Amy's December 2nd, 2012 letter!

Kamusta!!

I have officially been in the Philippines for over a week! How crazy is that??? Like Tyler said, as soon as I got off the plane, I felt like I was definitely in the right place, but wow, it is definitely humid! haha. It's actually not as bad as I was expecting. I am completely used to it now. I'm lucky though, because I came in the coolest part of the year, so I have time to adjust. :) It has only rained once this week, and very lightly. We got to walk home in the rain from church yesterday. It felt good! It's only about a 5-10 min walk from our home. By the time we got home it had stopped completely.

Ok, to answer some questions. Christina buggety-wuggety,  ;) you asked how many investigators we have right now? Well, we are very busy. We haven't hardly had any time for tracting because we have so many investigators and even more less actives. Our focus right now is the less actives, but we are always looking for opportunities to find new people. It's hard because I still am struggling to say a lot in Tagalog, but I am understanding a lot more. So anyways, I'm not sure I could give you a number, but there are a lot. We hardly ever have down time. We are always going from appointment to appointment. The people are so ready here. It's amazing.

Mom, you asked if my comp was Filipino/American. Nope. :) She is Filipino height, but she's definitely American. Hopefully the picture turned out great. She's awesome. As far as sleep, I am sleeping like a rock. It's super warm, we have a fan that we keep on each night, and we have really comfortable beds, so I rarely wake up in the middle of the night. No, I have not had any ant issues thus far-I guess I'm not as lucky as Tyler. ;)  We always have ants in the house--they are everywhere. You can't avoid it. But you just keep things clean, and rinse your dishes before you use them, and all is well! You just deal with it. I'm just glad we don't have a spider problem! I think I've only seen two in our apartment so far, and they've been tiny. We do have geckos! They eat the bugs, so they are welcome guests. Mom, you also asked about the ward. It's still pretty small here, so we have a branch, but it is growing. I'm not sure exactly how many people come, but I'd say close to 100 or so.

We had one of our less-actives come to church yesterday!!! He hasn't been to church in about 8 years, and he has a testimony, he just struggles because he usually works on Sundays during church. We have gone to his house quite a few times these last couple of weeks, and it's been amazing to watch his faith and testimony grow as we taught him and his family. I love this gospel so much!! It has been amazing to watch the faith of these poor, humble people who have been prepare by the Lord to hear His gospel.

There was one lesson in particular that really stuck out to me this week. We taught a woman named Jane the lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. The spirit was so strong. I think we all cried at one point or another during the lesson, including her. Her mom is a recent convert, and she is a rock in the gospel. She bore her testimony, and she cried. She is so amazing. Jane's heart was touched, and she is willing to keep moving forward.

I love this work so much! I love teaching these humble people. I still can't say a whole lot, but when the spirit is there and I put my trust in the Lord, I find that I can say things more smoothly in the limited vocabulary that I have. I am so glad that I am not the teacher, but that the Spirit is the teacher, because if it was just me, I would fail. This past week I had to continually remind myself that I needed to stop thinking about me, but to focus my whole attention on loving the people and invite them to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That's our purpose! I love this work. I know it's super challenging at times, but I know that I can do anything that the Lord wants me to do. I received a blessing this morning from the Zone Leaders, and in it I was blessed that I would learn the language quickly. I trust that, and I know it will happen. :)

I love you all so much!! Thank you for all your support, prayers, and love!!

Love,
Sister Harston