Week 56 "Brown Out in the Temple and Filipino Showers"

Week 56

So we had a temple day today and literally as I walked in the Celestial Room, all the lights go off and there was a brown out because it was raining super hard outside. So I sat in a dark celestial room today...like no lights and just a shining green exit sign...it was so weird. ONLY in the Philippines haha :) 

At the temple with Sister Lubas

And Filipino showers...so Sister Lubas and I walk into the house yesterday and we just see Sister Craig and Sister Portez crouching down and we were like..what's going on??  Then all of a sudden they just dump us with water haha...and they told us that we were going to have a Filipino shower tonight.  All of the Filipinos, if it's raining outside...just walk outside in the rain with their soap and shampoo and shower in their clothes...it's kinda funny.  So I involuntarily became a true Filipino last night.

Filipino Shower :)

Anyway... 

Dear Family and Friends, 

So rainy season has officially begun!! Holy cow we just got dumped with rain this week. When it rains it just pours here, and I always get sick when the season changes, and that was the case this week. So our life for 3 days this week was spent me having a fever deathly sick...not too fun but the work will go on.  But we had a lot of awesome things happen this week nonetheless!

First off...Joshua passed his interview so his baptism will officially be this Saturday...we are so excited for him.  We had an awesome lesson with him on Sunday with his Aunt, Uncle, Grandma, all his cousins, and his mom.  It's just so cool to see these multigenerational families coming together in the Philippines.  I love seeing that. We were having a super awesome message and then everyone is kind of looking at me weird..and I was looking at Sister Lubas like what is going on kind of face. Turns out this HUGE cockroach was chilling on my head. I almost cried...and I freaked out in the middle of our lesson and everyone started laughing at me. GOOD times with that one.

We found an AWESOME new investigator this week.  We found Joveline. So we like to do these mass lessons...quick explanation. There are just so many people where we work so sometimes when we have no one to teach we just start singing hymns and then we invite everyone to listen/sing with us and we usually get like 10 people or something to listen to us at once..its kind of fun, like a hit or miss if it really would work. So that's how we found Sister Joveline. She came up to us after one of our “mass” lessons and said she wanted to listen to us because missionaries use to teach her. So we came back the next day and she took us to her house and she lives alone so her house was super quiet and we got to teach her the whole restoration...the spirit was so awesome. Love those kind of lessons!

We had a lot of our recent converts come to church this week...even Lenie, she is just finishing up her chemotherapy--GO LENIE. 

Finish up with a spiritual thought...so we were gonna work with a member (Sister Mercy) this week but then we had to cancel cause I died on my bed accidentally cause of the fever...but before we went out to work again we had some fruit, medicine, and a cute note from Mercy waiting on our front step that said...”Don’t run faster than you have strength...” and I have heard that a lot throughout my mission and its said in the scriptures. But for some reason I was thinking about that a lot this week. Often times we really don’t do as well as we want to do at something...at our job, being a parent, being a missionary...but sometimes we just gotta acknowledge that we just have to do the best we can do, as big or small we might feel like our contribution is, and have the faith that God will make the difference.

Have a good week everyone :) Hope you get some rain this week! 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock 

The tunnel to the temple

Me and the companion at the temple

Temple pic with Sister Craig--my roommate

Temple with Sister Portez--my other roommate

All the Sisters in our Zone :)

Our big fancy umbrellas from our mission 

Family that just moved here from California

Week 55 "MOOOOMMMMM"

Week 55

Without fail...it was my time to follow up on Sunday and literally every single person just calls me mom haha. Like do I have the mom vibe???? :) Haha anyway...if anyone needs a mom I guess just give me a call. 

Dear Family and Friends, 

So grateful to be emailing you all again...this week was a quick/long one if that makes sense.  I wanted to start out by wishing my cute Daddy a happy fathers day.  I love you lots and I really miss you :)  Thank you for your support and love. You are the best guy out there lemme tell ya.  And transfers this week...I am staying with Sister Lubas and we are chilling again in Paranaque.  It feels nice to stay in an area for another transfer. We are excited! 

So this week was a pretty good one! We kind of have some sad news that we have to push Joshua's baptism back another week. But he is doing pretty good :) So our tactic has been to read the book of mormon with him lots so he can get a really firm testimony and I sometimes try to act out the story...its kinda fun and he always laughs (well I guess everyone always laughs) The tree of life and killing laban was super awesome... ;) I made Sister Lubas be Laban. But he wasn't able to come to church this week...DAGGER TO THE HEART. But other than that he is doing good :) 

Twinkle is on vacay this week so we weren't able to teach her...hopefully we can be able to teach her this week.  We found this awesome new family though...the daughter came to church this week. Julie-Ann (so of course I call her Jules Jr.) is 15. Jean is the Mom and Jason the youngest.  We found them after our lesson with Joshua...and Jean is just the nicest.  We started chatting with her and she talked about coming from a broken family and now is separated from her husband but it was a nice lesson with her and then on Saturday we taught her and her kids. So we hope we can get to teach them this week again. 

