Week 17 "Strange things my imagination might do, take a look reflect on what we have been through..."

Week 17

When a song only Jack Zarbock will know is going through your head haha :) 

Dear Family and Friends, 

KUMUSTA PO :) How is everyone doing?? I hope that you all had an awesome week! This week was a busy one let me tell you and then all of the sudden it was Monday again haha. We are officially out of the rainy season I am pretty sure because it is SO hot here. But I can't complain, life is good here. Sister Dolor and I have our final week together this week--maybe, we don't know with Transfers coming up the first week in October. I have just loved our time together so I hope we stay for a little bit longer :) but anyway, on to this week. We had a lot of really good lessons with our investigators which makes me so excited, can't wait to tell you all about it :)  Wanted to mention that we had six investigators at church yesterday by the way!!

So Jason..... He got baptized the beginning of the month and we have been preparing him to receive the priesthood and a calling, and I just love our visits with him and his wife Phoebe--they have been my little home away from home honestly. And talk about someone who is just SO ready to have the gospel in their life. It really is just so great to see someone progress in the gospel, get baptized and see how the gospel little by little changes their life for the better. And that's what is happening with Jason :) We sometimes like to joke that I am their lost child from America because we like all of the same foods haha, I literally love them SO much. 

Sister Gayo. This was a way cool experience this week. Sometimes Sister Dolor and I get a little down on ourselves, sometimes we ask ourselves if we are visiting the right people, are we teaching the right things and so on. So this week we decided to visit a less active named Sister Gayo...our luck with Less Actives is kind of a hit and miss. So we go to her house and she opens the door SO surprised. And she said you need to come back again! Please text me, and then shuts the door. Well okay, that was kind of strange. So we reschedule with her for the next day. We come back and she lets us in, made lunch for us, and had her Book of Mormon and paper for notes at the ready. So we started to chat with her. And she asked us "How did you know to come here?" And we kind of just shrugged and laughed, we had no idea why we were there...I wish we would have had some cool revelation. But she started to talk to us about how she felt the need to come back to church and the night we came over, she was really thinking about it and she wanted a sign or something. Then about 5 minutes later we knocked on the door :) It was just kind of a little sign to me actually that, you know most of the time I have no idea what I am doing out here--but right then I was a little answer to a prayer for Sister Gayo :) I am happy with that. 

Sister Dolor and I have been praying for teaching opportunities extra hard this week. And so on Wednesday, our back up back up plans had fallen through--well dang it. And on our way back from an appointment I saw a lady, and I felt like I had seen her before because we always walk the same way to that area. So we went and started to chat with her. We asked her if she had family and she said she had 4 kids and that she was married. GREEN LIGHT. So of course we had to try to get in the door. Big family and she's married, I wish you could have seen mine and Sister Dolor's face, it was priceless. But anyway, we went in and taught her. And that same day we met another Sister...and I am sure we had passed these houses a million times. Lesson learned? Prayers are totally answered :) So Sister Marilene and Serenaya were just a little tender mercy. Super grateful for that. 

And a final experience was with Paulie, the Armenian. I have talked about him before, he has been coming to church and he just loves the church. We honestly don't even know where he came from or how he heard about the church. And I thought, if he comes to church this week--we are going to teach him. And he did! So we got with him after church and started to talk with him. He's had some pretty rough patches in his life and he started to tell us that he thought that "every religion had the bible all wrong." and so I asked him how he feels now. And he said, he finally feels like what he learns here is what he has been looking for. :) And the smile on my face...I just couldn't be happier for someone who has been through SO much, finally feels like this is the truth. So I asked, you think you would want to get baptized? And he said, yeah isn't that why I am here? Haha, I don't know. It was just awesome to see someone not pushed or forced or constantly having to make sure that he has the desire--he just knows for himself :) 

So those were just some of the highlights this week. :) Honestly I can't begin to explain how many little things happen in a week, or how many little things that help build my faith...it honestly doesn't feel like I am teaching these people. It really feels like they are teaching me :) I have become so humbled by teaching, learning Tagalog--everything in between. I read D&C 19:23 this morning and it says, "learn and listen to my words, and you will have peace." That is what is happening everyday.  Whether its a hard day, good work day, lots of rejection, or whatever. I feel like God knows and is aware of all of us :) 

Okay, Hope you all have a great week this week! 

