Still working, still running

Dear family, 

     This internet shop we are at has these ancient computers that are so bulky and this keyboard reminds me of all the keyboards I used on Palawan...perks of living in the Philippines!

Count Your Blessings

     This is something really small and will probably be insignificant to the most of you, but since being on the mission I have become more and more sensitive to recognizing when tender mercies come my way, and while this past week has seen a lot of tender mercies, the tender mercy on Wednesday morning has got to be my favorite of the week. 

     So I've established a good compromise with all of my companions throughout the mission that on alternate days of the week, we will go running outdoors during exercise time at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. Where we live here is really near the chapel, and the church grounds are huge and perfect for doing laps. But the downside is that the chapel isn't always open; sometimes it is locked up and we can't get in because we don't have keys. WELLLLLL...on Wednesday morning, while I was on exchanges with our STLS- and I was with SISTER QUILICOT! SHE IS MY STL- we walked over to the chapel.......and I was expecting it to be locked up and closed...and I was feeling a little bummed out that I couldn't get my run in.........when all of a sudden a man shouts out to us that the gate is unlocked! 

HALLELUJAH!

     The gate was unlocked, I did my run, I sweated and had a good workout, and that was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. Insignificant, but I know that God blessed me with that :) 

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Ellen

     No, not Ellen Degeneres (although I miss her shows). Ellen, as in Ellen Dialoga. I met Ellen while I was still at the Buendia chapel serving in Makati 3 and 4. She was an investigator back then and had come to church with her LDS friend who was visiting from Utah. We established a good connection and friendship from the very start, but then we learnt that we couldn't teach her because she didn't live in our boundaries. We were sad, she was sad, but nothing could be done; we did what we ended up doing with Sheila: we handed Ellen off to the other missionaries in her area.

     And well...GUESS WHAT?! Guess who is trailing Ellen now? Guess who is in the same ward as this wonderful sister is? ME! HA! I had NO idea that from the first time we met her and interacted with her and encouraged her to meet with the missionaries...that she would eventually GET BAPTIZED! She is our recent convert in this area! She got baptized January 2 of this month. And all of this started from when we met at Buendia in SEPTEMBER! God works in marvelous ways. I didn't get to see her to baptism, but we did start her off (being the first missionaries she met) and now we get to keep teaching her as our recent convert! Whoopee! (P.S. She is the sister in my pictures with Sister Kumari.)

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Similarities

     I also have to say: this area reminds me a lot of Santa Monica. And we all know how Santa Monica was like for me...I've been praying a lot that I will see this area through eyes of optimism and hope! Hope that people will listen and act and choose the right. Hope, hope, hope.

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Fresh Start

     I don't think that I've mentioned this yet/fully explained this yet, but Sister Kumari and I are fresh-starting this area. There are other terms for this on the mission: "shotgun", "whitewash" etc. Either way, to fresh start an area means that both missionaries are coming into the area NEW and without help from any other previous missionary left behind. Simply put, the two sisters that were here before us both got taken out, and Sister Kumari and I got put in. To fresh start is not easy. I commend every single missionary that has ever fresh started an area. You basically start from scratch and dive into the area book and figure out who the investigators are and where they live and who the members are and where on earth the area boundaries are etc. This is such a good chance for me to learn the true nuts and bolts of missionary work! (And don't forget that we are topping this off with TRAINING!)

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Eighteen Now

     But let's end this off on a different note.

     HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A BEAUTIFUL SISTER! And by "Sister," I am so glad that this time I am actually related to you by BLOOD! Happy, happy birthday Gla. I love you so much and I know that when we were little we fought a lot and screamed at each other and I will never forget that one argument we had where you left the house and slammed the door really loud and I was so mad and you were too...HAHA. We've had a lot of fun with each other. I am so proud of how far you have come (even though you still have a long way to go!!!) and of all the lessons that you have learnt and for the warrior inside of you that keeps pressing through. High school is hard and I wish I could be there with you through this part of your journey, but let's just comfort ourselves with the fact that we'll both be in UT together this fall! (Sorry, Krys!) Happy, happy birthday, Gla. You are so beautiful and have such a bright future and I can't even imagine all the boys that I will need to fight off that will want to get to you. You are doing so much better than you think and being 18 is a big deal, yes, but age is just a number and I know that your soul is much older than just the number '18.' I can't wait to be reunited with you again in 12 weeks! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A SISTER I LOVE WITH ALL MY HEART! 


This mission is a beautiful, beautiful dream.


With love,
Sister Teo

Back To Beginnings

Dear family, 

A glimpse of motherhood

     Training a new missionary requires alot of love from the part of the trainer. I feel like I've always done a good job of praying for love and charity for the Filipinos, and I have loved all of my companions and have always prayed for them - and we've always been okay - but this. 

This is love on a whole different level. 

