God id Mindful

This week is my last week of the 12 week training! 

"If sometimes the harder you try the harder it gets, take heart! So it has been with the best people who ever lived." Cherish your spiritual burdens because God will converse with you through them and will use you to do His work if you carry them well.

This week I got to work with a lot of people:

1. On Tuesday we had so many teaching appointments that Sister Fernandez and I split up with two members in the ward to cover more lessons! 

2. One of our investigators, a college student, had a day off of school and asked to spent it with us, teaching! He's curious about what it's like to be a missionary! So we took him and one other member with us to teach! It was like "reverse LTMP" because we had an investigator present to teach less-active members! I really prayed that he would have a spiritually-uplifting and testimony-strengthening experience! I loved hearing him add his testimony to ours during the lessons, even though he himself is just beginning to learn the gospel! Later that day he texted us and said thank you, and that he would never forget how he felt while teaching the gospel with us!

3. Then I went on splits with the Sister Training Leaders, which meant nakabalik ko didto sa San Rem! I got the opportunity to help Sister Detal find a whole neighborhood of investigators that they hadn't been able to find yet, and we even found 3 new investigators that day for them! 

4. District Conference, so we got to be in a Christmas choir!!! The branch hand-sewed matching skirts and shirts for our choir, so sweet! Also, we got to see President and Sister Tanner and Elder Vezencio of the Seventy!

This week was also great because I got to lead. It's scary to lead at first, mostly because of the language. But I noticed something:Here in the Philippines there are always people out walking around selling food. If you avoid eye contact, they won't bother you. But if you are curious and kind of actually want what they're selling, you'll look in their direction, even subconsciously! And they notice and they'll come up to you. 

Being a missionary is just like that. Because we wear a badge with "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" on it, people know we have something to offer. Some of them will avoid eye-contact. Or say they're busy, they need to laba and hugas, and hayhay and luto. But SOME people, catch our eye and smile....they are curious. They want to know. A part of them thinks, is what they have to offer, their message, what I've been subconsciously looking for?? And we notice. And we come up to them and invite them to listen to us. You never know who God has prepared to hear the message of the gospel.

We had one such experience this week. After being sent away from 5 houses, I still wanted to tract in that area. Finally we past by an older Nanay who was just laying down on a wooden board in her house. She was craning her neck to watch us walk by, so I didn't want to just walk by and I walked right into her house to visit her. She immediately pulled out a bench for us and fixed her hair. She said she has been visited by missionaries of other faiths and still hasn't found what she's looking for. SHE'S LOOKING! Which means she is a humble seeker of the truth! At the end of our lesson I asked her to read the first page of a pamphlet before our next visit. She told me, "Sister, ever since I had a stroke and my arm got paralyzed, I mostly just sit here in my house. I will read your WHOLE pamphlet." We are excited to go back to her and continue teaching.

I really love sitting on the floor of these humble homes and telling people things like: "Naa'y Dios og plano para kanimo" or "Ang sakripisyo ni Jesukristo mihimo malimpyohan sa atong mga sala aron makabalik ta sa presencya sa Dios." I would like to testify that there is NO better way to learn a language than by doing it teaching the gospel. The love you feel for the people is the greatest motivation....otherwise, I'd probably give up learning Bisaya haha.

I held a baby kitten this week. smaller than my whole hand! (see attached picture)

I saw a spider fight (favorite pastime of kids here)....gross haha.

If you get the chance, read "The Power of the Word of God" by Elder Michael John U. Teh of the Seventy (he is Filipino). It gives great insight about what I'm experiencing here in the Philippines!

"Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever." (Alma 26:36-37).

Butterflies and Balut

Kamusta kamo!

I finally ate Balut this week! If you don't know what it is, google it! It is a delicacy here. We had a Family Home Evening with a less-active member, her non-member husband, and her younger brother who is our investigator. They said, "Sister, we'll have an FHE with you if you eat Balut for us! So I did it!

When we showed up at their house for FHE though, they weren't home, just the investigator was there. So I suggested that we still hold the FHE with him at the chapel with the branch president and his family. It turned out really great because we got to show him the chapel and there was a youth institute class going on, so he got to meet all the youth of our branch. Then we had our family home evening lesson with him and his sister and her family got there just in time for the lesson! It was really great, Sister Fernandez had an object lesson with fire and everything (I would explain the object lesson, but too complicated! It was really cool though!) Then after we closed the lesson, they watched me and filmed me eating Balut.....

And it turns out that Balut is delicious, as long as you don't look at it.

We're really working on finding investigators through the members. Referrals are always the best way to find people interested in the gospel. We give "referral cards" now to every member we meet with and ask them to write the name and address of one person we can go meet and hopefully teach! But we also still continue to focus on strengthening the members, and we are see a lot of success! This Sunday, fast and testimony meeting, we had 2 investigators come to church and two of the less-active families we've been working closely with attend church!

