Letter-December 13th, 2015

I hope you are all enjoying this Christmas season. Yesterday we got to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. It was amazing. Something that I loved from it was the spirit that it brought to my life. I realize this year the spirit of the "holidays" is missing for me. But the spirit of "Christmas" is the same know matter where you are in the world, because it's the of the Savoir. I am truly grateful for the opportunity this year to take a break from the Christmas I am used to, to be the servant of the very person we celebrate this time of year. I hope you all get a change to watch this devotional.

This week was good. Sister Averion and I had to do to the dr. a few times this week. We are trying to figure out what is wrong with her back. We found out and thankfully she will be ok. She just needs to do some physical therapy. Good thing I know all about that :) I have been trying to do my best with a companion down. I did work with a member one day. It was a little challenging because it was 100% hiligaynon and I'm still not that good. But I had heavenly help for sure. By the end of the week sister was ready to try and work again. I was really happy. Things are going good here in our area. We have some new progressing investigators which is great. Later today we have a mission wide Christmas party, tonight and tomorrow! I am so excited! It should be fun. 

I hope you are all doing well. Have a good week! 

Sister Miggin 

Letter- December 6th, 2015

Hello everyone,

This week was good. It was a little bit crazy schedule. Because my companion wasn't aloud to work, she had back problems, she was under house watch. So I worked with the other 2 sisters. We would work in both areas and switch companions throughout the day. I was the one that working the whole time so that our area could be worked in too.  The good thing is, is that Sister Averion is now felling better. I am ready to go back and work in just my area. Also since the other sisters in the house were celebrating their year mark in the mission we celebrated our one month as companions. Time really does go by fast in the mission. 

I was reading the other day a talk by President Uchtdorf. " The infinite power of hope."  It's such a good talk. One thing that I really loved was this. " Hope is one of a three legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at that time." So as we have hope faith and charity we can have happiness in our lives. I know that to be true. I am striving everyday to develop these Christlike attributes. The talk goes on to talk about the things we hope in lead to faith, and the things we hope for lead to charity. I know that as we hope and have faith and then act on that in charity that our lives can be blessed. I know that though the atonement of Jesus Christ we can always have hope in our lives no matter what. I know that he is our savior and without him I would not be who I am today. I am grateful for the opportunity to share his gospel with the people in the Philippines. The church is true! 

I hope you all have a good week. 

-Sister Miggin 

Letter-November 29th, 2015

I really cannot believe its December tomorrow. It doesn't feel like it at all. This week was really good. I made thanksgiving for the Sisters and I. It was fun. We had roasted chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and brownies. Then the Elders brought us Pizza too. So it was a feast indeed. Then later that night the Sr. Couple invited us over to a members house for thanksgiving again. So I really lucked out. It was very nice that they invited me and included me. It made it a really fun day.

For sure the highlight of this week was Zone Conference. The training by the Ap's was awesome. I became more motivated to being a Preach My Gospel missionary. They really encouraged us to do practice teaching everyday and really study PMG. Also a big focus on the mission right now is finding families. Teaching them when everyone is there. It's for sure not the easiest thing to do. We have been struggling to find a full family that is prepared. But I know that there is one out there. We just need to keep looking. I was really motivated by their ideas. It was just a really good training. 

This week was good. On Friday we got at text from President saying he wanted to meet us in the office. We were like ok?? We got there and he had invited us and some other missionaries over to his house for a thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice! At first we were nervous. Like oh no what did we do. But it turned out to be a nice surprise. Also that night I got to go to my first Filipino wedding reception. It was really fun. I said well it's for sure a Mormon wedding because the Relief society is serving the food. I guess that's the same no matter where you live. 

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving and are now getting ready for Christmas! 

Love you all!

-Sister Miggin 

Letter-November 22nd, 2015

I hope you all have a good thanksgiving this week. It does not feel like it at all. The sun is still shinning and its still hot. And also there is not thanksgiving here. But we might make one, who knows.

This week was not very eventful. A few of the sisters in the apartment got sick. And then this weekend I got sick as well. So it was more of a down week. I hate not being able to work. I would rather be out there then stuck inside the hot apartment. Oh well sometimes getting sick happens. 

