No Transfer!! Piggy Investigators and the Joys of Missionary Life

Hello everyone!!

I say this every time, but this was another great week in PQCM!!  It is transfer week, but I am thrilled to say that I will still be here in Morong with Sister Cuales as my companion!  Woooo!! 

I did make a fool of myself this week in one of our lessons though.  We randomly tracted a house trying to find new investigators, and they let us in to teach a short message.  The guys name was something like Buboy, so since I was the one praying and they'd complimented me on my language I was trying to be nice and clear in my Tagalog to try to help them feel the spirit.  Well, it was going great, until I said "Please bless brother Baboy".  For those of you who don't know, baboy means pig....oops.  Lesson learned?  Don't compliment the foreign missionaries on their language skills, because if you do, they will accidentally call you a pig in the prayer hahaha.

I also had the coolest experiences in church on Sunday.  One of our focuses here to help the district become a stake is on less active priesthood holders.  One of the families we've been focusing on is a great family, and everyone except the dad is super active.  He's a tricycle driver, and he always tells us that he doesn't come to church because that's a time that he makes most of his money, and the money that he makes goes directly to buy food for the next day.  In one of our lessons, we made him the promise that if he would at least come to sacrament meeting, he would still have enough money, because he would have Heavenly Father helping him as well.  And he came!!  It literally made my day.  But it's so true that when we put Heavenly Father first and obey His commandments, He will help us with our needs.

The other experience was when I passed the sacrament over to our recently baptized couple.  As I watched them partake of the sacrament, I felt the Spirit testify to me so strongly how important that was.  Because they've now made those baptismal covenants with God, they have His promise that as long as they are worthy they will always have His spirit with them.  And as they were eating the sacrament, I felt so strongly that they were exactly where they needed to be, and that by doing those things they will continue to feel that spirit with them always.

We become most ourselves when we are most true to God and to one another.  I really do know that if we truly lose ourselves in the service of God and of others we will find our best selves, and we will be even better than we ever thought we could be.

Revelation 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

I love you all!! Have a great week!!

XOXO

Sister Pectol

Happy New Year!! Surprise Kisses and Apartment Struggles

Happy 2016 everyone!!  

I can't believe it's already here; time is going by so fast!!  Our new year's celebration was definitely different than it has been in previous years, but it was still lots of fun.  We had an early curfew again, so we had a FHE as kabahays.  As part of it we talked about one of our most spiritual experiences here on the mission, so it was really cool.  We got to see a couple of fireworks before we went to bed, but it was so noisy that we woke back up before midnight.  Everyone buys fireworks here, and they have these plastic trumpet things that are SO LOUD.  We did our new years countdown, then went out to the veranda and watched fireworks.  It was so pretty!!  We literally had a panoramic view of a sky full of fireworks.  It literally only took about 5 minutes before there was so much smoke we couldn't even breathe lol.  But it was fun :)

And I had a very unexpected experience happen this week...I got kissed!!  Not something I was expecting to happen on my mission lol.  We were visiting our old investigators that just got baptized, and the husband was telling us how grateful he was for us for teaching him the gospel, and when I shook hands goodbye with him he said "Let me kiss you."  I responded with something really intelligent like "Wut", and then he planted one right on my cheek!  It was kind of cute, but completely caught me off guard hahaha.  It's fun to find those people that you come to love and that come to love you as though they're your family.

Even though I love it here in Morong, there are definitely some disadvantages to our apartment.  For one thing, because we're up on a hill, everyday at lunch time we don't have water.  Literally, nothing.  Sometimes it's strong in the morning and in the evening, but usually it's pretty wimpy.  It takes a really looong time for the buckets to fill up so we can take a shower haha.  And our gas ran out on new years day, and because it was still the holiday, the shop was closed so we couldn't order a new tank!!  Luckily some of the members brought us food so even though we couldn't cook we managed to survive the water and gas shortage.  Sometimes life just makes me giggle :)

I Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

"It does not matter what our personal struggles are—whether they are disease or prolonged loneliness or suffering the temptations and tests of the adversary—the Good Shepherd is there. He calls us by name and says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.""  --Elder Hugo Montoya