One of our investigators told us, during the testimony meeting, that he felt so happy, that this was different than how he feels at other churches he's attended. He really felt the Spirit. He said "I want to be up there too, once I have my own testimony." We even saw that he was tearing up a little. My companion and I also went up and bore our testimonies. I have decided that I'm going to bear my testimony in Bisaya every fast and testimony meeting. That's 18 Bisaya testimonies. So far, I've given 4!

I'm really grateful to be in the beginning of my mission: I'm reveling in all the TIME I have left on my mission. I can already tell I'm going to miss this place so much, so I want to make all the most of my time starting from the VERY beginning!

I'm learning so many skills here that I probably won't ever use after my mission. These include:

1. opening cans with a knife

2. chopping wood with a blunt knife

3. cooking Filipino-style sud-an

4. catching butterflies with my hands

5. killing various kinds of bugs

6. hand-washing laundry

7. making keychains out of seashells

8. cleaning bathrooms that don't have proper drainage

9. taking apart and putting together electric fans

10. how to find and buy various delicacies of the Philippines

We taught a member about the Word of Wisdom last week and she said, "Sister's I've been selling cigarettes out of my tindahan, and as I'm listening to your lesson, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't do that." We really appreciated her humility and honesty!

Funny story: 

We spent one day tracting in an area outside of Bogo city and to get there you have to take a little forest path through a thicket of palm trees and these little heart-shaped flowers. It was a BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY, millions of them! So naturally, we caught a few. Then we went and taught a few lessons, all the while holding the butterfly by its wings. It was a good way to meet people because they thought it was so funny. On the way back, Sister Fernandez was like, let's keep them and make bookmarks out of them! So we put them in a spare Book of Mormon I had and shut the book....I felt so bad killing it, with the Book of Mormon even! We caught a third one and I didn't close the book very hard. Then during our next lesson, I opened the BoM to share a scripture, and that third butterfly, still alive, flew out! The person we were teaching was shocked, like the scriptures really are "living scriptures" haha. I love the Philippines.

There's so much more, but for the sake of time, I'll leave it at that. Have a great week everyone!

"The opportunity to work is a privilege, 

The privilege to work is a gift.
The power to work is a blessing.
The love of work is success.”

-David O. Mckay

Teaching Moments!

​Kamusta!

What a fast week it's been!

We have a Zone implementation to focus on teaching college students. We are teaching one young man, Vince, who is in his fist year of college. The previous missionaries have only taught him twice, but when we met with him he gave us an overview of the Restoration of the gospel, just from the pamphlet! He is VERY interested! I felt the Basahon ni Mormon burning a hole in my bag, so I gave it to him. He carefully took it, brushed the cover, and began skimming through! Then in his prayer at the end of our lesson, he said "Thank you, Father, for this precious gift the Sisters have brought me. I will treasure it forever and be happy to learn it." Awww!

Another great teaching moment: there is a member here in the branch that used to be SUPER active, but after a mistake she made, refused to come back to church. Missionaries have been working with her to tears. At the beginning of our lesson with her, she pounded the table and said, "okay, sisters, what are you going to tell me today because I've heard it all! I know the scriptures, I used to teach them! What do you have to say to me?" I don't know all of what I said, but I felt it being fed to me line by line in my mind. Then I looked at her angry face and I reached over and grabbed her hand (Part of me was like, Haley, don't touch her she's angry!! haha) and told her that Heavenly Father loves her and she needs to have faith and come back to church. It's not the "missionaries" that want her to come to church to fill their statistics, it's her Heavenly Father that wants her to return to his loving arms. But to partake of His love, she has to have the faith to ACT. Then I read Alma 32:40-43. The whole time she's just staring at me with pursed lips and a knit in her brow. Then ​she cut me off. My heart almost stopped haha. But she said, "Sister, I will take your challenge. I will come to church. I have so much fear inside me. But what will happen if I let go of this fear like you say? I will take your challenge. It is the fear inside me, now I can see that. I need to have faith." My companion and I were shocked.

Yesterday, she showed up at church and stayed all 3 hours, and participated!

Branch Activity: Family Day! We designed it like a giant Family Home Evening: opening song and prayer, then each family breaks into smaller groups according to which baranguay they live in for a lesson taught by missionary companionships and then food and games! We had a giant obstacle course! Each group also had T-shirts in a different color and the missionaries had gray t-shirts. It took up the WHOLE day, because....Filipino time!

New Cultural Experiences:

1. Rambutan fruit! maybe you can google it, but better to taste it!

2. Budlefight- I like to watch.....not participate.

3. Dampa, a game all the kids play with rubber bands. I'm getting pretty good.

4. Bisaya word of the day: singot haha

5. Everyone here thinks my name is a Filipino apellido

With love from the islands,

Sister Bertoldo​

Don't Fear Imperfection!

