Trust in God

As usual, it has been a very good, very busy and very fast week. I feel like we have been running around all week trying to get to appointments in with all our new investigators as well as all of our Choir practices for the performance last Saturday. So even though things have been feeling a little chaotic, that's alright! We had lots of fun and a great week, so I think that's the important part.

 This week started out with the b-day of sister Sosoter! Which ended up being really fun! We surprised her with a cake,

 took lots of pictures, 

 and some of the members brought her some spaghetti and fried  chicken, 

 so I think we ended up with a pretty good Filipino-style b-day, just add some karaoke and it would be complete.

In addition, I also started this week out a little stressed, because the Elders in our district asked us to give the workshop at our district meeting this week. To me, that sounded like a terrible idea because they are all so much more experienced than us and we always learn so much from them.  So I honestly didn't feel like we really had much to offer...

It kind of felt like that moment when you get cornered at church and are asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. In your head, you are thinking "NO WAY" but what ends up coming out is a very reluctant "okay", after which you always regret by the time you get home from church. 

That was basically my feeling about the whole workshop thing. But it actually didn't go nearly as bad as I had anticipated. 

Sister Black and I both studied the doctrine of Christ (our topic) during personal studies and were super surprised when both of us came up with nearly the same idea, it definitely made it a little clearer about what we should share.

In addition, the Elders in our district are really nice, so even though I was feeling super shy about the whole thing, it actually ended up going well. I think we all ended up getting something out of it, sister Black and I didn't crash and burn! We're still breathing so for me, I would call the workshop a success.

We taught the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, holly ghost, endure to end) but I used 3 Nephi 27:14-16 to teach that the doctrine of Christ is meant to LIFT us, so we should always be focused on lifting our investigators. We came up with a couple of acronyms:

Live

It

Find

Teach

And said that we live the gospel by fulfilling our purpose: "Inviting others to come unto Christ by HELPING them to receive the gospel..."

We had an acronym for HELP too:

Humility

Enthusiasm

Love

Pananampalataya (faith)

We focused on how each of these elements is related to the gospel and why we need to develop these attributes, it went really well!

Friday and Saturday we basically spent the entire day at choir practice since our performance was Saturday night, and I don't think I have ever sang so much in my life! (Except when I was trying to show off my mad skills to Sister Stackhouse)

I just had to keep reminding myself of what Sister Black had told me that first practice: "It will all be worth it in the end". And to be honest, I think it was. We had lots of investigators/members show up to the performance, which I think will do some good for our area. I'm really excited to go back and see what our investigators thought about the performance. I know for me, I was definitely feeling the spirit.

 Speaking of the spirit, this week I really felt it! Of course I have been blessed with many experiences since I started my mission where I have felt the spirit in a lesson: giving me words I didn't have and a greater capacity to do what the Lord has asked of me than I thought possible. But this week, the spirit felt different, it was something I had never experienced before: a small but more consistent feeling of warmth that seemed to follow us from lesson to lesson through our the week. It was amazing!

I felt so calm and peaceful and it was easier to know what to say and teach because I knew the spirit was there. For me, it was a very good experience which helped me to remember why I am here. I love serving and am so grateful to be here. Yes, some days are really hard but it is the days like the one I have had this week where despite all the chaos, I feel that calm, quiet and still peace that the spirit brings that I am the most grateful to be here.

 Making ice cream!  There are tons of little homemade ice cream carts all over the place here and so they showed us how they make the ice cream and let us help, it was super fun... even though we weren't very good at it, lol :)

  For anyone who might be struggling with a testimony or with a decision, just read the Book of Mormon and I know you will find and answer. It is true, it is the word of God and it is a Book of answers made specifically for us. No matter what our struggle, problem, addiction or question the Book of Mormon has the answer.

