Sister Masters in the Philippines

Dear family and friends,  This week was a little busy with some things that made spirits and satan much more real to me. But on the bright side, I have learned that Christ's authority and power, the Priesthood, here on earth is a very real thing. I am so grateful for the Priesthood which has been restored through Prophet Joseph Smith. Worthy men who hold this Priesthood authority truly have the power to protect us from sickness, evil spirits, and bless us in unimaginable ways.  As a result we also have the 4 other sister missionaries sleeping in our apartment and it has been a blessing beyond measure for me personally.  As the sisters have been living in our apartment, they have talked about their childhood life, the punishments of being in rice sacks, kneeling on mongo beans, the time they worked in a sugarcane field, their aunt who build her own restaurant and how they learned to cook. Speaking of cooking, these sisters have added more recipes to my little ...

Dear Family and friends,  Time is a flying! I just hit my 13 months on the mission! Only 5 months. There is so much I have learned. I wish I were a better write to describe it. But here is a little note as I dont have much time.  There is a quote I read this week from Prophet Russel M. Nelson that I hope to apply for the rest of my life that says:  "  R each out to those you do not know and greet them warmly. Each Sunday extend a hand of fellowship to at least one person you did not know before. Each day of your life, strive to enlarge your own circle of friendship. "  This week we talked to the most people I have talked to in a while just trying to invite people to come unto Christ by listening and acting on our message. We talk to people and I usually just start by asking "Ano po ang pangalan ninyo?" Whats your name and just like that I start to talk to people about life and our happy message that brings "Kalipay" (joy) and "Katawhay...

So first off, I do not have much time today to email, but I will send a little update. :)  Sister Abubo has transferred so now its just me and Sister Doria, a little sad because Sister Abubo was such a light to be around :) But she is needed in her new area I guess :) This week rainy season has started and so if you want to know what our mission life is like: Imagine me walking all over our area through the little flooded areas, muddy paths and holding my beloved umberella in my little croc flats. SO GRATEFUL :)  I used my 1 cardigan I brought which I never thought I would use. But hey! I guess my body is now acclimated to the Philippines as I was SO COLD the other day all wet from the rain haha. Crazy :) But I am still happy as the rain is actually kind of fun when you keep your attitude in check :)  There have been NO people out because of the rain. So as we walk I make sure to talk to any one we see. We were walking and saw a man, Butchoy, and talked t...

Maayong hapon :)  This past week was focused on the members. In our mission, our mission president has "bawal"ed or has restricted tracting (knocking on doors) for quite some time now (since January). He wanted us to visit members and become more united with them to get referrals to teach people. So after a few months, our president then received a revelation that we have been using which is this amazing tool to help members know how to help their friends become ready to receive the missionaries (us) and gospel. Well guess what: we went from having no referrals last week to this week of 30 names (referrals) received from the members of the people they are working on to receive the message of the Restored Gospel. BLESSINGS. So that's been amazing. That happened in Roxas (my last area) too :) So now we will be busy following up with the members.  We also are a little low on investigators here so I have been exercising my faith and talking to people everywh...

Magandang hapon po sa lahat ulit :) Good afternoon again This week had many adventures as we proselyted just as being a missionary here in Kalibo.  I will share the spiritual first:  This week we were blessed to take part in preparing and seeing the baptism of: Sister Dialin (sounds like Jolleen) and her 3 children: John Ritch, Kate, and Christian Carl but better known as "Cano" (who I claim as my kapatid or brother because "Kano" sounds similar which means american and I am "kana" the female american haha) and a cute child of the Basarte family, Donald.  Donald and Cano were perhaps the cutest as they were wearing these massive baptismal clothes, but were oh so happy to be partaking in the sacred covenant of baptism. Sister Dialin was also such a delight to hear her testimony after her baptism and it is such a blessing and so happy to take part in their conversion.  As we went to the Vallejo home and other investigators, man...

Magandang hapon po sa inyo lahat! :) (Good evening to you all!) Natutunan ko na ang tagalog at Aklanon dito sa Kalibo :) I am learning Tagalog and Aklanon (pronounced Akeanon) here in Kalibo.  SURPRISE! I have been transferred and I am now a Sister Training Leader (STL) here in Kalibo. I was surpise transferred on Friday and I have been rather successfully speaking (amazingly, and totally from God- Gift of tongues is REAL) Tagalog. I have been able to differentiate the words of Aklanon, but I will jhave to learn that little by little as I want to learn Tagalog so bad and people here will speak Tagalog to me if they know I dont know Aklanon :) HAPPY DAY. I speak a mixed form of Hiligaynon and Tagalog, but in only 3 days the Lord has already blessed me with a great newfound knowledge of Tagalog :) BLESSINGS.  I have 2 companions (one of them is expected to transfer in about 2 weeks on the actual transfer day) and they both speak Tagalog because they are from T...

