Ruby, Ray, and Nanay

For anyone who heard about Ruby (Typhoon Hugupit) coming our way here in the Philippines, just know all is well here in the Cauayan Mission. Thanks to many prayers, we didn't even get a drop of rain. We did, however, get some dark scary looking clouds, and some nice chilly air.[when she says "chilly" she means 75˙down from 95˙]  From what I have heard, other parts of the Philippines where worse off and experienced flooding etc, but luckily Ruby didn't take as hard a hit as Yolanda from last year. A tender mercy for sure.

This week, for us, went about pretty normal. We did manage to stumble upon this little park last Monday and let our inner five-year-old out for a second and spread a little Christmas spirit.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting for this cycle. It is amazing how inspired these meetings can be. We talked about creating an atmosphere were the spirit can come and teach through us, even when there are so many other distractions. Little did we know, one of our teaching appointments happened to work out like that. This person is a less-active member that we went to visit. She is a mother of 2 small children and her husband is working abroad. As we were teaching, her older child was running around the house and the younger was climbing all over the couch and following her older brother. They were cute, but super distracting not only for us missionaries, but for her as well. But we really tried applying what we just learned and it did give way for us to feel of the Holy Spirit, which is the real teacher. Even when there are so many things that can drive out the spirit, just remember keep calm and love one another, then the spirit will really come to testify. 

On Wednesday, Sister Garcia and I were able to attend the New Missionaries/Trainers meeting. We were in Cauayan all day, but it was another effective meeting that definitely helps us in our work everyday. It was also nice to see other missionaries is the different parts of the mission that we don't get to meet with often. I even got to see my Nanay, Sister Lamac again! We took a family picture :)

Thursday morning, our district moved some dirt. Not a big deal. We are pretty hard working. 

Friday, Sister Garcia and I went on splits with the Sister TrainerLs. I stayed here in Bayombong, while Sister Garcia went to Solano. That day, Sister Barney and I went around and got punted from almost every appointment. But what I have realized that being punted sometimes leads us to unexpected opportunities. The Lord has a plan in store. Sometimes our plan is not His plan, so He makes it possible for us to complete what He would have us do. Funny thing that day, one of the recent converts we visited has a rice farm and right now they are harvesting. After that appointment, he gave us a HUGE bag of rice. It was kind of heavy, but Sister Barney and I took turns carrying it around the rest of the day. As I was holding it like a baby, I named it Baby Ray...like Ray Rice. I know I am so clever. :) Baby Ray made my fellow housemates pretty happy. Their diet consists of rice for every meal of the day...I'd rather stick to my morning toast though. [note from mom--to Erin's defense, she of course, knows nothing of the Ray Rice fiasco, but it was still very clever ;)]

Saturday was when it really started to get chilly around here, but it made our weekly hike pretty nice, not having to be completely exhausted after hiking in the heat! Thanks Ruby! Even though we weren't really able to teach very many people there, we were shocked when one of our new investigators that we didn't even get to teach this past week made the journey down the mountain, over the river on the boat, and to church for the full three hours. Blessing do come! 

Hope all of you have a great week!
Ingat lagi!
Sister K