Todos Los Santos....

So this week was a good one as usual, I just love it here. Yesterday was such an exciting sabbath full of events and new experiences haha. Sunday morning Jeffrey Palma was baptized. His wife is the one who just had her baby while we were watching General Conference. It was wonderful of course to see him join his new family in membership in the church and they set plans and goals to be sealed in the temple one year from now, Love it. :)
Yesterday was Todos Los Santos, Spanish for All Saints Day or Araw ng Patay, Day of the dead in Tagalog. Its the big tradition here in the Philippines. On Nov 1 everyone and I mean EVERYONE sleeps in the cemetery on sat night and all Sunday they walk around the cemetery and light candles and do a bunch of activities to remember the dead. The food is incredible! There is sooo much! I was sooo full haha With the help from the ward we set up a booth and had all these really cool posters all about family history, the plan of salvation and the restoration. It was AWESOME! we got soo many referrals and met so many Less active families and new investigators.

I borrowed a violin from my Mission Pres who actually plays himself...! and Played to draw the people in and invite the spirit it was such a cool experience for me. One of our investigators Theodore, had a brother get shot last march he was only 24, it was really sad and he's really been struggling with it. He has been our investigator for a while and he's been struggling getting over his gambling problem. At church yesterday in the investigators class they talked about temple work and why its important we do the work for the dead. Perfect topic for the days celebrations so last night he showed us his brothers grave. He sat down on the dirt right in front of the grave and just stared at it for a long time as he lit the candles, he looked up at us and said.."sisters, I know he'll accept the gospel in the spirit world" I smiled at him and said " I think so too" then he looked back at the grave and said with tears in his eyes "If he's accepting it there, I need to accept it here so that I can be baptized for him in the temple right?" We just smiled back and told him that's exactly what his brother and Heavenly Father want him to do right now. It was soo cool, watching him make that personal mental commitment in his mind to change and to do whatever it takes to be baptized both for him and his brother. I love this work!! Happy to hear all was safe, fun, and well during Halloween I love you all so much!

Always,
Sis Grant