Hello! This is Sister Dilag. I am currently serving in the Philippines San Pablo Mission, Batangas Zone.
I will give you weekly updates on my current mission. I will also attach interesting attachments! I hope this finds you entertaining!
Heads up! I had the greatest time in Batangas! I never thought I will be close to real work and progress. I had much to tell, but short amount of time. I will make it quick for you!
Event: Teaching Appointments
We had an on-going workout teaching of meeting a bunch of referrals and investigators in San Pascual, Mabini and Bauan Areas. It was an incredible output. I get to see the interest of families and individuals joining to our discussion. Despite of weather, language and farther parts of our areas. It feels remarkable to meet others to come closer to the Gospel. I felt the great joy of helping others see the blessing of the gospel.
On the 21st, we were asked to visit a member on the area of Salvador, which is a quite far area and taking a bike for a stroll is not easy. We definitely hop on a jeep to get there and walk a couple of miles to get there. We had a long walk to meet the Bisas‘. It was great to see them, they were so nice. We thought of providing a Lesson with them, but it turns out the Bisas’ definitely hit on us to work. I was surprised! I was not informed on the working part, but I got excited. The Bisas’ had a bunch of family referrals on their areas. It was cool! We walked a few steeps, uphills, downhills and passed by dogs (yikes) to meet families! We met two families on our half day, Rosales‘ and Hernandez‘.
On the 22nd, we decided to continue working at Salvador. We had a good impression on the progression. We got excited to meet new and former investigators from missionaries being taught. On the decision part, we had an on and off decision on our service project with the Batangas Zone at Taysan, Batangas. Unfortunately, we were fully booked. We got sched-up, kidding! I thought of ‘souls’ to teach (weird, I’d mentioned). I got excited to meet more and to let them hear out the message! We were sad, but it was good decision. We visited the Bisas’ and worked throughout the day to meet other new and former investigators. It was cool! We met other families the Aguadas‘, Bulanhaguis, Javiers‘, Mendovas‘, Perez, and a few families (I forgot some). We were able to provide lessons with them, and quickly interested!
On the 23rd, we planned out to visit Ibaan shortly after our three rides from Bauan. It was an hour drive to get there, and the area was definitely ‘remote‘. I had instances where I felt the, ‘Wow‘ and ‘Whoa‘ factor every time I had a good impression on the area. It was very satisfying to see a bunch of animals and farms. We visited a few members throughout our day. We headed to the Lamacs and Garcias, we had lunch and coordinated a few agendas for the Branch.
Then, we travelled to the Cuyans to teach Sister Amy. We had a discussion on the principle of, “Faith.” She will be having her baptism on the 27th of Feb. I get excited, every time I meet and teach her. She loves to listen and to participate on our discussions. It has been a decade of teaching with her (with former missionaries) and baptism was her concern. But! Good news! She accepted the baptismal invitation. I was so happy, like jumping moment for her!
We travelled to a remote area to the Hindaps. We were asked to prepare a lesson on a referral. We got excited to teach the referral with a few Members participating with us! As we get to know ourselves and to the referral, we notice things are getting steep. The referral could not stop talking on her confusion of religions. We explained the process of slowly learning the doctrine and teachings of the church, but she refused everytime we mentioned, “Church.” I got ticked on her reaction, she was against on the doctrine and she cannot understand the explanation given to her. I don’t know as to, “What went wrong” to our lesson, but I know it was solemn and enough to understand. We were really disappointed at the end of our discussion, she wasn’t ready and open to listen. But! All is well, I think there will come a time, she’ll be ready, but we are not the missionaries to teach her briefly on the lessons.
After our travels, we decided to leave early. We had wait for our transportation to get to Bauan. It was difficult, time was inefficient. There was this one time, we stopped by at Batangas City and my companion was going on circles because the city was crowded and hard to ride home. It was tiring. We had a two-hour commute to Bauan and we came home sunken to sleep. But! It was a great experience I had in the mission, it was funny and amazing to look back after a quick day passed. It felt remarkable!
Mission Updates: Crack up!
I had the greatest time with Sister Catacutan. She has been the greatest companion. We both had similar jokes and understanding of a bunch. I do love her opinion on the work and she’s a twin in the mission! It gets exciting and interesting in Bauan and Ibaan with her. We had nine BGDs all set, and we are getting really close. She’s a blessing.
Also! We had this scary (sort of funny) experience. We went to the Dimatulacs for a service project to take out the grass on their lawn. As we got into the work, my companion kept digging and taking out grass on the lawn. She notice a figurative movement of reptiles, her thought was a lizard crawling around the grass, but it was a snake! She jumped and stepped aside on the work. I was surprised on her reaction, and I got scared as the snake crawled on the grass. Then, Brother Dimatulac slowly snatched and killed the snake. Afterwards, we stopped working after our experience on the snake. It was tiny! I took a picture of the tinsy snake.
The other day (I forgot the date, my bad) we had a surprise ‘knock-knock’ visit with the Assistants: Elder Laranjo and Elder Perlas with Elder Baliwas. They came for an apartment suspection and phone audits. It was good to see Elder Laranjo, he was my former Zone Leader at Lipa Zone! He is doing amazing on his extending calling, really fitting. We talked a bunch too. It was surprise and we had laugh out jokes too.
We had an update from the Assistants. We will be receiving bikes by the end of the month. I am excited to use bikes in our Areas, but challenging. Our areas are mostly uphill and downhill highways (zigzag) and chances we might get hit by a truck. Woopsies! But, I think it’ll be a fun experience. Whatever happens, my companion will – kidding! I cannot wait to try out bikes!
Anyways, it gets longer! I do love a good talk of a bunch of things. I hope this made your day. I apologize if you are experience technical difficulties on responding back to my emails. I got full pack of emails, and I had delete some to receive a few emails. But! No worries, at least you got the chance to read this, and letting you know my whereabouts!
Love you, and work hard! ♡
Love,
Sister Dilag
