Sister Harris // Philippines Cebu Mission: finding the one‏

Here in the Cebu mission we have this vision to "FIND THE ONE". Meaning that every month we are finding and working hard and bringing one person into the waters of baptism. One person per companionship. Here in Bacong, we've been really tried and tested this week to find the one. It seems like every single progressing investigator has stopped progressing this past week. Day after day, we have been punted and we have taught so many "last lessons" to these people who just won't progress.

We did find someone with one leg, and we found another person with one eye...so me and Sister McCann are definitely finding "the one" but just not the right one!

In the midst of finding the one, tracting, tracting, and more tracting...we found not one, not two, but three. We found these three sisters in their 20's. They are really cute and they are living here in Bacong, but they are originally from Toledo. It's great, because they think that my Cebu accent is totally normal! We taught them a lesson on the spot, and we talked a little about the Atonement and one of the sisters seemed to be a bit teary eyed as we told them how much Christ loves them and knows each of them individually. We're going back to teach them tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

We are also teaching a couple, Reynard and Precil. Maybe I emailed about them last week, I can't remember but they are really good. People in the Philippines aren't really fans of getting married because of the paperwork and expenses and stuff like that, but these two got married, before we found them, because they said they knew that there was a greater purpose for them! So great!

Something else kind of interesting is that we had some visitors come to our branch on Sunday. It was a husband and wife from Toronto Canada who were on vacation here. They really stood out and it was kind of funny to see their reactions to how church runs in the Philippines (it's really different here than what you guys are used to there). But at the end of the service, I talked to them before they left and both of them were in tears and they said they LOVED church and they were so touched by the love the members in Bacong have for the gospel. It's so true though, these sweet simple people love the gospel sooo much! There are electric fans blowing everywhere at high speed because it's so hot, but they just sing so loud (and slow) you can't even hear the fans and you don't even feel hot because you are focused on the spirit. I am amazed by these people and I continue to learn so much from them!

You all know that Christmas is coming quickly...maybe it's coming quicker here because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Anywho, if you want to send me anything for Christmas, you might want to send it soon because customs takes FOREVER to process things, especially around Christmastime. But because I am coming home so soon after Christmas, and because I want to have a true Filipino Christmas this year, don't send me lots of things. The only thing I want for Christmas is Crest Whitestrips so that I can have white teeth when I get home :) All of the other requests I have for you guys to send me for Christmas are for the people here in Bacong. Here are some requests...

-Crest Whitestrips (for me)

-Pictures of Christ

-STICKERS (the kids loooooove stickers)

-Chocolates (they have this obsession with chocolate from the states)

-crayons, coloring books, coloring pages, etc.

-and anything else you can think of that little kids would like

That's all I have for this week. I am loving the work, loving my companion, loving Bacong, and loving the Philippines! Even if we have found a few "ones" this week, we're still going to keep looking and searching hard for "the one" :)

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris