Monday, July 13, 2015

Week 6 in Munoz Guimba

Helloooo!!!
    Well this has been my 6th week in my new area. I have really loved it! this is the area where i have been rejected the most but its okay cuz the miracles have been so worth it! our emailing time in this mission got cut in half. so if my letters are shorter now ,that's why. but anyways one of our investigators is getting baptized on this coming sunday! hopefully i stay in my area to see it! he is 15 years old and his name is marvin. he is very smart and loves learning about the gospel. we also have this investigator who is a lady in her 50s i think i mentioned her last week. her name is paget. but anywas weve only taught her twice and she has come to church the past two weeks. she really loves it. she will be getting baprized the first sunday of august! we also have this investigator visa. we met with her yesterday to teach the plan of salvation. she said when she reads the book of mormon the teachings sound familiar to her. but when people teach the doctrine it doesnt sound as good to her. shes having a really hard time when she hears that this is the Lord's true church. we've tried to teach ad reteach the apostacty and restoration. because really if the apostasy and restoration happened then everything else has to be true. but she is very "energistic" she is into yoga and meditation. which is good. but she likes Buddhism. but she said when she reads the book of mormon ans comes to church she really likes this church. but she likes to think deep. after teaching her the plan of salvation she said the teaching was too simple. and i said that's the gospel of Jesus Christ-simple. but she likes to take everything and go under the surface. which can be dangerous when gainging a testimony. im not sure what will happen with sister visa, but hopefully she will gain a testimony of the restoration and joseph smith. so im going to go now*********************** but this message is for all senior couples*************** my mission is running short on senior misionaries. WE NEED YOU! if you can come to this mission(not if you can but if you will) please let me know whoever has read this nd is able to come. my prsident asked us to ask people from home. our mission is shrinknig little by little. and we need senior couples! well love you and thanks for your love and support!
love sister peavler<3

Sunday, July 12, 2015

One Year Mark!

hello all! im excited to share about this week!:) the time is going by so fast! i hit my year mark! less than 6 months remaining......crazy! my companion surprised me with a cake at 6:30 in the morning! we had a good breakfast!  anyways heres the good stuff...:)

1.)nanay paget. she is our new investigator! she came to church yesterday and we just started teaching her last week! she actually has been taught before by other missionaries. anyways there really is a perfect timing for everyone. this is her time. she was in so much despair in her life. when she told us of her life, the painful stories weighed heavy on myself. what am i supposed to do? this lady wass 3 times as old as me and been through a lot. but thats the amazing thing about being set apart as a missionary. Heavenly Father can give you exactly what you need to say. we taught her about the atonement. how its not only for our sins but also for our heavy burdens. until recently i have wondered how do i access this part of the atonement? the lifting my burdens part? my mission has been studying a lot of the atonement. especially during january. well until now i just couldnt get it, but i finally get it! i prayed to understand and the thought passed through my mind "obedience" thats actually what my mission is studying now obedience.the key to accessing the atonement is obedience. if we obey God and his commandments then He will give us the strength to overcome our trials.even if they wont go away he will give us strength to live a happy life despiter of what we are going through, as long as we are obedient. it sounds so obvious but it just clicked! like moroni 10:32 says come unto Christ ,deny yourself of ungodliness and then His grace will be made sufficient for you. (somehting like that:) doing all we can is not being perfect. its following the promptings of the Holy Ghost by yielding to the will of God. before we make a wrong decision we usually have the thought we shouldt do this but then we have two choices to follow or to not. if we yield to His will we will be blessed, if not,we wont. its so simple but so difficult sometimes! anyways the lesson went really well. she ended with a really sincere prayer that left us pretty much all in tears. we taught her again and said she felt important because we went to her home. we said of  course your important! anyways her goal date for baptism is in august! 

2.) hot,cold,dry,wet? the weather has been changing everyday. one day we are so hot, literally dripping, the next day its cold and rainy! but im just glas i havnt got sick from it! (knock on wood;) 


