1st Baptisms

The Falls

Hiking Mount Isarog

Week 15

Maray na hapon po! (Yay for Bicol!)

What an exciting week!!! Rose and Jessica were baptized! I wish you all could have seen how excited they were for their baptism. SO many people we happy to see them go through with it because they were becoming so called "eternal investigators." It's so amazing to see how the Lord and other missionaries prepare certain people for you. Even from the beginning when we took over teaching them, I have seen a dramatic change. They started coming to church and following through with their commitments and I have loved watching their faith increase. I was sick on Friday (can I PLEASE stop getting sick?!), so the Sister Training Leaders came over and Sister Abarabar went on exchanges with Sister Ganzagan while Sister Sanft stayed with me back at the apartment. When Sister Ganzagan and Sister Abarabar went to Bombon to make sure Rose and Jessica were ready for their baptism the next day, little Vea (Rose's daughter) was jumping up and down acting like it was her getting baptized. Too bad she has to wait a few more years until she's 8 years old. hahaha Anyways, Sister Rose was texting us Saturday night telling us how excited she was to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Unfortunately, Satan is real and he works so hard. Sunday morning, there was a problem at home and Rose texted us telling us she didn't know what to do because she wasn't going to be able to make it to church. Sister Ganzagan told me right after I finished saying my morning prayers and I rolled back on my knees and started praying again. haha. We suggested she just come to sacrament meeting and she arrived late with Jessica and weren't able to be confirmed!!! Ah!!! So disappointing!!! I really hope and pray nothing happens this week. And I just pray that their faith will stay strong as life really doesn't get any easier. Thankfully the gospel helps us through so much and we can overcome anything through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This week was crazy because we weren't able to go out one day because it was so stormy. As my kasama (companion) said, "The coconuts are dancing." The wind was so strong and I was so bummed we weren't able to go work. There's only so much studying your brain can take! I hope this stormy weather ends soon. I've honestly been freezing!!!

So the night I was sick and the Sister Training Leaders stayed over, Sister Ganzagan gave me some sleeping pills she had just bought because I haven't been sleeping at all. I found out that sleeping pills and I don't get along too well. I freaked everyone out by talking and whimpering in my sleep from nightmares. haha

Yesterday, Sister Ganzagan and I went to Pili so she could get her patriarchal blessing. We had to leave church early so we could travel there! But let's pretend that never happened. haha It was fun because we got to take a huge bus. Um, I don't know why I wanted to throw that in here. I just love the Philippines! It's so pretty here and I guess it's nice to see other scenery besides Calabanga, Bombon and Naga.

Today is one of my favorite p-days! Our district hiked Mount Isarog and went up to the falls. It was so gorgeous! Some other Americans were touring it and believe it or not, it was really weird to see white people. Sometimes I forget I'm white. Which I don't know why. Everyone still stares at me and sometimes kids yell, "Hey joe! What's your name?" or, "What up man?" hahaha I have to try so hard not to burst out laughing. Usually I just give kids candy and we get along JUST fine. :) Anyways, when the two Americans were coming across the river, I turned to my district and said, "Look! Foreigners!" Haha Good laugh. Then the guy proposed to the girl and I just died and I accidently said outloud, "I wanna get married!" Whoops. Too late. I'm on a mission. And I'm so glad I'm here! Just to clarify. I'm were I need to be! :) Anyways, I love my district and we had a lot of fun today! Wow. We got up at 5 this morning to head to the falls and I am dead tired. And our email time is being cut short. So that's all for this week.

Hopefully we find some new people to teach because we really need a bigger teaching pool! It's so hard to have people lose interest, but everyone has agency, right? Just come to church!!! Seriously!!! I say that every single day and my kasama and I are trying to focus on the importance of coming to church and partaking of the sacrament. So we will see where this week leads.

I love you all! Talk to ya'll next week.

Love,
Sister Stettler

Week 14

This is probably going to be short because it was a pretty normal week! I ate cat this week and that was probably the most exciting thing that happened... That's right. And no, it doesn't taste like chicken. Pretty bland to be honest. Would I eat it again? No. hahaha Anyways...

I froze all week! Who knew it gets cold in the Philippines?! Thankfully I brought some cardigans and a hoodie with me. I hope the storms stop soon and it warms up. I have no idea how I'm going to return back to Utah because I don't like the cold and whenever I go into places with AC here I crave the warmth from outside! Thankfully I still have 15 months to enjoy and I haven't even experienced the really hot season yet.

