Half Way Point

Another week gone and past and we are still working hard!  This past week I really think I have slimmed down and am now darker than some of the Filipinos! Even though I have the WORST farmers tan! It's funny because here I actually still look pretty white compared to everyone else, but I'm sure I will go home and be the darkest person in the family.

It's weird because the time here seems to be going especially fast these past few weeks. I remember looking at the calendar the other day when I realized I am almost half-way done with my mission, I was shocked! It made me realize that I need to start working harder as I work my way towards the final stretch, I don't want to waste a single second! If nothing else, I guess I'm definitely here to stay now. There's no looking back, so I guess I just need to keep moving forward. 

Sister Raneses is such an awesome companion! We just seem to get along and she is so easy to be around. Everyday, I see her putting in her best effort and doing her best to adjust which has made it really easy for us to start working as a team. One thing is for sure, it is definitely nice to have a Filipina companion again... NO MORE LANGUAGE BARRIER!  She relates to everyone so well. Sister Raneses has only been here two weeks, yet all our investigators already absolutely love her! She is an awesome missionary, companion, and friend.

So it has been a pretty normal week of work... I killed some some cockroaches, killed some giant spiders, and am in the process of learning to cook! 

Let me just say, I am AWESOME at cooking rice now and my adobe tastes great! Also, it has started to rain more often here, which means it isn't quite so hot out any more. Man I love the rain!

As usual, we have been teaching a lot of awesome people.

After the baptism of Ferdinand last week for example, his wife has been opening up to us a lot more. I remember in particular when we went over the other day and she opened up to us, crying and thanking us for everything. She said that at Ferdinad's baptism, she had felt... weird. She said she couldn't describe it, but she had felt really happy while all the speakers were talking and it almost made her want to cry. We told her that was the Holy Ghost she was feeling and that one of the blessings of baptism is that we are able to have that feeling all the time if we are worthy.

There have been times this week when I have been so tired, I didn't think I could go on. And without Sister Black and her never-ending diligence/energy for me to rely on, it has been... different. In some ways, I have had to step up a lot more. I think I have been a lot happier because of it. I know one thing I have learned is that it doesn't really matter how I might be feeling because we do not serve a mission for our own needs, we are here for others. Which means we must learn to put our own needs aside.

I have seen that as we have done that, we have experienced more miracles in the mission and I have really felt my faith and testimony grow. For example, I know that God will answer our prayers, even for the smallest things.

The other day, I was studying when all I could think was how nice it would be to have a doughnut. In our neighborhood, there are a lot of people who walk through the streets shouting out their different goods for sale. In particular, there is one guy who walks down our street sometimes yelling out "donuts! DOONUUT!!" selling just about the tastiest doughnuts in the whole world!

Anyways, I remember wanting one of those doughnuts so bad that I actually said a little prayer that the doughnut man would come to our house that day. The day continued and still no doughnut. But around lunch time, Sister Marino and Sister Tu'i got home for lunch and I was surprised to see that they had bought some doughnuts! Immediately, Sister Tu'i said that see was too full to eat hers and handed me a doughnut, and a few minutes later, Sister Marino handed me one as well.

I was shocked! And immediately thought of the little prayer I had said earlier that day, the prayer I had just received an answer to. I think that experience really helped my testimony of prayer to grow. 

Besides that, so much has happened... as usual. I remember going into one of our investigators bathroom the other day only to find about 30 cockroaches running all over the place and dying. Apparently he had just used raid. 

And I even got to call Sister Black the other night to see if she had the receipt for our electric bill! It was so nice to talk to her for a few minutes and it sounds like she is doing awesome in Goa (my last area)! I am so happy that she has gotten to meet my recent converts there and that they all seem to be doing well.

~Sister Black with her new companion, Sister Baga~

Of course I miss Sister Black, but to be honest I am so grateful to be Sister Raneses's companion now. I am learning a lot from her. I know I am not always the best companion, but I am really trying hard to do my best. I know that if we continue to work hard together, we are going to have an awesome transfer!

For now though, I guess I will just say that I love being a missionary. I am so happy here and ready for another great week to come. Until then, I wish you all the best... and as usual, the best week ever. Let's make this week better than the last.

