Eventful Week!

It was an eventful week!

1. I bought honey (dugos) from a tigsuroysuroy who came up to our house during our studies. He just looked into our window and said, "M'am, Honeybee m'am!"  We asked him if it was pure honey? And to my surprise he opened up his bucket to unleash LIVE BEES to prove his authenticity haha. So we each filled up an empty water bottle with some honey. My companion verified that it was, in fact, pure natural honey haha. So now we have honey! We also have a small swarm of bees on our porch!

2. WE HAVE AN IBD! (investigator with a baptismal date) He is only 9 years old, His sister is a less-active member and his parents are Catholic. He is very serious minded and focused for a 9-year-old. He really wants to be baptized and learn the Gospel. He listens and he reads his assignments we give him, and he agreed to be baptized this December! His parents live with a family that are members, so he can come to church with them each week. We are really enjoying teaching him. It strengthens my testimony that the age of 8 and older is the age of accountability, or the age that  people are able to make decisions for themselves and be accountable for those decisions. Even as a 9 year old with a non-member family, he has such a strong intuition and desire to  follow Christ. He asked us if we would help him? And we were like, "Of course that's our job!" :)

3. We had a dinner appointment! These are rare! Usually we are given biscuits and soda, but we had an actual dinner appointment with a member this week. She cooked us spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce with Chinese steam buns and pistachio pudding. We also shared a Mormon message with them and then washed all the dishes. They even had a Christmas tree in their home!

4. We were given fresh guava and tambis by a less-active member that we visit. He has a tree outside his motor repair shop that was laden with fruit, so he harvested a big bag for us! Natural guava is not too sweet, but it's so good with a little vinegar. The tambis is a bright pink and very fibrous fruit, not too sweet but super refreshing! The fruit here in the Philippines is incredible, it just grows everywhere!

5. We saw a scary storm! One minute we're walking along in the heat to a teaching appointment, then the wind picks up, then kalit there is big black clouds on all sides that came out of nowhere, and torrential  rain and lightning with simultaneous earsplitting thunder! It happened so fast! Luckily we ducked into a nearby Panaderia just in time...

6. I had a blister or mosquito bite or something on my ankle that must have gotten infected because I got a fever and swollen lymph nodes and I was so sick all week! Plus the rain, the heat, mud and the work, it was a struggle! But I cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and I'm on an antibiotic now. I also got a priesthood blessing, and I'm so grateful for the priesthood.

One thing I learned this week: God is able to do His own work 

Love you all! Happy Thanksgiving back in America! (watch on lds.org Robert D. Hales's video on Gratitude)

-sister bertoldo