I was reading in D&C this week. Something that really stood out to me was the importance of the priesthood and why we have it again on the earth. There is a reason it is necessary for us to return to our Heavenly Father again. I am grateful that we have the priesthood power on the earth again and the fullness of the gospel. I am also grateful for a good Dad who sets the best example for me and my family. I am thankful for the temple too. I really miss not being able to go often. But when I come home it will be something I don't take for granted. 

Have a fun week everyone. Thanks for all the love and support! 

~ Sister Miggin 

Letter-November 15th, 2015

Hello everyone!

This week was great. By far the highlight was NOEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! I think I told you all about when we found him. I'll just tell the story again. So a few months ago Sister Sciclua and I were tracting and all week we had no success. Finally one night we were about to go home of the night. But we decided that we still had time to find one more. We were walking down the street and found this small alleyway. We both felt prompted to go down this street. Well as we were walking this dog came running to us and walked by us to this house. The lights were on so I turned and "tagbalay" That's what you do here when you get to someones house, you all out to them. Anyway this supper friendly man came out and met us and let us in to share with him. He then said he would come to church on Sunday. We didn't believe it really. The lesson went so well after we couldn't tell if he was crazy or just golden. Well he did end up coming to church and hasn't missed a Sunday. When we taught word of wisdom it only took 2 weeks to get him to stop drinking coffee. He is honestly one of the nicest men I have ever met. He is so Christlike and loving to everyone. He is also very humble and teachable. So this week we baptized him. It was such a wonderful experience for me. I was so happy. It was like that scripture in D&C how joyful your soul will be if you bring one soul unto me. After he was baptized he turned to me with a big grin and gave me a thumbs up. After he bore his testimony about how he did expect to join our church and it was because of this spirit and his dog that we found him. After that he walked around and shook every single persons hand who came to his baptism and thanked them personally. He was so happy to join the church. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father led us to find this man who was just waiting for the gospel. It showed me as your working hard that the Lord will place those prepared in your path. 

I hope you all have a good week! 

Love- Sister Miggin 

Letter-November 8th, 2015

Hello everyone,

Here we are p-day again. This week was crazy. The beginning of the week I was on exchanges with the STL's. It was weird being in a 3-some. But on Thursday I got my new companion. Her name is Sister Averion. She is from the Luzon Philippines. She is so cute and just the littlest thing every. I could just pick her up and put her in my pocket. She is not very good at English, but it's ok. It just gives me a better opportunity to learn more Hiligaynon faster. She also is helping me start to learn some Tagalog too. She reminds me a little bit of Laurie's mom. I have really enjoyed the time with her. I have learned a lot from her too. She is a really good teacher as well. 

Things are going good in our area. I feel like I have been here for a while. Sometimes I feel like I have knocked on every door in the area. But I know that's not true at all. There is new potential. We just started teaching a new girl named Leslie. She is in her mid 20's. We were walking down the street and her mom called us over and said her daughter has been looking for us. We taught her and she even accepted a baptismal date. I am really excited to see what happens. I know it will go well if we pray for guidance and the spirit to be with us always. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

-Sister Miggin 

Letter-November 1st, 2015

This week was good. It was a little bit of a crazy schedule trying to get my companion ready to go home. But it all worked out in the end. Today is my last day with Sister Scicluna. I am a little sad, but also excited for my next companion.

So this next transfer I am really going to work on my Charity and Love. To me they are two of the most important Christlike attributes. I think if you don't have them its harder to achieve the rest. This week I was praying for a service opportunity and one came in a way that we didn't expect at all. We ended up at a members house who was really sick and we got to help them out and their family. It is always such a good feeling when you serve others. I am really grateful for my Savior and his perfect example. I hope to try and be more like Jesus in all things that I do. I am really blessed to be his servant for this time. I know that as I prayerfully ask the Lord for help in developing Christlike attributes that he will help me. 

I  know that this church is true and I am blessed to get to share it all day every day with others. I hope to use my time here to the fullest and be the best missionary I can be while I get the chance. I hope you all have a good week and had a fun Halloween. Until next time! 

