Teaching Model and the Miracles of Missionary work

I'm a day late emailing because yesterday we had our first MLC with President and Sister Maughan! They are so wonderful and inspired about how to lead the Cebu East Mission! One of the many things they shared with us was the "teaching model" given by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve to the mission presidents. It consists of 3 parts:

1. Prepare to Learn- giving the learner something to think about or study ahead of time.

2. Interact to Edify- questions, activities, participation that facilitates personal understanding

3. Invite to Act! Giving the learner a clear and simple commitment that helps them apply what they've learned.

Every missionary already knows this basic format of teaching, but we were also encouraged to use it in training other missionaries and in our companion studies.

As for the work this week, just another week living the mission dream! Nanay Minda is now reading the Book of Mormon, and she stayed for all 3 hours of church, class, and RS this Sunday; all because a young woman invited Catherine to go with her to class which then influenced Minda to stay as well! Member fellowship and interaction is so invaluable in missionary work! Every member is, in fact, a missionary and the influence of ward members is miraculously effective.

We taught a woman named Emma Hermoso this week, our third lesson with her so far. After teaching her the Restoration (as she took careful notes on a scrap of paper, so cute!) We asked her what she felt about our message, about the Church. She shared with us that she had prayed about a month ago and asked God to send her someone to guide her to the truth. After saying that prayer, she left the house and walked the highway to deliver her puto, biko, and banana-que (that's her business). That same, Sister Allen and I had decided to walk the miles of the highway from Guinsay to Suba even though we normally ride a trayke. We both just felt like we should walk and TC the people. As we walked that day, there were no people- just two missionaries walking the highway. We felt pretty stupid for walking. Then we halfway ran into a cute woman with a big bag of puto, biko, and banana-que. She was wearing a pink sunhat. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and she asked us to please come visit her balay. Weeks later when we finally found her balay (walay address in the Philippines!) Sister Paget and I found out that she had prayed that day for guidance and we had been an answer to that prayer. Missionary work is a subtle miracle. We don't always see the effects of our labors, but every once in a while you get to see the ripples of effects and I just know this is the Lord's work!

Also, our house is infested with friends: a mouse, tiki lizards, frogs somehow get in, and today I found a little girl with a sundang (machete) who had scaled our wall to harvest the malunggay that grows by our back door! 

We were also blessed to go on 2 exchanges this week and being an STL is so rewarding as we learn from each others' strengths and weaknesses. I've realized as a missionary what the "law of consecration" means for us today: To develop and cultivate talents for the purpose of helping others and building up the Lord's kingdom, and it must be done with "an eye single to His glory" and not for our own gain. D&C 82:18-19

I love this Gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ and I know that when we fully open the door to Him in our lives, we can not only overcome our trials but have such joy in this life.

Love you all

-sister bertoldo

Electrocuted

Catherine is still coming to church, but we are extending her baptism another week so that we have enough time to teach her everything. None of our other investigators came to church!

We received a referral this week for a 21 year old girl who moved in with a member to take care of their sick older parents.  Her family are all less-active members and she has been interested in the Church for years, but since she had a live-in partner was never able to be baptized. Then she decided to break-up with him because she couldn't take his drug addiction, and now she is living here in the house of an active member in our area- and it's amazing to see how well she has been prepared by the Lord to really receive the gospel! 

She is interested in the gospel primarily from how she's felt while the missionaries have taught her: in the US, we typically describe the Holy Ghost as a warm or burning feeling in your heart. A good feeling, one of relief and conviction. But here in the Philippines- understatement of the year- it is VERY HOT. When I asked Juvelyn how she felt during the lesson, she described the Holy Ghost: "morah bugnaw akoa pamati, Sister, nigaan!" (I feel cool and light). To her that is the feeling of relief and conviction from the Spirit, and I thought that was so beautiful that the Spirit speaks to us how we'll best understand it.