The Elders gave us part of their area and by doing so, we were able to gain a few new investigators. One of the members gave us a lot of referrals (Elders loss). I love referrals because it means we have work to do instead of tracting!!! Even though Sister Ganzagan and I opened up this area, we haven't had to do a lot of tracting. Let's hope it stays that way and we continue to build up our teaching pool because tracting is NOT my favorite thing.

We finally had the baptismal interviews for Jessica and Rose!!!!!!! We had to move their baptismal date to this coming Saturday because they didn't attend church last week. I wish I could enjoy Sundays more, but I'm always sitting there anxiously at church praying and hoping that our investigators and less actives will show up! Anyways, Jessica and Rose are very excited for their baptism and I'm so happy for them! I'm grateful for this opportunity to learn how to be more selfless and I'm sincerely so happy and excited when I see others' achievements and successes. And I get to be apart of a huge change in their lives which truly is a blessing.

I really don't have much more to say. Hopefully next weeks email will be a bit more exciting. I love you all and I want to thank everyone for all the support! Mahal ko kayo!

Love,
Sister Stettler

Week #13

Happy New Year everyone! How are the New Year's Resolutions? I've never been able to keep them so I just gave up on making them and decided to make goals throughout the year and just work on those. Anyways, speaking of goals, I am praying that Rose and Jessica go through with their baptism on Saturday! They've been coming to church for the past few weeks, but yesterday they didn't show up and they never texted us back. But whenever we teach Rose and talk to her about her baptism, she gets really excited. She has a strong testimony and I hope she continues to have the desire to become a member and keep strengthening her faith!

We started teaching Medey a little while ago. She lives with a less active member and on our third visit with her this week, she kept asking questions about how she can prepare for baptism. We asked her to start by coming to church every week and partaking of the sacrament, having faith, and repenting. She came to church yesterday and she told me that she has been coming before. I only understood part of what she was saying (this is the part where I wish I was fluent in Tagalog-haha), but I understood that she enjoys coming.

This week was such a great week! I'm understanding people a little bit more and I'm really coming to love the people I work with. The investigators, less actives, and members. We have a huge teaching pool of less actives and I'm so glad that a lot of them have started coming to church! We've invited some of the less active members to become involved in missionary work by having them come teach lessons with us. I think it helps them realize that they have an influence and are needed and have a purpose in the ward and in the church. Jonnabelle is a young single adult who is a less active, but she's recently started coming back to church and is going to start working with us. She has helped her family start reading the Book of Mormon and now all of them are coming and bringing their neighbors! Her father is not a member so we asked Jonnabelle to be an example to him and we are starting to work with him. 

I was able to try a lot of new foods this week! Filipino food is so good! I'm working on learning how to cook some of the food I really like. Fish balls are now one of my favorite foods, as well as scramble. Scramble is like ice cream and then they just put marshmallows on the top! And soimai is my favorite thing I've eaten here. Too bad it's Chinese! Go figure. That's my favorite type of food. 

For New Years Eve, Sister Ganzagan and I got matching sunglasses. What else do you do for fun? Haha The Bishop invited us over for dinner and then we went home because curfew was at 7:00. Even though we went to bed on time, it was impossible to sleep because of all the fireworks. So we got up and just watched them on our front porch. I think they went off for 4 hours. I can sleep through about anything though. There could be a war going on and I would probably sleep through that. By the way, I started sleeping on the floor at the beginning of the week because our bunk bed is so squeaky and I wake myself and my companion up all the time. Believe it or not, I have slept wonderfully all week long.

Then Wednesday morning we had to wake up really early to travel to Naga for exchanges. Sister Abarabar is one of the new STL's (Sister Training Leaders) and she came to my area. I had the opportunity to take charge and completely lead in planning and showing her around and teaching. That was so strange as I'm still the trainee (aka greenie haha). I love being able to work with other missionaries. I learn new techniques for studying, planning, and teaching. I guess that's the point.

Transfers were this week and we have a great district! Elder Nebeker and Elder Snyder stayed and their new companions are Elder Merrill and Elder Togueran. I really like our district because we all of a sudden have this motivation to work really hard. Which means it's been a successful week! 

Yesterday was fast Sunday of course, and I love the fast and testimony meetings here so much. Everyone just lines up to bear their testimonies! And they weren't all the same people that bore their testimonies last month. It usually seems that the same people always get up, but not here. I absolutely love the ward here. As I've said before, they are so eager to be involved in missionary work and their testimonies are so strong.

I look forward to this year! The time is flying and I'm really starting to enjoy being here. I feel like I'm fulfilling my purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Stettler