We had a really cool teaching experience this past week when we were visiting one of our less active families.  It's  a couple that has been inactive for years, and it was our first time to be able to teach them.  We spent a lot of time getting to know them and trying to understand their concerns.  It was my turn to give the message, so I was trying to think of a good scripture to share to them that would help them.  I ended up opening to Alma 7:11-13, which is about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and is one of my favorite scriptures.  We told them that because Jesus suffered all that He did, He understands us perfectly.  Because of the Atonement, we always have someone that we can lean on.  Because of the Atonement, no matter where we've been or what we've done, we can return and change.  We can be our best selves, and we can feel His love again.  As we shared that, I could see tears in the eyes of the wife, and the husband was obviously feeling it as well.  The Spirit was so strong, and I know that they were able to feel the love that the Savior has for them.  They didn't come to church on Sunday, but I know that we at least helped them to feel the Spirit and to feel that they are important to Heavenly Father.  I really didn't know what we should share to them, so I'm so grateful that we were listening to the Spirit and were able to find the right scripture for them.  I love being a missionary and being able to help people feel Heavenly Father's love for them!

I love you all!!  Have a fantastic week!!

XOXO

Sister Payton Pectol

Christmas in the Field! Caroling and Baptisms :)

 Helllllooooo from the Philippines!!

This week has been fantastic!  I got to skype with my family for Christmas, which was absolutely AMAZING.  It was so good to see all of them!!  It made me wish we could skype more often lol.

Christmas eve we had an early curfew, so it felt like we only had half a day of work.  We were planning to give service to our investigators and help them even out their yard, but when we got there they were already finished.  They didn't want us to do anything to help, but we just were persistent and found something to do.  They use wood fires to cook, so we found their scrap wood and their machete (they don't use hatchets here) and started chopping wood.  The machete was really dull, so it was a good thing that most of the wood was rotten lol.  It was difficult if we got a hard piece; I felt like I was trying to chop through a rock lol.  But it was fun to be able to help them :)  After our work that day, us four sisters had a Christmas FHE.  It was so much fun!  We even got to see a couple of fireworks before we went to bed.

Christmas day was so good!  We had our weekly planning in the morning, then got invited to one of our members houses for lunch.  Then we met up with the elders in our district, did our exchange gifts, and went out caroling to our investigators.  It was so fun to do that with all 8 of the missionaries in the district :)

On Saturday, we got the best Christmas present... Our investigators got baptized!!  It was so amazing!  They're life is so hard right now, but when they bore their testimonies, they talked about how they were starting to feel the blessing of the gospel in their lives.  They both cried when they were confirmed, and in Sunday school, the husband told all of us how grateful they were for the blessings they're feeling.  I love being a missionary :)

1 Nephi 17:50 And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.

God never loses sight of our eternal potential, even when we do.

I love you all!!  Happy New Year!!

XOXO

Sister Pectol

Christmas Skype :)

Merry Christmas!!! December 22, 2015

Christmas Conference, Mudslides, and Counting Down to Christmas!

Hello everyone!

This has been a really busy week, but it has been so much fun!  We got to go to our Christmas Conference on Thursday, which was great!  We had some spiritual thoughts and then got to play games.  We all got tshirts with our names on it, which was awesome, but I was a bit of a dunce and ordered the wrong size.  So I just looked like I had a hoodie on over my dress lol.  All the zones there did a conversion skit, and as part of ours there was a little bit of a love story.  So, guess who got called to be the main character?  Yep, yours truly!  With my district leader as my "fiancee"...awkward!  Actually it was really funny, but I got stage fright so bad I almost forgot everything I was supposed to do lol.  And then watching President Revillo join in the games with us with Sister Revillo directing was the best!  

Because it's close to Christmas, we've been dealing with the normal Christmas weather here--namely, pouring rain all day everyday lol.  It wouldn't be too big of a deal, but we have a lot of investigators that live on mountains.  I have definitely been practicing my hiking skills the past week haha.  We've had fun slipping and sliding all up and down our area XD sometimes by the time we get to their house, we're almost soaked through and have mud splashed up to our knees.  (Sometimes I think the elders have it easy, because they climb too, but they at least do it in pants.  Sometimes it's really hard to hike up a slick mudslide of a hill in a skirt....)  But, all the hiking is totally worth it because we have investigators that are going to be getting baptized on Saturday!!  We have worked (and climbed) really hard to help them be ready, and now they've had their interview and are ready to go!