3.)FINDING/TEACHING EXPERIENCE..... so i was on splits with a member,mel, yesterday after church. we had a return appointment from someone we met casually the other day. well we went to there home and they wernt home. we had 2 hours until a planned teaching appoinment. so i thought ...okeedokee its time to find! finding in this area is a lot different than my other areas. its the most established area ive been in. there is poverty still here but there are many wealthy people. so the people here have big houses with gates. its kind of intimidating. i guess ive just been spoiled being in the philippines where usually we just find people on the street.we harly ever go knocking on doors.  but here we were in a neighborhood of houses with gates with two hours on our hands. this was only my second time finding in this area and i knew i couldnt do it alone. so i said a quick prayer in my mind to Heavenly Father asking where we should go. we started walking and the first house i saw, we stopped at. we could tell someone was home because the door was open. so i said "tao po" here in the philippines you dont knock...you say "tao po" and then the people will come outside. anyways this lady came outside and asked who we were and we told her. she said," sorry we are methodist." and i said, thats okay we would like to meet you! haha. well it was raining and i didnt have an umbrella so she opened her gate and told us to come inside. well this appointment was AWESOME!!!!!!! it was one of those golden apponitments! we started getting to know her and found out her husband recently died. before that she took care of him for 4 years after he had a stroke.before that her marriage was him mostly coming home every day drunk. anyways she said that she's recently become more religious, and by the things she was telling us we could tell she had been prepared to receive the fullness of the gospel. we started by teaching about the plan of salvation because of the death of her husband but then she asked what is different about our church. so then we started teaching the apostasy and restoration. she asked the golden question that every missionary like to hear.After telling her Christ established 1 church she said "so , if there are so many churches,how do we know which one is the truth?" then BOOM we told her the story of joseph smith and the restoration of the church and priesthood. i have never been in a lesson that long..she had a lot of quuestions which was awesome! anyways she was really open to learning and we have a return appointment with her! it was a really good experience! 



4.) oops we slipped! this is actually a funny story......me and my companion were walking on the sidewalk close to the market. well we were passing a firestation and there was water all over the ground. there was an elderly lady holding a heavy bag and i was like i hope shes okay hopefully she doesnt slip or get hurt. then next thing i know i was on the ground! and me and my companion were walking with our arms linked so right when i slipped she slipped. it was quite the scene! we had a good laugh! and the kind elderly lady helped us get up hahaha.

well...until next week!
love sister peavler <3

My companion and the other sisters who we live with surprised me on my year mark:) i woke up to a cake!! 
sister sabaupan, sister tumala, and sister casimero , they are all from different parts of the philippines

Found some flower crowns while walking!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Baptism and exchanges

Hello! well its been quite the pday....we started at another computer shop then the power went out so we traveled like 30  minutes away to come here. this week was so awesome im so excited to share!!!!!!!!!!!!
1.) Baptism! the father and two daughters of the san pedro family were baptized! their baptism was at 7:30 sunday morning and they showed up about 6:30! they were the first ones at the church! the father was really emotional. he is so humble. when we gave him the picture of Jesus Christ that we give to all those who are baptized he could barely hold himself together. if you remember he has had two strokes and has a blood clot in his head. this whole week his head hasnt hurt. that has never happened before. he bore his testimony after he was baptized and said it was a day he and his family would never forget. it was so cute cuz after church he stood at the door to shake everyones hand who was leaving like he was a missionary haha. im so happy for him, he truly has been changed through the atonement. 

2.) im 17 and from europe! so a lot of people ask how old i am and where i am from. i usually tell them to guess. about half the people say america and the other half say somewhere in europe like germany or sweden. but lately a lot of people have been saying i look 17. ouch......i guess my baby face hasnt gone away yet!

3.) ITS SO HOT...just thought i would say....

4.) i had an interesting experience yesterday. we were teaching a recent convert outside and before that we met this other man. we actually did meet him ,we just walked by him and he yelled out "MORMONS!" "JOHN SMITH". well we sat down to teach at our appoinment and he followed us and sat down in our appointment with us. i thought he was just kind of slow so i introduced us. but then he started blurting out bible verses and anyways i realized maybe he is drunk. at one point of the lesson he said he would be right back , he was going to get his camera to take a picture of me. as soon as he left we prayed and then closed the appointment and were out of there! it was strange.....he kept saying john smith! thats one funny thing here in the philippines! a lot of times you will just be walking and people (usually kids) will blurt out "mormons!" and say nothing else. it makes for a good laugh.

