Woooohoooo!
Jenny wrote me and claims that she will be home on November 30! That is only 6 months from TODAY! Start your paper chains :) :) :)
Miracles Happen!
Well, the storm took a different course, and all we felt was just a little rain. So I don't have to experience the month of no power or water again....yet!
One interesting thing I learned about the storms here is that they name them each year in order of the alphabet. The last storm was called Chedeng, so we know it is the third storm of the year. Kinda cool huh? Not sure who gets the honor of choosing the name but anyway, The typhoon that hit us last October was Juan so that means it was the 10th big storm of the year. But obviously they are happening in other parts of the Philippines too.
So we had 7 investigators at church yesterday. We are most excited about this family I was telling you about. The Cauilan family. The dad came with his daughter yesterday, but the older kids were working and mom stayed home with the younger kids. But they are definitely interested and we really feel like they are prepared. The biggest problem will probably be dads addiction to cigarettes and their oldest child (Ferdinand 19) who isn't so crazy about this "mormon" thing. He also still wants to stick to their old religion. Actually, this family is former "Iglesia ni Cristo" do they have that church in America? Its pretty intense. You have to do like a 60 day trial and come to church straight for so long and then take a test and all this crazy stuff before you can join the church. So you can imagine, once they become a member, you know they're pretty solid. Anyway this family became inactive because they moved and anyway, now they are learning the teachings of the restored gospel in Christ's true and only church.
Last week they asked us about tithing because they didn't believe that 10% is required. That was a teaching in the old testament, but when Jesus came, He said that we should all just give according to the desires of our heart, etc. no set amount.
We taught tithing to them last Friday and it was a great lesson. I didn't say anything brilliant, but my companion rocked it and the spirit testified to them that the law of tithing is true and they need to live this law. Actually, the dad told us that they used to be really well off, they had a really big house and their bakery business was booming. He said that each Sunday he would go to church and give a very small offering and eventually the success of his business died out and now they are poor again. He said, it was probably because he wasn't paying a "full tithe". They totally accepted it and were able to see that it really is true. It was a mini miracle and when we walked out of their house I was just thanking the Lord.
Speaking of miracles, me and my companion have been talking about faith a lot recently and we decided that we need more of it. Sometimes in this work, you just get used to rejection and you almost start to expect it, but we decided we will never lower our expectations. We expect miracles to happen because this is a great and marvelous work and our faith matters!!
3 Nephi 7:18
Well, I'll be praying for grandpa this week! I'm sure everything will be okay.
Me and sister Villamor decided to do companionship exercise to motivate each other to get it done! It was pretty funny this morning. We used our blue missionary health guide and the stretchy band they give you in the MTC. (Ive had that thing for almost a year now and never before opened it. today was its debut!) You defintely would have gotten a good laugh out of watching us, we were quite the sight. But we are gonna exercise for reals every morning now so Im excited.
hugs and kisses
Conquer satan
sister webre
One interesting thing I learned about the storms here is that they name them each year in order of the alphabet. The last storm was called Chedeng, so we know it is the third storm of the year. Kinda cool huh? Not sure who gets the honor of choosing the name but anyway, The typhoon that hit us last October was Juan so that means it was the 10th big storm of the year. But obviously they are happening in other parts of the Philippines too.
So we had 7 investigators at church yesterday. We are most excited about this family I was telling you about. The Cauilan family. The dad came with his daughter yesterday, but the older kids were working and mom stayed home with the younger kids. But they are definitely interested and we really feel like they are prepared. The biggest problem will probably be dads addiction to cigarettes and their oldest child (Ferdinand 19) who isn't so crazy about this "mormon" thing. He also still wants to stick to their old religion. Actually, this family is former "Iglesia ni Cristo" do they have that church in America? Its pretty intense. You have to do like a 60 day trial and come to church straight for so long and then take a test and all this crazy stuff before you can join the church. So you can imagine, once they become a member, you know they're pretty solid. Anyway this family became inactive because they moved and anyway, now they are learning the teachings of the restored gospel in Christ's true and only church.
Last week they asked us about tithing because they didn't believe that 10% is required. That was a teaching in the old testament, but when Jesus came, He said that we should all just give according to the desires of our heart, etc. no set amount.
We taught tithing to them last Friday and it was a great lesson. I didn't say anything brilliant, but my companion rocked it and the spirit testified to them that the law of tithing is true and they need to live this law. Actually, the dad told us that they used to be really well off, they had a really big house and their bakery business was booming. He said that each Sunday he would go to church and give a very small offering and eventually the success of his business died out and now they are poor again. He said, it was probably because he wasn't paying a "full tithe". They totally accepted it and were able to see that it really is true. It was a mini miracle and when we walked out of their house I was just thanking the Lord.
