Ninjas

This week was wicked as usual! Four of our little kiddies got baptised
this week which means two families complete and active again! Loving
it. But no baptism is without its drama. A week before, the older
brother of little Jonalyn decided she needed a haircut and took it
upon himself to do it. She looks a little like Spock now. It really
breaks my heart whenever I look at her now, Sister Ramos says
sometimes she just catches me looking at her with a sad face. But its
ok, its gonna grow back, and we bought her a headband as a baptismal
present. Then her two other brothers got in a fight, the two little
ones, and the younger one threw the older one to the ground and sliced
his face but. So kind of sad times for the pictures, but they're still
way cute and were running around like ninjas in their huge outfits so
its still a win! The other awkward thing happened when we got to their
house to pick them up. We hadn't seen the mum in a couple days to
finish their baptismal records so we took a minute to do them. So the
kids are 9, 11, and 12 right. So I'm like Robert, you're 12 right,
whens your birthday? So he tells me and I'm trying to mentally do the
math, and I'm like, thats not right is it? So the mums like, I dunno
actually let me check the birth certificate. So I'm like uhhh...ok? So
she pulls them out and I take a look. I'm like, um, I don't know how
to tell you this but your kids are actually 8, 9 and 11. So the
reactions were the best bit. The mums kind of like, oh hmm yeah I
dunno. The little girl is literally devastated. She like I'm nearly
10! And I'm like, umm you're not. So the oldest boy, who we've been
telling is going to pass the sacrament in a couple weeks is like,
wait, so how old am I?? Then hes like ok, 11 it is! The middle one
doesn't even care, I'm not even sure he knew what was going on, he was
just giggling away. So, that was interesting haha. I'm sitting there
like, is this real life? Basta, they got baptised and they are way
happy!
The other kid is Dan Dan and he's the man, hes like my little bestie
here and he is a changed man! 6 weeks ago he was staying out all
night, his family never knew where he was, they couldn't control him,
he was boxing for money and gambling away all his winnings. And now
its all over and hes begging his mum to get him a new shirt and pants
so he can pass the sacrament. Hes awesome, and did I mention hes 12?
Haha.

In other news, its the peak of mango season right now which means
mangos are like 50 cents a kilo and apart from the truckload we buy
every week people keep giving us bag loads of them so we've gone mango
loco up in here. I knew it was inspired that I came here!
We have this awkward problem here where whenever our investigators get
really interested they suddenly move really far away to somewhere
where there are no missionaries. This week we got to our investigators
house and her mum told her that they had just got a job and left
immediately. She is now a servant for the Princess of Jordan. Just
casually.
In other hilarious news, in gospel principles class yesterday they
were teaching about fasting, and as they do they have to teach it in
all 3 languages so everybody understands. So they write up fasting on
the board, then the Tagalog word, then the teacher yells out if anyone
knows it in Ilocano, nobody does, so I yell it out, and nobody
believes me. So they go around asking everyone, suggesting what it
could be and then finally someone figures it out and yells it out.
Turns out I said that like 5 minutes ago. Haha. Baroak pay laeng iti
Ilocano! Thats probably wrong, people love judging my Ilocano haha!

One thing that I came across in my study this week is in Luke 24 about
when Christ appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. At
first they don't recognise Him as the Lord. The Lord gets them to
share everything they know about Him, and then Jesus Himself uses the
scriptures to teach them and prove to them that the Lord has actually
risen and lives. Then they recognise that this is a good man with good
knowledge and invite Him to eat with them. Its not until they see the
Christ doing something that they acknowledge Him as being Christlike,
and realise He is the Christ Himself. Then basically they say, did we
not feel our hearts burn while He was with us? Did we not feel the
Spirit that whole time?? Its kind of like this with us as missionaries
sometimes. At first people don't recognise us as servants of the Lord.
So we ask them what they know, then we use the scriptures and share
what we know with them. Then they recognise we are good, and they
invite us to stay longer. Then when they see us doing Christlike
things, doing something that they can associate us with being like
Him, then they will see that we are true servants, and they will
realise the truth, and they will understand the Spirit, and they will
say, weren't we feeling this the whole time??

Love you all,
Are year mark presents a thing? If they are I should be expecting
packages from you all in two weeks time!
The church is true!

Sister McKim
xxxx