Labangon Week...? basta, HAPPY ONE YEAR TO ME!‏

Ahh hello everyone!! 

How is everything going for all of you?! First of all, can you believe that I've been a set-apart missionary for a year now?! I remember August 27th of last year very clearly. I traded my first name for a little black nametag that has completely changed my life, and I've never been happier.

This week has been a great week full of...baptisms and conferences! That's the life of a missionary for ya :) Last Thursday was a very busy day for us. Early in the morning, we took a taxi to Lahug for a mission conference with Elder Bowen of the Philippines Area Presidency. It was a great opportunity to learn and receive instruction from him. However, my favorite thing that was said was from President McCurdy. He talked about rising to our responsibilities as missionaries and I love this quote he shared: "Not shrinking is better than surviving." We must rise up to our responsibilities and fulfill our katuyoan (purpose) here in the mission. When things get hard, we rely on the Atonement of Christ, and keep moving forward!

Thursday night was the long awaited baptism of Fernando and Marvin. The taxi driver and the sikad driver haha. It was a great, spiritual service and there was a ton of member support. Both of these men have made great sacrifices in their lives to be baptized. Heck...Fernando couldn't even stand the day of his baptismal interview! Marvin is a 23 year old with a big heart and an even bigger testimony...as in he gave a 40 minute testimony...!! You should've seen the members, they were almost asleep haha but Marvin was just as happy as ever. Great day.

Well as you all know I am now at the one year mark of my mission. All of the members here know this as well :) We had a special edition FHE Monday night at the Posadas' home to celebrate my "birthday". I gave a short lesson about missionary work, and after the lesson they dimmed the lights and started singing "Happy Birthday" to me, and surprised me with a delicious chocolate cake! Their daughter Monica, who knows I loooove cactus's, surprised me with my very own cactus! I have been taking very good care of it, and I expect for mom and dad to figure out a way I can bring it home in February!

All of our investigators are doing great, not any big drastic dramatic changes, but they are all progressing and hopefully we are keeping them happy.

In the words of Sister McCurdy, this mission is just "one big miracle". I am thankful for my miracle of a mission. I am so thankful that I was forced out of my comfort zone and forced to change and become this new and improved person who was so prideful and vain and focused on the things of the world just one year ago. I have seen miracles in the people I've taught, and I've seen miracles occur in myself and I will never be the same. Pasaylo kaayo, kay lisod siya sa pag sulat-sulat sa English, kanunay magbisaya ko diri. Apan salamat kaayo para sa inyong support sa akong mission. 

I was reading this morning during my personal study and found this scripture that I think my mother will really enjoy, I added my own words in quotations. I love you all, I love my mission, and above all of that I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, they know us so individually and know exactly what we need.

I Nephi 5:7

And when we (I) had returned to the tent of my father (the United States of America), behold their joy was full, and my mother was comforted. 

I love you all. You are always in my thoughts and prayers! Have a great week.

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris

Sister Missionaries

Celebrating One year mark

Sister Tueller

Monica and my catcus

Baptism Group

Posadas Family Party for Me

In a Tri Cycle

Fernando and His family

One Year Mark Celebration

See the bones, I ate the whole fish

Fernando, Marvin & Rene

Overlook of Cebu

Entire Baptism Party

Posada's Party

Acting at the Party

Sister Primero and Me

Love these guys

Best Friends Sister Wechsler

Me, investigators Ninfa, Grace, & Helen

More Party Fun

Love these Investigators

Sister Tueller and Me

One Year Mark Hooray

Labangon Week 9‏ No Pics

How is everyone doing this week?! Thank you so much for all of you who emailed me this week! I love hearing about all of you and how everything is back at home :) Can't believe that one year ago, my Dad stood outside Dunkin' Donuts to be one of the first customers, and that I left on my mission! Next week it's been a whole year! Sooo crazy!

Well this week has gone by sooo fast but it has been a great and productive week. No pictures, so sorry for that...the pressure is on for a good email ha :)

My anak went on her first splits last Thursday! I am just throwing her right into the missionary work :) We did visiting teaching with the RS president and one of her counselors. We went and visited less active sisters in Labangon Ward and got a lot of visits done in a short amount of time which was great with how big our area is here!

Fernando is doing great and progressing wonderfully towards his baptism which is tomorrow! Along with another investigator of ours, Marvin, who is doing great as well! It's so crazy to see how Satan works in the lives of these righteous people who are preparing for baptism. Poor Fernando has had quite a hard week! On Wednesday night he texted us and told us he couldn't walk, that he woke up last Wednesday and couldn't move! We went to visit him, and he got a Priesthood blessing, but he was seriously so sooo sick and almost paralyzed for no reason! This went on from Wednesday to Friday, and we were so worried because Friday was his baptisimal interview and we didn't want him to miss his interview!