Also this week, Roger's father got ELECTROCUTED at his job painting buildings. He told us that he set a habit to pray before work everyday for safety. When this happened, he and 3 other men grabbed hold of a main line wire and the miracle he experienced was that the current ran through his hands and legs and out through his hands and feet, but did not pass through his heart! He was only in the hospital one day! He has some scarring and can't walk long of far yet, but he teared up as he told us he knows God preserved his life so he can continue to provide for his big family and keep God's commandments. It was a powerful testimony!

This Sunday we did a caravan with the members after church and Sister Paget and I were late since our sikad driver wanted us to teach his daughter so we spent time getting his information and setting a schedule to teach her. When we finally arrived, they had all already left. We decided to teach the first person that came to our mind, and....there were the members! We got to join with them for the remainder of the day visiting other less-active or sick members!

Not Yet Full

Maayong hapon!

There's no time, but my first few days with Sister Paget have been upbeat and full of miracles. We have a new baptismal date for......*drumroll*.......Roger Jr.! He finally came back, and he still has the desire to be baptized, he just had to be found and asked, which is why full-time missionaries exist in the first place! I love the Maningo family so much, and I want them ALL to receive the blessings of the gospel. I am really hoping and praying I will still be here in Danao to get to see Roger's baptism, but it is set now for August 20th!

Catherince and Minda are still coming to church and last Sunday they brought with them 2 of our other investigators who are their neighbors....so we are really happy about that small miracle! Sister Paget and I started off our transfer with a companionship fast!

As for STL responsibilities, we have a great group of 12 sisters this transfer! Two of which are BRAND NEW MISSIONARIES! One of the new trainees is being trained by Sister Dayhop, so she is technically my "apo" (granddaughter) in the mission :) I guess that means I'm old now!

I am so grateful for the scriptures and the teachings of modern day prophets and apostles in our lives!

"When we go to serve and comfort anyone for the Savior, He prepares the way before us." -Henry B. Eyring

Sister Paget and I are full of companionship goals: sisters' activity with Sister Maughan, the mission president's wife, hiking, riding a caribao, and of course, helping people to prepare for baptism :)

With 3 transfer left on my mission, this scripture keeps playing through my mind: "And verily mine eyes are upon those who have not as yet gone up unto the land of Zion; wherefore your mission is not yet full." (D&C 62:2) There is still so much more I want and need to do, and the time.... dili maigo!

love you all,

sister bertoldo

Danao pa more!

Time is short because our email time is now only 1 hour and 20 minutes. But here are the highlights:

1.  Transfer calls- I'll be staying in Danao as STL over  Lacion, Liloan, and Danao. Sister Paget, also one of my  MTC batch, is my new companion and I'm SO excited for our transfer together! I know there's still more the Lord wants me to do here in Danao, and I feel so calm and hopeful for further progress in this area- I have come to love the ward and worry for it's success.

2. Catherine was able to come to church with her lola and her baptism is set for August 6th. Also.....Roger Jr. came home from work, so we're planning to jump on this opportunity to teach him again and hopefully reschedule his baptism- he is a little shy of us, because he got some crazy haircut at the influence of his friends, but we assured him that we don't care about his hair, just his salvation!

3. Ruby, meanwhile, has officially "backed out" as an investigator....it was a heartbreaking moment for me, because she knows the Church is true, she has the desire to follow Christ and live the gospel, but she can't see how she can overcome the trials in her life right now. Now she is working in Lahug and we can only hope and pray for her. But I did get in some last words to her, and I told her that she may doubt herself, but we don't doubt in her and God has a plan for her.

4. Nanay Minda, who was a stubborn less-active just a few short months ago, told us she has a plan to go back to the temple. Her husband had been through the temple before he died, but Nanay Minda hasn't yet. We started to talk about the temple with her and before we could even get the lesson out she teared up and expressed her desire to be sealed to her husband. It was a powerful moment for me, because even though I know there still so much Minda doesn't understand, I could feel how sincere her desire was, and that's half the battle.

