FEBRUARY 7, 2016

NEW AREA

Hello Everyone! It has been another crazy week in the Philippines! We officially found out that the temperature has hit record high than it ever has been before! Oh man you could say that I die of heat everyday unless it is raining then I am freezing! 

This week has been very challenging because most of our investigators told us they don't want us to come back so that was very hard but we will keep going! We just got a call last night that us and the elders will be switching areas. We will still be living in the same house but be going to a different area. The switch happens on Wednesday! I am excited for a new area and a new challenge! That is what missions are all about! We said bye to a few people in the ward including Tatay Eduardo and he was very upset but life moves on he said and we will be better! 

On Saturday we were able to help our bishop clean the chapel! That was good and fun and after we
ate Mcdonalds and he told us all about his mission stories and really helped and uplifted us! 

I truly love my mission! Although times are very challenging I know that I am growing and turning into the missionary that our heavenly father wants me to be! I know our savior lives and loves us all! He has never and never will leave our side. Kabalo ako nga sini nga simbahan matuod gid. Kon kita magpadayon hasta katubtuban kag maging masmalapit kay Jesu Kristo magbaton kita ang Eternal Life! Thank you for all the love and letters and prayers! I love you all!

-Sister Thayn

JANUARY 31,2016

FREEZING AT 70 DEGREE

Wow another week down, time flies by here so fast! In 7 days I will have been out for 7 Months! This week has been full of ups and downs but that's just how life is! I am reading the Old testament right now and have been reading so much about temples. Oh how i miss going to the temple. Please never take it for granted because when the nearest temple is on the next island over or very far away going to the temple is a lot more difficult than just driving 10 min. I cant wait to be able to go to the temple again.

This week we had a really cool experience. But it all started out this past week we were tracting and we were standing in front of this house deciding whether to knock or not and unfortunately we did not. Well fast forward a few days we were by that house again talking to this guy by a food stand and i look over and there is the other guy listening into our conversation so i look over and start talking to him and come to find out that was his house that we did not knock on the other day. It was such a confirmation from heavenly father that we needed to meet this guy. So on Friday we taught him and he has a very rough life but it was such a good and spiritual lesson I really pray and hope he will progress. 

Family in the Ward

This week we had our Trainers and Trainees meeting. It was such an incredible meeting. President Aquino had one of his old mission friends come and talk to us and the spirit was so undeniable in that room he was so full of the spirit. My goal is to have the spirit like he has with me! He said something so profound he said we need to fall in love with our mission and with the savior. And by the end of our mission more tears will be shed going home then leaving home. I know my savior lives and love me and all of you! He knows us personally and wants to talk and hear from us. I am really trying to gain a stronger relationship with my savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father! I have truly felt the spirit guide me and protect me so many times while on my mission. I also feel the presence of the people on the other side of the veil holding me and helping me so much on my mission. 

Something that I love is in Preach my gospel we are told to rely on the promise given to us all at the end of the Book of Mormon which is Moroni's promise. Ready Moroni 10:3-5. All we need to do is READ, PONDER, and PRAY. If we do that with real desire and intent we will receive an answer that it is true. So if you haven't done this before I would encourage you and you can see for yourself the miracles that come from that promise given to us by Moroni. 

Ok something crazy this week is I think I am really getting adjusted to the weather because it hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit the other day and we were all freezing! There is the get-up I had going to bed because I was so cold! I cant even imagine how cold it must be at home when i can barely survive 70 degree weather! 

Well I love you all and hope all is well at home I would love an update from you all! Thanks for all the love and support!!!!

Love,

       Sister Thayn

JANUARY 24, 2016

DINAGYANG FESTIVAL

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a good week! This was an interesting week but no matter how fast or slow the week is going the work must go on and will always progress because this is the gospel of Jesus Christ this is the only true church on the world right now and nothing or nobody can stop this work from progressing!

This week was pretty dead because here in the Philippines they have a lot of festivals and this week in Iloilo City they had the huge Dinagyang festival. If you haven't heard of it look it up it is crazy!! Well that was bad news for us because it didn't come to our area and everyone was at the festival so there was nobody to teach! But we did receive permission to go to the festival for 2 hours. The festival was crazy there were so many people there and so much food and music and colors! We got some fun feathered mask headband things!!! We were walking down the street when this guy came up to me and I turned around and he was american so I was able to talk to him and tell him why we were here and our purpose as missionaries! It was so cool, he was from Seattle and was just here on a trip he recognized us from our badges and said he had to talk to us so that was a cool experience. 

