How's it going over there? Life is great here in Olongapo! Our branch is super excited for this upcoming Saturday because we will break the record for the most baptisms in one day!
Us missionaries here in Olongapo branch 1 have around 24 people being baptized on the 26th! That's 24 more souls who will enter into the gate, ready to begin their journey and progression to eternal life. Me and my companion Sister Pizon are baptizing 6 people, 1 family of 4 (Argie, Wilma, Shane, and Sandy), a 54 year old women named Belen who has been searching for the truth for years, and Arjay a 20 year old who has struggled with addiction to drugs, smoking, and alcohol his whole teen-life, but has decided he wants to change and find his life and found it in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His family was baptized last month, but he was still trying to quit smoking at the time so he wasn't fully prepared. But now he is completely drug, alcohol, and cigarette free and has a strong testimony of the church. He is so excited for his baptism, when we asked him yesterday how he was feeling as his baptism day is approaching he told us on a scale of 1-10 his excitement is an 11 haha. He's such a good kid, and I feel so blessed to have been a small part of his conversion and life change.
This week was really eye opening as well because of the big storm! Typhoon Glenda was not kind to Olongapo. We were without power for maybe 2 days (Don't ever complain about heat to me until you have no power no AC no fan and couldn't shower because there was no clean water and are laying on your mattress trying to sleep hahaha jk :) ) When we went out to work after the storm had died down there was so much destruction and so many trees in the road. A lot of houses had also been washed away in the flooding. We are lucky and live in a 2nd story apartment so we don't have flooding in our apartment. Our area right now is made up mostly of mountains so our big problem was that there had been a lot of landslides.
One of our investigators home, which consists of a few sheets of plywood and a metal sheet for the roof, was right in the direction of the storm and it should have been torn to pieces in reality. BUT they told me they had such a sweet experience in their family that I would quickly like to share. The Joven Family consists of Arnie and Sonya and their 7 small children under the age of 12. They have no income except for the small jobs they come across such as washing others clothes or cleaning others homes. They often eat only once a day and that consists of one big plate of rice and if their lucky maybe some canned tuna. The rain was raging and pounding hard on their metal roof, the wind howling outside, slowly but surely pushing over their small home. Sonya the mom began to panic and cry as she clung to her small children and 6 month old baby. At this moment of eminent destruction Sonya was just about to lose hope when her 10 year old daughter RayAnne jumped up and said "Momma! Huwag matakot! Mag-Familyprayer po tayo! Tutulungan tayo ng Diyos kung may pananampalataya lang po tayo sa kanya! ("Mom! Don't be scared! We should say a family prayer! Heavenly Father will help us if we just have faith!" ). In that moment they all knelt down together and offered up a simple prayer to Heavenly Father asking for protection and strength. After another hour of the terrifying storm, it became calm and they came out of their house to find all the other homes had been severely damaged and that a large tree had come within 5 inches of falling on their house. Again they knelt down in the mud and cried as they praised God and thanked him for their safety. Sonya the mom told me this story last Friday. What touched us was the great faith of her small daughter RayAnne who was not scared because she knew Heavenly Father was there for her. I feel like sometimes we all feel like Sonya, trapped in a corner with no hope, but I know Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ are ALWAYS there for us and we should never lose hope and never lose faith because they have a plan for us and love us. I love my mission and I am so grateful for experiences like this that strengthen my testimony and help me see the bigger picture.
I love you guys so much and can't believe how fast the mission goes! My 2 very best friends here on the mission, Sister Burt and Elder Penano, go home in 2 weeks and its so weird because they were fairly new too when I got here... ahhhh the time is too fast! I'm just going to enjoy my time here serving the Lord and continue in being obedient and hard-working. Love you guys and take care!
Love,
Sister Lowe