5. As for me, I'm 14 months in the mission! In the last two weeks besides teaching I have seen dolphins playing in the ocean, eaten intestines and a bbqed chicken foot (a Filipino favorite), climbed a palm tree, and eaten avocado cake which was to die for.

6. Back in May I had felt prompted to write a letter to Carla, back from Baclayon, and encourage her to go to school. Then I heard from the missionaries there that she had been debated whether or not to go to school when she got my pouch....she's in school now! We are so grateful for promptings of the Spirit.

7. Cebuano word of the week: langob. This week, we taught a family living in a langob...

Have a great week!

Sister Bertoldo

Farewell President and Sister Tanner!

The big news this week is that our mission president, President Tanner, finishes his 3 years this June 30 and will be leaving us!! He left us with these words:

Elders and Sisters, these are your days! This is your time! You were chosen to live now because you were strong spirits and our Father knows you can stay strong in mortality even in the face of adversity, IF YOU CHOOSE TO FOLLOW HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. Please "open the door" (Revelation 3:20) so the Savior can enter your life more abundantly.

We love you all and pray for your eternal joy and peace.

Our new president, President Maughan, will arrive this week and we'll get the chance to meet him at a Zone Conference this July 7. We're all so excited to welcome a new president and help him in his new calling! We hear he has already been studying his Cebuano too!

This week we went to work down in Liloan because one of the sisters has been sick and they needed us to go on splits with them in their area to keep up with all their work. That meant taking time away from our own work, but somehow everything we needed to do got done because as we sacrifice to serve others, God is always there to magnify our own goals and abilities! As of yesterday, we have a new IBD, Catherine Hermosilla, set for July. We used to teach her lola, grandmother, who is a less-active. As we taught and came to love Nanay Minda, she started expressing a desire to come back to church. She came with her granddaughter, who we are now teaching. We also found the home of her daughter, Lesel, who is also not a member. It's really so effective to work through families and referrals in missionary work- the whole purpose and focus of the gospel of Jesus Christ is, afterall, family.

Also this week we had an old British man tell us that we weren't helping anyone by teaching and sharing the gospel- that we should help people physically, not mentally- and that as for himself, he believed in "Mother Nature", not God. I thought, how sad it is that although he can love and appreciate mother nature, he  knows and loves and thanks not the Father in Heaven who created her (Mosiah 4:9, Alma 30:44, Moses, Genesis, etc.) Also, I have seen so many hearts, and therefore lives, change from simply hearing the gospel, reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and living the principles taught therein. Including my own.

I know that this work is the Lord's work. Sometimes it can be frustrating or disappointing to see people reject the truth or fail to live up to our hopes and expectations for them, but God has given each of His children our agency for a wise purpose- he "hath given us a knowledge, and he hath made us free" (Hel 14:30-31). I also know that when his children realize their mistakes and come unto Him in repentance, he is ALWAYS there to receive us (Alma 5:33-34); a pretty big role to emulate as a missionary!

Also this week, Sister Allen and I realized we have a frog swamp living behind our house (the croaking of frogs sounds like straight out of a horror film!), we made stove top 'smores, and we now get called "Amerikana'g Bisaya!" instead of just Americana :) 

I 💙 the Philippines!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Bertoldo 

Pictures: starfish!, I love the Tanner's!, exchanges with Liloan sisters, and being reunited with Sister Dayhop!

Cebu Temple

Today marks 13 months in the mission.....This week may have been one of my busiest so far in the mish! 

Monday: We met with our sisters in Liloan to go over our STL implementations. Then we had our STL meeting with President and Sister Tanner, and I got to be reunited with some past kabalay and companions!

Tuesday: This day started out with attending a session at the Cebu temple! It was my first time getting to go, so you could say I was kind of excited! The temple really is like a university of sorts- there is always so much more to learn. After the temple, we had our Missionary Coordination meeting with the other zone leaders and sister training leaders, and the best part was at the end. There were 8 missionaries who are going home this transfer, so they all got up to bear their final testimonies- it was one straight hour of listening to such pure and powerful testimony, and I love it! Then getting home we took a 2 hour bus ride (standing up, no more seats!) And that night, the sisters from Camotes came over to start our first set of exchanges.