Also this week we had exchanges with our STL's I was with sister Fotu she is from Tonga! It was so fun, she makes missionary work so fun! We did a lot of tracting and we finally got the guts to ring the doorbell of a huge house and guess what happens next... this red headed american lady answers the door and i was in absolute shock! I didn't know whether to speak in hiligaynon or English but then sister Fotu just started speaking in Hiligaynon and the lady says "I dont understand you" so then sister Fotu nudges me and then i speak English to her. She was not very happy that we were there and wanted nothing to do with us and slammed the door but WOW! I found an american living in the Philippines! You might think that is weird but for reals whenever i go anywhere i am the only american in sight! It was a bummer that she didnt accept us but we did our purpose and invited her and it was her choice whether to accept or not. 

Also on exchanges we were walking home when we started talking to this old lady and she was so excited that i knew how to speak her language she held my hand and arm all the way till we separated to go our way, and we gave her a book of Mormon and when i did she kissed me like six times on my cheek! HAHA it was so funny! But she was so excited she could talk to me and i could understand her and talk back to her! 

I was reading in my personal studies one morning and out of Preach my Gospel i read "You are to Study, Believe, Love, and Live what you Teach." This quote really stood out to me! as missionaries we really need to do all those things to be the most effective missionaries we can be. Not just missionaries but us all as members we need to Study, Believe, Love and Live all that we know about the gospel and teach it to those who don't know around us! 

One more funny story I had just gotten home for the day and it was so hot and i was so sweaty and gross and muddy and dirty (that is just a normal day here in the Philippines) so after we closed our day and planned for the next day I decided to take a shower so i am in the shower and realized that oh man WE HAVE NO WATER! we only had a tiny drizzle coming out of the facet. But i was so gross and already in my towel so i came out into the kitchen and the only thing i could find was a 1/2 gallon pitcher and YES YES I DID, that night i showered out of a 1/2 Gallon pitcher with a tiny drizzle of water! You could say that shower was forever but I got clean that's all that mattered right? HAHA I never thought that one day i would ever have to do something like that but that's life here in the Philippines and I love it!!

Well that was my week! I hope you all are good! LOVE YOU ALL! Keep doing what is right and remember who you are!!! 

-Sister Thayn

JANUARY 17, 2016

HELLO EVERYONE! This has been a good but also challenging week! For three days this week Sister Hein and my companion Sister Manilay have been sick so they have stayed home while me and Sister Hein's companion have worked together! But we did have some cool and amazing experiences this week. One day we were tracting and we saw this guy outside his apartment and he was walking his dog when we decided to talk to him. Then he asked me how long I have been here and how I knew Tagalog... then I said oh I dont know Tagalog only Hiligaynon and he said Oh well I don't know Hiligaynon only Tagalog so we decided English was our best option! He had so many questions for us and wondered how Joseph Smith even got in the picture and we told him how excited we were to share him just exactly that! He let us into his home where we taught him all about the restoration and invited him to pray for himself to know if this is true and he accepted! That was the first lesson I ever taught in all English and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I kept slipping Hiligaynon words in there and oh man I have super broken English now! But it was such an amazing and spiritual lesson and we now get to return back to him this week to share about the Plan of Salvation!

Also for the past month we have been trying to teach a less active sister in our ward but every time we get there before we can get to the door her daughter is outside and says she is not there or yells into the house that we are coming and when we get to the door she says she isn't home. Well we knew that wasn't true and we were just sad that she is hiding from us and doesn't want to talk to us. But then on Saturday we decided to drop by one more time and this time Sister Rosemarie was outside! So she couldnt run and hide from us. We were able to teach her and she cried during the lesson because the spirit was so strong and we were really able to figure out her concerns and need and we invited her to church. Then Sunday morning we were sitting in Relief society which is the first hour and all of a sudden i see Rosemarie walking in to the church!!!! AHHHH!!!! I was so excited! I have been in this ward for almost 6 months and she has only come once when we picked her up but this time she came all by herself and stayed all three hours and was so happy and hugged me and asked when we were going to visit her again! It was such an incredible experience!!!

Something funny that happened was we were teaching Tatay Eduardo when he showed us his new bracelet that said "I LOVE JESUS" he was so excited about it! He said he wanted to buy us all one but he didn't know which color we wanted! Oh man I laughed so hard! He is the cutest old man ever! If we all just had the incredible faith that Tatay Eduardo has!!!

We were able to watch the young adults devotional yesterday given by Russell M. Nelson and it was so good! I want to share a few things that I

really liked! He said we need to spend more time in holy places (Temple, Going to church, and making our homes/apartments/dorms holy). He said Listen with the intent to obey and if you do the Prophets will NEVER lead you astray! Also he made it very bold to be VERY careful whose counsel we follow! The world is getting more and more wicked every day but if we continue and stay close to the lord and the prophets we will never be led astray! Also just like missionaries we need to obey the mission rules with exactness he said we all need to follow the Prophets with EXACTNESS! That was such an amazing and uplifting devotional he gave! I hope that this can help you all in some way!