Had the best time visiting our new trainee this week...we visit all the new missionaries in our stewardship. She comes from up North and is Illocano.  I always like visiting our newbie missionaries. They are so awesome...and it makes me feel like I was a new missionary like 100 years ago haha. 

I think the best moment I had was with a new family this week that we found on Sunday. We were kinda sad about Joshua not coming to church and the day felt a little longer..but we found the Gunning family.  They are super nice...and we shared with them 2 Nephi 31:20...and as much as that scripture is used...I just love it :)  It really just helped me to have that eternal perspective. So nice moment with them. 

To end was an awesome moment with the Elders' investigator Keith. We were all squished sitting in a room for ward conference this week and I was sitting by Keith so I asked him how he was and if I could help him with something. And he asked me what he should do because his wife doesn't like our church...and I kinda sat there for a minute and then I just told Keith that God loves him and his family and knows what he needs in his life to be happy...and he just sat there for a second and he said...yeah you are right. Something super little, but I really loved that this week. 

Anyway, I love you all and I hope this week is a good one for you!!!! 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock

Visiting our cute little trainee..anak of a sister in our stewardship

District Picture..Sister Craig wasn't there cause they were getting visa stuff for her anak

Week 54 New Heart and the Golden "State" Bridge

Week 54

Haha....2 of the things I would use to describe this week. First off the "New Heart"......

So I think about 6 months ago President Ostler asked if we could take a girl from Palawan to our house to stay for a week or so...so we said sure and he said to take her around the area but that she was super weak and they weren't sure how long she was going to live because she had 2 big holes in her heart. Which was super sad...me and my cute anak took her around our area and then she got some tests done which is why she was in Manila. So at our last MLC On Wednesday we actually got to see her because Pres. Ostler sponsered her to have a heart surgery done.  We actually got to see her after her surgery was over (sister Lubas had a Doctors appointment) and we real quick saw the Doctor before entering into her room and he said that he fixed everything and she is gonna have a nice long life :) So kind of a miracle story we saw this week. 

This is Annie after her heart surgery!  Everything went great!

And "Golden 'State' Bridge"......we were playing charades at the Bishops house for FHE with the Elders in our ward. Sister Lubas and I were on a team...so I was basically a team of one haha because Sister Lubas said to me like 10 times..."hindi ko nagets" "I don't get it" and so when it was our turn to act it out I had to act out the Golden GATE bridge. And the Elders couldn't figure it out. Until finally one said the "Golden 'State' Bridge" haha close enough right???? Haha anyway

Magandang Hapon po so aking mga pamilya at kaibigan, 

I am so grateful to be able to email you this week. It is always the best part of the week for me. :) this week was extra busy...we had a lot of stuff to get done the last couple of days. Not a ton of proselyting time this week....which is not as fun because I think that is probably the best part of missionary work for me :) BUT nonetheless it was a good week. Can’t complain. We spent the majority of our time taking the Sisters maps for each area. (why we need maps...please skip if bored) Super hard about Manila is knowing where your investigators actually live and its super hard if a missionary is fresh started in an area...we are a living example...so the mission made these big fancy maps to help us out...so that means we had to go to 4 different apartments to make sure the sisters got it. So good times with that! But it gave me a perfect window to grab money for the T-shirts we made.  So its all good.  

We got new area maps and the STL's had to go around and check them all. So we delivered our T-Shirts too :) These are pics of all the sisters in our stewardship. 

A little update on our area.....Joshua is doing very good. His Lola bought him the childrens book of mormon when they went to the temple last Saturday and he wore his white shirt to church on Sunday. We are proud of him.  I actually learn a lot from teaching Joshua. Kids are just the perfect example of Christlike love and having faith. We had an awesome lesson on Repentance with him...and at the end of the lesson he made sure to ask me...”Nagsisisi po ba kayo araw-araw Sister Zarbock?” “Are you repenting everyday?”....I told him I did don’t worry haha. 

And we got another tender mercy thrown our way when we met Sister Twinkle. Yes that is her name. She actually has been in California for the past 4 months and met the missionaries there...and our District Leader's mom was actually her Relief Society present in the ward she was investigating. She gave Twinkle’s number to Elder Baiur, who gave it to us, and we called her. She is super interested and came to the baptism of the Elders on Saturday.  She has been taught all the lessons so hopefully we will being getting her a baptismal date pretty soon. What a small world!  I think God really just knows who needs help so he throws us a bone every once in a while.  I don’t mind at all!  Haha.

Joshua and his mom

We got to watch the area broadcast on Sunday and I really liked the thought of one of the speakers...totally forgot his name and the sound was cutting in and out and I was  freezing because of the air con (I haven’t been in AirCon in a while) BUT nonetheless it was a great broadcast haha.  He brought up the question that we don’t need to compare ourselves to the pioneers who crossed the plains but we need to ask ourselves, “Am I valiant today?” and I really liked that question...makes you reavulate your faith a little bit. 