And when it comes down to it, just trust in God. I know he has a plan for us and as long as we are doing our best to choose the right, we will always end up exactly where we need to be.  Because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can comprehend. Not only does He love us enough that He gave his only begotten son: Jesus Christ, but he also loves us enough that he gave us our agency. He loves us enough to let us make choices, even when those choices might be wrong because He knows what we have the potential to become if we so choose. So just trust in Him, do your best and everything will work out in the end.

I love you all and hope you had a great Easter week and will have a great week to come.

Sincerely, Sister Matheny

Feelin' the Heat!

This past week, things have really been heating up here in the Philippines... literally. Now that summer is here, we are finally starting to feel it in Naga as it has gotten more and more hot/humid every day. On the bright side, I think I'm definitely going to come home with an awesome tan, a nice summer body (from all the weight I'm sweating off), and muscles of steel, because in every lesson, I have been using my gradually increasing fanning skills to fan myself and our investigators with the Japanese-style fan I bought at the super market a couple weeks ago. So overall, I think things are going pretty good here :)

I am finally getting to know my new roommates (Sister Soseter and Sister Marinio) who are both awesome! Sister Soseter and I are batch mates, so we got here at the same time and she is SO SWEET and FUNNY, we are always laughing and having a good time.

My mom asked me if I liked living in the city or the country better.  I think there are ups and downs to both and honestly, I love them both! I think there is always something nice about anywhere you live. I will say though, there are a lot of cockroaches in the city, and people don't really seem bothered by them at all... which is GROSS! At least I haven't seen any cockroaches or rats in our house, I just always have to remember to KEEP IT CLEAN!!!!

Speaking of my house, my mom has been asking for pictures of my apartment here in Naga.  I kept forgetting to take pictures but this week I remembered, so here you go!

I hope y'all like them as it's a really nice apartment and we feel super blessed to live here.

~ I added a little "bling" to my desk :) ~

These past few p-days, we have been practicing for a Choir concert at the SM this upcoming Saturday. For those of you who know me and my feelings about choir practice, or course I wasn't in the choir! For one, I really can't sing. But as soon as I moved to Naga, that all changed when I got Sister Black as a companion. She can sing and she is in the choir. Which means I had to go with her.

I was going to try and go on splits the first week we went, but Sister Zapanta convinced me to stay and try. In the end, I was happy I did because it actually ended up being pretty fun! I got to see a ton of other missionaries, including Sister Satini and her new American companion: Sister Roberts and it was actually kind of fun to sing :) And now, I get to look forward to singing at the SM this Saturday.  I'm pumped!

So enough about choir, let me talk a little bit about my week. This week has been amazing! We've worked hard, had lots of fun and got tons of new investigators.

 I've learned a lot from Sister Black and her example as well as from President Zapanta's workshop at the zone conference we had on Thursday.

To start, Sister Black got this weird rash last week that we ended up needing to go to the doctors for. At first, we thought it was just an allergic reaction to something she ate, but it kept getting worse so we finally took her to the doctor and he said she probably caught the rash from one of the kids and that it was contagious.... ya, how do you think that made me feel?! I'm her companion!!!! If it's really contagious, I would be the FIRST to catch it!

It ended up being alright though. Because of my super durable, sickness-proof, super body I didn't catch Sister Black's rash and work went on as usual. I know she wasn't feeling the best on Wednesday but Sister Black worked hard despite that and we actually ended up having a really good day of work. 

For me, it ended up being an awesome learning opportunity for me because even though Sister Black wasn't feeling well, she still worked really hard and we had a lot of success because of it. That made me realize that I want to be like that. To work hard, even if I am not having the best day or don't feel the best.

In addition, Sister Black and I both learned a lot from President Zapanta at Zone training this week. Lately, we have been trying to figure out how to get our investigators progressing and President's workshop seemed to be just what we needed. I feel like sometimes we start to feel a little buried underneath the load of reports, responsibilities, and things we need to do and it can be really easy sometimes to get lost in all of that and to forget why we came on a mission in the first place: "to help people come unto Christ".

