.: Week 68 The Iron Gates

Week 68

So we were trying to get in the church for District Meeting and it was raining SO hard outside...and outside the church there are these huge gates. You have to unlock like 3 locks to get inside. We couldn't get one of the locks. We tried for like seriously an hour..nothing worked. Elders were hopping over the fence. I tried and almost broke the key....we were like "How many missionaries does it take to open up the gate to the church?" Turns out kids had stuck wood in the lock and we nicknamed the gate...the iron gates...no one could get inside. We ended up going to a different chapel. Funny times.

The Iron Gates :)

Dear Fam and Friends,

So this week was full of lots and lots of fun surprises, God likes to keep you on your toes and that's what happened to us this week. First surpise...our area got split so the Elders took all of our progressing investigators and we are now in a brand new part of the area. Same ward but we are indeed starting fresh again. So that was a fun surprise. And the second one was that we had MLC this week! Whoop!! And Singer slept over for the night coming from Palawan. Definitely talked each other's ears off for a solid 3 hours. So you could say that it was a good week. And to end the week we had a baptism, Matvei! It was so awesome :)

Matvei's baptism! Elders in our district...tall white people are from Australia.

So to start out we had some awesome lessons with our investigators this week. One of them being the husband of one of our recent converts. His name is Jon Grullo. His wife was baptized back in June. They are the only people we know in our new area...so we've been visiting them a ton. But he is really such an awesome guy. They have 3 kids...and all he wants is his family to be happy. He has seen such an awesome difference in their family since his wife was baptized. They never argue, and they read the children's book of mormon as a family. SUPER SOLID. Haha I read that too... :)

Also we have another awesome investigator named Lisa... we have been teaching her lots this week too. We found her last week...and she carried over to the new area. WHOOP! So we are happy about that. She is the mom of one of the members. She accepted a baptismal date so we are just shooting prayers for her. She couldn't come to church this week...it was actually my first Sunday in the ward. They invited me to share my testimony. They didn't even try to say my name...they were like..."We would like to invite Sister Zaaar...New Sister missionary to share her testimony." Haha that's me. But it is a really great ward.

Also Matvei was baptized...she was just the happiest person in the world. She was baptized with her little sister. She was skyping her mom so I was in charge of holding the phone and kinda talking her mom through what was happening. I could here her mom crying on the other end of the phone. And man I was all emotional... But she bore the simplest, happiest testimony afterward. Matvei's parents work abroad in Saudi Arabia so she lives with the Bishop but has been waiting for over a year to be baptized. It was a day to remember for sure :) So blessed to have met them.

Matvei and her little sister--baptism day!

Matvei Baptism pic

Finish off with a quick thought from MLC... Just a quote from President Fermanis. He wrote in BIG letters on the board about being a leader and regards to treating people.... "Show an abundance of love, an abundance of appreciation, and pray for an understanding heart." That has hit me SO hard for the whole week. Whatever is going on in your life, its important to treat people how Jesus would treat them. Just one more that I loved was in regards to setting goals is... "I do not know the key to success but I do know the key to failure is trying to please everyone." It just reminded me that when it comes down to it...we have to have a nice balance of being a good person and focusing doing what WE need to do to help our personal faith.

Love those two thoughts...they hit home to me this week :)

Love you all,

Sister Zarbock