There is beauty all around

Beloved Family, There is beauty all around. I stand amazed in what the Lord has blessed me with. I am blessed to serve a mission for the Lord here. It is a beautiful place and a blessed people. I see beauty and holiness in every day things. There is holiness in the simple things that we do every day. Elder Christensen from the 1st quorum of the 7 came to my mission this Tuesday! He felt inspired to talk about prayer. I understood from the meeting that our prayers begin the day start us in being aware of the spirit. Its called being overcome in the spirit. For the whole day. When you start a prayer of faith, you can be overcome and receive answers through the day. The day is like one continual prayer. If that is how you live it. Anytime we can receive these revelations even if it isnt right after or during your prayer. My favorit scripture he used was DandC 67:10. Tapos, we had the baptism of Luz and Samantha! Yay! We are so happy for them. It was a great turn out. Our other investigators came, and LA families. All of our speakers were there and the Bishop was even there to preside :) Samantha is 10 nd gave the cutest testimony, simple and pure. Luz cried in her testimony, She has problems with her husband but finds peace in the gospel and feels comfort. She feels the atonement working in her life. The spirit was beautiful. We sand teach me to walk in the light sa Tagalog. The ward loves when we sing in Tagalog, it brought a special spirit to the room. We celebrated and went to Mac Donalds to get sundays and fries. I think it was my first fries in 11 months! Lots of meeting this week, we went to San Pablo 2 times and will go back next week for transfers. Traveling makes you tired, but i feel the strength to keep going every day. Nagmamahal, Sister Reed

Faith based Action.

To my beloved family, Kamusta sa inyong lahat! Masaya po kami dito. Masaya din po ang work dito sa Santa Cruz. Maraming tagumpay dito! Mahal ko ang gawaing ng Diyos! Highlights of my week: 1. Service Project sa bukid. We pulled weeds out by one of the fields with one of our less actives and investigators. With Sister Samantha. Everyone that saw me was like, wow a foriengier knows hoe to gummis (pull out the weeds). They didnt want me to get dirty, or to get darker, they were so worried I would get a tan from being in the sun. Little do they know, i love that! 2.We had zone training this week. Our focus is to find by faith through the members and less active. Our mission has just increased the standard. Oh man, it means numbers are going to need to go up real soon. We will have to increase our faith to meet all the goals. We learned about the Enos Principal to listen to the spirit through the thoughts. Magandang scripture: 1 N 3:14-15. 3. We received a referral. Ate Beth. She is really prepared and anxious to learn the gospel. She really wants to be baptized and has the desire! 4. Sister Dona is progressing. She has a deep desire to come unto Christ. She sadi to me the other day. Dito na ako. I am here now. This is were i want to be. 5. There has been alot of temptations lately going on our investigators lives. I see the power of the adversary trying to pull them away. But the power of God is stronger :) 6. We will be having a baptism this week for Danica and Mary Vee and her brother Marko! Marko is a child of the record so not a convert, but the more the merrier. We are excited in planning the baptism for them. They are anxious to be baptized! We are so excited for them. We are enjoying the work of salvation for the salvation of souls in this area. It is the most important work here on earth! Hurrah for Israel! Sister Reed

Masayang Work

Hello po family!!! I feel a little brain dead, I am not sure what to write. But we had a really great week. We have been working really hard in our area and we are teaching lots of lessons! YAY! We taught 18 lessons with a member present this week. I think that I havent been higher than that before! In church on Sunday in Gospel Principals Brother Jay Jay asked me to pick a song and i asked what the topic was, he said, kayo. haha Sister Cortes taught the lesson on the spot again. I think we are getting good at teaching unexpectedly. Sister MV bore her testimony in sacrament on sunday. I was so touched. Before she said she had no testimony. We helped her to find it. She said in her testimony yesterday that she is grateful for for the missionaries to teach her the gospel and that she now knows this is the true church on the earth. I was so touched that she knows the truth for herself and feels it inside herself. We also witnessed a miracle on Sunday. Our investigator that is preparing for baptism this month said that She didn't have money to pay to come to church. She really wanted to come. We told her that is she prayed to Heavenly father with faith, he would help her find a way. She got the opporunity to exercise her faith and we saw her on sunday! We had a fast for her to help her have a way. her desire is so strong. We witnessed a little miracle. When there is a will, there is a way. Heavenly Father looks out for all of HIs children. He knows our desires and is willing to help us as we come unto him. We will continue to serve our Heavenly Father in bringing His children unto Him again. Though the temptations of the adversary are tough, we shall stand strong as we help our investigators overcome. He is hitting hard, but we will remain strong. Nagmamahal, SIster Reed

Pananampalataya kay Cristo.