Sincerely,

Sister Matheny

"Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified" - Psalms 40:16

A week full of love, effort, and doing our best!

Well let me just say, it has been one crazy/busy week. I thought I was busy before, turns out I was wrong because with training it feels like things just got twice as busy.

So ya, I started training this week, and it has been one heck of a ride. I remember when I got the news I would train last Sunday I was so freaked out that I actually had a nightmare about it.  As it got closer to Wednesday, I had more and more mixed emotions. I figured that even though I was nervous, if President trusted me to train a new missionary, I would do my best and let the Lord make up the rest. 

I think the nicest part about preparing to train is that I got to eat at the mission home a couple of times, and the food was SOOOOO good! We got to eat there once for our training and again the day we met our new companion.  Another great thing about it was getting to see Sister Villa again (she was my trainer!)

~Me & Sister Villa~

Let me say, we were all waiting at the mission home (everyone that would train) for the new missionaries to come. When the AP announced that they were here, I got this huge nervous lump in my stomach and I could hardly sit still as we waited for them to come in. When the two new sisters came in, I just remember my first thought being "they are really pretty" and then we all got to eat.

I was feeling pretty anticipated up until the moment the new companionship were announced and I found out that my new companion would be SISTER RANESES! 

It's the weirdest thing because as soon as they announced that, I felt all the nerves drain out of me, it just felt right.

Since then, Sister Raneses and I have has SOOOOOO much fun! I LOVE that girl! She is an awesome companion and a very hard worker... to be honest, I feel like I will probably end up learning more from her that she will from me. She is so easy going, nice, smiley and always says hi to everyone!

Like I said before, training has been super busy. My whole mission so far, I haven't really learned how to cook Filipino food yet (sad to say). In Goa, Sister Jimenez...

...always cooked nice food for me and when Sister Black and I were companions, we just ate at a lot of tindahans outside...

 ...so I was super freaked out when I heard I would be training because I feel like it is kind of a trainers responsibility to cook for her new companion.

So since Sister Raneses has been here, I have been trying my best to cook for her...

 ...be more clean, and work harder. We also started jogging together every morning for exercise, which I hadn't realized how much I missed.

Besides that, since Sister Raneses has gotten here, I have definitely been speaking more Tagalog--since she is Philippina--which is really nice. I feel like my language skills are getting a lot better, especially with her help.

So all in all, I guess training is not anything like I expected. It is a lot more fun and requires a lot more work than anything else. For me, I remember the hardest part of adjusting to missionary life was missing my friends, family, and luxuries back home. I remember times when I would lie there after a long day of work and think "man, it would be nice to have a milkshake right now" or "I wish I could just watch a nice movie to blow off some stress." Other times, I remember just wanting a hug from my mom.

In the end, I think what ultimately helped overcome some of those feelings was #1 my family. 

I didn't want to come home early because I wanted to set a good example for my siblings 

(they were my strength and motivation through the hardest parts of adjusting) so that if they ever decided to serve a mission, they would feel more encouraged to keep persevering when things got rough. And #2, the people. I think that loving the people you serve is probably the most important thing you need to do while on a mission.

To love everyone and do your best to help them reach their full potential.

For Sister Raneses, I don't think that loving everyone will be a problem, she has a really big heart and a strong desire to help everyone, which I really admire. And she always gives hugs to EVERYONE (if they are a girl), which is something I have not been very good at.

Anyways, I think we are going to have a lot of fun together this tranfer. Just in this past week, we have had 2 baptisms...

...and 9 investigators at church, some of whom it was their first time. And with transfers and all, we didn't even get a full week of work! So I am excited to see what we can do with a full week full of love, effort, and doing our best everyday.

I love you all and hope you have the best week ever. Just remember, if anything hard or challenging happens in life, I know we can always make it good. Just do your best and always trust that the Lord will help you along the way. He loves us very much, we are His children and He will never lead us astray.

Until next week,

Sister Matheny 

Keep trying. Keep working. Keep loving. Keep going.

Oh my goodness! How the week has flown! It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in a sketchy little computer shop, surrounded by teenage boys playing world of Warcraft, an electric fan in the background and a plate of food in hand (since we always use Nanay Cea's internet shop. She in a member in our ward and she ALWAYS feeds us) writing about how much I love it here and how the time seems to be going too fast.

