Week 75 The FHE hardships...

Week 75

So we had a plan to have FHE at one of our investigators house so we told the elders to go buy pizza...but then last minute our investigator cancelled...haha so there we were with a large pizza, melting ice cream, and soda....but no place to have an FHE. After seriously 5 trial and errors...we ended up at Lanie and Rose Ann's house. They rescued us and we had a way fun night.  We showed up their door and said, "Hey we have pizza, drinks, and icecream...but no place to eat it...can you help us...."  They probably thought we were so weird. NONETHELESS...the pizza was awesome. 

Our FHE mishap turned out to be soooo fun!

Ummmmm....so that's me with the sunburn

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week was so busy and I can't believe November is already here...marks the last month of me being a missionary. But i didn't have time to think about it tons cause we had a lot going on this week.  Which is always good...busier is always better I think. We had a lot of awesome things happen this week.  I think it was one of my favorite Sundays of my mission yesterday.  We picked up some of our investigators and I sat by an 85 year old member at church...he told me he was grateful we picked him up for church. Made me smile :) The little moments kill me.... so grateful to be right where I am at.

On to the week.....  

Jon is doing AWESOME...he hasn't smoked for 2 days! We gave him a huge bag of candy and he said he has almost finished it because he said if he is always chewing something, then the desire to smoke goes away.  We had some awesome lessons with him this week. He really loves opening the scriptures in lessons..this week we read Alma 5 and 3 Nephi 9....and the Priesthood have really been stepping up to help him out and support him. Sometimes that's all anyone needs.  I told him we are gonna get him baptized before I leave and he said he really wants to be baptized by the end of this month. So throw up some prayers for Jon. He really is so great. Just a really good guy that just wants to be with his wife and kids forever.  

Jessica is also doing awesome...she came to church yesterday and I have been passing down dresses to her...she looks so cute at church.  Its so fun cause it feels like we are more friends with her than her missionaries. We love her to death...we taught her the law of chastity this week. And that was super special for me actually because we told her that we will have eternal families some day. Its really cool teaching someone my same age and kinda at my same part in life.  It was a sweet moment. Then there was the moment I forgot we were fasting and they fed us...yeahhhh I'd thought I'd learn something by now... her baptism is still for November 25th. 

Jimmy is doing good...his anullment for his marriage won't be issued until January. So we are just finishing up his teaching so he can get baptized some time in January. He is such a cool guy. 

We did some fun FHE this weeks...what's so awesome is when members find out that a missionary is going home...all of the members just want to have you at their house so we have a lot of FHE's planned for the next few weeks...we are excited!  Love the members here...they are all so nice! 

We are seeing a lot of tender mercies in our area...with our progressing investigators and some new people we found this week....so grateful to go out to work everyday.  Being a missionary is so awesome. 

Finish on a spiritual note....I loved this week that we applied Alma 5 to the Law of Chastity with Jessica because part of this commandment is to be able to evaluate our thoughts, actions, and words...make sure what we are doing is in harmony with God's standards. One questions Alma asks is, "have ye received his image in your coutenance?" And it was a really cool experience to be able to have that self reevaluation...no where near perfect but I can honestly say I have become closer to Christ than I have ever have over the last few months....its a good feeling :) 

Anyway, have a good week everyone...I love you lots! 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock 

Just hanging with some kids--this happens pretty much every night :)

Working with our ward missionaries

Week 74 "I am gonna make some 'bros'"

Week 74

So I was sitting next to Jon Grullo during the 3rd hour and there was an announcement about an upcoming ward activity. They are going to a dragon fruit farm...so lame, its out of mission boundaries so we can't go.  But I asked Jon if he and his family were going. He said, "no, I am just going"...so I asked why wasn't his family going...and he said, "Aylene (his wife) is sending him alone so he can make friends in the ward". Haha I just laughed and laughed. I said, "So you are gonna make some 'bros'?" And he looked all confused. I told him that my brother has a friend group and they call themselves the "bros". So he was like...ooohhh...."Yes, I am gonna make some bros!" Hahaha sooo funny :) 

Dear family and frenz, 

Grateful to be emailing you this week. And shout out HAPPY HALLOWEEN :) Where did October even go??  Kids have been running around...I have run out of candy 3 times. But we had a great week.  Sister Cudo and I have been hitting the ground running in our area and its been super rewarding to find new investigators, revisit some past investigators...we have been having a lot of fun.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We had some awesome activities for the week...one of them was our Ward Family Home Evening. We had a lot of fun with that. I always love FHE's with the ward.  Such a fun way to get all the ward pumped about missionary work! 

