Hello Family! So great to hear from you this week! Thanks for all the updates on how you all are doing and I am so glad to hear that everyone is getting back to good health! I've been fasting and praying for you all : )
Well, we had another baptism this week! His name is Jorem, he is 17! All of his family are members, except for his dad. But, Jorem has been taught multiple times, I believe he has been taught by 5 different sets of missionaries. So, we actually began teaching him in my first transfer, with Sister Faasavalu, and he would just listen, but not act. But, last transfer we really got him to start opening up, to start expressing his concerns, and he came to church for the first time last transfer. We got really excited and then in the few weeks falling, it fell through again and he was no longer interested. Then one Sunday, while we were welcoming everyone into church, he just showed up, on his own! Since then we have really seen conversion take place, we have seen him gain a testimony of this gospel, coming to church activities, and then just on Saturday, enter the waters of baptism! It was such a wonderful experience for him and for his family as well. There was a lot of support there for him. Even Sister Makaneole was able to come to his baptism!
After the baptism, there was a missionary farewell for a Young Man in our ward here in TayTay, he will be serving in the Philippines and will be leaving this upcoming Friday to report to the MTC. They asked us Sister Missionaries to give a special number and so we sang "Ye Elders of Israel". They had asked us to sing about 10 minutes before we actually sang, but we quickly practiced and it actually turned out really well! The members kept saying, Tabernacle Choir kayo! The ward here is just so funny and so enjoyable to be around. I was also able to talk with Sister Makaneole for a while and see how she is doing which I really enjoyed! I sure do miss her.
One cool experience this week too was that we were on a jeepney coming home from the mission office and there was a girl in there that was about 17, and she was speaking Tagalog and she thought I could not understand, but I could :) hahah she was so shocked when I began to introduce myself! She was asking me all these questions and for the first time my answers just flowed out in Tagalog, I did not even have to think about my response and I understood her perfectly. She guessed that I had been out here for 10 months and when I told her I had only been in the Philippines for 3, her jaw just dropped. She said "How do you already know Tagalog!?" I told her we have been called of God to share his gospel and so the Lord provides a way for us to communicate with the people to who are called to. I really enjoyed talking to her and just having casual conversation since all we learned in the MTC was gospel related principles. I am grateful for the gift of tongues, it is so real!
Not much has really happened this week, just teaching teaching teaching, working working working and it is wonderful! The only complain is that there has been like no rain...I guess I spoke too soon last week that rainy season was here! haha Hopefully more rain is to come!
I love you family, you are all amazing, and I am so blessed to have you all! Sending my love to you all! Nicole and Dad, happy birthday, I hope you both have wonderful birthdays with whatever you will be doing! We have temple trip next week so I won't be emailing till Wednesday in the afternoon or so! I am so excited to go to the temple! So I love you all ulit!
Love, Sister Latham
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