-Sister Miggin 

Letter-October 25th, 2015

Hey Ya'll

This week was great. We went on exchanges with the STL's. That's always fun. We also had quarterly interviews with the mission President and his wife. It was a combined interview with my companion so ya very different than before. The high light for this week was for sure our BAPTISM! 

Joshua finally got baptized. Ok story time. Way back Sister Villagomesa and I started teaching this boy. He is 16 years old and just way funny. Well when Sister Scicluna got here he wasn't progressing and we decided to stop focusing on him for a while and just see his desire. Well a month later he came to church. He has family that live by him and are active members. So he does have someone to go with. Well we didn't teach him that week. But then he came another week to church and told us he was ready to have lessons again and then gave us 3 days a week and a time to go visit him. When we went back to teach him, something had changed. He was able to relate scriptures to himself, and understand everything. He told us he want's to go on a mission in 2 years and share the true gospel with others. We were stunned at his growth. We figured out that his relatives were such a good example to him and welcomed him into their family. He then started reading the Book of Mormon and was in 3rd Nephi when we finally started teaching him again. I was so happy to see this change in him. He had this new light in his life. He got baptized on Saturday and it was awesome because lots of young men came to support him. When he bore his testimony he thanked his family for helping him. His experience really showed me the gospel and the book of Mormon in action. I didn't even feel like I had to do a lot or was even part of him conversion process. And I was 100% ok with that. He took his time to make sure that he was ready and now he is a member and him and his cousin go to seminary every week and want to go on missions. I am so proud of Joshua and his decision to join the church. It was a learning experience for me to see really how the gospel can make a change in peoples lives. I am glad that I got the chance to see it. 

That's all for this week. Have a great week. 

-Sister Miggin

Letter-October 18th, 2015

Maayong Udto,

This week was great! We did a lot of tracting and finding. We have some good new potential. I feel like I have taught lesson 1 so many times. It's true what they say you'll spend half your mission teaching lesson 1 and the other have is all the other lessons. I really enjoy though sharing the message of the restoration. It brings such a spirit when you teach it. Our message is unique and it's our job as missionaries to share it with everyone. I can feel the spirit of the restoration in the lessons we teach though. This week something that was cool was we were reading over lesson 1 during our studies and it talks about what to do if you teach someone who doesn't have that solid Christian background. Well were like oh we will never use that her in the Philippines is so Catholic here. That day we were tracting and across the street from the house we were trying to get in someone was calling out to us, in English. It was an Indian young man. We went over to talk to him and he asked us why we were in the Philippines and we told him we are missionaries teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it was restored. He was like "whats the gospel, can you come teach me about your message." We smiled and were like yes, yes we can. It was a cool lesson because is was in English which actually I found I wasn't used to doing. It took us a second to move our brains into English teaching. But also that day Heavenly Father prompted us to study about how to teach someone with a not Christian background. We ended up being able to use that information that same day. It was a very cool lesson. He even invited us back to share more. I'm not sure what will happen, but it just was a testimony builder to me that Heavenly Father is really setting up the way and preparing us for people. 

I am really glad to be a missionary and have the opportunity to share this wonderful message all day, everyday. I hope things are going well at home! Until next week,

Sister Miggin

Letter-October 11th, 2015

Well I finally got to watch Conference. Sorry I am a week behind. But it was such a good conference. I didn't actually know that Elder Scott had passed away but now I know and there is 3 really awesome new apostles. So my favorite talks were all of them. Joke lang, I really enjoyed Elder Holland talk. It made us all cry. Its so true about mothers. I sure and grateful for my Mom and all she does for us. I also loved Elder Durrants talk and the "ponderizing" I want to do that. We already kind of do that in this mission. But it's something that I want to keep going for sure. During conference I really noticed that they talked a lot about the Sabbath day and the sacrament. It's such an important part of the plan. I don't think I really realized how important it was until my mission.  I also got out of conference the importance of being able to recognize the Holy Ghost. That's something that I learn more about everyday. I have goals in my life to help me be able to recognize and listen to the spirit and than act on it without hesitation.

