Thou Art Mine

Hello and welcome to another episode of Sister Larson in the Philippines Iloilo Mission. This episode takes place in a shockingly dry and hot coastal area of the island of Panay called Antique. She has just had a great week with many cameos of interested people who turn out to be not interested at all. Wa wa. She also met some super cool people this week who hopefully will make an appearance in later episodes. The stage is set. Readdyyyyyy……


ACTION


MAN ON THE BEACH *with no Lana*


There was one day this week where we were exploring one of our areas called Madrangca. It's the closest area to the beach and we were trying to meet some new people there. So after a while of going house to house we asked this lady where there were lots of house and she said “on the beach”. So darn it we had to go to the beach. There were in fact many houses but mostly just lots of kids. So we kept walking until we reached some boats on the shore and there was one fisherman just sitting on the side of his boat looking at the ocean. So we walked up to him and just kinda started talking. He's probably in his 60s and he told us he was just waiting for it to be dark enough to go catch some fish. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and he said he's been wondering which church is true and also asked where our church is. YAH. So we gave him all necessary information but he wasn't there on Sunday so guess who's getting a visit this week.


I don't have a picture of the man but this is the beach.

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SISTER SHEILA Sister Sheila is a member here in San Jose and she is like 85% blind and lives by herself usually. She's in her 30s and she was born seeing but throughout her life her eyesight has become progressively worse. Sister Pecundo and I visited her this week and after sharing our message she bore the sweetest testimony. She said that yes she prays every night she will wake up being able to see but also that she knows without a doubt that God loves her and gave her this challenge for a reason. She said she knows the church is true and even though she literally can't read the Book of Mormon she believes it to be true as well. She has that kind of astonishing faith you only see in people who have faced serious trials. REMY We have a little rat friend here in our house and it's been eating my bread so we are not on good terms. Anyway he finally ate the poison and then just like decided to die at our front door. Classy right. Just thought I'd update you on the rat situation. SERVICE This week we had a few opportunities to serve people in our area. We offer to help people everyday and most of the time they just look at us a laugh. Rude. Anyway 2 people actually let us help this week. The first one was we shredded this fabric to fill up the pillows they were selling and they asked us lots of questions. The second one was a nanay who's husband has had a stroke and is wheelchair bound. She was trying to literally plant a grove of trees by herself and she's at least 60 years old. So we said no no no. And despite her protests, we just straight up planted like an entire garden. She was saying “no you'll be tired” or “no you'll be dirty”. And we were like “give me the shovel”. After we planted we shared the plan of salvation and how we will all be resurrected one day with perfect bodies. Tatay cried the whole time.

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CHOWKING There's a restaurant here called chowking that I think they actually have in the states too but it's the first time I've seen one and I finally got to try it. Big fan. Huge fan. It's like Panda Express with a Filipino twist. JUST SOME PICS Sis. Pecundo and I
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LOVE So this week I've been really trying to study the way Christ interacted with people. So I've been studying the time he visited the Americas in 3 Nephi and the 4 gospels from the bible. In the talk “Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus” Elder Robert M. Daines invites us the read the 4 gospels (matthew, mark, luke, john) and write down every time Christ interacts with a marginalized group or outcast. I've been trying this and I'm just starting to realize just how perfect His love is. He is perfect and this means that his commandments are perfect and they are rooted in love. Sometimes I think we forget why we are keeping the commandments and it starts to feel like rules to follow. Or as Elder Daines said “Perhaps you have felt the iron rod in your hand but not yet felt your Savior’s love to which it leads”and “Perhaps you believe God rules in His heavens, speaks through His prophets, and loves your sister, but you secretly wonder whether He loves you.” I would add, perhaps you know that it's good to go to church but you forget that it's because Jesus loves you. Perhaps you know it's good to go to the temple but you forget it's because Jesus loves you. Perhaps you forget you have a second chance or that you can find peace but you can because Jesus loves you. I testify that his love is real. In Isaiah 43:1 Christ says “ Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” You are His.
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That's it for this week! Thank you for the emails! I do my best to respond but I think I miss a few sometimes! Love you tons.

Sister Larson







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