Well Friday came, and it there was really heavy rain and get this...Fernando's house gets flooded! He couldn't even walk, and couldn't even get out of the house now because it was flooded! Well RIGHT before the interview, the rain stopped, and seriously like an hour before the interview he stood and he could finally walk! It was a miracle. And he passed his interview with flying colors and will be baptized tomorrow.

Also, they had the Cebu Central Stake roadshow this past weekend! Let me just say, that the roadshows here are AMAZING! Seriously, I was amazed by the talent of all the youth in the stake, they had costumes, props, makeup, special effects...and everything. Labangon Ward took first, of course! 

We also had a great FHE monday night with the Posadas Family! They are like my family here in Labangon. We have FHE with them every week. It was kind of a sad day because their son Aaron is leaving for schooling in the Netherlands for 6 months...and he will be missed! It was like they were sending a missionary away! It reminded me of when I was packing to leave last year haha.

Mom asked me to share a story about sacrifice and this week I had a great experience with an investigator who has sacrificed a lot to be baptized. Her name is Amada, and she is 84 years old. Her story started 2+ years ago when elders first found her, but up until now she has not been baptized! When I first got here to Labangon I thought she was a member. She pays her tithing, she goes to church every Sunday too! Well she has not been baptized yet because she has Alzheimer's and the previous missionaries just like stopped going to her and dropped her because of her Alzheimer's and the fact that she never remembers anything...it made her so sad. So imagine the smile on her face when my companion and I made the one hour trek in the mountains to her house yesterday! We were the first missionaries to visit her in a good 5 months. The first thing she told us was, "Sisters, I just want to be baptized!" I asked her simple questions to see how good her memory was, and she knows who Joseph Smith is, she knows who Thomas S. Monson is, and she said we need to be baptized to "be saved from our sins". Well, that's enough for me! She will be getting baptized on October 4th :)

Her house is seriously soooo far away, and bukid jud, so it was a little hard getting there, and it was so hot I was sweating buckets! But it was all worth it when we got there. She was just sitting in her one room hut reading the Book of Mormon. What a sweet lady! I would say she's made a lot of sacrifices for the gospel, and when the missionaries gave up on her...she kept sacrificing and kept going! 

I love you all, and I love this work. I love the people of the Philippines! They are absolutely amazing. They teach me more than I could ever teach them on my own. I am learning and growing in ways that would never be possible at home just because of these amazing people and their examples, their sacrifices, and their faith. 

Have a great week :) mahal ko kayo at ingat po kayo.

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris :)

Labangon Week 8

Hey everyone! Have I seriously been in Labangon for 2 months now? Wow, time goes by faster and faster every week!

Last Thursday we had a great ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) which is where our awesome zone leaders Elder Buque and Elder Jacobs gave a great workshop from President McCurdy about obedience...about how as missionaries it is our duty and obligation to be exactly obedient...it was a great reminder and as part of our mission motto "Exact Obedience Brings Blessings", we held a mission-wide fast last Sunday for obedience and for the strength of the mission. It was a really powerful experience for me and for all of the other missionaries, I'm sure. How blessed I am to have such a wonderful and inspired mission president! President McCurdy really is the best.

Last Friday we had the opportunity to go to the mission office so that my companion could talk to President McCurdy and get a blessing (once again, my mission president is the BEST!) and guess who I saw there? SISTER AGAWIN! Do you guys remember her? She served with me in Toledo! She went home and was released two weeks ago, but came back to visit and I was lucky to have seen her.

Saturday was the day that I have been looking forward to for a long time...Elsie was baptized! In the past year I have been on my mission I have learned that in the Philippines, things don't always go as planned. Let me explain...the baptism was supposed to start at 6pm, but Elsie got there at 6pm exactly, and her family was still at home! Well by the time we got Elsie changed into her baptism suit and took some pictures outside, it was about 6:30 and the baptism got started. It was considered a stake baptism because there were 3 baptisms, there was another older lady and a little boy, but of course Elsie stole the show. She was SO EXCITED to be baptized! Our district leader, Elder Knutson (from WA) baptized her. After she came out of the water, she looked at the crowd (while she was still in the water) and did two big thumbs up, and said, "oh, yes!" Classic Elsie.

Also, after she changed back into her skirt and shirt, she came back into the relief society room and our Zone Leader, Elder Jacobs was giving a spiritual thought. He was still talking as she walked in, but she just kinda interrupted him and turned to the audience, and once again...did two big thumbs up. LOVE HER.

Her testimony was so powerful. Her birthday was August 10th (the day after her baptism) and so she told everyone how the greatest gift she could get for her birthday is to be baptized. The next day, Sunday (August 10th) we were with Elsie and her family again as we celebrated her 63rd birthday! It was a fun dinner and I loved getting to know her family, and being in the Tecson's home is always a fun time.