Wednesday: exchanges! with my former trainee, Sister Dayhop! Oh how I missed that fiesty Filipina! :)

Thursday: Sister Allen and I travelled down to Consolacion to meet with our sisters there and go over our implementations. We also participated in their Zone Training Meeting and gave a workshop about what Sister Tanner taught us in MLC- Sister Allen and I have grown a lot in our companionship unity, and it's been so fun to teach together! Then that night after our work sisters from Liloan came to our house for our second set of exchanges!

Friday: Exchanges! It involved all of our lessons miraculously working out and really getting to hear the heart of these sisters' concerns. I love being an STL because I love learning from the other sisters, and helping them to see their STRENGTHS and how to magnify them!

Saturday: We woke up early and headed down to Liloan again to help with the stake "mini MTC" activity for the youth. Each missionary took 2-3 youth and taught then the basics of missionary work. Then we went out in the city and helped them talk to people and pass out the Book of Mormon and get referral information! They were so cute and nervous, but also excited to share with the people we met! I was blessed to have Sister Tanner come along with me and my group too! Later the youth had a Filipino cultural dance show, but we didn't get to watch, we had lessons and work to do, of course :) 

Sunday: We started the day off with weekly planning, and then I gave the talk in curch since the called person didn't show up. I love giving talks because I get to look out over all the members in the ward and just speak their beautiful language and feel how much God loves them!

The only new news this week is that Ruby is back! Her boss took on another helper. The problem this week is that Roger Jr, right before his baptism, had to take a job in Cebu and now we aren't sure when we'll be able to schedule his baptism. We just continue to pray for him- he wants to go to school and be baptized and go to church, but his parents need the money, they need him to work.

I love this work. Our lives are hard and there are many distractions, fears, concerns, and things getting in the way, but I know that "when we put god first, all other things fall into their proper place, or drop out of our lives" -Ezra Taft Benson

-Sister Bertoldo

Danao, Round 2

So the big news is: wala'y transfer! Sister Allen and I are both staying here in Danao :) I feel like I'm only getting started here so I was so relieved that I'll be staying! Also, we are now the STL's over 3 zones: Consolascion, Liloan, and Camotes, so we'll be delightfully busy this transfer! :)

We have our baptism all set for June 11 for Roger Jr. Maningo and we are really seeing his faith growing! We saw a lot of miracles this week in the Maningo family. The parents are recent converts and the father, Roger, was contemplating taking a job far away in Leyte- he would only be home 1 day in every month for a whole year! Sister Allen and I prayed and fasted for a better job opportunity to come his way or that he would decide not to take it. Then one day we went to teach their family after church and their home teachers were already there. They were teaching them about how important it is to put family and our dedication to God above all else, even work. They shared personal experiences and testimony. This week, we learned that he decided not to take the job. Roger Jr. was offered a job opportunity starting June 15th that allows him to come home every Saturday night to Sunday night. We were so overjoyed to see them exercising their faith in God and being blessed because of it!

The sad new is that one of our investigators, Ruby, is moving to Manila this month! I admit I actually teared up in our lesson with her this morning because I've come to love her so much and she wants to be baptized so much. Also, she will be leaving her husband and their baby for a whole year. She promised to look for a church and to bring her Book of Mormon, but I still cried because even though I trust that God has a plan for her, I won't get to be a part of her journey anymore!

Also this week, I found a new way to tract: I make friends with the children who follow us around. Then they invite us to come teach their family, and help us navigate through all the payags to their balay. I love Filipino bata so much.

I could go on and on about stories from my weeks that have touched my heart or made me laugh, or been so difficult and stressful haha! Suffice it to say that even though all I do is teach, I learn so many more lessons than I'll ever teach and I'm so grateful for that! This time here is worth the sacrifices because the lesson I've learned and the people I've loved are so priceless!

"The more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls" -President Spencer W. Kimball

Love, sister bertoldo