Ward FHE

Jon Grullo and family at Ward FHE :)  Love this family!

One of the best things that happened this week was when we walked into the Grullo's house and Aylene and Jon were super smiley and were cooking...we were like what is going on...and then Jon told us that he FOUND A JOB. It was the coolest thing of my life. He will be a Pizza Hut delivery driver. Didn't like Pizza Hut all that much...but now its my favorite place in the world. It is so awesome cause he was super worried that he wouldn't find a job that didn't have work on Sunday....but his manager actually turns out is Mormon. God literally just opened up the windows of heaven for him.  So great. We are happy for their cute family.  He is still having Word of Wisdom problems...so we are still working on that with him. His baptismal date probably has to move back but...its just been awesome to be a part of his conversion. 

Barruga family is doing so good.  Jessica..who went to church last week...actually accepted a baptismal date for November 25th. So we are getting her ready for that.  She literally is so awesome and basically teaches us the whole lesson. We love lessons with her cause she is always reading and listening.  

With Jimmy...we are trying to figure out some technical things about his anullment plans...so we might have to push his baptism back a little bit.  We love the guy. He told us yesterday, "It just feels good to be at church." Of course we agreed!  It really just gives you that peace of conscience that you always need. 

Shoot some prayers for our investigators....they need some extra love!

Finish on a spiritual note. My anak had to grab some ear drops from Sister Turner (the nurse) the other day and so we went to Sister Turner's apartment and got talking for a second. And we had a little scripture study and it was centered on the atonement.  Just grateful for my savior Jesus Christ. He really makes us the best versions of ourselves.  I have seen that in myself...that in small and simple ways he just makes me a little bit better every day. 

Love you all, 

Sister Zarbock 

Brother Bandilya--he always works with us :)

My favorite little ones in the ward

Elders & Sisters in the ward at FHE

Cute Sister Cudo :)

Zone Activity 

Sisters at Zone Activity 

Lunch with Susan--ward member who invited us to lunch on P-day!
I got just a little sunburned at the Zone activity haha

We went out to lunch to celebrate Clay's birthday :)

Week 73 "Tutira mai nga iwi, tatou tatou e" -Maori Song

Week 73

We learned this sweet Maori song from New Zealand at the training meeting earlier this week. It had a cool islander dance to go with it. It was SOOO awesome :) 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Hope you all had an awesome week this week. Mine was super full and had lots of changes...love change so much haha :) Transfers were on Wednesday and I have just begun the last transfer of my mission. SO crazy. And Sister Cudo is my new trainee! I'll be training her for my last 6 weeks..could not be more excited. She is so awesome and so ready to work. Have to admit..its suuuper weird to be teaching Sister Cudo all the basic things of mission...I get the weirdest flash backs...like I forget that I was like her once upon a time ago. But she brings that new missionary energy and spirit and that has helped us OODLES this week. I love new missionaries...they bless an area like NO other. 

Me and my new anak :)  Meet Sister Cudo my trainee!  If I
wanted to chill for my last 6 weeks--totally not happening

With President Fermanis

And first off I just wanted to wish my little brother Clay a happy birthday! I guess he is not so little anymore. But you are forever little in my eyes! :) Haha, can't believe you are 18 dude...sooo weird. I hope you have a good day and mom cooks ya anything you want. Can't wait to see ya real soon :) 

We had an awesome this week...my poor anak didn't really have a break. Her first day we went straight to substitute teach for seminary. SO awesome!  We had a good time. We taught about the restoration and missionary work. I feel like the teenagers here know a lot more than I did when I was their age.  They had such cool insights. Grateful to have done that. 

We were the substitute teachers on Sister Cudo's first day

Also we had a cool lesson with Jon the other day...in my personal study early that morning I kind of got this thought that we needed to move Jon's baptismal date earlier and I was super confused cause it would throw off his whole Word of Wisdom thing we have going on. But we came up with a plan to teach Priesthood and that he would be able to have the opportunity to baptism his daughter if we moved up his baptismal date. So we practice taught it earlier that day. And so we go into the lesson...we followed up his Word of Wisdom and he said that he went back to 5 cigarettes that day. Just feels stressed. And I didn't know if we should go forward with the lesson and I didn't have a companion to really clarify if we should move forward cause it was Sister Cudo's 2nd day haha. 

