January 26, 2014

Dear family,

This week has had its ups and downs, but mostly it was just filled with spiritual experiences, where I truly feel so blessed to be on a mission. Last week was one of the downs, but you know how they always say that no matter how many depressing, frustrating moments you have on the mission, you only remember the joys? Well that's what I'm experiencing. We have so many things that can just bog us down and make us feel inadequate, useless, unworthy, and I think last week I let that get the best of me, but this week I truly feel the peace, love, and joy that comes from missionary work.

Thursday we had zone training from President Lopez. It is different being in such a small zone and being the only sisters, but it was fun. Trainings always give me the spiritual pump and encouragement I need. They uplift you in a way where you just want to go out and find, teach, and baptize. But President Lopez did have us teach in front of everyone. It's always a little nerve-wracking, but overall, no big deal. In our interviews with him, he always has us practice teach in Ilonggo, so we did, and then afterwards he said he would call on us, so at least it wasn't a surprise

Our area is slowly progressing. We have a lot of investigators that could have a lot of potential. Sister Rey and I came to a conclusion yesterday that it really takes only one lesson to make a terrible day good. Just one lesson, or one investigators, or just one minute where you truly just feel the Spirit. It was like that in my last area with Sister Luke where we would spend our last appointment with T every night. It was like no matter what happened during the day, how hot or punted we were, we would forget all of it because of how great the lessons were. And I think that's how the mission experience overall will be. By the end of it, you don't remember the crazy, frustrating, depressing stuff that happens, but rather remember all the experiences that are hard to even describe because of how special or spiritual they were.

This past week, E and her son didn't get baptized.  We're waiting on permission from her husband. The whole situation is a little depressing because she's so ready, her testimony is so strong, and she wants to be baptized. So, now we're just waiting for him to have a change of heart. It's sad she can't at this moment, but we feel at peace about it because we know she's already converted. She's basically already a member of the church. She's just waiting for that one last step.

Life in Binalabagan is good. It's still been relatively cool. I haven't fallen through the bamboo bridge yet, and Sister Rey is so sweet. We have our ups and downs regarding missionary work, but who doesn't. Right now, we're on our ups. Yesterday, Elder Nobleza (who's in the Quorum of the Seventy but he lives in our ward) gave a talk and reshared the story of the pioneers that we watched last week at the area broadcast. He explained how the pioneers trek, the plain was flat for almost 300 miles, and then at the end when they were the most tired, fatigued, and exhausted, they had to climb that last mountain, the most treacherous part of the journey. He was saying how we've been on the flat plains for too long and now is the time to climb the mountains in our life. He was saying how the Lord requires us to, and how that's the only way for us to become holier men. I know that there will be many mountains in my life, but I guess the mission is the first one I'm experiencing, and I'm ready to climb it.

I love you all! Help the missionaries! I know you're trying, just do all that you can! Seriously, the best way is referrals. We talk to people all we want, but it's hard when there's no support from a member. There's a statistic that President Lopez gave us, I'm not sure if it's just from the Bacolod mission or worlwide, but 1 in every 8 referrals gets baptized. BUT only 1 in every 220ish gets baptized from street contacting. That just shows how vital members are in the work.

Send everyone my love!

Love always,

Cami

P.S. Thanks for sending my package! My shoes have officially died, the hole went up the side and now they're basically ripped in half. I'll send a picture once i have a camera again.

Zone Conference Pictures

 

January 19, 2014

Dear Family,

 Another week has come and gone and I'm so excited to hear that T got baptized! We were praying that everything would get situated for his baptism and I'm so glad that they did.

