October 6, 2014 Baptism of Mark Trajano

Karabao pulling a cart (couldn't get it in one pic.,...)

baptism of Mark Trajano!!!!!

Trajano family

Hello everyone in America!

Well, this week was a great week that ended with the baptism and confirmation of Mark Trajano!!!!! Yay!!!!  He was so excited and I think he'll be the ticket for his whole family to accept the gospel.  It was kind of funny because the water was just a little past his knees (someone forgot to fill up the font early) so we were a little worried but the baptizer was able to get Mark totally immersed on the first try!  So that was good.  And Mark gave a really good testimony about how he met the elders years ago and would have been baptized, but then they moved to Laguna and they lost contact.  But then one day, we came to their house.  It's really interesting to me that Heavenly Father knows exactly where we are and is aware of the desires of our hearts.  So He lead us to Mark.  It makes me kind of wonder who of the people that we are teaching right now or taught before will be baptized in a few years.  Almost all of the people that I have taught and baptized were taught before by missionaries.  And I was just the lucky one to see them actually accept the gospel and get baptized.  So there's another testimony for planting seeds even though sometimes we don't see the results.

With Sis. Hausia and Sis Empalmado!  Yay for old companions!

We had a really great Mission Leadership Council (STL's and ZL's) this past week.  I gained a lot of revelation from the conference on how to progress the work here and help the branch achieve real growth.  They really emphasized going to the temple and introducing family history to our recent converts, less actives and investigators.  It's so interesting because actually, the last 6 weeks or so, I have really been feeling the need to share about the temple to people and help them be ready to go the temple.  We set up a temple trip for the branch and have been using that as a tool to help bring back less actives (maybe you remember the story about Helen).  And so it was very interesting that our entire MLC was about the temple and family history.  It means that the Holy Ghost is telling the mission that we really need to get people to the temple.  And I have already seen so much success with the people that we are teaching.  The temple is an amazing thing!  We should all go as often as we can.  I read something really interesting this week in my personal study that I would like to share with you.  In True to the Faith, it says that as we do priesthood temple ordinances for those who have died, "you become a savior on Mount Zion for them.  Your effort approaches the spirit of the Savior's atoning sacrifice - you perform a saving work for others that they cannot do for themselves."  I had always heard that in the temple you will learn more about the atonement, but I never really understood that until I read those sentences.  In the temple, we get to experience a little bit of what Christ did for us and that is one way that we can obey the Savior's command to be like Him.  We get to help bring salvation to those who have gone before us. Through the temple, we seal families together thus fulfilling the promises that Heavenly Father made to Abraham.  And that is the purpose that we are here on this earth: to help forward our Father's work and His plan for us.  I wish that I could share all of the amazing insights that I gained this last week, but I guess I'll just end with a challenge to make the temple a part of your daily life.  There are so many people that need our help and we are so blessed to have so many temples near us.  And there are so many people in other parts of the world that would love to be in our position of having temples all around us.  We are so blessed!

Well, I love you all!  Keep sharing your testimonies with those around you and planting those seeds!
mahal ko kayo!
Sister Sirrine