JULY 25, 2016

YAY!  A BAPTISM!!
(note from Mom: This post is out of order, better late than never!)

This was such a great week!!! we were able to see one of our investigators Tatay Rogelio enter into the waters of baptism! He was interviewed on Tuesday then was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!!! it was so awesome!!!

Tatay Rogelio's story is the most amazing ever though!!!! He had been taught by missionaries for a few months and when he started he had a huge smoking problem! he has been smoking 2 packs a day since he was 16 years old and he is 73 years old now. So he was very addicted! Then when the sisters committed him to stop of course it wasn't all at once but he went from 2 packs to 20 sticks a day then to 15 then to 10 then 6 then 5 then 4 then 3 then 2 then 1 then 0!!!! and now he is not smoking anymore!!! it is so amazing!!!!!

One night we came home after a HUGE rain storm and found our apartment flooded only like a half and inch or less of water but we are on the second floor but then we realized we left the windows open and my companions bed was soaking wet!!! luckily i had to mattresses on my bed so she had a dry bed to sleep on!!! We spent that night cleaning and drying our wet house!!!!

We have such a progressing investigator which is sister Harlyn! she is 20 years old and she is amazing! she came to church this week! The spirit is so strong in her lessons and she is truly prepared by heavenly father!!!

Also it is so stinking hot here now it feels like it is always about to rain so it is so humid and hot and then either rains so much or not at all and you just sweat to death!!! haha!!!

This was an amazing week!!!

Hope you all have a great week this week!!!

-Sister Thayn

AUGUST 22, 2016

NEW WAYS OF MISSIONARY WORK

This week was such an amazing week!!!

Starting out on Monday we experienced another EARTHQUAKE!!! it was much bigger than the last one we experienced and lasted about 20-30 seconds but it was still very small it just startled us!!!

This week has been so extremely hot but at the end of the week non-stop rain again!!!

We had exchanges this week and we tried a new way of missionary work!! we did a street display I was kinda worried at first how it would turn out but it was amazing!!! we talked to over 150 people and lots were very interested!!! it was one of the most successful things we have ever done!!!! Now we are going to do it in our area!!!

This week I felt the true spirit of missionary work and it was the most amazing feeling ever!!!! I love being the lords FULL TIME servant!!!

Also It has been about 1 year since I have started to read my quad from front to back and the other day I finished it!!!! i started out with the Book of Mormon then read D&C and then PofGP then I read the New and old Testament and just finished the New testament!!! it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and I have learned more about the savior and I know he loves us and wants the best for us all we need to do is obey his commandments and we will be blessed! 

Also yesterday we walk into church and the meeting is about to start and a member in the bishopric came up to me and said oh yeah we need you to speak today!!! UHHHH... oh man that was a fright but I was able to speak and have the spirit with me and it was a good experience!!! 

It was a week full of the spirit and miracles!!! 

I love and miss you all!!!

-SISTER THAYN

AUGUST 14, 2016

MORE RAIN!


This has been a good week!!! I am doing so much better and oh man has it been raining!!! It is seriously non-stop rain here in Iloilo!!! Also everything is flooding because of the rain! Sorry this email is short I don't have a lot of time!

This week we experienced an EARTHQUAKE!!!! Don't worry it was very small but we were in a recent converts house talking before a lesson and we were sitting on a cement floor leaning against a cement wall and well all of a sudden the floor just moved!!! it was the craziest thing i have ever experienced!!! 

We have a really progressing investigator her name is Harlyn and she is 20 years old so we are all such good friends!!! She is really accepting the gospel and very progressing!!! I love this gospel and being able to share it with all those who I come in contact with! 

I love our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ! I know this is the true and only true church here on the earth!!! i love and miss you all!!!

-SISTER THAYN

AUGUST 7, 2016

SICK!!


This has been quite the slow and unproductive week. I have been sick all week so we have not been working much but I am doing much better now!!!!

It has been raining non stop here!!! and I mean non stop!!! ok well it stops for like 15 seconds then just down pours again!!! I have never experienced rain like this ever before!!!  Yesterday we were at a members house and it was down pouring rain and all went out and rain through the rain and got soaking wet!!! good thing they live really close to our house! 