This past week has been a little harder than the previous. Right before I got here, they baptized all of their progressing investigators, so other than our investigator E who will hopefully get baptized this weekend, we have none. So this past week, we've spent a lot of time just finding and teaching. We're kind of at the stand still where we've taught several families for weeks, yet they just won't come to church. That's where all the lines are drawn with investigators, they have to make the decision to actually come to church, because without it, there's no progress. It's what we see happen over and over again, they'll read, they'll pray, they'll have a testimony that it's true, they just won't use that testimony and exercise their faith to go to church, but we're not giving up. We're just trying our best and working even harder to find and prepare those for baptism.

This past week has been a little frustrating and just a little heart-wrenching. We've been teaching and teaching and teaching, and then at church yesterday we had no one. Not one investigator and it makes me look back at myself and think what am I missing? what is missing in our lessons? how can I help them more effectively to have that desire to go to church? or see the importance of it? In trainings they always say to not stress over the things that you can't control. We can't control other's agency, to listen to us or to keep commitments and we can't force them to come to church. But then I think, we can control the lessons. We can control if we teach according to spirit and promptings. We can control so many things, and I feel like I'm lacking something. It's something that's just been on my mind this past week, so this week I've made it a goal to focus on learning to recognize the promptings of the spirit, to become more familiar with how the spirit talks to me, and how I can more fully follow those promptings. Even this morning I read the talk from President Monson from October 2013 conference, and he gave story after story of him following the promptings of the spirit and the miracles that happened because of it. I just started tearing up because I felt the spirit so strongly. I want that. President Lopez always says,"Don't doubt that the spirit is not with you. It's always there. Most of the time, we just don't recognize it." This week I want to recognize it and I want to teach in such a way that those investigators can't help but feel the power of my testimony and the truthfulness of our message. 

This past week has still been overcast all week. It's been so nice. I feel like I'm back in Washington because it's just been cloudy and gloomy, but not hot. I haven't sweated allll week. The past two weeks even. It's been amazing and so nice. I hope it stays.

On Saturday, we had a CSP! We cleaned the outside of school in one of our Baranggay's!  We got all dirty pulling weeds, etc. and it reminded me of Dad :) Later that night they had the Philippines Area Broadcast where they introduced the 2014 Area goals. They're the same as last year except one. 

1. Strengthen Families

2. Save the Rising Generation

3. Establish the Church

4. Share the Gospel and Rescue the One

I love you all!

xoxoxo,

Sister Fitzgerald

January 12, 2014

Family,

Another week has come and gone, and it's been freezing here allll week. As in, I wear the only sweater I brought. And in the mornings we have hot chocolate and soup, and I cuddle up in my sheet to keep warm sometimes during studies. It's been a weird change, but also really nice!

And, I officially join the Fitzgerald Biggest Loser. I have never felt so fat in my life this past week. Last week I think I mentioned the bamboo bridge that we have to cross sometimes to go to an area... well I broke through it! Thankfully, it was at the end and not above the river, but one foot stepped on a broken bamboo and my leg just went right through. Scariest thing of my life, but long story short, not only am I scared to cross it from now on, but I came to a sudden realization that things in the Philippines are not made for me, or in other words, I need to lose weight. It's like this past week, I got the envelope of happy notes and wedding announcement, and Maddy included on hers about the Biggest Loser, and how she stopped eating her Albertsons cookie midbite... that's basically my experience, so now I have eleven months to lose all this weight and come home looking stunning. but more importantly, I lose this weight so I don't die the next time I cross the river on the bamboo bridge.

My new area is really fun! The ward is so supportive, even Bishop gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting encouraging the members to support our work, to give referrals, and fellowship less actives, recent converts, and investigators. Right before I came, Sister Rey and her companion baptized four of their investigators, so we're now kind of starting over finding and preparing investigators for baptism. However, we do have a sister who is getting baptized this month on the 25th! Her name is E, and she's the mother of three little boys. She's so sweet, and is already in Helaman in her Book of Mormon reading. She is so kind, and you can really see how the gospel is blessing her life. Her husband isn't interested, but is supportive of her decision. But she's one member or investigator, I guess, that gets the concept that when a trial comes in your life, you don't leave the church, but you come closer to it. I think that's one of the main struggles with the less actives we teach, that no matter what we're experiencing, come closer to Christ, rely on him, trust him, rather than give up. That's the time to grow even closer, rather than to push away. 

