Called to Serve: God really does answer prayers.

Oh where to even start! It is SO beautiful here . . .

. . . And I LOVE it here so much!!!

This week my mind has been blown time and time again as we have seen miracle after miracle which has left me knowing without a doubt that God really does answer prayers, the atonement is real and all good things come to those who wait.

So last week, I really felt that I came to the realization of how much I love missionary work.

But in addition to that, I also felt a deep-set depression when one of our awesome investigators--and one of the most amazing people I have met since starting the mission--started hiding from us after we came over and saw him drinking one afternoon.

We had only met him recently, but from his past experiences at church and from reading the Book of Mormon, he has already come to a solid knowledge that this message is true and has been working REALLY hard to overcome his word of wisdom issues so that he can reach his baptismal date.

From what I have seen since starting the mission, it is normal for people to occasionally relapse as they fight their own personal battle to come unto Christ and "be perfected in Him". But the amazing thing about this Gospel, is that no matter how many times we relapse, mess up, or sin, the ATONEMENT of JESUS CHRIST is ALWAYS there to help us change for the better.

After seeing our dear investigator drinking, this is what I wanted to shout out to him so that he would know we would NEVER look down on him or judge him for making a mistake. The problem however, is that he was hiding from us! So we couldn't!

I just remember feeling so crushed when that happened! It just didn't make sense to me that someone so prepared could fall off the map so quickly! And this investigator had become so special to us.

I just remember after that, pouring our my heart in prayer every day, begging Heavenly Father to help us know what to do. We fasted, prayed, sent inspirational texts, and even left a note and drawing of Jesus Christ that I made to let him know how much we care for him.

Part of me wondered why this was happening to me? The other part wondered if this is what it would feel like to watch someone very close to me fall away from the church.

Either way, after a final and desperate attempt to get an answer from Heavenly Father as to if this investigator would ever listen again, I opened my scriptures only to have them fall right open to the Bible Dictionary, and the only thing marked on that page was the definition of FAITH.

As I read that definition, warmth and comfort flooded my soul, and I felt that everything would work out for the best. Over the next few days, I had to return to that page many times to find comfort.

After that, a few days later, we made our investigator's brother (who we are also teaching) let us come over and pull out all the massive weeds in their yard.

Once again, our awesome investigator hid from us.

We ended up going home after a few hours with more splinters that I could count, feeling so happy with what we had been able to do for them but also so sad that our investigator was continuing to hide.

As we went home, I asked Sister Habla for the millionth time: "Do you think he will ever listen again?"

Well... as I said earlier, God really does answer prayers (and in the most mysterious ways) because when we dropped by our investigator's home later that night, I was overfilled with joy as our investigator FINALLY came out (after over a week) to thank us for our service project.

Just that simple thank you made every single splinter worth it, and helped me to see just how POWERFUL service can be.

I almost couldn't hold back tears of joy and was reminded once again of HOW MUCH I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK

and why I am here . . .

. . . and couldn't help but think of the verse in Luke 15:7 which reads "likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth" or over one dearly beloved son of daughter of our Heavenly father who was lost, which is now found.

That being said, if I have one regret from this entire experience, it is that I ever doubted that God really would answer my prayers. Nevertheless, I am so grateful for this amazing miracle he has given us which has only served to strengthen my faith that He is REALLY listening to us, and that he REALLY will keep His promise to answer our prayers.

I have seen that time and time again throughout the mission, especially here in Iriga, which has grown to be one of my favorite areas.

I remember a few weeks after getting here, feeling so accomplished when we finally managed to have 7 investigators come to church (and we brought about 5 of them). This week however, my joy was tripled when we managed to have 12! And we only needed to go and get 2!

Besides that, life as usual has been good.

I officially dislike AC (which makes a room WAY too cold... and makes my nose hurt), snail has definitely become one of my favorite foods since getting here, and I am gradually growing to love basketball (which seems to be the favorite sport here in the Philippines). In one of our barangay's (which is kind of like a neighborhood), they are having a basketball tournament between all the different zones in the barangay, which has been fun for some of our investigators to participate in.

Anyways, there is so much more that has happened, but never enough time to write it all! Ha ha!