This week was good. We have more hours now that I am not training and there is no language study. So we did a lot more walking and talking. We did kind of get punted a lot this week. But that's ok too, some weeks are like that. We did have 3 investigators come to conference which was awesome! There is lot's of progress happening in our area right now. I just pray that we will be able to recognize the will of the Father for our area. I am really glad that I get one more transfer with my companion Sister Scicluna. This is her last one! She has been teaching me a lot and passing on all her wisdom on me. 

Until next week,

Sister Miggin 

 

Katie titled these last 2 pictures "The levels of tiredness!"

Letter-October 4th, 2015

Hello Everyone,

This week as it begins a new transfer means that my 12 week training is over and I am no longer a "bata" or baby in the mission. Now I am just a Jr. companion. We had a good week this week. Sister Scicluna had the flew so our hours were a little short. But all is well now! We are starting to see a lot of progress in our area. I am really excited for October and to hopefully see more progression. What else happened this week. Women's conference was amazing. I loved President Uchdorf's talk and his story. It was so inspiring. Its so true though. Happiness is a choice. We can choose to walk the road of misery or happiness. It was just a good talk. I could really understand why the Savior would teach in parables and stories. Everyone got something different from his story. It was really awesome to me. 

Our investigator Noel is doing awesome. He has given up his coffee in order to live the word of wisdom so he can be baptized this month. I am so happy for his decision. You can really see him start to come closer to the savior. Also this family we have been teaching for a while now. For the last few Sundays only the dad would come to church. But this week the WHOLE family came. It was awesome! The ward was awesome at fellow-shipping them too. They were nervous to all come especially since they have a daughter with special need. But the ward was awesome to them. It was a great Sunday for sure. We ended up having 7 investigators there. 

This morning we had our zone activity. We went to the beach and played games and had a cook out. It was a blast. I finally got to "get in the water." My companion knows how much I love the water she was like "Sister Miggin no swimming remember." I'll admit the water was very inviting! I hope you all had a good week. Thanks for your prayers. They are always welcome! 

-Sister Miggin 

Letter- September 27th, 2015

Well here we are again. This week was great. We were way busy all week. I'm not sure what happened with the time. Probably spent walking hahaha. Just kidding. This week I learned something. No matter how good you are at planning, the Lord is better at changing those plans. It really good though. Even though it wasn't what we expected it was what the Lord wanted.

So last week had a great Family Home Evening at a members house. We invited another investigating family, the Frial family, to come. It was a lot of fun. Bother Elmer (the member) planned out and all we had to do was provide the games. Its so important for us right now to make sure that our progressing investigators get fellow shippers. Anyway that was a lot of fun.

So I had a baptism this week. This girl named Judea. Well this is quite the story. She has been listening to the missionaries for a while now. Her family was inactive. Back with my first companion. We started working with the family too. Trying to reactivate them and teach this girl. Well slowly one by one the Grandma came back to church. Then her aunt and then another aunt. And finally her Grandpa. It took a baptism to get this family reactivated. It has been so cool to watch them slowly start coming back. Well the hardest one was her Lolo (or grandpa.) He was active before they moved and he used to have a calling too. But when they moved here years ago he just stopped coming to church. So we have been trying to fellowship him and work with him to get him to come to church. Because Judea wanted him to be the one to baptize her. Well we talked to the Bishop and he said as long as Brother Victorama came to church and had an interview he could be the one to baptize her. Well he came! We were so happy and he passed the interview! We were seriously so excited. He knew too how important is was to her and said he was ready to come back to church.

Well the baptism comes around and Judea and her Grandma and aunts showed up, but no Lolo. They said he wasn't back from work yet and that we should start with out him. But we knew that he needed to come. That if he didn't get to baptize her he may never come back again. Well as luck would have it the font was still filling up. They were running late. So Bishop told us we had a half hour till it would be time. We told the Elders that we were going to go get this man,and to call us if he showed up. My companion was like I don't care if we have to search the whole town. This man is baptizing his granddaughter. So we took off and got on a trike. We said a prayer on the trike that he would show up and beat us there or that we would be able to find  him. Well we got a call that he had shown up. It was one of those after the trial of your faith moment. I think Heavenly Father wanted to see how far we would go to get this family.