This is a Jeepney

And like I said to these investigators the other day! I KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! If I didn't I wouldn't be here away from my family, in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language, serving and sharing the gospel everyday! This gospel is true and we all have such a loving heavenly father who wants to know us and have a relationship with us all we have to do is pray to him. I love you all so much and am so grateful i have this opportunity to serve a mission for the lord here in the Philippines Iloilo Mission!

-Sister Thayn

JANUARY 10, 2016

Six Months....
Hello Everyone! I hope you are all well and having a good New Year and starting work and school back up again! My week has been so busy and good!

This week we had interviews with our mission President which was so good! Although I really don't know much about my President or see him that often I know he is truly called of god because he knows so much about me and know exactly what to say to me and help me with to become the best missionary Heavenly Father wants me to be! I was able to receive a blessing from him which I felt like was directly from Heavenly Father it was such an incredible experience! 

Six Months with Sister Hein

This past week we have really been focusing on finding new investigators especially families and we were tracting one day and we walk past this house and then after we pass it my companion says lets go back there so we did and we found a family! It was such an amazing thing! They are a family of four and were so excited to talk to us and we gave them a Book of Mormon and have a return appointment with them to teach them! It is so amazing the miracles that happen when you are truly relying on the spirit! 

This week we also recontacted an investigator we dropped a few months ago if you remember sister Bernadeth. Last time she told us she didn't want us to come back but we decided to return to her this week and good thing we did because she said how much she missed us. I don't think she remembered one thing we taught her but she remembered every bit of service we did to her and she was so grateful for that! It was perfect because right now in the mission we are focusing on service because in our mission calls it says "You are called to serve as a missionary" not you are called to teach or called to share. YOU ARE CALLED TO SERVE so my goal this week is to serve as much as possible and see the miracles that happen from that! 

Thank you for all  the love and support these past six months! These past six months have just flown buy and I only have 1 year left and I am going to do my very best to make it the best year so far!!! LOVE YOU ALL! 

-Sister Thayn

JANUARY 3, 2016

Happy New Year!!

Sister Thayn and Sister Manilay

Hello Everyone! Happy New Year! This is my letter from last week but I guess it never got sent to anyone so here it is for last week! I hope you all had a fun a safe New Year! This week was a little crazy it was transfers week, Wednesday morning we got a phone call saying Sister Hein and I would be training! We were so excited because we would be training together! We stayed in the same areas but now we are both training! Thursday morning we had Transfer day and I received my Bata (Child) which is what we call the person who we train and I am her Nanay (Mother). Her name is Sister Manilay and she is from the Philippines. She doesn't know any Hiligaynon so I will be the one teaching her Hiligaynon so that will be the next challenge but the Gift of Tongues is so incredible! I have only been speaking this language for about 6 months and I know so much and can talk to people and understand what they are actually saying it is so cool! 

Lesson with Tatay Edwardo

This week we had an amazing lesson with our investigator brother Clyde. We had a member working with us during this lesson and we taught Baptism and Confirmation. During this lesson we were able to invite him to be Baptized and he accepted. The spirit was so strong in that lesson and I know that the spirit was confirming to him that this is the next step he needs to take in his life. And this Sunday he came to church and it was like everyone who bore their testimony was talking straight to him and testifying to him that this gospel has changed their lives and this is the best choice they ever made. It is so incredible what heavenly father does in our lives everyday to help each and everyone of us grow and how he answers prayers. 

New Years Eve here is the Philippines is very different than it is at home. It seriously sounds like World War 3 is going on. It was all fireworks and it was absolutely insane!!! Unfortunately we weren't able to watch them because it was past curfew but we couldn't fall asleep with all the noise so we just listened to all the fireworks from our beds. The next morning we went out to work and all the streets were covered with fireworks it was madness, but so much fun! 

Yesterday we were able to have a good meeting with our bishopric about the ward and how we as missionaries can truly help the ward grow and become more unified. We are really struggling on less actives in the ward. So if any of you guys have an ideas from your missions or ideas at all on how to reactivate less actives and help them return back to the church let me know! 

I am so beyond grateful for this experience I have to serve a mission. Although it is probably one of the hardest and most challenging thing I have ever done and currently am doing it is so worth it! I am so grateful for my savior and I know that even though I am not a perfect missionary and I make mistakes he is always there with me leading my and holding me all along the way especially when I fall. I am so grateful for this gospel. I love you all! Thank you for everything!

Philippine Sunset

-Sister Thayn