Magandang hapon po! Kamusta sa inyong lahat?! Masaya ako dito. Masya yung work dito. Alam ko po na, yung gawain ito galing directcho sa Diyos. This week has gone by so fast! We are working hard in our area for the salvation of souls. We had 3 baptisms this week! Marko Obiniana, Mary Vee Obiniana, and Danica Razon. They were so prepared to accept the gospel in their life. There was a special spirit there at the baptism. As Danica bore her testimony she started crying. That she was so thankful for (Us) the missionaries to teach her the right way to come unto Christ. She said, without the missionaries she might have not ever joined the true church on the earth. She said she knows that through Joseph Smith na ibinalik sa mundo yung totoong simbahan at he is a true prophet and that this is Gods true church on the earth. That Thomas S monson is a true prophet bc she has seen him at conference. Tears ran into my eyes as i felt the spirit so strong. HOw great will be your joy as you bring a soul unto Christ. As MV bore her testimony she said that at first she did not believe. Then, as the missionaries helped her, she realized that she did already know truth. She also knows that ths is the true church here on the earth. Marko was too shy to bear his testimony. All of the members could feel the strength of their tesitmony. It was a beautiful service. Then, our investigator Dona was also there. she walked about 3 miles with her baby in the hot sun to attend. Grabe, she has alot of faith. She cried during the testimonies. She felt the spirit witness to her of truth. There are special blessings that Christ holds for those who attend a baptismal service. It re convicted to her that this is the truth and what she needs to do to return to her Heavenly Father again. She is so excited for her baptism next week. We had a specialzed training with President. We talked about working with members to help THEM INVITE their friends. yep thats the key. We all need to have faith that there is someone around that needs the gospel in our lives. Then the faith to invite and act. This is the most important work that is here on the earth. So that Heavenly Fathers children can be with HIm again. Who can you help bring back to our Father? W eare working on proselyting at the colleges and making our baptismal services sobrang maganda, so beautiful and making FHE;s an activity where the members will increase their faith to invite others. It is now our main source of finding. We are supposed to have 7 new investigators each week...so that means we will have a massive effort with working with the members to teach their friends. Then, Sister Samantha had her baptismal interview on saturday. She was so scared and wouldn't answer our DL's questions. Haha, he is from Hawaii and really tall so as a 10 year old she was too shy to answer him. We got permission to sit in with her. She would whisper the right answers to me in my ear, i would tell her thats right now tell elder! She is really smart for a 10 year old and she had beautiful answers. She always says, punpunta tayo sa langit! Lets go to heaven! I always ask her, which kingdom is that? She says, the SUN! I love our investigators in this area. We also just found May Anne. Wow, she yelled at us while we were walking and told us she wanted to know about mormons. We made a return appointment and she was so receptive. her prayer was so sincere. She wants to know which church is right. She is concerned for the salvation of her son. He is sick and might be dying. SHe wants to know where is the truth so her son can be saved. Elizabeth is also progressing. She can to church with her apo. granddaughter. She listens so intently to the messages and speakers. Imari really wants to be baptized but she is 14. We are trying to help her mother be interested. This church is central to the family. Should be all together to have unity in the family. She has been to church 2 times and has already received a spiritual witness. Luz, is preparing for baptism may 31! She is so excited! There is such light in her eyes. I know this work is of the greatest importance. We must hear the message of the gospel while in he flesh. How much great the advantage will we have in the next life. The work of salvation is not easy, and never will be. Christ paid the ultimate price, it wasnt easy for Him, so it means, it wont be easy for us. We too can endure like He did to receive the fullness. Love you! MAHAL KITA :) Sister Reed