Like for a few transfers straight you're like really awesome and feeling good and feel like you're making a huge difference and have a light in you, but then something happens, whether it's change of companions or area or success or whatever- and then you feel like you're not really doing much in the vineyard of the Lord. Like you almost feel stagnant and like no matter how obedient you are being, you just don't feel the light for a bit. I don't really understand it very well, but missions totally happen in phases and right now I really just want to focus on being the most obedient missionary I can be and live up to the standards that the Lord wants for me. So anyways, I studied about how to be a more consecrated missionary and sacrifice is always the answer. Don't go on a mission if you can't sacrifice because missions ask one sacrifice after another of people. And the thing is- it never gets easier!! Like you think if you have been on your mission for a long time, it becomes easier and you're so good at teaching and just a pro at everything. BUT IT'S NOT LIKE THAT. There is never an "easy" time in your mission. There's definitely better times than most, but not easy. Once you feel even a little comfortable, you get thrown this crazy curveball that makes everything heavy and hard and then you become stronger and then things get comfortable and then you get another curveball. So the ultimate thing to learn on the mission is just how to give sacrifices. If we are willing to give up our pride, our sarcasm, our negativity, our selfish desires, our own passions, our rest time, our thinking about ourselves, just all of it, that is the true key to a happy mission. Sacrifices brings miracles. I don't think I have learned anything more real on my mission. Sacrifice is the key to know our Savior Jesus Christ because He knows sacrifice better than anyone who has touched foot on this earth. If we want to know our Savior on a deeper level, we need to sacrifice. It's the best thing to do, but definitely the hardest. But hard brings good. And that is what I am really trying to learn this week is what I can more sacrifice to see more miracles!

I love you all and am so thankful for y'alls support. Really could not still be here on my mission if it wasn't for all y'all back home. Miss you all tons but I will be home soon enough so I will just focus on loving these people(:

Sister Robertson 

always need a jumping picture

we visited the mini zoo again with the other sisters and found a really pretty sight

aw our last sunday together. love this girl

my favorite people here!!!

aw our last sunday together. love this girl

this was sister regacho saying one of her goodbyes and we were smiling but really sad

this was our uniform for the funerals we sang at. fun fact- philipinos wear white to funerals

Week 59 - Merry Christmas from the Philippines!

Merry Christmas!(: Hahah the Philippines start all their Christmas festivities in the "ber" months so it's officially September so that means it's officially Christmas season here in the Philippines! Crazy stuff!

It was a good week here in the Philippines. Nothing super special or out of the ordinary happened though hahha. So sorry in advance if this bores y'all!

One thing that happened this week is there was one night I woke up at 3 am with rashes all over my body and it was sooo itchy so I got up and took some benadryl then went back to bed then the next morning I was fine. It happened to me the following night as well, but worse. I guess that's kind of interesting but not really hahha. Still have no idea what it was from or why it happened. There were no other symptoms except that so my body just took a weird trip I don't know.

Today is the last Monday of the transfer so by Saturday night, I will know what is happening with transfers- but my feeling is I will stay in the area with Sister Regacho so there won't be anything that will change. I asked President this week if I would be stepping down to train and he said "You're stronger as a Sister Training Leader and I am scared to take you out of the area because the area will die without you in it." I was touched but also sad cause that means I may not be able to train again even though he told me back in June that I would train again:( I wanted to so bad but I am willing and excited to follow the revelation he receives whatever it is. Sister Regacho also asked if she would train again and he said no because she has already trained three missionaries. So yeah I may be going home from this area. I also found out there are four of us all going home on December 18 so I won't be alone! So that's exciting! I can attend the temple in Manila because I will have a companion! So I am happy about that(:

I studied on charity one day this week and it brought me to tears because I was so filled with the spirit. As I read in Moroni 7, I was looking on verses about the Atonement of Jesus Christ for one of the people we teach and I read verse 41 about hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and then I kept on reading to see if there was more than one verse I could use. Then my eyes skimmed over verse 45 and I read it over probably 10 times just over and over. I read it slowly and pondered on every attribute that it lists about someone who has charity. I realized that I have yet so much missing in my charity for those around me because I have yet to develop most of those characteristics. When life gets hard, it is so easy to question why. It is so easy to question what you did to deserve that trial. And then I read that a person who has charity (which is the number one characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ himself) is "long-suffering... beareth all things.. [and] endureth all things." All those three qualities are listed in one scripture about the pure love of Christ and that is exactly what we need. We need to be able to bear up all the burdens that God decides to let us carry. We need to endure all the trials that are set before us. And then it simply says charity is kind. We just need to be kind and love those around us and be willing to even bear other's burdens, not just our own. I have definitely felt that as I am a Sister Training Leader and am over 10 other sisters and I am the one that they are supposed to rely on and unload everything onto. So I have felt that a little bit. Anyway, I was touched by that scripture and then awakened to a sense of "I  need to change" when it simply says in the next verse that if you have no charity, you are nothing. And I want to be something. So charity is what I want to work on this week(: I was super humbled down to my knees that I have so much farther to go to be filled with charity but I know that as I try everyday, miracles will happen! That's what life is all about.

That's literally all I can think of right now. In terms of the work, we are just continuing to work hard to bring souls unto Christ and really trying to find the elect that God has chosen. I truly believe that the field is white all ready to harvest, so we are trying to find those people that are ready! We spent this week trying to focus our efforts on those that are progressing and not so much on the ones that aren't. RJ is continuing to progress and get excited for his baptism on September 14! He keeps inviting all his neighbors and friends to come to church and we have seen how his missionary efforts, even though he isn't yet a member, have had a positive effect on his friends. Some of them are already coming to church! He is so great!

That's all I got, sorry! I'll try to do better next time. I miss y'all and love y'all the most!

Sister Robertson

some of the people we teach unexpectedly came to church which made us so happy!

some cute members we visited

some of my favorite people here in la carlota!! dont ask why im wearing glasses i just like it

the Catin family!! RJ is on the right who is getting baptized in a couple weeks and his parents are on the left who got baptized a few weeks ago!

sister regacho and i ate at the CUTEST restaurant that looked straight like it was from austin and these quotes were on the wall and they are good

we also ate some YUMMY fried rice at a restaurant

and these were some yummy drinks we got. it made me miss austin a lot not gonna lie