"We inspire others not by our perfection, but by how we deal with our imperfections."

I'm all settled into my new area. It's in the same zone as my first area, so the members always joke with me like "laayo kaayo ba siya?" haha. My new area is small, but has many more members. They are still a branch so there is plenty of work to do in helping them progress and grow! The exciting new things about my area are: 

1. Naa'y aircon nga chapel na!

2. I now live with Sister Weech, who was in the MTC with me and is also from Colorado and BYU! and her trainer gihapon :)

3.  there are showers in our apartment...not very CLEAN, but still, a shower!

4. My new trainer, Sister Fernandez, is bisdak kaayo (very good at Bisaya, native) and is like a walking dictionary for me :) Also, she used her language study hours to practice sentences with me, teach me new words, and help me with my language study. She says I will learn Bisaya by MAKING MISTAKES, by trying. We made a language wall and she made me sign a paper saying that I will only speak Bisaya from now on....sorry about all the English in this email Sister! haha

My trainer and I are whitewashing the area, which means that we are both new and have to learn where everyone lives and who everyone is. We have been walking and wandering a lot! They don't have "addresses", we just know which buarangay (neighborhood) and then we ask random people who point us in the general direction until we find their home. It's kind of fun, actually.

KINAMOT: With my last district we marinated and barbequed pork and cooked rice. Then we went outside and ripped off a giant banana leaf. We piled the rice in the center then spread the meat ontop. Then we gathered around it in a circle. I was just about to ask, "should I go get plates and forks and things?" when my district started grabbing the rice and meat with their hands! It was a lot of fun, but my parents probably wouldn't approve.

"What you think about is either conducive to faith or distracts from yuor ability to exercise faith. Your thought with respect to faith cannot be neutral. If your thoughts are not productive or edifying, you have the responsibility of replacing them with productive or edifying thoughts."

Sigi, human na ko, 

Amping 'mo!

-Sister Bertoldo

"Praise Him in the Islands"

Kamusta!

I ate pig brains this week! In my defense, I didn't know that was what I was eating until my district told me AFTER the fact! I'm ashamed to admit that....it was delicious.

Work: 

The people here are very playful. They love pictures and engaging activities.So we set a companionship goal to incorporate more media into our lessons. We now sing, in Bisaya, hymns to open each lesson. It really invites the Spirit and the people here LOVE singing and music, so they really appreciate it! I love singing for them!!! They aren't shy to join in sometimes too. We used to sing in English, because that is what the members do here, but it's better if they can understand the words. We also use the gospel artbook to show pictures as we teach specific scripture stories or principles. We've also started bringing sticky notes. We give a reading assignment and write a couple of questions on the sticky note and leave it in their scriptures. It helps them to have a very specific assignment and it prepares them for our next lesson! We also are now bring a little DVD player into the investigators' homes to play the Restoration video. It's the only video we have that is in Bisaya!

I had my first "D&C 50:22 moment" this week. We've been teaching an old Catholic woman. On our second lesson, her daughter joined in. We taught about the nature of the Godhead, the focus of the gospel on families and finished with teaching how to pray sincerely, not from a memorized script. Then we asked the daughter to say the closing prayer. She offered a very sweet, simple, but genuine prayer. After, we noticed tears in her eyes and we asked her what she was feeling. She said that that was the first time she's felt she was really praying to her Heavenly Father. Beautiful moment! We are excited to continue teaching her.

Funny Story:

There was a storm a couple nights ago (blindly bright flashes of lightning and ear-splitting thunder...so scary!) The next day we went out to work. It was rainy slightly. While we were in the home of a woman we had just met that day, the torrential downpour started. We were in the middle of getting to know her and see if she's interested in being taught, and then the rain on her tin roof was so loud that we couldn't hear the sounds of our own voices! So we helped her shut her windows, gather her laundry inside, and we just sat in her house saying nothing for about 20 minutes, waiting out the rain. He son comes out, in his boxers, and starts cooking food. She falls asleep. We still can't hear anything or open the door to leave without letting in a flood of water. So we just sit and wait haha. So awkward. When the rain slowed down a little, we asked for plastic to wrap our bags and we left, after getting a return appointment, of course! We worked the rest of the day in the rain, but it wasn't as hard....there were some bent palm trees and corn stalks though, from the wind!

I love the Philippines. I love the warm wind, the ocean, the starfish, the seashells mixed into the farming soil, the loud music emanating from tiny huts at any hour of the day, the giant tropical flowers, the butterflies, the motorcycles, the people! Isaiah best described being a missionary here: 

"Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise from the ends of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles and the inhabitants thereof.....Let them give glory unto the Lord and praise Him in the islands" (Isaiah 42:10, 12).🌴 

Well this has been a long enough email! I hope you all have a great week!