The baptismal service was awesome. One of her aunts gave a talk and got emotional because she was grateful to have the gospel back in their families lives. It was so crazy to think. This 10 year old girl because of her decision to be baptized brought back a whole family. She really had no idea what she did for her family. While Brother Victorama was baptizing her, he got emotional and I look and the whole family was crying. The spirit was so strong. It was such an amazing thing to have seen. To know I have been able to see it happen. It was humbling to see the change in their lives. And to think that I had a small part in it. It was the highlight for sure of the week.

Well that's all for this week. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time,

-Sister Miggin

 

 

 

Letter- September 20th, 2015

I hope this email finds everyone safe and well.
This week was awesome! We had mission tour this week. It was for sure the highlight. Elder and Sister Bowen of the 70 and they are also area presidency here in the Philippines. They did an amazing job. I was inspired to work harder and be a better missionary. I know for sure this is where I should be right now and that I am really grateful to be a missionary. It's a lot of fun. No it's not always easy, especially working on the language.But I know that with the help of Heavenly Father I can do anything. I know for a fact that he is helping me everyday and in every way. Physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. I was really humbled this week. Knowing that this is really the Lords work. As I am obedient and work hard I will be able to do this work with the Lord's help, and I can't imagine trying to do it without him. Something Sister Scicluna and I were talking about is how amazing it is that our investigators are progressing. It's for sure not because of us or our teaching skills. We are 2 foreigners, even though she is fluent, people have a hard time sometimes understanding her accent, and me, ya I am just learning the language. But I am really able to see who the real teacher is. Its the Spirit. As long as we are doing everything we can to invite the spirit into our lessons and be worthy of the spirit always, people can learn.

   Something I loved about Mission Tour was Elder Bowen was gave us a lot of advice and motivation to be better missionaries. One thing I really thought was interesting, was he gave us a challenge. That as we are meeting people on the street we should just jump into the message, We should leave people thinking, "are they crazy," or leave them thinking "could that really be true." So we tried it. We went contacting and during our contacting we just started sharing about the restoration and what is unique about our message. It was a lot of fun actually. It brought a different power and spirit in our tracting. We even found people interested. It was a really cool experience. We plan to keep trying that. We have certain OYM (Open Your Mouth) goals we have everyday. Which just means open your mouth, or talk to people and invite them to listen or come to church or something. But he called it Testifying contacts. So making them more meaningful. Anyway that was something I really liked.

   Anyway this week was really good. It was for sure a spiritually high at mission tour. We worked hard though this week. Which I wouldn't have it any other way! I am excited to see what this next week has in store!!

Well that's all for this week! Until next time.

-Sister Miggin

Letter- September 13th, 2015

Kamusta Kamo?!

This week was really great. I'm not sure where the time went. But we sure were busy. We did more finding this week and our teaching pool is really starting to build up. It's so awesome. I was shown this week that as long as we are diligent and doing what we are supposed to, the Lord will bless us with finding people ready to hear our message. One new family that we found was indeed a miracle that we found them. IT took us 3 OYM's (Open Your Mouth) and this guy just led us though all these houses to this family, who really has potential. Sister Scicluna and I were so excited after we found that family. We knew 100% that it wasn't us who found them, but we were really led by the spirit to find them.

I really love our studies right now. We have mission tour this week. Which is when a General Authority is going to come and visit our mission. Well in preparation for that we have been asked to study the Abraham covenant, the House of Israel, the Baptismal Covenant, and the oath and covenant of the Priesthood. Its been really fun to study these topics and really have time to learn about them. I have been loving it. Also the more and more I study from Preach my Gospel, the more I see how helpful it is. Its like a missionaries study lifeline. I am so grateful for it. 

Well that's about it for this week. I am really grateful to be here. I have learned so much already on my mission.  Talking to people and different members really humbles me and makes me realize how strong their faith is. I realize how blessed we are to live where we do. This week was good. They days were long, but the week ended up going fast. I hope you all are doing well. Thanks for the prayers coming my way. I can feel the love through them. Have a great week!!