5.) on thursday i got to go on exchanges! It was a really good experience! i felt the spirit really strong. and its because i used the book of mormon more. in the lessons and just talking to people on the street. i have really come to love the book of mormon. we dont realize how much of a blessing it is. one thing that i have come to really love is the introduction of the book of mormon. we always read it or have our investigators read it. its pretty amazing when you ponder what it says. it says that in the book of mormon we learn the gospel of Jesus Christ,the plan of salvation, and what we need to do to have eternal life. everything we need to know how to be happy is in the book of mormon. i know its true with all of my heart. i have felt it stronger than ever as i testified of it this week.dont take the book of mormon for granted! 




love sister peavler<3





Monday, June 22, 2015

Use our time wisely, our exaltation depends on it!

hello family! 
well this week was an eventful one~!
1.) we had a mission tour with elder bowen of the 70! he spoke to our whole mission. he taught us a lot but the thing he wanted us to understand is WHO WE ARE SO WE WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY. he reminded us that we are the descendents of abraham which means we can possess all that he has! one thing that he said really stuck out to me about this. he said that for him the term "hell" would be the feeling if when he gets to the other side and see what he could have become but wasted time on earth. we were called and set apart before this life, we are inheritors of God' kingdom, we have to do all we can to be blessed with that. i dont want to get to the other side of the veil and see that i sold everything on earth "for a mess of pottage" as older bowen said. we need to use this time wisely. our exaltation depends on it!
2.) Baptism! this weekend we will be having a baptism! it is a father with two daughters. the father has had 2 strokes. because of this his head constantly hurts and he forgets almost all the lessons we teach him. the day of his interview we had a fast for him, and after the interview he and  the district leader said he remembered everything! that was truly a miracle! :)
3.) RAIN!!! the rain is slowly coming! its a pain cuz it interferes with the work! one day it rained so hard we were stuck in someoines house for about an hour then we went home to have dinner then it rained again. on those days its a race against the rain! one day we were walking and then we saw someone we needed to teach because we can never find him. right when we went until their house it started storming really bad! this happens alot! like we will be walking then we go inside to teac a lesson and it starts pouring then when we go back outside it calms down and eventually stops. Heavenly Father takes good care of His missionaries!!
4.)bible basher! only twice in my mission have a ran into someone that wanted nothing to do with us but argue. well this week was one of those times! this man came up to me and asked where i am from. thats the benifit of being a foreigner in the phillipines as a missionary. people come up to you! anyways...i told him where i am from and why i am here. when i started telling him why i am here through a short overvuew of the restoration, he interrupted me several times for me to show him a bible reference. i said please wait because i just started to talk and he kept jumping in! anyways the member went to go get her bible so we could share to him. but then we just realized it was no use cuz he didnt want to know anything just argue. but it was really exciting! its so awesome standing there while he is telling me that he has more experience then me and im just thinking oh but if you only knew......i asked him if God changes and he said no. then i said he can find out the truth through prayer and he said God doesnt speak to man. so i said he did back then and he doesnt change right? anyways it was interesting!
well the power went off in the computer shop i better send this before it goes off again

sorry i got to go....................love Sister Peavler
This was after zone conference 

my zone went to a milk factory this morning....this is the first fresh milk ive had in a year!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Transferred!!

hello family and friends! hope all is well there in hot arizona! all is well here in hot philippines :) 
1.) TRANSFERRED! so yup i got transferred! theres two sides of my mission. cab side and tarlac side. my whole mission ive been on tarlac side but i got transferred to cab side! which is exciting! this side is closer to the beach! but my area isnt close to the beach....anyways my new area is in guimba zone. the area in which i serve is MUNOZ,GUIMBA. when i told other missionaries where i was going they all told me i was super lucky!! because the branch here is appararently "zion". well ive only been here a few days and they were right! the work here is awesome! but even more awesome is the support from the members! being a missionary you really learn what we as members should do to help the missionaries with the work. the members here work with us, fellowship the new members or investigators, and feed us....alot. anyways im excited and grateful to be here! 

2.) new area-new companion! my new companion is sister Tumala! she is from midenow (i dont know if i spelt that right) but its the most southern island of the Philippines! Anyways...shes awesome! she is one of the kindest people ive ever met! and she cooks! its like eating at a restaraunt everyday! the two other sisters in our house are also philipina! im the only american! its fun! 

3.) ive only been here for a few days so i dont have much to write but i guess i do have a funny experience. there is this elderly man here who recently got baptized. everytime he sees me he says "sobrang maputi" which means so white haha! he tells me when he sees me its like when joseph smith saw the first vision. i have gotten tanner! but to the people here im so white. 

4.) we are teaching another elderly man too they call the old men here "tatay" and the old women "nanay" anyways we are teaching a recent convert who is a tatay. its really interesting because he is deaf! the lessons are made really simple and we write down everything on paper then he reads it then responds. he's really sweet! its a sweet spirit cuz its so quiet! 