This week at our district meeting we had such a great meeting! it was all about the book of Mormon! We each bore our testimony about the book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong! One thing I know and believe so strongly is that if you don't read the Book of Mormon you WILL NOT PROGRESS IN YOUR LIFE!!!! no matter who you are if you have stopped reading the Book of Mormon you have just put yourself on hold and well you are not letting yourself progress! So please if you have stopped please start again! even if it is just 1 verse a day if you are too busy but no matter how much or little you read you will be blessed as long as you read so please read everyday as much as you can!!!

One quote I loved that was said in sacrament meeting was "There is no substitute in living the gospel of Jesus Christ."

I love and miss you all! thank you for all the prayers!!!

JULY 31, 2016

ITS OFFICIALLY THE RAINY SEASON!

This has been such a good week! at the beginning of the week we had exchanges with our STLS. We had lots of fun and it was fun being able to be back with my batch mates from the MTC! I came to realized that whenever I go on exchanges I usually eat something exotic!!! This time I ate fried chicken foot!!! yes the actual foot! I didn't really know you could eat that but you can!!! you pull off all the individual toes of the chicken foot and eat the meat off of that and then you eat the meat on the foot!!! it wasn't bad!!!  of course it just TASTES LIKE CHICKEN!!! haha

It has rained NON STOP the past 6 days!! currently it is raining again!!! the streets get flooded and that means we are wet all day long!!! One night we were working and then it started to rain then rain harder and harder and luckily I remembered my umbrella! Then we ran for shelter then we decided to keep walking and go to our next appointment as we were walking there was so much lightning then one struck and the thunder was ear blasting loud and it was so close to us we both screamed and waved down the nearest jeepney and decided to just go home! we were so terrified and did not feel safe! by the time we got home we were soaked from head to toe and my skirt weighed so much that I was afraid it was going to fall off!!! HAHA (See pictures)

Then it was Sunday and it was a good morning then 5 min before we are to travel to church it downpours rain again!!! we had to go out and wait for a jeepney which got us all wet then when we got out of the jeepney the streets were flooded so our Sunday shoes got all wet and oh man it was just such a wet day and everyone came in to church soaked from head to toe!!!   

IT IS OFFICIALLY NOW RAINY SEASON! 

Today in my personal study I read in Romans 12:21 and loved it so I will end my email with this verse:

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

I love you all and miss you all and hope you have a great week!!!

-Sister Thayn

JULY 18, 2016

MISSIONARY LIFE

It has been an amazing week this week!!! We had our zone conference this week and our mission is doing a lot of changing... but changing for the good!!!! We are being more strict on things and strictly focusing on our studies but it will make us stronger missionaries!!! I love it so much!!!

I have truly learned the importance of studies this week! While I was reading this week in preach my gospel I came over this quote and I loved it so much!!! "For you to grow in the Gospel and stay on the path that leads to eternal life you NEED to develop a habit of gospel study" all of us need to read and study the scriptures as a habit every day to stay on the right path and reach eternal life!!! 

A blessing that I received this week from studies was on Sunday it was 5 minutes before sacrament was supposed to start and they said our speaker hasn't showed up so we will need you to speak and at first I was like WHAT!!!! NO I CANT DO THAT!!! but of course I accepted and then realized all I needed to do was share what I have been learning in my studies and share my testimony and that is exactly what I did and it turned out much better than I thought it would! It was such a blessing that i studied my scriptures!!! Now I encourage you all to do the same and always study your scriptures!!!!

Also I ate some very exotic this this week!!!! 

1. I ate this soup that has Cow skin and tissue in it... but the skin still had the hair on it! it looked like a bald mans head in my soup with hair sticking out the top of it! and their was hair swimming all in my soup!!! I ate as much as I could but my stomach would not allow me to finish it.... But the taste wasn't terrible the look and texture just was!

2. I finally ate Balut!!!! and that was terrifying but i did it!!! and no I did not like it I sure was gagging while I was eating!!! haha but SUCCESS!!!!

Also I took my first HOT SHOWER in my mission!! it was great!!!! 

Well that was my week but things are progressing and I am loving the work and I love being a missionary!!! I know this church is true and heavenly father loves us!!! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-SISTER THAYN

 

JULY 10, 2016

ONE YEAR MARK!!

Wow I just hit my 1 year mark!!! it is so crazy how fast time flies by!!!!

It has been such a great week! First of all I love my companion so much she is the best!!! and this week we were teaching one of our progressing investigators who still has a smoking problem but it has gotten so much better but we invited him to be baptized and his answer wasn't the typical yeah... he raised his right hand and said YES!!!! ahh it was the best feeling ever and he is progressing so much and we cant wait for him to be baptized! 

