Dear Family and Friends!!!

Okay so here is the 3rd letter. I cannot believe it. I do not feel like I have been here for 3 weeks already. The days are sometimes kind of long, but really the weeks just fly by. Everyone says that the first couple of months tend to drag. I feel like they are going pretty fast, so I can't imagine how fast they will go once I've been here for awhile.

So let me tell you about the last week. We had to go to Bacolod for another 2 days of training. But this time instead of me going out to another area to work with sisters, I just stayed in the office the whole time. That wasn't the best time I've had here, I would have rather been working, but I did get to know some of the elders in the mission a little bit more, so that was really good. I also got in some great study time, which I always appreciate. I never seem to have enough time to study. The time we do have just flies by. And as a missionary you never feel like you have studied enough or that you know enough to really teach the gospel. But then, somehow you do it. The spirit takes over for all of your inadequacies and you get people to make and keep commitments and eventually they will get baptized. It truly is an amazing work that makes that possible. But it is the most amazing and worthwhile work there is, and so the Lord makes EVERYTHING possible. It never ceases to amaze me.

So we did get to visit our investigators this week. They are progressing nicely. Ramzel, the 12 year-old loves when we come over. He is a pretty shy boy, but he gets what we tell him and he is so accepting. He is our favorite. We shouldn't have favorites, but it's impossible not to absolutely love this kid. Irwin, our other investigator is also doing well. He was at church and actually really enjoyed it. He is excited to get baptized. We are hoping that his desire will increase even more. He accepts what we teach him, but he seems to be a little uncomfortable with the spirit. A lot of people are, they just don't really know what it's like to feel it on a regular basis. And then we had the best thing happen this week. The elders had a referral for us and it turned out to be... an entire family! I can't tell you how excited we were about that. They are the Anjelico family. Their oldest son is working with the elders in their area, but his family lives in our area, so we will be teaching them. They are awesome. The mom is 5'8" which is basically gargantuan for a Filipina. I actually don't feel quite so tall when we go to teach them. It's awesome. One of their daughters is just totally into what we have to share. She just accepts everything. Everyone else is pretty willing too. They are a close-knit family and they listen eagerly. The dad (or Tatay as they are called here) seems to be a little skeptical and somewhat obstinate, but he listens intently and asks great questions. He also smokes, so that will be a challenge, but not one we can't overcome. They seem like one of those "prepared" families. They are ready and we are so excited to teach them.

So this week we didn't have a ton of time to work, what with missing 2 whole days, but we still tried to do our best with the time we had. And people seem to be responding well to us. We are also trying to reactivate families still. We had one of them at church on Sunday. If they keep coming then we have a reactivated family, which is a HUGE blessing to the branch. Mostly we just have to keep up the faith and hope and the Lord leads us where we need to go.

Today we had a huge rainstorm. We got SOAKED on the way home from Lopue's (the grocery store) so we decided to dance around in the rain. I have included some pictures of that adventure. It really does rain ALL the time here. And it's crazy hard rain. It's awesome. I love it.

Things are just awesome. Sometimes I think that I should be writing home something not so positive, because missions are hard. But honestly, as hard as it sometimes gets, it's awesome. I never really have anything to complain about. I mean it does get WAY hot here, and my legs are totally bitten up by mosquitoes, but I love it here. I love the people, I love our apartment, my companion, the branch, the investigators, the crazy people on the street who yell "Hey Guapa!!!" to us EVERY SINGLE DAY. I love everything. It's just awesome.

Alright, I think that is all for this week. I hope you all are well. If you send me an email, I'll be sure to write back, but it will be a little slower, because it will be a letter... sorry, but that's how it goes.

Love you all!!

Sister Jackson