So, I know you want to see the area, but I lost the charger to my camera... and since it's a chargeable battery... I'm out of luck. In the meantime, I guess I'll just rely on Sister Rey to document our life together in the mission. 

Binalbagan is nice. It's so clean compared to Bacolod. It's small, and there's no real grocery store, or american stores like Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds, but it's still nice. It's not a city, but more like a town. You can't find a lot of things, but enough to get by. I'm sorry these emails are so short but with the timer counting down the minutes, I don't have much time left. I still have to write my mission president..

I love you! I don't have a scale to weigh myself for biggest loser... but I guess if I don't break through a bamboo floor this week, I'll call myself the winner:) just kidding!

miss you!

xoxo

January 5, 2014

Pamilya!

Big news of the new year.... I got transferred! Which was actually quite sad because real transfers aren't for another two weeks so I thought I had two more weeks in my area, but we got the call Tuesday night... as in we were celebrating New Year Eve and instead we were all crying. But it's okay. I have my new companion, Sister Rey! She's adorable. She's in Sister Luke's batch so she has two weeks left of training. But our area is amazing! I'm in Binalbagan, about two hours away from Bacolod, and we're the only two sisters in our zone. Fun! But the city is actually really nice... big contrast from Bacolod.  The ward is so supportive in their missionary. I never realized how much of a difference that makes, but it does. The Bishop even came to teach with us this past week, and members give us referrals left and right. President Lopez always says to harness the power of the members, and now I understand why. I'm sad because G's baptism was this past Saturday and I missed it, and T's is next Saturday and I'll miss it, but all is well.

Anyways, this week has been a whirlwind. Tuesday and Wednesday we had to be home early for New Year's Eve because there's so many fireworks. At midnight is was sooo loud, crazy. Wednesday, we visited a few members, we had lunch at the M family, and then that night I packed up all my stuff :( and we might of cried a little bit too. Thursday morning, we went to the stake center, got my new companion, and then had follow-up training with President Lopez. Then the weekend has been spent visiting investigators, becoming familiar with the area, and getting to know Sister Rey. She's so sweet. It's just the two of us in our house so it's definitely quieter from what I'm used to, but our house is really nice. And our area is too. It's not that advanced--there's not even a super market.... or a laundry place... and they're actually strict regarding throwing your trash so it looks a lot nicer compared to the city. It's also kind of mountainy. This past week we crossed a river on a bridge made out of bamboo... scariest thing of my life.  I think it will be fun 

Send everyone my love!

xoxoxo,

Sister Fitz

Transfer Day

December 29, 2013

Family!

It was so great talking to you this past week! Is it weird I feel like it was more like a month ago and not just last week?! It was so fun,  Since then I have good news--our water is back on and my eye is back to normal! I'm kind of sad that's how you saw me because basically that's what I look like when I get up, no make-up with my glasses on...  Surprisingly, I actually look better than that most days. 

But it was an amazing week and Skyping you all was definitely the highlight! So Wednesday, we skyped you and afterwards we stopped by the pharmacy so I could get eye drops, and then headed out to proselyte! Brother P (our investigator family) invited us over for lunch, and we were a little nervous because he invited us almost a week beforehand, so we thought maybe he forgot... but we show up, and turns out it was this huge luncheon that was catered, with tables set out everywhere, and they had his whole family and their neighbors there. It was fun, there was good food, and we were able to relax for a little bit. All the kids had a little presentation also where they danced and it was super cute. But then for the rest of the day, we had a couple of appointments, visited some investigators and members, and then we came home around 6 for studies. We ate leftovers that people gave us for dinner, and then the four of us opened presents from each other! We decided a couple weeks ago to give everyone gifts and I'm so glad we did because it was so fun and exciting to see what we got each other. I currently have a full box of presents from Christmas still sitting on my bed. We're slowly working our way through all the candy you sent, which isn't helping us stay healthy, but I figured I have a couple of more days until the new year :) 