     This is love like the love a mother has for her child. This is a love that forces me to be as unselfish as possible and to love and care and nurture and watch over this soul. This sister. My "anak" (child). It has only been five days, but I already know that the Lord is going to stretch me in a way completely different from any other way that He has stretched me before. And I will learn, much more, about love. I will learn, much more, about patience. I will learn, much more, about humility. I will learn what it means to love a child. I will learn what it means to RAISE a child. If I thought that being an STL was hard...I had no idea what it meant to have the responsibility to train!

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Hindsight is 20/20

     Over these last couple of days I have often thought to myself how ALL-KNOWING our Heavenly Father truly is. There is NO WAY in all of the universe that I would have been able to train Sister Kumari now, had I not just come from my previous area with all the skills that I learnt there. I am so thankful that I was an STL for those six months, and that I learnt how to work with different types of sisters/women/girls/females. I am so grateful that I had to juggle two wards- Makati 3rd and Makati 4th- and be in charge of ALL these lives.

      I am so grateful that I trained Sister Esmolo as a new STL because learning how to train her is helping me to train (for real now) a new missionary. I am so grateful that Sister Esmolo and I talked to all those many people and got rejected all those many times, because now when I Open My Mouth and talk to people, I am near fearless. I am grateful that God prepared me for this beautiful responsibility that is on my shoulders now. 20/20. Hindsigh is 20/20. We only ever know the reasons for why certain things happen...AFTER they have happened. 

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One-city mission

     Okay. Get this. EXCLUDING Palawan...my second area was in Bonifcaio, which is part of Makati city. My last area was in the HEART of Makati...which is, well, Makati. Guess where I am now? Yup. You guessed it right. Makati 1st ward. Okay. Call me Makati-mission girl! I have officially never served my mission anywhere else...than Makati. I am silently laughing about this all the time. I also included this in my "testimony" when I introduced myself to the members during sacrament meeting yesterday. They all laughed. I think God is laughing, too. Makati-mission, woohoo!

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Familiarity

     And on that note- guess where I live right now...? BONIFACIO. Not kidding. I live five minutes away from my second area. I live five minutes away from Marco and Carol and Sarah and everyone that I loved SO much those three months that I was here. Tender mercy, or what? How is God so kind to me? I live so near them. I can see them every Sunday as I make my way to church and they make their way home from their ward. We don't go to church in the same building, but my current apartment is RIGHT BY the church. These tender mercies...I am humbled. 

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My last companion

     Sister Kumari is SO great. She is so humble and so willing to learn and so ready to receive correction. She IS Indian, but she speaks English. Thank goodness I still have some Singaporean in me and can understand the Indian accent! Let's see whose accent rubs off on who first...I might come home speaking like her, so watch out! ;) 

     All jokes aside though- Sister Kumari is so great. I know that she will become a future leader in this the Philippines Manila mission. I know that she will change lives and save souls and she will work, work, work until her very last day on the field. She pushes me to be better. She pushes me to have greater love. She pushes me to be a better missionary. I love her so much. I really do. And I know that by the time her training is over, that I will love her just THAT much more.

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Is anyone else counting the weeks? 

1 3 till h o m e c o m i n g.

With love,
Sister Teo

Strength

Dear family, 

Hell's gates shake

     Thinking back to all the times that I have tried to get to the temple on temple P-days...I swear that Satan doesn't let us go there easy! I can't even tell you how "coincidentally" awful the traffic is that day, or how we never get taxis (wait, this happens everyday), or how the MRTs are crowded with people. Something always presents itself as a trial. Sister Esmolo kept a great attitude about it all on our way there- another reason why I am grateful for companions that make up for my weaknesses. But I promise that every hard thing you have to go through is worth it, the minute you get to step into the temple. That PEACE. SKJDHDSJKHHDSJ That Peace. The peace that passeth the understanding of all men. I love going to the temple. I am so excited to get to live in UT and have a million temples all around me!

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Jerry

     Update on Jerry: he's still trying to overcome smoking. We fasted with him two Sundays in a row and then he later told us that sometimes when he smokes now he feels dizzy. Answer to our prayers? 

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Sheila

     So...this makes me sad, BUT...we have decided to hand Sheila off to the local missionaries serving in her area. We picked her up and have taught her for this long because she lives with a family from the Makati 4th ward, and goes to church with them every Sunday. But we felt like it was time for her to really experience what church is like in HER culture. And so she'll be going to a different ward now each Sunday, which is GREAT nonetheless because now she gets to understand the talks in Tagalog, now she gets to make Filipino friends and actually understand the culture of the church here in the Philippines...

