February 10, 2014 Hello! Hello!

                                    Sunset in Masinloc

Our investigator's husband is a fisherman and she gave us these two big fish!  Aren't they unique?

Also, people here lay out the tiny fishes on nets in the sun to dry them out. And then they eat them.  It's called toyo and it doesn't smell very good but I eat it anyway.

Wow, I can't believe that it's Monday again.  Time goes by really fast in your second area.  It's probably because you are so busy trying to get to know people and places. So,so fast!

So this week was a little different because I spoke at our investigators funeral.  I've never spoken at a funeral before so that was exciting.  The branch president assigned me to talk on the Atonement and of course our investigators family is all Catholic.  The next speaker spoke on the plan of salvation. So I prepared my talk in Tagalog and then we got there, and the district president came up to me and said that our investigator's kids and wife were here from America (our investigator used to be a surgeon in America but then he had a stroke and they divorced and he moved back here) and the kids don't speak any Tagalog.  So the district president told me to speak in English.  So all my notes were in Tagalog, and I feel much more comfortable talking about the gospel in Tagalog (it sounds weird now in English) so it was pretty hard to talk all in English.  But I managed.  There were still Tagalog words in there.  The good thing is that the people here mostly understand English if you don't talk really fast.  So hopefully they understood a lot of what I said.

Our investigators are doing great and we have several baptisms this month and several lined up for next month.  The work is so easy here in the north!  The people are just so ready and they are more humble here.  And less busy since they are fishermen so that helps too.  One of our investigators, Merlina (the one who gave us the pretty fish), is really excited for her baptism.  She knows that it's true and she really wants to be baptized.

Also, something that is exciting is that we have lots of investigators coming to church.  As opposed to Gua Gua where we were excited if even one came.  In fact, yesterday, we literally did not fit in the church building.  We used all the chairs and people were sitting in the hallway and all the missionaries were standing at the very very back.  I think that it will be very soon that we will split into two branches.  So as missionaries, we are preparing for that and will be redividing our areas in preparation.  Which of course is sad because there are lots of investigators that we will have to give to other missionaries. But that's okay.  The work moves forward!

Other than that, pretty normal week here in the Philippines. Sometimes I can't believe that I'm living in Asia.  That always seems weird to me.  But the church is the same here as it is in America (although in  a different language) and the people here are children of God too and so important to Him.  I just hope that I am working hard enough here in the mission because the time is going fast and I know that before I know it, I'll be released and no longer have the privilege that I have right now of helping in the work.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Mahal ko po kayo!

Sister Sirrine