Speaking of miracles, me and my companion have been talking about faith a lot recently and we decided that we need more of it. Sometimes in this work, you just get used to rejection and you almost start to expect it, but we decided we will never lower our expectations. We expect miracles to happen because this is a great and marvelous work and our faith matters!!
3 Nephi 7:18
Well, I'll be praying for grandpa this week! I'm sure everything will be okay.
Me and sister Villamor decided to do companionship exercise to motivate each other to get it done! It was pretty funny this morning. We used our blue missionary health guide and the stretchy band they give you in the MTC. (Ive had that thing for almost a year now and never before opened it. today was its debut!) You defintely would have gotten a good laugh out of watching us, we were quite the sight. But we are gonna exercise for reals every morning now so Im excited.
hugs and kisses
Conquer satan
sister webre
There is Sunshine in my Soul Today!
Aloha!
AAaaaahhhhh the Brigham Temple looks so awesome! Like you can totally see what its really going to look like already! I am soo pumped to go there!
Nicholas's e-mail was fantastic! I have been inspired by his example. I know he truly gave all on his mission and that's what I want to do.
I truly have learned the value of hard work. Hard work is....well....hard work. Its not easy, especially when its 100 degrees all the time and you never get any rest except 8 hours of sleep every night that feels more like 2 seconds. I have always been a worker on the mission, but especially now, I have never worked harder.
If there is one thing that Sister Villamor learns from me, I want it to be that because even if you dont see any results or get any baptisms, you can still find great joy and satisfaction in knowing that you truly gave it all and there was nothing left you could give.
However, baptisms usually do follow when we do what is required! We have witnessed that this past week!
We have been praying to find FAMILIES that are prepared to recieve the gospel, and the Lord answered our prayers.
The Cauilan family (7 kids) is definitely prepared, and the mom and Dad came to church last week. They had a good experience and said they will be coming back again.
We met several other couples, mostly with one or two small children that we have started teaching, and we are excited to see how they will progress.
I am so grateful to be able to see the fruits of our labors and see the lives that are changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Our recent convert Reymond Agustin is going to the temple tomorrow with the ward and we are so excited for him!! He was only baptized just two weeks ago! Its a ten hour bus ride for the members here to get to the temple.
It is like an oven here now, but rainy season has just started and most nights it rains. Last tuesday we were teaching our last lesson around 8:30 pm and the rain started. By the time we finished it was POURING and we were about a mile from home. We waited until 930 but it was still coming down really hard so we decided just to brave it. (But secretly I wanted to run around and dance in it! HA!) The streets were flooded and when we reached our little village we were sloshing through about a foot of water. To make things even more exciting, the power went out in the process. It was awesome. Sister Villamor said she felt like we were in some horror movie. Ha!
After the flood there was an earthquake. It was nothing really, but we definitely felt it. Only lasted about a minute. We were sitting on the couch doing nightly planning. Its a very strange sensation when the earth is moving underneath and around you, you feel so helpless and vulnerable.
Sister Villamor is a super awesome missionary, and probably one of my favorite companions so far. Even though I'm technically training her, I don't feel like I've done much "training" because she came trained and I think she was born to be a missionary. She is a great teacher and also willing to work hard.
Don't go and worry or anything but they say another typhun is headed our way this week
Well I guess thats it,
love you!
Be good!
Sister Webre
The pictures are from the service project we did earlier at an elementary school. I pulled a lot of weeds! Good times!
AAaaaahhhhh the Brigham Temple looks so awesome! Like you can totally see what its really going to look like already! I am soo pumped to go there!
Nicholas's e-mail was fantastic! I have been inspired by his example. I know he truly gave all on his mission and that's what I want to do.
I truly have learned the value of hard work. Hard work is....well....hard work. Its not easy, especially when its 100 degrees all the time and you never get any rest except 8 hours of sleep every night that feels more like 2 seconds. I have always been a worker on the mission, but especially now, I have never worked harder.
If there is one thing that Sister Villamor learns from me, I want it to be that because even if you dont see any results or get any baptisms, you can still find great joy and satisfaction in knowing that you truly gave it all and there was nothing left you could give.
However, baptisms usually do follow when we do what is required! We have witnessed that this past week!
We have been praying to find FAMILIES that are prepared to recieve the gospel, and the Lord answered our prayers.
The Cauilan family (7 kids) is definitely prepared, and the mom and Dad came to church last week. They had a good experience and said they will be coming back again.
We met several other couples, mostly with one or two small children that we have started teaching, and we are excited to see how they will progress.