We ended up using President's ideas as we went out to work the next day and were shocked by how much success we had. Basically, President told us that in the white handbook, it says to talk to everyone. So we should be saying hi to everyone we pass. Even if we are in a rush to get to an appointment, we should still be saying hi to everyone and if we have time and they say hi back, we should stop and talk to them. In addition, he emphasized the importance of being enthusiastic, optimistic and happy.

 Because we will be able to make a better impression and find more people if we are charismatic. Overall, it was some great advice which we have been working really hard to use over the past few days. In particular, the success we had on Saturday using President's advice really stood out to me.

The whole day, we walked around with big smiles on our faces saying hi to everyone (I'm sure some people walking by must have thought we were crazy... because when I say we talked to everyone, I literally mean EVERYONE and we found a ton of new investigators. 

In the morning, we were surprised to learn that an older lady we met standing outside had just lost her husband 2 months ago. He died of a heart attack, leaving her to work and support her 4 kids (ages 10, 14, 17 and 20). His death was unexpected and took a pretty heavy toll on their family. We shared a message about eternal families and how her family can be together through Heavenly Father's plan. And I felt my heart reach out to her and her kids. I can't even imagine how hard that would be! They would need to be so tough to endure that. But she said that she has faith and knows that Christ will help her and her family endure this trial. "After all" she said, "God will never give us a trial we can't handle". I was so amazed by the strength she was for her family.

Later that afternoon, we were walking along saying hi to everyone again when this guy inside a "tree-like" house responded, so we went up and said hi only to learn that he is 19 and already living on his own--which is kind of weird in the Philippines because they are so family oriented here. We asked him why, and he cried as he told us about his broken family. He said that his parents divorce had been really hard for him and has felt like a huge weight on his shoulders. Again, we shared about the gospel and how Christ has the ability to make our burdens light. Through His plan, families can be eternal and any problem can be fixed. Through His gospel, anyone can feel the love and peace Christ has to offer in their life. In addition, we shared the Easter initiative video (www.mormon.org) #PRINCEofPEACE with him and he said we could come back and share again this week.

The day continued with one person calling us over to ask for a Book of Mormon (we had never met him) and another wanting us to tell her how she can find peace in her life--she is always stressed because her parents are never home so she has to take on the role of "mom" for all her little siblings.

Additionally, I was super happy when 8 of our investigators showed up to watch General Conference this week. Sister Black and i asked ourselves what had been different about this week? How did we get so many investigators to church? We finally came to the conclusion that it must have been our attitude.

We talked General Conference up so much and made it sound so special and exciting because the living prophet--Thomas S. Monson--was going to speak that it caught all our investigator's attention and made them want to come. We realized that maybe we need to have that same enthusiasm and excitement when we invite people to church every week. Because every week really is a special and sacred opportunity for us to partake of the Sacrament in order to remember our baptismal covenants and have a fresh start for the week. I know the speakers each week are specially prepared to help us find answers to our prayers and comfort through our trials. Therefore, every week of church should be exciting and special, not just General Conference.

Everyday, I love it more and more here in Naga. 

And I got an awesome package from my mom...

...full of milky-ways (my FAVORITE), Mac&Cheese (also my FAVORITE),

Girl Scout cookies (AAAAHHHHHH)...

 and other goodies from home which totally made my week!  Thank you Mom!!! I ended up sharing with the Elders in our district too--they are always super nice to us and do tons of nice stuff for us.

In addition, Sister Black and I have been getting closer. I really love being her companion and have found that the more open we are with each other, the better everything seems to be and the easier revelation seems to flow.

I have also been blessed with an amazing district! All the Elders are super funny, hard working and always seem to have really good advice. They want Sister Black and I to give the workshop this week at district meeting but I honestly don't know what we could say to them, because we always just follow their advice and everything ends up working out :)

So basically, my entire district is made up of amazing missionaries who I am blessed to learn so much from.

