First week proselyting!!!

Hello all! its been a great week as always! I will be heading out of the mtc this coming Wednesday into the land of milk and honey! actually its the land of rice fields and mountains I hear! I'm so excited!!

so I have quite a few highlights from this week!

1.) The manila temple closed down for cleaning or something so we got to go last Friday and Saturday! two days in a row!

2.) Sunday! It was fast and testimony meeting Sunday and my goal at the beginning of my mtc stay was to be able to go up there my last fast Sunday and share my testimony in Tagalog! and guess what ! i did! it felt great! i love Tagalog! Even tho its really hard! Then we watched a devotional that night by Elder Bednar and his wife! everyday in the mission feels like sunday! but sunday always feels like super sunday! It's always so spiritually uplifting!

3.) Tuesday we had a devotional from a member of the quorum of the seventy! Elder Bowen, originally from Idaho. One thing he talked about was to talk to everyone! Don't be afraid to open your mouth! If you don't know what to say then ask are you a Mormon or do you know who we are?(the missionaries) people see our "leaves" and expect to get our fruit.(reference to a story in the bible) so we need to give them that fruit! he also talked about when we go home which i wasn't expecting because we just got here! haha! He said if you don't go home with the goal of finding an eternal companion then you don't know what you've been doing for the past two years.. he said this because family is center to God's plan. He turned to his wife while speaking and said "Sister Bowen is the perfect example of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was really sweet. and all of us sisters were like "awwwww" haha.

4.) Wednesday was the best!! We got to go proselyting with in field missionaries in the Quezon city north mission! Me and my companion got paired with a sister who has been out for 17 months and then also a member who has her mission call! Boy that day was so awesome! We mostly tracted. Just knocked on peoples doors and talked to people on the streets! Sometimes they wont even open the door, you just have to talk to them through the door! one house we said who we were and they just said "hindi po" which means no haha. so we just kept on walkin! we came to one house where this girl came out probably in her early 20s. she was willing to listen to what we said. i don't remember what  i said but i shared a short message with her thru her gate. in Tagalog! now my Tagalog isn't that great, but it was the best feeling! and when you serve others you feel the love of Christ and Heavenly Father and the love they have for them. and i truly felt that for this girl. we got her name and number and the missionaries are going to go back:) when the people here see white people they just stare! then when you say hi how are you in Tagalog they just are in shock! some of them start laughing! maybe because of my accent or hopefully because I'm just  making  them happy! haha probably the first tho! We were talking to this elderly lady on the street when a man came up and asked us if he could have a pamphlet too! and we said maybe next time! haha Just kidding we were like of course! So we started talking to him too and got their name and contact info! thennnn a crazy man came up! He said he met me before and kept blurting random things out about the church. It was really interesting! He ended by telling me he was single and then we just walked away. He had a good spirit tho! just a little crazy.....

that night was so great! brother mills who is in charge of the 15 mtcs in the world came and spoke! wow! He was an amazing speaker! Had all the missionaries crying,laughing,and answered many of our prayers. The major thing he told us is to focus outward. "If you focus on the edged the middle will take care of itself" he said focus outwards, if you want to be happy stop thinking about how you can be happy and make others happy! then you will be happy! That is what I learned a lot about while in new York! What I'm learning here! He showed a few slides of pictures of missionaries. he showed there before and after picture. and in each one there was a significant difference. he said Christ changed men from the inside out. and it is even recognizable in their appearance.  oh! he said as of now there are 87,206 missionaries! 5,000 at mtcs across the world! so awesome!!

well i probably have more to say but i don't have time!

love you all and thank you for your love and support!!

Jona, From the Philippines she just received her mission call  to serve in the Philippines Cagayan de Oro Mission.