THANKSGIVING in the PHILIPPINES!!

Hello friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I missed you all and the wonderful food I am sure you all enjoyed, but we had another great week here in the Philippines!!

First, I did get to have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! Shoutout to my amazing parents who set it up. My kabahays and I went to a restaurant here in Tumauini. It was not a traditional Thanksgiving as there are no turkeys here in the Philippines…or really any of the food we would have eaten at Thanksgiving…but we got pizza and hamburgers, so it was pretty American! It was the first real pizza I have had in a long time!!

It was a special night. We ate dinner together and got to share what we were grateful for. By the end of the night, my companion said that she wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving every year! I love Thanksgiving, so being able to celebrate here was a highlight of my week, for sure! Plus, I got to call my family in the middle of the week, which was also a win! I also got to make a cream pie and banana cream pie for Thanksgiving, and it was soooo good! The bananas here in the Philippines are sent from heaven…the bananas in America could never compare.

Ok, that is enough about Thanksgiving, but seriously…it is one of my favorite holidays!! So, I hope you all had a great time too!!

The work here in Tumauini is going soooo well!! A little history on our area over here: A few months ago, we had basically no one in our teaching pool, no one was coming to church, and the whole thing was pretty overwhelming to me. I spent weeks making plans of how I could help this area progress. When Sister Nacar got here, she had the same desire as I did to get to work. At that time, we received a blessing from our Area President that our area would start to progress too, that we would find people to teach, and our teaching pool would expand.

I testify of the power of priesthood blessings. I testify that we have seen the fruits of that blessing. And I testify that miracles are real.

Sister Nacar and I have worked so hard over the last few months to see these blessings realized. However, it is only because we are also relying on God that our area is progressing the way that it is now. God is providing miracles… We are planning on having two baptisms this week, we have also been introduced to a lot of part-member families in the last week, our teaching pool has expanded, and we have found people to teach… The fulfillment of that blessing is happening.

There were many times in the last few months when I wondered if our area would ever progress. I wondered if I could really find people who were interested in our message. I wondered what my purpose was here in Tumauini and if I could make a difference. 

I now see that God’s hand was in it all. I am so grateful for the times when no one would listen to us. It is worth it to knock on 100 doors when we find just one person to listen. I can now see that God was teaching me that I can do hard things. I can now see that God was teaching me that I am needed here. I can now see that God was teaching me to be patient and trust His timing. Leading this area, despite being overwhelming in the beginning, has been an amazing experience. I now know what it means to rely on the Lord and listen to the spirit. As Sister Nacar and I have relied on God, we have turned this area around and have helped people come closer to Christ. God is a God of miracles, my friends. If we seek, we shall find. He will provide the way.

With that being said, let me talk about the miracles of the week.

This week was mostly focused on preparing Sister Tintin and Macy for baptism. We have gone to their house almost every day to help them prepare. They are the best students, always ready to learn and keep commitments. I love them so much! Plus, their cousins come and sit in on every lesson, and we are excited to continue to teach them too! (Miracle.)

One of our members last week introduced us to some of his family and now we are teaching his whole compound basically! It is amazing to see people come closer to Christ. (Miracle.)

We also invited Brother Larry to be baptized. As I mentioned earlier, we have been teaching Sister Macy and Tintin's cousins for a little bit too. They are sooo ready for baptism, but we really wanted to help their dad, Brother Larry, be ready for baptism so they could all be baptized together as a family. Well…yesterday as we visited with them, we decided to share why we really need to keep commitments. We asked him if he had a desire to be baptized and to have his daughters be baptized as well. He said that he did! We then explained that he needed to keep the Word of Wisdom and come to church every week in order to be baptized. We shared that we would love his whole family to be baptized at the same time if he was willing to commit. He agreed and promised to follow the commitments!! We are sooo happy! We were able to extend baptismal dates to them for the end of December! Please pray for them!! (Miracle.)

During that lesson, it was POURING rain!! It was raining so hard we could barely hear Brother Larry. After the lesson ended, we went outside to the road, and it was completely flooded! Like 6 inches of water! We called a tricycle and carefully climbed in to avoid the flood water and get to higher ground. It is the first time I have experienced a flood like that! And it all happened in less than an hour!! It was insane!

In other news, Sister Nacar and I had a fun adventure this week! We went to a faraway barangay that is kind of expensive to travel to, so we don’t go very often. Anyway, when we got there, we were trying to find some people that had been taught previously, but they were not home! We were so disappointed but still wanted to use our time wisely, so we decided to go in search of more people; however, there were no houses and no people! Sister Nacar and I walked for quite some time and when we finally found some houses, the people were not interested at all! So, we headed back to Tumauini. While this might sound discouraging, it was actually way fun because we got to walk a lot, it was beautiful weather, the scenery was top notch… and we just found one more place that we maybe won’t try again!

But honestly, the work here is rewarding. It is hard. But rewarding. Every night, I fall into my bed completely exhausted. But if you had asked me what my goal was at the beginning of my mission, it would have been to be doing exactly what I am doing—giving it my all to the point of complete exhaustion. I want to give my all to God Every. Single. Day. I am so happy here. I love the work and I am so grateful for all the things I have learned.

For my spiritual thought, I want to share a quote from President Russell M. Nelson:

“Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take.”

I love this. I especially love the part that says to listen! Lots of times when I pray, I say whatever I feel like I need to say, close my prayer, and then fall asleep. However, we need to listen to what God wants to tell us! He cannot give us revelation if we don’t take the time to listen to Him. I testify that prayer is a two-way communication with God. He wants to speak to us, but we need to listen to Him!!

I love you all! I hope you all had a great week! I apologize again that I cannot respond to your emails, but I appreciate them a lot! They make my whole day better and I love hearing from you! 

Thank you all for being the best and supporting me!

The Church is True, God loves you!

Be happy. Be brave. Be smart.

Love

Sister Miller