Maayong hapon sa tanan :)  (heres a picture so yall arent too bored with so much text) So this email has a great subject line for 2 reasons:  1) I have now been out on the mission for a FULL YEAR. Dang! That was fast. I only have 6 months left to serve the Lord and I feel that so much more of His work needs to be done, but what a blessing it has been to take part in His work for the past year.  I havent seen my parents in person for a whole year now, but WHAT A JOY it was to speak with them and video call for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day lovely Mamma :)  2) Last night I learned a great tip for all those who will ever visit the Philippines. There's a bit of a back story so you get the full history of how I came to know this. It was very hot last night and the electricity came on and off so the fan was not much use. I got the grand idea to lie down on the tile and found myself happily asleep for about 10 minutes when I woke up to a feeling of som...

Dear Family and friends,  This quote the lines the subject of this email is a lovely quote I saw on one of the shirts of a tricycle driver here in correlation to the local elections that have been occurring here. I laughed pretty hard at that quote and even harder at a jingle that a candidate made that is a rap in hiligaynon and is pretty funny to listen to. We memorized a part of it as we were hiking up and down the "bukid" the rural area/small mountains they have here in Culasi, Roxas on the way to our investigators.  This week we were blessed to be fed by our dear Cheena and Johnny who we helped them make super yummy chicken curry and get "gata" (the milk) out of the scraped coconut that Brother Johnny got from "kagud" (scrapping the coconut). Then we ate and had a wonderful lesson where we overviewed the Law of Chastity. Happy day.  A funny thing that happened this week was that 2 kids were truly convinced I was filipino! haha They asked i...

This week I learned that God truly IS right by our sides in this work.  This week Sister Cheena (mistake on my past spelling) and Brother Johnny came back from Boracay. We came over to their home and we missed them so much and after we said our hellos and laughed, Sister Cheena surprised me and Sister Salan (My companion) with 2 souvenir bracelets haha SHE LOVES US :) And then we came back and taught them the next day and Sister Cheena read the Law of Chastity pamphlet out loud with Brother Johnny and she said that God told her that they need to get married. THAT'S A MIRACLE. What a change of heart. So they are making plans for that so they can be baptized. :) HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY. Also this week Brother Johnny and Sister Cheena came to church and came on time so they were able to experience the sacred passing of the sacrament :) They are progressing like crazy and I love them very much :) In correlation with them, Sister Cheena has been giving us the names of her cousins and frie...

Good afternoon to you all, :) This week I am running short on time so this is just a small update.  I am alive and doing well :) This past week was a little slower on the Lord's work for various reasons, but we still were able to teach Iara and that was a wonderful experience with one of our recently baptized members, Roshell who connects well with our investigator Iara. We were able to teach about the Plan of Salvation, Where we came from and why we are here. We are so blessed to have a living prophet and I love this gospel and the truths that have been restored through Prophet Joseph Smith. I am so grateful for Christ's Atonement which the Book of Mormon explains so clearly and beautifully.  We went to Kalibo this week (another city about 1.5 hours away from my area) and we were able to learn about how to control stress and that was a good experience.  I hope you all are doing well :)  Love, Sister Masters They were so happy to receive a DOLLAR...

Hey yall :)  This past week was similar to every other week... MIRACULOUS, SPIRIT AND JOY FILLED :) I have officially finished 11 months on my mission now. It's going by fast and I don;t know exactly how to feel about that other than I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! :) I love the people and the language here :) A dear friend of mine told me recently "    It’s such a great feeling being able to speak their language. Someone once told me that the lord sends you to the place and language where you are able to best bear your testimony. And I can testify to that 100% I love being able to testify in Spanish because it does  feel much more spiritual for me ." and Im going to testify to what she testified about because that is the truth. I love speaking in Hiligaynon and speaking to these people I feel I knew long before that are for sure an additional part of my family.  This week I didnt fall in any bamboo bridges or eat shark or anything, but I did get to ea...

Dear loving Friends and Family,  This week I just want to share my experience as I watched the rebroadcasted General Conference (we are a week later here).  What a blessing it is to hear a living prophet of the Lord and Christ's living apostles speak to us 2 times a year. Being able to experience the Solemn Assembly where as members of the church we stood and voted and sustained Prophet Russel M. Nelson was one of the most happy, beautiful and spiritual experiences I have ever experienced in my life. As I stood in the Philippines and sustained the living Prophet of God, my heart was so filled with joy and the spirit which was so powerful that I couldnt help but have tears of joy to know that our Heavenly Father LOVES us and He shows us that love by continually calling Prophets so we can hear Jesus Christ's voice and will for us in this day. This is the only true and living church of Jesus Christ on this earth and I know this my whole heart and soul. You can know t...

Week 46: Happy Easter Hello everyone. So I can send picture, the problem is my cord... haha. This week was Semana Santa which basically means, everything is closed on Thursday and Friday, people dont work and they have a cool "Procession" where they have big statues and such and they parade them around the city with tons of people and they pray their memorized prayers. It was a cool cultural thing to see as most people here are Catholic due to the Spanish colonization here in the Philippines (Ill try to include pictures and a short video of that). Then on Sunday all the people party and celebrate. That was a loud Sunday haha. But the most exciting thing this week was a really cool Testifying Contact (we talk to people and tell them about the truth of the restored gospel). We had eaten at one of our dear members, the Fiel family on Saturday night and on the way back we experienced a small miracle  :)  One tricycle driver wanted us to pay a high price to go to our apar...