September 29, 2014 Ready for Christmas!

John Mark, Joshua and Juzzmin Trajano

FHE at the Trajano home with Elder and Sister White

Saw Choy Gregorio and his dad at our district meeting.  They are members from my first area Gua Gua

Hello Family!!!!

Well, as you can tell by my subject, the Filipinos are all ready for Christmas!  The Christmas music is in full swing, the Christmas trees are out and decorations are up.  And we've still got 3 months.  But hey, they're excited!

This week we had an awesome FHE at the Trajano home with the senior missionary couples.  They really enjoyed the family home evening and want to do it again.  There really is a neat spirit about FHE.  And then Mark Trajano (the dad) was interviewed on Sunday and is going to be baptized this Saturday!!!  We are super excited because his testimony is solid.  His wife isn't really feeling like she wants to be baptized so we're thinking that Mark will get baptized and we'll still keep teaching Marilyn and the kids and hopefully later in the month, they will get baptized and Mark can be the one to baptize them.  He was pretty excited about that option.  Hopefully seeing Mark's baptism will help Marilyn want it too.  Mark really wants his family to become members and be active so he is doing his best as a father and husband to encourage them.

And James Cayanan was baptized on Saturday!!!  He's the son of Delio who was baptized about 4 weeks ago.  James is awesome because he continues to come to church every week with his dad even though he is the only young man.  He has no friends or anyone his age and even the Young Men's president doesn't come that often so he never has a teacher for him.  He just comes to class with the adults.  But he still comes to church and wanted to be baptized.  So now we have to find some families that have boys his age so that he has some friends.

Baptism of James Cayanan!!! The son of Delio

We are super excited about this month!  We have a lot of progressing investigators and lots of upcoming baptisms for October and November.  At first, I was a little sad that I wasn't transferring because the transfers are good to help you stay excited about the work.  When you have been in an area for a long time, sometimes you lose that excitement.  But I am really grateful to Heavenly Father that He's letting me stay in this area and see the fruits of what I have been doing in Pilar.  Usually I get transferred before I see the baptisms but this time I will be able to see them all the way through.  Maybe this is Heavenly Father's blessing to me; my whole mission, I only got to actually see a few of the baptisms but now I will get to see a lot more before I leave.  And I will get to see the progress of the recent converts and how they are growing and learning in the gospel.  That is the best part about being a missionary: seeing the change in a person before and after.  And knowing that it doesn't stop there with baptism, it will continue as long as they stay active and live the gospel.  I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father called me to this work and entrusted me with such important responsibility as helping His children learn how to return back to Him!  What an amazing plan!

Well, I love you all and hope you are all doing great!

Mahal ko kayo!
Sister Sirrine