Believe that God is in control.  There is no need to be stressed out or worried.  This quote is a little ironic to me because I got it off of a glass plaque that I accidentally broke in the store (I'm so smooth) then had to buy.  But, I think it's really true :)  He's taking care of everything, so if we do our part then there's no need to worry :)

Deuteronomy 8:3  Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Love you all!!  Take care! And MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

XOXO

Sister Pectol

Happy 12 Days of Christmas! Caroling and Aswang Stories

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  It's a little early, but I'm excited :)  I can't believe that yesterday was the first day of Christmas; time is going by so fast!

Because it's December, a common thing here is that people will go caroling to get a little extra Christmas change.  So yesterday, us missionaries and the YSA group here went caroling.  But, of course, we weren't asking for money.  Instead, we told the people that we had something to give them.  We would sing our Christmas song, then me and Sister Cuales would go forward and introduce ourselves and give a short introduction of our message.  Then we gave them a Restoration pamphlet and scheduled when we could come back.  It was a lot of fun, and was a great way to contact people; we were able to get several return appointments for next week, so we were very excited about that :)

I've also been hearing a lot lately about the Philippines legendary monster, the Aswang.  Sister Cuales is from a part in the Philippines where supposedly there are a bunch of aswangs, so she's told me a lot about them.  Most of the time the stories don't bother me too bad, but we were in an appointment with one of our less actives and she started talking about a trip she'd taken when they'd heard the aswang and so were all scared.  No big deal if it was daytime, but it was our last appointment.  Which means it was well after dark.  And then we had to walk through a pitch dark forest to get back to the main neighborhood!!  Sister Cuales made me walk first so that if there was an aswang it would eat me.  I'm telling you, I felt the love.  Luckily, there weren't any aswangs, so we made it safely XD

God does not ask more of us than we are able.  You will be surprised at what you can do because the Lord has called you.  This is so true!!  All of us have a special calling in life, and all of us are here because we can help someone else.  Sometimes it's really hard, and we don't know how in the world we can make a difference.  But I know that we will never be given a challenge or a task that we can't do with the Lord's help.

Moroni 8:21  I speak it boldly; God hath commanded me.  BOOM.  Yep, that's what we missionaries do :)

I love you all!!  XOXO

Sister Pectol

New Companion! Hiking, Lost Transfer, and Looking for Boyfriends....

MY CHRISTMAS PICTURE

Hi all!

This week I learned that when you're talking to Filipinos, it's not a good idea to tell them you're single, because they will instantly tell you that you should marry a Filipino and that they know some great guys.  Yikes.  That's not quite why I came to the Philippines lol.  Maybe I'll just start pretending James is my boyfriend.  What are little brothers for, right? XD

I had a bit of a tragedy this week too.  I lost last tran

sfer's planner :(  For those of you who don't know what a missionary planner is for, that is our calendar for an entire transfer, and it has all of our lessons and the information of those that we're teaching and notes and all sorts of stuff.  I'm pretty sure dropped it when we were in a tricycle and didn't realize until later.  It's pretty much heartbreaking; I feel like I lost all of last transfer!  I keep praying for a miracle that somehow I'll be able to get it back.

And I met my new companion this week: Sister Cuales!  She's super sarcastic so I think we'll have a great time :)  but I think I about killed her the first couple of days.  Our area is very mountainous, and we do a lot of walking.  I'm used to it by now, but she isn't.  And for her, my walk is very fast (it's so weird to always be the tall one), so she's really been getting a workout the past week haha.  Our area is huge, and I only had one transfer to learn it, so honestly we've spent a lot of time lost just trying to talk to people to get new investigators haha.  Oh the joys of missionary life XD

Exodus 4:12  And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.  I started the Old Testament last week, and as I was reading the story of Moses I was really hit.  Moses wasn't an eloquent speaker; it was really hard for him to be able to really communicate to people.  But this is what God told him.  I love this because it really shows that no matter what, He won't leave us alone.  I have experienced that here on my mission, too.  I know that when we are doing His work, He will be with us and He will guide us in our speaking.

Everyone, regardless of his or her decisions, deserves our message.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone.  No matter what our mistakes are and no matter where we've been, I know that through the gospel we can change and become our best selves.  Heavenly Father gave us this gospel so that we can return unto Him, and this isn't just for people who are perfect.  This church is a hospital that helps us heal our spiritual sicknesses and wounds, and I know that when we do our part, we can gain that new start.

I love you guys!!

XOXO

Sister Payton Pectol