~Nanay Cea & I at her computer shop~ 
Well, I still love it here and it seems like every day the time only speeds up! Especially with Sister Black and my new goal to work twice as hard this past week, which really ended up paying off.

With this being the last week of our transfer, Sister Black and I wanted to end with a bang! Just in case we had a transfer within our companionship, because we wanted to make the most of the time we might have left and now, I am really happy we did.

 Last night, we got a call from the Zone Leaders announcing that Sister Black will transfer... to GOA!!! TO MY LAST AREA!!!! When I heard, I was so excited that I couldn't keep from shouting for joy, which kind of surprised me because I am not really a "shout for joy" kind of person. But what freaked me out even more was when the zone leaders gave me the news that this upcoming transfer, I WILL BE TRAINING!

To be honest, when I got all that news I really wasn't quite sure how to feel. Stressed, freaked out, inadequate, scared, and nervous. But above all, determined to do my best. I'm not quite sure what training is going to be like but I know that me and my new companion are going to have to learn to lean on the Lord every step of the way.

I am going to miss Sister Black SOOO very much!

I feel like the longer we have been together, the more I have come to look up to, admire, respect, and really love her. I am so grateful to have been her companion and have learned so much from her. To be honest, I think I really needed her these past few transfers. Like I have said before, she is one of the hardest workers I have ever met and everyone she meets absolutely adores her! I know this area will miss her a ton but I also know that she will do tons of good in Goa.

This week, we saw a lot of miracles in our area. I felt the spirit guiding us in each and every lesson and felt the spirit of discernment stronger than ever telling us where we should and should not go. To be honest, there were days this week that were really rough. Sister Black and I weren't feeling our best every day and I know we were both lacking sleep so as Sunday came around and we were still full of energy and ready to go, I asked myself why? 

Usually, after a long week of work I am READY for P-day by the time Sunday rolls around, so why was it different this week? Why were we still so full of energy, especially when we hadn't been feeling 100% this past week?

As I sat thinking about that question, I realized that it was all in our attitudes. This week, Sister Black and I really did make it a goal to put in our best effort and do everything we could to help our area to progress, even when we weren't feeling our best. After thinking about that, I realized that this is the key: just to work hard, no matter what.

God has promised that as long as we are diligent in doing HIS work, we will be able to run and not faint, walk and not be weary. If we are doing our best, we will not have to worry about running out of strength because the Lord will provide for us every step of the way. I know that is true.

There have been so many times where I have not felt like working or felt too tired to go on but I forced myself to because we hadn't put in a full day of work yet. I have noticed that it is days like these that we generally find the most success if we keep persevering. As Ukdorf and some of the other apostles have said: it is always at the last door that you find success, because it is not until that point that we are able to show God that we care enough to be entrusted with teaching one of his precious children the sacred message of the gospel. 

I know that God is there. He loves us. He will never desert us and He always knows what is best for us. Everyday, I am so amazed by how much He does for me, especially when I cry out to Him for help.

I am so full of mixed emotions and anticipation for this upcoming transfer, but I know God has a plan and that he trusts me and Sister Black to do our best. So that is what we will do. Keep trying. Keep working. Keep loving. Keep going. Even when things are hard, because if we just try our best I know that everything will work out in the end. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sincerely,

Sister Matheny

Obedience Brings Miracles

What a week! Sister Black and I just finished the 5th week of the transfer and I can't believe how fast it has gone! We were doing weekly planning last Thursday and I just remember my eyes getting all wide when I realized we were already planning for week six. Ahhh! The time has just gone too fast! I wish I had a pause button or something here so I could have a minute to catch my breath... because the time seems to just be slipping through my fingers.

So this week, my big focus has been on obedience. Since I have been here, I have been doing my best to be an exactly obedient missionary, and for the most part, I thing I'm doing pretty good. It's just some of the little things, like working out every morning, or going to bed on time that I sometimes feel myself slipping up on just a little bit. I remember hearing that if you want to see miracles in the mission, you have to be EXACTLY OBEDIENT, and so I decided I would try.

 Of course, I am not perfect and there are TONS of things I could be doing WAY better, but this week I really tried my best to be more obedient and I think it actually helped. 

