It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

 Hello friends! This was a great week here in Tumauini! Let’s jump right in!

First a fun story:

 

We went to the Bishop Cayaba’s house for dinner. He is actually the bishop of the other ward, but he always invites us too when he has the missionaries over.

 

Dinner was amazing and after, Sister Cayaba said, “Oh no! I forgot the Balut for Sister Miller to try!” I reassured her that it was really ok, and I did not need to try Balut. However, she was very insistent that I needed to try it. So, Bishop went out and bought some Balut.

 

For those of you who do not know what Balut is, it is a duck egg that has been fertilized. There is the embryo of a duck inside. The length of incubation before the egg is cooked generally ranges from 14-21 days. It is eaten directly from the shell. Balut that is incubated for longer periods of time have more recognizable features. The partially developed embryo bones are soft enough to chew and swallow as a whole…

 

Needless to say, I was not really looking forward to trying it. But I also was not going to back down! Bishop returned and taught me how to open the egg and how to eat it. I accidentally bit the Balut in half, which meant the last part looking up at me was the head. My insides turned as I realized I had to eat it. It was definitely an interesting experience. I do not love the taste or the look of Balut, but it was fun and I would do it again!

 

Something super amazing… The Philippines is the Christmas capital of the world! September is when we start celebrating Christmas over here!! They call it the “ber” months! There are Christmas lights going up and people are listening to Christmas music. I absolutely love it!!

 

Overall, this week was a pretty chill week. We worked hard and taught many people!! Our teaching pool has been getting smaller and smaller. However, on Saturday, we set aside a couple of hours to simply find. We did not have a lot of success—until finally, a family let us in! We taught them and they told us that we could come again!! I loved it!

 

Then as we headed to our appointments, nobody was home. But it was okay, because it gave us more time to find!! We went to the house of one of our tricy drivers and his whole family listened, and we were able to teach them! It was beautiful to see that God has a plan and will help us.

Another amazing experience that touched my heart happened with a member of our ward that hasn't been coming to church for a while. When we visited with her, she had a couple questions. We were able to answer all of her questions, and we told her we would visit again later. When we returned, she had even more questions. We were to talk her through those questions as well. She had a real desire to go to the temple. She came to church on Sunday, and she was so excited to be there. It felt pretty amazing to help someone see the blessings of the gospel. 

 

Here’s the big news from this week!!

 

Aaron was baptized! And it was absolutely amazing. Aaron was so cute! He was able to be baptized with his brother because his brother is 8 already! Their baptism was so precious, and it was so cute to see them bear their testimony after they were baptized. It might have been my favorite baptism service so far!! Also, we sang Christmas songs at the service because it is now Christmas time! So that was a double bonus!!

 

For my Spiritual thought this week, I wanted to share something from the Book of Mormon. 

In First Nephi, Nephi and his brothers are asked to go get the brass plates so that their family can have the scriptures on their journey. But as they go do to this, they face opposition. It isn’t easy, and they fail many times. But I love what Nephi says in 1 Nephi 3:15:

 

“But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.”

 

It would have been frustrating, they were doing what the Lord had asked them to do, but it wasn’t working! They were failing! Why would the Lord let them fail? 

 

But the Lord isn’t really letting them fail. He is letting them gain faith in His plan and His timing. I think sometimes we face difficulties, and we aren’t really sure why. But we have to trust God and not give up. We have to press forward with faith. When we do press forward with faith, God will bless us.

 

This week was a good week! Thank you all for your letters of support! I miss you all so much, but I am so happy to be here in the Philippines!

 

I hope you all had a great week!

 

I love you all! 

The Church is True, God loves you!

Be Happy, Be Brave, Be Smart!

Love,

Sister Miller