So overall, has been an amazing week here in Naga with more great weeks to come :P

 I hope you all the best and hope you have an amazing week full of so many blessings as we look forward to this Easter week and our opportunity to celebrate the Savior--the Prince of Peace--and his life, death and resurrection for us all.

I love you all and hope you nothing but the best! Always take care :)

Sincerely,

Sister Matheny

We can do it!

So another week has flown by here in Naga and it has definitely had its fills of ups and downs. 

  There are 4 of us who live in our apartment but we have Sisters sleep over a lot because it is so close to the mission home so whenever Sisters come to Naga for anything, they stay with us. One of my roommates is from my batch and is super sweet! I love them both! But to be honest, I feel like our house is too big, so I haven't got to know them as well as I would hope :( I will make more of an effort this week.   Both of my roommates are Filipinos so it has been really nice having them to practice our Tagalog with.  

My new district is AMAZING!  We are in a district full of Elders who are ALL super fun! I really love them all!

~ My District ~

I'm getting better at Tagalog, teaching, understanding, and we are trying our best every day to get our area moving. I think that if we continue to work hard the next few weeks, we will really start to see some progress in our area. There is so much potential here!--especially since there are people literally everywhere!--We just need to be more optimistic and trust that if we are doing our best, we will have success.

I honestly think that applies to almost everything in life. There seems to be so many times where we feel inadequate or like we can't do it, we can't endure but what we need to remember at times like that is that we can, we can do it! I know that's true because Heavenly Father will never give us more than we can handle or expect more than we have to offer. He is perfectly loving and knows us perfectly, I know His plan for each of us is perfect and that if we just do our best and trust that he will take care of the rest, he will.

For me, I have had a lot of experiences where I have had to do just that this week, and even though we haven't necessarily seen all our efforts pay off quite yet, we are doing our best. So I know they will pay off if we continue to trust in Christ and do our best.

For example, last Monday I had to go to choir practice with Sister Black. I figured I would just sit in the back, wait, and write letters for investigators in our last area but Sister Zapanta told me that if I can sing, I should. I really don't have much of a voice, but I decided to try because I kind of felt guilty about just sitting there.

To be honest, I was a little surprised that it didn't go nearly as horrible as I had expected! I managed to sing the right note with everyone and it wasn't nearly as boring as I remember my middle school choir being. Plus, I got to see Sister Satini again and ask about how all our investigators in GOA are doing.

I was super excited to here how well they all are, how much success they continue to have and that all our recent converts are continuing to progress. I was sad to miss tatay Rene's baptism, especially since he and his family have become so special to me since I started my mission, but I know God has a plan for all of us and if I was supposed to be there, I would be. But I know that I can do more good here now and the new missionary in GOA (Sister Roberts) will have more to offer the people there than I can :)

This week has really pushed me to work harder, love more, and be more humble and patient as I have tried my best to help our area to progress.

It has pushed me to work harder by giving me a really hard working companion with a big vision for our area. Every day, we get to meet tons of amazing/inspiring people and I always feel like we don't have nearly enough time for all of them! So we have had to walk faster and learn to be more time conscious in an effort to help as many people as we can.

 I have gradually been learning to love more as I am really growing to love our area and the people here more and more each day. 

Everyday we have so many heart-touching moments and get to be a part of the changes in so many lives and to be honest, sometimes I just want to burst with love for all the people here. Like on Sunday when we watched one of our less-actives get up to bear her testimony.

We had encouraged her to do so earlier in the morning when we went over to wish her a happy birthday. She was super excited about her birthday, but feeling a little sad because they're family didn't have any money for any type of celebration. We promised her to celebrate with their family on Monday (today) and are hoping to bring something special for her later.

Anyways, on Sunday it was super heart touching to see her walk all the way to the front of the congregation with the help of her husband (she had a stroke a while back so now she can't move half of her body) and bear her testimony at the palpate. The spirit was so strong and I had to hold back the tears as she and her husband both bore beautiful testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ. :)

Additionally, I have had to learn to be more humble and patient this week as we have really been forced to listen to the spirit if we want to see our area progress.

