.: Week 21 Fiesta sa bahay namin

Week 21

Dear Fam and Frenz,

Hello errbody :) Hope everyone had an awesome week as usual. I wanted to start this email off with a big, fat shout out to my little brother CLAY ZARBOCK!! Happy birthday kid!! I literally can't believe you are 17 already, so I am just gonna pretend you aren't. But seriously Clay, you are an awesome kid, one of the most unique people I know--I LOVE IT :) Best memory of Clay, we were hiking up donut falls and both of us decided that we were gonna run through the waterfall together but we both slipped and fell on the way! GREAT BONDING MOMENT. But anyway I just wanted to say that I love you and I miss you like crazy and all of our cute snow cone and skiing dates and hiking around--I hope this week is a good one for you.

So about my week! We had a good and super busy week and our house was a party all week. Because we had zone training and the new missionary follow up meeting, a lot of sisters flew in from Palawan and Coron--so we got to have sleepovers all week, it was a ton of fun. And our zone training and missionary follow up were super fun. I was sitting in the new missionary follow up with my new littler trainee (all of the trainers and trainees go to the missionary follow up to make sure you aren't dying) and I got so many weird flash backs of how I felt after 3 weeks in the field--like am I really gonna survive 18 months?!?!?--but look at me now. I made it, and I survived haha! Plus we totally got donuts so that was the best.

Visitor Sisters from Coron

More Sisters from Coron

Sleepover with the Sisters from Coron!

A little update on some of our peeps this week. We taught Angelie this week, she is doing awesome and really has such strong faith and is just cruising through the Book of Mormon right now. She should be having her baby soon. Her baptism is going to take a little bit longer unfortunately because she isn't married, so we are just working through to help her get that desire to change the way she is living in order to be baptized. But what I have learned here? God's timing is real. Sometimes we just gotta be a little patient. Story. of. my. Life. Guys.

Another update is Paulie--he should be getting baptized November 5! EVERYONE PRAY FOR PAULIE! He is doing awesome. This week was the commandments lesson with him and honestly every time I teach commandments I just have to hold my breath a little bit, hoping that they are already living in accordance to them. God really does prepare people to receive the gospel. Paulie just talked to us about how he knows how important God is and how he depends on God and in order for him to return to him he needs to live as Christ would. I sat back and I was just happy for someone, that all they want to do is devote their lifestyle to that of Christ. Testimony builder for me for sure.

Another tender mercy this week was Trisha Kate. I think I have talked about her before, she is 15 years old. And this week we taught her about the Book of Mormon. I love the light that goes on in someones eyes when we talk about the Book of Mormon, it is seriously the best moment. She is just 15 and since I started to visit her a couple of weeks ago--I can just see the difference in her. Its almost like a light has turned on. Ahhh guys the gospel just makes people happy--with all the walking around, talking to so many people in a week, working sun up until sun down--just seeing one person light up when you teach them the gospel is SO WORTH IT.

Just finish up with what I call a tender mercy Sunday. We showed up to church and we had Makati 4th--and we had 3 investigators come to church and 4 Less Actives--WHAT??? So we thought, okay maybe that is just luck. But then Makati 3rd ward came around, we had 3 Less Actives come and 2 investigators. And I was on cloud 9 :) You know it was just a regular Sunday, we didn't do anything amazing in the week to get these people to church.....But kinda what I said before, God has his own timing and a scripture came to mind when we were walking home in D&C 88:63-63. "If you draw near unto me, I will draw near unto you". It talks about how we need to continue in diligence. Obedience and diligence really do bring miracles, and that was a little miracle for me this week!

Hope everyone has an awesome week :)

Love,

Sister Zarbock