"Ara sila sa barko kag dulum bay kag hambal ni Brother of Jared 'Te paano kami bi?'"

(Rough translation:"They were in the boat and the Brother of Jared was abusive and said "How are we?")

HELLO! 

This week was another marvelous week! 

We had zone conference this Wednesday and we focused on just being smarter in the way we proselyte and trying not focus on following up with the people we find instead of just finding hundreds of people and not being able to return to all of them to teach. Also Sister Nanlabi bore her going home testimony and that was so happy but so sad! I'm so grateful for the eternal friends I've made here in the mission field and I also wish plane tickets to the Philippines weren't so expensive. 

This Thursday I had exchanges with Sister Regacho! It was super nice honestly not the be the STL and to be the one getting helped I've really missed that. 

This week I've been focusing on being super bold with love. Being so plain and simple that the people we're teaching will know exactly what they need to do and how they can be blessed and it's bringing really amazing results we have some people we're teaching that have been being taught for a really really long time and they're finally starting to act and to realize the importance and the blessings of living the gospel. A lot of people here have a concern about coming to work because it means they won't be able to work and the Book of Mormon is the hero like always we've been using.
 

3 Nephi 13:31-33 

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you".

It's been really effective I love the Book of Mormon so much. The word of God has so much power to help us change our natures. I know that if we put the Lord first He really will take care of everything else. 

Fernando came to church this Sunday! For real this time! He

was still super early but this time but he actually came in and he loved church! He's always following up with us and asking when his baptism is. Also we're starting to teach his wife now too and she's also so receptive! 

This week we had so many members come out and work with us and all of them are returned missionaries and the spirit is so strong with them and they're also really bold with love. 

Love you all !! 

Sister Zollinger 

PS. Anything it takes to help!!!

So Tatay Fernando is learning to live the word of wisdom right now and the other day we had an appointment with him and his wife and when we got there his wife wasn't home yet so we waited for a minute or two and then she came home with the groceries and she has a bottle of rum and I said Nay why do you have that who is it for and she said its for your tatay and I said no he can't drink that its not allowed for him and she said oh really! and I said yeah how much did it cost and she said 25 pesos (50 cents) so I said okay I'll buy it! and so i bought the rum from her and then poured it in the bushes and tatay fernando was laughing the whole time he was happy it was wonderful. And that's the story of how i bought alcohol so that Fernando wouldn't drink 

Bongga ka day!

THE LORD IS WITH US! This week was miraculous.

On Tuesday we had the first ever all sisters district council and it was the BEST! We talked about so many ways to help all of our areas. Plus the sisters in the house right now are either about to go home or brand new so we have some really good missionary fire and miracles happen in all 3 areas!!! 

Sister Nanlabi- 17 months

Sister Regacho- 16 months

Sister Zollinger- 16 months

Sister Robertson- 14 months

Sister De La Cruz- 2 months

Sister Dansie- 2 months (3 weeks in field) 

Tatay Ellisio's bike broke on the way to church yesterday so he didn't make it. That was so sad

And then Tatay Fernando WALKED to the church cane and everything but he got there an hour early and then left like 5 minutes before we showed up because he thought we werent coming. AGGHHH so sad! We got to teach him and his wife last night though and two returned missionary sisters came with us and we had the best lesson ever with them. It was the first time we got to teach his wife and we found out she was coming to church back in the 1990s but never got baptized or anything because she moved to Manila for a while but she really wants to come again! Also Tatay Fernando really wants to get baptized his goal is for September 28. They both committed to come to church next week. Tatay Fernando kept saying yeah of course ill come I wanted to come earlier and you never showed up! haha oh my goodness it was so funny and also so painful haha. We're bringing them Jollibee later as a peace offering. I think I'm going to adopt Fernando as my grandfather or best friend or son i don't know what yet I just love him so. 

