Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I think I'm probably claiming the first time of wishing you all a happy day of love since it's actually V-Day here in the Philippines, but it's still Sunday for all of you! I hope everyone has a great day. Eat some real chocolate for me... there is none here... :(

So it seems that I like celebrating holidays with baptisms! On Saturday Jeannette Demandar was baptized! It was such a great experience. She is definitely one of my all time favorite investigators (I'm probably not supposed to have those... but whatever, I do). She was just one of those that we had to drop for awhile, but when we came back she was SO ready. And now she is a member! She was confirmed on Sunday. She just kept telling me how happy she was and how she felt peaceful. It was so great! Originally we were supposed to have 2 other baptisms as well, but we had to push them back, so it was just her. I was glad for that because I think it made the experience more special for her.

Sunday was just a great day in general. Kenneth, my recent convert from Christmas had been ordained the priesthood, but hadn't been doing anything in sacrament meeting yet. I wasn't sure why, so I asked him about it. He said that he didn't have clothes. Unfortunately that is a real problem here and of course Bishop wants them dressed appropriately to bless the sacrament. Well I tried to find an old shirt from one of the elders, but they had none. So when we were in Bacolod on Wednesday I went and bought him one. And a tie. He was SOOO grateful when I gave it to him. And then there he was on Sunday wearing everything, dress pants, shirt tucked in, belt, a new haircut. And he blessed the sacrament perfectly!!! It was so awesome! Seriously, I couldn't stop smiling all day! He is such an amazing kid. He probably is my favorite of all of them. :)

So. Of course I have to update on one of the best parts of the week: Mission Tour with Elder Teh!!! It was pretty much one of the greatest experiences of my life. Seriously, it was such an inspired and spirit filled meeting. I won't go into too many details about what he taught us about, but it was amazing. There was a lot about obedience. They had asked us all to come to the meeting fasting so that we could contribute better to the spirit. He also asked us all to prepare 3 different talks (with specific topics) and that we would be called on at random to give them. Well... when I was preparing mine I felt like I might end up giving one. Well, sure enough, I got called on to speak. My topic was "Preparing to Teach with the Spirit". It just happened to turn out that I had had a pretty extensive personal study on this very topic just the week before and so I had tons of notes and personal revelation to draw on. It was amazing! I was so grateful for the inspiration I had received to study that earlier and for the inspiration of Elder Teh to have me speak. It was such an amazing experience. Terrifying, I mean, I was speaking in the presence of a member of the first quorum of the seventy (agay! that's an expression here) but mostly it was just great. I was so grateful to be able to share my testimony of what I had learned.

So that was the week! It was a pretty full one and pretty exhausting but so AWESOME! I learned a lot of really vital stuff this week in so many different situations and experiences. It was so great! Well I love you all and hope you are all doing well and loving life. I know I am!!!

Sister Jackson

Pictures! Woohoo!!
1. Me and my beautiful companion, Sister Tambolero
2. Me with a HUGE frog that I found in our yard and then scared all the sisters with... hahaha. I am my mother's daughter!
3. Sister Tambs and I with Elder Teh! He is SOOO awesome!
4. This WAY cool sundial we found in a new part of our area. Those are Carabao horns with the numbers on them and then the man's spear casts the shadow. It was awesome. It's almost noon in the picture! :)