5.) we were sad yesterday because none of the investigators came to church. but there is this one lady who isnt a member but shes been coming to church for about a month now. so right after church we taught her. her name is visa shes about 5o years old. shes really smart! she speaks mostly in english.which is nice;) but our lesson went really well and she commited to be baptized on july 11! she has so much faith. she told us one time she didnt come to church and she had such a bad feeling so she never wants that feeling again. she said she feels so happy here in the church!

well im excited to tell you my experiences more next week! love ya all! remember SUPPORT the missionaries in your ward:) ask what you can do! the gospel is true, the Lord lives and knows us!
peace.love.rockNroll.
love,
Sister Peavler 
After a long and hard day's work we went to a showing of Meet the Mormons!

this is tatay apdan in my last area before i left. he is less active. you can usually find him and his wife sitting on there front door step:) 

       You all will be surprised but this is a typical phillipino meal! spaghetti with fried chicken...no joke!!! one of the members fed us before we were transferred

This is the arceo family in my last area.....they are the ones i told you about who he is less active and his wife is an investigator....i think i will miss them the most ;(

this is sweet jarielle and her siblings. this is the last day we taught her before i was transferred

This is nanay norma and her grandson who is the branch mission leader. nanay norma loves the missionaries! she washes our clothes and works with us whenever we need her! a couple weeks ago she thought i was going home because a sister in our house was going home, anyways she came to our house crying and said "sister peavler i came to say goodbye" and i kind of laughed because it was so cute! i told her transfers arnt until next week and im not going home haha! shes so sweet.



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

No doubt that what I am teaching is true

        So this week was awesome! so many great experiences!! i will summarize but try not to leave out many details:)
I'm excited to report this week. i usually always am but my mind is just reflecting of the experiences of this week and they are so great! i really love being her in moncada especially with sister canencia. we are getting to become really great friends. its been a blessing to be with her every day. In our studies,promptings and other ways we are becoming one.this is the most unified ive felt in a companionship before. 
we are working with one particular family. the husband was baptized when he was very young and is now less active. the wife is an investigator. i really love this family. i have seen their growth so much. but its usually when we are there. they have a hard time keeping commitments. they always makes commitments but dont keep them. so yesterday i studied in preach my gospel about helping them keep commitments. last night when we went to them we extended commitments a little differently. we really emphasized the promised blessings. the spirit was so strong. because i remembered about what is says in preach my gospel about we should read often with our investigators. so last night we focused on 3rd nephi chapter 11 with them. i felt so much peace. i know with all my heart the book of mormon is true.after we read i asked hoe she felt from reading the book of mormon. she said that she felt that our father in heaven lives. i thought that was so awesome! thats the purpose of the book of mormon! to bear witness of the father and the son! and she got it! she understood it! there was so mch peace in their home.  i have such a testimony of preach my gospel. it is truly inspired. one day in my personal studies i had the feeling to study some of the chapter on the book of mormon. and how to use it to respond to objections. then in language study i had the feeling to study 3 nephi 27 where it talks about Christ's church being called after his name. im so glad i followed those promptings. our first lesson is one i will never forget. we were teaching an older women. her husband came in in the middle of the lesson. he had a very hard heart. he wanted evidence. that the church is true and has authority because all churches say that. president the lesson was so exciting! me and sister canencia bore witness through testimony about his questions. then i remembered what i studied earlier about using the book of mormon to respond to objections. then i remembered the chapter i read in language study. we opened our scriptures and we read where i studied earlier. the older man did not want to beleive anything but i know i was prompted to study those things for a reason! he wasnt very kind but there came a point when he said where does the authority come from? sister canencia taught clearly about the restoration of the priesthood and the church. until this he wasnt very happy. but at this moment he got so angry. he said he wouldnt believe us because we lack one thing....a degree in theology.i thought that was kind of a strange thing to say...anyways i said we dont need a degree to share the message of God. we have been called by a prophet.i dont think he really liked me...but anyways  we bore testimony ,invited him to pray and ask, then closed the lesson. i love this work. theres nothing else like the feeling of being a missionary! usually people just accept what we teach. they dont always act, but they usually always kindly accept what we teach. but this man was different and it was exciting! because we had all the answers! although he didnt beleive anything we said, i have no doubt in my mind what we taught was true. 
we also had a one day mission with the branch missionaries! that was fun! they spent the whole day with us. we got to teach them about missionary work and then we had lunch together. then we went out to work! a lot of them are preparing to go on missions so it was a good experience! but i leanred a lot from them. i worked with two youth nessy, and joshua. nessy is a recent convert of about a year and is 17. she is so knowledgable about the gospel and so confident in teaching and bearing testiomony! joshua is awesome at earning peoples trust. he is sincere and has charity to all the people. i learned from them again to enjoy missionary work even when things are going hard. somtimes its easy to get caught up in everything thats not going right. but that day i realized sister peavler relax and enjoy! :) anyways this was a great blessed week. love and miss you all! 
love sister peavler 

this was before branch conference. this was everyone in the choir. we sang "becvause he lives" and "come unto Christ"

we had a fashion show at the sister conference and me and sister norman represented our zone! it was fun! this is sister daly , janae jone's cousin...shes coming to mesa for the wedding this week. look for her!
My companion eating our favorite dessert halo halo


