Family,
It truly has been one amazing week here on the mission, and I know I say that basically every week, but this one has probably been the best one yet. Every day this past week, I've truly seen the hand of Lord guiding and blessing the people here in the Philippines. Even this morning, Sister Luke and I were discussing during studies how blessed we feel to be here in the Philippines. I think of my life and those decisions and moments in my life that have led me to the place I am now, as a missionary, and all I can think about is how thankful I am for you. Because no doubt, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the amazing examples I've had growing up. I feel so blessed to have grown up with the gospel in my life, and now I truly feel joy sharing it with others. It truly is the Lord's work, and it is so spiritually gratifying knowing that I'm helping Heavenly Father's work here upon the earth.
This week, I've felt the joy that they always reference in the scriptures. There are so many people that are prepared to receive the gospel, and I feel so honored to be able to dedicate all day, every day, to finding and teaching those who will be blessed with the gospel in their lives. This past week we taught T... I don't remember if I mentioned him last week. We met him, talked for maybe 5 minutes, invited him to church, then the typhoon happened so we didn't see him. Then Sunday morning, there he comes walking in! It was a miracle. But since last week, we've taught him twice. Last night we introduced the Book of Mormon, and before we even explained what we have to do to gain a testimony of it, he was like, you need to pray about it. His testimony is already so strong, but I don't think he even realizes it. We invited him to be baptized on December 25, and he got so excited, he was even like, "I would be baptized on Christ's birthday, yeah!" This whole story might seem so corny, but it was truly the most spiritually gratifying moment. People truly are prepared to receive the gospel, and it just fills me with so much joy, knowing that people are changing and becoming closer to Christ through us.
Other exciting news, Saturday we were trying to find this less active family that lives in our area. We have the street address so basically every few houses, we'll ask if they know them or where they live. After going down basically the whole street, nobody still knows them. But at one family, when we ask, they're like sorry we only moved in three months ago. So we're talking a little bit, they let us in, we share a little message with them, we invite them to church, and they said yes! Then we got to pick them up Sunday morning, and they're there, with their three teenager girls, all ready for church! It was so exciting. We're going back to teach them tonight and were excited. Those are those most exciting stories I have that happened during the week, overall it's been good and I feel like I'm finally starting to see progress. We have a lot of new investigators, and I'm excited to continue to teach, etc.
As for J, she still doesn't have permission from her dad for baptism. Every time we visit, she takes ten minutes just to explain what she read in the Book of Mormon. It's just heart breaking because she's so ready, yet once again, other people get in the way.
We heard yesterday that Tacloban missionaries are coming. We think some might be staying at our house tonight... It's heartbreaking. The other day we saw an article talking about it and it had some pictures of the missionaries. Both Sister Luke and I recognized someone we knew in the MTC because the Tacloban missionaries were in our zone there.
I love you all! I'm safe, and everything is back to normal here in Bacolod after the storm. We even got our water back so no more bucket showers from typhoon water! Life is good. I miss you all but am so glad to be serving a mission! Send my love to everyone!
xoxo,
Sister Fitz
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