I am so grateful to be able to see the fruits of our labors and see the lives that are changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Our recent convert Reymond Agustin is going to the temple tomorrow with the ward and we are so excited for him!! He was only baptized just two weeks ago! Its a ten hour bus ride for the members here to get to the temple.
It is like an oven here now, but rainy season has just started and most nights it rains. Last tuesday we were teaching our last lesson around 8:30 pm and the rain started. By the time we finished it was POURING and we were about a mile from home. We waited until 930 but it was still coming down really hard so we decided just to brave it. (But secretly I wanted to run around and dance in it! HA!) The streets were flooded and when we reached our little village we were sloshing through about a foot of water. To make things even more exciting, the power went out in the process. It was awesome. Sister Villamor said she felt like we were in some horror movie. Ha!
After the flood there was an earthquake. It was nothing really, but we definitely felt it. Only lasted about a minute. We were sitting on the couch doing nightly planning. Its a very strange sensation when the earth is moving underneath and around you, you feel so helpless and vulnerable.
Sister Villamor is a super awesome missionary, and probably one of my favorite companions so far. Even though I'm technically training her, I don't feel like I've done much "training" because she came trained and I think she was born to be a missionary. She is a great teacher and also willing to work hard.
Don't go and worry or anything but they say another typhun is headed our way this week
Well I guess thats it,
love you!
Be good!
Sister Webre
The pictures are from the service project we did earlier at an elementary school. I pulled a lot of weeds! Good times!
Greetings from the OVEN of the world
This was the local Jubilee celebration (Church being in the PHILS 50 years) for the area I am serving in. The dances and costumes were all AMAZING. And we loved it so much! The youth spent months preparing all the dances, there were probably at least 15 different dances with new costumes for each one. Amazing!
Hey, hey, hey, its monday again. Cool.
They call it preparation day for a reason. You know they don't call it "take a rest" day.
Anyway, it has been another great week!
They call it preparation day for a reason. You know they don't call it "take a rest" day.
Anyway, it has been another great week!
Here is the low down on the investigators
Brother Olimon came to church his first time yesterday. He actually lives just across the street. We've taught him about 3 times and he keeps asking us what he needs to do to be baptized in this church. HA! He is so cool! He sells vegetables and snacks and rice toppings for a living, just drives them around on his bicycle. He is gold! Not sure his exact age but he is somewhere in his 60s Id say.
One quick funny story. We were supposed to teach one investigator but his friend told us we couldn't go over to teach him because they had a visitor. Well we dropped by anyway that night before we went home just to remind him about church the next day. We couldn't see any extra family or friends around and so we asked him if he had a visitor or could we teach him a quick lesson?
Come to find out the "visitor" is a statue of the virgin Mary and they pass it from home to home and pray to it each night at 6pm. Each family keeps it for a couple of days. We were like "Oh....really? .......Um....Ok..." It was really funny and awkward. But they said that for some reason it didn't get passed to them and they wouldn't get it until monday.
This is the same investigator that always commits to come to church but never shows.
We asked him why he didn't come last week and he said he had to work but then later he told us he HAS been going to church......the CATHOLIC church. Ha! So no worries, he's been going to church after all. Just not our church. Sometimes we forget to specify which church when we commit them to go to church on sunday. Silly, silly.
It was a funny night. Lots of little things like that happened.
Anyway I'll tell you more next week. Gotta run!
Love you tons!
Take care!
Sister Webre
Mothers Day Weekend
Thought I would send a few pictures of our baptism and stuff.
This is my new companion sister Villamor. She rocks
Well, thats all....
Love sister webre
This is my new companion sister Villamor. She rocks
Well, thats all....
Love sister webre
From Jenny
So the jubilee celebration was on saturday and sunday. It was really
neat. It took place in Manila and they did satelite broadcast to stake
centers all over the country. The dances and costumes were
spectacular!!! I loved it.
This is a part of the talk Pres. Hinckley gave when he dedicated the
Philippines to have the gospel preached here:
"We invoke Thy blessing, Father dear, upon the missionaries who shall
come here, that Thy Spirit may touch their hearts, that their lives
may be clean and virtuous, that their examples may be marvelous before
the people, that they may be blessed, as it were, with the “gift of
tongues”, that they shall speak the language of the people, that they
shall work with singleness of purpose to The Name’s honor and glory,
that they shall go forth without fear, that none shall slay them, and
that they shall declare with teaching and testimony, the restoration
of Thy Holy Work for the blessing of Thy children. Father, give them
joy and courage and faith and satisfaction in their labors, and make
them fruitful."
pretty cool huh!
That includes me, even 50 years later.
I also think this talk from Elder Scott is super neat and thought I
would share a few parts.
"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to
become each day. Righteous character is a precious manifestation of
what you are becoming. Righteous character is more valuable than any
material object you own, any knowledge you have gained through study,
or any goals you have attained no matter how well lauded by mankind.