Love from the other side of the world,

Sister Bertoldo!

Tears, Trials, Trust, & Testimony

Kamusta!

Every morning I wake up, like, I wonder what I'm going to see/eat/hear/and do today? And sure enough it's always an adventure!

This was a very unusual week! We went on STL exchanges, worked with the senior missionaries, had Zone Conference, and even got flu shots!

Today we were blessed to help with a CSP (community service project)! We went to a less-active family's house and helped them dig a giant hole for a septic tank. "Digging a hole" really meant cheseling away and shale and mud and rocks haha. So from 6-10 AM we did that. Then they made us breakfast and it was the single greatest meal I think I've ever eaten:

1. rice

2. tiny fish straight from the boat into a frying pan

3. mangoes

4. a dash of soy sauce mixed with hot peppers

5. and for dessert....a pile of coconuts with a machete! We got to hack off the top, drink the juice, then hack it in half and eat the meat! so fresh!

Okay, now for the "spiritual food" of the email. I was having a particularly rough time one day. "How can I teach people and get to know people without speaking the language?!" is the main concern. But on our tryke ride to one lesson, I said my own personal prayer (we had already prayed as a companionship of course) that I would be able to speak by the Spirit during this next lesson. That I would be able to have a meaningful contribution. Later during the lesson, I had no idea what was being said- none at all! But the lull in the conversation came and my companion turned to me, and her eyes were saying "your turn!" haha. So I started to continue what we had planned but instead I stopped. She was looking really downcast. Her son was there and her mother-in-law. I realized I didn't know anything about her. So instead of our plan, I asked her a bunch of questions like, "How is your family?" and "What role has religion played in your life? How has it affected your family?" She answered the questions vaguely at first like she had been the whole lesson. But as I kept asking more questions, she talked more and more and soon she was looking into my eyes and crying as she detailed the answers. I was a little bit shocked at how much she was suddenly participating. I didn't know what she was saying, but when she finished we jumped the lesson to the Atonement of Christ. Later I asked my companion what she had said? And she said that her extended family is far away and that she has been dealing with missing her relatives and she has made many mistakes in her life and she doesn't know what to do about the feelings of guilt she's been dealing with. It was EXACTLY the part of the lesson we had switched course to. Even though I didn't really understand her, it didn't matter. The Spirit teaches both her and us, the missionaries. The gospel of Jesus Christ applies to everyone, in every language.

Fun experience: I got to play with a group of kids. It went from throwing a ball to one kid to playing full on soccer with about 20 of them! So much fun to hear them yelling "Sister! Sister! Sister!" haha

"Success is rarely simple. Generally it is preceded by tears, trials, trust, and testimony...servants of God take comfort from the Master's assurance: "I am with you always". This magnificent promise sustains you. It comforts you during those moments of discouragement, which come to all" - President Thomas S. Monson

-Sister Bertoldo

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Week 2!

Kamusta!

 So I learned that I'm the first American sister missionary to serve here, which explains all the pointing and staring haha! I hand washed and line dried my laundry for the first time! And found (and killed) my first giant cockroach!

 The work was good this week! We met lots of new investigators. We had one really cool lesson with a small family of four. They were referred to us by the Branch President so he came to the lesson with us. It helps so much to have members work with the missionaries. They add support and testimony and it's just pinakamaayo!

 Funny story: we have one less-active sister that we meet with to read the Book of Mormon. She used to be very diligent in reading it, but now she always says, "Nakalimut ko" (I forgot). SO we made her a reminder sign :) then on our next lesson she wasn't home. As we were leaving (trekking back through the bamboo jungle) I said to my companion, "let's go back and put up the cute sign we made her...then maybe she'll come home, see it, and read the chapter we assigned her!" So we did that! Homes are like that here....very open. To enter someone's home, you just walk in and say "Ayo!" What I love most is that even though they often have no walls, the Spirit still fills those homes as we teach them the Gospel. Hopefully it fills their hearts too.

 The language is still hard! My companion had this analogy for it: learning a language as a missionary is like a man trying to win the heart of a woman. Even though he buys her flowers, visits her everyday, and showers her with affection, she still plays hard-to-get. But eventually, she sees his efforts and comes to love him in return. Haha. Cool experience: While I taught a lesson about Faith in Christ, little baby chicks wandered into the home and I got to hold one :) Favorite Filipino food: eggplant mixed with eggs and cooked like an omelet. Served with soy sauce and rice. Also....turon. Sometimes I buy bananas and freeze them. They stay soft and sweet but they help with the heat!!! Lami gyud kaayo!

 Have a great week everyone! Amping Mo!

 -Sister Bertoldo