Mahal ko kayo! 

Sister Zarbock 

With Sister Pharis

The most awkward picture they made us take for the 

stake activity--so we made fun of it a little bit :)

Oh my, no words can describe how cute this 

chubster is. Meet Mario.

MOVIE DAAAAAYYYYYYY, Pday = Pancake Day

Sister Watson from Alaska :) from my zone.

Week 16 Tender Mercy Week

Week 16 

Dear Friends and Especially my beautiful Fam, 

Hello everyone! :) How are we all doing this week? I hope everyone had a good one, like always its beautiful here--very hot day in Makati. A wonderful day to wish a Happy Birthday week to my best friend Brock :) I hope you have a GREAT day! 

Well...This week was a pretty good one, some long days and some really awesome days too. We are getting out of the rainy season--so that means it is hot all day everyday. Can't decide what I like better, buckets of rain or piercing hot sun :) But anyway, I can't wait to tell you all about the week--it started out with teaching Sister Amalia about temples. She is a referral from her daughter Anna from the ward, and we have actually been teaching her ever since I came to the area. She is super religious, believes in God--so our lessons to her are just a nice message about Christ. But recently her husband passed away, which was super sad for her--we went to his funeral. But this week we felt like we needed to visit with her about temples and how we can be with our families FOR ETERNITY. As we started to teach her you could see her start to really listen to our message. Her daughter also testified that temples really are the way that we can see our loved ones again. :) And honestly it was just a way cool lesson for Sister Amalia AND she came to church on Sunday! :) So that was a way awesome way to start out the week. 

Another cool lesson was with Brother King--and this was a "sit back and listen to how awesome your companion is at teaching" moment. Brother King is super interested in the Book of Mormon. My companion Sister Dolor has been through a lot in her life--a lot of different trials.  As I listened to her testify about how she knows the Book of Mormon is true was honestly one of the highlights of my week.  It just made me realize, you know in life there is a lot that we as individuals have to go through, and I have learned that more from listening to Sister Dolor. Sometimes we need to take a step out of ourselves and be humble--I think I learn a lot more that way :) I also really love how Brother King has this desire to REALLY know if the Book of Mormon is true.

We had a really awesome lesson with an investigator named Gladyss, she is a member referral. I love member referrals--help the missionaries out and give them some haha :) Anyway, we watched the First Vision video with her, I think it really helps to visualize it. But after we asked her what she thought, and she was like--"He really did that?" and it was kind of just this "aha" moment for me that, wow Joseph Smith really did restore the church on the earth. Sometimes I forget how amazing that is, that Joseph Smith--bata pa siya--received an answer to a prayer and became a prophet :) 

We had a few hard days this week, just full of rejection after rejection. And it was honestly a hard couple of days for me. Our backup, backup plan even cancelled on us....I had never experienced absolutely everyone saying no before. I know there are people that have it much harder in that aspect of a mission. I just was feeling a little discouraged, but as I was walking home on Saturday I kind of had this thought of 1 Nephi 16:29 going over and over in my head, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." And I was thinking about that scripture, and how I had completely failed to realize the little tender mercies or the small things that that happened that day. And I feel like so often in our busy lives we don't really take the time to enjoy the little things that happen :)

Tender mercies are SO real :) and we need to take a minute to remember the small things the Lord does for us araw-araw. 

Have an awesome week :) 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock

Yes, I do wash my clothes in a bucket--but look, it's a fancy bucket!!

Recent convert--Meridian

Bunches of cute Filipino kiddos :)

Family History with the one and only...Jerry!!

Little crazy fruit that is SO good!

Zone meetings with my STLs--Sister Training Leaders.  

