surprise visit and balotapaloza

Week 24

This Week was PERFECT. But really- we had a great week. We had lots of miracles. Lots. I also hit 7 months this week...weird. Me and my comp had some solid heart to hearts this week and we reached almost all of our key indicator goals. YES. We also got a surprise visit from president Peterson at church yesterday which was literally the highlight of my week. I love him!

OH yeah. I ate balot this week! Well...I tried to. The video is hilariousm actually. Me and Sister hopkins were eating it first. So you have to crack open the egg, drink the juice which is like blood tasting then crack it all open and eat this baby duck who totally has feathers. I just kept telling myself to man up and eat it! So i stuffed the whole thing in my mouth and started chewing. Then gagging. I could not swallow it! Then i spit half of it out to see if that would work better...nope. still couldn't choke it down. So i tried to put it all back in my mouth which was a third fail. Then I tried eating it little by little but you can't really take that thing appart. The flavor wasn't as bad as i thought but man...that texture is WEIRD. I will win, baby duck. Some day. 

Okay so just one cool story this week. We got a new training plan that is all about helping our investigators attend sacrament meeting. Which is perfect- exactly what we all need! So those 2 people who came to church last week are now our investigators and they came to church again yesterday. WITH their families(: We had some amazing lessons with them. One of them- Sister Gloria has a son who is a teenager. When we taught them together he was super engaged and really felt The Spirit in the lesson. Then he totally lit up when we commited him to baptism. We asked him to give the closing prayer and he gave the most beautiful prayer. He prayed about The Book of Mormon and about what we had taught them about the plan of salvation. He also prayed about his baptism and he sounded so sincere and grateful. He said: Thank you for all this that i've learned, please help me and my mom to be baptized on april 12th and to be able to eventually go to the temple to be together forever. I literally started crying. We had taught him ONE lesson. One! They came to church yesterday and had a wonderful experience. He was very curious about passing and blessing the sacrament since he's priest-age. I just loved that experience. I love those two. OH! other cool thing...they could be baptized on april 5th and thats the date we planned to commit them to. Then when my companion was commiting them to baptism she paused before the date. And I said april 12th. so we are both like wait what? Then she starts crying and says: Sisters, that's my 59th birthday. You have given me the opportunity to be re-born on my birthday. Thank you so much. It was the coolest thing.

I loved this week. Every I just woke up so happy! And we had such a great week with our investigators. We had 6 come to church last week. That's 5 more than have come in the last 4 weeks! The bishop and everyone was so excited. Our Gospel Principles class was overfilled. Between that and President Peterson speaking my ward is super excited about missionary work. This happiness that I feel from bringing people the gospel is unlike any kind I have ever felt before. I feel like it's so much more rewarding. My love for my Savior has grown so much deeper as I have been able to see and feel a tiny bit of His love for the people in the philippines.

Love, Sister Gaspar de Alba

on our way home from the best sunday ever

made my comp a delicious papaya shake! (just like my dad)

my chewed up balot. sick, i know. can you see the feathers?!

cockroach,  they are super ugly here.

Week 23 (cue Twilight Zone music)

No wonder this week was so crazy- it's week 23. Lots of new adventures this week. The most interesting one was that me and my companion spoke at the funeral of a member of our ward. We went on exchanges this week and I got to learn from one of my closest friends, and one of the best sister missionaries here. We also did some more ukay-ukay shopping last p-day and found some killer deals on clothes from old navy from the 90's. Sweet.

First: exchanges. I LOVE exchanges. My companion was so nervous for her first one and I was actually pretty nervous too. The sister I went with is very no no nonsense. She tells it to me like it is, and always pushes me to work harder in every aspect of missionary work. The biggest thing I learned from her was to give a little more. In everything I do, just push a little farther. Especially when I am tired or when I think I have done my best. I have really been focusing on that the last few days and have really felt a difference in my outlook. Especially with this last week where it seemed like all of our golden investigators had huge trials hit them. I am so mentally and emotionally exhausted. But I feel like I am getting there. I have felt a stronger influence of The Spirit directing me and my companion in lessons. We have been able to really help and uplift our investigators despite all the the things they are going through. I am so grateful to be continually learning that I can always give more than I think. Because I need to be always giving my all to The Lord and His work.

We have a new investigator we taught on Tuesday for the first time. She is SO prepared! Seriously. She had a lot of concerns so we went into our second lesson a little unsure of how it would go. But it was such an amazing experience. She had read up to chapter 11 in 1st Nephi in like 3 days. And she had an amazing experience with praying to know if The Book of Mormon was true. Her eyes fill with tears every time we bring up The Book of Mormon. Yesterday we got to teach more of her family. She is so excited to be baptized with them all in April. Right now we are focusing on getting her husband to lessons.

