Families can be Together....still working on Forever!

Last week Jovilyn Castro was baptized, in the ocean, and it was a very sacred experience because of how wholeheartedly she has accepted the gospel into her life, despite the challenges she's faced. She was confirmed a member the next day and we also had her son receive a blessing. 

This week was National Family week in the Philippines, and it turned out to be quite prophetic! We were able to teach Jovilyn with her husband (he only comes home from work once a month), then we went to teach her older sister Jonalyn and her husband Richie. We were told that Richie won't let missionaries in to teach his family, but we biked all the way out to them anyway. It turns out that they have a pet monkey (unggoy), and so we bonded with him over talking about his monkey and we just spent about a half hour helping them "lubo" their "mais". Afterwards, we asked if we could share a short message, and he let us!

Here in Sagbayan, we are still a branch and usually have about 65-70 people in our little meeting house on Sundays. But this Sunday, the first missionary ever to come from Sagbayan came home from her mission! Due to that and the 12 investigators we had (3 new familes!), we had about 89 people stuffed in that little room! It was amazing to hear Joan Racoma's talk; she shared that when she left on her mission, there were only a couple familes in this group. She was shocked at the growth!

Today we are planning on giving Mercy a baptismal date, since she was able to come to church yesterday with her children. We're still working on her husband since he has work every Sunday morning, but they're all very on-board with learning about the Church and coming closer to Christ as a family!

Love you all!

Sister Bertoldo