Caitlin's Chronicles (Sister Bingham in the Philippines)

Maayong aga! Saturday morning, Brother Allan was baptized! We met Allan because his wife is a member. They were married and she was baptized in 2016. He is 23 years old. They have a 3-year-old named Sky. When we taught he was already so prepared. He stopped smoking and came to church with his family. We are excited and they are excited for the temple next year. He was the one who accidentally read Ether 13 and told us "sister, I read it but it was very far from what we discussed last time." Super great day! Also shoutout to Mil who was baptized in October and on Sunday he received the Aaronic Priesthood. He is a perfect example of Luke 22:32, "when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." We taught him yesterday and he had lots of family members and friends to refer to us! His cousin was there in the lesson and Mil said he'll take his cousin with him to church next Sunday and maybe she'll get baptized. I loved seeing his enthusiasm to share the g...

Maayong aga sa inyo tanan! So today is indeed transfer day.  The good news is we are not transferring! The ultimate duo gets another transfer in the land of Bacolod 2nd ward! I'm grateful for our companionship that is exactly obedient, diligent in the work, and still able to have fun along the way! The APs gave us a scare though because they called last night AND this morning to freak us out but it's okay, it was all just a joke. They scared us good though. When they said Sister Clarke won't transfer she hugged me and pressed all the air out of me but we were overflowing with relief and joy :)  Lots happened this week: MLC (Missionary Leadership Council): It was my first time and we received lots of good training from President and the APs. And I got to see some of my old companions!  Zone Conference: Sister Clarke and I had to do a demonstration of talking to and teaching the Restoration to people on a Ceres bus. Which is funny cause Sister Clarke has only been...

Maayong udto!!! Mosiah 18:9  Yea, and are  willing  to mourn with those that  mourn ; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as  witnesses  of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God...  that ye may have eternal life—    This week is basically defined by that scripture from the Book of Mormon.  One day we walked to a really far place but the person we were teaching was not there. Turning away, a little saddened by the effort leading up to nothing, we heard a young girl crying. We asked her what was wrong and she told us that her grandfather wasn't at her house. She looked as if she had just gotten home from school. We helped her find a neighbor who could watch her til her grandfather came home (apparently her mom was having a child so her grandfather took her to the hospital) she kept crying so we just sat and wait...

Maayong hapon! Because this week is a holiday week, we had a lot of appointments fall through but somehow we were still able to teach some people around all the holiday festivities. They don't celebrate Halloween like we do in America. Here they celebrate Tigkalalag or season of the spirits where they go to the cemetery and place candles and flowers at the graves of their family members. Sometimes they have costumes and parties but not really. Our Halloween and Nov 1 we had early curfews so we celebrated our own Halloween in the balay (house). We made pancake covered Oreos, deep fried Oreos, and had chocolate ice cream. It was too much sugar than I am now used to. Then Sister Clarke had a brilliant idea to tape a jack o lantern to her head so that's my explanation for the pictures :) It was super fun! And we were glad to have a small party for American style Halloween :P When we went and taught Jana this week, we were surprised to see her pull out a journal with her notes...