Our missionary work is still continuing. We have some progressing investigators, we have some not so progressing, but that's the life of a missionary. Our zone sets goals for our key indicators each transfer, and they're definitely high, so we're trying to push ourselves to reach them this week. In exciting news, G gets baptized this Saturday! She passed her interview yesterday and we're so excited. She's a 12 year-old girl that we met and we just invited her to church and she said she would come! So then we awkwardly walked with her to a member family close to where she lives so she could come with them to church... the whole process was awkward. BUT, the following day, she actually came to church with them! We later find out when we visited her that week, that her mom is a less active! She's been amazing and so cute. She reads all the time, and she's so excited to get baptized. Her mom hasn't returned to church yet, but she's completely supportive of G, and basically bears her testimony every time we teach and she's coming to her baptism, so we're excited. Also, T's baptismal interview is this Friday. He's still reading all the time so we're hoping he'll get baptized on the 11th. 

Send everyone my love. I am truly loving my mission and I can't believe that I have less than a year left.... I  love you all!

xoxoxo forever,
Sister Fitz

Last meeting with Sister Delicano (ward missionary)

Special Friends

Thanksgiving Dinner

The Ward Primary Acting Out the Nativity

Beautiful Sunsets in the Philippines

Hot Chocolate on Christmas Eve

English Class

December 22, 2013

Family,

I'm skyping tomorrow!!! And I've reached my six months mark! Time is flying! So quick update about the week...

1. Dean(ward missionary) has now left us... kasubo guid kami. But, we're so excited for her. We made her this cute little going away present, and she totally loved it... at least she said she did and seemed really sincere. haha. We gave her this gorgeous leather journal and then made a cover to a mini Book of Mormon with pictures of us on it. They have mission farewells here--the night they get set apart, they have a farewell party at the church. And at the party, the missionary sits in a chair in the front, and then you take turns going up to the front and telling stories about her, giving advice, talking about memories/friendship, etc. and it was so sweet. We got really close to her, and frankly I think we were her closest friends here in the ward. After while we were eating, she came and sat by us, she even wrote us letters and gave us her two small stuffed animals that she's has since she was young. We love her and miss her but she'll be amazing.

2. We are still teaching T.  His testimony is so strong. He's almost done with 2 Nephi and we've only been teaching him for like 6 weeks! He has completely stopped smoking, drinking, etc within a couple of days. It's hard because he's so prepared yet Satan is just not making it easy for him but we're not losing hope and faith.

3. My package came! and we're so excited for tomorrow! And I loved every single letter and picture in the 12 days of Christmas envelopes! So fun and so thoughtful.

4. Last night we had our ward Christmas Party and it's definitely a huge deal here! and everyone and their grandma showed up! Even the J family (our investigators!) came! It was fun, and they had so much food! Even the big lechon pork (the full roasted pig) was sitting on the counter.

 

I love you all! Sorry for this short email but I will tell you all about everything tomorrow!

xoxo, 

Sister Fitz

December 15, 2013

Family,

IN A LITTLE OVER A WEEK WE'LL BE SKYPING! I'm so excited! Especially because next week will be a full week of celebration. Next Monday, we have our zone training from the President at the mission home! Followed by our ward Christmas Party that night.. which technically we're not allowed to attend but since we have a part in the program, we're able to go, eat, and present, then leave. So we're still excited. And then, Tuesday is Christmas Eve and that's when we'll have our P-Day! We're trying to plan something really special!  Underneath the stairs, we have our "Christmas Cove" that's covered in tinsel, lights, and our Christmas tree with presents. So, we already decided to move our mattresses downstairs so we can sleep around our little Christmas tree that night while reading the Nativity story, and then open present Christmas morning before we skype you! So... we're really excited!

