Last week of January

This week has been crazy. Last Monday for our P-day activity, we played soccer with our zone. I was having a lot of fun, until I tripped and landed on my foot wrong. I think I got a minor sprain. It really hurt throughout this whole week, but is slowly starting to feel better. Luckily we didn't have many appointments. Just Family Home Evening with the Ballad family. 

On Tuesday Sister V advised me to stay in for the day because she didn't want my foot to get worse, so we mainly just studied in the apartment. 

I have to tell you about one of the members of the ward. Her name is Sister Nanay Furigay, and she is the sweetest old lady. She is less active, and we meet with her quite often. When ever we teach her, she always says, "I just love you sisters so much," repeatedly throughout our entire lesson. That phrase is about the only English she knows. Anyways, she is partially paralyzed, so she has a difficult time coming to church. Last week we invited her to come to church on Sunday, Jan 24th and she told us that she would. She didn't make it to church that day, but we understand how difficult it is for her. We were supposed to teach her on Tuesday (the 27th) but because of my foot we stayed in, and taught her on Wednesday. I felt so bad because Nanay Furigay thought that the reason we didn't teach her the night before was because we were mad that she didn't attend church. She felt so bad that she gave us a gigantic grapefruit as a gift. We explained to her about my foot, and she was happy to learn that we weren't mad at her, but totally understood her situation.

Another cool teaching story that we had this week was at the house of Sister Marvie Leonud, a less active member of our ward. We walked up to her house, not knowing if she'd let us teach her because, just last week, she told us that her son didn't want her to attend our church or take our lessons any more. It was really devastating, but we decided to teach her today anyway, and see if we could convince her to continue to hold to the rod. So as we walked to her house, Sister Villanueva asked me to share a favorite scripture verse. Now, because we are doing the Personal Progress Program together, I was reading the Book of Mormon again. While reading, I came across a scripture, 1 Nephi 21:14-16, about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That was the verse we shared with Sister Marvie. I shared it, and testified that sometimes we feel alone and abandoned, but Christ has graven us on the palms of his hands. I testified that He will never forget us. The power of that simple testimony was strong and the Spirit testified to me that that scripture verse was what she needed to hear. I didn't stumble on the Tagalog words, and they just came. It was one of the neatest experiences that I've ever had. After the lesson we asked Marvie if we could return. Not only do we have a return appointment, but she also invited us to come and see her farm. I am so blessed to be a part of her conversion process!

Love, Sister Lewis