Week 33 - busy week, golden contact, 9 months down, 9 to go

Week 33

Busy busy busy. We need 30 hour days- there is no time for everything we have to do! But it's good, i'm learning some hard core time management. This week we had 3 convert baptisms in our ward YAY! 2 from the other sisters and one from us. So exciting. Hearing their testimonies is such a cool thing. It is literally so hot here, I'm pretty sure my boy just never cools down. Also we saw President a few times this week! Always a pleasure. 

So the baptism was so great! This man was so ready to be baptized. He was actually an OYM. (street contacting) And we gave Him a book of mormon when we met him. Came back 2 days later and he had read some of it and had lots of questions. He has a really different learning pace than i'm used to. Even for here. We had to start from the very VERY basics and move very slow. This man has taught me more about patience than anyone I have ever taught or worked with. He wasn't really progressing for the first 3 weeks of teaching but we kept feeling like we needed to keep coming back. 3 months later, he's at the pulpit with tears in his eyes sharing with us his testimony of the book of mormon and Joseph Smith. What a privilege it has been to teach him. Also cool thing- he told us last week that he had been taught by elders about 10 years ago. WHAT! We never knew that. There really is a right time for everyone to accept the gospel. If they choose to. But The Lord really provides a way. 

Me and my companion have just been having more and more fun. She is literally hilarious. One of my favorite things she has said to me was this last week. We had already finished planning, it was about 9 pm and she made some eggs and rice. So she said- come eat! the food's ready. I told her I was too tired that I was just going to go to bed. She says in one of those annoying mom tones- "hey- come eat this food. If you don't eat it now, you are going to be hungry in 20 minutes and eat it then. Then you'll have to waste time and re-heat it because you're too mayaman (rich/spoiled) to eat cold food. And if you don't eat, you won't be able to sleep. So come eat it right now!" I seriously laughed so hard. haha! She knows me all too well. 

This week I kinda hit a breaking point. On saturday, ALL our speakers for the baptism fell through and like basically the whole program. That morning i was reading in PMG about being effective with time and planning. So of course I was questioning everything we had decided and planned for the coming week. Anyway so I totally lost it and started crying as I was explaining to my companion what i was thinking. classic. She is the best. She kinda laughed a little and said to quit worrying so much. That it would all work out. So we re-did some weekly planning and wrote a list of solutions for my problems. Literally solving the problems we have in life is so simple. We need to pray and ask for direction, study it out in our mind (come up with solutions and DO them) then seek approval from The Lord for our choices. As we live the gospel, He will provide the comfort and direction we need. I really believe that. 

Have a great week!

Love

Sister Gaspar de Alba

ps- I hit my 9 months last week! pss- Birthday shout out to my little (big) bro for turning the big 1! LOVE YOU!

Me and President!

happy pina fiesta! literally ate the best buko salad ever

i love this country!

best part of the week!

which one of us is the filipina? ME. my comp spent 32 pesos on a gatorade bottle and i spent 20 pesos and bought 2 gatorades in a plastic bag. (it's cheaper) who's mayaman now!