"An axiom we all understand is that you get what you pay for. That is
true for spiritual matters as well. You get what you pay for in
obedience, in faith in Jesus Christ, in diligent application of the
truths you learn. What you get is the molding of character, the growth
in capacity, and the successful completion of your mortal purpose to
be proven and to have joy.
"May I share four principles which have brought the deepest feelings
of peace and happiness into my own life? The Lord has established
these cornerstones in His eternal plan, and each one is essential. All
work together in harmony and reinforce one another. When they are
applied with diligence and consistency, they produce strength of
character, increasing ability to convert the challenges of life into
stepping-stones of happiness now and forever. They are:
•Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His program to acquire the power to achieve.
•Repentance to rectify the consequences of mistakes of omission or commission.
•Obedience to the commandments of the Lord to provide strength and
direction in our lives.
•Selfless service to enrich the lives of others."
We are super excited for our baptism coming up on Saturday. Reymond is
totally gonna be the next stake president. He is GREAT! The Lord
really blessed us in preparing him and helping us find him.
Love you
sister webre
neat. It took place in Manila and they did satelite broadcast to stake
centers all over the country. The dances and costumes were
spectacular!!! I loved it.
This is a part of the talk Pres. Hinckley gave when he dedicated the
Philippines to have the gospel preached here:
"We invoke Thy blessing, Father dear, upon the missionaries who shall
come here, that Thy Spirit may touch their hearts, that their lives
may be clean and virtuous, that their examples may be marvelous before
the people, that they may be blessed, as it were, with the “gift of
tongues”, that they shall speak the language of the people, that they
shall work with singleness of purpose to The Name’s honor and glory,
that they shall go forth without fear, that none shall slay them, and
that they shall declare with teaching and testimony, the restoration
of Thy Holy Work for the blessing of Thy children. Father, give them
joy and courage and faith and satisfaction in their labors, and make
them fruitful."
pretty cool huh!
That includes me, even 50 years later.
I also think this talk from Elder Scott is super neat and thought I
would share a few parts.
"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to
become each day. Righteous character is a precious manifestation of
what you are becoming. Righteous character is more valuable than any
material object you own, any knowledge you have gained through study,
or any goals you have attained no matter how well lauded by mankind.
"An axiom we all understand is that you get what you pay for. That is
true for spiritual matters as well. You get what you pay for in
obedience, in faith in Jesus Christ, in diligent application of the
truths you learn. What you get is the molding of character, the growth
in capacity, and the successful completion of your mortal purpose to
be proven and to have joy.
"May I share four principles which have brought the deepest feelings
of peace and happiness into my own life? The Lord has established
these cornerstones in His eternal plan, and each one is essential. All
work together in harmony and reinforce one another. When they are
applied with diligence and consistency, they produce strength of
character, increasing ability to convert the challenges of life into
stepping-stones of happiness now and forever. They are:
•Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His program to acquire the power to achieve.
•Repentance to rectify the consequences of mistakes of omission or commission.
•Obedience to the commandments of the Lord to provide strength and
direction in our lives.
•Selfless service to enrich the lives of others."
We are super excited for our baptism coming up on Saturday. Reymond is
totally gonna be the next stake president. He is GREAT! The Lord
really blessed us in preparing him and helping us find him.
Love you
sister webre
The party is over
I have about 5 minutes to write, sorry!
Nothing too exciting happened this week other than the fact that sharing the gospel is always exciting!!
This week we will get to watch the Jubilee celebration on broadcast. Its the celebration of the missionaries being 50 years now in the Philippines. Members of the church all over the philippines (mostly youth) spend months preparing dances and stuff and its a really special occasion. It might even be on tv. you should check it out. It should at least be on the net. So that will be fun.
Our apartment is cockroach infested!! And they are no small cockroaches either! So enjoy your clean houses and your pure water! But its all worth it to be able to bring souls unto Christ. YEAH!
Most of the pictures are from Magat Dam. I have been to this place before but we went again because its fairly close and it has mountains!
Well sorry this is so short but everyone is waiting for me.
Love you all and have a fantastic week full of happiness and well doing!
Maging Malakas!
Conquer Satan!
Alma 38
sister webre
About Me
- Jenevieve
- check out www.lds.org or www.mormon.org to find out more. Here are a few of my Favorite Quotations: "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." -Nephi "By very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." -Alma the younger "Our missionaries are not salesmen, with wares to peddle; rather, they are servants of the Most High God, with a testimony to bear, truth to teach, and souls to save" --President Thomas S. Monson ... “The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and dependent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah will say, ‘The work is done.'” --Joseph Smith Jr.