We're teaching April too right now she's been being taught for a LONG time. Two of her kids are members and so is her dad. She's like 32 now and has 5 kids. But after so much time and so many missionaries she CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!! Yippee!! Plus we extended a baptism invitation to her and her other son who's not a member yet and they both accepted! So happy for them. 

Also we're teaching the 2nd counselor in the branch presidencies nephew and he came to church for the first time yesterday too. It was a wonderful day. 

There was about 5 hours on Saturday that Sister Dansie and I were just punted (No lessons no contacts nothing) Like we went to every person we knew in three different neighborhoods and talked to all the people outside in the road and NO ONE wanted to see or talk to us. I got pretty desperate and even though it was already dark I started tracting haha nothing came of any of it. And we had a set appointment for 8pm and when we got there we found out they had gone to Bacolod. The important thing that day was that we didn't give up!!! I did sit down on the road in the middle of nowhere once to pray though but we kept going all day and were so blessed for it on Sunday! Heavenly Father just opened the heavens and poured out love and blessings. 

We had the best missionary meeting after church on Sunday and we have a schedule with all the returned or preparing missionaries to work with us for about 2 or 3 hours every day this week and I'm so excited. We started yesterday and have already seen miralces from it. They know so many more people than we do and have greater access to their hearts and trust. So stay tuned more miracles are coming! 

Okay last one. We taught the Flores family this week. One of them is Adona she's 24 and has three little kids. We asked if anyone had any questions at the end of the lesson and Adona asked why we need to pray to be able to understand the word of God. Then she shared two experiences with us- first one time she was reading the bible and none of it made any sense to her and then she prayed and asked God to help her understand and then she read again and it was all so clear to her and she said her understanding was so deep and she couldn't even explain how! Then one time she was home alone with her three babies and there was a crazy storm outside and they were nervous and crying and she was nervous and crying so she prayed and immediately felt calm. I shared with her 1 Nephi  15:8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

 

then we talked about how Heavenly Father has so many blessings and knowledge waiting for us but He needs us to show our faith and ask him because if it was just automatic it wouldn't mean anything to us. She's so cool I'm excited to keep teaching their family we just met them this week.  

Anyways Sister Dansie is super good at Ilonggo I'm such a proud mom. She can teach all of lesson 1 and lesson 2 and this week we'll work on the commandments and then come back for lesson 3. She's the best so hopeful and happy to try anything. 

I love you all. God bless us everyone 

Sister Zollinger

 

 The volcano! Sorry it's not the best quality picture I'll try again this week. Also we're famous in the Liahona and some cool stuff in a tricycle I've started taking pictures of the little trinkets they put up 

 

 

 

 

Mark Kevin peed on my shoe!

So Mark Kevin is two years old and when we were saying the closing prayer his auntie just gasped and I peeked and Mark Kevin was peeing on my shoe. Blessed are the children hahahahah 

Also everyone thinks Sister Dansie is Taylor Swift and this girl saw her and started screaming and asked to take a picture with her it was pretty wild. 

 

Sister Dansie and Sister Zollinger with Ellisio and Benjie

Miracles are alive and well in La Carlota! 

Last week I said that we taught two tatays the word of wisdom and they both committed to come to church and they came!! Tatay Ellisio is 65 and brother Benjie is 47. It was district conference and Benjie came for the youth session and the general session so he was at the church for like 4 hours on Sunday!

 

Also we offered to pick Tatay Ellisio up and bring him with us to church but he said he would just ride his bike and then he did! Plus he lives in one of our farthest areas. :) He's my favorite ever. 

Mark Kevin

This week we were about to start a lesson with two ladies and this guy walked in the door and the first words out of his mouth were "Are you familiar with the "so and so" church? I have some problems with the Mormon doctrine" Then for the next 20 minutes he listed everything that was wrong with the church. I think this is like the third time I've been in a situation like this and some of the other times I've caved and fought back and it always ends in a mess without the spirit but this time I just listened and then asked if I could just share my testimony and he said yeah and I bore my testimony and said Joseph Smith's first vision and the spirit was so strong. His wife didn't break eye contact the whole time I was talking it was the coolest feeling ever and I left feeling so happy. I'm grateful Heavenly Father gave me another chance to have an experience like that so I could finally get it right :) 

Also we got like 10 referrals this week and they're all super receptive. The Lord is with us. We also started teaching close to 50 new people this week and we finally know the way around the area after lots of guess work and getting lost and LOTS of walking. It's been a blast. 