Yesterday we had a cool experience at church. We have really struggled with getting investigators to church so we really prepared this sunday to pick people up and make sure they all felt welcome. So we have been praying and praying and praying! And then we go to church, and we brought one of our investigators. And we waited. And waited. No one came! Ugh...so sad. Heartbreaking. So I was totally bummed. Come to find out after church starts that 3 members brought friends to introduce to us and 1 lady just randomly shows up who has a member friend in my old area! WHAT. I know. Coolest answer. Even though our investigators did not come, we were able to meet and set appointments with some other people. One of the sisters who we sat by told me: Sister Gaspar, what is this feeling? I feel like this is the truth. I was like umm yes. You are ready to be baptized. We were so blessed with finding opportunities yesterday.

Last: The Funeral. So funerals here are really different, especially since everyone is super catholic. The keep the bodies of their deceased family members in their homes for a full week after they have passed away. And there's like a special shrine for them with flowers and pictures and many many crosses. The bishop asked my companion and I to give a talk about the plan of salvation since only 1 of this man's 7 grown children was a member of the church. My companion gave the most beautiful talk about Heavenly Father's plan for us. All of his kids eyes filled with tears when she spoke. Her mom passed away about 10 years ago, and she shared the things she has done in her life to be able to live with her again. She is the perfect example of being bold with love. She really brought the Spirit. We were able to sit and make appointments with some of them.

Have a great week all!

-Sister Gaspar de Alba

Sister Asuncion saved her last exchange for ME! I love her so much. She goes home tomorrow. We had such a blast together, and really good talks. You know someone's a good friend when they are always pushing you to reach your potential, even if you don't think you can. That's who she is for me. 

me and my anak washing our Bishop's curtains. We loved being able to serve their family. Plus all of their neighbors good a good laugh at me hand washing clothes. I'm to the point where it hurts a little that they don't think I know how to do it right.

walking to the funeral of one of our members. about a mile of this- one foot in front of the other. so fun!

me and a sister who was recently baptized. her sister in san antonio knows my aunt cynthia! small world, right?!

Week 22 - Go Bold or Go Home

Week 22

This week was my bold week. Pretty sure I will remember this exact week for the rest of my life! We are officially 5 weeks into training and I can't believe it. The mission is seriously the weirdest emotional roller coaster. We had such amazing experiences this week and some really hard ones. Shout out to my favorite elder a few hours north who just got promoted to zone leader!

Okay so first for the boldness explanation: We had training check-up for my anak on thursday and President Peterson really put things in perspective for us. Basically every less-active member here has been offended. Which makes up 80% of the members in the philippines. it's kind of a cultural thing. So anyway, this week we went to see a sister who had been a fully active member of the church for a LONG time. Then she was offended and has not been to church in a year. We began the lesson talking about forgiveness but it kinda went more into repentance. She told us: Sisters, I know what repentance is. I do it every day. Don't teach me about these things I need to do. So it was silent for a while. And I realized it- everything all at once. How frustrating must it be for the people that care about us to see us making the same mistakes over and over. When they know they can help us but we won't listen. I realized how responsible we will be held for our blatant disobedience to God's commandments. And how sad He must be to see some of the decisions we make when we know better. So I looked her straight in the eyes and sad: Of course you know about  repentance.You are a member of the church. What we want to share with you is how that process cleanses us. That is by partaking of the sacrament. But we can't do that unless we go to church. So we cannot fully repent or continue to keep our covenants we made with God at baptism if we do not take the sacrament. We left that lesson and I was kinda shook up. I questioned if that was the right thing to say, or if it was even right at all. But me and my companion felt okay about it and so did that sister. I had like 3 experiences like that this week!

We got some really hard news about our investigator who was supposed to be baptized in 2 weeks. We found out yesterday that she is no longer able to be baptized. We were SO sad for her. I really love her and I have seen her life changing so much for the better. I couldn't stop thinking about her all day yesterday and I got kinda discouraged. So I'm in Alma right now and today I read Alma 17. LOVE it. It answered every concern I had about my job as a missionary and how I should measure my success. By how committed I am to The Lord and His work. It was the perfect answer to my prayers. (:

My ward is amazing and had a family home evening yesterday with an investigator family of ours. They were a referral from a less-active sister who has been coming back to church. Missionary Work is such a powerful way to help people remember their testimonies. Kinda like us missionaries. We realized how converted we are when we share the gospel with others. It was such a blessing to see and hear the testimonies of this less-active family to their friends. The Spirit was so strong. The less active brother invited his friend to church before we could even say anything! He committed to come back to church finally and bring his friend. SO awesome.

Okay have a good week all! Love

-Sister Gaspar de Alba

 

the calauan sisters! 

me and my nanay- rockin the prints. didn't even plan it. it was SO good to catch up with her on thursday! i miss her tons.

the wildlife of calauan: a caribou. i think

my view every day! my companion is so adorable. she just giggles all day at everything! she's like 4'11 i think. 

found some sweet new sister missionary attire hidden in a box under a shelf in our house. defs wearing this to our next zone conference