Abbey in the Philippines: Sister Abbey Hafen // Week Sixty-Eight // "Hi Clyde!"

This week... was so good!!! We literally had such a great week. We have been just in a really low groove lately, nothing has been working out, and everything we've been doing has seemed like it hasn't helped a bit- and that's the worst feeling ever! Feeling just like you are failing in being a servant of the Lord.. such a hard feeling to describe.

But this week.. we feel like we really saw the fruits start to come out. We saw how maybe Heavenly Father really was seeing if we'd still keep doing what we knew we were supposed to.

and I almost feel like even more importantly, he wanted us to open OUR eyes and see the way He was helping us- the whole way.

and He was.

and it was honestly such a great week!

One cool experience of how we found our new investigator Clyde heading back one afternoon to District 3, one baranguay really close to our apartment. We had stopped going there often because we literally ended up just walking around tracting for hours, setting return appointments, and then no progressing investigators came out of it. It was so redundant, and we were sick of it! Our other investigators there stopped progressing as well, so we kind of left it for a little.

We had a Dist meeting on how to improve our tracting, working with members, etc a while back, and that really inspired us to go back there and find those souls He was preparing for us. We went back, tracted, found some really good potential investigators, had follow up appointments, taught them all several times, and then.... none of them progressed. They all have their own things going and aren't quite ready to accept the gospel. We then got frustrated again, and left that area for a little again. Then this last week or maybe last last, we decided to go back.

We went back, and recontacted some of the people we had talked to, and no one was home! hahaah. it was such a fail... so we thought :)

We were talking to one old little guy, and just getting to know him some more to see if he'd let us teach him, and as we were were talking to him, Our cute little uninterested Tatay told us the guy tieing up all the sacked up corn is intersted and wants to be taught. We thought he was for sure just messing with us, and we were just going to blow it off and not go talk to the corn sweeping guy, but for some reason i just felt like we might as well see. We go talk to him, and he just is kind of entertaining us, kind of messing with us. We set a return appointment with him (his name is ernesto), and he was just laughing. I thought, great. hahaha. another joke! ha. anyway, he then immediately pointed us over to this younger guy, who was resting in the shade from sweeping and separating the corn. We go talk to him and as we are walking over, Ernesto is just laughing and and starts speaking his own dilect so we can't understand him.

We strike up a conversation with this young guy, and find out he knows lots of our YSA in our branch. We find out that he has been to some activities in the past. He told us he wasn't studying, and we noticed his skin was so so dark, so we assumed he had stopped schooling and was just a farmer. He said we could come visit him, so we set a day. We went back that day, and he so exhausted from work and had already gone to bed. We saw his sister, and when she saw us, she invited us right in. We talked with her and her super homosexual friend Rolex (hahah, like the watch, but that's beside the point haha). We told her we'd come back the next morning at 10 am to see him. We came back... and he was waiting for us!!!!!!!! To make this long story end, we taught him, the spirit was so strong, and before we could even get through the first few minutes he asked what time church is and what he should wear. It was so cool.

After all of this... one night while sister cabada and i were talking, we realized that we were just taken for a spin in finding that new investigator. walking all around that baranguay, going from one person to the next, bearing the laughs of the people around us, and being persisent.. but then Clyde was found! We are excited for him, and he just happens to be friends with our fellowshipper who is preparing to serve a mission- perf.

I love all of you and am so happy. we had the coolest lesson in our Missionary prep class about preparing to serve by repentance. The spirit was so strong, these YSA amaze me every single day. They are so pure and I love seeing them as they get excited to serve the Lord.

Every week is so good. Every week there is something new, every week there is lesson I learn- and what I learned this week is to open my eyes to what the Lord really is doing for me every single day.

so much love,

Sister Hafen