Here's something funny. So the Relief Society President asked me to teach the RS lesson on Sunday, about...Eternal Marriage. What?! Well I did it anyways because I love her, and it actually turned out to be great! The sisters LOVED it! I took all of my friends' wedding invitations and pictures and pinned them on the board, and I asked the sisters what was similar about each of my friends weddings? It is that each of them got married in the temple! We talked about the importance of the temple and that without the temple, our marriages would be worthless. They told me to "keep going" because apparently the lesson was good? So I went 20 minutes over telling them stories about my mom and dad and how they were married in the temple. I also got a lot of questions about if I have a boyfriend and how quickly I will be getting married after my mission. Oh dear... That's relief society in the Philippines for ya. :)

We had great successes in tracting this week. We were walking around in our area, and I had the feeling to go up to a random house, so we did, and turns out we found someone who is super elect! Her name is Ninfa, and she is 23 years old. She comes from a very devout catholic family and has been a very active member of the catholic church her whole life...and then we met her. It's only been a week, but she told us she is now starting to question the things she has believed her whole life. We gave her a Book of Mormon our first visit with her, and the second visit she told us that she was up until 3am reading it because she knows it's true. We committed her to baptism in the second lesson, and she said yes. We are going back to see her tomorrow. The Lord really is preparing people here in Labangon, I am so blessed to be a part of it.

We went on exchanges yesterday and I got to work with Sister Villasis (the companion of Sister Dustin). Sister Villasis is from Bacolod City and is going home at the end of this transfer. We had so much fun together! She was in CarCar Zone with me way back when, and so it was fun to see her again, to work with her and catch up. Good times.

Thank you all for your love and support even though I've been away a year now and I'm kinda different from the girl that you knew last August. Don't worry, this girl is much better. :) Thank you all for trusting in me and believing in me. Please keep me and my companion in your prayers. We will just continue in the work as usual! I love being a missionary and I love teaching someone new about missionary work. I can't believe how much has changed since those days when I was in Sibonga with Sister Tueller. My mission has been full of sweet experiences I will cherish forever.

Love you all, have a great week :)

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris

 

Elsie's Bday Party

Cute Kiddos

Elders

So Proud of you Elsie

Sister Elsie and my companion

Everyone who came to support Elsie

Jowon my cute friend

Sisters in my district

Sister Agawin released

I love Cebu

Omaha Water

Happiest Day

 

Labangon Week 7‏

Hello everyone!

Wow, what a week it has been! It's amazing and somewhat unbelievable how much my life has changed in the course of just 6 days.

Well, last Thursday I woke up bright and early and headed to the mission office for a fun day of training and meeting my trainee! All of the trainers got there first, and it was fun to see missionaries I haven't seen in a while. About an hour later, the new missionaries came in and it's funny how I just KNEW I would train Sister Primero from the first time I saw her.

Sister Primero is my anak (child, trainee) she is from Tarlac City, Central Luzon. She Is 21 years old (but looks like she's 12) and is an animal science major (Allie would LOVE her!) She is super sweet and super tiny, smiley, and loves to laugh and giggle. She is a native Ilocano/Tagalog speaker, so I am teaching her how to speak Cebuano. It sure has been an interesting, hard, fun, exhausting, rewarding week but it is all worth it. You don't really appreciate your trainer until you are given a chance to train, that's for sure!

We had a fun surprise on Sunday! We came home from working at the end of the day, and right during our nightly planning, the doorbell rang...it was nobody other than our dear mission president, his wife, and the AP's! There are 2 new missionaries in the house, and so Sister McCurdy made us homemade bread and they came to check on the new missionaries. How sweet! They stayed for about a half hour and we all just chatted and ate warm homemade bread. What mission president does that?! I am so lucky!

Elise passed her baptism interview with flying colors...we have a new district leader, Elder Knutson (from Washington State) and Elsie really, really liked him...she has been planning on her nephew baptizing her but after the interview she changed her mind and now wants Elder Knutson to baptize her. Haha! The baptism is this saturday the 9th! And her birthday is on Sunday :)

Yesterday we were trying to get a tricycle ride to our next appointment, and seriously there were NO tricycles...we waited and then a school bus pulls up to the side of the road and they offered to take us to our appointment! Riding in style :) haha so funny. First school bus ride I've had in the Philippines :) We were on the bus with about 20 students haha

Fernando is doing really good, we had to move his baptism to the 21st because of some scheduling problems but he is doing great, progressing just fine, and yesterday he climbed the coconut tree and grabbed us a coconut, chopped it in half with a machete, and gave us a snack right then and there!

I am doing great, I can't believe I only have 6 months left here. You guys are all going back to school and summer is winding down and it won't be back until I am home. Soooo crazy! I am working overtime these last 6 months...it is truly a blessing to be a missionary.

Have a great week, and remember you are loved!

Love, Sister Joslyn Harris

the picture is me and my anak Sister Primero :)

 

New Companion Sister Primero

eating fresh coconut

Happy Birthday Allie

Surprise visit from Pres & Sis McCurdy

The Tescon's Dinner

Investigator Fernando and his children

Pretty Cebu

Lots of Rice......