Our follow ups on the phone are always like

 30 minutes haha cause we just laugh

Week 15 "Frozen Yogurt and Jason's Baptism = Successful Week"

Week 15

Dear Family and Friends, 

Another week down! This week was super awesome honestly, a lot of really happy moments and we had some good work days...every day we came home EXHAUSTED. I woke up every day this week thinking is it really morning? I swear I just laid down haha :) But I guess that is missionary work right? Anyway I hope everyone had a great week, thank you again for all the love and support--couldn't do this without all your prayers!  I can't wait to tell you all about my week! :) 

So first things first, I had my first Zone Conference. It was lots of fun and a whole day event, so that was a nice break in the week. :) My mission president and his wife are really the most inspiring people. They talked a lot about seeing the temple as the goal and baptism as a gateway to being sealed in the temple. Because our mission is so close to the temple they are really putting a focus on getting families sealed and doing temple ordinances. That was kind of cool I thought, yes finding and baptizing is important but the temple is the end goal here. The temple is closed until November but I am so excited when we can have the members doing temple ordinances. 

Another thing that was talked a lot about this week was Gratitude and I totally was shrinking in my seat when Sister Ostler started to talk about the things Heavenly Father has given us, especially in regards to learning this Language. Every day I get home but I am like, this could have gone better...I could have said that better...yada yada yada. And then when it was talked about that we should be grateful for the things the Lord has given us or the knowledge he is giving us rather than focusing on the things we don't have. And so I took a minute to think of where I was 4 weeks ago in regards to how to be a missionary, the language...and I was thinking about how grateful I need to be with what Heavenly Father is helping me with everyday. :) So that was kind of a nice realization for this week. But my first Zone Conference was super good--plus I got to see my favorite batch mates. THEY ARE THE BEST :) 

My first Zone Conference :)
I got to see Sister Singer again!

Another highlight the week was the Baptism of Jason. :) This was the best day ever, seriously so exciting to see a completed family. Jason's wife Phoebe has been a less active for like 8 years, she and Jason were married in December, we helped reactivate her and then Jason started taking the missionary discussions in February and was baptized on Thursday. And seriously I could not be more happy and the whole time I was just thinking about how awesome this step is in their lives. Phoebe shared her testimony about eternal families and it was so cool to see. I have watched them progress together and it was such a happy moment to finally see Jason take this step in his life :) 

Jason's baptism--l. to r. Jason, his wife Phoebe, me, Sister Dolor

I got to see Sister Holzworth!

Another fun thing that happened this week was with Yuri the Trike Driver. :) So their are these little trikes with side carts that people drive around and every single day we see Yuri. It usually consists of him yelling something about Joseph Smith and how the Bible is the word of God, we didn't really ever take any time to talk to him because we don't know how worth it the conversation would be. But one day this week we walked right past him and we started to talk about Joseph Smith and teaching him about the restoration. And we told him that this is Christ's church...just had a really nice discussion. So we came back the next day and there he was ready for us to keep going, pamphlet in hand. So we went further and we ended up teaching him a couple of times this week and he accepted our invitation for baptism. :) Lesson learned? Talk to everyone, including crazy Trike drivers :) 

We have been talking to a less active lady named Elma, we call her Nanay Elma. We have been talking to her and telling her to come to church since I have been in the area. Talk about patience with someone, she hasn't been to church even though we invite her every visit. So this visit I told Sister Dolor we were going to do something different. We went in and taught her how to pray--and she never, ever wants to pray--we never know why. So I told her that Heavenly Father wants her to pray, and we asked her if she would after our message. And she said okay after I begged for like 5 minutes haha :), and then we sat there and waited and waited and waited. 10 minutes goes by and she still hasn't prayed. But then finally after 15 minutes of kneeling on our knees Elma prayed, she said that she hadn't prayed in over 10 years. Guess what--she was at church on Sunday :) It just made me think, you really never know what someone needs....every now and then people just need a shove in the right direction haha :) 

Last thought of the week was when 2 brothers from Armenia--where even is that haha--came to church on Sunday :) With a 30 second notice we were asked to teach the Gospel Principles lesson, its fine cause we teach this stuff all day everyday but when I started the lesson I got this feeling to teach about Christ's life and when he came to the America's in 3 Nephi. The lesson was supposed to be on Tithing. But I just went with it--poor Sister Dolor caught on after a little bit. After the lesson these 2 men came up to me and said they wanted to know about Christ's life and what we believe as members of the church because that was their first time they both had ever been to our church. And it was just a cool experience, when I think about being guided by the spirit sometimes I wonder HOW?  or WHY? How does that even work? But really we are guided every day and I just love D&C 19:23--I started D&C this week, we just need to walk and be ready/worthy to receive promptings because you really never know when they are going to come :) 

Well I hope everyone has a good week, thanks for the thoughts and prayers. :) 

Mahal ko kayo, 

Sister Zeeeee 

District P-day bowling activity!