So we went through with it. And I think this might have been the most powerful lesson of my mission. When we taught about the power of the priesthood and I testified that I know that my dad had authority from God and that this is the only place to find that restored authority. Then we invited him to be baptized on November 18th. he seemed a little hesitant so we invited him to pray about it. Next day was Sunday...and he got a blessing from the bishop. And Aylene (his wife) had the biggest smile on her face the whole day. I didn't ask about how he felt but we will follow up with him tonight or Tuesday. Sunday was literally such a perfect Sunday for him...all of the talks and lessons were so great for his situation. I think he might have a job coming out of the wood works for him. SO cool.  Lesson learned: always go with your first prompting. 

Also Jessica Barruga came to church yesterday...power of my anak is so real...And she was just kind of our buddy the whole day.  We had such an awesome lesson with her this week...she basically taught us.  You just find the coolest people here. 

Jessica Barruga came to church this week :) SWEET!!
And we picked up the Grullos daughter on the way to church

Finish things off with Jimmy....so Jimmy and his future wife have been coming to church for a little bit. They live out of our area but they love this ward and are getting Jimmy's annulment figured out so they can get married. They wanna move into this area but missionaries aren't allowed to go to his aunts house where they are staying right now. He has such a cool life story and his future wife is a long time member who's husband died.  Come to find out they are actually living the Law of Chastity. So we just decided to teach them...Gave him a date for November 18th. Hopefully with Jon! :) Should be sweet if it works out. 

On a spiritual note...Had an awesome experience the last 3 months to complete the Young Women's personal progress again.  It was really such a cool thing. I did it when I was like13 but I feel like I had so much extra time at night and during lunch to complete it again.  I just got recognized in the training meeting for completing that :) So that was really cool...really helped me to just build my self worth and realize I'm a daughter of God. I think I always need that reminder :) 

Love you all, have a good week 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock 

Earned my YW Medallion again--and my honor bee :)

With Sister Fermanis--YW Medallion stuff

Old friends at the training meeting :)

Training meeting

Last day with Sister Baldelomar in the area--with Jon Grullo & family

Last day with Sister Baldelomar

Our new STL's visiting us :)  Sooo glad I'm not an STL anymore!!!

I used to visit this family...they were less active and now their
youngest daughter just got baptized.  SO SWEET!

This is where we buy lunch everyday...lots of different ulam :)

Week 72 "baby shark do do do do do baby shark..."

Week 72

Is this like a thing now? Are people dancing to baby shark in America too? Its literally on EVERYWHERE here, my goodness. Everyday I dance with the kids in the street to this song. Just picture that for a second haha :) 

Dear Friends and Family, 

Well...we are emailing on a different day this week....cause the internet was not working out for us yesterday. So after 3 computer shops we gave up and decided to email on Tuesday.  But still grateful to be emailing all of you. Dude I am not gonna lie I personally had a long week this week.  Sometimes when you have to have a hard shell on all the time, it gets a little tiring. But, that's why I think this week was SO rewarding for me. Heavenly father really just knows what to put in your path to make things better and endurable. Sometimes He needs to let ya grow and stumble...but my favorite is just that comforting feeling that you know there is something bigger than yourself in the world. 

Starting out was when we had 2 rounds of exchanges. I was left in the area for 2 days and it was lots of fun.  Its so fun to just have someone else to teach with and talk to. So Sister Tureman, from Arkansas, was talking to me....and she is like, "I feel like you've been here forever..." Haha tell me about it... I remember when she came out in the field. But I had a great couple of days with them.  

Exchanges this week--Sister Romano

Exchanges--Sister Tureman is from Arkansas

And when I was on exchanges with Sister Rimando we went to go teach Jon Grullo. And when we walked in...I could just tell something was wrong or something happened. So we start chatting with him and his wife and he told us that he had lost his job earlier that day. And apart of me was like HEAVENLY FATHER WHY? He is such a good dad and husband, why would this happen? But then that feeling immediately followed that...this is his test to see what he will do when trials come his way.  So we had an awesome lesson about trusting in the Lord.  And his wife bore her testimony. She just loves her husband so much. 

Also we just had some really good lessons with our other investigators.  It was just a lot of tender mercies as far as teaching goes. We taught a new family...the Barruga family. And they have such an awesome spirit about them. We had MTC exchanges and Sister Eyslee was my companion from California.  And it is such a breath of fresh air when you get to go out with an MTC missionary. They are so new and fresh, gives you extra inspiration and missionary spirit :) Love that. 

Also we met up with some referrals that were given to us a while back, Benedict and Michelle. Hopefully we can teach them again.  They are siblings who went to church back in the province but work in Manila. He had some awesome questions. So hopefully we will come back. 