I love you all. 

Sister Zollinger

 

Dragon Fruit

 

"As in super nami gid siya"

Kind of a crazy update in my language journey : First I can understand tons of Tagalog now but it's just garbage if I try to speak it. Second apparently I talk incredibly fast and the branch president here challenged me to make a Hiligaynon rap! So stay tuned maybe one day I'll get around to it hahaha. 

Some news from Bacolod 2nd: 

Sergio and Kenneth were baptized this Saturday! President Sumagpao attended and texted me yesterday and told me about it. Even though the place is flooding the baptism was still wonderful :) He said they were strong in the faith it filled my heart. 

 

Some miracles from La Carlota 2nd Branch:

Sister Dansie is super super good at Hiligaynon all the people are impressed with her I like to tell people she's only been here for 5 days and watch them lose their minds never gets old haha. Shout out to the gift of tongues and really great MTC teachers. 

So Sister Dansie is brand new to the mission field and I'm brand new to La Carlota so neither of us know where anything is but we haven't got lost once!! We're trying to find all the people the last sisters were teaching and we've been able to find all of them with like super minimal effort it's pretty amazing- Example we were looking for this guy named Jericho and no one had any idea who it was- we decided to walk down to the end of the street and just tag balay (calling the owner of the house) and literally the first and only house we went to was his house. It was nuts. We taught him and three of his friends the Plan of Salvation they loved it. 

Another miracle: So we finished our lesson at like 8:15 and we don't need to be home until 9 and we wanted to be productive until the end of the day but people usually get kind of mad if we show up unannounced that late so we stopped in the middle of the road and prayed that someone would be outside that we could talk to. We walked like 100 more yards and Sister Dansie was like let's turn here but she didn't even know there was a street there so we went down the street and there was a couple outside their house just getting home! We went and talked to them and the husband was super nice and told us a bit about their family and we got his number and set a return appointment! Also on Sunday we found a member family with a brand new returned missionary son who know them and agreed to come teach with us. 

It's been raining and winding here so much the past few days we got so soaked on Saturday plus everyone was gone or hiding or sick so that was kind of rough but we still got to teach a few solid lessons and found some new people. The work must go on! 

Sunday no one came to church and that really hurt- I haven't experienced that since last year and I forgot how painful it is haha but we have lots of faith for the coming weeks and we're already seeing so many miracles. On Sunday we got two tatays (fathers) committed to live the word of wisdom and come to church next Sunday. 

Also our appointment after that wasn't home but we met the brother's mom and she wants so come next time so that was good- We started teaching her son and his family on Friday and they're super interested and receptive.

Also on Sunday we found an older couple in their 60s  and we

taught them and two of their daughters and a bunch of their grandchildren. It was one of the best lessons they were all so focused and engaged and asked the best questions and tatay Antonio was super excited when we gave him a book of Mormon he was like "I'm definitely going to read this" We assigned them 1 Nephi 8. They've been to tons of churches but haven't liked any so have just kind of stuck with catholic but aren't really super active in that either. Super cool family and they really want us to come back and they said they'll invite the rest of their family so that's exciting! 

Our area has a ton of subdivisions and people that are pretty well off which is different. I'm grateful for my time in California I feel more prepared for this and I still have faith that the elect can be found everywhere we're teaching a ton of complete families right now too which is really incredible. I'm really excited for this transfer and the miracles we will see. 

I love you all. Give Heavenly Father your heart, that's all He's ever asked for. 

Sister Zollinger