This week we taught a new investigator her name is Harlene! She is 20 years old and has been so prepared by the lord she has so many great questions and the spirit was there so strong when we were teaching her and she went to church this week and we also invited her to be baptized on our first visit with her and... she ACCEPTED!!!!!! Miracles are happening here in Mandurriao and I am loving the work here so much!!!

Also it was my companions birthday yesterday so we celebrated on Saturday night and we surprised her it was so much fun and she was so surprised!!!

Also our new mission president arrived and we had a meeting with him and he is so awesome! he is so full of the spirit and is exactly what this mission needs! he is truly called by God! 

It was a great week full of the spirit, lots of laughs, and fun being a missionary!!!

-Sister Thayn

JULY 3, 2016

MY NEW AREA

This has been an awesome week! We had my check-up at the doctors and I am GREAT!!! my amoeba is all gone and I am healthy! I just now have to be careful with what I eat! The doctor I had was amazing! she was so nice! We also were able to talk to her about the gospel a little bit and give her a book of Mormon! She also lives in our area so she wanted to get our number and she says she will take us out to dinner sometime! She was so awesome!

This week we had days where we were punted the whole day and had no lessons because everyone was either busy or not home but this week we also had some of the most amazing lessons I have had in my entire mission! WOW! We were teaching these investigators a mother and daughter and the spirit was just so strong and I was able to bear my testimony at the end of the lesson again and the spirit that was there was undeniable it was incredible!!!!

Also we were fasting this week especially for one of our investigators Tatay Rojelio who told us earlier this week that he wanted to drop out and not get baptized but we bore our testimonies to him and told him to really pray to know what he should do and he said if he comes to church on Sunday then that means he wants to continue and be baptized and GUESS WHAT!!!! HE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!! my companion and I were so happy!!!!! 

Also one night we had gone to all the people we had planned to visit and they were all busy and we had nowhere to go and it was raining so hard so we waited by the side of the road under a roof waiting out the rain... (of course we forgot our umbrellas!!!) I prayed silently to myself for heavenly father to lead us to someone or have us meet someone and as soon as i said amen this car pulled up by us and this big guy got out and was wearing this big gold cross around his neck to be honest I was a little intimidated of him but then he said Hey sisters is this your area in Mandurriao?? I responded YES!!! and he said Yeah I am a member from Leaganes (a few cities away) (wow I was a little surprised) he said well I am inactive but I once was a member! so we talked a little bit he was very nice and we asked if we could visit him and his family and he said of course!!!  

Wow that was a prayer answered and very quickly too! GOD DOES ANSWER OUR PRAYERS!!!

Well I am loving my area and my companion!!! These pictures are at a recent converts house The first one is with me and Ann Marie the new member and the second one with all of us and the third my companion Sister Tobias and I!!!!

I love you all!!!! Thanks for all the love and prayers!!!!

-Sister Thayn

JUNE 28, 2016

AN UNEXPECTED WEEK

Wow it has been quite the unexpected week! So Monday after I emailed you all I went home and died I was so sick!!!! I laid on a bed on the bottom level of our house!! (and I was supposed to transfer on tuesday and none of my bags are packed) Then a few hours later I woke up and there were some members at our house bringing us food cause i told them I couldn't go to their house cause I was so sick. then they freaked out and said we had to go to the hospital! so after much convincing we went to the hospital! we started out in the ER then there was no doctor there so I had to be admitted for the night because there was a doctor upstairs! so I was admitted they took a chest X-ray and then different tests then they took me upstairs and I slept until every 3 hours they woke me up to take my vitals and give me more medication through my IV! Then the next day I found out i had an Amoeba. Anyway I stayed in the hospital from Monday night to Thursday afternoon. I was given lots of antibiotics and lots of members and missionaries came to  visit me! They were all so kind! and I was in a very very very nice hospital! I was very taken care of! haha but I am alright and just fine! i went home Thursday late afternoon and just slept then Friday I packed my things and luckily Friday the AP's came to do exchanges with the elders so I just had them take me to my new area on Saturday! it was great I got VIP transportation! I am still on antibiotics and will have another checkup on Thursday but I am feeling so much better on and off my stomach will hurt but I feel great and am working again! well my new area is fantastic!!! I love it so much it reminds me of home there are so many members in the ward and it is so great! I love it and I love my new companion her name is sister Tobias!!!

it hasn't been a very productive working week but i am alive and healthy and doing great and loving my new area and new companion!!! 

