I love my dad!

First things first...HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Grabe I can't believe you're 39! Hehe yes I said your age, you better enjoy it now because next year is the big 40! ;) Words can't express how much I love and admire you! You are an amazing example to me! I appreciate and admire how diligent you are in your calling and that you always remain worthy of the priesthood! I LOVE YOU! (I remember you asking me in an email, "Where is the 'I love my dad picture?”  Here is is!)
    
This week Sister Talataina and I were able to work 2 days which is a blessing! She is doing SO much better now, and we will be able to work this whole next week. Words cannot begin to express how excited I am!

Thursday we were out working and we were able to share a message with the Sarmiento family, who also gave us a referral! (We will be contacting her tomorrow, so I'll let you know next week how it goes) We then taught the Gabiana family who are doing great :) We did however get punted! Sayang! We didn't know where to go so we decided to stop and say a prayer. We asked for guidance to know where to go. At the end of the prayer we just stood there for a minute and I had the thought to go to our area by the church. We ended up at the house of Merasol’s brother. I have gone by their house and have said hello to them so many times, so I was confused as to why we were going there, but it was as if the spirit was pushing me to their door. We talked to George and he told us that his son Mark isn't baptized, and that he and his wife have not been to church in a long time. He apologized as he said his job is always on Sunday so he cannot attend, but he knows his son needs to be baptized, and that he needs to attend church when he can. He also said that his wife and children need to attend as well. We are now teaching one of their sons Mark who is 9 (the cousin of Fritz! :)) and helping his parents to come back to church! I am so thankful that Sister Talataina and I listened to the promptings of the spirit so we now have the opportunity to help this family come to church, and to help Mark prepare to be baptized :)

On our way home from the hospital on Thursday we ran into a lady. She told us that her daughter just had a baby, and that the baby was very sick. We told her we would be happy to visit in the hospital the next day and she said they would really like that. As we were texting her other daughter (a ward missionary) later that night for the information we had the prompting to ask her if they would like the Elders to come too and give the baby a blessing. She said they would really appreciate that. As we walked into that hospital with the Elders the next morning my heart ached. As we walked through the children’s section of the hospital tears came to my eyes as I saw 4-5 kids in each room laying on a mattress with IVs in their hands, sweat dripping down their faces, and tears in their eyes. Some had nobody by their side. When we found the room the baby was in we went in and greeted them and the other 3 children who were also in the room. When we looked out the window into the hall we realized many adults had followed us, and were now watching to see what would happen next. As I watched the Elders place their hands on the sweet baby’s head, the spirit was powerful. They gave a beautiful blessing. They kept thanking us. It was an amazing spiritual experience, and one of the most humbling. On Sunday we were told that the baby is doing better :)

Sunday was our busy day as we had church and meetings. We then decided to skip lunch and go straight to work. We went to a part of our area where a lot of our investigators live. When we got there the Arpon family and Lily (investigators) were outside fixing the Arpon’s home, because it was affected by the Typhoon and the flooding that happened this week. (Floods are the worst!) We offered to help them and as we started to talk to them all the people in this little village came over and we honestly had 30-40 people (a majority were kids) standing around listening to us. We realized since our investigators were busy we could use this opportunity to share the gospel with all of these people just staring at us in awe! (It's pretty funny) We started to get to know them and then they started to ask us questions, our investigators even started to answer them, and get excited because they knew who we were and the message that we bring. One lady said, "Sisters, you are both so big and tall we were kind of afraid of you, but you are both so nice!" We just laughed and said, "Sister we don't want to look scary! Besides we are Filipinos at heart!" (That got a good laugh) Then another lady said, "How do you know our language?? You're very good!" (Now that made my day right there!) We told her we learn from studying what we know and talking with the people here, and praying for help so that we can speak to you in your native tongue, and share our important message with you." She couldn't believe I wasn't in school for learning waray waray, and that I was teaching my companion their language. Oh, and Sister Talataina is picking up the language pretty good!

Well that's it for now. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Sister Wilde

The kids here LOVE taking pictures!

Some kids in the area where we talked to everyone! So fun! I love the kids here so much!!

Our "gangster" picture. Haha Sister Talataina loves taking pictures and when she yelled "Gangster!" this is what we got!

I LOVE the Sarmientos!!! They told me last night that they pray for me everyday, and that they pray I will be here in Catarman for 6 months. They also want me to go to the Cebu temple with them when they are sealed. I wish so badly that was possible!