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.

Letter- August 24th, 2015

Hey everyone,

This week was a good one. Lots of tracting. We spent a lot of time this week finding new investigators. We walked so much. Good thing I have Ibuprofen :) One of the people we found. It was so awesome. They live right across the church. We taught their whole family more than once this week. They really could be golden. 2 of them came to church for the whole time on Sunday. They all couldn't come because they have a special needs daughter who had the chicken pox. But hopefully this week. I really love them they are awesome. SO KIND. They area always wanting to feed us  and when they do they bring out their nicest china. Its humbling to see them treat us with such respect. I really hope we can keep teaching them. 

Also this week I did my first ever training during district meeting. It was fun to teach again. I missed that from the MTC. And after one of my teachers from the MTC showed up. It was totally random. He and his dad were came back to visit the Philippines and he came to say hi. It was awesome. He gave me some good advice with working with less active members. Which there are a lot. So I was happy to see him. Good ol' Brother Waggoner. 

I also got this week a post card from my family. The sisters thought Yellowstone looked so cool. They were like. We want to go there. I just laughed. Its so nice to live somewhere with so many natural beauties. This place is also really pretty. I can't wait to see more of it. Right now I am in the city, so maybe my next area. Who knows what this place has in store. 

I read the "Our Heritage"book. I love church history. There are some amazing stories. Those early saints of the church had such amazing faith. Its so cool to know that's our background. It really motivated me to keep working hard to build the kingdom here in the Philippines. I only get one mission. So might as well work as hard as I can and Run hard the whole race. 

This week I will be with the Sister Training Leaders or STL's. They live with us. So we will be a 3 some until Thursday when I get my new trainer! I am excited to meet her.

Today we went to our Presidents birthday party. We did Zumba. It was so funny to see all those missionaries doing zumba. I love it. It was awesome. We also had a big BBQ. Obviously a little different foods, but it was good. This Sister who used to serve her mission here came back and visited the mission. Its the same sister who Facebook messaged me when I first got my call and told me so much about my mission and helped me so much in my prep. She came in and came right over to me and was so excited to see me and talk to me. Her and her parents were so nice. It was nice to meet the girl who helped me so much prepare. 

Until next week! I love you all!!

- Sister Miggin 

Letter-August 16th, 2015

This week was really good. We had two meetings that were kind of long but really good. We had zone training and also trainers and trainees' meeting. I cant believe this is my companions last week as a missionary. She is doing really good. Not too trunky. I think now she is just excited and why wouldn't you be. She had a good mission and worked hard until the end. I hope I can be like her at the end of all of this. So next week I will get my "step mom" or my new trainer. Hopefully she will be just as great. Now that I feel like I have adjusted more to being a missionary I really want to focus more on the language. Its not east but I know through prayer and faith that God will provide a way. This week we did a lot of finding. Its kind of hard to go up to people and bring up religion especially in a language I don't know. But once you get going its not as scary. Good thing the Lord guides this work. Otherwise we would have a lot of lost missionaries in the world.

So we have some pretty great investigators. We are teaching a 11 year old named Jhana, her baptism date is on August 29 I think. So hopefully everything goes accordingly. We are also teaching quite a few others who have dates in September. Here in the Philippines they have a 4 week rule. That the investigator must come to church for 4 weeks in a row. So if they miss a Sunday we have to move back their date. Its sometimes frustrating but I quickly realized why. There are SO many inactive or less active here. Its sad but true. So I understand why they have this rule. 

Anyway this week was good. We had a family home evening with this cute family. They have 4 girls and just had a baby boy. It reminded me of my family. It was such a fun family night. It made me grateful that we always had FHE growing up. I also experience my first brown out. It was so hot without the fan. But thankfully right as we were going to bed the power came back and I was able to sleep with my fan!! YAY!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Love, Sister Miggin