We had zone conference this week,

  and to be honest, that gave me more motivation to try even harder, especially after Sister Zapanta's address to us.

Before I go on, I think I just need to take a minute to say how awesome Sister Zapanta is. I honestly don't know how she does it! But she is a POWERFUL woman! As she stood talking to all of us, I think everyone's full attention was on her (I'm not sure... I was too focused to tell) as she gave a powerful talk about how when we choose to come on a mission, we choose to sign ourselves and our agency over to the Lord. So we no longer have the agency to sleep in, watch movies, sit around or do whatever else we might want to. We HAVE to do the will of the Lord.

After that, I felt her overwhelming love for all of us as she said that her and president Zapanta would always be there to help us and I just remember thinking "one day I want to be like Sister Zapanta... She's awesome." Since then, every time I have been feeling lazy,

 or had trouble finding energy to do the little things, I have tried to remind myself of what Sister Zapanta said and it seems to have helped.

Since then, we have seen a lot of miracles this week, and I have just been so grateful. We have a lot of investigators and I have really wanted to do my best to help them and this week, I feel like we have. I think out of all our lessons this week, the one that stood out the most was yesterday with one of the families we have been teaching.

Yesterday was fast Sunday... which I always dread because I LOVE FOOD! But when we do our best to really fast instead of just waiting to be able to eat again, we always seem to see miracles in the work, and yesterday I think we did.

So this family has so much potential! They have been coming to church almost every week, reading the Book of Mormon and praying... but they have been struggling to develop a strong testimony and we can't seem to figure out why! I have been praying a lot for them and how we can help them and last night, some of those prayers were answered.

I think part of one of the daughters of this family (Joyce) is that she reads but never actually things about what she is reading, so she doesn't get anything out of it. So we thought that it might be a good idea to have her try the idea that the zone leader's shared at zone conference: write down a question and as she is reading the Book of Mormon, have her look for and write down the answer. The only problem was getting her to ask a question.

I was thinking about how we could do that the whole lesson until at the end, Joyce suddenly asked how the Book of Mormon was supposed to benefit her. Sister Black and I both has a big smile on our face and sister Black shared a powerful testimony about some of the ways the Book of Mormon had helped her. As she was speaking, the spirit was very strong, and one of her personal stories made me think that maybe we should have Joyce try opening the Book of Mormon to a random page and have her read that chapter to find an answer.

So as Sister Black finished her testimony, we had Joyce go get her Book of Mormon and open it. At first, I wondered if that was a good idea... because she might end up with a completely random chapter about war or something, but we just followed the feeling and were surprised when the Book naturally fell open to Alma chapter 42, because the corner of that page had been turned down. 

At first I was confused why the corner had been turned down to such a perfect chapter to answer her question, because Joyce had only read to Ether, and had not gotten to Alma yet, when suddenly remembrance flooded my mind.

I remembered the first time we met this family. They were all sad and crying because of the recent and unexpected death of their mother, which was very painful to see. I remember that at that time, Sister Black had felt prompted to share a scripture verse from Alma 41 with them. After sharing the verse, we decided to five them the Book of Mormon. Before handing over the book, I just remember having a very strong prompting to turn down the corner of that page. I figured just so that they could find the verse again, so quietly, I did so before handing over the book.

I had totally forgotten about that experience until yesterday when Joyce opened the Book of Mormon and it opened to exactly that page with the corner turned down. I was so surprised and shocked, but more than anything I felt the spirit overwhelmingly strong that Alma 42 was right. That she needed to read it. I know that if the whole family will read that chapter, they will find the answers to the questions they are looking for.

As I look back through my journal from this week, I see experience after experience like this one and I wish I had time to share them all! One thing is for sure, we definitely saw a lot of miracles this week, it was amazing! It's especially crazy how when you keep a journal, you can really look back and see the Lord's hand guiding you the whole way.

 For me, I have never been an avid journal keeper and sometimes, it has actually been really hard for me to keep it updated. But like the parable in Matthew 25 about the "talents", I know that if we don't treasure up our memories by writing them down,

then we will lose those special experiences that we have gained.

  And that is why it is so important to keep a journal.

 I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Sincerely, Sister Matheny

P.S. DON'T EVER FORGET HOW MUCH YOUR SAVIOR LOVES YOU!