To finish off on a spiritual thought from my personal study this week...I have two scriptures that I really liked and I happened to read them on the same day. One is from 2 Nephi 9:23 (one of my favorite chapters) about having “perfect faith” and in 2 Corinthians 15:57 about how “our work is not in vain.” And these scriptures both are talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that through our work and faith IN him we will obtain the “victories” only through his Atonement. Just a thought I had this week :)

Well I love you all and am grateful for your emails. I know Jesus lives and he died so we can all live again! Transfers this week..pray I go unscathed! 

Until next week! 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock  

My District

Sister Activity this week :)

The Castillo family that takes us out every week

Week 53 "Sister Zarbock our area is literally on Fire!" -Sister Lubas

Week 53

We were walking in our area on Saturday and there was a big fire in one of the Partsofour areas...its kind of hazardous living here because all the houses are super close together so if one house catches on fire its potentially a big problem. But its kind of our mission saying to have your area "on fire." So after we took some pics, Sister Lubas says "yung area natin ay talagang masunog." (Our area is literally on Fire) Hahaha and I just laughed and laughed...oh the missionary humor is all too real here.

Just our area on fire :)

Dear Family and Friends, 

Hello everyone :) This week was just a lot of stuff going on...I don't know how else to describe it haha. But the busiest weeks are always the funnest, craziest and most rewarding ones. And I think thats the way I like it :) We had a lot of awesome things going on in our area and a lot of little miracles happening with our investigators. And its always a fun week when we have Zone Conference and MLC (Mission Leadership Conference). But to first start out I wanted to wish my beautiful biyaw (sister in law) a HAPPY BIRTHDAY...still have yet to see you being LITERALLY in our family but I seriously love you Kels...thanks for the emails/love/support. You are the best. And a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Sam and Haley.  Ya'll are getting so old haha ;) 

Okay now on to the week....

So we had an awesome Zone Conference and the best part is how we actually got to the Zone Conference. We had no running water because a pipe burst or something in our area and so we hadn't showered for like 4 days...and everyone kept telling us that it was gonna come back on. So 4:30 we wake up on Tuesday morning and are hoping that the water FINALLY came back on. And it didn’t so we texted our beloved Mission Mom and asked if we could take a shower at the mission home. Grateful for a Mission Mom who gets up in the morning to answer our text... So we made the hour trip to the mission home just to shower....it was awesome. But Zone conference was awesome, and I am so proud of Sister Lubas when we taught our lesson. It was all in English—we have been working a lot...I felt like a proud Mom!

Going on 4 days with no running water--gross!
Before picture......

After picture! Sister Ostler was so kind to let us shower at the mission home

Coron Crew going strong at Zone Conference!  Love and miss them!

Sister Gabriel--my Coron Companion!  Miss her!!!

The overall message of Zone Conference was all about eternal families...and how we can take that more into our teaching. I really like something that President Ostler said that in the temple we have mirrors to help catch eternity. And as we are being sealed as families—we are literally standing in the middle of eternity. And we can find strength in our lives if we take the time to have an “eternal perspective.” Just a cool thought. Also gotta see my favorite Coron Crew!!! And President and Sister Adduru! Some families were getting sealed so they came and joined in on the Zone Conference. Pleasantly surprised. 

MLC was also super awesome this week...it was our last one with the Ostlers. Bittersweet feelings as they are nearing the end of their time as Mission President...I am so grateful for them. He talked a lot about keeping the “spirit of our mission.” It made me extra grateful to be able to be serving a mission!

Mission Leadership Conference--last one for Pres. Ostler :(

President Ostler--sure gonna miss him!

Sister Ostler--she's the greatest!!

Little Joshua is coming along nicely...we just love the kid. Our best find was that we teach him from the kid’s Book of Mormon. I find it super entertaining and he just laughs and laughs and laughs at me. But he did come to church this week...we will have to push back his baptismal date a week but it looks like he will be right on track. So throw some prayers up for our little Joshua!

To finish off with a little spiritual thought...is just going back to temples. We had a lot of awesome lessons about Temples at MLC this week and how grateful I truly am that we really have eternity with our families.  I think my heart continues to be humbled and softened as I have been on my mission... just about how much I have been blessed in my life... and that I really have felt that moment of catching a glimpse of eternity as I have gone through the temple on my mission :) God is good. 

Okay everyone have a good week! Go to the temple for me will ya? ;) 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock 

Two of my favorite gals in the mission :)

Sister Singer at MLC--throwing up a "1" for one year out!  Woohoo!

Ceremonial burning of the skirt for one year :)

What I go through to clean out the area book...the third one I have cleaned.
Can you tell I am about to go nuts??? 

The Alquizola...or the Ravioli family as I call them. :) They are awesome. 

Lita and Jun Jun from my last area that I was teaching--they got baptized!
Sister Petras (yellow dress) was my last companion in Manduyalong

Comp Pride when you have matching skirts haha