Speaking of T, he's amazing. We taught law of tithing this past week so the night before, we gave him the pamphlet to read about it before we taught him the next night. So then it's the next night, and we go and sit down, and before we even mentioned tithing, he was like "Who should I give my tithing to? and when?" It was seriously the cutest thing and he's basically our favorite part of the day. He's always our last appointment because he lives right by where we live, so matter how bad the day was, we end with him and we're happy :) But yesterday, we're sitting in church- I'm behind the piano, Sister Luke is up on the stand because she's chorister, and the Bishop is giving the opening announcements. Then Sister Luke looks at me and points to the back, and T is walking in... he bought a new outfit for church! Usually he just wears jeans and a t-shirt, but this week he bought khakis, a belt, and this plaid button-up shirt! Isn't he precious?! And then we're talking to the Elders, and they're like "How many investigators to you have today?" and we're like, "don't want to talk about it..." and then they're like "really, how many?" so then we're like, "fine, only one... T" but then they're like "oh that's okay, T basically counts for like 10."  So even they think he's amazing. He's seriously been a blessing and in the process of teaching him, we've truly seen how the gospel can completely change someone's life. In every aspect, he's truly accepting Christ's gospel and applying it to his life. His testimony is so strong, and I know he's going to an amazing church leader someday. 

In other sad news, Dean (ward missionary) is leaving us this week. Probably the most depressing news to ever hit our missionary life here in the Bacolod 2nd Ward. We are not sure how we'll survive without her... she's literally our best friend here in the Philippines. Even though she takes sneaky, ugly, photos of us, and makes fun our my accent, and tells the most terrible jokes... we still love her. And I would much rather be made fun of my accent every day, and have terrible photos taken of me every day, than have her leave. But, I also know that she has to go. She's such an amazing example to us, and she's going to be such an amazing missionary. But I will definitely miss her.

This week has been okay.... we've been punted quite a few days in the afternoons, but overall, by the end of the day, it's been good and we're happy. We have a lot of investigators that are excited, and preparing for baptism, but it's just still always a struggle to get them to come to church. But, we will succeed! We also have missionaries from other religions visiting all of our investigators... which makes it really difficult. Because most of the time, instead of teaching a lesson, we're answering all their questions and trying to explain this and that.

Yesterday, was another day full of miracles.  It all started when we took a shower, and the water was warm. WE HAD A HOT SHOWER! The past five months, I've accepted and have become accustomed to life here in the Philippines. I've even got to the point where I feel like this is just how life has always been. I've always taken cold showers, and I'm always smelly and sweaty, and ants all over the kitchen is completely normal, and that sleeping isn't possible unless the electric fan is on. BUT, then we have a morning when we go take and shower the water is warm, and I get a small glimpse of how life is back at home. And I remember, that showers are supposed to be warm, and that if ants are in your kitchen, you have a really big problem, and that most nights, you actually need a sheet or blanket to even stay warm and comfortable rather than have the fan on three. But don't get me wrong, I love the Philippines, and it really isn't that bad. It truly isn't. But, I did love that warm shower. Another miracle that happened yesterday, is that Brother and Sister G came to church! They're the elderly couple that have been less active for years.

Also, I have absolutely loved the envelopes! I may or may not have teared up while reading them... :) It's seriously the cutest thing, and probably took so much work to put together! I'm so excited to keep opening them and I have to force myself not open them all at once. I loved the pictures in them too because I've been meaning to ask for you to send some more pictures, but now I don't even need to!

 I love you all! Enjoy the Christmas season all together! Especially the cold weather, where you have the opportunity to wear scarves and boots! (those might be one of the top things I miss...) I love you all and pray for you everyday! Send everyone my love and I'll talk to you in nine days!!!

xoxo,

Sister Fitz