Finish things off on a spiritual note. There was just a lot going on in my head the other day as we were riding on the jeepney to our area. And so I just decided to open the Book of Mormon and I opened to Alma 42:14...and it was what I just needed in my life.  It talks about "judging righteously," "deal justly," and to "do good continually..." And then if we do all of that...we will be "rewarded." Whatever is going on around us...if we do what's right, God will bless us. Kinda something simple..but it meant a lot to me this week. 

Okay love you all have a good week. 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock

MTC Exchanges--Sister on left is from California :)

With the Villamel family

District Picture

Zone Picture

Laser Tag--we had so much fun with our District last week
that we went again with our Zone this week!

Week 71 "Mr. E. X. Perience .. man sometimes I hate that guy"

Week 71

Haha we were in MLC a few days ago and we were talking about how we learn from our mistakes. Something like that...then my mission president goes, "hey you know who the best teacher is? Mr. E. X. Perience." Wrote it up on the board...then he just sits down and goes..."man sometimes I hate that guy." Haha so funny...but it's so true how we learn from our experiences. Fun Stuff. 

At MLC (Mission Leadership Conference)

Dear Fam and Frenz, 

So grateful to be emailing you this morning. Just had an awesome weekend of conference :) Isn't conference just the best thing ever? I feel like I could conquer the world after watching it. Grateful for revelation from our prophets and apostles. Sad to not see our prophet there and the passing of Elder Hales. But I just have peace in my heart that God really does have a plan. Its sooo awesome to know that we have a life after this one.  

I really can't believe its been another week. Its really the craziest time ever. Always so much to do and I feel like when my head hits the pillow every night I just collapse.....which is a good feeling. Can't wait to tell you a little bit about our week.  

So John...the saving grace in this area. We look forward to his lesson always. This week it kinda was a sweet reminder to me that life isn't always perfect but we can make it work wherever we are. It was kind of a hard week for the Grullo family...nothing super crazy happened, just struggles in everyday life. Their kid Turdy doesn't wanna go to school, Aylene was tired from selling her sausage, John came home to screaming kids...so when we were having a lesson with them Friday, we kinda felt impressed to just share with them about eternal families and that even though life is kind of messy sometimes...we can have eternity together.  Our life is short. It was a sweet moment with them. 

As we were OYMing one day this week...we found the Barruga family. The Nanay just let us into the house and we started chatting with her and her daughter. Then we started teaching and came back again and taught her husband too. They are an awesome family.  So we will see. Their last child had a heart condition and then the Dad told us that he believes God answers prayers. As simple as going around from house to house is, God really puts such awesome people in your path. 

Then most of the week was spent watching conference so I am gonna do another round robin of one liners I loved. :) 

-No is responsible for your personal journey

-"Who needs me today?"

-Choose the Lord's way not the world's way

-I am a pencil in his hand

-Internalize the qualities of Christ

-We all come to our ourselves in this life..usually more than once" 

-Don't 'do you,' 'do God.'

-Its not an accident...its divine design

-How precious is the Book of Mormon to you? 

-Make and Take time for the Savior

-Sometimes we run so fast...we forget where we are going 

-How we respond is a choice\

-Remember to put Jesus in the center of your life everyday

-Sometimes you are the angel, sometimes you are being served by the angel -- but we all have the spirit with us

-Where are your footsteps taking you? 

-Don't put permanent labels on others

-Hard is Good. 

-Don't know all things but I have paid the price to know enough

-Do 1-4 happy 

-Don't have to prove your special 

-Mad, sad, or glad?

Just had SO many things i loved about conference--and it really made me think of not only where am I going in my life but more importantly the WHY.  Hope you all have a good week. 

Love, 

Sister Zarbock 

Great catching up with old companions at MLC!  Sister Lubas.......

Sister Gabriel (center).......

Sister Singer......

And let's not forget current companion, Sister Baldelomar :)

District activity--Laser Tag!

Some rich member in Manda 5th asked us to dinner.  

Holy cow, his wife is like some famous model. 

 This house was awesome--they even have CARPET!

Coming home from Conference :)

Got the Halloween package!  Thanks Jules!!!

This is Turdy. The son of Aylene and John Grullo. We were waiting for his dad
to come home so we played POGES. Haha have Jack explain to you. I have
watched kids played it like my whole mission...thats what I am holding in the
picture with him. Also gave him stuff from your last package. LOVED IT.
This kid creamed me though..