-Sister Miggin

Letter- September 6th, 2015

Hey Ya'll

This week we did a lot of finding and tracting. Like really a lot. It was awesome. I can have basic conversations with people now, well kind of. I at least feel more comfortable now with starting a conversation. Even though I don't really know whats going on a lot of the time. I get the idea!

So a huge blessing from this week was one of the people we found. We are so excited about him. We are going to teach him and take him a Book of Mormon tonight. His name is Noel Lorenzo. Well just one night as we were almost done with the day we decided we had time for one more OYM ( open your mouth, aka tracting) So we were walking down the street and we saw this little alleyway that we had never been down. So we were like ya lets go that way. It was totally by the spirit. He was telling us where to go. Well we walked down this little road and I stopped by this house. I could tell some one was home. So I called out and this guy comes out. So cheerful and friendly. He was like HI Sisters! For a second we thought he was a member. Turns out though he just had seen us and other missionaries walking around. He never had talked to them before though. He let us in to share a message with him. He was so awesome honestly! He was like " well I used to go to a Catholic church but I haven't been in years,my daughter goes to that church but maybe I'll go to the Mormon Church now." We were like, Who is this guy. He asked for a pamphlet or a book to read. We didn't have a book of Mormon with us, but we plan to take one tonight. Well we invited him to church and he said he would try. Well Sunday rolls around and we did have an investigator come, but it wasn't him.

 So I was sitting up on the stand because I was playing the piano in sacrament. I look outside and see him coming to church!!! My companion and I look at each other and were trying not to get to excited! He could be Golden, we will find out more tonight. I was so excited and so happy to see him come to church, after one lesson. It was so humbling for me to see that Heavenly Father directed us to find him. I don't know what will happen, but I just hope and pray that as we have the spirit with us in our teaching that we will maybe see him progress. He is so awesome. Its so humbling to think that heavenly father is trusting me with teaching and finding his children. So that was a good outcome after all of our hard work. Hopefully we can see him progress and see the spirit work within him. 

What else happened this week. We had a brown out. I'm getting used to them happening. It was fun though this time. We had milk in the fridge that we needed to use so it wouldn't go bad. We had cereal and milk for dinner. We sat out on the porch because it was to hot inside without fans. We just sat out there and told funny stories. Might as well have fun on the mission too right! This week was really good though. I enjoyed working hard. I really am starting to love it more and more. I hope you all had a good week!

-Sister Miggin

Letter- August 30th, 2015

This week was really busy,

The first part of the week I was in a 3some with the STL's. We had a good time trying to cover two areas. But I have my new companion now. Her name is Sister Scicluna. She is an Aussie! From Tasmania, Australia. She is one of the kindest people I know. I just love her. We have a lot of fun together. We have set some new goals for what we want to accomplish in our area. I am really excited to get to work! She has also helped a lot with my language. She has had to learn it, so she understands a lot of how to teach it. I am going to have 2 great trainers! 

I am staring to see a difference the gospel makes in peoples lives. Its really humbling to watch it. It's true what they say. The spirit is really the teacher. It does the conversion. Its so cool to see the light turn on in peoples eyes. One of our investigators agreed to be baptized. He said he finally feels ready. For him it wasn't until after he learned about the Plan of Salvation that it really started to make sense to him. I hope that he continues to come closer to our heavenly father. I was just so grateful for the spirit with us in our lessons. I hope to always do the things to remain worthy of it. It would be impossible without it. I had a really good week. It was full of hard work and fun times. The weather is crazy here as usual. I really don't mind the rain at all. You better believe I'm over here singing and dancing in the rain. I hope you all have a great week! until next week :)

-Sister Miggin 

Ps.Sorry guys my brain is like gone. But I did have a baptism this week! Her name is Jhana. I am really upset at myself for not remembering to include this. But I was really excited. She has developed quite a testimony. Her uncle and his wife and kids are active members and she was a referral. She was so excited to be baptized afterwords she just could stop smiling. I was really proud of her for making the decision to be baptized. 

Katie said that these children are showering in the rain.