There are Gems that Just Need a Quick Polish!

Some of the Sights in the Philippines

Finally - something as big as me!

April 25, 2010) wowoweeeeee!   kamusta kamu from San Carlos! It was another eventful week in San Carlos full of adventures, weird food, a chained up monkey, and 3 baptisms! The baptisms went soooooo well. Vicente was so excited for his baptism. And guess what. I was one of the speakers and I did it all in sign language! Can you believe that! I wanted to do it just for him so he could understand. It was really simple though, nothing fancy and I spoke too so others knew what I was saying, he really appreciated it though. Then the two others were Ritz, who is the 8 year old kid that we visited every day this week to get him ready for his baptism and then Laurium which is an 8 year old girl born in the covenant so we didn’t teach her. What was cool though was that Gilbert and Charlie both got to exercise the priesthood they just received and baptized them. They were so excited to do it too. Charlie was beaming from ear to ear. Mom and Dad I can’t wait for you to meet them! It’s going to be so exciting! You will love them! I was teasing Gilbert after because he almost drown poor Ritz! He came up out of the water hackin’ up a lung! haha and then they had to do it again…and again..and again until he finally got him under!. Afterwards I was like Gilbert gilumos mo siya! unsa ma na oiy! Which means you drowned him! Anywho the baptism was so good. Our next one is in a couple weeks and his name is Jomel Caballero. He is a 9 year old kid who is a part member. All of his family are members but him. This kid….oh boy he has been a rough one haha…let’s just say he has a short attention span and I have learned a lot of patience. ay nako! Besides that, we are in the searching phase of the work. We have a lot of prospective investigators but nothing for sure. But I know that the Lord will lead us to the elect like he has in the past.
This last week we were given a referral from the other sisters that we followed up on and it was sweet. He was the coolest guy. He knows all about the bible and we had a really good discussion but he wasn’t the kind to debate which was really good. His name is Bobong and I am really excited to follow up with him. Oh and the Purca family!!! Did I write about them oh man I can’t remember!!! (I have the worst memory by the way. It is so bad and I think it got worse!) Anywho the Purca family has been less active for years and years and now they are coming back to church! It’s so exciting because we helped them come back. We visited them one day out of the blue and it was perfect timing! Because the father’s heart was sufficiently softened and he is like this little gem that just needed a quick polish. Oh man he can really help the branch. Tonight we have family home evening with them and I am really excited because we will be talking about the temple and preparing to go as a family. The Cebu temple is being dedicated in June and it is so close from here in San Carlos. I can see Cebu Island from some of our areas! We made a coin jar for them out of bamboo to start saving money. It will be cool.

I love the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I have been thinking about it a lot lately and the impact it has had on my life. I enjoy the gifts of the spirit so much and find so much joy in it. We are so blessed as members to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. Don’t take it for granted. We need to use it every day. Just look for little ways that the spirit has guided you in your everyday life and I promise that your eyes will be opened and your love for the Lord will grow tremendously! And that’s the truth! I love you all. And just remember if you find something on the ground of worth hurry and pick it up and exclaim WOW ITS A BLESSING! 🙂
Sister Johnson
PS: I can’t believe how fast time is flying…it kinda makes me sick. I am not ready to go!