     It was a tough decision and it made Sister Esmolo a little sad, because that means she won't be baptized under us, BUT. We are saving souls and not counting numbers. We are saving souls, not counting numbers. Our last lesson with Sheila, she cried in gratitude, saying that she was so thankful that we had taught her the gospel. It brought tears to my own eyes. She is SUCH  a great kid. She will be baptized on February 6 instead, in order for her to get well adjusted to the new ward and new elders and all. But I know God has a beautiful plan for her! I will miss her. 

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Brave heart

     Yesterday morning was a morning I will never forget. Sister Esmolo and I caught a taxi to try to get to church. We usually start chatting with the taxi drivers the minute we are in, and so this time it was no different. We came to find out that this driver was an active member of the X religion (not going to say what). "Pretty cool," was what we thought. He was telling us about alot of the things that we believe in, and we were really impressed. But THEN...then his voice started getting 
louder 

and 

louder. 

     At that point of time I was just sitting back, quietly listening. Sister Esmolo was trying to engage him in a conversation. Bless her heart, though, because it wasn't even a "conversation." He was basically bible-bashing us. And that would've been okay if he had just used the Bible on us, but he didn't. He knew alot about the Book of Mormon, and so he was bashing us...with the Book of Mormon. (Side note: actually all the members of this X religion know about the LDS Church and every other church, for that matter. They study the different religions as part of their "studies.") 

    His voice got louder and louder as he talked about Joseph having 48 wives and he said that he didn't believe the Book of Mormon to be true and then he started rambling about Adam being our God, and he said other stuff too, and...it got so uncomfortable. So, SO uncomfortable. The spirit was GONE. Sister Esmolo didn't even say anything back to him anymore. Because anything she said would get cut down by this driver. And there I was, on that back seat, listening to him hurl insults right and left. He even challenged us, saying, "See? You guys don't even have any comebacks to what I am saying. You are so quiet." 

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A brave heart will act

     Well. It got to the point where I just would. not. have. it. I could not sit there and listen to him say all these things that I knew was NOT true. I could not sit there and listen him tell me what I believe in. What? You, telling me what I believe in? I could not sit there and listen to him insult everything I hold dear to my heart. I could not sit there and listen to him insult Joseph Smith.

     And then I don't know where this came from, but I broke my silence. My voice trembled and I felt like crying, but I told him, "I don't know why certain things have happened in the Church (I was referring to Joseph) but I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true." The driver quieted down for about two seconds before jumping onto me. The louder his voice got, the louder my voice got. But I would not have it. I could not have him insult what I KNOW to be true. BY this time Sister Esmolo was just silent. I was the only one trying to "fight off" this driver. It was NOT good to be in that taxi. So he drove on, kept shouting, and finally I said,

     "We're just getting off here. Here's our money. Do you have a receipt?"

     And he laughs.

     He laughs at us, and he says, "See? You guys can't prove what I said to be wrong."

     I hand him the money, get the cab receipt, and as I leave, I say, "Mahal po kayo ng Diyos, kuya," meaning- God loves you. And it wouldn't been okay if that ended there, but then he said "Yes, God loves you too, so that is why you should have an open mind." 

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Etched

     I will never forget this experience. I will never forget all the emotions that I felt and I will never forget having to stand up for what I believe in. I will never forget a 20 year old girl, untrained in the ways of the world, trying to stand up against a man who was well-versed in religious philosophies. I will never forget feeling like I was NOT alone. I KNEW that when I spoke, that someone was WITH me. I KNOW that what I told him was true. I KNOW that what us missionaries teach people everyday...is TRUE. No one and nothing can take that away from me. This gospel is TRUE. And hopefully one day I will get to meet this driver again and say sorry. Sorry for raising my voice and sorry for not having explained things more in-depth. But I know that Sister Esmolo and I left him with our testimonies, and that will burn brighter than anything else. Our testimonies will forever be etched in that man's heart. Now we just wait for the day to take effect. 

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WOW!

     That was alot of talking.

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To love a child

     Moving on...GUESS WHO IS GOING TO BECOME A TRAINER AND TRAIN A BRAND NEW MISSIONARY?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!????!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

     I AM SO EXCITED YOU HAVE NO IDEA! 

     Her name is Sister Kumari. She is Indian. She is 20 years old. And from the sound of it (President basically told me her life's story)(kind of), she has grown up in the church. 

     I cannot tell you how great of a tender mercy Sister Kumari IS to me. I don't know about other missions, but for some reason in this mission, missionaries get so stoked about training. It's a BIG deal here to become a trainer. And going throughout my whole mission not having trained yet, I always felt a little...left out when people would talk about how THEY have gotten a chance to train a new missionary. And I would always pray. Pray that IF it was God's will, that at some point in my mission, I would train, too. But I always knew. I always knew that whoever I would train would mean SO much to me. I always knew that if the day came that God would entrust me with a new missionary, that I would love this new sister so much.

And I already do. 