Yogurt date with Jason and Phoebe

"Princess Package" from mom! YAY!!!

Family from Hawaii who fed us this week :)

This is called fish balls--super good actually

When randomly a road is demolished.....

Week 14 "We scare because we care!"

Week 14

Sister Dolor said this when we were door knocking...she was like do you know that one movie where the monsters scare people with all the doors...ummm yeah, thats monsters inc. She said she felt like a monster because we freak people out knocking on all these doors, but we scare because we care -- it was pretty funny :) 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Hello everyone it feels so good to be emailing again as usual! :) Love getting updates on everyone's lives. It's so weird to think other people are going to school and everything--time is going by so fast! This week went by SO fast too, I can't believe its already Pday again! This week was a good week, lots of teaching and finding, and I am just having so much fun in this crazy city. Can't wait to tell ya all about it! 

This week me and Sister Dolor tried out a new plan called the Door Knock Plan -- we try to get real creative with our finding ideas, I think it makes it fun. We decided to pick one street and knock on every single door, go down every alley way, and try to talk to everyone that lived on that specific street. And there are seriously SO many people that live just in one alley way or in one house/apartment. This kept us super busy this week! One specific day, we were getting a lot of hiding people and closed doors. No one really wanted to listen to us and we were getting a little discouraged. So what did we do? Got an icecream of course, but then we decided to pray. And both me and Sister Dolor just went on our way to keep on knocking. And just when we were about ready to be done, we found Brother King. :) And talk about a tender mercy from Heavenly Father. We were both just so surprised that after a day of no luck we found him. Brother King is 19 and was taught by the missionaries in his province and so we just started to teach him and gave him a Book of Mormon. After we got out of the lesson we were both just so grateful that Heavenly Father listens to prayers :) 

I think what I have noticed in my time so far in mission is the humble circumstances the people we teach are in...sometimes I listen to someone's hardships or trials and I just have NO idea what me and Sister Dolor could say to them. But that is why our gospel is literally so awesome because we have the spirit and without it, I have no idea how I would be able to relate or know what to say to these people. It definitely strengthens my testimony to just know that the spirit is the real teacher :) And I felt that with Angelie this week. She has been a long term investigator, just not coming to church or progressing so this lesson we were going to figure out why she won't commit. She is having a baby soon too -- its a boy :) But we just started to talk to her and all of the sudden she just told us all about her life and everything. The spirit is SO real. :) 

Jason, we had an awesome lesson with him this week. He is getting baptized on Thursday. We are so excited, he is just such a ready investigator. He and his wife have been through a lot and they just talked about how much stronger their marriage is because they both started coming to church and putting God first in their lives. We are just so pumped for them! :) 

Yuta gave us kind of a scare this week. He texted us and told us that he is not ready to commit to be baptized or Christianity. So we got super nervous but he agreed to meet with us. And we just talked to him about what he thinks about God. And again it made me realize that the spirit is EVERYTHING in listening to someone, in talking to someone. But God really does have his own timing with all of us. 

Best missionary experience this week was with Nelly. She is a less active in our ward that we sometimes visit. We walked into her area of where she lives and she had invited all of her neighbors and friends for us to teach as well. And so there was like 15 people there--and I was SO nervous. But as we started to teach, it is just the coolest thing how things just flow and the spirit just takes over :) It just felt really good to be a missionary looking at these people and testifying of what I know is true. 

So it was just a really awesome week and to end on a spiritual note was with the Kim Family. They are a family from Korea that we visited from the English ward, they just sent their missionary off to the Baguio mission in the Philippines and their other son just got back from the Philippines Cebu mission. And they told us that even though they haven't been as a family for a long time they feel like the gospel makes them feel so close. And I of course know how that feels with my cute little family back home :) And it was just really awesome to know that even though a lot of families have missionaries out, or are away from their family for whatever reason, if we just embrace the gospel and live the principles and do what God says--we don't feel so far away :) 

Alright I love you all and I hope you have a good week! 

Mahal Ko Kayo :) 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock

Exchanges!!!