Pictures!

Last Week in Calbayog

Hello family!!!

Crazy week it has been. This is probably my last week in Calbayog. Most likely my trainee will stay here in Calbayog and I will be transferring. I'm going to miss Calbayog so much. The members here are amazing. These last couple of days have been a lot of good-byes and I'm going to miss them. But, looking forward to the next area as well. I feel like I've been here a long time haha - about 4 1/2 months! That's kinda long!

This last week we had a super fun zone activity where we rented out this big gym and played volleyball and basketball and tossed around water balloons. Stuff like that:) Activities keep us all sane. Nice break from the same daily schedule.

This week we also drove down to Tacloban because my companion needed some medication for this weird disease she has. Guess who is in Tacloban....Sister Erandio and Sister Folau!!!! My buddies that were assigned here a couple months ago. Sister Erandio was actually my last companion. They both are roommates together in Tacloban, so I got to see them both and we all almost cried. All of us have had struggles this last cycle so it was just a whole lotta love and laughs and fun. They are a blessing in my life! I love them to pieces!  

Later, I was surprised with someone else who showed up...Sister Garcia! My first companion! She was spending Pday in Tacloban because her area is close by so I got to see her as well. Hahahaha I CANNOT tell you the joy I felt in Tacloban this week seeing those three. There aren't words.

We went on splits with the STLs and worked with them, so i got to companion up with Sister Folau for the day and work in her area with her. It's always fun working in other areas with other people. Gives you different perspectives and good ideas for your own area.

After we got all of our Tacloban business done, we were surprised by a text from President Maurer asking if he could interview my companion. He ended up interviewing us both, for various problems we've been having. Luckily the aftermath of that interview didn't stick too long and my companion and I have been able to go back to being good with each other. We've got the spirit in our companionship and in our lessons and my life is just a whole lot more nice and lovely. Thank you Heavenly Father.

One of the best things that happened this week was we had a baptism! This is the first baptism I have been present at for one of my own investigators in the mission so far!!!! I cried and cried. It was a good day. Jayson, our baptism, has just been amazing. I feel like I hardly did anything. I was just in the right place at the right time. It was he who was so prepared for the gospel and applied it to his life so efficiently.

This is a little detailed, but here is a little of his story. Jayson was really really gay when we met him. Cross dressing. After we started teaching him, and with the help of the member family he was working for, he just completely changed his life so fast. He later told us the day he met us, he had made an appointment with money he had saved for a plastic surgeon to do some work on him to make him more girly. 

Can you believe that was the very day we met him and taught him the Restoration! I'm tellin ya, Heavenly Father has a plan. For all of us.

I love you all so much and I love being a missionary. I'm just amazed all the time at how much I'm learning and how proud I am of our investigators and less actives who are coming back and feeling the joy of the gospel in their lives once again. Being a missionary is unreal. It is amazing.

We can do anything in this life if we choose to not do it alone, but depend on our Heavenly Father always and through everything. I've come to a point in my mission where I no longer feel it's just me and my companion teaching the lessons, but that there are three of us. Our Heavenly Father is present through the power of the Holy Ghost. And I know that's true in our daily lives as well. Lean on Him. Reach out to Him. He's always there. We're the ones who distance ourselves from Him. So, choose not to do that:) Two is better than one. Our lives are a lot happier when we choose not to go through it alone.

Love always and always,

Sister Russon