I remember last Saturday we had exchanges with the STL's which ended up being a really good learning opportunity of me. I went with Sister Feva and was happy when I managed to get us through the maze of streets to each appointment without a problem.

 In addition, I remember being amazed at the spirit she invited to the lessons and wanting to be able to do that same thing myself. I definitely learned a lot from her advice and example to me that I really want to use to help this area to progress.

One thing that stood out in particular to me was at the end of the night when we were doing evaluations. She was giving me different ideas and asking lots of questions about our area and I remember her saying something that stood out to me. She told me that we all needed a source of motivation to remind us why we are here. She said that I should always be keeping in mind the people I want to help and influence with my efforts.

When she said that, I immediately thought of my family back home and my two siblings. 

I realized at that moment that they are my motivation and the reason that I continue to do my best each day. I really do love them so much and only want what is best for them. I want them to be happy, make good choices, have a good life and always feel the love and joy that comes from developing a stronger relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ.

I know that here on the mission, I am super far away from home and that from here, there isn't really a lot I can directly do to help my family, but I trust in my Savior and I know that as long as I am doing my best, everything will work out in the end. I know that right now, this is where I am supposed to be and that as I put my best efforts into serving, then I will be able to do some good for my family back home. For me, that is enough...

This week when we watched the General Woman's session, one line stood out to me from Sister Burton's talk: "If we want the highest degree of glory it is going to require the highest sacrifice." I know that as we are doing our best to come unto Christ and trust in Him we will find that the sacrifices he asks are not really as big as they may seem in the moment, at least not next to the rewards we receive through those efforts.

 Lastly, I do want to ask you all for your help. We have an 12 year old investigator who "ran away" with her 27 year old boyfriend last week and her parents haven't had any contact with her in over a week now.  So, if you could keep her in your prayers, that would be awesome... especially since that doesn't sound like a very safe situation.  Thank you so much!  The power of prayer works!

Anyways, I really hope you all have an amazing week and never forget how much God loves you. He really does have a plan for each of us and if we can just learn to trust in Him, he will never lead us astray :) I love you all! 

Sincerely, Sister Matheny

I'm in Naga!

Oh my gulay! How the week has flown. So this week I am in a new area--NAGA CITY--and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT here! Even though that doesn't mean I was any less sad to leave Goa.

I remember laying on my mattress Monday night before I left and my heart just hurt so bad for all the people there I was going to miss. I thought about all of our recent converts and all the investigators we had coming to church. I thought about their upcoming baptisms and was sad that I am going to miss them. We have one investigator that we have been teaching since Sister Villa and I were companions--I found him while we were on exchanges--and he got baptized this past Saturday, so I was definitely feeling a little sad to miss that, especially since I care about him SO MUCH!

On Monday night when I had my last opportunity to share with some of our investigators/recent converts I did my best to let them know how much I care for them and will miss them and left feeling grateful, that I had that opportunity to say goodbye.

So  on the ride to Naga City, I was SUPER NERVOUS!!! I was so mixed up with excitement, anticipation, a little sadness for my old area, and nervous to meet my new companion Sister Black. I was especially worried about how we were supposed to teach, since both of us are still learning Tagalog, but as soon as we got to Naga I soon found that everything would be fine.

 Sister Black is HILARIOUS!!! and SUPER HARD WORKING, we have had an AWESOME companionship so far and our investigators are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Also, I love our area and living in the city is a lot more fun that I expected... as me and Sister Stackhouse said last week, "I GET TO GO TO SM!!!!" Jkjk (we always joke about the SM here. It is just a mall in Naga, but apparently... everyone ALWAYS wants to go there. To be honest, it's really not that different from any other mall).

Anyways, there are people EVERYWHERE here! It is so different from my last area! For one, I am always feeling super turned around in our area because it is basically a maze of streets and people. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!! And they are all super nice, we have found tons of new people to teach this week and have a few progressing investigators so I think Sister Black and my biggest problem so far has been FINDING TIME to get everything done. But that is alright. We have a big vision for our area and Sister Black is willing to work really hard to get it done.