Love you all thanks for everything! have a good week!!!

-Sister Thayn

sorry I cannot get pictures to send maybe next week!!!

JUNE 19, 2016

 

TIME TO TRANSFER AGAIN!

 

The elders ate balut the other day and you can see the beak and everything of the bird.. I still have not tried but one day before I leave I will try!

Yesterday we got a call saying I will be transferring. I am going back close to my old area. I am going to Manduriao. I am excited it will be another fun adventure!

This has been a fun and good week! Yesterday was Fathers Day!!!! Happy fathers day to all you Fathers!!! We had 4 investigators at church it was so awesome! 

Life is good! I am loving being a missionary! Sorry not much to say for today! but I love you all and thank you for all the prayers and support! 

Also a funny story that happened this week I went to go take a shower and i walk in and turn around to close the door and there is a spider the size of my hand on the wall oh man did i scream! my companion tried to get it out and it just ran around our living room and hid. My companion did not want to kill the spider but i was not going to have that giant think living in our house so we  called the elders over and they killed the spider for us! oh man was that an adventure!!!

Hope you all have a good week this week!

-Sister Thayn

JUNE 12, 2016

It was quite the busy week this week! 

On Monday night all the sisters in our zone (well there are only 4 of us...) all slept over at our apartment and all the elders at the Zone leaders apartment and 3:45am Tuesday morning we all got up and left the apartment at 4:45am and got on a van to Iloilo. We had multi zone conference 7:30am in Arevalo which is like a 2.3-3 hour drive away. But successful! we made it ontime! We were there until 4pm then on our way back to the buses! But we waited for a bus for 1 hour and there was no empty seats so we took a van again and oh man was that a long ride! it took forever to get home but we made it home safe and sound!!! While at the conference i got to see my BATA "Child"  (the sister that i trained) and my Apo "granddaughter" (The sister that my Bata is training) It was so fun getting to see them! It was President Aquino's last conference and maybe the last time we would all see him as our mission president! it was a sad but full of spirit conference! 

This week we went to our investigators house that just had a baby and we got to see her cute new baby boy. He is so tiny! it was so fun getting to see her as a mother! Now all we need to do is get her married to her husband and get her starting to come to church again and then BAPTIZE HER!!!

Like you all know we have lots of Deaf members in our branch and this week we were at the house of one of them and he needed a blessing so we called the elders and they came over to give him a blessing. (keep in mind that the deaf member is the only member in the family so we asked permission from his mother before the elders came over and it was okay with her but we should have told her what a blessing actually was... whoops!!! HAHA) The elders got there and well we said do it in any language you want because he is deaf and well he cant hear what you are saying he can just feel the spirit!!! then the elders started and the mother of the deaf member started praying out loud too and answering to what the elder was saying in the blessing and saying Hallelujah and oh man it was quite the funny experience!

Something fun this week was a member in our branch was coming home from Iloilo and he brought us KRISPY KREME!!! oh man my companion and I were so happy!!!!

Well it was an amazing week! love you and and miss you all!!!

-Sister Thayn

PHILIPPINES ILOILO MISSION 

JUNE 5, 2016

IT WAS ANOTHER GOOD WEEK HERE IN SAN JOSE ANTIQUE!

painting desks

The Elio Family which is our really progressing family we had a great lesson with them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about baptism! they all have a strong desire to be baptized. We had a member with us that time that knows them really well and after the lesson the mother gave the prayer and in the middle of the prayer started to cry which made everyone else start crying too! it was such a good spirit filled lesson! 

Sunday school with the deaf members

We had a fun CSP at a local school here! We cleaned a classroom and then painted their desks! 

Yesterday in church i was able to teach the Deaf class! wow that was a cool experience it was all in sign language! that is one amazing thing that i have come to love here is doing sign language! it was a fun sunday school!

Lately we have been having a lot of brown-out's which is when the power goes out! the other day the power was out for like 4 hours! oh man i thought i was going to die it was so hot!!!!

Well it is amazing here in San Jose! i love it and i love the people and i am loving being a missionary!!! Thank you for everything! i would love to hear an update all all your guys life!!! 

Love, Sister Thayn

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