Me and my companion

this is sister laiti.she is samoan and from australia! she has become like a sister to me. shes making a sad face because her mission is over and she goes home tomorrow:( but im so grateful to have met her! this picture was taken at an FHE 

We has a mission sisters conference! this was the first time i got to see all my sisters together that i went into with in the MTC. it was fun seeing them! the mission presidents wife put the conference together. it was a really special day! she reminded us that we always need to remember how much we are loved.

This is brother Bong and sister Rosie. this morning we went to go withdraw money from the ATM being the first of the month. well the atm was down in our area. so these two angels drove us to another town to withdraw. then we had breakfast. they are the best! always helping us out!







Sunday, May 24, 2015

         I'm excited to report this week. I usually always am but my mind is just reflecting of the experiences of this week and they are so great! I really love being here in Moncada especially with Sister Canencia. we are getting to become really great friends. its been a blessing to be with her every day in our studies, promptings annd other ways we are becoming one.this is the most unified I've felt in a companionship before. 
we are working with one particular family. the husband was baptized when he was very young and is now less active. the wife is an investigator. i really love this family. I have seen their growth so much. but its usually when we are there. they have a hard time keeping commitments. they always makes commitments but dont keep them. so yesterday i studied in preach my gospel about helping them keep commitments. 
        Last night when we went to them we extended commitments a little differently. we really emphasized the promised blessings. the spirit was so strong. because i remembered about what is says in preach my gospel about we should read often with our investigators. so last night we focused on 3rd Nephi chapter 11 with them. i felt so much peace. i know with all my heart the book of mormon is true.after we read i asked hoe she felt from reading the book of mormon. she said that she felt that our father in heaven lives. i thought that was so awesome! thats the purpose of the book of mormon! To bear witness of the father and the son! and she got it! She understood it! There was so much peace in their home.  i have such a testimony of preach my gospel. It is truly inspired. one day in my personal studies i had the feeling to study some of the chapter on the book of mormon. and how to use it to respond to objections. then in language study i had the feeling to study 3 Nephi 27 where it talks about Christ's church being called after his name. im so glad i followed those promptings.
     Our first lesson is one I will never forget. We were teaching an older women. Her husband came in in the middle of the lesson. He had a very hard heart. He wanted evidence. that the church is true and has authority because all churches say that. president the lesson was so exciting! me and Sister Canencia bore witness through testimony about his questions. then i remembered what i studied earlier about using the book of mormon to respond to objections. then i remembered the chapter i read in language study. we opened our scriptures and we read where i studied earlier. the older man did not want to beleive anything but i know i was prompted to study those things for a reason! he wasnt very kind but there came a point when he said where does the authority come from? sister canencia taught clearly about the restoration of the priesthood and the church. until this he wasnt very happy. but at this moment he got so angry. he said he wouldnt believe us because we lack one thing....a degree in theology.i thought that was kind of a strange thing to say...anyways i said we dont need a degree to share the message of God. we have been called by a prophet.i dont think he really liked me...but anyways  we bore testimony ,invited him to pray and ask, then closed the lesson.
       i love this work. theres nothing else like the feeling of being a missionary! usually people just accept what we teach. they dont always act, but they usually always kindly accept what we teach. but this man was different and it was exciting! because we had all the answers! although he didn't believe anything we said, i have no doubt in my mind what we taught was true. 
       we also had a one day mission with the branch missionaries! that was fun! they spent the whole day with us. we got to teach them about missionary work and then we had lunch together. then we went out to work! a lot of them are preparing to go on missions so it was a good experience! but i leanred a lot from them. i worked with two youth nessy, and joshua. nessy is a recent convert of about a year and is 17. she is so knowledgable about the gospel and so confident in teaching and bearing testiomony! joshua is awesome at earning peoples trust. he is sincere and has charity to all the people. i learned from them again to enjoy missionary work even when things are going hard. somtimes its easy to get caught up in everything thats not going right. but that day i realized sister peavler relax and enjoy! :) anyways this was a great blessed week. love and miss you all! 
love sister peavler