 SERIOUSLY! I thought I was a hard worker until I met Sister Black. Now I feel LAZY compared to her!

 So a little bit about Sister Black: She's from Utah, just turned 20 last week, is one transfer behind me and grew up in a RANCH! So she has a HORSE and goes riding all the time! I was so jealous when I heard that. I WANT A HORSE! But that's alright, I'll just go ride her's after my mission.

Additionally, she is an awesome teacher and really gets in to what she is saying. She is still learning Tagalog (like me) but that's alright because the people here are really drawn to her. They like listening to her because she is amazing at making everyone feel loved. I think there is a TON I am going to learn from her.

In addition, our teaching has been awesome! But let me start by saying, be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it... and Heavenly Father has a habit of answering prayers in "mysterious ways".

At the end of last transfer, the only thing I prayed for was that I would really be able to learn Tagalog this transfer. Well... Sister Black was an answer to that prayer. Being the Senior companion and having more practice with Tagalog has really forced me to always be listening and to use all the skills I have to teach! Just in the past week Sister Black and I have gotten so much better at Tagalog and at teaching, it is insane! Also, since we both treasure our language study time, we have been taking it a LOT more seriously than before.

So since I have been here, I've been trying to use some of the finding techniques I learned from Sister Satini and they seem to be working really well! For example, last Wednesday...

We were walking along and everyone was saying hi to us as usual in our area. We were close to the old railroad tracks and there were TONS of kids out playing, as usual. As we were walking, this guy said hi so we said hi back. I really wanted to share with him so I turned to Sister Black and said "we are going to share with him." 

We walked up and asked if we could have 10 minutes to share our message and weren't too surprised when he said that he was too busy. So I asked why? It looked like he was just standing to me! He said he has to watch a ton of kids, so I said "that's fine, we can just share with all of you!" So then I had him call all the kids and we all went up on the overpass by the old railroad.

When we got there, I immediately wondered if I had made a terrible error in judgement because there were about 30 of them (ages 8-16) just sitting up there waiting for us to share... and keep in mind: Sister Black and I aren't exactly what you would call "fluent".

By the time we were up there though, it was too late to turn back so we shared our message, answered some questions and nearly got trampled as every single one of those kids wanted a pamphlet at the end (we made them share). So overall, I would call the lesson a success. In addition, we set a return appointment for last Friday which went equally well. More of the older kids showed up than the time before and this time, they all contributed to the lesson, it was awesome! In addition, we got 8 of them to commit to baptism at the end, which was cool.

The only scary thing about Friday was that we brought some small candies to pass out to everyone after the lesson and again, were nearly trampled to death under a mob of children. To be honest, I am surprised I am still alive! It's a good thing Sister Black and I are taller than all the Filipinos, or we would not have survived.

Anyways, besides that... I definitely miss Sister Jimenez's cooking here. As two white Americans who have no idea how to cook Filipino food, we've been feeling a little pitiful here with our canned foods. But that's alright! We told one of the families in our ward (the Isip family) about our dilemma and they invited us over to dinner Saturday night, where they taught us how to cook adobe (I forgot how to do it from our last area) so I wrote the recipe down and now we can officially cook one thing! WE ROCK!

They said we can come back next week and have snails for dinner if we want... I'm not sure whether to be EXCITED or SCARED about that...

So ya... I love my new area, my new companion and all the people here, even though I get lost ALL THE TIME! Oh well, I guess it's all a learning process so I'll just be grateful for all the blessings and not worry so much about the things I can't change. Ya, it's getting hot and people don't always understand us, but in the past week I have gotten so much better at the language, met so many new people, had lots of smiles, lots of laughs and more love than I thought was possible. So overall, I would call this week a success.

I wish you all the best! And hope you all have a great week full of blessings and love.

-Sincerely, Sister Matheny