So first off, thank you SO much for worrying about me but more importantly praying for the people here in the Philippines. I honestly can't think about it too much because my heart aches so bad. I can't believe how serious it was. Here is an update from our mission president:
Elders and Sisters,
As many of you have asked, I wanted to inform all of you of the circumstances surrounding the Super Typhoon affecting the Tacloban Mission. Here are some of the facts that you should know:
- All of the Missionaries have been found and are safe and accounted for. As far as we know, all of the families of the missionaries serving in the Cauayan Mission who are from that area are safe, although many have lost their homes and belongings.
- The Tacloban Mission has been closed. All of the missionaries have been evacuated to Manila and treated for wounds and illnessed caused by the typhoon.
- All of the missionaries from the Tacloban Mission have been reassigned to 11 of the 21 other Missions in the Philippines. To make room for all of the reassignments, many missionaries who were in the 11 Missions that took in Missionaries who were going home in the next two months have been asked to go home early, and are now home or on their way home.
- The Cauayan Mission was not asked to receive any of the reassigned missionaries from the Tacloban Mission, I assume because of distance and the fact that those missionaries spoke Cebuano, not Tagalog.
- The Tacloban Mission home was flooded and damaged during the typhoon and storm surge but will now be quickly cleaned, repaired, and used for a command center for disaster relief operations for the members and communities in the mission.
- A total of 43 Church buildings were damaged by the storm in that area, 12 with major damage and 31 with minor damage.
- Seven trucks with supplies for members have reached stakes and districts in the Tacloban area. Tens of Thousands of food boxes and hygiene kits have been prepared by church members and and sent to those effected.
So we are super blessed here in our mission, we have just had rain every day and it's been cold (haha, cold. more like st. george october weather, but i love it so much).
So besides the fact that the country I love so much has been washed out, this week rocked. We had splits with the sister training leaders, and I have to say that splits really are inspired by the Lord. It's SO good to see how other people teach, how other people interact, and the best part was I got to split with Sister Stabenow, who is American. I was able to see an American... be a misisonary in the Philippines. I was able to see where I can be if I keep doing the things I am doing. It was such a good experience and I learned SO much. she said all the right things to me and literally, I recieved a lot of answers to my prayers.
Our branch is growing closer and this week rocked. We had some FHE's with some less active families, accompanied by the branch pres and wife, relief pres, EQ pres, and other auxiliary leaders. FHE's are SO fun and don't worry..nothing's changed- I still LOVE making people laugh :) I am getting way better at teaching and explaining myself in tagalog, I understand people a lot more, and of course everyone here in the Philippines is so nice, and they all tell me how good I am in tagalog and how they literally can't believe I have only been here less than 4 months. I know that I am not that good, because some days I feel like I woke up in russia and everyone's speaking russian, not tagalog. Kinda like what happened Saturday.
... aka worst day ever. Haha, really though. I wasn't understanding ANY one it seemed like. No, it didn't just SEEM like that; I literally was lost all day. I couldn't understand anyone, no words were coming to my brain, and I literally felt so alone. I felt like a tag-a-long all day, and then I began to just feel a little angry inside. By the end of the day, I was thinking about how much I wish I was somewhere else, why in the WORLD did Heavenly Father think I was needed here, and what a waste this was. I went to bed saturday night and was just PRAYING to be forgiven of this day and to have my heart changed. Sunday I woke up, and remembered, sweet. Today is the 3rd sunday and the missionaries are to speak. Awesome. It's my turn and i haven't prepared. So I go to church, just thinking, alright I wasn't called here to fail or ruin everything, so i just tried to embrace it. I am playing violin for the primary program, and the little kids are just loving me while we practice first hour of the block, and i hear them singing the words I am a Child of God, and I felt so comforted. Answer to prayer. Then, we go to gospel principles, and we are talking about prophets. The teacher asked me if I've ever had a testifying experience of living day prophets; ha, have I ever! Me being a mission! So I explained that I was there when the announcement was made I was at the conference center. I knew that he was saying the words the Lord instructed him to say. I bore testimony of my calling here as a missionary and that I left behind a lot of things but that from being here, so many of my unanswered prayers that i've had for years, are being answered. The spirit confirmed that I am in the right place right now. Answer to prayer. I then was asked to explain the importance of goal setting to the youth during their lesson. I explained that as missionaries how we make so many goals for people, ourselves, and for the language. I explained that even though my grammar isn't perfect, I just have to speak the language. After i talked to them, i realized that i really sound just fine in the language, and that my goal setting really has been working. Answer to prayer. I then spoke in sacrament about testimony and the 5 parts to a testimony. 1Heavenly Father. 2Jesus Christ is the Savior. 3Joseph Smith restored this gospel and translated the BOM. 4We have a living prophet. 5and this is the true church. I explained that for me, I gained my testimony through church attendance. I wasn't a convert, so I didn't have that experience of learning everything new, it was always just kind of with me. I explained that this Saturday was such a hard day for me and that I couldn't understand anyone. I felt so useless. But as I prayerfully prepared for Sunday and the sacrament, all of my prayers were answered.
Personal Revelation comes through church attendance. That is truth. It also comes through prayer, and through reading the Book of Mormon. I explained that Heavenly Father knows that because we are kind of doubtful people, he had to give us more than one way to gain a testimony and recieve answers to prayers. He gave us the book of mormon, prayer, and our church meetings.
This sunday was very sacred for me. We have taken the advice from Elder Neilson about less active work; he said, "stop asking them to come to church, and start telling them you want to re teach them all the missionary lessons. why would they want to come to a church they don't even have a testimony in anymore?" It has been sooo effective.
I saw so many of our less actives pondering during the sacrament as I was sitting on the stand, in particular, one boy Michael. He has a burning desire to serve a mission, he's 22, and him and his family of 11 are just returning to church. We have been working with them since I first got here, and missionaries before then too, for years. We have guided them in seeing the fire of the book of mormon. Their family is changing. During the sacrament, I saw brother michael praying so sincerely. I honestly just began to tear up. I looked around and saw all the people i have come to know, visited, helped, cried with, loved, prayed for, everything. I saw them all with such potential. As i took the sacrament, I really was forgiven for what happened the day before. I was "turning inward" instead of "turning outward like Christ" as Elder Bednar says in his talk about Christ.
This is the true church. I love my life right now, and the Lord really does give me strength every day. I skimmed through my journal this morning and I think every journal entry that I wrote in the morning said "Honestly, I don'tknow if I can make it through the day today. I know I said that yesterday and I made it, but today I am so exhausted." Hahahah.
With so much love,
Sister Abbey Hafen
Hahaha, at our zone meeting.
I LOVE HER. Me and S. Obnias!
Me and S. Obnias!
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