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6

     SO I leave this area on Wednesday. Sister Kumari and I will be fresh-starting an area. Meaning...the previous two missionaries in that area will both be pulled out, and she and I will replace them. Challenge accepted! Alot of logistical things come into play here, because it'll be a struggle knowing the area and figuring EVERYTHING out from scratch...but. Challenge accepted, Heavenly Father! 

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     I cannot put into words the joy that comes from serving a mission. If you had asked me 15 months ago how the mission would change me, I would have had NO idea. 

     I am so grateful that I am here.

     I am lifted, everyday. I know I am. That's the only way that I'm still running this race.


With love,
Sister Teo

The Start Of Something New

Dear family, 

The best seventeen year old this world has seen

     KRYS YOU ARE TURNING 17 YEARS OLD TOMORROW! Oh my gosh this is too weird. So weird. I can't believe it. I remember when I turned 17. And holy moly, Gladys is turning 18 in a couple of weeks. Okay this is so weird. I'm weirded out. How are you guys not...babies anymore? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......................ANYWAYS HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you so much. 

     Growing up (here we go, a speech) you were always the peacemaker in the family. Well, you were the peacemaker between the three of us, for sure. Gladys and I always fought and you were always silent and you were just that...very saintly, Mother-Mary-type of child. Except for when you had tantrums. HAHAHA. But then I would always wait for you to get over your tantrums and you ALWAYS did, and I was always so proud. Gladys and I are too much like each other (and that is why we fought so much, but GLADYS YOU KNOW YOU LOVE ME), and you aren't like us, which is good. 

     Thank you for being so wonderful. Thank you for being there for Gladys these last 15 months that I haven't been able to be with you guys. I love you so much, and I think that the entire internet loves you too because people can go online and know how I am doing, and it is all because of you! I love you. Happy birthday! Work hard in school! I'm coming home soooooon!

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The return of Sheila

     SHEILA IS BACK! Did I already say that last week? No, I don't think so, because she only JUST got back THIS week. But...SHE IS BACK! And she is AWESOME AS EVER! She will be baptized January 16th, and to be honest I'm super bummed because transfers are on January 13 and that means I won't be here...But I've thought about this alot, and my perspective on "baptisms" and "numbers" have changed alot since I was new on the mission. So I won't get to be there when she is dressed in white, but I DO get to claim that Sister Esmolo and I were the first missionaries to teach her and help her and introduce her to the church, and that is as priceless of a gift as anything else. Again- she is only 15 years old. And she is so great, and so prepared, and I have no idea how magical people like her just drop into our laps. Sometimes, God is just merciful. And He is definitely merciful to her. This WILL help and change her life. 

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Romeo, Romeo

     Seeing double? I think so! We've met two Romeos so far that are both in their 50s or so, both without wives (one Romeo's wife died, the other Romeo has been divorced three times) and both...kind of...searching for light. The first Romeo we have known for quite some time now and he is so nice. But he works at the City Hall and is always so busy and we've never gotten a chance to sit down with him. But we gave him a Book of Mormon the first time we met him, AND he has read it! So hopefully before I leave next week we will have a lesson with him. The second Romeo...is still not ready for all of this, I think. And I've come to realize that sometimes...these people that we meet on the streets just need that ONE conversation we have with them. Maybe they won't let you come back and teach them, but in those five, ten minutes we first talked to Romeo #2, I testified (whoa) to him that this will help him. I testified (whoa!) about what I know to be true, and that the gospel will help him be happy. Oh. Also. Both Romeos have lived in the USA. Romeo #2 has actually met the missionaries in Texas. Hmm. Romeo, Romeo...WHERE ART THOU GOING IN LIFE, ROMEO? I want to help these people so bad......(deep sigh) Silent lessons learnt.

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Filled with joy

     Sister Esmolo and I also have another investigator who is super amazing and awesome and totally prepared to take in all that the gospel has for her. It's a bit more step-by-step for her, though, because she works at the Hiatt's home (she is their helper) and so we don't see her so often, BUT. This beautiful woman - her name is Joy - has been a work in the making for the past 20 years. She received a Book of Mormon from a 12 year old child in 1994, and it has been 20 years since then. She has always kept that Book of Mormon, and this kid's testimony that was written in pencil is now faded away, and the pages are YELLOW, and this BOM is the first edition ever and so it is super thick.......and look where we are now, 20 years later. Joy never really read it, but she has always come in contact with Mormons, somehow, somewhere. Almost all of the families she has worked for have been Mormons. Coincidence? No. Meeting and teaching Joy reaffirms my testimony that God has a timetable for everyone. And His timetable is the best. 

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It has been a good week! A great end to 2015 and now we have flown into 2016. The year starts all over again and I know that this year will be a GOOD year. There are great things ahead. Alot of change, but alot of good. This is our year. 

This is my year. 

With love,
Sister Teo